Jason thought about the past in a melancholic mood and said to himself, "I just can't believe that the first time I met him, he was fighting some guy from a dojo."
"He was at the peak of the first mortal coil back then, and I even managed to enter the sect five years before him. But he went ahead and beat me to the fourth mortal coil. I can't believe that all of these happened in such a short amount of time."
Goldwyn chuckled and said, "Don't be so glum. I already knew that he was unreasonable after he beat my record in the fighting excellence performance test when he just entered the sect."
Jason nodded and added, "There was also that time that you tried to squeeze his hand and he squeezed yours instead, and you nearly cried in pain and would have cried if I didn't step in to rescue you."
Goldwyn's face fell when he heard that. But then he said with pride, "At least, I can say that I beat him at something. I beat him at a bet. What can you say you beat him at?"
Jason retorted with a snort, "I can also say that I have never been nearly publicly humiliated by him. Can you make that claim?"
The two of them began to argue. While they were doing this, another couple nearby was talking about Arthur.
This couple was Leroy and his lover, Princess. When Arthur had spoken to them and left, she said, "Didn't they say he just advanced to the fourth mortal coil a year ago? Why does he seem stronger than the first transformation of the golden core?"
Leroy didn't reply, so she continued speaking, "I have never seen golden core cultivators at the first transformation that are this strong, and I have seen many of them in my family. He must still be that abnormal and unreasonable guy who stole the inheritance from me."
As she was speaking, she noticed that Leroy's eyes were focused on where Arthur had gone in the ship. She also noticed that his eyes looked angry.
This made her ask with some worry in her tone, "Babe, what's the problem?"
That question made Leroy deflate in defeat. He tried to explain what was wrong, but he kept coming up short.
He didn't know how to explain how he was feeling. He didn't even know how to start describing his emotions.
When he finally figured out how to start, he said to her, "I'm just jealous."
She raised an eyebrow in surprise and said, "Really?"
He sighed and nodded. Then he explained why he was jealous.
He said, "I mean, I already knew that he was different from us and more talented. I just didn't expect the difference to be this wide."
She took his large arm and wrapped her arms around it as she consoled him. "Don't worry about him. You're plenty talented."
He could only say, "If you say so."
She became offended that he didn't believe her. She scoffed and said, "Of course I'm right. I've seen many talented people, and you're in the top ten in terms of talent."
She encouraged him further by saying, "Let's not even mention looks. You're the most handsome ever. Arthur doesn't hold a candle to your beauty."
This is a lie. It was the truth in the past because Leroy used to be more handsome than Arthur. But Arthur had become more handsome ever since he broke the shackles of his body, reformed it, and enhanced it after he advanced to the golden core realm.
Leroy is still handsome. But his beauty is a mundane kind of beauty. It is the sort of thing that can be seen anywhere among humans.
However, Arthur is now more handsome because he possesses an otherworldly charm that cannot be seen among mortal humans. In terms of beauty and strength, Arthur has been elevated.
So it is Leroy who can't compare to Arthur in terms of being handsome. The two of them aren't just on the same level of beauty.
But Princess won't say the truth in order not to make her lover more jealous. Not that Leroy cared about looks. What Leroy cares about is Princess's background and if he is worthy enough for her.
He didn't know much about Princess when he began to pursue her. He just thought she was some pampered girl from a noble family. This background didn't intimidate him at all because he thought that being in the Blood Skull sect made them equal.
As someone who came from a poor mortal family, her status and upbringing appealed to him and were one of the main reasons he liked her. But as he got to know the full extent of her family, he began to realize that he might be out of his depth and she might be out of his league.
Apparently, Princess comes from an ancient beast family with noble blood. According to their family records, they used to have a rank 7 in their family. That was a very long time ago, though.
Their family had declined over time until it reached the state where the strongest person in their entire family is currently at the fifth mortal coil. But even in this declined state, they were still a bona fide nascent soul cultivation family.
A nascent soul family is not a caliber of people he thought he would ever encounter as a boy who grew up with parents who barely made it to the fourth transformation of the first mortal coil.
It was because her family decided to send out seeds into various organizations in order to reduce the burden of their descendants and change their situation that they sent Princess to the Blood Skull sect.
If this hadn't happened, he would never have met Princess in this life. After all, she used to live upstream.
The more he heard about her family, the more he realized how inferior he was and the more dedicated he was to working hard in order to prove himself worthy.