Chapter 480: Return to the Qinhuang Kingdom
The Dazhou Kingdom wasn’t far from the Tianqin clan. After several hours of flight, Jian Chen finally arrived at one of the strongholds of the Dazhou Kingdom. In accordance to the map, Jian Chen followed the directions to the imperial city.
After another four hours of flight, Jian Chen traveled three thousand kilometers into the kingdom and finally arrived at the imperial city. This time since he was requesting their help and wished to be courteous and respectful, he did not fly straight for the imperial palace and instead descended to the ground right in front of the palace gates.
There were guards day and night at the imperial palace, and the arrival of a Heaven Saint Master shocked everyone and prompted for the head watch to immediately head down to greet Jian Chen respectfully, “Senior, this one is the captain of the fifth guard unit, might this one know the reason for senior’s presence?” As he spoke, the man looked curiously at Jian Chen. When he took note of how young Jian Chen was, the captain couldn’t help but feel surprised. After a while, he concluded that Jian Chen must have used some sort of secret to maintain his youthful appearance, allowing his real age to remain hidden.
“This one is the Imperial Advisor for the Qinhuang Kingdom. I came here today to your kingdom to pay a visit, please send a message for me.” Jian Chen spoke calmly.
Upon hearing that the person in front of him was the Imperial Advisor for the Qinhuang Kingdom, the captain was immediately startled, “Yes, your servant will send one right away. You there, escort senior into the palace.” The captain commanded a person to escort Jian Chen while he himself used some sort of movement technique to disappear into the palace.
Whenever a Heaven Saint Master came to pay a visit, it was never for a small matter. The Imperial Advisor of the Qinhuang Kingdom would most definitely have an extremely large matter. So the captain didn’t dare be negligent and immediately ran off to report to the king.
Within the magnificent palace of the Dazhou Kingdom, several beautiful women with plenty of makeup could be seen singing and dancing with barely any clothes covering their pale bodies. Right in front of them was a pure gold table with all sorts of exotic delicacies. The king was a single man in his fifties and wore a golden dragon robe. Sitting right in front of the table, he was currently enjoying the performance in front of him.
Just at that moment, a single court eunuch came running in and knelt before the king’s side and whispered in his ear.
Suddenly, a startled expression overcame the king’s face. Turning to look at the court eunuch, he spoke, “What? An Imperial Advisor of the Qinhuang Kingdom is here to pay a visit?”
“Yes, your Highness. The captain of the palace guards came to report to me, he would not lie.”
Standing straight up, the king strode straight for the outside of the halls and spoke, “Come with me to greet him! And have some people bring the Imperial Advisor over.”
Jian Chen had been relocated to one of the more grand looking palace halls where the king began to warmly receive him.
Five white-haired elders came walking into the palace. As soon as they entered and saw Jian Chen, they immediately sat down on some nearby chairs.
Greeting Jian Chen, the king of the Dazhou Kingdom spoke, “Honored Imperial Advisor from the Qinhuang Kingdom, these are my five Imperial Advisors.”
Jian Chen smiled and cupped his hands toward the five. These five were not strangers to him; last time he was here, they were the ones that he saw when he was with the Tianqin clan as they used the Space Gate to get to Mercenary City.
The five Imperial Advisors did a friendly salute to Jian Chen as well before exchanging several words of greeting. “For the Imperial Advisor of the Qinhuang Kingdom to come here, this is an honor for our Dazhou Kingdom. But considering this is quite the important manner, if we may, could sire please show proof of his status?”
Jian Chen gave a faint smile; he knew that the opposition would definitely doubt his identity. The Qinhuang Kingdom was too far away from the Dazhou Kingdom. For an Imperial Advisor to pay a visit the the Dazhou Kingdom, there would definitely be suspicion.
Jian Chen took out a purple jade pendant from within his Space Ring to show to the elder, “Would this item suffice in proof?”
The elder took the jade piece from Jian Chen and began to inspect it. It was made of expert craftsmanship and carried the banner of the Qinhuang Kingdom. The word “Qin” was carved in on it while on the other side was the word, “Protect”.
However, when the elder realized just what material this jade was made from, his eyes lit up in fierce surprise, “This is spirit amethyst!”
Hearing this, the surrounding four Imperial Advisors let loose a shocked expression. Naturally, they knew just what spirit amethyst was. It was an extremely rare and high quality jade — an item that even the nobles wouldn’t be able to buy. It is said that the spirit amethysts were made from the purple clouds that gathered within the world. Such an event was extremely rare and could barely be seen on the Tian Yuan Continent.
TL Note: Purple clouds were said to be something Laozi could ride upon. An important cultural thing I can’t really explain.
Seeing that the token was made from the especially rare spirit amethyst, the Imperial Advisors were completely convinced that Jian Chen was who he said he was. Inwardly, they were still surprised and thought to themselves, “It is no wonder the Qinhuang Kingdom is one of the Eight Great Empires. Even the Imperial Advisors are given a medallion made purely from spirit amethyst.”
