[Dou Fang Hai didn't bother about the person next to him any longer and instead squatted down to try and draw a circle. Unfortunately, the square in front of the sect master's palace was constructed out of big stone slabs and he didn't have anything to draw with anyway. Now, what was he supposed to do? Would they have to go somewhere else to compete?
Seeing his little disciple looking at the ground in puzzlement Ziju An stood up and slowly descended the steps. He crouched down next to Dou Fang Hai, his white robe flowing onto the ground like water, his white hair sparkling in the sunlight. The other children waiting on the square couldn't help but gape.
"Wah, so pretty!"
Dou Fang Hai deigned to look away from the pretty person in front of him on account of the fact that most of these children were also boys. He glared at them in the hope of making clear that this was his wife already and that they should stop looking at her like that! Unfortunately, the children didn't even notice him. They were completely absorbed in watching Ziju An.
Truth be told, all cultivators were beautiful people. Please, just look at that stand with the sect master and all the elders! One was prettier than the other and they became even more beautiful with every row you looked further up. Disregarding his quirky personality the sect master of the Jin Shan Sect was certainly someone who deserved to be described as a beauty that could topple a kingdom.
But even the sect master's beauty faded next to Ziju An. As the one who had attained the honorary title of Grandmaster of their sect Ziju An's strength could be seen with just a glance.
Naturally, this bunch of children wouldn't be able to take their eyes off him. It might not have been so bad back up on the stand where he was further away and surrounded by lots of other beautiful people but now that he had stepped down and was only a few meters away from them they really couldn't hold back their admiration. Especially now that this beautiful person was smiling so gently!
This obviously wasn't just a mere mortal. This had to be a fairy that had descended from the Ninth Heaven and blessed them with her presence! They really wanted to get closer to the fairy and take a better look at her. Just why were these two boys barring their way?!
Seeing the other children eying his wife like this Dou Fang Hai became angry. What were they thinking?! That was his wife! At the same time, he was still happy that his wife had come down. He decided that this was much more important than the others watching. As long as his wife was with him he could make sure that nobody else would take her away!
He hurriedly reached out and grabbed Ziju An's hands again. "Wife ..." Seeing Ziju An's beautiful pair of slightly raised eyebrows Dou Fang Hai smiled apologetically. "Pretty sister!"
Ziju An just ignored this address. He would find an opportunity to break the boy out of this habit later on. "What kind of circle do you want?"
Dou Fang Hai blinked. "A round one." What other kind of circle was there?
Ziju An looked at his disciple and wondered whether or not he should ask another question. In the end, he only lifted his hand and used his spiritual energy to draw a small circle on the ground. "Is this one alright?"
Dou Fang Hai bent over the glowing white circle and his eyes widened. He looked up again and took Ziju An's hand, examining the long fingers and that pale skin. Both seemed completely normal. Well, really pretty but otherwise normal. How had his wife done this? How was she able to draw a circle with just her fingers? And she hadn't even touched the ground for it! This was too mysterious!
Ziju An smiled. "Xiao Fang, is the circle alright like this?"
Dou Fang Hai nodded. "Mn! But we need another two!"
Ziju An nodded and with some more instructions he finally drew another two circles around the first one, both quite a bit bigger than the one from before.
"Is that everything you need?"
Dou Fang Hai shook his head. "Now we need three stones each! It's best if they look really different!"
Ziju An nodded again and took something out of his spatial ring. Dou Fang Hai happily took the six 'stones' but up on the stand with the seats, the sect master clutched his chest.
"Senior Martial Brother! What is that? Spirit bone pearls from the deep sea and thunderstones from the cloud reach mountain? Please, if you're too wealthy give some of it to the sect but don't just casually hand them to your disciple to play! Just give him some pebbles!" This time he really wanted to cry! How could his senior martial brother be like this? Those things were valuable, ah!
Despite the sect master's protests, Ziju An handed his treasures to his disciple. Even if pebbles might have sufficed ... He didn't have any. So what else could he do? He didn't mind anyway. This was his own cute disciple, after all. Why shouldn't he give him some treasures?
Seeing how the Grandmaster casually took out something so valuable Jin Bao Fu felt even more indignant that this other boy had managed to become his disciple before he even had a chance to meet him. He snatched the three thunderstones from Dou Fang Hai and lifted his chin. "So? How do we compete now?"
Dou Fang Hai reluctantly turned his back toward Ziju An and pointed at the circles for Jin Bao Fu. "Now we throw the stones. The outer circle counts as one point, the middle one as two and the small one in the center as three points. We'll play three rounds and the one with the most points wins!"
Jin Bao Fu blinked. "What? You want us to throw stones into the circles?"
Dou Fang Hai nodded earnestly.
"What kind of shitty competition is this?!"
Needless to say, the prince was everything else than happy with this kind of competition. How was he supposed to show the Grandmaster that he would be the better disciple through throwing stones? Little did he know that Grandmaster Ziju didn't care about the result of the competition at all. To him, whether his disciple won or lost he would always be the best disciple.]