Qiu Ling left the room but stopped right in front of the door. Ah, what exactly was he supposed to do now? He didn’t know much about his beloved yet so there wasn’t much use in writing his insights down just yet. No, he had to go and find out more himself. After all, wouldn’t that … Fu Min only find what was known anyway? Something like that would probably be pretty useless for his goal. No, he had to go and get some more private information.

So, he first had to get back into the Nine Heavens. Without anyone noticing.

Qiu Ling wanted to fly over already when he luckily remembered the other things that Xiang Yong and An Bai had said just now. His beloved was a refined person who cared about manners. Breaking into the Nine Heavens or … well, even sneaking into the Nine Heavens probably wasn’t anything he’d like.

"Ugh. So I can’t do that! I hope that … those guys will hurry up with pacifying that old man!" He trudged to the study he remembered he was supposed to have and sat down at his desk.

Mn, just in case, he should devise another plan. Sneaking in sounded not that bad, actually. He just needed a good explanation on how he had gotten in. Just bending the truth a little …

Meanwhile, the other dragons had also gone to work. Xiang Yong and An Bai were sifting through the treasury of the dragon realm in the hope of finding something that could be gifted to the Heavenly Emperor without causing another scandal.

It wasn’t as easy as it sounded. The gift had to show that their king was serious about apologizing so it had to be something special. But it wasn’t like the Heavenly Emperor didn’t have special things in his own treasury. There weren’t many things that would be able to impress him. The best impression would probably be given if it was something suitable for the crown prince but that was completely out of the question considering what their king had done!

Xiang Yong sighed. "This would be much easier if His Majesty had only waited a while. Why couldn’t he tell us first that he liked the crown prince? Then we could have devised a plan how he could approach him and make him fall in love without all this trouble."

An Bai smiled lightly. "I doubt it would have made much of a difference. I’m not as knowledgeable as Fu Min in regard to the gossip regarding the three immortal realms but even I heard about how the crown prince is the pearl in the hand of the Heavenly Emperor. Regardless of how His Majesty might have approached this he still would have gotten little appreciation."

"That’s true, too." Xiang Yong sighed. "Well, let’s just find something that will at least let the Heavenly Emperor lift the ban on His Majesty. Heavens, the demons are probably rolling on the floor laughing since they heard that the dragon king was expelled from the Nine Heavens."

Xiang Yong wasn’t wrong about that. It was even said that demon king Jin Ling hadn’t stopped laughing for three days straight after hearing about the story. Well, who knew if that was the truth or not? Most likely three days weren’t even enough …

An Bai stopped in front of a shelf and looked at an unassuming casket. What was this doing in the treasury? He opened the lid and sucked in a sharp breath. "Xiang Yong! Come over here! You have to see this!"

Xiang Yong put the paintings he had found down and hurried over, taking a look at the thing inside the casket. His brows rose and he didn’t know what to say either.

"This … should be a phoenix feather, shouldn’t it?"

Xiang Yong nodded. "Yes. That …" He gulped. "If we gifted that, the Heavenly Emperor wouldn’t be able to say anything. Even if His Majesty had taken more liberties with the crown prince, this should make up for it. After all, how difficult is it to get a hold of a phoenix feather?"

"His Majesty would probably agree, too." An Bai looked up with worry and saw the same troubled expression in Xiang Yong’s eyes. He pressed his lips together and contemplated before closing the casket. "It might be helpful to our race in the future but the gods are so much more vulnerable than us. And if His Majesty really fell in love, we should do everything to help him with this. Losing a phoenix feather we might not even need in the future is certainly better than losing our king because of Heaven’s laws."

"That’s true." Xiang Yong nodded. "Alright, then let’s go and show it to His Majesty. He probably won’t care but he is our king, after all."

"Mn." An Bai carefully held the casket and followed Xiang Yong out.

The two of them made their way over to Qiu Ling’s palace and found him in his study but their king indeed wasn’t interested in the phoenix feather that much.

"Looks good. So, will the Heavenly Emperor like me if you give that to him?"

Xiang Yong’s lips twitched. "At least the gift is generous enough that he won’t bring up the incident from his banquet again. I wouldn’t hope for more."

