572 Discussion

"I heard your master passed away, my condolences," The princess said as they walked in.

"Thank you, princess," Alex said. He looked around the outer gardens of the palace that was nearly 3 times as large as the City lord's manor.

There were trees and flowers of many kinds and Alex could recognize quite of few of them as being rare ones.

The servants in the garden and the walkway to the palace wore two different kinds of clothing. One was a simple peasant robe of very light red color.

The other was a black robe that Alex recognized to belong to the Royal Fu Academy.

"Do the graduates of the Royal Fu Academy come to work in the palace?" Alex asked.

"Some do," the princess said. "Most do their own thing. We don't bind them to work for us only."

"I see," Alex said. Ahead of the path came the massive palace that looked to be completely made up of white limestone. However, given how well it had handled its weight, Alex doubted if it really was that.

The princess didn't ask him a lot of questions and directly brought him to her father's place deep in the palace.

Along the way, Alex could see that the whole palace was made up of grayish-white color with a few red pieces of furniture that worked as accent pieces for the palace.

When Alex entered the room that belonged to the Emperor, he was immediately met with a bright white room with furniture that could only be called crimson in color.

Not only the furniture, even the curtains, and drapes as well as the carpet was crimson in color.

There were a few chairs in the room, all grandiose in nature, and had a few people sitting on them.

"Come on in. This is my father's study room," the princess said bringing him in to meet the people.

The Emperor was sat in the center of the group. His face showed confusion when he saw Alex walk in.

"He's here, father," the princess told the emperor.

"That's not…"

"Greetings, your Majesty, your highnesses, and seniors," Alex bowed towards the entire group.

"This is him," the princess said. "I think he might be one of those players too."

"Ah, that makes sense," the emperor said. "Welcome to the palace, young man. I'm glad to see you have survived the beasts somehow."

'Eh? Do they know I'm a player? Has the news about players spread this far?' he wondered.

"Come on, sit down. Let me introduce you to these people," the emperor beckoned Alex to sit on the seat next to him.

Alex nodded and walked over.

"Where am I going to sit?" the princess asked in an annoyed voice.

"Eh? You want to sit with us, Wuying?" the Emperor asked.

"Of course," the princess said. "I haven't asked him any questions just because I wanted to get him here quickly."

"Alright," the emperor pointed to the corner of the room and a chair floated right next to them.

The princess smiled and sat on it next to Alex.

"Let me introduce you to everyone, young man," the emperor said. "You already know these two old men Yang and Feng from last time, right? Feng Xuan and Yang Fei are both heads of the Feng and Yang family and are some of the only Saint realm cultivators of the Crimson Empire."

Alex bowed towards both of them.

The emperor then moved on to the two men next to them who looked young but showed signs of aging.

"These are my 2 sons, Fuxian is the older one and will succeed me, and Yuhan is the younger one," the Emperor said.

The two sons looked just like their father but lacked broad shoulders as well as rough beards.

Alex bowed to the two of them as well.

Finally, there were two people on the last chair. One man, one woman.

Neither of them looked like they belonged here, and judging by the message Alex had received, he believed these two to be the outside.

"Fellow Daoist, my name is Fu Tao," the man said as he cupped his fists towards Alex. He wore a red robe and looked quite young for someone with a cultivation base that Alex couldn't quite figure out.

'Is he in the upper True Lord realm? Maybe even lower True King realm,' Alex thought.

The man had a well-built body and a clean-shaven face. His red robe with the golden embroidery made him look like someone of royalty as well.

"This here is Lu Yan," the man introduced the woman next to her. She wore a green robe that covered her whole body, including a veil that hid her face.

From what Alex could see, he assumed the girl wasn't very old either, and she still exuded aura close to the upper True lord realm.

"Greetings, brother Tao, Sister Yan," Alex greeted them back as well. "If I may be so rude, may I know how old brother Tao is this year?"

"Oh, it's fine," the man said. "I'm 27 years old."

"Wow, my master who is nearly triple your age is only a few realms higher than you, brother Tao. You must be really talented," Alex said.

"Haha, I am alright," the man said, but he was feeling a little proud of himself at the moment.

"Now that introductions are over, young man, why don't you tell us about your days in the Beasts' realm? How did you survive there?" The emperor asked.

Alex nodded and got to explain as much as he could without giving away the specifics. He told them that he was kept as a prisoner, but had enough freedom to go out to the gardens. He told them how he spend most of the days simply cultivating and doing nothing.

He told them that his beast had been taken away as well. Aside from that, he gave information about the secret realm spanning continent-wide, making it impossible to directly go to the other side without going through the beast's realm or taking a detour through the ocean first. The two outsiders listened to him and frowned.

"You can't go to the ocean," the Emperor said. "It's a death trap. The beasts there are so strong that they will make me look like a weakling."

Alex was surprised to hear that. 'The ocean has such strong beasts? Thank god nothing attacked me when I was on the shore,' he thought.

"Those beasts can't come up to the land, so there's no need to worry about that area. As for actual information, Do you have anything that will help us survive in the realm?" the man named Tao asked.

"I have a piece of information that may be able to help you," Alex said. "It was around the time when I saw the flash of light inside the secret realm. I had asked a beast at the time, and she had told me that it was you guys entering the realm."

"When I asked if you were safe, she said that you would be safe as long as you didn't go around looking for trouble yourself," Alex said.

"Although, I must warn you. The humans were the ones that destroyed the western continent after their king died, so most of the beasts have an improperly driven hatred for even humans of this continent itself."