"I am no bumpkin brother, of course I know… Don't worry, this wouldn't affect you or the sect leader or the sect and neither would it affect the Empire." Min Hong confidently reassured with a smile...

"But that doesn't changed the fact that you just lied to him…"

"Eh? What are you talking about?" Min Hong chuckled lightly;

"I didn't lie; I only promised him a slot into the inheritance grounds in seven months, and that is exactly what he is going to get." Min Hong added with a smug grin…

"That Jihao girl liked you, you know?" Min Hong teased with a lost expression;

"It's no use… We are not meant to be…"

"What are you talking about?" Min Hong refocused with a curious expression;

"You think I can be with the assistant of the Grand Elder of an Empire as wealthy as the Guan Empire?" Gong Yi replied halfheartedly;

"Speaking of which, do you have any personal goal you will like to achieve?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you…"

"The only goals I have currently is to win the Imperial Seeding Tournament for master's sake… Then I can become a Protector for the sake of the orphans, and if luck is on my side, get shortlisted into the Divine Sage Sect…" Gong Yi listed;

"Alright, those are nice, but do you have any grand ambitions, like being the Elder of some Super Clan or even a Grand Elder?" Min Hong pushed on;

"What!? Hehe he…"

Gong Yi chuckled hopelessly like he had heard the most ridiculous thing ever;

"No way… That's an impossible feat to me…"

"Eh?"

"Hehe, it's alright..."

"So, you mean to tell me that your ambitions and goals in life ends the moment you get into the Divine Sage Sect?" Min Hong was already frowning at this point;

"Well, when you put it that way, it seems like a very terrible thing…" Gong Yi suddenly began to smile as his eyes blurred in reminiscence;

"I guess when you live in the slums as ragged orphans, it does some irreparable damage to one's body, mind and soul…"

"What are you talking about?"

"You know, back when I was still an orphan, before master adopted me, having to eat the next meal was our only goal in life…"

"Many of my friends back then had died to starvation, and some of them were even killed trying to steal a single piece of tofu…"

"Then, our lives were a living hell…"

"We were being battered by the elements because we had no shelter; the cold, the blistering heat, and most often sicknesses when one of us catches a contagious flu or cough and other diseases…"

"Then we had no other aim or goal than to survive the next few hours, and in the center of such life was me..."

"I had lived in such environment for almost seven solid years before I got saved by master; before I knew what living truly was…"

"The fact that I can even step foot into the Imperial City on its own is a godly feat for most orphans in the slums, not to talk of entering the same competition as people of such class of living…"

"Entering the Divine Sage Sect is much more than a godly feat…"

"Perhaps, I am simply as unambitious as you, or perhaps deep within all this façade, I am still an orphan…"

Gong Yi chuckled self mockingly once again; Hu! Min Hong sighed and just realized why the sect leader had told him to take care of Gong Yi;

It wasn't because Gong Yi was weak or couldn't handle himself, but because he had set a bar on what his potential could achieve, and his own job was too find a way to help him raise that bar without interfering too much with his life…

"Everyone's goal is a factor of their base class of living…"

"For the Crown Prince of the Empire, something like entering the Divine Sage Sect might not even appeal to him… "

"Perhaps, his aim is to get enlisted in an even stronger sect or academy…"

"To the heir of a tiny family, making it into his clan might be a godlike goal…"

"To the heir of a Clan, entering the Royal court might be a godlike goal…"

"To the heir of a Kingdom, entering the Imperial Court might be a godlike goal…"

"So, now tell me brother, aren't all these heirs the same human, with the similar limbs and body parts?"

"But how come one aims to enter the Imperial Court why the other simply aims to enter his own main clan?"

Min Hong asked but Gong Yi didn't reply because it was rhetorical;

"It simply boils down to their sense of perception and the life choices they made from it…"

"You walk into a street filled with orphans, but they will always have a leader…"

"You walk into a group of outer court disciples but they would similarly have a leader…"

"There is no position in life that is absolute and the peak, so we are all struggling in an endless cycle of vanity…"

"You think your goal is godlike? Go back to the time when you were at your lowest as an orphan and look at yourself now;"

"Answer me; Is the current you a godlike goal to that previous you or not?" Gong Yi's eyes dimmed in self-chastisement as he answered;

"It is!"

"Then why did you not choose to remain a core court disciple of the Desert Sun Sect and instead you're looking to become a disciple of the Divine Sage Sect?"

"Because my responsibilities now are bigger than they were back then…"

"Exactly…"

"Brother, a person who has nothing they care about has no responsibilities, and a person without responsibilities has no need to better himself…"

"And someone who has no cause to better themselves have no reasons to be ambitious, and a person without ambition is nothing other than a walking corpse…"

"A wastage of life itself, and such type of people always regress till they eventually waste away…"

"Though, I was never an orphan, but I have known what it meant to have an impossible goal..."

"But when you find something to care about, and you care deeply enough, that thing becomes your responsibility…"

"Then that responsibility is what drives you to become more than what you already are, but where the danger lies is after you have become what you aim to become…"

"Good is the enemy of better, and better is the enemy of the best…" Min Hong stated..