Ye Ao remained tongue-tied for a while before he came back to his senses. He quickly straightened the collar of his coat and coughed twice in his fist.
"Ahem... Miss Xiao, please wait here. I have something to discuss privately with this son of mine."
Xiao Yunluo cupped her hands and responded blankly. "Ah... I understand, go ahead."
Ye Ao glanced at Kong Yulan and asked her to serve the finest tea. Then, he got up, walked to Ye Anping, and grabbed his arm, dragging him out of the pavilion.
After moving far enough that Xiao Yunluo wouldn't hear them, Ye Ao looked at Ye Anping with a horrified expression.He now had many questions in his mind that he wanted to ask his son, but he didn't know where to start. After a while, he managed to get out a sentence. "Why did you bring the daughter of the Immortal Matriarch here?!"
Ye Anping had already expected his father's reaction, so he just sighed and replied, "She has something to do here, I just showed her the way. Why did you think I brought her?"
"Is there something wrong?" Ye Ao was confused, and after thinking for a while, his eyes widened. "Could it be that... you got into some big trouble?"
Ye Anping looked at him with disdain. "... Father, am I that troublesome to you?"
"That girl came to our lousy sect in person. If you haven't provoked her and made her come here to accuse you, why else would she come?"
"Dad, am I so worthless in your eyes? Haven't you thought the Immortal Matriarch might want to give me her daughter as a cultivation partner?"
Hearing this, Ye Ao suddenly took a sharp breath and hastily reached out to cover his mouth."Hey-- Anping, you can't say this nonsense. Don't you know that the Immortal Matriarch is not an ordinary *Void Returning* cultivator, she is one of the five Great Immortal Families..."
Ye Anping pushed his hand away. "I know... "
"You know and still dare to bring her home, eh?"
"..." Ye Anping was speechless. "As I said, she came here with business..."
Ye Ao interrupted. "As your father, I have never interfered in your affairs before, but this girl, Xiao, is really bad news. Where is Miss Feng from before? Wasn't she pretty good?"
Ye Anping's eyes darkened. "To be honest, not really..."
Ye Ao shook his head and warned him again. "Anyway, you mustn't have any thoughts about that girl. Didn't you yourself tell me last time that you can't aim too high? Have you forgotten?"
"But I didn't say I wanted her to be my cultivation partner," Ye Anping shrugged and said. "It's you who are thinking nonsense here. She just came to deliver a letter and, by the way, to use our Spirit Gathering Array for her *Foundation Building* practice."
"What? Deliver a letter?" Ye Ao looked confused. "Why would a young lady like her run such errands?"
"You'll know once you look at the letter she brought."
Ye Ao was silent for a while, then raised his eyebrows and asked once again, "So... Are you really in trouble?"
"No... how did it come to this again?"
Truth was, his old man always had a small-potato-like mentality and no great ambition. Ye Anping rolled his eyes at him and sighed in his heart.
He didn't want to talk to his father about it anymore, so he changed the subject after some thought. "Dad, do you know if our ***Hundred Lotus*** Sect has a good relationship with the ***Dragon House***?"
"***Dragon House***?" Ye Ao didn't know why he suddenly mentioned the ***Dragon House***, and with a confused face, he asked back, "What, you want to go to the ***Dragon House***? Why didn't you properly stay in the ***Black Star*** Sect instead?"
Ye Anping smiled slightly and said, "I'm curious about this kind of place where immortals and commoners meet. So, does the ***Hundred Lotus*** Sect have any friendship with them?"
"Well... not exactly."
"Then, could you take advantage of my *Foundation Building* time to think of a way to get two invitations to next year's Dragons' Convention?"
"What? You're going to the Dragons' Convention? With your cultivation level?" Ye Ao looked at him strangely, feeling that his son was too mysterious. "And two? Who are you going with?"
"Sister Pei."
"Little Pei..." Ye Ao looked around and asked, "By the way, why didn't she come back with you?"
