by Dragon King
“I know! So annoying!” She rolled her eyes at him because she didn’t think of herself as spoiled at all.
The vehicle got on the highway.
Hao Ren drove for a while before he finally asked, “What’s that West Ocean’s Crown Prince’s name?”
“Told you not to speak of him!” Zhao Yanzi was not happy, but she still answered, “Zeng Yitao!”
Hao Ren secretly memorized the name; he knew that this guy wasn’t a good one.
“Do you… Do you have a marriage agreement with him?” Hao Ren asked again.
“Pttf! We never agreed! They were the ones who came up with it on their own, and my dad never agreed to it!” she said.
Hao Ren knew that West Ocean must have proposed a few times, and Zhao Guang rejected using the excuse of Zhao Yanzi’s age.
However, East Ocean suddenly found Zhao Yanzi a fiancé without telling them, and it made West Ocean Dragon Clan furious.
“This is probably why Zhao Guang fought against all pressure and made me, a human, into Zhao Yanzi’s Fuma,” Hao Ren thought.
The road trip on the highway was very boring, and Zhao Yanzi slowly fell asleep. She was busy the day before and didn’t get to sleep well at night. It was normal for her to get sleepy today.
Hao Ren tried his best to drive as smooth as possible.
Sometimes, he felt sorry for her because although everyone catered to her needs as the princess of East Ocean Dragon Palace, she didn’t have much freedom.
Zhao Guang and Zhao Hongyu probably decided to let her grow up on land to make her happier.
The three-hour-drive took them to the small. The bumpy road woke Zhao Yanzi up from her dream, and she rubbed her eyes and looked outside.
The simple houses surprised her. “Ah? This is it?”
She grew up in the city and would see luxurious palaces if she went to the Dragon Palace. Even when she went on a trip to the GreenStone Mountain, she lived in the best hotel at the foot of the mountain. When did she ever live in a ‘village’ like this?
Hao Ren ignored her because they were already at the destination. Even if Zhao Yanzi protested and screamed, nothing could be done.
The vehicle drove into the yard, and Grandma, who was sunbathing, saw Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi getting out of the black car.
She walked over, surprised. “How come… You are here?”
“Grandma!” Zhao Yanzi ran over to her and greeted in her sweet voice.
“Oh! How come you didn’t tell me that you have such a pretty granddaughter!” that old grandma, Grandma’s good friend, smiled as she also walked over with a fan in her hand.
“Grandma…” Zhao Yanzi greeted her as well.
“Such a pretty little granddaughter…” the old grandma walked around Zhao Yanzi and said.
“This is not my granddaughter. She is my…” Grandma was about to explain.
Zhao Yanzi blushed as she called out, “Grandma!”
Grandma changed up what she was about to say, “Hehe, our little Zi is shy!”
The old grandma didn’t think much. She rubbed her head and said, “Today is Saturday, and all my sons who work in the towns nearby are back. There is only one empty room, and we don’t have enough blankets…”
174 Learn to Be Virtuous…
Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi wanted to surprise Grandma, so they didn’t notify her beforehand. Now, they were faced with the awkward situation which was beyond Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi’s expectation.
There was only one room, and there were only one bed and one set of blankets.
“We’ll deal with the accommodation situation later tonight,” Hao Ren said. He already had a plan for this one-room situation.
“If you need to be in different rooms, I’ll ask one of my sons to go back to town so that we can have another empty room,” the old grandma said.
“That’s not necessary. We’ll deal with it later tonight,” Hao Ren quickly rejected her suggestion; he didn’t want to cause them so much trouble.
Zhao Yanzi quietly turned to Hao Ren as she was worried, but she didn’t say anything.
“Now that you are here, let’s have lunch first!” Grandma held on to Zhao Yanzi’s hand and said brightly.
The people in the countryside had their lunch earlier than city people because they had to do farm work after lunch. Usually, they would have lunch before 11 o’clock.
After the three-hour-drive, they were just in time for lunch.
They wouldn’t prepare a lot of dishes in the countryside, and Zhao Yanzi was obviously not used to the light dishes they had. She filled herself up anyways with a little frowny expression.
