1683 Plans
Long Huan explained Hannah's situation to everyone who was there. By the end, everyone was either gasping or crying at what had happened.
A few of the other elders had arrived during the explanation and were waiting patiently for the rest of the information too.
"Then Alex said he could do something to heal her here and we ran away. But my father found us somehow, and the rest of us managed to get in through the Voidgate, but Alex and the other elder remained on the other side."
"What? What happened to him?" Helen asked, practically demanding an answer.
"We do not know," Liang Shufen said. "We believe the Dragon Emperor might have taken him prisoner."
"What about sister Yao?" Kang Xuefeng asked.
"I don't know," Liang Shufen said. "But… if little Whisker is correct, then sister Yao was killed in the battle. Only his Majesty is still alive."
"No!" Ren Guanting let out a low moan of sadness. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Sister Yao is dead?" Tan Yang asked.
More and more of the elders from the council were making their way into the throne room.
Hou Xinya, Huang Chen, Gong Liuxian, Lei Zhong, and Qiu Jianhong were seated in the room with a look of horror on their faces.
Linlin stood by Helen, holding her up as the bad news came.
Liz sat to the side of her daughter, the two holding each other in their embrace. Long Huan had already told Hannah who was by her side, so she had a million thoughts going through her too.
"So, what do we do now?" Hou Xinya asked. "Do we demand that they give back our King? Will they accept the demand?"
"No, they will want something in return," Gong Liuxian said. "Do we have anything to trade with the Emperor?"
Liang Shufen turned toward Long Huan, who gulped a little. He looked at the faces of those who were angry and those who were saddened and decided to do what he had to.
"My father wants a sword I have," he quickly said. "There is a chance he will accept it in exchange for Alex."
"A sword?" Huang Chen turned toward Liang Shufen for some confirmation.
"We were attacked primarily because of this sword. That's how Lady Hannah came to be poisoned too. The Dragon Emperor very much wants this sword for some reason," Liang Shufen said. "I think His Majesty figured out why that was, but he never bothered to tell either of us."
"Tsk, if only we knew how important this sword was to the Emperor," another elder said.
"What sort of sword is it in the first place?" Liz asked from the side. "Show us."
Long Huan nodded and brought out the silver sword. He then gave a small explanation about the sword, which to his surprise, surprised no one.
"So it's just… that?" Ronron asked, her eyes full of tears.
"Just… just that?" Long Huan asked incredulously. "This can tear through space. It can open Voidgates. How can you call it just that?"
"What's so special about that?" Ronron asked. "I can do that too."
"You… what?" Long Huan refused to believe what he was hearing.
"Now is not the time to bicker, Ronron," Helen said softly. "We need to make a decision, and given how important the decision will have to be, we need to call on Her Majesty."
"You're right, Your Highness," Qiu Jianhong said. As the oldest person in the room now, he would need to make decisions. "Who will take the news to Her Majesty?"
"Let me do it," Linlin said. "I will go."
"I will go with you," Whisker said and jumped onto Linlin's shoulder.
Linlin petted Whisker gently while they left the room. As Alex's direct maid, she knew Whisker quite closely.
The elders started talking amongst themselves with Helen and Graham soon joining in. Liz, however, turned to look at Long Huan who had been fidgeting on his own.
"What did you say your name was? Long Huan?" Liz asked.
"Yes, uhh… Mother-in-law," Long Huan said meekly. Calling such a thing to someone who clearly looked younger than him felt quite weird to the young prince.
"And you are a prince of the Eastern Continent?" she asked.
"I am," Long Huan answered.
Liz seemed to give a lot of thought to those words. Long Huan wondered what she was thinking. Liz muttered something about wells and a crown, before turning to look at the young man.
"I won't accept you as my Son-in-law just yet. Once we're through this and I have my daughter back to normal, only when she tells me with her own mouth that she will agree to keep her marriage with you will I accept this," Liz said. She then turned to Ronron and called her.
"Ronron, come meet your aunt Hannah."
Helen arrived some time later and so did Graham. The others, however, had to wait for Her Majesty to come out and meet them.
Nearly half an hour passed before someone entered the room again. Linlin and Whisker returned, alone.
"Where's Her Majesty?" Qiu Jianhong asked, looking around.
"Her Majesty is not coming," Linlin said. "She told us that she can't come out right now. She's in the middle of her closed cultivation and the next time she came out, we would know about it."
"Huh?" the elders looked at her in surprise. They couldn't understand why Scarlet wouldn't come out when something so big had happened.
"Sister Scarlet is preparing to break through to the Immortal realm. She will come out once she becomes an Immortal," Whisker said. "She also mentioned that before she became an Immortal, she would be pretty useless in this situation anyway as the Dragon Emperor would be most definitely stronger than her. So she needs to do this."
"What about His Majesty then?" Liang Shufen asked.
"We'll have to deal with the situation for now," Whisker said. "But sister did tell us something useful. After hearing all the information we had, she deduced that the Dragon Emperor most likely wants to use the Sword to cut open the Soul Space of the dead Azure Dragon. If he succeeds there, he will be able to acquire all the treasures that the Azure Dragon had."
"Soul Space?" A few of them looked around with a confused look, but the remaining few seemed to know. So the ones that knew explained what a Soul Space was to the others.
"His Majesty opened one too," Liang Shufen said.
"Not that the information is helpful at all."
"Then we can trade the sword certainly," another elder said.
"But we can't just go on a trade like this. We are on the weaker side so the Dragon Emperor can just choose to not trade," another Elder said. "You know how he is. Remember how arrogant he was when he came to propose that we go to war against the Western Continent when we had the chance?"
The elders nodded.
"Then we get help," Whisker said. "It's not just brother Alex that is in danger right now. Brother Pearl is too. So, we should go to the Western Continent right now and ask the White Tiger there to aid us in getting him back."
Everyone agreed unanimously.
"Let's do it then."
