"It is indeed a pleasure to meet you again as well," Alex said. "What are you doing here?"
"I arrived with His Highness for the auction," she said.
"Oh, the Crown Prince is here as well, is he?" Alex asked.
The girl nodded. "King Tan took His Highness somewhere to speak privately. They should be back in a bit," she said.
"I see," Alex said, sitting down on one of the chairs. "I'm sorry if I'm misremembering, but I believe you said that you couldn't visit the auction, didn't you?"
"Ahem," Lady Zhan looked a little embarrassed. "I did, didn't I?" she asked. "Well, I'm afraid things have changed a little and I now have time to visit the auction."
"You now have free time?" Alex asked, thinking for a moment. "Oh, the pill you were making, did you manage to fully make it? I remember hearing you were successful."
"Yes, I made the pill," she said.
"How was it?" Alex asked. "It was a rather difficult pill to make with strong ingredients that could easily cause the entire process to become invalid at a moment's notice. It was a success, then?"
"Well…" Lady Zhan hesitated a bit. "It was as much of a success as it was a failure."
Alex frowned a little. 'What does that mean?' he couldn't help but wonder to himself. "I'm sorry, Lady Zhan, but I must say I cannot decipher the meaning of your words. Would you mind elaborating?"
The woman hesitated a little before shaking her head. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but I cannot speak any further on this matter. It… is of the private sort," she said.
"Oh, my apologies if I made you feel uncomfortable. You do not have to explain to me anything you do not wish you," Alex said. "Still, do not hesitate to me to ask for help if you need it. I will always be available."
"Thank you, Your Majesty," the woman said, smiling softly as she did so.
"Then, now that you have made that pill, will you be using it to try and strike the Level 10 barrier?" he asked.
"I… will probably not," she said. "It was not a pill I made on my own, so I cannot swear the oath that proves that requirement. I will have to devise another pill, one perhaps not as difficult."
"Good luck," Alex said.
Lady Zhan nodded.
As they continued talking, the King and the Crown Prince walked into the hallway a moment later.
"Your Majesty, you're back," the Crown Prince said with a big smile. "I haven't seen you in a while now."
"It has been a while, hasn't it?" Alex asked the Crown Prince. "How have you been doing, Prince Fangyu?"
"Not so great," the prince said. "With father in closed cultivation, I was forced to handle everything on his behalf. Unlike father, I also don't have anyone to share my workload with, so I'm stuck doing it all on my own."
"You have my sympathy," Alex said with a slight grin. He knew what it was like when the actual ruler decided to take the time off and dump it all on the other one.
"Oh right, I heard you helped my Luoyang when she was struggling with her pill. Thank you," the Crown Prince said.
"It's not a big matter. I just happened to be there and happened to be interested," Alex said. "It's more so for my own entertainment that I helped her with the pill."
The Crown prince smiled. "I wish I can one day reach such a level where I too could help others for my own entertainment," he said.
"I'm sure you'll reach such a level sooner than later," Alex said. "You just need a bit of time to try."
The Crown prince nodded.
As they talked, someone else arrived.
"Your Majesty!" the Emerald King said in a loud voice. "Your Highness, Brother Tan. You're all here. Lady Zhan, my greetings."
With the Emerald King's arrival, the place got a little rowdy. The man was successful in bringing an uplift to the conversation that the ones there otherwise could not.
Queen Mao Yingtai, of the Silver Kingdom arrived a little later, and they had already been notified that the other two Kings would not be coming at all.
So this was all that was going to be there for the time.
Queen Mao greeted everyone in his silvery white dress and sat down to talk with them. Her very first question as soon as she arrived was if they had more information about Queen Song and the happenings in the Ivory Kingdom.
Not a single one could answer her. They were all trying to ignore the issue and being reminded was not fun.
The giant barrier was still there and would be there for a while.
"The barrier will remain there for a year as we heard in Queen Song's message. All we can do for now is ignore it," the Crown Prince said.
"It's a shame that most of the important folks from the Ivory kingdom won't make it to the auctions this time around then," Queen Mao said with a sigh.
Alex thought for a bit. He realized that he wouldn't be seeing the girl with white hair either. The connection he had felt back then would need to be explored at a later date.
"Not all of Ivory Kingdom is caught in the barrier, it's fine," the Crown Prince said. "Those who can come will come. It's better for them to escape reality in this festive environment for a few days."
"And most that would come already came to mine in the golden mountain, correct? The ones left behind should be the ones that were already reluctant to come."
"You are correct, your Highness," the other kings said.
The group talked for a while, and after a while, Alex left his room. He cultivated overnight and when the morning came, he left for the auction along with the other Kings.
