Seeing Qiu Ling’s blank look Jing He folded his hands in front of his chest and looked ahead at his father’s palace. “Legend has it that there once was a river originating in the High Heavens that flowed through all the immortal and mortal realms until finally ending in the sea in the underworld.

“The High Heavens are where everything is destined. So in a sense, this is the place where life begins. The immortal and mortal realms are where life takes place and finally, it ends in the underworld. So this Da He river accompanies every living being from beginning to end.”

“I’ve never seen that river.” Continue reading →

Three days later, a certain dragon king appeared in front of the crown prince’s palace especially early. This time he neither barged in uninvited nor did he secretly sneak in. Instead, he waited in front of the main door like a sane person, making the two guards in front eye him warily.

Just what was this guy planning?

Actually, it wasn’t too hard to figure the answer to this question out. Today was the Da He Festival and Jing He was currently inside preparing himself. Naturally, Qiu Ling was waiting for him to take part in the festival together. Continue reading →

In the end, Jing He couldn’t convince himself to invite Qiu Ling. If he did, wouldn’t it seem as if his intentions were more serious than they were? Well, even if he intended to marry Longjun, he still couldn’t show it that outwardly, could he? What would people think if he did?

Thankfully, there still were some days until the Da He Festival and there was one visit of An Bai’s scheduled before it. He anxiously waited and couldn’t help but walk up to the door the day An Bai was supposed to arrive, staring off into the distance as if that could make the dragon appear sooner. Continue reading →

With Qiu Ling using every opportunity to spend time with him and making every effort to let him still be comfortable, Jing He couldn’t help but slowly form a favorable opinion of this person that had scared him so much at first. It slowly made him feel that he was the real problem in this relationship. The dragon king had done so much while he barely managed to think of inviting him to drink a cup of tea or play a game of weiqi. Even after knowing the other person for almost a year and finding out more and more about the dragon race, he still knew almost nothing about him as a person. Obviously, he hadn’t tried hard enough to bring them closer together.

“Jing He.” The Heavenly Emperor looked at his son with worry. Somehow, his precious child seemed a little absent-minded for the last few days. Could it be something was wrong? Had Jing He fallen sick? Was somebody bullying him?! “Did something happen? You can tell father. I’ll send someone to break his legs.” Continue reading →

Qiu Ling followed Jing He around not only on that day but also in the following ones. Early in the morning, he would run over to the Nine Heavens, sneak past the guards and pop up in front of his beloved with a brilliant smile, hoping that he would one day reciprocate.

The crown prince winced the first few times but after several weeks of being surprised like this, he got used to it. Qiu Ling had the habit to turn up at about the same time every day so by then, he began to expect his visits.

The two of them would greet each other, sit down for a cup of tea and then go out into the garden. Jing He would tend to his flowers and Qiu Ling would follow behind, pointing at a random flower every now and then to have an excuse to talk with his beloved. Continue reading →

Jing He sat down with him again, pouring Qiu Ling another cup of tea and slowly sipping his own. For a short while, the dragon king actually managed to keep quiet and only stared at the beautiful person opposite him. With each minute, it became harder though.

Just when Qiu Ling couldn’t take it any longer, Jing He finally placed down his cup. The dragon king perked up. What would they do now? He really wanted to see how his beloved lived. Hadn’t those other guys said that he should find out as much as possible about him? This was a good chance to add something to what he knew about him!

Jing He glanced up before motioning to the door. “Normally, I would go and take care of the garden now. I don’t know if Longjun …” Continue reading →

Qiu Ling had no idea what his beloved was going on about but if he wanted him to … “Well, in that case, I’d love to paint something for you. If you want to, I could even paint something for you every day.”

Jing He smiled wryly. “That won’t be necessary. Just getting one painting as a present will make it much more precious to me, won’t it?”

Qiu Ling nodded eagerly. “Of course! Then I’ll paint a really nice one for you. Is there something you’d like?”

Jing He glanced up before lowering his gaze again. How come Longjun looked so eager discussing this? Wasn’t it just a painting? He wouldn’t be really serious about going after him, would he? But it sure seemed that way. Coming here every day, bringing him things and even taking his opinion into consideration … Continue reading →

Jing He and Qiang Yan exchanged a glance.

“Scholar An Bai … Just what kind of heart is this?”

An Bai lowered his hand and looked at the God of War, smiling wryly. “This seems to be the heart of a golden-tailed Heaven climber.”

“A golden—” Jing He turned to his uncle and grabbed his arm in a rare show of concern. “Isn’t this a mythical beast residing between the immortal realms and High Heavens? It should be on par with the strength of the immortal races, shouldn’t it?”

Qiang Yan glanced at the fingers tugging into the fabric of his robe. Oh? Don’t tell him Longjun had actually managed to make his nephew this concerned about him in just a few days. How … interesting. It seemed his sister had been right as always when she chose Longjun out of all people as his possible spouse. Continue reading →

Jing He enclosed the teacup with his hands and looked at the golden-colored liquid in a bit of a daze. Longjun had indeed struck him as quite forceful in the last few days. But he also couldn’t deny what An Bai had said just now. He had heard about how treacherous the demons were, after all. And there was obviously more to Longjun than that. Just remembering how he had happily brought that flower over the other day …

Jing He glanced at his uncle’s back and then back to the teacup in front of An Bai. “Scholar An Bai’s words make me realize just how well-beloved Longjun is in the dragon realm. He is certainly happy for his subjects to value him this much.”

An Bai smiled wryly, feeling rather thankful that the Son of Heaven wasn’t looking at him right now. Actually, their king didn’t seem to care too much about them. Sure, he would fight against the demons to save them and just his name alone was enough to get a lot of them to flee in terror but other than for fights it was hard to get even a glimpse of him. Continue reading →

Jing He stood up to greet his two visitors. His heart couldn’t help but palpitate though. Someone of the dragon race … Did this have to do with what Longjun had said the previous day?

Qiang Yan took one look at his nephew and knew that he was still nervous. Ah, he could only hope this An Bai would continue to be as empathic as he had seemed until now. Well, he would just stay around for a while to make sure those two got along.

“Jing He.” Qiang Yan went over and took a closer look at his nephew. Normally, he always pretended to be more distant in front of others but screw it. If his nephew really married the dragon king in the future, it was better to let them know upfront that his uncle was the God of War. Hmph, they better don’t try to bully his nephew! “Ah, my dear nephew, I went to the dragon realm yesterday and had the good luck to meet scholar An Bai. We talked for a while and I felt that he was a very knowledgeable person and that the two of you would get along well. So I invited him over.” Continue reading →