Fate had its very own way of making things develop according to what should be. This trial, measured in the time of the Nine Heavens, had been meant to be a short three-month trip at most but it didn’t develop quite as intended.

In the end, the trial took three whole years and none of the immortal realms remained unchanged during that time. Not a small part of these changes was brought about by Jing He’s trial itself, caused by the connections he made during his time as a mortal and the hardships he experienced. Even after his soul returned to his true body, several months followed in its wake that couldn’t be called anything short of a trial of their own.

Recounting all the happenings of those years in detail could hardly be done in less than three million words as too many people had been involved and too many relationships had been affected. To make a long story short though, if one wanted to at least name the most important changes that had occurred, there should be two.

For one, the sovereign of the demon realm had changed twice in short succession and the man now sitting atop the throne seemed formidable enough, making the dragon realm and the Nine Heavens feel on edge. On the other hand, the previous dragon king, Longjun Jinde, who had been presumed dead for thousands of years … had reappeared. Originally, while he could only be called alive but his condition was nowhere close to what it had once been, with the help of Qiu Ling and those close to them, he slowly recovered, much to Qiu Ling’s delight.

This person, even though their history could be called ancient at this point, had always been important to him, being much like a parent to him. With his actual parents long since dead, he gladly clung to this person, finally regaining what he had lost so long ago. In this way, the trial could be counted as a blessing to him.

Of course, almost as important as Jinde’s return was his relationship with Jing He. Back then, they had promised to get married as soon as he returned. They naturally knew that this likely would not be possible but they still indulged in this beautiful dream and, in fact, with the help of the older generation, Qiu Ling slowly started to prepare for the wedding so that most of the preparations had been made shortly before Jing He’s return.

One of the most important decisions to be made was surely how to go about actually holding the wedding. After all, while Jinde as Qiu Ling’s closest family member was happy to see this so-called son of his getting wed and the Heavenly Empress Bai Fen was glad to have her son finally fulfill this wish of his, the Heavenly Emperor Rong Su couldn’t be said to have come around at all.

Despite everything Qiu Ling had tried to sway his opinion of him, he still regarded him as a shameless dandy trying to fool his son. In fact, he still loathed the person so much that he had tried to find a better candidate for his son-in-law among the gods. While he thought that nobody was good enough for his son, there were at least a few outstanding men in the Nine Heavens who he’d reluctantly approve of. Anyway, in his eyes, most people were better than the dragon king!

Of course, just because Jing He’s father didn’t agree, they wouldn’t forgo this wedding. On the contrary, after all this time, since the Heavenly Emperor wouldn’t budge in the slightest, they had planned without him, unwilling to continue pushing back the ceremony further.

With the help of people from both the Nine Heavens and the dragon realm, they had been quite successful with this as well. At this point, apart from the invitations, only the last few details remained to be settled which mostly relied on the ideas of the two people who were to be wed. The previous generation didn’t intend to get involved in this. Instead, their focus was on the one thing they could hopefully still help with.

“I am still worried about how to invite everyone. The wedding of the dragon king and our crown prince … it can’t be said to be a small matter. It makes sense to invite every dignitary in both realms. But by doing so, we naturally risk exposing our plan to Rong Su and he’ll make a fuss again.” Bai Fen held her forehead, wondering for the umpteenth time why exactly she had married this man.

How could someone be this stubborn and unreasonable? Since this was what his son wanted and what everyone else agreed on, why couldn’t he just shut up and accept things already? Sometimes, she really wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him but she was afraid there still wouldn’t be a chance of him coming to his senses.

Jinde picked up his teacup, quietly taking a sip. As the steam rose, he narrowed his eyes. “I suppose it would help if he had something else to focus on then.”

Bai Fen looked at him questioningly. “He will likely cling to Jing He after he comes back but that doesn’t help us. There are customs to adhere to so we can’t let him hog Jing He to himself all the time.” Not to mention that her son would certainly want to spend more time with Qiu Ling after his return. Where did her husband have the right to monopolize his time after everything he had done?

Jinde simply smiled though, a glint of amusement flashing in his golden eyes. “No, but … we could let him write the invitations.”

This time, not just Bai Fen but the rest of the people who had gathered also stared at him in silence.

Jinde chuckled and put the teacup down again. “Isn’t your son finally going to return after so long? That is a matter worth celebrating, isn’t it? So why wouldn’t your husband invite everyone in the Nine Heavens and even those with some say in the dragon realm to gather and commemorate this occasion? He might even be happy to write the invitations for such a grand occasion. And none of us have to mention that we’ll coincidentally hold his son’s wedding the same day.”

Bai Fen and Qiang Yan stared at Jinde speechlessly. Sometimes, it was tough to imagine that he wasn’t actually related to Qiu Ling because, honestly, this was exactly the type of suggestion the dragon king would have made.

In fact, looking over, Qiu Ling’s reaction was pretty calm. He looked somewhat intrigued as if he felt this was a good idea. But then, Jinde’s husband was quietly sipping his tea as if he didn’t think there was anything wrong with this either. Their whole family was really …

Bai Fen raised her brows, rubbed her forehead again, and finally nodded. “Fine. My husband is so unreasonable, we won’t get this done any other way. He only has himself to blame for this kind of surprise. We’ll just have to make sure he won’t ruin things the day off.”

Jinde smiled. “I’m sure there’ll be ways to deal with that when the time comes.”

Qiu Ling also nodded. “True. I mean … is he really going to cause issues in front of everyone?”

Bai Fen opened her mouth but finally didn’t speak. To be honest … she wasn’t entirely sure. While her husband sure loved to save face, he was also very much against this relationship. It was tough to say which desire of his would be stronger: to keep up appearances or to prevent this wedding from happening.

Seeing her expression, Qiu Ling’s lips twitched. Well, it seemed that there was a decent chance he would. “Well, if he really does … let’s just ignore him. Anyway, he can’t interfere with the customs before the main ceremony so that’s being half-married. We’ll get through the ceremony itself somehow.” Although he truly hoped that it would be in a good way. After all … his Jing He deserved to have the wedding ceremony of his dreams after this whole ordeal.