They were not from the Qinhuang Kingdom, and they were far too far away for them to know the schematics behind the Qinhuang Kingdom. Little did they know that an Imperial Advisor from the Qinhuang would only be given a medallion made from a rare type of metal as proof. It was not made from spirit amethyst at all; neither would an Imperial Advisor have the word “Protect” carved on their medallions. Only five people within the Qinhuang Kingdom were qualified to hold a medallion made from spirit amethyst.
Returning the jade back to Jian Chen, the Imperial Advisor smiled, “Please forgive my earlier curiosity. I hope senior won’t take offense to it.” After confirming his identity, everyone began to treat Jian Chen even better than before.
After both sides exchanged some words of conversation, Jian Chen moved onto the heart of the matter. “Today I come to your esteemed kingdom to borrow your Space Gate. Would that be fine with you?”
“Yes yes, of course, of course it’s fine. Our Imperial Advisors will open it for you at any time you need.” The king didn’t hesitate to agree to Jian Chen’s request. Pausing for a moment, he added, “Our Dazhou Kingdom and the Qinhuang Kingdom may be far away, but I hope that we can become allies in the future. This one hopes that senior will convey our intentions back to Qinhuang Kingdom.”
“I will make sure to convey those words.” Jian Chen replied to their request. This area was the only territory with a Space Gate, and Jian Chen had no idea just how often he would need to use this gate. So he would need to ensure that the connection between the two kingdoms wouldn’t falter.
Afterward, Jian Chen followed the king of the Dazhou Kingdom out to where the Space Gate was. The Space Gate had an array overlaid onto it and had a mysterious and complex magic to it.
A single Imperial Advisor took out several Class 5 Monster Cores from his Space Ring and inserted it into the cavities of the Space Gate. With enough power, the array began to light up and surge with energy. Finally, a three meter large door formed. The insides of the door frame warped in a chaotic way.
“Imperial Advisor, where might your destination be?” The Imperial Advisors controlling the Space Gate spoke to Jian Chen.
“The Qinhuang Kingdom!”
Taking a look at the map, the Imperial Advisors found the location and swiftly began to manipulate the Space Gate. In a flash, the space within the Space Gate began to clear up to form an image of a large range of mountains.
“Since we have no markers, we cannot ascertain the location of the Qinhuang Kingdom’s location. We will only be able to send you to a rough coordinate. Although it isn’t within the Qinhuang Kingdom’s territory, it should be bordering it. Imperial Advisor, please head on in.” The elder controlling the Space Gate spoke.
“I will be sure to come back to give my thanks in the future.” Jian Chen spoke before entering the gate. With a single small pacing of his feet, he crossed countless of kilometers.
After Jian Chen walked out from the Space Gate, it disappeared without a trace behind him and returned to its original form. Looking around, Jian Chen could see that he was standing within a flat mountain range with mountains all around.
After taking out his map to look at for a while, he immediately began to fly into the general direction of where the sun was. After half a day, Jian Chen finally arrived at the Qinhuang Kingdom’s imperial palace and descended down.
As soon as he touched down, several soldiers with a frightful amount of killing intent came flying over. At the same time, several strong amounts of Qi could be felt from within the Qinhuang Kingdom. Soon, several Heaven Saint Masters with a hostile nature came flying out to surround Jian Chen.
When they saw just who the newcomer was, their faces were stunned for a moment before cupping their hands together, “We pay our respects to the Imperial Protector.”
At this moment, the soldiers surrounding Jian Chen realized just who he was. Straight away, the killing intent they had exuded disappeared without a trace. Several hundred people began to kneel down right in front of him. “We pay our respects to the honored Imperial Protector.” These were the soldiers of the elite with strengths beyond the norms. As they all spoke out in unison, it was as if thunder could be heard rumbling throughout the palace.
Jian Chen allowed the soldiers to rise before turning to the confused Heaven Saint Masters. “Did something happen for the Qinhuang Kingdom to be this nervous?”
“Imperial Protector, our palace forbids the usage of flying. Even we must walk to enter the palace. When we saw a person flying into the palace, we had all assumed it was an enemy.” One of the Imperial Advisors spoke.
Jian Chen suddenly realized that he had not stayed within the Qinhuang Kingdom for that long, so he didn’t know the rules of this land.
“You may leave for now. I’ve some matters I wish to discuss with the king first.” With that, Jian Chen left the area.
Jian Chen spread his presence to cover the entire palace, and soon enough discovered the king to be in his study and rushed in that direction. Although the Qinhuang palace had strict security with a guard every three steps and a patrol every five, Jian Chen’s status as an Imperial Protector was enough for him to walk unimpeded. No one had the desire to stop him, so Jian Chen was able to enter the king’s study where the king was leisurely reading a book at his table.