It was the height of summer, oppressively hot. Yet, the backroom of this Siheyuan seemed to radiate a gentle coolness.0

Seated inside, Luo Chen retrieved from his storage pouch the fifty-year-old Yellow Pear Wine that Yuan Xiaoyue’s Grandpa gifted him on his birthday.1

He laid out a few plates of celestial beans, dried beef jerky, and crispy fried snacks.0

"Cheers!"0

"Mm!"0

Clink!0

The wine cups collided softly, letting out a faint sound.0

The two men, seated across from each other at a wooden table, drank deeply.0

After setting down their cups, one radiated vitality like the peak of summer, while the other sat desolate, as though still trapped in the dead of winter.0

"Time flies so quickly," Qin Liangchen sighed. "It’s clear as day, the memory of you raising that great mace and chasing me down. But thinking carefully, that was already last year."2

Luo Chen sighed as he poured Qin Liangchen another cup of wine.0

Qin Liangchen said nothing. He merely drank the wine in silence.0

Luo Chen didn’t mind. He refilled his cup again and began talking to himself. "Back then, I was just a rogue cultivator scraping by at the bottom of Dahe Market. To escape my enemies, I gritted my teeth and rented a place in the inner city, a rent I could barely afford.0

"Refining pills wasn’t the hardest part, selling them was. You never knew what excuse the next customer would use to haggle, so you had to stay constantly alert, prepared for every kind of trouble.0

"On the Debate Platform, I truly envied and admired you all. Even though some fell in battle, the victors, basking in glory, cheered on by thousands, stirred my heart and made me yearn for that feeling.0

"Unfortunately, when I finally stepped onto the Debate Platform...0