Jinde sighed. There was nothing he could do about Jin Ling running around so leaving the Yun Zou Sect was out of the question. As much as he wanted to meet Chun Yin sooner it was too dangerous.
"I'm afraid I can't do much from here. Go and tell him to ask for help in the Nine Heavens. There are ascended deities there that lived in the human realm before. One of them should know about the kind of array that is connected to the secret realm and they naturally have higher strength than someone who hasn't ascended yet. Breaking that array without harming the realm shouldn't be an issue."
"Ascended deities …" Zhangsun Xun Yi nodded. He had always postponed ascending for the sake of the Yun Zou Sect. Now they actually needed someone who had ascended before and he was unable to help his disciple because of his prior decision. Not that Qiu Ling truly was his disciple.
"They were once human, after all. That is an advantage in this case. I know about the arrays in the dragon realm but those from here are mostly unknown to me. It could be that I wouldn't even recognize the array and would need to expand a lot of time to research it. I'm sure Qiu Ling wouldn't want to wait that long."
"Yes, I doubt that, too."
"So, an ascended deity is the best match for this task."
"Then I'll go and tell him." Zhangsun Xun Yi stood up and nodded. He didn't leave immediately though. "About that Jin Ling … Is there really nothing I can do to make sure he won't come trouble you?"
Jinde shook his head. "If you tried, you'd just be accomplishing the opposite. He didn't find anything in the secret realm so he might have given up. If he comes back … Well, he can't search the whole sect on his own." Jinde lowered his gaze. There was still the possibility of Jin Ling mobilizing his men though but he didn't want to worry the Grandmaster. He had done a lot for him already when he took him in.
Zhangsun Xun Yi nodded again. "Alright, then I won't do anything. Please notify me if you need help with anything else though. Sect Master Yuchi would certainly try to help you, too." With that, he finally left.
Jinde stayed in the study and sighed. "Ah, I still can't believe you became the demon king. Just what happened to the cute child that would always cling to me the whole day? Jian Heng really knew nothing about children." He shook his head and picked up an empty scroll.
There was no use crying over spilled milk. From the day Jin Ling fell in love with him this outcome had been destined. He could only make sure he wouldn't find him. Maybe … these feelings would wear out someday and Jin Ling would find somebody else to love.
Speaking of loving somebody else … "Mn, I wonder what happened to Xin Lan. Is he still with him? Or did he run away already?"
The corners of his mouth lifted a bit when he thought about that man. Ah, he could imagine how it would play out with these two together. Xin Lan had probably been in fourth place on the list of people Jin Ling loathed. And Xin Lan in return hadn't been fond of Jin Ling either.
Most likely the two of them would be glaring at each other all day and say some nice-sounding pleasantries that were actually meant to hurt the other. After all, they had had enough time to perfect these skills considering when they started developing them.
Jinde shook his head and picked up the brush to paint another portrait. This time the person emerging on the scroll wasn't Chun Yin though. Never mind that he was still in love, Chun Yin definitely couldn't expect that nobody else had a place in his heart after all this time, right? For that, he was a couple thousand years too late.
At the same time, two people were sitting next to each other in the demon realm and tried to ignore the other as good as they could. The expression of one of them was grim while the expression of the other one was blank as if he didn't even notice the person next to him. Well, it was kind of hard to gauge the latter's expression considering half of his face was obscured by a mask.
That's right. These two were none other than Jin Ling and Xin Lan whom Jinde had just thought about.
The reason for Jin Ling's bad mood was the message he had just gotten. He himself was a bit surprised that he already got one, after all, it hadn't been long since he sent his wife from the gods back to her race to find out about the Son of Heaven.
The message Xiang Yu sent had certainly been written after what happened in front of the secret realm so it could be seen not only as a proof of Zhong Jing Yi's identity as the Son of Heaven but also as an indicator of his fate. The latter was what had Jin Ling look like he'd eaten a fly.
It turned out that the Nine Heavens hadn't mobilized their soldiers but instead sent some scholars to the secret realm. Didn't that mean that that boy had somehow survived? Why had Qiu Ling that much luck?!
Jin Ling stood up and paced up and down. "I can't leave it at that."
Xin Lan ignored him. He didn't even know why he had stayed behind after clarifying the matter about the hair. Jin Ling wouldn't change his mind, his master wouldn't come back … What was he still doing here?
Jin Ling turned around to him and examined the part of the face that wasn't obscured by the mask. "Xin Lan, say considering I was unable to have that boy killed this time and since the gods are warned now which would make it troublesome to plan another attempt on his life what do you think would be a good way to make that bastard Qiu Ling suffer?"
Xin Lan looked up without interest. "I'm not here to help you scheme against him."
"Such a pity. I always thought you hated him, too. With him being Chun Yin's son and all that."
Xin Lan turned his head away. He wouldn't let that child talk him into anything.
"Well, whatever. You don't need to help me with this. I'll find a way on my own. And it will even be worse for Qiu Ling than seeing his lover getting killed."
Mn, come to think of it … there was probably only one thing that would feel worse to a dragon.
Jin Ling's lips slowly arched into a smile. Ah, it was probably time to see what that idiot Xiao Li had found out in the human realm. After all, he needed some information if he wanted to implement that plan.