Two beautiful sculptures of a swan were placed on either side of the gate, making an archway with their long necks that acted as the gate into the Swan courtyard.
The walls surrounding the courtyard were entirely white, like the feathers of a swan and the building beyond the walls was the same design of buildings as he had seen everywhere. Slanted roofs with arched tips, all in the color of black and red.
All in all, the building looked exquisite.
Alex and Yao Ning walked into the courtyard with a few servants already waiting for them, the main of which seemed to be a young woman seemingly in her mid-20s wearing a higher grade of blue robe than the other female servants around her.
"This is one of our head servants, Huang Bingyue. You may request of her anything you need in the palace, your Majesty," Guqing said.
"I will," Alex said.
Guqing nodded. "I'll leave you two guests then. Bingyue, take care of their needs," the old man said.
"As you say, your Imperial Highness," the woman bowed as the old man left.
Alex looked back at the man and then turned around toward the woman that stood in front of him, still bowing.
"Highness?" he asked. "He's part of the royal family too?"
"Lord Long Guqing has the royal blood in him, but is not part of the direct royal line," the woman explained.
"Ah, I see," Alex said. "Show us to our quarters."
"As you wish, your Majesty," the woman said. She walked in, Alex and Yao Ning following her closely.
The courtyard was in a square shape, with the buildings around the outside and an open yard on the inside. There was a tree growing in the middle with no leaves on it, next to a small pond surrounded by decently sized rocks.
The house itself was mostly made out of wood from what Alex could tell, with even the floor beneath them being wood. However, given how it made absolutely no sound while they walked, Alex could tell that it was not normal wood at all.
If he got to examine it, he could probably even find its name right now.
There was some swan imagery, whether it be carved onto the pillars, or drawn onto the wall, which made Alex quite curious why they were going so heavy on the swan stuff.
"Is there a reason why this courtyard is called the Swan Courtyard?" he asked. "It seems quite important from what I can see."
"The Dragon Palace has a total of 7 major courtyards, all named and designed after 7 different beasts that were said to have come from the heavens along with the first Azure Dragon himself as his subordinates," the woman explained.
"7 beasts, huh?" Alex thought. That was a low number in his mind, but given that the Vermillion Birds and Black Turtles didn't even come with any, that was at least something.
"Can you name the 7 beasts?" he asked.
"Yes, of course," the woman said. "As you know, there was a Swan. There was also an Elephant, a Lizard, an Eagle, a Deer, a Lion, and an Ox. There were many other beasts that came with them, but these 7 were the strong ones and had left an impact on the first Dragon Emperor who built this palace."
Alex paused for a second when he heard the list of beasts. "Did these beasts live in the Beast Paradise by any chance?" he asked.
"I do not have knowledge of whether they did or not, but I am certain their descendants did," the woman said. "One of the reasons why the Beast Paradise was made in the first place was so that the Azure Dragon's subordinates' descendants could have an easy life away from the humans."
Alex nodded when he heard that. He didn't say anything else, but the woman continued explaining a few things that she thought needed explanations.
She explained how the Swan courtyard was the best of the 7 courtyards despite being one of the 7 subordinates. She also explained how the only person to ever live here was one of the previous kings that ruled part of the Eastern Continent while under the Dragon Empire.
A King of the Lin Kingdom that was now destroyed and turned into the Ebony Kingdom.
The woman finally took Alex to her room, wherein he let her return to her duties and told her to leave them alone for some time.
After the woman left, Alex did a thorough search of the room to see if they were spying on him before finally speaking what he was thinking.
"So the Lion that Pearl's grandmother was married to must have been a descendant of the Lion that came with the Azure Dragon," he said. "No wonder they were from a big family and could afford to marry someone like her."
"Your Majesty, you are concerned about the wrong thing here, aren't you?" Yao Ning asked with a slightly frowning face. "We have a bigger problem to deal with."
Alex sighed. "We do, don't we?" he said. "What do you suggest, elder Yao? Should we do as he says and hand him what I have?"
"No, we cannot, your Majesty," the woman said immediately. There was no doubt in her mind that there was no way they could do that.
However, Alex didn't trust her words right now. She was too heavily biased to give any sound suggestions. She needed to think about this a little, and so did he.
"The main problem we have right now is the consequence that would come if we don't do what he says," Alex said. "I do not know if the Emperor knows or not about whether Scarlet and the others cannot come here."
"If he does, he would have no worry attacking us," Alex said.
"But we can't just hand it away," the old woman said.
"That we cannot," Alex said. "But he did say a trade, so maybe I can get something in return for giving him what he wants. Ugh, I still don't want to give him anything though."
Alex was certain that this man had a hand in killing Pearl's mother. Even if he wasn't, and the sword just happened to belong to someone from this massive empire, the man was still a threat.
This was the man that had attacked the Western Continent while they were down after all.
"Then, what do you suggest, your Majesty?" Yao Ning asked.
"Well… I don't know. I can't decide anything right now," he sighed. "Well, I got us 3 days to think about this, so let's take our time. There is no hurry."
Yao Ning had no response to that. She knew how dangerous the Dragon Emperor was and thus found it hard to defy him as well.
"Let us rest for now then, your Majesty," she said. "We can discuss this tomorrow or even the day after that once little sister Liang is back from the Royal School of Alchemy."
Alex nodded. "You should rest too, elder Yao. We have only just arrived on the Eastern Continent with 20 years to spend here. We have a long stay here ahead of us."
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