Deeds

To protect the family's reputation, they issued a wanted notice, pinned a fabricated crime on him, and sent Soul Masters after him.

So Zhao Laoliu fled while being pursued for three whole years. At his worst, he went three days without a bite to eat, hiding in abandoned mine shafts and chewing bark and moss.

"I heard there was a Fallen Land that took in people like us." Zhao Laoliu set the teapot back on the stove and began boiling water again. "But I asked around, and once you went in there, you could never come out again. She was gone. Later, I heard my parents had also been driven to death by those nobles. I once thought about going back and fighting them to the death. Then, on the road, I met a merchant from Canghai City. He told me there was a city by the East Sea where Soul Masters and ordinary people stood as equals, and nobody bullied anyone else. So I came here."

"She had never seen the sea. Her greatest wish was to see what it looked like. After she was gone, I came to see it for her. Down here at Lower Cliff, you can see the sea just by opening the window. Whenever the tide recedes at dawn, the beach is always covered in shells of every color. The moment the sun rises from the horizon, the entire sea seems blanketed in golden light. It was exactly as she described it. If only she could have seen all this."

The tea stall suddenly fell silent.

Zhao Laoliu had finished telling his story. There was no wine, but Zhou Qiubai could tell that he wanted to get drunk.

Zhao Laoliu spoke again, trying to shift the subject away from himself.

"Back when I first