As someone who was extremely bad at directions and who was stuck in the forest for months, Shen Ying could not help but praise the worm who was beside her. “Good job, Long Worm!”

　　“It’s expected, expected!” The black dragon smiled humbly. The forest was not that big to begin with. “Exalted Goddess, what are your plans?”

　　“Er…” Shen Ying thought for awhile and glanced at the narrow path in front of her. “I’ll probably go and look around at the crowded places!” Chef should be looking for her. For all she knew, they might bump into each other. The key thing was… “Did you bring anything to eat?” She was not used to not having food to eat.

　　“Eat… Eat…. Eat what?” The black dragon trembled, thinking about the sea beast that was chopped into pieces previously. Its entire body drained of colour. “Exalted… Exalted Goddess, I underwent grain liberation from a very young age, so I…. I… don’t.”

　　“Oh.” Shen Ying looked disappointed. She turned around and scanned the black dragon from head to toe. As if discovering something, she said, “Long Worm, you…”

　　Boom!

　　Before Shen Ying could finish her sentence, the black dragon’s legs turned to jelly and it fell to its knees. It began to cry out, “Exalted Goddess! You can’t eat me… I still have to show you the directions. And my flesh tastes very horrible, really!”

　　“No, I-”

　　“Exalted Goddess, don’t forget that I used to be a demonic wyrm. I’m poisonous – you’ll definitely have the runs if you eat me.”

　　“Actually…”

　　“I know that you’re hungry, but I haven’t gotten a wife and given birth to little worms. I will not die in peace, Exalted Goddess…”

　　Shen Ying pursed her lips. What the hell was it talking about?

　　“I did not want to eat you!”

　　“Exalted Goddess, I’m not… Eh?” The black dragon paused and its tears ceased. It looked at her in disbelief. “You… did not?”

　　“Yes.” Shen Ying nodded. “I don’t know how to cook.” Chef is not around either.

　　The black dragon heaved a huge sigh of relief. It looked like it just escaped death. “That’s good, that’s good. Then what was Exalted Goddess saying earlier?”

　　Shen Ying squinted at him. “Oh, I just wanted to remind you to change your clothes.”

　　“Huh?” What does she mean?

　　“You… don’t know that there’s a huge hole in your robes?” Shen Ying pointed toward his back.

　　“Exalted Goddess, you must be joking.” The black dragon explained seriously, “My black robes was made completely out of dragon scales. It would not…” He touched his back lightly and realised that there was a colder spot. He paused mid-sentence.  ( Boxno vel. co m )

　　“Don’t you feel like it’s a little breezy around your ass?” It’s been exposed for half a day.

　　“…”

　　A while later…

　　Ah ah ah¬

　　A painful cry echoed throughout the space.

　　He forgot that his tail had been torn into half. He had been walking around the entire forest with his butt exposed.

　　His life was desolate…

　　——————

　　The dragon and the human walked side by side for about an hour. They made their way through the vast field and began to see other humans around. Each of them had frightening auras. The black dragon guessed that most of them were divine beings, based on the aura that they were emitting. Perhaps because they cast some kind of hiding spell on themselves, he could not detect their true forms.

　　They asked around, but did not manage to locate either Yi Qing or Lonemoon. So they continued heading toward the east. The more they walked, the more people they met. In about another hour, they found themselves flying with about ten other people around them. These people seemed to be heading in the same direction, but they were rushing. There were excited looks on their faces and they flew exceptionally quickly.

　　“This young gentleman.” Shen Ying flew closer to one man and waved.

　　The man paused and looked around, confused.

　　“Over here, over here!” Shen Ying quickly waved in front of his eyes and the man finally spotted her.

　　“Fellow Daoist, what’s the matter?”

　　“Where are you headed?” She asked casually, since she still could not find Yi Qing or Lonemoon.

　　“Eh? Don’t you know?” The man looked at her in shock. “We’re heading to the Ling Tai Mountain to participate in the Lotus Assembly. We’re going to listen to Supreme Divinity Hongyu preach on the open altar.”

　　“Supreme Divinity Hongyu?” Who’s that?

　　“The Supreme Divinity opens that arena once every thousand years. Each time, he opens it for three days!” The man explained excitedly. “The Supreme Divinity has exceptional powers. Everybody who listens to his preaching will experience a huge increase in their cultivation levels! That’s why everybody’s so anxious – they’re trying to rush over and get a good spot on the Ling Tai Mountain. I have come over here all the way from the north in order to catch this meeting.”

　　“Do a lot of people attend this Lotus Assembly?”

　　“Why, of course!” The man nodded furiously. “Everybody in the Divine Underworld wants some advice from the Supreme Divinity. The divine beings aside, even the wild spirits and beasts in the mountains would want to come down and be enlightened by him.”

　　“Oh…”

　　“Lady, I have to go now. If we’re too late, there will be too many people and I might not be able to squeeze up the mountain!”

　　“Thank you!”

　　“No worries.” He nodded kindly at her and sped up again toward the clouds.

　　“Exalted Goddess, do you want to go to that Lotus Assembly?” The black dragon looked at Shen Ying, who was seated atop the dragon’s neck.”

　　“Yes.” Shen Ying nodded. “There should be many people attending the open class.” It would be easier for her to stick up “Missing Person” notices as well.

　　“…” What was an open class? The black dragon dared not clarify this with her. It obediently sped up in the direction that the crowd was heading in.

　　The long worm flew extremely quickly. Moments later, they saw a huge mountain appear between the clouds and in the distance. It was very different from the towering Heavenly Palaces in the immortal realm. The entire mountain was covered in the different colours of the rainbow. It looked like it was emitting light and was exceptionally eye catching. Below the mountain, there were cloud seas that were ever flowing. Lotus flowers at the bottom formed a bridge that stretched out from the bottom of the mountain, leading to a huge lotus stage.

　　The lotus stage was extremely wide. On top of it stood many immortals and divine beings from all over the place. There were about a couple thousand of them. Each one of them had a bluish divine energy about them. Some were in their human forms but others were in their beast forms.

　　“So… So many divine beings!” The black dragon’s eyes widened. He scanned the crowd of divine beings in disbelief. This was the first time he saw so many divine beings gathered in one place. What was strange was that there were no dragons among them at all.

　　It was extremely crowded. Yet, despite the crowd, everything was very orderly. All the divine beings queued according to their time of arrival. Very quickly, a long line formed. There was no sign of conflict or of people jumping the queue. Instead, everybody looked very kind and amicable.

　　This really was the upper-class divine realm!

　　“Exalted Goddess?” The black dragon paused in mid-air, turning to look at Shen Ying quizzically.

　　“Let’s queue first!” She pointed below and the two of them landed right at the end of the line. “Long Worm, ask around.” She gestured at the people who landed behind them.

　　“Alright!” The black dragon immediately approached the various people queueing behind them to ask for Yi Qing’s and Lonemoon’s whereabouts.

　　However, nobody could offer any clues. They had no choice but to ask around inside. Yet, the line was advancing very quickly. In just a few minutes, they found themselves at the front of the line. It was only then that they realised there was an array surrounding the entire lotus stage. No one was guarding it. Beside them floated several blindingly golden words.

　　[The Ling Tai Dharma Assembly accepts all beings except dragons!]

　　Shen Ying: “…”

　　The black dragon: “…”

　　Why were they despising dragons? What did dragons do! It was obvious that the last two words were added only later on. It was in clearly smaller font than the other words!

　　[0] The Lotus Sutra is one of the more influential sutras in Buddhism.