“This girl is a little more spoiled than Yujia,” Grandma thought to herself as she watched Zhao Yanzi eat.
The old grandma’s family went to their farms and did manual rice transplanting after lunch. It was just in the busy season for farm work, so her sons came back to help on the weekends. Although the old grandma was quite old, she was experienced. Hao Ren’s grandma went into the field as well to help around. She didn’t think it was dirty at all. Instead, it brought back a lot of her memories.
Zhao Yanzi found it fun, so she went to help barefooted. She got exhausted after just transplanting less than a dozen rice plants in a few minutes, but Hao Ren finished two to three rows during that time.
Grandma smiled when she saw that they were having lots of fun on the other side of the field, playing and helping each other. Although the rice plants were a little crooked, she could foresee them growing up healthily. Suddenly, she realized the growth in Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi as well.
They worked until two in the afternoon, and everyone took a break. Zhao Yanzi lost interest in it and ran over to the creek to wash her feet. Then, she picked a big stone to sit on while she swayed her delicate legs up and down to air dry them.
The old grandma who was taking a break on the side of the field nudged Hao Ren’s grandma with her elbow. “That… That is not your granddaughter-in-law… Is it?”
Grandma smiled quietly as she narrowed her eyes.
“In the afternoon… Let’s do something else,” Zhao Yanzi walked to Hao Ren on the warm cobblestones and said.
“I told you it’s going to be boring here, yet you insisted on coming,” Hao Ren said absentmindedly as he wiped the dried mud off his feet.
“I’m here to see Grandma, and you are being mean to me!” Zhao Yanzi felt wronged.
Hao Ren looked at her speechlessly. “Alright, we’ll go look around in the afternoon.”
“Yes! Yes!” Zhao Yanzi put on her socks and shoes and was cheered up again.
Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi ‘escaped’ from the field after explaining to Grandma. They went into the village and wandered around.
Actually, there was only so much to see in the countryside, mostly were unpaved roads and housed made of bricks. However, Zhao Yanzi found it interesting whenever she saw chickens, ducks, cats, and dogs in people’s yards.
Sometimes chained up black dog would bark at her when she passed by, and she would get scared and hide behind Hao Ren.
Hao Ren thought to himself, “Hey… You are a dragon, but you are scared of a puppy?”
When they passed by a giant warehouse, Zhao Yanzi was curious about what was inside. She got on her tiptoes to look through the window.
When she saw sweet potatoes piled up in little hills inside, she was excited. “Hey! There are sweet potatoes inside!”
Her eyes brightened as if she hadn’t eaten in hundreds of years.
Hao Ren sighed lightly, “Ah… I’m not asking you to call me your husband, but at least you should call me by my name…”
He walked over to her and looked inside as well. “So what?”
“Baked sweet potatoes!” Her eyes shot out lights of excitement. There were usually middle-aged man and woman selling baked sweet potatoes in simple metal ovens by her school, and she had always wanted to bake one herself.
Hao Ren took her to the front of the warehouse to see if
they could get inside.
To their surprise, the iron gate was not locked at all. They lightly pushed it open and entered. Zhao Yanzi was extremely excited to see hills of sweet potatoes right in front of her. Regardless of the dirtiness of the sweet potatoes, she dashed over like a greedy thief and stuffed two into her pocket and a few more in her arms.
Seeing Hao Ren not moving, she called out, “What are you doing? Come to take some!”
Hao Ren put four or five in his arms reluctantly. He had done something like stealing sweet potatoes when he was little. In fact, he even went into other people’s fields to dig them out.
However, he never thought that he would be doing this again as a university student…
Zhao Yanzi couldn’t take anymore despite how much she wanted to. She got out of the warehouse reluctantly.
Just when they stepped out, a few farmers with garden hoes passed by and saw them sneaking out. They shouted out, “What are you doing?”
Zhao Yanzi ran away out of panic, and Hao Ren followed her without thinking.
