“Li-Li! Big news, big news! Sun Ying-shidi has just arrived at our peak!”

The girls gaggled among themselves excitedly as they hurried to the main outer pavilion to take a look. As Hong-Hong jumped up and ran in the same direction just as enthusiastically as the others, Li Mei followed her from behind.

It wasn’t unusual that Sun Ying was a celebrated figure in their peak. This particular younger disciple brother from the same sect was notably tall, handsome and powerful. Although he was hailed as a genius who only appeared once in a millennium, he had chosen to cultivate at the low-profiled Sun Guang Peak instead of the other more established and glorious ones. The fact that nobody could fully understand him added a layer of mystery to his personality, which made him even more popular.

As it was, Sun Ying had only one flaw, and that was his temper. He feared nobody, not even the elders of the sect, and he had no tender feelings for the fairer sex. It was only his eldest disciple brother from the same peak, Sun Quan, whom he feared, but as Sun Quan didn’t really bother with Sun Ying’s personal dealings, the latter had boldly flown over to the girls’ peak to pick a fight.

Four words fell from his handsome mouth the moment he landed: “Where are my chickens?”

The girls stared at each other and shook their heads. They knew that Sun Ying was particularly protective of his livestock, but why did he come here to look for them? One girl boldly stepped up to him to speak.

“Sun Ying-shidi,” she began, with a great blush on her face, “We’re not sure why it is that you’ve come to our peak to look for your chickens. But if you like, a few of us little sisters can show you around our peak…”

Indeed, every girl wanted to confirm if he had simply made an excuse to come here to ‘view the flowers’ as one would put it. Unfortunately, Sun Ying shook his head.

“No need. Just cough them out already. Give me my chickens.”

The girls again looked at each other, this time with a sigh in their heads. Yup, this was Sun Ying-shidi, alright…

“Shidi, we don’t have your chickens,” said another girl, looking helpless. “Why do you think they’re here?”

“Well, I saw some people from your peak nearby the other day,” replied Sun Ying, frowning. “The next day, two of my chickens went missing. That’s two herbal chickens, gone just like that. If I didn’t come here to settle accounts, where else would I go?”

At this, a few girls went pale in the face. This included Li Mei, who recalled that the whole group of them had previously flown over Sun Guang Peak to go and watch Prince Chundeng get his chicken played with. Whispering to each other, a shijie gestured to Li Mei to make a move. They needed to have a group meeting.

Quietly, they darted through the crowd and made their way to Green Dew Cave. Hu Die had gone down the mountain on a mission and would only be back in two days’ time. Therefore, Min Yi had to calm them all down.

“Everyone, don’t be afraid,” she said. “We’ve done nothing wrong, and we haven’t taken Sun Ying-shidi’s chickens. Everything can be accounted for.”

“But… is it alright?” cried one girl. “We’ll end up exposing our secret!”

Min Yi nodded. “I understand. Indeed, we can’t just tell everyone about our secret cultivation technique. But don’t worry – I’m friendly with Sun Quan-shixiong. Last time I reviewed his cookbook and he was very happy. I’ll go look for him and try to get him to talk to Sun Ying-shidi. Wait for me here and don’t go anywhere else.”

Relieved that there might be help coming, the girls settled down as their elder disciple sister flew off. But after less than a quarter of an hour had passed, they heard a loud explosion and several stomps outside their cave!

Sun Ying appeared with a bang and a face black like a thundercloud.

“I’ve caught you!” he thundered. “You chicken thieves, how dare you! If I hadn’t seen you sprinting away from afar, I’d have never known. Surrender my chickens over now!”

“Sun Ying-shidi, we really didn’t take your chickens,” Li Mei stood up. “We were just flying down the mountain to look for someone. Anyway, many of us here don’t even like eating chickens that much. What’s so good about them?”

“There’s no other creature you can use to make herbal chicken with, that’s what,” answered Sun Ying righteously. “It’s salted herbal chicken or the highway. Still, I don’t really believe you. A missions to go down the mountain only came this morning and nobody else has been down the mountain for no rea——huh?”

And ‘huh?’ indeed, for Sun Ying, that is, because just as he moved forward, he had stepped on a book with a very interesting cover.

Sun Ying picked up the book and leafed through it in surprise. There was a buff young man, full of muscles, with his own face painted over it. This young man in the picture was pounding his ‘chicken’ hard into another young man with Sun Quan’s face…

“What is this?” he asked, forgetting his anger for a moment.

“This…”

What could they say? The girls were at a loss.