"Grandelder!" Qiu Ling barged into the Grandelder’s palace just like he had done it with his own Master’s.

The old man flinched and the tender herb in his hands ripped into two. The Grandelder closed his eyes and repressed a sigh.

"Nian, who came in just now?"

Nian Hong Fang turned around and frowned when he saw the young man standing there. "I don’t know, Master. I have never seen him before." There weren’t many people who would dare to barge into the Grandelder’s palace like that. And this man … he would have remembered him if he had seen him at least once.

The Grandelder turned around just in time to come face to face with a list of ingredients.

"Grandelder, help me find out what those things are!"

The Grandelder widened his eyes and took the list from him. "This is … the list of ingredients for the Amethyst Lightning Pill?"

"I don’t know. It has something to do with remodeling spirit veins or something like that." Qiu Ling definitely didn’t mind admitting to the fact that he knew nothing about these things. He was a dragon and he heavily despised the art of pill refinement. Why would he know what these things were?

The Grandelder finally looked up and froze. That was … Grandmaster Zhangsun’s disciple? "This … What do you need this for?"

"Of course, it’s for my beloved!"

"Oh. So he accepted?"

"No, not yet."

The Grandelder blinked. "Ah, so it is supposed to be a present for the upcoming betrothal."

Now it was Qiu Ling’s turn to blink. "No, it’s not."

The two looked at each other. Neither understanding what the other was talking about.

Nian Hong Fang coughed. Hearing the word 'betrothal' and adding this new information to the fact that he didn’t know the man in front of him he could figure out who he was. "Senior martial brother Qiu, I’m afraid we didn’t have the pleasure of meeting until now. I’m the Grandelder’s head disciple, Nian Hong Fang."

"Oh. Qiu Ling."

"Might I ask senior martial brother Qiu why you would gift something like an Amethyst Lightning Pill to someone who hasn’t agreed to marry you yet?"

Of course, Qiu Ling didn’t mind answering that question. "Because I love him."

The Grandelder and his head disciple exchanged a glance but both of them didn’t know what to say. This explanation was quite simple but that made it even more unbelievable. Which cultivator or practitioner would sacrifice something this valuable just because of some fleeting feelings?

Sure, he couldn’t use the Amethyst Lightning Pill himself since he wasn’t a cultivator anyway but he had brought a list of ingredients over. Didn’t that mean he hadn’t chanced upon the pill somewhere but was instead planning to assemble the necessary ingredients and then finding a high-level alchemist to refine the pill?

Doing something like that was total folly! Even if one disregarded the danger he would have to brave to gather the materials, there was still the price he would have to pay for getting a high-leveled alchemist to do him a favor. After all, there weren’t many of them around and refining such a pill wasn’t easy even for them. Owing a favor to a high-leveled alchemist was nearly as bad as owing one to a demon.

Could he really love that junior martial brother so much that he was willing to accept all that?

Qiu Ling knew nothing of the complex thoughts that the Grandelder and his disciple had. He just pointed at the list again. "Grandelder, can you help me? I want to gather those things but I don’t have any idea where to find them or how they even look."

The Grandelder pushed away all other thoughts and waved Qiu Ling with him. Never mind. This wasn’t his problem. Looking at the list, this boy should have gotten it from his Master so the Grandmaster was alright with him doing this. In that case, he as an outsider shouldn’t get involved. "Sure, sure. But I’ll have to warn you right now: It won’t be easy to gather these materials. In fact, you might very well lose your life in this attempt."

Qiu Ling just smiled. "Don’t worry about that." It might have been true for a human but if he died in the mortal realm, then he wasn’t fit to be the king of the dragon race. In fact, he wouldn’t be fit to call himself a dragon at all. After all, his thick skin wasn’t just metaphorical. Hurting a dragon was hard enough for the gods or demons. The people or beasts living in the human realm? Please! It wouldn’t even tickle.

The Grandelder nodded and led him into the library. He took a thick book out of one of the shelves and carried it over to a table. "The herbs you need are all listed inside. Let’s see …" He started sifting through the pages and stopped whenever he found one of the herbs from the list.

Qiu Ling stood next to him with a jade slip in his hand. He wouldn’t risk forgetting any important detail if it pertained to his beloved’s future. Thus, he recorded everything down.

Finally, the Grandelder closed the book and turned around to Qiu Ling.

"Huh? Is that everything? Aren’t there still some herbs missing?"

The Grandelder shook his head. "No, those are all the herbs needed. The other materials aren’t herbs. You might want to ask Elder Geng about them."

"Elder Geng?" Qiu Ling frowned. He had never heard of that person.

"He is responsible for the spiritual beasts in our sect. Those ingredients are tied to them. Maybe you’re lucky and he even has some of them at his peak. But you shouldn’t set your expectations too high. Those ingredients are just as rare as the herbs you have to find." He observed Qiu Ling’s expression but didn’t find any change. How impressive! Despite his young age, he was actually able to stay this calm in the face of potential danger or wealth. He seemed to have no second thoughts about any of this whatsoever.

Actually, Qiu Ling just had no idea of how rare these ingredients were. But even if he knew, he wouldn’t care. Those things that were rare for the mortals meant nothing to the dragons. Helping his beloved was worth way more to Qiu Ling.