The two of them, a tall guy and a short girl, hastily dashed onto the little road as the sweet potatoes rolled out of their arms. Premier Xia looked down from a low cloud and sweat came out of his forehead. “The princess of East Ocean Dragon Clan is stealing sweet potatoes with her fiancé…” he thought nervously.
Zhao Yanzi and Hao Ren ran out of the village and were relieved when they found that there was no one after them.
They counted the “stolen goods” and realized that most of them were gone. Hao Ren only had a couple in his arms while Zhao Yanzi had two in her pockets. Altogether, there were five of them.
Zhao Yanzi carried the sweet potatoes happily as if they were priceless treasures. Since Hao Ren had lived in the countryside before, he knew that the sweet potatoes didn’t worth much. Usually, a farmer was able to harvest more than half a warehouse in one season.
The farmers wouldn’t even care if Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi asked them for a dozen, and that was why the warehouse wasn’t even locked.
Hao Ren only ran away with Zhao Yanzi out of panic. But now, Hao Ren only found it funny seeing how thrilled and excited Zhao Yanzi was.
“Let’s bake them here!” Zhao Yanzi calmed herself down a little and suggested as she was satisfied with the surroundings.
They were outside the village and surrounded by a few little hills, which was perfect for blocking the wind. Hao Ren picked up some tree branches and created a little hole with his five-elemental sword energies. He put a sweet potato inside and covered it with the branches. Then, he lit it up with the fire-elemental sword energy.
He was only at Kan-level and had only mastered the first level of the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll. The five-elemental sword energies wouldn’t be able to harm an enemy. In terms of offensive power, they might not even be better than kitchen knives. However, they worked pretty well at trivial things like this.
Zhao Yanzi carried a stone over to sit beside the fire. She stared at the sweet potato, full of expectation.
“Can it be cooked properly?” she asked.
It was obvious that this was the first time she baked sweet potatoes. Hao Ren found himself a stone to sit on as well and said, “Of course! I’ve done it a lot when I was little.”
“Shouldn’t we be putting the sweet potato on top of the fire? Can it be cooked underneath?” Zhao Yanzi was still questioning his words.
“That would burn it. It wouldn’t be baking unless it’s underneath,” Hao Ren explained to her patiently. Zhao Yanzi had no interest in the five-elemental sword energies he just used, yet, she was so curious about baking sweet potatoes.
About 20 minutes later, Hao Ren released some water-elemental sword energies to extinguish the flame. He pocked around the ashes and took out a black sweet potato from underneath.
Zhao Yanzi didn’t care about the cleanliness and reached over to grab the sweet potato.
As soon as she had it in her hands, she realized how hot a freshly baked sweet potato was. She immediately started to blow on it and almost couldn’t hold it.
Even so, she didn’t want to let go of it. She switched it between her hands and revealed her greediness.
When the sweet potato cooled down a little, she couldn’t wait to peel it open. The tempting golden color of the inside demonstrated how well done it was.
Zhao Yanzi was probably afraid of Hao Ren stealing it from her, so she bit onto it with both hands holding it. However, the inner part was still a bit hot. She started to blow again as soon as she took a bite.
Hao Ren was speechless when he saw her silly look.
One sweet potato was not enough for her. She pointed at Hao Ren as she ate. “Bake another one! Bake another one!”
Hao Ren shook his head with a smile. He gathered more tree branches and put two sweet potatoes in the hole which was still warm. He kept adding branches into the flame to keep up the temperature.
Zhao Yanzi rubbed her belly in satisfaction after she had finished that sweet potato. She patted Hao Ren’s shoulder with her dirty hands. “Let me do it! Let me do it!”
From watching Hao Ren, she thought that baking sweet potato was a piece of cake. So, she decided to try it herself. Hao Ren noticed the two black stains left on the corners of her lips, but he chose not to tell her since she didn’t offer him any part of the baked sweet potato.
After adding branches into the flame for 20 minutes, Zhao Yanzi asked Hao Ren to extinguish the fire. He hastily took out the two sweet potatoes from the ashes only to find that they were already burned into coal-like black pieces.
Hao Ren looked at Zhao Yanzi, and she instantly blushed.
