Child of Light

I snappily glared at him. “That was to stop her from worrying. You don’t even understand something this logical?”

Ma Ke and Si Wa speechlessly stared at me. I asked, “Why are you two looking at me like this? Do you find me that handsome?”

Ma Ke didn’t mind my teasing and said resolutely, “Boss, I will go with you to the Dragon Valley.”

Ma Ke’s will and spirit had greatly touched me. I changed my expression from a teasing appearance to a serious one before replying earnestly, “Do you think I am going to play? In this world, the strongest creatures are the dragons. If something goes wrong, it would not be likely we would be able to return. How can I let you risk your life with me?”

Ma Ke said determinedly, “I want to go with you because it’s dangerous. We are brothers. We should help each other out during difficult times.”

I shook my head and smiled while I replied, “My good brother! I understand your feelings but stop trying to convince me. I have already decided to go there by myself. During the previous competition, you almost died and I felt guilty about that for a long period of time. I definitely won’t allow you to risk your life with me. Moreover, you have Hai Yue now. It can’t be that you want her to worry about you, right?”

Once I mentioned Hai Yue, Ma Ke replied hesitantly, “Boss, I....”

I interrupted him and said, “That’s enough! I understand and I won’t treat you like a person that pays more attention to their lover than their friends. My decision is final.”

Ma Ke expressed gratitude in his eyes. Si Wa said from the side, “I am currently without any family or job. Let me go with you! It can’t be that you will reject my offer, right?”

I bitterly chuckled, “Big Brother Si Wa, even though we know each other for only a short time, I already know what kind of person you are. You also know what kind of person I am. You don’t need to say any further. I accept your good intentions but I should settle my own problems by myself.”

Si Wa shook his head. “Zhang Gong, I know that you are a sensitive person, but no matter what, I must go with you. The chances of our survival is better if we are in this together.”

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to move him so I didn’t say anything else. I gathered my belongings that night and secretly went to the Royal Intermediate Advanced Academy to bid my farewell to Teacher Di. After that, I walked solitarily on my path to find the Dragon Valley. What I didn’t know was that when I sneaked away, not only did I manage to avoid Si Wa, but I had also been able to slip past Hai Shui who had planned on following me.

The Sky Province was about 800 kilometres from my position. After looking through the map in detail, I chose a path that seemed easier to walk on. Anyway, I had a lot of time as the vacation had just started. The people staying at the academy should soon find out that I had left. I slowly walked on my chosen path and in two days, I had traveled only 100 kilometres.

As it neared noon, my stomach began protesting. Right in front of me, there was a small town. I decided that I would look there for any good food to console the five viscera of my meridian channels; it would be bad if they went on strike.

After walking into the small town, it could be said that it was a big village that was surrounded by walls. This place was not as big as the Royal Intermediate Magic Academy. Even though the town was not large, it was unexpectedly flourishing. Different sellers that were peddlers for life hawked their wares with all their might.

After asking a random passerby, I found out that this place was indeed a village. Since it’s location was beside the official road, there were a lot of people that walked through the town, giving liveliness to the town. After many years of evolution, it gradually became what it is today. In other words, this could be counted as a traffic hub.

After I found a diner that appeared quite clean, I filled my stomach and rented an ordinary room. The sights of this town had lifted my mood so I decided to stay for the night and continue on my journey the next day’s morning.

I wandered through the main streets of the small town, admiring the local conditions and customs. I occasionally bought the specialties of the town and tossed it into my spatial space, preparing to give them to my friends after heading back.

As I walked, there were a lot of lively people making a racket in front of me. There was a very large crowd. I wondered what had happened and pulled a petite young man who was preparing to squeeze through the crowd and asked, “What has happened to garner such a large crowd?”

The petite young man shoved my hands away and anxiously said, “Stop pulling me! I need to head there quickly. If not, I won’t be able to make it!” After saying that, he immediately squeezed through the crowd.

I was stunned as I wondered what had happened for him to be in such a rush.

A peddler at the side laughed and said, “With his morality and conduct, he wants to be the town chief’s son in law? Haha, what a joke!”

I hastily asked, “What about being the town chief’s son in law? Big brother, can you please tell me what is going on?”

The peddler laughed, “Brother, you must be an outsider.”

I nodded. “That’s right! I am not from here.”

The peddler replied, “Even though this place looks like a city, it is actually just a flourishing village. The town chief was the original village head. No, that’s not the village head. It is the town head, he is helping his daughter find a good home and planned something about a magic competition for one to take her as their wife as a reward, this attracted a lot of people to come.”

“A magic competition to find a groom? This is quite uncommon to me. Is the daughter of the town’s head not good looking? Why did they want to have such a magic competition to get a groom?” I laughed as I said.

The peddler laughed and said, “What’s new about that? The competition has been on for six days already. There isn’t any outcome yet. Talking about the daughter of the town’s head, she is really a beauty but just a little shrewish. Our Kingdom of Aixia mostly respects those who are experts in using magic. The town chief obviously wanted to strengthen his status so he came up with a plan and prepared the competition to gather strong magicians to compete and become his son in law as his facade.”

So it was like that, it seemed rather fun. I asked, “Are there any rules to it?”

The peddler said, “Of course there is. If there are no rules, nothing can be done to get the groom. How about you look at the large red paper over there? You should take a look yourself.”

After thanking the peddler, I walked over and saw that the red paper noted, “The conditions to participate in the competition.

1: Age must be 25 and below and must be a bachelor.

2: You must not have any disabled body parts.

3: You can’t kill anyone during the competition.

4: This competition only invites magicians. For those who are warriors, please don’t enter the competition.

5: The competitors just need to defeat my daughter, rather than defeating all of their opponents to be my son in law.”

‘These are quite easy terms. This does not look complicated at all. Why is it that after six days, there still hasn’t been any outcome?’ Curiosity made me squeeze through the crowd to find out the reason.