A feeling of in-adequateness rose in Tang Long’s heart. He didn’t want her to be stronger than him, he wanted to protect Li Ling so she wouldn’t cry in the future, not the other way around.
He needed to work harder in the future.
“Good! That’s great Princess Li Ling.”
Tang Long still said happily, and that was his true feelings. Maybe this would motivate him to cultivate harder and increase his cultivation.
Li Ling frowned when she heard Tang Long call her Princess, but she only dash towards him and swung her sword at his head.
Seeing this Tang Long smiled bitterly once again, and quickly went to block her somewhat vicious blow.
Another reason why he couldn’t allow her cultivation to surpass his was because of her personality. Wouldn’t he be bullied by her when they got married? Although Li Ling was just using their betrothment for her own convenience, it didn’t look like she was entirely opposed to the idea.
As this was going on, at the same time Little Snow and Tai were standing face to face in the open area of the courtyard. Little Snow was fixing Tai’s robes, though there wasn’t much to fix.
Soon, Tai held Little Snow's hands stopping her, and asked softly.
“The ship is leaving tomorrow for the Star Bound Continent, are you sure you don't want to come?”
Little Snow shook her head before she said.
“I’ll leave finding Master to you. If I leave little sister Ling’er alone, I’m afraid she won’t forgive me.”
Silence fell between them for a moment before Little Snow suddenly asked.
“Is Master really still alive Tai? No matter how hard I try I can’t sense the mental connection between us.”
Tai’s hold on Little Snow’s hand tightened.
“He is, of course he is. We’ve determined that maybe the spatial tear he went through sent him away from the Maple Continent. That could be the reason why we can’t sense the connection.”
“But even when we are far away from him, there would still be a faint connection. Not to mention a faint connection, it feels as if he-he…”
“Wah! What are you crying for?”
Seeing the tears falling from Little Snow's cheeks Tai hurriedly began wiping them away.
“I said it’ll be fine, so it’ll be fine. I promise I’ll find him, and have I ever broken a promise before?”
Thinking back on their time spent together, even before they met Li Shen, Little Snow shook her head.
“See? Believe in me, and believe in Master that he won’t allow himself to be killed like that. Ah, now look how red and puffy your eyes have become.”
Tai frowned, but he suddenly lean forward and planted a kiss on Little Snow’s puffy eyes while saying.
“If you don’t stop crying then I’m going to kiss you until you feel better.”
Tai then began kissing Little Snow’s face more and more, until Little Snow started to giggle.
The sad atmosphere that was hanging in the air was lifted, and only Little Snow’s squeal of laughter could be heard.
“S-Stop, Tai stop already! What if little sister Ling’er sees us?”
Little Snow pushed Tai an arm's distance away. Tai in response to her words said.
“Sorry, sorry, but I can’t help but be a doting boyfriend after you accepted my feelings.”
Little Snow blushed at that, but out of nowhere, a voice suddenly sounded from next to them.
“Oh, so you’re both a couple?”
The two immediately jolted at the voice and quickly turned their heads to see a youth sitting not too far away from them.
Tai’s eyes immediately turn grim.
He actually hadn't felt anyone's presence enter the courtyard. Little Snow mirrored his expression as well.
“Who are you? And how-”
With a serious expression, Tai went to question this youth about his identity and how he managed to sneak in without either he or Little Snow sensing him, however, he suddenly sensed a familiar aura from the youth.
“You-You’re God Beast like us?”
Tai asked in surprise, and it was at that time, Little Snow felt the aura as well and became just as surprised as him. However, the aura was strange as Spiritual Qi fluctuations were mixed in with it.
Xiao smiled and said.
“My name is Xiao but my Master calls me Little Xiao. But what's a God Beast? I'm a Divine Beast.”
Little Snow and Tai were taken aback upon hearing that, and they gave each other a glance.
This boy had the same aura as them, although it was extremely faint it was still there.
Was he not a God Beast?
Xiao kick off his seat and came up to Tai and Little Snow. He suddenly began walking around them as he explained.
“I was wandering around this Continent looking for someone with my Master when I caught a whiff of both your scents. I really never thought I’d meet other Divine Beasts like myself so suddenly. But now that I'm closer to you both, why do you feel so strange? Your auras are similar to mine but it feels way more potent.”
