Before coming into the Rose Garden, Ash Wood visited the residence of the Yun Clan first to inquire about Yun Yi’s condition. He was his partner in the Golden Dragon Election after all. He owed a lot to him. He would admit to himself that had he not cooperated with Yun Yi, he might not have gotten a third place at all. It was possible that he might not even get into the top ten just like the leader of the titans, the supreme, and the atlantean.

Ash Wood knew that the titan and the supreme were strong from what he had seen in their earlier performances. He reckoned that he was more or less their equal. Yet as his equals, those two didn’t even get into the top ten. As for the atlantean, she was a mystery to him. She didn’t really give him much impression in the first four stages unlike the titan and the supreme so he really didn’t know how she would fare against him.

Right after exchanging some pleasantries with Yun Ling and Yu Shan, Ash Wood looked at Yun Yi from the corner of his eyes.

When he went to the Yun Clan earlier to visit him, Yun Yi was resting and didn’t plan on going. However, after they talked to each other, Yun Yi suddenly decided to come with him to the Rose Garden.

They might have fought together side by side in the last stage of the Golden Dragon Election but just as he had expected, he really couldn’t understand what was going on inside Yun Yi’s mind at all.

“What?” Yun Yi raised a brow and asked when he noticed Ash Wood looking at him.

“I was just thinking that I really couldn’t understand you no matter how much I tried to,” he said.

Yun Yi just smiled at him.

“That’s understandable. We barely know each other, after all. Even the people who had been with me for several years couldn’t… how much you?” he said with a sigh. Then, he looked at Yun Ling. “The only one who knows me the best isn’t my father or mother… it is my young master.”

Ash Wood raised a brow at him.

“Have you guys already made up?” he asked since he heard Yun Yi refer to Yun Ling as young master and not by his name anymore.

“No…” Yun Yi said lightly. His matter with Yun Ling wasn’t done yet since there was still his and the fourth prince’s plan against him. And he really didn’t intend on giving up on his plan even after the discussion he had with Yun Ling when the latter visited him in his room several days after the Golden Dragon Election.

Ash Wood rolled his eyes at him.

He really couldn’t understand him at all.

…

While Yun Yi and Ash Wood were talking to each other, Yun Ling and Yu Shan found the crown prince and went towards him.

“Looking busy, aren’t we?” Yu Shan asked the crown prince who was accompanied by his two personal guards who were covered in a dark, full plated metal armor.

“Yu Shan, Yun Ling… the two of you are already here,” the crown prince said tiredly. “Haah right… I’ve been busy these past few days because of the matter of the Thousand Mountain Valley doing some errands here and there.”

Yun Ling and Yu Shan looked at him sympathetically.

The two also had some responsibilities within their clan but that was probably nowhere near the responsibilities that the crown prince had since he was someone next in line to the throne. The job of the emperor wasn’t an easy one. Managing an empire was already stressful enough, add to that playing mind games with everyone in the imperial court. It was a position that no incapable man should take on.

As Yun Ling and Yu Shan were talking with the crown prince, Yun Ling noticed three individuals coming towards them.

It was Luo Yutong along with two of the more than a dozen companions he had in the Golden Dragon Election.

Yun Ling, Yu Shan, and the crown prince might have easily defeated Luo Yutong and his companions but they still managed to get into the top ten since all the other participants have been eliminated.

“Yun Ling…” Luo Yutong muttered with a distasteful tone. “Yu Shan, and Crown Prince… I haven’t forgotten what you did to me in the competition.”

“It was a competition. What were we supposed to do? Just stand there and wait for you to eliminate us?” Yu Shan said with a frown.

“Indeed, it was a competition. But even if it was, I couldn’t help but take it personally,” Luo Yutong said while his two companions nodded their heads.

Yu Shan and the crown prince frowned while Yun Ling merely rolled his eyes at him.

Luo Yutong’s pettiness was as great as ever. This guy really never learned his lessons no matter how many times Yun Ling beat him up. He would always stand up and keep challenging him without fear even if he was outclassed.

Yun Ling didn’t really know if he should admire him for that or not.

No.

Luo Yutong was just being a fool.

Anyway, with Luo Yutong and his companion’s arrival, the top ten of the Golden Dragon Election had now arrived.

The winner of the Golden Dragon Election, Yun Yi.

The second place was Yun Ling.

The third placer was Ash Wood. Yun Yi’s partner in the last stage of the Golden Dragon Election.

Fourth place was none other than the crown prince, Jin Zhen.

Fifth place was Yu Shan. He might be in fifth place but he was only behind the crown prince by less than a second.

The one who got sixth place was Oliver Lorenzi. One of the crown prince’s two personal guards.

The seventh placer was Leo Lorenzi. He was also one of the crown prince’s two personal guards.

Eighth place was Luo Yutong.

Then the ninth place was Jing Man followed right after by He Yin who was in the tenth place. Both of them were one of Luo Yutong’s twenty companions in the Golden Dragon Election.

That makes all participants in the top ten of the Golden Dragon Election present.

Several minutes after that, the other Sacred Kings who had not arrived yet had finally come. Then after them was the emperor.

When the emperor arrived, the meeting immediately started.