Lin Songmei zoned out as she sat there, leaning against Yan Mingqing and just staring off into nature. It was pretty, and as a bonus, zoning out, her eyes bothered her less like this.

Losing track of time, Songmei and Mingqing’s little world they had enveloped themselves in was shattered as Han Youhong’s black hair and red eyes appeared from the top of their vision. Having leaned over while standing on the rock behind them, Youhong disturbed the two’s little... cuddle session, with an apologetic smile. “Hey, what’s up. I just finished talking with my master, Xiao Feng. So I just wanted to update you two on what he said...”

“Huh? ... Oh... oh! Yeah! Sounds good.” Mingqing agreed, snapping out of her thoughts and processing Youhong’s words. “Your master’s cool, we talked to him before, yeah...? That casual guy who was laying in bed while you called him?”

Songmei remembered that too, she and Mingqing had talked to Youhong’s master a few times and... he was a pretty cool guy. He seemed young and was... pretty young looking too? She wasn’t sure. Maybe it was like Xueli? Then again, Songmei didn’t know how old Xueli was...

To describe Youhong’s master, all Songmei could say was that he was kinda like an older brother? Or like a casual upperclassman? He was very relaxed and wasn’t an elder who had a stick up his ass like Lu Qiang and Cai Yufei’s master.

On that note though, Songmei looked up, tilting her head a touch. “Sorry if this is rude, so feel free not to answer, but do you know how old your master is? He seemed really young when we talked to him...”

Frozen for a moment before processing Songmei’s question, Youhong chuckled, shrugging while pulling out a lychee jelly from his spatial ring. “I have no clue. I never asked so I don’t know. Or I asked and he never answered. I don’t really remember.”

“I see...” Songmei murmured, shrugging as well. “Our master’s the same. You remember her, right? She refuses to tell us her age, though from what we’ve heard, she’s actually really young for her realm. She just has the most old lady hobbies ever...”

“YEAH!” Mingqing exclaimed, nodding along before adding, “She enjoys sitting in her rocking chair reading the newspaper and feeding her koi. It feels... weird too. At first when I met her, she was cool, young, hip, and collected. But now... she kinda flip flops between being the lazy older sister who’s a slob, or the granny who showers you with gifts...”

Snorting, Youhong shook his head before giving a small smile. “Well, I wanted to share that my master told me to contact the other Pavilion of Radiant Shadow disciples. He said to have them meet up here and sit tight. Apparently, there isn’t much of a point in exploring this area anymore. That means you should probably do that too with your disciple mates.”

“Ahh,” Mingqing thanked, pulling out her terminal to check the reported locations of the other disciples in Starlight Lake. “Huh, it seems that most of them went to other areas, like combing through the forest, or checking the outskirts of the city, or following the West River itself. The closest ones are some seniors who are investigating an area of the forest outside the ravine system so... no point in really calling them.”

“Cool, cool.” Youhong replied, checking his own terminal as well. “Damn. It seems like the seniors in my sect who were investigating this area left a few days ago too. It's just Wang Taigang and Liu Liping here.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Who are those two again?” Mingqing leaned over, taking a look at Youhong’s terminal as he showed her and Songmei. “Sun boy and uh... the girl?”

Those were some vague labels...

Songmei knew who Mingqing was referring to, but still! Labeling someone as “the girl” was about as vague as labeling Westriver as “the city.”

“Yeah... Sun boy and the girl. For sure,” Youhong nodded with an exasperated smile and laugh as he messaged them. “They’re the two other direct disciples that entered Radiant Shadow this year.”

Ahhh, yeah! That’s what Songmei thought! Look at her go, having an impeccable memory. She could remember two important disciples from another sect that she was supposed to remember!

Swoosh. Swoosh.

The notifications on Youhong’s terminal being unsilenced, Songmei was pulled out of her thoughts as Youhong’s terminal let out a swoosh sound every time he sent a message.

“Oops. Sorry, flicked a setting.” Youhong apologized after getting a pair of raised eyebrows from Songmei and Mingqing. “Anyway, they both said they were on their way. ‘Sun boy’ or otherwise known by his less common name, Wang Taigang, is pretty close. The rest of his party is undecided on whether they’re coming.”

Wang Taigang was close! That meant she’d get to meet the rumored smiley-boy soon!

Turning towards Mingqing and giving her a high-five, Songmei turned back towards Youhong asking, “Why is the rest of the party undecided, though? Did the sun boy explain?”

“Nah... probably something to do with the fact that his party is full of big ego muscle bros.” Youhong answered, nonchalant in slapping a label onto Wang Taigang’s party. “Sun boy over here is prettyyy popular. So, some of the other dudes from other sects formed a party with him. A couple of them are from the big sect in the south. Not sure who. I was gone by then. But others are from lower-tier sects.”

“So it’s just egos clashing?” Mingqing asked, raising an eyebrow, a touch of distaste creeping into her voice as her lips pursed. “That’s never fun... I assume the lower-tier sect disciples are just going to follow either the disciples from the south or sun boy...”

“It’ll still be a fair amount of people no matter what.” Youhong sighed, sitting down on the rock beside them. “Wang Taigang, from what I heard, assembled a team of like... fifteen people.”

Holy... That’s a ton of people! More than a ton!! That was a whole sports team... Songmei was impressed. She could never deal with that many people. Youhong could probably never either. Well maybe Youhong would be able too if it was like... a business meeting regarding the future of lychee jelly. Mingqing would be able to, but it’d be a miracle if she could lower her ice mask around that many people...

‘I guess we’ll just have to wait to see the amazingness of the sun boy then...’

----------

Nearing dinner time...

Having set up camp on the slope, there were still some level parts to it after all, Songmei and the others were just hanging out, playing some cards on a rock after setting up a Qi machine to block the majority of the wind.

A buzz from Youhong’s terminal signified the arrival of Wang Taigang.

His blond hair windswept, golden like the sun he was standing under, Wang Taigang’s amber eyes seemed to convey a sort of... majesty. All the way from the bottom of the slope. Songmei could feel a sort of vastness behind him as he walked up the hill with a number of other disciples in tow.

Of course, that could be because of his muscular frame... Dude was tall, not overly tall, but Songmei could tell from here. Dude was also muscular, Songmei could probably tell that if she was on the same continent as him.

A bright smile on his face that seemed to wash away one’s worries towards the world, Wang Taigang made his way up.