The imperial palace of the Nalan Empire was plain and white. Imperia maids and imperial guards were hastily running back and forth. On their arm, they had a blue, ocean colored flower adorned in order to commemorate the passing of their kind, Nalan Wuji. At this time, Long Yi noticed that other than the imperial palace of the Nalan Empire, Blue Moon City and other locations in the Nalan Empire didn’t hang white cloth. Normally the entire empire would mourn when the emperor passes away. However, Long Yi quickly understood what was going on. Because the death of Nalan Wuji resembled the death caused by the backlash of cultivating dark power, everyone concluded that he died due to the Light God’s punishment. As such, national mourning wasn’t considered.
This was quite ironic. At that time, when Long Yi and Nalan Ruyue were making their salutation in the imperial palace, Light Pope Charles was present to give his blessing. There was no need to talk about how complacent Nalan Wuji was. Now, Charles had ordered a group of Light Church’s Holy Law Enforcers to investigate the death of the emperor. The investigation was a mere formality as it was obvious that the Light Church didn’t care about Nalan Wuji’s death. In any case, Nalan Wuji would end up with the reputation of being a dark demon.
At this moment, Nalan Ruyue was leaning weakly on Long Yi’s shoulder. It was as though she had lost her soul and there was a blank expression on her face. After returning to the palace, she could already feel that there was something different. Although the things in the imperial palace were the same, the people had changed. She understood that although Nalan Wuji was not competent as a father, he was nevertheless a good emperor. He was also the pillar of the entire Nalan Empire. Now that this pillar had collapsed, the entire empire would enter into a state of chaos.
Long Yi sighed softly and held on to the pale-faced Nalan Ruyue. He brought her towards her temporary residence in the imperial palace.
In the imperial palace where Nalan Ruyue and her sisters lived, there were only a few imperial maids left. They were bustling around, performing the tasks they were supposed to do. What surprised Long Yi was the absence of guards. They were probably transferred away by Nalan Wen and Nalan Wu, those two foolish brothers.
Entering Nalan Ruyue’s lady chamber, everything was same as before without any changes. The appearance of her room was refined and the room was warm. The sound of the waves crashing onto the shore and the swaying of the window curtains remained as of how Long Yi remembered. The salty and humid sea breeze brought back memories. Nalan Ruyue’s room made Long Yi recall everything which he had experienced here.
“Big sister, brother-in-law.” At that moment, a familiar voice filled with a resentful, yet pleasantly surprised tone came from the entrance. The petite figure of Nalan Rumeng appeared before Long Yi. Her long millet colored hair hung loosely down her shoulders. Her expression looked wan and sallow. Her beautiful eyes were filled with tears.
“Rumeng……” Nalan Ruyue came back to her senses. Calling out her younger sister’s name loudly, she rushed over and pulled Nalan Rumeng into her embrace. Within seconds, the two sisters were crying loudly.
Long Yi felt sour in his heart. In this world, familial love would always be in the first place. Originally, these two sisters had lost their mother since their childhood. Now, even their father was gone. The lonely bitterness in their heart must be very unpleasant.
In his previous life, Long Yi was also an orphan. However, in his memories, there were no images of his parents. Since he didn’t know that he had parents to begin with, he didn’t really feel the pain of losing them. He stepped forward and hugged both sisters who were bawling their eyes out. With one sister in each arm, he hugged both crying beauties into his bosom.
Long Yi’s warm embrace made them feel as though they had found someone to depend on. Grabbing tightly on Long Yi’s clothes, they seemed to have found some comfort.
Maybe it was because they had been tormented by their worries these days, but after crying it out, both pitiful princesses fell asleep in Long Yi’s bosom.
Carrying them to the only bed in the room, Long Yi gently placed the both of them onto the bed. WIth a single poke of his finger, he made them fall into an even deeper sleep. After making sure that they were not going to wake up anytime soon, Long Yi left the room.
………………
Long Yi sat with one leg over the other. Sipping a mouthful of green tea, he looked at the young man sitting on the sofa opposite him in amusement. Although this person had a handsome face, his eyes were full of maliciousness. He had a dense, nefarious aura of obscenity. He was precisely the first prince of the Nalan Empire, Nalan Wen.
“Brother-in-law came back at the perfect time. You are also a member of my Nalan Empire’s imperial family. Now that father emperor went astray in his cultivation and perished, according to the law, the throne should be passed down to me. However, second brother didn’t care about the rules and wanted to challenge me for the throne. Brother-in-law must help me, okay?” Nalan Wen appeared sincere. Currently, he was begging for help from anybody. It was as though he was begging for water in a desert.
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Long Yi smiled thinly and said, “That’s natural, you are my brother-in-law. If I don’t help you then who should I help? Other than you, there is no one qualified enough to sit on the throne of this empire.”
“That’s good, that’s good. Tonight, I am holding a drinking party at my temporary imperial residence. Tonight, I’ll introduce you to some people.” Nalan Wen was extremely delighted to hear that Long Yi was willing to help him.
Long Yi smiled and agreed. However, his eyes were glimmering with a strange light. Thinking back, he remembered that he had just left Nalan Ruyue’s residence when the first prince, Nalan Wen, had rushed over with his troops in a hurry. That was the reason he was drinking tea with the first prince currently. This were signs that the troops assigned to guard the city wall were all under the first prince’s control.
Long Yi’s thought process was very simple. Since Nalan Wen wanted his help to deal with Nalan Wu, he would simply help him. It was also a good opportunity for Long Yi to find out more about the forces behind Nalan Wen.
