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This is... Senior Brother Shi, your name really wasn't chosen for nothing. You really are "easy to see," aren't you?

"Were you about to say I keep turning up like a restless ghost?"

Bian Chunchou shook his head furiously. "I wasn't! I didn't! I never said that! Senior Brother Shi, are you here to scout out the competition?"

Shi Yijian shook his head too, copying him. "No. I'm here to... How much do you know about Han Yu?"

"Senior Brother Han Yu? I don't know him personally. I've only heard that his family is wealthy, and that, like Senior Sister Ming Jing, he entered the sect with a recommendation. He's generous and good with people. I hear he's helped many Outer Sect disciples. His reputation isn't as resounding as Senior Sister Huo Shengyin's, but he's still one of the favorites to win this time."

A very official answer. It sounded like a lot, but said nothing at all.

"Do you think the young granduncle-master might lose?"

Bian Chunchou defended his friends without a second thought. "How could he?" It wasn't as though Wen Xu-Xu had never beaten someone at the Qi Refining Peak before.

"You two..." Shi Yijian liked the sincerity and brightness in Bian Chunchou, but cultivation was no game of make-believe. Even in a warm, welcoming place like Yonglu Mountain, there were people with deeply selfish motives. Or perhaps it was simply that a person's heart could so easily lose its balance. He wondered whether the light in Junior Brother Bian's eyes would dim in a few years. "Are you two close?"

"Of course. We're going to be best friends for life."

The young man before him did not seem to realize how long a cultivator's life could be. That was especially true for Yonglu Mountain's young granduncle-master.