What a Thoroughly Satisfying Assist

Yingxing: ???

As the other two settled on working together in a few brief exchanges, Yingxing remained completely out of the loop, unable to make head or tail of what they were saying.

Yingxing was full of questions. "You mentioned Jingliu just now? What exactly are you talking about?"

Jing Yuan and Dan Feng exchanged a glance, then sighed in unison.

The craftsman, so focused on his smithing, had upset Jingliu at the dinner table without even realizing it.

If they didn't tell Yingxing the truth, it would probably only lead to more trouble.

Not wanting to scare his friend, Jing Yuan decided to take things gradually and guide Yingxing toward the truth.

The decisive Dan Feng, however, went straight for the bombshell.

"Jingliu likes Xianyu."

Afraid Yingxing wouldn't connect the name to the face, the High Elder added, "The person who ate with us today."

Yingxing's eyes slowly widened. His mouth opened and closed, but not a single word came out.

The Master Forger tried to search his brain, stuffed full of smithing materials, for useful information, but the explosive news had stunned him senseless.

The revelation that Jingliu had someone she liked hit Yingxing no less hard than hearing that the Ancient Kingdom Emperor had risen from the dead and would conquer the universe a second later!

How was this any different from the Xianzhou Alliance renaming itself the Xianzhou Empire?!

He thought and thought, only managing to squeeze out a sentence after a long while:

"How much Wedding Gift Money would we have to give in Strales?"

At that, both Jing Yuan and Dan Feng fell silent.

Jing Yuan: You're getting way ahead of yourself! Nothing has even happened between them yet...

Dan Feng: No idea. The Dragon Preceptors never taught me that. They always prepared everything in advance.

The pampered High Elder gave it some thought, then quoted an outrageous figure that would have made an ordinary person faint on the spot.

As a member of a short-life species, Yingxing had only a vague understanding of the Xianzhou's many customs.

Members of long-life species lived so long, yet so few dated or married that Yingxing knew nothing about such matters despite working in the enormous Artisanship Commission.

The number left Yingxing speechless. As a smithing-obsessed employee who often paid for materials himself because he couldn't wait for his requisitions to be approved, he did some calculations with his salary...

Given that he practically paid to go to work and had only a pittance left each month, he probably wouldn't save enough until retirement.

He began to question his life, but then reconsidered. Xianzhou natives lived a long time and saved plenty of money. Maybe that really was the going rate.

Yingxing said awkwardly, "That much? Could I give them a weapon instead and count that as my wedding gift?"

One dragon and one human, one bold enough to say it and the other gullible enough to believe it, immediately began discussing the Wedding Gift Money.

As the only one of the three with a normal Worldview and any common sense, Jing Yuan struggled to speak:

"...Has it occurred to you that they aren't at the stage of getting married and collecting Wedding Gift Money yet?"

Hearing that, Yingxing immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Wonderful. He wouldn't have to worry about an astronomical amount of Wedding Gift Money just yet.

He asked Dan Feng and Jing Yuan curiously, "Are they dating?"

Dan Feng had never expected Jingliu, seemingly the least likely of the five to fall in love, to find someone she liked.

Utterly confident, the High Elder answered Yingxing with a wistful tone:

"Not yet, but they'll probably be dating before long."

Jing Yuan slowly produced a question mark.

Was he the abnormal one, or were those two?

Jing Yuan, the youngest of the three, finally lost his patience:

"Has it occurred to you that romance takes time, and before any of that, they need to actually like each other?"

Yingxing even began to stammer. "Huh? Jingliu's feelings are one-sided?"

Dan Feng said as though it were obvious, "So what? Jing Yuan and I will step in."

Yingxing said bluntly, "You and Jing Yuan? A Vidyadhara who's never dated despite reincarnating who knows how many times, and a youngster who isn't even twenty? Can you really manage it? We'd be better off asking Baiheng!"

All three turned to look at Baiheng, who lay passed out drunk on the floor, then sighed in perfect unison.