"Sister is practicing her *Foundation Building* in the ***Black Star*** Sect."
"Ah, so." Ye Ao nodded. "All right, it's a good way to gain experience."
"Thanks, Dad." Ye Anping cupped his hands and grinned. "I'll ask the Immortal Matriarch to come to drink tea and play chess with you one day."
Ye Ao rolled his eyes at him. "If you have the ability, call her here. If you do that, I'll call you Father instead, okay?!"
"..."
Ye Anping shook his head and smiled, then walked back to the *Heavenly Pavilion*. When he reached there, he saw Xiao Yunluo sitting next to his mother and blushing as his mother looked at her with a motherly smile.
He didn't have to think too hard to guess what they had just talked about.
[*"Miss Xiao, do you like my son, Anping?"*
*"?!"*
*Before the dumbfounded Xiao Yunluo could speak, Kong Yulan nodded in understanding.*
*"With such a strong reaction, you must like him. Miss Xiao, you see, our Ping is very nice. And very handsome too."*
*"You... Mrs. Ye, what are you saying..."*]
And so on...
Ye Ao also came inside at this moment.
Assuming what he thought to be the attitude of an elder, he puffed out his chest and looked at Xiao Yunluo, asking, "Miss Xiao, I wonder what is the purpose of your visit to my ***Hundred Lotus*** Sect?"
Xiao Yunluo hurriedly stood up, took out the letter from her storage bag, and handed it over with both hands.
"Ah... I received the order from Elder Qi of the ***Black Star*** Sect to deliver this letter to you, Patriarch Ye."
"Well, thank you for your trouble."
Ye Ao nodded wisely, took the letter, and scanned it with his spiritual sense.
In an instant, the 'wise elder' look disappeared, and his eyes almost popped out.
"What? Miss... Miss Xiao, is this for real?"
"Err..." Xiao Yunluo shrank her neck and quickly replied, "I don't know the contents of the letter, so I'm afraid you'll have to make your own decision, Patriarch Ye."
"..."
Ye Ao swallowed and glanced at Ye Anping, who was standing beside him. After a moment of silence, he told him, "Anping, take Miss Xiao to rest, you guys should be tired from the road."
"Understood." Ye Anping glanced at the letter in his hand, then sighed and motioned to Xiao Yunluo. "Sister Xiao, follow me."
"Oh... okay."
Xiao Yunluo nodded shyly, then bowed to Ye Ao and Kong Yulan and followed him.
After the two left the pavilion, Ye Ao went to close the door, sat back at the desk, and looked worriedly at the letter he held.
"Old man, what's wrong? What does it say?"
"There are two things. The first is that the ***Black Star*** Sect has given us the spirit stone mine in the **Dragon Cloud Valley** to manage. The second is that they require Anping to be Miss Xiao's companion."
"Isn't that good?" Kong Yulan raised her eyebrows. "I happened to ask just now, and that girl clearly has a crush on our Ping. She has a good temperament and good looks, although she is rather short."
Ye Ao looked at her speechlessly. "Yulan, that is the daughter of the Immortal Matriarch!!"
"Doesn't that prove how good our Ping is? He actually attracted the attention of that old devil, and she even arranged for him to be her only daughter's companion... My Ping is much more promising than you, his father."
"..."
"I remember that when you were fifteen, you were chased by two dogs and stayed in a tree for three days and three nights until my mother came to rescue you. Now, look at Anping, who is also fifteen, isn't the gap too big?"
Ye Ao was taken aback, but then suddenly asked, "Say, Yulan, why did you agree to become my cultivation partner in the first place?"
Kong Yulan looked at him speechlessly. Then, after a brief hesitation, she finally said, "You looked good, and you were also quite simple and honest."
Ye Ao raised his eyebrows. "Wasn't it because, at that time, you had an uncanny strength and weighed two hundred pounds, and no one was willing to be your cultivation partner? Although you have slimmed down and look like a fairy now..."
Swish---
A light flashed, and a whip appeared in Kong Yulan's hand.
