"If I might interject," Qiu Jianhong of the elders spoke out loud.
Everyone's eyes turned toward him with a curious look on their faces.
"Elder Qiu," Alex said. "Do you have something to say?"
"Yes," Qiu Jianhong said before turning toward Hannah. "I congratulate the young lady Hannah for having completely healed, but I must let you know that you cannot have your marriage right now."
"What do you mean?" Alex asked.
"Your Majesty," the old man turned back toward Alex. "Before we think of marriage or any other thing, we need to prepare for a funeral."
"A funeral?" Alex asked with surprise before understanding. "Right… Yao Ning's funeral. I thought you guys did it already."
"We had no confirmation that she had died before you returned your Majesty," Tan Yang spoke up. "Or maybe, we were deluding ourselves into thinking there was no evidence to suggest her death. But it has been confirmed now, so we have been waiting for you to completely heal before we move on that."
"Is this about the elder who I heard died in order to save us?" Hannah asked.
Alex and the rest nodded.
"Then I agree," she said. "Our marriage can wait. It's for show only anyway. Let us give the elder the proper funeral she deserves."
Everyone nodded.
"Go make all the preparations you need to make," Alex ordered. "Tell her family about it too. Let them be the ones to do it."
The elders nodded, but they were still somewhat hesitant about it all. "Your Majesty," Hou Xinya called out. "If we hold a big funeral, the people will realize what is going on. Do you let the news spread?"
Alex thought for a moment. Was there any reason to hide the news? There would be panic and unrest for sure if the regular citizens found out that the Emperor of the Eastern Continent had killed one of their strongest individuals.
Alex shook his head. "Give Yao Ning the biggest funeral you can," he said. "As for the truth, let it spread. Tell them we'll have our revenge too. There's no point in hiding it anyway."
After all, within the next 2 years, either he was going to kill the Dragon Emperor or die trying.
'For what he did to my sister, and what he did to Yao Ning, he deserves it,' Alex thought.
"Will you all leave please," Alex said. "I have to check sister to make sure there are no more problems with her health."
People started walking out, leaving behind congratulations and well wishes.
"Do I leave as—"
"You can stay, brother Huan," Alex said and quickly closed the door when only his close family remained.
"Didn't you say you checked her already? You said she's fine," Liz questioned.
"I did, but…" Alex motioned toward Hannah. "Look at her cultivation base. I want to see what is up with that."
"What is up with what?" Hannah asked, looking at herself.
At the same time, the rest of the family checked it as well, not understanding the situation.
The only person who seemed to have realized anything was Long Huan, who gasped the moment he saw it.
"Saint Transformation 3rd realm?" he cried out in concern. "How is this possible? She is supposed to be in the peak of the Saint Transformation realm."
"That's what I wanted to check," Alex said and had Hannah sit back on the bed so he could check.
He started scouring her dantian with his spiritual senses and saw the Soul again, which was about a third the size of her entire body.
He continued looking around for any other signs of trouble before pulling back his senses with a frown.
"What? What's wrong?" Hannah asked, worried for herself. "Am I okay?"
"You are okay," Alex said. "But it seems that poison took a lot out of you. You must have been hurt by it, and your soul must've been damaged."
"Because the Saint Transformation realm is so connected with the Soul, the damage your Soul took reflects on your cultivation base too."
"In other words, the poison forced your cultivation to regress," Alex said.
"Is that… very bad?" Helen asked from the side.
"Not very bad," Alex said. "Sister's cultivation base has dropped, but that's all there is. She is still able to continue on her cultivation journey and reach the cultivation base she had before."
"That's a relief," Liz said. "As long as there are no long-lasting problems. It's fine."
Hannah nodded. "That's alright," she said. "I can get back to my original cultivation base any time I want."
"I wish I had your speed too, sister," Alex said with a sigh before leaving to do his job as a King of the entire continent.
There were many things that needed his hands that the elders couldn't decide, which had been put off for a long time.
Hannah's return to health had been spread amongst the small group of people who were close to Alex, so they had come to meet her and give her well wishes.
Zhan Luoyang arrived with old man Zhou Linfan.
"Little sister!" Zhan Louyang's eyes widened in happiness seeing the healthy Hannah. "Congratulations."
"Forgive me, child. I should have arrived to aid you much sooner. That way you wouldn't have to have gone through all that trouble in the past," Zhou Linfan said after meeting Hannah. "Still, to make up for it, let me make you some meals that will bring your body back to life. That ki— I mean, his Majesty has already asked me to do so for him, so I can do it for the both of you."
Wen Cheng, Lang Shun, Luo Mei, and her husband, Du Yuhan arrived sometime later. They were the ones most close to Alex, so they had received the news a little earlier.
Alex introduced his master, his martial uncle, and his senior sister to Hannah, and they started sharing all the stories they had about Alex.
Kong Yuhan, Wan Li, Zhou Mi, and Fan Ruogang were much later, but they still came to meet Hannah.
Hannah spent her days with her family, learning about what they had been doing the entire time. Hearing about the past made her happy and sad.
While she had already known that her father was dead, hearing how her mother had found that out had brought back the grief once again.
Liz stayed by Hannah's side the entire time, not letting her out of her sight. She had finally had her child returned to her, so she wasn't going to let her go any time soon.
The funeral preparation had been completed in 5 days, and a pyre had been prepared in the Skyfire City, in the Yao clan's ancestral ground.
This was the family that Yao Ning had been born to, so it was only right that her end was here as well. While nothing of Yao Ning's body had been present for the funeral, people had still gathered around items that they associated with Yao Ning which they were going to burn in her name.
Alex and the rest arrived at the funeral ground, and their arrival marked the beginning of the funeral.