Displaying a level of initiative that would move any procrastinator to tears, Dan Feng made an immediate decision:

"Let's make this quick. We're going to Jing Yuan's place today."

Taking the temporarily offline Foxian with them, the three arrived at the residence where Jing Yuan lived alone.

After settling the drunk woman in, they gathered to brainstorm.

Unfortunately, they knew nothing about romance. After staring blankly at one another for a while, Jing Yuan, an avid Jade Abacus surfer, suggested, "We could search the forums."

Dan Feng sank into thought. "Would posts on the forums offer anything useful for Jingliu?"

Yingxing hesitated. "Are we searching for guides on women pursuing men?"

The three fell silent for a moment.

No matter how they looked at it, Jingliu couldn't possibly follow a guide for women pursuing men!

Dan Feng gave a light cough, then held his Jade Abacus out between them. "Let's take a look first."

Opening a post, the three immediately saw phrases like "act cute" and "show vulnerability," and felt as though they'd been struck by lightning.

The dragon and the blacksmith had no common sense. Their instincts told them something was wrong, but they still forced themselves to keep reading.

Yingxing even took out his Jade Abacus to make notes on the side.

They tried to understand, but they simply couldn't!

Seeing the increasingly vacant looks in Dan Feng's and Yingxing's eyes, Jing Yuan couldn't help saying, "This definitely won't work."

Yingxing said stiffly, "Should we try a different search term?"

Enlightenment struck Dan Feng, and he tapped at his Jade Abacus to search for "men pursuing women."

Jing Yuan: "..."

Once his master learned about this matchmaking effort that everyone but her knew about, she would surely be so furious that she'd beat all three of them up.

But even if it meant a beating, they had to try.

Just as Dan Feng had said, Jingliu wouldn't take the initiative.

As the Sword Champion, she had seen plenty of Xianzhou natives become mara-struck and lose all recognition of their loved ones.

After taking Jing Yuan as her disciple, she had taught him swordsmanship without holding anything back, yet always maintained a certain distance.

He hadn't understood why until he heard what Jingliu said while teaching him to slay the mara-struck. Only then had he fully understood.

The Sword Champion, so powerful in the eyes of others, had a tender side too. Perhaps she kept her distance so that, in the future... she could answer with her sword more decisively.

If she was like this even with her disciple, then with someone closer still... she would probably only act even colder.

Jing Yuan knew full well that his master would never take that first step.

But the person his master had fallen for... how should he put it...

It wasn't that Xianyu was bad. It was just that, in certain respects, his master and Xianyu were far too similar. Neither was someone others could easily get close to.

More importantly, what was he supposed to call him in the future? Master's husband?

Jing Yuan: pained face.jpg

Before he had much time to fall apart, something even more devastating happened.

Xianyu messaged him, saying that his master was really impressive.

Jing Yuan: Does he mean what I think he means... Is this something a Xianzhou native under two hundred should be hearing about?

Only after Xianyu sent a few more messages did Jing Yuan learn what had happened. He was dumbfounded.

That was his master, all right.

Feeling helpless, Jing Yuan said, "After getting drunk, Master practiced swordsmanship with Xianyu for three hours."

Yingxing exclaimed, "That place's liquor really packs a delayed punch!"

Dan Feng looked thoughtful:

"To last three hours against Jingliu... I wonder which of them is better. Jing Yuan, I'd like to spar with him. Could you ask him for me?"

Jing Yuan stared darkly at Yingxing and Dan Feng.

Yingxing quietly deleted the "women pursuing men" guide he'd recorded on his Jade Abacus.

Seeing this, Dan Feng immediately returned to the matter at hand and buried himself in the forums again.

The three burned the midnight oil for quite a while, yet still couldn't come up with a suitable plan for Jingliu. The two men, both more stubborn than steel plates, refused to admit defeat, taking turns revising the guide until it was unrecognizable.

Looking at the phrases Yingxing had recorded, such as "throw Strales at the problem," "play the hero and rescue the beauty," "show off swordsmanship," and "give flowers," Jing Yuan said, "..."

What a thoroughly satisfying assist.