In the ground-floor corridor of the Bamboo Building, Chen Ping'an held a booklet in his hand. Nuan Shu and Little Millet sat on either side of him, both tilting their heads as they read the contents of the third page of the "chronicle."
The white-haired boy said smugly, "My ambition lies in editing and recording, letting my radiance shine through the ages. Old Ancestor Yin Guan, if you hadn't reminded me that the chronicle's prose needed to be plain and unadorned, the plainer the better, I'd have shown you what it meant for substance and refinement to blaze together."
Chen Ping'an smiled, rolled up the booklet, and gave the white-haired boy's head a thorough drumming. Nuan Shu continued lowering her head to sew cloth shoes, while Little Millet immediately turned away and pretended not to see.
As he knocked the white-haired boy's head, Chen Ping'an said with an exasperated laugh, "Would the Genealogy Officer kindly explain what those three annotations mean?"
The chronicle read: On the twenty-seventh day of the first month in the sixth year of Chunping, Nascent Soul Realm sword cultivator Liu Baqiao of Wind Thunder Garden came hand in hand with eighteen-year-old Sea Gazing Realm sword cultivator Nangong Xingyan to visit Luopo Mountain. They discussed with Mountain Lord Chen Ping'an their attendance at the peak-opening ceremony of Xing Youheng, a Golden Core sword cultivator of Wind Thunder Garden. The Mountain Lord would descend the mountain on the Start of Summer this year. On the twenty-eighth day of the first month, Liu Baqiao and Nangong Xingyan returned home via Ox Horn Ferry at the hour of the Snake. (Annotation one: false age reported. Nangong Xingyan's actual Dao age was twenty-one. Annotation two: Liu Baqiao entered the mountain on foot and lent Nangong Xingyan the travel pass sword talisman