“What do you mean by ‘how much’?” asked Sun Quan, annoyed at the youngster’s tone, which knew neither big nor small¹没大没小 - rude or having no manners. He put his hands on his hips. “It’s already gone. Completely eaten up. If you want to eat any, you’ll need to join our peak.”

“We have a restaurant!” said Sun Wu, helpfully.

The stout youth who was with Hong Ying hurried forward from behind, pushing his schoolmate to the side to apologize.

“I see, are you esteemed seniors promoting your peak here today?” he bowed, grinning nervously. “I apologize for my fellow schoolmate’s behaviour. Pray tell, what is the name of your peak? We’ll be sure to consider it.”

“Sun Guang,” answered Sun Quan, huffing but appeased.

“……” The stout cultivator smiled.

Nobody in their right mind would join that peak! It was the poorest of all the peaks in the immortal mountains, plus its master wasn’t exactly the best. The peak lord had never participated in tournaments nor won a single award in martial arts.

In all honesty, in less than a year, Hong Ying himself could topple more than half the peaks – and if he had good backing, he’ll move even faster. They couldn’t join this mediocre one, not at all!

Looking at the stout youth’s frozen expression and Hong Ying’s unimpressed one, Sun Quan’s eyes grew red.

“Hmph! No one wants you to join anyway!” he flung his sleeves angrily. “Master, let’s go!”

Sun Wu looked both helplessly and longingly at the two young but powerful budding cultivators and then back at his eldest disciple. Picking the petulant youth up to join him on the canoe, he turned to look downwards at the other two youths and called out before leaving.

“We have a restaurant!” he reminded them with a sincere tone one last time.

With that, they flew off. While they were in the sky, Sun Quan stopped his master from turning towards the main sect hall.

“Wait, let’s go back to the peak first,” said Sun Quan. “Our secret weapon should be ready by now.”

~*~

“Remember, Hong Ying, we’re to get into the most powerful peak together.”

Hong Ying folded his arms and grunted. Of course he knew that he had to get into the most powerful peak in the sect – he was a talented disciple found only every once a millennium, after all. It was just courtesy for him to join the try-outs. Although it was already confirmed that he was going to get into the sect, the sect couldn’t be seen to show favouritism in the realm of martial arts.

When the group of young, budding cultivators entered the main grand hall, several peaks were still setting up their flags. Each flag represented a peak – some peaks offered more than one flag, which meant more than one position as a disciple was open for the taking, while some offered only one.

The stout cultivator next to Hong Ying suddenly looked up and pointed at a pillar.

“Hey… aren’t those the people from Sun Guang we met earlier today?” he asked. Hong Ying looked at them and nodded, his sharp gaze taking on a mystified feel.

A sour-looking youth was perched on the shoulders of someone who looked like a peak lord, sticking a flag on a pole. Below them, with gallant sword-like brows and a pair of phoenix eyes, stood a serious-looking youth dressed in the golden colours of the very rich Xin clan, looking very grave indeed.

“Husband, I can carry you…”

“Who are you calling ‘husband!?” barked Sun Quan angrily. “Go away. I don’t need you to carry me.”

“I’ll catch you if you fall down,” called Xin Chen, stretching out his arms like a very stern-looking Romeo. “Actually, you can jump. I’ll definitely catch you. In this lifetime, and in the next lifetime, I’ll always catch you if you jump.”

“Ha!? Jumping!? Who’s jumping!?”

“Sun Quan, can you finish up already?” came a pathetic, begging voice. “I want to go and place bets with the other peak lords…”

Hong Ying and the stout cultivator glanced at each other.

What a bunch of losers…

Once the flag was in place, the youth and the peak lord descended and made their way to the sect’s spectator seats. Each peak lord had four to five head disciples or elders with them, but at the seats of Sun Guang peak, there were only Sun Wu and his eldest disciple. He looked anxiously at the sea of potential disciples below.

“I hope at least one of them joins our peak today,” said Sun Wu. “Sun Quan, are you sure your plan will work?”

“We’ll only know when the time comes,” said Sun Quan, crossing his arms and watching the cultivators get ready.