Back in the capital city of the Long kingdom, Qiu Ling and Jing Yi finished eating, and then had the servant show them to the room that they would be living in for the next week. The one leading them there was still the same one that had been helping them all along, making them feel a bit more familiar.

The man smiled brightly as he opened the door for them. “This will be your room for the time being if you are satisfied with it. As for the other rooms, some of them are currently empty so you can take a look. The others are still occupied by our current guests I’m afraid but I can assure you that they will be of the same standard and free by the time that you need them for sure.

“If you are dissatisfied with anything, you can tell me or any of the other servants in our establishment at any time. Please feel free to bring up anything no matter what it may be. We will do our best to meet your requirements.”

Qiu Ling simply nodded and walked into the room, observing it with his hands folded behind his back. To be honest, seeing as this was an establishment in the human realm, his expectations weren’t that high anyway. So looking around, it was just as expected.

But anyway, he also didn’t need much. The important part was that Jing Yi was still with him and they could spend some time together with just the two of them before their grand farewell to the mortal realm.

Jing Yi also went inside and nodded before turning back to the servant with a smile. “Thank you, it’s alright.”

The servant bowed, happy that there didn’t seem to be any complaints. While they would always try to comply, some guests were just unreasonable. But with these two, it seemed that even though they were distinguished people, they didn’t have a penchant for making things difficult for the simple folks around them. Instead, it seemed as if they didn’t want to be bothered. Thinking of that, he immediately lowered his head further. “If that is the case, then I will get back to my duties. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Qiu Ling simply waved. “No need. You may leave.” Then, he simply waited for the servant’s steps to proceed before he turned to Jing Yi with a faint smile. “Alright, everything that should have been organized has been organized. What do you want to do now? Another tour of the city?”

Jing Yi hesitated for a moment but then nodded. “Yes, that would be for the best. First though, let’s go and see if you were right about the cultivators?”

Qiu Ling gave a hum and then turned to open a window, looking down at the street. He hadn’t seen any cultivators while they were looking for a guest house and, even now, he still couldn’t spot any. But then, even though there were quite a lot of them in the human realm, most of them either stayed in their sects or were somewhere outside, exploring the world. They probably wouldn’t have the habit to stroll through the capital city of a kingdom just to sightsee.

“Well, I haven’t seen anyone yet so I guess pretending to be a cultivator and showing ourselves should be the easiest way.” He looked at Jing Yi and then couldn’t help but hesitate. “How about I go and do that myself?” Even though Jing Yi had ascended, he didn’t want to see him in trouble. If there really was something going on, it would be best if Jing Yi stayed further away from it.

Jing Yi smiled in return. “Are you sure that you should do this alone? You’re not even human as we established earlier. Maybe it would be better if I took a look?”

Qiu Ling gave a hum, not quite happy with that suggestion. “Actually, how about just taking a stroll after all? Maybe we’ll see one on our way out. Otherwise, we can go and take a break in some teahouse and see if there is a storyteller around. In that kind of place, you can very simply ask them to tell a story about some cultivator. At that time, their choice of story should tell us quite a lot already.”

Jing Yi pondered for a moment if he should dwell on the fact that Qiu Ling didn’t want to let him do anything but then, he also wasn’t looking forward to making trouble in the city where he had previously lived. Even though his family was long dead and nobody here would remember him, his skin wasn’t that thick. So, in a sense, Qiu Ling’s suggestion was indeed the better way to go about this. “Very well. I think I can see how this would be a good idea. In the worst case, we will find nothing and just be told a nice story. I really wonder what they can come up with.”

Qiu Ling smiled lightly and took Jing Yi’s hand. Pulling open the door again, he walked out ahead. “Well, if they can’t meet your stringent requirements, then I’m willing to tell you a story when we get back. You can even choose what you want to hear.”

“Well, I’m afraid if I want to hear stories about cultivators, I should talk to senior martial brother Leng instead of you. So I guess I’d better hope that the storytellers in the teahouses have something good to say.” Jing Yi glanced at Qiu Ling’s smile, feeling satisfied. This was the kind of thing he had wanted for this trip to the mortal realm: just quietly getting along, joking with each other as if they were just a normal couple.

He knew that they would never be ‘normal’ in the true sense of the word. He wasn’t just a regular human, while Qiu Ling hadn’t been human, to begin with. He also happened to be the dragon king while he had become an ascended deity by now. ‘Normal’ was really the last thing they were.

But the interaction between them, at such a time and in such a place, it sure made him feel like they were normal, just regular people who were in love with each other. This was something that he had missed for a long time because he had been too focused on other things and fate had simply thwarted their plans over and over again.

Now, for these seven days, he could have what he wanted to. Then after that, it would soon be their wedding and when he woke up again, then surely, things would be completely different anyway. But that future was so far away, he didn’t dare to make any assumptions. No, rather than that, it was better to focus on the here and now.

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