Yuan Ming had been a Taowan Peak disciple since he was fourteen years old.

Yuan Ming's parents died when he was five years old, and since then he has survived alone, wandering the streets of his small village. In the early days after his parents' death, Yuan Ming was scared and confused, not knowing what to do next. He had no relatives, so the boy had nowhere to go, and he hid in a deserted alley, sitting on the cold ground, hugging his knees, and quietly cried for days on end. After a week, Yuan Ming became very weak because he had not eaten anything all this time. He was lying on the ground, feeling his strength draining away with each passing moment, but suddenly a boy about his age came up to him and handed him some hot steamed meat buns. The unknown boy fed Yuan Ming, then told him that he was very cute and hugged him tightly. Before leaving, the boy gave Yuan Ming his pendant and told him that they would definitely meet again someday. After that day, Yuan Ming never took off the pendant, wearing it in memory of the boy's kindness. He swore to himself that he would definitely survive and would never give up.

And one day, Yuan Ming was noticed by one of the best masters of Taowan Peak, and he decided to take the boy as his disciple, seeing potential in him. This master was known for rarely taking disciples, and Yuan Ming at that time was the only one in a long time whom he took under his wing. Five years had passed since then. Yuan Ming was already nineteen and had become a handsome youth with outstanding achievements in cultivation, martial arts, and swordsmanship, and he was still his shizun's only disciple. But one day his shizun told him the news that he was going to take another disciple, about the same age as Yuan Ming. The young man was shocked to hear this, because his master taught him well, but he himself was a rather cold person and usually did not like to take more than one disciple at a time. Although the shizun explained this decision by saying that the new disciple was quite ambitious and he wanted to teach them together, Yuan Ming began to feel a budding sense of jealousy. He could not help but think that the master would soon decide to leave him and turn all his attention to that new one. Therefore, the young man was not particularly happy about the new disciple's arrival.