Chapter 32
At the foot of Peak 007 in the Cloudmist Mountains’ District D stood an aged, courtyard-style house with weathered walls bearing the marks of time. The entire compound was clean and well-kept, clearly tended to regularly.
Outside the courtyard grew various flowers, where hundreds of small black bees diligently gathered nectar.
This was the home Old Man Zhou had built with his own hands in his youth—over fifty years ago.
Inside the courtyard, Old Man Zhou sat at a red sandalwood table, sipping tea with a slightly plump man dressed in golden robes. When Qi Ping entered, he recognized the man as Steward Zhu, the official in charge of rent collection in the Cloudmist Mountains.
Steward Zhu was a member of the Zhu family, one of the three great clans of Qingshi County. He oversaw parts of District D in the Cloudmist Mountains and had been collecting rent for decades. Due to his middling status within his clan and his amiable nature, he got along well with wandering cultivators like Old Man Zhou. Every time he visited, he would chat for a while.
“Steward Zhu! Old Man Zhou!”
Qi Ping clasped his hands in greeting as he entered.
As a lowly cultivator, Qi Ping knew better than to slight someone from the three great clans. At the very least, he had to maintain surface-level courtesy—otherwise, a petty display of authority could bring him endless trouble.
This was the unspoken survival code for those at the bottom.