Jing Yi needed a moment to pull himself out of his thoughts. This feeling that the world had changed while he was somewhere else was still difficult for him to stomach. But he also knew that this was something that he needed to accept.

Anyway, a millennium was nothing. After he gave his soul back to Jing He and then when he finally worked up for his second chance at life, things might be even worse. After all, Jing He and Qiu Ling would live in the immortal realms. So time would run much faster down here.

For a moment, he just stared at the map, suddenly wondering if Jing He and Qiu Ling would really only stay up there. Jing He had never left the Nine Heavens or even the capital city from what he knew. He might actually be curious about the world outside. Surely, Qiu Ling would show him the dragon realm, the rest of the Nine Heavens, and then probably also the mortal realm. Yes, he would probably plan several romantic trips for him. Qiu Ling just was that type of guy.

Shen An De watched his expression, his brows slowly raising up. “Is there something wrong with the map?”

Jing Yi pulled himself out of his thoughts and hastily shook his head. “No, it’s just … well, it made me feel a bit strange. You know, when I started out cultivating, the Chun Feng Sect was still so important. Now, look at what happened to them. It just makes me feel that fate can be a really cruel thing. It might sound strange after ascending but I wasn’t that aware of it. I just … I didn’t really feel it, you know?”

Shen An De slowly nodded. “Yes, I can imagine. Actually, you’re not that old and the time you spent in the mortal realm wasn’t long. Not compared to other cultivators. It’s not weird that you would feel odd about the passing of time.

“It gets easier when you get older.” He clicked his tongue after he said that, feeling that he had put his foot in his mouth just now. Jing Yi had just mentioned that he needed to return to who he had been originally so this life was probably coming to an end. In fact, after ascending, it was a wonder that that hadn’t happened yet. He had no idea what the ins and outs of that situation might be but it probably had to do with the dragon king. Either way, he shouldn’t remind him of that.

He cleared his throat and then motioned at the map. “Well, do you think you can find it? I could also send somebody with you. Or maybe …” He turned to Fei Bai Mu who had just wriggled her brows at him and gave her a questioning look.

Fei Bai Mu smiled brightly and then turned to Jing Yi. “Yes, we’d love to accompany you!”

Jing Yi looked at her, a little surprised. Traveling with somebody generally wasn’t odd but it sure was when the other side was the Sect Master of the Jian Yi Sect which was one of the premier unranked sects. And this almost sounded like she was suggesting it of her own accord. He didn’t know what to make of that. “Is Sect Master Fei sure about this? I think we might be able to find it on our own.” He glanced at Xiao Dong who immediately nodded.

“No problem! I might not have been there before, but I will definitely get His Majesty’s beloved where he needs to be.”

Jing Yi could only smile wryly. Usually, when they were alone, Xiao Dong would behave pretty normally but as soon as other people were around, he wouldn’t get tired of mentioning that he was the dragon king’s lover. Well, that was probably because he was his subject so he always felt the need to stand up for his king. It was almost as if he expected that he would run away with another man if he didn’t do it.

He didn’t say anything about it and instead just looked at Fei Bai Mu. “If you were going in the direction, I naturally won’t mind but you don’t have to go out of your way for me.”

Fei Bai Mu waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. Anyway, we also know each other. And my disciple hasn’t been able to go out much in the past. It will be nice to travel a bit more. Since we’re already out for once, we should make use of that. So actually, we would be taking advantage of your needing to run some errands and using it as an opportunity to see more of the world. I hope you won’t mind.”

Jing Yi hastily shook his head and then turned to look at Hua Lin Yu. “Of course not. If you want to come along, you naturally can. Anyway, it’s not like we didn’t meet each other before.”

Hua Lin Yu nodded, but he couldn’t help but look at Jing Yi a little hesitantly. This person … he had just come from the dragon realm. Had he seen Xin Lan? Did he know anything about him?

He knew he probably shouldn’t think about it but he just couldn’t help it. Anyway, he hadn’t heard from him since that matter with Xiao Li and quite a bit of time had passed since then. It felt odd not to know what Xin Lan was up to.

He wouldn’t have thought that he would feel like this or no, actually, he had known that he would. He had just thought that there was no other choice and that he would be able to live with it.

Usually, there was nobody around that had information on him, so it was pretty easy actually. If he focused on Xiao Li next to him, he could deal with it even better. But now, they were sitting right next to each other and the information that he wanted might just be at the tip of his fingers. Of course, he wished that he could ask. But doing so in front of Xiao Li seemed wrong. Those two hadn’t liked each other and nothing had changed about that. It was better to let sleeping dogs lie.

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