In the garden, Li Luo tugged Jiang Qing'e until she sat down with him, and he recounted what had happened in the Golden Dragon Dao Fields.

"So Lin Suo was not targeting you, but Lu Qing'er..."

She was surprised as well. Perhaps they had been too paranoid—they were clearly not the only ones with enemies.

"But Lu Qing'er is really lucky... you guys really lucked out on many fronts inside there," Jiang Qing'e pointed out observantly.

Li Luo nodded. He could sense that Lu Qing'er had hidden things from them. Perhaps she had guessed something, but if she was not ready to share, Li Luo was not planning to ask. Everyone had their own secrets to hide.

He had also heard before that the dao-gold cultivation breakthrough was only supposed to be a minor boost, and even a token improvement for the unlucky ones. A single breakthrough was considered very good. And they had each enjoyed a received breakthrough...

"Well, the Golden Dragon Dao Fields are controlled by the Golden Dragon Bank's headquarters, or perhaps one of their important people. They might not be able to intervene blatantly, but it would be all too easy to fiddle and tweak. Like the three gilded white-eyes—it would be foolish to think that there was no one behind that."

Li Luo nodded. "Seems like Qing'er has friends in high places."

"Or perhaps it's something to do with her father, who's rarely seen at the Xia Kingdom."

"Qing'er's father?" Li Luo repeated. "You're right, I've never seen him before. Is he not from the Xia Kingdom? Hey, President Lu from Tianshu's Golden Dragon Bank isn't actually her uncle, is he?" he noted with a sudden jolt.

"I hear that things were complicated back then. The version I heard was that Yu Hongxi was interested in your father, but he got together with your mother. Yu Hongxi's pride made her leave the Xia Kingdom. When she returned, she was already with a young child—Lu Qing'er. President Lu came along with her as well. Of course, the rumors were that President Lu was Lu Qing'er's father, but later those whispers died away. Neither Yu Hongxi nor President Lu treat each other in intimate ways," Jiang Qing'e recounted.

Li Luo pursed his lips thoughtfully. So the last generation had quite a happening time as well, didn't they? Even a strong woman like Yu Hongxi had her soft spots. His dad must have been a real lady-killer.

"Lu Qing'er wouldn't be my sister, would she?" Li Luo suddenly blurted in a big-brain moment. "D'you think Yu Hongxi ran away with my dad for a tryst?" 

"It's not completely out of the question," Jiang Qing'e said with a wary look. "If that's really the case, he is in trouble. Your mother would beat him to death."

Li Luo shivered. His mother had a scary side to her.

"Well, I treat all of the above as hearsay. But I think that the events in the Golden Dragon Dao Fields had something to do with Lu Qing'er's father. Perhaps he's highly placed in the Golden Dragon Bank? And Lin Suo might have been sent by her father's enemies. But as to the depth and purpose of this attack, it's hard to tell without more information. Definitely a question for Yu Hongxi, and not us, to ponder," Jiang Qing'e said.

"Why would Qing'er's father remain far away from the Xia Kingdom for so many years? I heard that she hasn't even seen him herself for years," Li Luo mused. 

"Everyone has skeletons in the closet. Why care about it so much? Or..." Jiang Qing'e looked over at an excited Li Luo. "Are you interested for other reasons?"

"I'm just concerned for a friend!" Li Luo said, alarmed.

Jiang Qing'e smiled and changed the topic. "I heard from Cai Wei that you asked her to look for a twin shortsword-type gold-eye treasured artifact."

Li Luo nodded. "My last pair was broken in the Golden Dragon Dao Fields. Normal resonant artifacts won't cut it for me now, so of course I need treasured artifacts. Gold-eye treasured artifacts would be ideal, but if not, I could settle for an upper white-eye or gilded white-eye."

"With enough money, upper white-eyes and even gilded white-eyes should be readily available. There should be a decent selection from which you can choose. But gold-eyes are rare. Even within the Golden Dragon Bank, they might handle less than 10 in a year. And narrowing it down further to twin shortswords will make it even rarer."

Even in House Luolan, gold-eye treasured artifacts were rare. The Imperial Fortress Sword she was currently using was one of them. It was left to her as a present from her two mentors when she had enrolled in the Astral Sage College. By the time Li Luo entered school, they had already disappeared, and so there was no such present for him.

Jiang Qing'e felt a sudden desire to spoil Li Luo a little.

"Twin sword gold-eye treasured artifacts are hard to find even within the Golden Dragon Bank, but if you really want them, there's a place where you can choose as you wish. And more importantly... you can get it for free," Jiang Qing'e finally said.

Li Luo stared at her in shock. Could there be such a good thing in this world? The whole world knew that Li Luo's favorite word in the world was “free!”

"Which imbecile would happily let me walk away with a gold-eye treasured artifact?" Li Luo asked.

Jiang Qing'e smiled sweetly at him. "The treasure vault of the Astral Sage College."

Li Luo stared at her, agog. "You're asking me to rob the vault of the Astral Sage College?! I, er, am not unwilling, but I don't think I have the skill." 

"You really have no boundaries." She rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe he had actually considered it for a moment.

"How would the school give me a gold-eye treasured artifact for free? They're no charity," Li Luo asked impatiently.

"Normally not a charity, no. The school's treasure vaults are seldom thrown wide open to students, except for some special occasions... Remember the Holy Grail Meet?"

Li Luo nodded. Of course he did. Plus, Principal Pang Qianyuan had left him a super-difficult mission as well. Li Luo still had no idea how he was going to accomplish it.

"The Holy Grail Meet... let's just say that the school views it much more seriously than you can imagine.

"There are still more than two months until the Holy Grail Meet. In the month that you were away at the Golden Dragon Dao Fields, the school started extra training. There'll also be special training for the Violet Vibrance squads.

"In the next month, the special training will only intensify. It's best if you don't skip those.

"After every month of special training, the Astral Sage College will invite some of the neighboring schools for sparring matches. The scrimming helps us get a sense of where they stand, and also it's good practice.

"Don't treat the scrims lightly—the Astral Sage College's reputation is at stake. And we're hosting. If the hosts lose badly with home ground advantage, it's going to be pretty bad for both school reputation and individual morale."

Jiang Qing'e was looking very serious now. "In order to encourage the students to fight hard for glory, whoever can do well and uphold the reputation will be allowed a free gold-eye treasured artifact from the school treasure vaults as a reward."

Li Luo sat up so straight you could use his back as a ruler.

"Sister Qing'e, I've decided to forgo those things you call ‘meals’ from now on. I'm off for special training!

"For the glory of the school! It is the duty of this humble student to fight for it!"