"Then bring it over. What are you waiting for? I want to see my Jing He again!"

An Bai coughed. "What did we say about addressing the crown prince?"

"His Highness." Qiu Ling didn’t look happy but he knew that he couldn’t expect too much for the moment.

An Bai nodded. "Then Xiang Yong and I will head over now."

"Do that. Right, what’s with that other guy?" He only got questioning gazes in return. Qiu Ling ground his teeth. "That … Fu Min? Has he found out anything yet?"

Xiang Yong barely held back a sigh. "We’ve worked alone but I doubt it. It hasn’t even been an hour before you gave the command, Your Majesty."

"Mn, I see. Then go. At least get that done. I want to see him again."

The two of them nodded and then hurried away before their king could remember anything else.

At the same time, Fu Min was already compiling a long list of things he knew about the crown prince. This person was the son of the current ruler of the Nine Heavens, the future Heavenly Emperor, an important figure among the race of the gods they were allied with. Naturally, he had already known quite a bit about him.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t go to the Nine Heavens to find out even more for the moment. After all, the gods would certainly be wary of their race after what their king did. So, it was best to wait with that until An Bai and Xiang Yong had managed to sort the problem with the Heavenly Emperor out.

Fu Min hurried to write down the other points he knew and finally rolled up the scroll after another hour. He didn’t waste even a moment and instantly ran to meet with Qiu Ling.

"Your Majesty!" Fu Min stormed into the study and offered him the scroll with both hands.

Qiu Ling who had long finished making plans to sneak into the Nine Heavens and had just painted yet another portrait of Jing He put away his brush and took the scroll. He didn’t wait for any explanations, unfurled it and just started to read. His brows rose higher and higher until he could only stare at the scroll in astonishment.

So … this was the kind of person his beloved was and that was the type of person his beloved liked?

Seeing his king’s expression Fu Min knew that he had already understood where the problem was. "Your Majesty, I probably don’t need to say it since you already thought of it yourself but I feel like I should mention it just in case."

"What is it?"

"Well, you see when you go to seduce the crown prince then you should take note of what I wrote in the scroll."

"You don’t say? Isn’t that why I asked you to write it in the first place?"

Fu Min hurriedly shook his hands. "That’s not what I meant. Of course, you would take notice of that. What I meant was that you should think about yourself, too, and not just about His Highness. Like you should consider what you show him."

"Show him?" Qiu Ling furrowed his brows. He had no idea whatsoever what Fu Min was talking about there.

"Yes. Like the crown prince is obviously a gentle person. It won’t make sense to show him your fighting prowess."

"But I’m good at fighting."

"He still won’t like it. You could show that later but for now you should concentrate on things he cares about like …" Fu Min tried hard to think of something his king could do that the crown prince would like. Finally, his gaze landed on the scroll with Jing He’s picture. "Ah! Something like painting! Rumor has it that the crown prince likes to paint, too. This is something you could talk about or maybe you could even spend time painting together."

Qiu Ling straightened up. They could spend more time together like this?! Ah, this Fu Min was a genius! "You’re right. I should take note of that!"

"Mn." Fu Min nodded hurriedly. "You might also want to take note of your behavior. As An Bai and Xiang Yong stressed His Highness is a very proper person. So, you should only show him the best part of your personality."

Qiu Ling blinked. "What’s that supposed to mean?"

"Uh … Well, you can’t get angry."

"Why would I get angry at him?"

"Well, not at him but … Imagine someone disturbs you while you’re spending time with him. It’s entirely possible that you would lose your temper. That can’t happen in front of His Highness."

"Mn …" Qiu Ling tightened his lips. That was right. He had to leave a good impression on his beloved. "You’re right with that, too. Alright, you may go now. I’ll look some more at this list."

"Yes. I’ll try to find out more for you when An Bai and Xiang Yong manage to get us access to the Nine Heavens again."

"Mn." Qiu Ling just waved at him, his thoughts already on the content of the scroll again.

Ah, there really were many, many things to consider. He should start making a plan on how to approach his beloved in the best possible way. Mn, yes, that’s what he’d do.