1847 The Funeral

Alex's family of 5 and King Wan made their way through the Ebony Kingdom, from where they would go past the Ebony Mountains to enter the Azure Kingdoms, to make their way to the Dragon Capital.

King Wan sat quietly on the ship while the people around him talked about the various beautiful sceneries and landscapes of the Eastern Continent.

"King Wan, I do not see your two guards with you. Where are they?" Alex asked.

"Every advisor that had been placed alongside us has been called back to the capital. We have been left without them since the war ended and you… you killed the Dragon Emperor."

That was something the man still found quite hard to believe.

"I see. Also, I'm curious. You had those weird rules that the Dragon Emperor set upon you. Are you free of those?" Alex asked.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. Not that it matters to me," the King said. "As soon as this is all over with, I plan on abdicating. I got this throne while allowing the Dragon Emperor to actively ruin the sect that brought me up. I wish to return to them and help them return to prominence once again."

"I see," Alex said. "I wish you all the luck for that."

With the silver moon hanging high in the sky, Alex and the rest made their way through the illuminated land of the Eastern Continent, arriving at a large campsite where the palace used to be previously.

Long Huan and Hannah welcomed them all, giving them their places to stay.

"How are you holding up?" Alex asked. "I know it can be a hard thing."

"I'm doing… honestly, I'm not doing that well," Long Huan said. "I thought I would be fine, but then… then I went through my brother's belongings and…"

Alex narrowed his eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Long Huan sighed and gestured for Alex to come inside the tent with him. Alex walked in, leaving his family with Hannah, and went to talk with the prince.

"I found this in my brother's belongings. It… explains why my father did the things he did. As far as I can understand, it all seems to be true," Long Huan said and handed Alex a talisman.

Alex took the talisman and read through it. As he read it, he was completely taken aback by the information he found written in it.

What was written itself was nothing more than ramblings, thoughts of the departed crown prince wondering why he was doing what he was doing.

He hated himself a lot for not standing up against his father, but he also thought he was doing what his mother would have wanted him to do.

The Empress' death had dealt a big enough toll on him that his sense of what is right and wrong when it came to her had been extremely biased from his perspective.

Alex felt pity for the crown prince. A part of him hated how pathetic he seemed to not stand up for what was right, but the larger part of him wondered if he would've done the same if he was in his shoes.

If it was him and his mother in this scenario, wouldn't he have tried to do what she would've wanted him to do?

He decided to ignore these weird moral questions that he had no time to think about. Instead, he went through the entire text, pulling out the facts he wanted.

What he found being written in there was a lot about prophecies. It listed out the many prophecies that the Dragon Emperor had received from the Nine Wells of Time in the Northern Continent.

Most of those prophecies weren't properly noted, but the most important one of them was.

It was the final prophecy that claimed how the Dragon Emperor's end would be brought by a King, a Son of a King, and a White Tiger.

Alex placed the talisman back down, his heart beating heavily after learning the information.

"Are you sure this is all true?" Alex asked Long Huan.

"I don't imagine why it would be false. And it explains the things that happened in the past or what my father did. Like executing the previous kings and queens, making the new ones unable to have any children, and so on."

"It also explains why he went against the Azure Dragon to try and kill Pearl."

"He tried his hardest to try and overcome the prophecy, but it seems it came true in the end nonetheless," Long Huan said. "I never thought he was the type of man who would let prophecy dictate his actions, but it turns out he always had been the man."

"My brother learned about it after we left, and my mother seems to have known about it for—"

Long Huan paused his words when he saw Alex's shock-

stricken face. "Alex?" he called.

"Hmm, yes? Sorry, what were you saying?" Alex asked.

"What's wrong? You… look worried," Long Huan said.

"I…" Alex took a deep breath. "I'm a little worried indeed. Excuse me, I think I need some air."

Alex walked out of the room, somewhat concerned about what he had learned. The Dragon Emperor had learned his prophecy from the wells, just like he had, and had tried to stop it completely.

Alex had ignored most of his prophecies lately simply because the chances of them all coming true was a lot less considering prophecies itself could not be trusted all that much.

However, the Dragon Emperor's prophecies had indeed come true. Had that been just a freak chance, or were the wells just that accurate?

Was his own mortality something he had to think about now?

Alex closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. 'The Dragon Emperor tried to stop it and failed miserably. If it is meant to happen, there is nothing I can do to stop it,' he thought. 'Even if it means that I know how I will die.'

The other prophecies mattered little to him. It was only the prophecy of his death that worried him, and now, he understood that he couldn't worry about it.

At least, he couldn't go the same route as the Dragon Emperor.

After a few more hours passed, it was time for the funeral.

The funeral of the previous Emperor and his first heir was broadcast throughout the entire continent for everyone to see. Most of the Newsbaords had been fixed and put back to work, so it was put to work.

Long Huan and Long Hanjue were the two who did the ritual for the funeral while others simply sat watching. Zhan Luoyang, as the Crown Prince's fiancee was also in some way a major part of the funeral too.

The Empress was there too, wearing fully black, but she did not say or do a single thing throughout the entire funeral. It was as though she had come to the funeral of someone she barely knew.

In a way, that was true.

The funeral ended by the time the sun was two-thirds of the way to the zenith and bodies of the dead were cremated.

Everyone gave one final bow to the dead and left.