You Dare Lay a Hand on My People?

Under the moonlight, all of Peak No. 36 lay silent.

In the distance, streaks of light occasionally flashed across the other peaks as Xuanji Hall cultivators made their night patrols.

Su Ming stood at the summit alone for a long time.

He thought of the starry skies of the Canglan Realm, of the fellow disciples who had fallen in the war against the eerie, and of the countless reluctant gazes when the Ark Project began.

He had left his home behind and brought everyone to a strange land.

This road was never going to be easy.

"Phew—"

Su Ming let out a long breath of Turbid Qi and turned back toward the stone hall.

The next day!

At first light, a group of uninvited guests arrived at Peak No. 36.

Su Ming was cultivating on the platform before the stone hall, breathing in and out.

Sensing something, he opened his eyes. A group rode auspicious clouds through the sky from the Northeast. Their leader was a young man in brocade robes, a jade pendant at his waist, with cultivation at the Immortal Sovereign Fourth Heaven.

"Stop right there."

Su Ming rose, his tone flat.

The young man lowered his cloud and looked down at Su Ming, a faint, ambiguous smile on his lips.

"So you're the newcomer?"

"And you are?"

"Zhao Wuji, a core disciple of Xuanji Hall. My master is Gu Changkong, the Third Elder of Xuanji Hall."

The young man lifted his chin slightly, his voice carrying an air of inborn superiority.

"I heard you took up residence on Peak No. 36 yesterday. My master sent me with a welcome gift, as a gesture of hospitality."

With a wave of his hand, he summoned an attendant carrying a brocade box.

Su Ming neither opened the box nor accepted