On New Year's Night, the Dragon Palace held a banquet.
This was incomparably grander than when they had hosted Lu Zheng and the Liu family before.
Though dragons enjoyed long lives, gathering once a year still counted as a fairly grand and lively form of entertainment.
Fine nectar and jade dew, rare treasures and exotic fruits.
The hall glittered with pearls and jade, while zithers, se, sheng, and flutes played.
Lu Zheng and the others ate with abandon. After several Spirit Fruits and cups of spirit wine, they felt true qi surge through their bodies as their cultivation steadily advanced.
Du YueYao, Wang Xiaowan, and Liu Qingquan in particular improved at a pace visible to the naked eye.
Lu Zheng smacked his lips. It seemed Fan Boyu's hopes could be fulfilled ahead of schedule.
After the New Year, the group stayed in the Dragon Palace for another two days before finally taking their leave.
"Sister! Brother-in-law!"
Eyes full of reluctance, Ao Qian tugged on Liu Qingyan's sleeve and pleaded, "Stay a few more days! There are actually so, so many fun places around the Dragon Palace!"
"We've already stayed for a long time. We can't just live here forever without leaving, can we?"
"Actually, you could..."
"All right, all right. We've come once now, so we already know where you live. Whenever we have time, we'll come visit you again, okay?" Liu Qingyan said, stroking Ao Qian's little head reassuringly.
"Really?" Ao Qian was half-convinced, half-doubtful.
"Of course it's true! I'm still waiting to keep playing Chinese checkers with you!" Liu Qingquan jumped out and said.
"Then let's pinky swear!"
Ao Qian was no fool. When it came time to make the promise, she even knew to seek out Lu Zheng.
"Fine! Pinky swear!"
Lu Zheng hooked his little