After finishing his drink, Sun Qingtian raised his third bowl of wine and said, "For the third toast, here's to this world that isn't exactly peaceful. May there be peace under heaven from this day onward!"
"Come, to peace under heaven!" Everyone raised their cups together, smiling.
Meng Huaichuan laughed. "You outlaws usually talk about nothing but chivalry and honor. Why have you spent the last two years going on about the world and heaven? You said the same thing about peace under heaven after the last Azure Cloud Examination."
"I was young and foolish before. I always thought, what the hell does peace in the world have to do with me? Only after growing up did I realize that I could live in peace only if the world was at peace. When the world is in turmoil, everyone's a dog that has lost its home. You should ask Li Qingxian about that. He's a future Grand Fate Arts Master, someone who'll hold the patterns of the world in his hands," Sun Qingtian said.
"Leave me out of your drunken antics."
Li Qingxian wore a cheerful grin, but inwardly he recalled the seventh-rank Azure Cloud Examination in the Eerie City.
Peace Under Heaven had been everyone's examination result.
They had clearly all forgotten it, yet somehow the words kept finding their way onto their lips.
Meng Huaichuan said, "Actually, Qingtian is right. We can only live in peace if the world is at peace. If chaos really rages day after day, even the strongest family might fall and never recover. Haven't enough sects vanished overnight?"
Qiu Ye sighed. "Never mind anything else. Just look at the people who entered the Azure Cloud Examination with us. Not even one in ten survived, and plenty of them came from great houses."
Lu