This was the second time Xiao Dong had received the honor of being assigned a mission by his king. The first one had been very hard for him to accomplish. In fact, even though he tried his best, he hadn’t really contributed any major achievements. If anything, then he only sometimes managed to make sure that Shao Hai wouldn’t be able to get close to His Majesty’s beloved and instead had to train his sword arts. This could hardly be called a contribution at all.

But this second mission seemed much easier in comparison. He only had to find a special opportunity for His Majesty to appear before his beloved. That couldn’t be so difficult, could it? No, he was sure that this time, nothing would go wrong!

With that thought in mind, Xiao Dong started to inquire about any mortal festivities that would come up soon. Wasn’t there some festival intended for lovers to confess their feelings? Wasn’t there some festival where people would go out and have fun while wearing masks so that His Majesty would be able to hide his identity and then get close to his beloved in that manner?

Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any festival upcoming. In that case … Weren’t there any difficult missions or any war going on? If his beloved got into trouble, then it could certainly be called a special occasion that His Majesty could use to appear before him and save him. Unfortunately, nothing of the like was going on either.

Shao Hai sighed and slumped down on the bench behind the building where he lived with Shao Hai. He couldn’t believe this! Was there nothing going on in the human realm? If this was in the dragon realm …

Well, thinking about that wouldn’t get him any further. Unfortunately, they weren’t in the dragon realm right now. Well, if they were, then His Majesty certainly wouldn’t have needed to ask him. It was just because they were in this godforsaken place that His Majesty had needed to resort to letting someone like him handle this matter. But especially in that situation, he couldn’t let him down!

Xiao Dong jumped back to his feet and paced up and down, trying to come up with what he could do. He didn’t believe that there weren’t any opportunities around. No, he just had to find one. But how? He didn’t know much about the human world and he had already asked each of their seniors that he could grab.

Xiao Dong paused in his steps. Right! If the disciples didn’t know, then maybe one of the Elders would! With that thought in mind, Xiao Dong sneaked over to the house of Elder Suo and pursed his lips. Originally, this Elder teaching the practitioners had seemed to like him quite a bit because he apparently picked up on things very fast.

Well, that was a given considering that he had known all these simple things before. His father was a guard in the capital of the dragon realm, alright? His uncle was even one of the advisers of the king! If he wasn’t able to even replicate the movements from some simple manual from the human realm, that would be simply throwing the face of his whole family away!

Anyway, that Elder Suo had still thought that this was something very good and had wanted to put him in the inner sect. But how could Xiao Dong do that? No, he had to stay with Shao Hai! After all, it was his mission to make sure that Shao Hai couldn’t bother His Majesty’s beloved too much. How could he go to the inner sect if Shao Hai stayed in the outer sect?

That was what he also told the Elder. Well, without the part about His Majesty and the mission, of course. He only said that he wouldn’t go to the inner sect if Shao Hai didn’t go there. He felt that it was necessary to communicate this clearly. They definitely couldn’t separate them!

Elder Suo had been very surprised and had then asked Shao Hai to demonstrate what he had learned so far. It turned out … Shao Hai was barely able to show him the first figure from the manual and even that one was full of mistakes.

Needless to say, Elder Suo wasn’t impressed and refused to let this person into the inner sect. He had asked Xiao Dong several times if he would reconsider but whether it was going to the inner sect or something else that he brought up, it was always met with the very same words: "I won’t do it if Shao Hai doesn’t do it."

By now, Elder Suo had completely given up on this originally promising seedling and didn’t even bother to ask him anymore. No, if this child was so stubborn that he wouldn’t be able to recognize what was good for him, then there was no need to pay him any attention. It would be better to put the time and effort into somebody else instead. After all, one could still achieve good results after working hard even if they weren’t a genius.

It was a pity though.

Thus, Elder Suo had chosen three of the younger disciples to train. Currently, all four people were outside, the Elder advising the disciples on their sword arts.

Xiao Dong smiled brightly when he saw them. Mn, never mind that this Elder didn’t like him. Since there were other people around, he certainly wouldn’t dare to just send him away. No, he would definitely answer to save face! Thus Xiao Dong happily skipped over, his smile getting even more pronounced. "Greetings, Elder!"

Elder Suo looked up and raised his brows. "Xiao Dong? What are you doing here?" He couldn’t remember that this disciple had ever approached him on his own accord. He couldn’t help but wonder just what this might be about.

"Elder Suo, I was wondering … Is there something special coming up anytime soon?"

The Elder looked at him blankly before his expression lit up. "It couldn’t be that you have heard about the Gathering of Practitioners and want to take part, could it?" This was terrific! If this disciple took part in the gathering, then things would certainly go well for the Yun Zou Sect. Ah, he had to make sure that the Sect Master allowed him to amend the list of participants!

Xiao Dong blinked his eyes. "Gathering of Practitioners?" That sounded important!

Elder Suo couldn’t imagine that this person didn’t know what he was talking about. Wasn’t everyone talking about the gathering already? Mn, maybe he was trying to pretend this was all just a coincidence? Well, after rejecting his generous offer so many times, it wasn’t a wonder that he wouldn’t feel comfortable bringing up that he wanted to take part. This was only natural.

Since this person was a talent, he should indulge him again. After all, it was the sect that would benefit the most from this. "Yes, the Gathering of Practitioners. It is a major competition that is held every few years and all the sects of our righteous faction that have disciples learning the sword arts take part. All of them will compare notes with each other, trying to find out which disciple is better than the others. The higher the disciples’ ranking is at the end, the honor they would bring to their sect." He smiled brightly when he imagined just how much honor Xiao Dong would bring to their Yun Zou Sect. "So do you want to take part?"

Xiao Dong’s eyes sparkled but he shook his head. "No, if Shao Hai doesn’t take part, then I don’t want to take part either. But thank you for your help nonetheless, Elder Suo!" With that, he turned around and rushed away, leaving a dumbfounded Elder behind that had once again been subjected to hearing the same heartless rejection.

Xiao Dong thought nothing of it. He could only think of going and reporting the good news to his king.