The May breeze carried the delicate fragrance of locust blossoms.
On the mountain path, an unremarkably dressed man walked furtively along.
He glanced around from time to time, looking like a thief with a guilty conscience.
The man had a round face and walked like a duck.
Zhao Shun-he was the alchemist cousin Xiaodao had mentioned.
He worked for the Zhou Family at the foot of the mountain, taking advantage of his position.
He often stole alchemical ingredients, refined them into pills, then took them to the Black Market to sell.
But not long ago, the Black Market had been shut down.
Unwilling to lose this enormous source of income, Zhao Shun decided to risk dealing with some rogue cultivators.
Without the Black Market's protection, who knew what might go wrong?
What if the rogue cultivators grew greedy at the sight of his wealth and killed him for it?
Such things happened often in the cultivation world.
So he had asked his cousin Xiaodao, who worked at Shushan's Myriad Affairs Pavilion, to find him a guard.
This was the agreed meeting place, so why was no one here?
Zhao Shun looked around.
"You're an hour late."
Just then, a voice suddenly rang out.
Zhao Shun looked up and finally spotted a man wearing a bamboo hat, lounging lazily on a tree branch.
He held a flask of wine in his right hand, and a bull was beside him.
The bull was also standing on a branch, balanced on one hoof.
Zhao Shun said, "My cousin... is Xiaodao."
"I know."
"This is my first time coming here, so I was a little slow. Sorry."
After a moment's thought, Zhao Shun offered an explanation.
Li Ping'an did not dwell on the matter.
One look at Zhao Shun told him that he was