Long Yi didn’t stay in Nalan Wen’s imperial residence for long. Since there was some time before the party began, Long Yi wanted to stroll around the city.
As a matter of fact, Long Yi had considered going to the sea in order to look for the mermaid, Liu Li. However, there was not enough time. As such, he could only push back his urge to look for Liu Li for the time being.
Long Yi left the imperial palace and strolled around the city. Currently, the originally bustling Blue Moon City was deserted. Only a few shops were open for business while the rest were closed. The shops which were closed were locked securely.
While walking, Long Yi’s thought involuntarily shifted to the Nalan Empire’s current circumstances The situation was really muddy right now. It was like the beach water, filled with mud and sand. Nalan Wen and Nalan Wu were merely humanoid puppets operating on the surface. The Dark Church was involved behind the scenes, and the Light Church’s Holy Light Enforcers were about to arrive. The moment the two groups clashed, the situation would be extremely lively.
When he thought about what was going to happen, Long Yi unconsciously walked into a very lively place. The location in front of him was filled with people, and there were luxurious carriages lined up in long rows.
Long Yi looked left and right. A smile with a trace of interest appeared on his face. As it turned out, Long Yi accidentally walked over the red light district of Blue Moon City. This place was surrounded by several famous high-grade brothels and was frequented by many men.
Nalan Empire was already in chaos, and 90% of the shops in the city were closed. However, the business in the red light district was strangely doing well. It was only daytime, yet there were so many people here. Could it be that all the nobles in the city were gathered here? This was truly a marvelous spectacle.
In any case, since Long Yi didn’t have anything better to do right now, he decided to pop in and have a look. He wanted to see if the goods here could be compared to the Beautiful Fragrant House managed by Ruyu. After careful observation, Long Yi chose a brothel called ‘Emerald Mist Pavilion’ and swaggered inside. He chose this brothel as he was curious about it. The decoration in this brothel was elegant and unique. It didn’t possess the air of a brothel at all. Even the name of the brothel was classy. However, the most important reason Long Yi chose this brothel was because of the carriage parked outside. It was only of the most luxurious carriage he had ever seen.
The moment he entered, a beautiful young girl came up to greet him. She looked pure, and she had a unique style. This brothel was truly innovative.
Long Yi sized up the interior of this hall and saw that there were numerous tables situated in it. Each table was made for one, and between the tables, there was a wooden fence, as well as emerald flora used for partition. It resembled the coffee shop of modern times.
“Is this a teahouse?” Long Yi curiously asked the young girl beside him.
The young girl laughed happily and said softly, “This is the paradise of men, you can do anything you can imagine here.”
Long Yi understood the meaning between her words. As it turned out this was still a pleasure den. Merely, it was one of a higher class.
The young girl led Long Yi to the private box on the second floor. Although the area was not big, it was very well decorated.
Long Yi sat on the soft sofa and asked with a smile, “This place is rather new. What kind of special services do you provide here?”
“Mister, this private box costs at least a 100 gold coins. We provide many services here, anything you can think of. Just simply choose whatever you want. This is the flower roster, you can let them accompany you to drink wine. You can even take a bath with them… As long as you can think of it, you can do anything.” The young girl giggled and said. Although she was giggling, her eyes had an ambiguous radiance in them. Of course, she meant that Long Yi could do everything he wanted.
Long Yi casually flipped the flower roster and he saw that there were portraits of many amorous young girls. Each and every one had a fine figure. They also had qualities of a noble listed beside their name. They resembled young ladies of the noble families. It was no wonder that there were many people who visited this place. The boss of this establishment was really good. Long Yi truly wondered who the saint who set up this place was.
They were beautiful, but what kind of beautiful women hadn’t Long Yi seen? He naturally didn’t care much about these ladies. Rather, he was very interested in the boss who was operating this brothel behind the scenes.
“I choose your boss, how is that?” Long Yi closed the flower roster and asked with a smile.
The young girl was startled. After thinking about what Long Yi just said, she answered with a smile, “Mister must be joking, how could our boss……”
“I am not joking, I want to meet your boss. Is it possible to pass this message on my behalf?” Long Yi took out an amethyst coin from his space ring and placed it on the palm of this young girl. He took the chance to brush his hand past her chest which had two towering mounds on it.
Clearly, this young girl was shocked. It was often she got tipped but never had she seen someone tip using an amethyst coin. It was simply too wasteful.
The young girl looked at that amethyst coin for a long time. Who would hate money? Not to mention the fact that this was indeed a huge sum of money. Even if she struggled for her entire life, she might never earn an amethyst coin.
“I am sorry, Mister, I cannot accept this. I can still help you to pass on the message, but I cannot guarantee that the boss will agree to see you.” The young girl gritted her teeth and handed over the amethyst coin back to Long Yi.
Her actions made Long Yi develop a good impression of her. How many people in this world could resist such a big temptation? She was working in this kind of place, yet she had such good moral conduct. This made Long Yi admire her.
“Take it, no matter whether your boss agrees or not, this coin is yours.” Long Yi said with a smile.
The young girl was pleasantly surprised and she no longer refused to accept the amethyst coin. She left the room immediately to look for the boss.
Long Yi casually opened a bottle of fruit wine and just as he was about to down the whole bottle, the door of his private box burst open. A graceful woman wearing a white silk robe stood at the entrance. A delicate fragrance assailed Long Yi’s nose, and Long Yi unexpectedly found her fragrance somewhat familiar. Raising his head slowly, he turned to look at her charming appearance. She was truly beautiful beyond words.