"Damn this!" Qiu Ling slapped the table.
Shen An De sighed. "If this is about someone as important as the Son of Heaven, then it's probably Jin Ling who is behind all this."
"You don't say."
Shen An De frowned. He really wanted to give this shameless guy a piece of his mind but he reconsidered at the last moment. If this person was indeed the current Longjun, then it really wouldn't be a problem for him to flatten the whole sect. And it was rather unlikely that someone would pretend to be the dragon king.
Shen An De had lived most of his life as a human so he didn't know much about neither the demons nor the dragons. But even he had heard that the dragon race adored this king of theirs. If someone dared to impersonate him, he probably wouldn't even have to utter a single word before they would hunt that person down.
Hong Ai looked at her husband. She did know quite a bit about the demons since the Daoists from the good faction had fought against them quite often. She had participated in these fights up until she met him. Even though he had a bit of demon blood in his veins her husband had never liked to have anything to do with them. Now that they had the dragon king sitting at their table and the Son of Heaven, as well as some demon, in their sect wouldn't he inevitably be pulled into the fray?
Shen An De smiled. He could understand her apprehensions and honestly, he thought the same way. If it was possible, he'd like to stay out of this but it was probably too late for that already.
"I guess we can't stay out of this. So, Longjun, what can we do to help?"
"Hmph. Shouldn't you be asking that your king instead?"
"He isn't my king." Shen An De smiled. "In fact, a few millennia back, Jin Ling came here and proclaimed to be my 'good uncle' who would very much 'like to lend me his help'. Naturally, he was expecting something in return. When I didn't accept and even went so far as to mobilize the whole of the Hei Dian Sect to drive him off he swore he'd come and take care of me someday. So you could probably say that I'm a traitor to the demons."
Qiu Ling pursed his lips. This sounded good but he knew how tricky demons were. Who knew if this guy wasn't just trying to pull the wool over his eyes so he'd have it easier when he tried to kill Jing He?
Shen An De sighed. He probably shouldn't have expected that someone would believe a person with demon blood. Especially if they were talking about the demons. But he had no idea what he could do to make the Dragon King believe him.
Hong Ai couldn't stand watching her husband act like this. He was the Grandmaster of the Hei Dian Sect, someone with a status that so many looked up to. He shouldn't feel so down because of something he originally had nothing to do with.
She leaned forward. What Dragon or Demon King? These were just people making trouble for her husband. "If you don't trust An De, then why do you even stay here? Now you already know he's part demon you can just leave."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Obviously, it's because of my beloved. You don't know." Qiu Ling straightened up and looked especially sad. It was time to bring out his great acting skills and tell them the pitiable story about how they had ended up here that he had prepared to explain the two sets of names. Well, he would have to add some new things to it now that they already knew a bit about the story behind all of it. "My beloved descended to the mortal world for a while. I also don't understand why but it's some kind of thing the gods just do.
Originally, I thought it would be really easy to marry him as soon as his father was out of the picture. But then when I followed him I had to find out he had become a child and I had to wait until he grew up. But then before that time could arrive he somehow ended up in that Yun Zou Sect. Naturally, I wouldn't just give up so I followed him. Unfortunately, I'm just too awesome so their Grandmaster took me in as his disciple. I thought this would be good because then nobody would dare to bully my beloved as soon as we were married.
But then that so-called Master of mine told me that we couldn't marry as long as Jing He was just an outer sect disciple. So, I went to gather all the ingredients for some pill and had someone refine it so that he could get heavenly spirit veins or whatever it is called but my beloved didn't want to. Of course, a devoted lover like me would always honor my beloved's wishes so we just forgot about it and gave the pill to the sect.
It wasn't that important anyway because we thought that as long as Jing He was able to reach that whatever stage in a year it would be alright even if he hadn't these spirit veins. So, we went to travel together and he had nearly managed to get to that stage when my Master called me back. I thought that would be the time we could finally hold our marriage but once again my Master didn't allow us. This time he used the excuse that my beloved didn't have these spirit veins so even if he managed to reach that strange stage it wouldn't be enough.
Finally, Jing He and I couldn't take it anymore. Honestly, who is able to separate a loving couple such as us over and over again? If he wasn't that old I might just believe he was interested in Jing He himself!"
Shen An De slightly raised his brows and averted his face. Grandmaster Zhangsun from the Yun Zou Sect was younger than him and he had already heard of Dragon King Qiu Ling when he was young. How could this man be shameless enough to call Zhangsun Xun Yi old?
Qiu Ling didn't notice Grandmaster Shen's peculiar expression, though. He was completely immersed in his story. "Naturally, Jing He and I couldn't accept what he said so we fled the Yun Zou Sect and came here. And finally, everything seemed to be going well: We were taken in, Jing He was even accepted into that plant division and we are living together. But we still haven't married yet and now that bastard Jin Ling is getting involved! How am I supposed to marry Jing He? So, no, I definitely can't leave here!"
Hong Ai didn't know what to say anymore. Her sister had found herself in familiar waters, though. "Oh, wow! That is such a nice story!"
"It's not a story, though. It happened exactly like that." More or less.
"Don't you worry!" Hong Bao clutched his arm like she had done back in the teahouse while her eyes seemed to sparkle. "I'll definitely help you to marry him!"
Qiu Ling blinked. Eh? It seemed he remembered that this servant girl was someone hopelessly romantic. Even more so than he himself … "Well …" He looked at her with a bit of hesitation. "You do owe me for what you nearly did to Jing He. It's just right that you help me out a bit."
"Mn! Don't worry! I'll definitely help you get married! It'll be the best wedding you can imagine."
"Actually, I don't need anything fancy." Then again … His beloved would only marry once. It should be something special. Qiu Ling smiled sweetly. "Alright. It's a deal. You help me out as compensation."
Mn. This really was such a good idea. Really, what could go wrong?