She didn’t think that the inside would be as burned as the outside. After peeling off the burned layers, there were still some edible parts inside.
“Here! This one’s for you!” She passed one to Hao Ren generously this time.
She was eating happily despite the black stains on her hands. Hao Ren smiled as he realized that Zhao Yanzi could be quite cute sometimes.
However, the sweet potato in his hand was basically burned completely. The edible part of it was only as big as his palm.
“Pay attention to your cultivation. Although having fun is important, cultivation is more important. It would be troublesome if you can’t defeat Zeng Yitao in the future.” Zhao Yanzi patted Hao Ren’s shoulder in encouragement after finishing up two sweet potatoes.
That… That sounded like a different version of Hao Ren’s encouragement to her regarding her studies…
175 Natal Dharma Treasure?
After eating the baked sweet potatoes, Zhao Yanzi was full. She placed the two remaining ones on the roadside for the lucky person who would walk by.
It was already about four in the afternoon. The cooking smokes were beginning to float up from the village homes, and the farmers who had been working in the fields all day were on their way back with their tools on their shoulders.
Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi also turned around and went back. Now with her belly full, Zhao Yanzi was energetic again, looking around interestedly. Some kids ran around her for a while before running away, singing. During all this time, she was oblivious to the black stains at the corners of her lips.
“That Zeng Yitao, what level is he on now?” Halfway across the village, Hao Ren asked Zhao Yanzi.
“I suppose he reached Zhen-level about a year or half a year ago,” Zhao Yanzi said distractedly.
“Zhen-level…” Hao Ren thought about it. It was equivalent to the Core Formation Realm for human cultivators. Although it was only two-levels higher than Kan-level, there was a drastic difference between them.
With the aid of the Dragon Core, it was quite easy for the dragons to reach Zhen-level. However, before a dragon could reach Zhen-level, his or her level would still be in the Foundation Establishment Realm. There was a huge difference between the two realms.
“Zhen-level is nothing special. I was once at Zhen-level,” Zhao Yanzi said.
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Hao Ren knew Zhao Yanzi’s Zhen-level was the result of elixirs. Judging from her lazy ways of doing her homework, Hao Ren would be surprised if she had reached Zhen-level on her own.
In contrast, as West Ocean’s Crown Prince whose grandfather was a top-tier master, Zeng Yitao should have reached Zhen-level on his own since he had to inherit the West Ocean Dragon Clan in the future.
“A cultivator of Kan-level would never defeat a cultivator of Zhen-level, right?” Hao Ren asked her.
“Of course not!” Zhao Yanzi turned to look at Hao Ren. “I think Zeng Yitao is quite powerful. Oldman Zeng of West Ocean taught him a Blue-grade technique which I think is called Three Stars Destruction Scroll.”
“It seems that Zeng Yitao indeed meant to marry her since he even told her his cultivation technique. Of course, he must have been trying to show off when he told her that,” Hao Ren thought.
“It is said that this technique would allow the cultivator to have three powerful Natal Dharma Treasures. However, he only has one Natal Dharma Treasure now, and I don’t know what kind of Dharma Treasure it is.” Zhao Yanzi told Hao Ren everything she knew about Zeng Yitao
In fact, she was worried that Zeng Yitao would ambush Hao Ren and challenge him while his cultivation level was still relatively low. Then, she thought about Hao Ren’s fight with Qin Shaoyang and admitted that it was quite a triumph.
If she had to choose between Zeng Yitao and Hao Ren, she would undoubtedly prefer Hao Ren. She had heard a lot of unsavory tales about Zeng Yitao, and she wondered how many more incidents she didn’t know about.
When Zhao Yanzi visited the Dragon Palace as a little girl, she just played pranks on the ordinary soldiers but never hurt them. However, Zeng Yitao had wounded and even crippled some West Ocean soldiers, and that was why the people in and out of the West Ocean Dragon Palace would flee at the sight of Zeng Yitao. After all, he was the Crown Prince who was spoiled by his grandfather who was mostly in seclusion cultivation and had not left the Dragon Palace for hundreds of years.
While they chatted, they walked toward that old grandma’s courtyard.