Normally, Qiu Ling didn’t leave Jing Yi’s side for even half a step. But right now, he couldn’t be at his beloved’s side. No, there was something else he had to do first. Something extremely important.

He stared intensely at the water mirror in his hand and combed back his hair, before trying to brush his eyebrows into a more awe-inspiring shape and adjusting the collar of his black robe. He wasn’t too happy though.

"This isn’t right! I definitely have to be my most handsome self! What’s with these wrinkles? Does one need to have those ugly things as a human? Damn this!"

How come the supposedly mighty and awe-inspiring dragon king was fussing so much about his appearance? Well, the short answer to that question was: His future father-in-law was right. Qiu Ling was vain.

It wasn’t that strange if one knew that the dragon race, in general, paid more attention to their appearances. But Qiu Ling was still a rather extreme case. As for the reason why …

That question had been discussed in the dragon realm at length. The answer ranged from him being the perfect example that highlighted all traits of the dragon race to it being a necessity since he was a naturally handsome man that was expected to take care of himself. They had even brought up that he might do it to raise the morale of the dragon race’s people since he still wasn’t married.

In the end, some people hadn’t been able to take the uncertainty any longer and one of his most trusted followers had been sacrificed to go and ask him.

The answer … wasn’t what the dragons had expected. Or maybe it was exactly as they had always thought.

When Qiang Wei posed the question, Qiu Ling had raised his brows in surprise. "Isn’t that obvious?"

"Ah? No. No, it isn’t."

Qiu Ling had lifted his head, staring into space. "Imagine the demons invaded our realm and we beat them back. You know that king of theirs? Jin Ling? I can picture how they’d grovel before him, crying about how they couldn’t fight well because I was looking too hideous!"

Qiang Wei hadn’t even known how to make sure he hadn’t misunderstood.

But the dragon king’s vivid imagination had him already fuming with rage anyway so he didn’t notice the lack of reaction. "Damn that guy! What is he doing besides pursuing beauty? How shallow! I’ll make sure he can’t be shameless in front of me. I’ll let the whole world know that the dragon king Qiu Ling is so handsome even the demons love fighting him! And then nobody will dare say he’s more handsome than me."

"Mn." Qiang Wei had saved the effort to comment and went to complain to Yi Zan. In the end, hadn’t the reason still been that their king was just too vain? Wasn’t this a fault with his character?

They couldn’t bear to talk about this with anyone so Yi Zan came up with a brilliant idea. Or at least it had seemed so back then.

"Just make something up. How about saying there is an old legend about how the dragon race will climb to never before seen heights under the rule of the most handsome king?"

Even though Qiang Wei had some doubts about this, he finally succumbed under the pressure of having to out their king as simply being vain. Now, he could probably be happy that Qiu Ling had descended to the mortal realm alone because the way he currently looked … Every precaution they had taken to protect their king’s image would have been in vain. No pun intended.

This vain king of theirs was still locked in battle with his appearance even though almost half an hour had gone by. He definitely wanted to return to his original, handsome features but after what had happened at the Zhongs’ village he knew better than doing that.

Although that wasn’t the main reason. If it had only been for that, he might have ignored the possibility of bringing disaster again. Who was to say that anything would happen this time? Here was, after all, the capital of the Long kingdom! People probably wouldn’t be as superstitious as the village folk back in the countryside.

No, the main reason was that he wanted to save using his real appearance for the future when Jing Yi was grown up and ready for love. If Jing Yi saw him like that now and then again as a grown-up, wouldn’t he think of him as some strange uncle? He didn’t want to become an uncle after being a grandfather for so long! He wanted to be seen as a suitor and finally as a lover. Was that asking for too much?

So, he couldn’t meet Jing Yi with his real appearance. But he also didn’t want to only meet him as an old man. Faced with this dilemma, Qiu Ling had decided to once again take on the form of the traveler, that had helped Mister Zhong in the inn and in front of Zhong Gang’s restaurant.

It was just … he wasn’t all that satisfied. He still wanted to leave his beloved with a good impression! Who cared what his father-in-law thought? Jing Yi couldn’t think badly of him!

Mn, he had to make sure he looked especially handsome for this important occasion.

Qiu Ling rubbed over those small wrinkles again, smoothed out his hair, tugged at his sleeves and evened out the wrinkles on his robe. Once again, he gave the mirror a scrutinizing look. Something still seemed wrong.

"Ah, it’s such a bother being naturally handsome! This human appearance just can’t compare!" He furrowed his brow a bit and paused. Mn! This actually didn’t look bad. This face seemed to be made for wearing such a grim expression. "This might not be as incredibly handsome as my usual self but it’ll certainly leave an impression. Don’t women always claim that men are the most handsome while at work? When working one would certainly be serious. So this should be the rumored charm of a man at work?" He tilted his head from side to side and finally put the water mirror away.

Alright. He was satisfied, more or less. This was probably as far as human handsomeness could go. Now, it was time to meet his beloved.