The rain was falling audibly onto the conical bamboo hats worn by A'Liang and Chen Ping'an, and the latter said, "This is just an ordinary jade hairpin, there's nothing remarkable about it."

Despite Chen Ping'an's serious and earnest expression, it was as if A'Liang had just heard the most hilarious joke imaginable, and it took him a great deal of self-restraint to suppress his laughter as he said, "It doesn't matter what you say about it."

Sweat was beginning to bead up on Chen Ping'an's forehead, only to be quickly washed away by the rain, and he looked back at A'Liang as he asked, "What do you want?"

"You must be thinking that you're about to die, right?" A'Liang asked with a smile.

In that instant, Chen Ping'an was suddenly struck by a sense of despair.

Master Ruan had come and left, yet A'Liang was still standing right in front of him.

There was a faint smile on A'Liang's face, and his green bamboo saber was slung horizontally over his shoulder as he took in Chen Ping'an's threadbare clothes, sturdy straw sandals, and that jade hairpin in his hair.

If he recalled correctly, there were eight pretty little characters engraved onto the hairpin.

Chen Ping'an's...