Xiao suddenly stopped next to Little Snow before coming up close and sniffing her. If anyone saw this scene in or out of context, it would look extremely strange.
“Hey, what are you doing?!”
Tai seeing this pulled Little Snow behind him and stood facing Xiao.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I was just too excited.”
Xiao said as he scratched the back of his head.
Suddenly, Xiao perked up and then said.
“My Master is calling for me. I hope to see you two again!”
Xiao said as he leaped into the air. A golden aura that gave off the might of a dragon suddenly radiated from his body before he actually transformed into a dragon about a meter in length and shot towards the exit of the Palace.
His speed was extremely fast, so much so that Tai couldn’t track him with his senses much less his eyes.
With a frown on his face, Tai asked.
“His aura is that of a Chaos Dragon hatchling, right?”
Little Snow nodded.
“From my inheritance memories, it seems to me like he is but different somehow.”
“I thought so too, but where the heck did he suddenly come from?”
“When we came here, we didn’t visit anywhere else, so perhaps he came from another place on this planet.”
“Yeah maybe, but why was he sniffing you?”
Tai suddenly went off track as he remember Xiao sniffing Little Snow like a dog. He was annoyed.
‘Maybe instead of Chaos Dragon perhaps he should be called a perverted Mutt Dragon that likes to sniff people.’
Meanwhile, Tai was offhandedly coming up with insults for Xiao, Li Shu in the throne room had a frown on his face.
Fulong next to him suddenly sighed.
“This child seems to be hesitant to make a move against us. Perhaps he’s cautious of our relationship with the Qin Clan. But unfortunately, we have no relationship with them, we only know of their existence because the Founder’s wife mentioned them before in some secret notes she left behind. From what she said, we could have only speculated a few things about our true origins, and that we aren’t really the main Ancient Clan that found the Golden Lotus inheritance Tomb, but merely a branch of them.”
Li Shu remained silent for a moment before saying.
“Let him continue believing we have some connections with the Qin Clan. Adding someone like him as an enemy right now for our clan is the last thing we want, but there’s no other choice. If he decides to use our enemies on the Continent to deal with us, then we can only fight back.”
“Then you’re not worried he’d directly find trouble with grand nephew when he shows up?”
Li Shu waved his hand dismissively.
“This person is talented, but compared to Shen’er he’s still lacking. I'm guessing he's currently suppressing his breakthrough into the Nascent Soul Realm, and by the looks of the built-up of Spiritual Qi, he must have been doing it for several years. But I believe even Wei’er might be able to match his talents.”
Fulong had no comment upon hearing that. From the looks of it, this person was some direct descendant of a major clan on the Central Continent. It was shocking to think that someone from a lowly sub-region could compare to his talents.
But Fulong didn’t doubt Li Shu’s words.
There was something about their sub-region specifically that make them capable of producing talents similar in caliber to a prodigy from the Central Continent.
Neither Fulong nor Li Shu knew this but that was exactly why the Heaven Traversing Bridge was created.
It was as if the Ancient Clans in the past had predicted that this sub-region would produce outstanding geniuses, and was thus prepared for it by building the Heaven Traversing Bridge to test those geniuses.
It was like they had emptied a river source that was once abundant with water before planting a few seedlings in the river bed. Perhaps the water was gone, but the soil was still full of leftover nutrients that could make these seedlings grow into something special.
If not over one generation then perhaps two, or maybe three or four.
There will undoubtedly be a time when this place would be filled with a few ripe fruits. At that time, the Ancient Clans could snatch them up and integrate them into their clan easily since they had their bloodlines already.
Though if one looked at it like this, this sub-region seemed more like a harvesting garden of some sort to them. But from the looks of it, after going so long without a single fruit coming to fall into their lap, the Ancient Clans had kind of forgotten about the seedlings they planted in this garden.
And an unattended garden will become overgrown.
Without them knowing, this garden had indeed become overgrown and chaotic. Everywhere one looked there was some young tree that had too monstrous of a talent.
There was even one that was hidden out of sight that would have flourished in this chaotic environment, if not for a major setback.
It was no wonder that Long Feng said he was shocked by how many geniuses there were in this sub-region, and how much they varied in nature.