Chapter 746: What Was Once the Number One Region in Revered Ancient
Nanny Sun’s words caused the guests of the banquet to look down to hide their facial expressions. There were some people who were taboo.... Not to be mentioned....
Princess Anhai’s eyes glittered. She was fully aware that her former wet nurse had been a very connected person when she was young, and had plenty of tactics to deal with court politics. If she hadn’t been like that, she would never have been a wet nurse to both Princess Anhai and Fifth Prince. Nor would she have survived in the imperial palace, or been rewarded by the emperor with a retirement in her hometown.
It went without saying that Nanny Sun was very intelligent and also fiercely loyal to the emperor. Given her experience and breadth of knowledge, she was keenly aware of how words could sometimes be weaponized, or used to tacitly explain your attitude. Sometimes, a few short words could be packed with meaning. And of course, the words she had just spoken were just like that: profoundly meaningful.
Princess Anhai looked thoughtfully at Nanny Sun with her kind facial expression. The truth was that Princess Anhai had never been able to dig up any information about Nanny Sun’s life before she entered service in the imperial palace. Apparently, nobody knew anything about her. No amount of digging by Princess Anhai had resulted in any information. All she knew was that she’d had a daughter who died young. Then her own mother had submitted an official request to the court for her to enter service in the palace as Princess Anhai’s wet nurse.
Of course, wet nurses in the imperial palace had a lot more to do than just breast-feed babies. They occupied a very special position. In order to prevent political friction between the harem and the imperial clan, the emperor’s household used the tactic of keeping the princes and their birth mothers from becoming very close. And the wet nurses were an important part of that tactic.
They would actually live with the imperial princes and princesses, accompanying them and acting as teachers from the time they were young until they were considered adults. They essentially took over the role of mother, spending almost all their time with the princes and princesses. The wet nurses would shape the world view of the young ones, thus greatly influencing their future, their attitude, and the way they went about handling matters. In the imperial household, the wet nurses were also teachers and mothers.
As Princess Anhai considered those things, Nanny Sun reached out and patted her arm. Princess Anhai looked up, then smiled instinctively and turned to Ningyan.
Ningyan had a complicated facial expression. Nanny Sun’s words obviously made him think of his own mother, dredging up a sense of melancholy along with many old memories. He had already reached the point where he couldn’t quite remember what his mother looked like. Her name was taboo in the imperial capital. People didn’t even talk about her. In fact, he didn’t remember even hearing her name until after she had passed away.
Ningyan took a deep breath, walked up to Nanny Sun, and bowed.
Nanny Sun looked at Ningyan and kept the kind smile on her face as she indicated he should sit at her side, opposite Princess Anhai. After he sat down, she reached out and clasped his hand. Inside, she was sighing. She’d known all along why Anhai had brought Ningyan to the banquet. However, after Nanny Sun left the imperial capital, she’d always been reluctant to meddle with affairs there.
After all, the death of King Heaventide, and the emperor’s imperial decree, were both deeply meaningful. However you looked at it, it seemed to indicate that a tempestuous succession struggle was about to strike the imperial capital.
There was another relevant factor related to Ningyan.... Something that had been buried in history and that few people knew about was that Nanny Sun had personally watched Ningyan’s mother as she rose to prominence. Nanny Sun had witnessed her outstanding talents, but had also been there when, overnight, everything ended in blood-soaked tragedy. An imperial prince had even died during that time. That prince was Ningyan’s older twin brother. From that day on, Ningyan had been alienated by most people in the palace. Her previous indifferent attitude toward Ningyan and Xu Qing hadn’t been born of malice. Rather, it was a case of I’ll mind my business, you mind yours .
But when Empress Spirit Aurora came, that changed everything. Nanny Sun wasn’t going to take any desperate risks. But on the other hand, she had to do something. And thus, she spoke the words she did, and acted as she had.
Everyone in attendance at the banquet had connections in the imperial capital. Rumors about her words and actions would quickly spread. And that was enough.
The banquet proceeded until the moon hung high in the sky. At that point, Empress Spirit Aurora stretched, rose, and left. Xu Qing also got up and bid farewell to Nanny Sun.
Nanny Sun looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, then took out three jade slips and held them out to Ningyan. She explained that she wanted him to deliver them to three of her old friends in the capital. Ningyan looked instinctively at Xu Qing, who nodded at him. Taking a deep breath, he solemnly took the three jade slips. With that, they left.
The moon shone down on them as they walked back to the teleportation portal. Thoughts of the past had caused Ningyan’s mood to sink, and he just walked quietly alongside Xu Qing.
About halfway back, Xu Qing reached out and clasped Ningyan’s shoulder. “You’ll be fine. Regardless of anything, you’re always going to be a swordsage from Sea-Sealing County.”
Xu Qing’s words warmed Ningyan’s heart. He sighed softly. “Thank you, Biggest Bro. Actually, you’re right. I just don’t want to lose any face for you. The reality is that the position of imperial prince isn’t much of a position at all. I’ve long been sidelined, and nobody wants to have anything to do with me.
“I know why. It’s my mother. In the imperial capital, she’s a taboo subject.... I used to have an older brother. My twin. He was a lot more decisive than me. And smarter. He was basically better than me in every respect. He was a bit taciturn, but there wasn’t anything that could knock him down. He always treated me amazingly. When we were young, and I was especially weak, he would keep me safe. But he died the day after my mother died. So did everyone else in the house at the time, except for me, the most useless of all.
“After that, I felt lost in the imperial capital. All I could do was carefully try to navigate things on my own. Oh how amazing the imperial capital is....” Ningyan shook his head bitterly. “Some years later, my father issued an imperial decree sending me to Sea-Sealing County. I was supposed to go undercover there and keep records about everything going on. That was when I ran into you, Biggest Bro.”
Ningyan looked over at Xu Qing in the moonlight. He had never talked to anyone about these things before. It was because, along his journey, he had somehow started to feel like Xu Qing was an older brother to him.
Xu Qing looked up into the dome of heaven, as if he was thinking about someone.... Finally, he reached over and tousled Ningyan’s hair. “If you’re not happy in the imperial capital, then we’ll go back to Sea-Sealing County together.”
“Okay!” Ningyan said, nodding firmly.
Xu Qing smiled, and they continued on their way.
A few days later, the Southtrust County teleportation portal activated. Xu Qing and the traveling party entered it, and this time they had an additional member of the party.
Princess Anhai.
Before the portal was activated, she had requested to go back to the Imperial Region with Xu Qing’s group.
***
Three regions away from the Gray Sea Region, on a vast plain, was a massive teleportation portal that currently flared with glittering light. It was at least three times larger than any of the other ancient portals Xu Qing had seen on the journey. What was more, the entire thing was crafted from the highest quality spirit stone. A host of monolithic stones surrounded the portal, all of them carved with magical symbols that emitted terrifying fluctuations.
Some distance away was a military encampment. They were responsible for standing guard over the teleportation portal. In fact, soldiers from there patrolled the area constantly.
There wasn’t just one teleportation portal present. There were many, and all of them went to different locations. What was more, there were military encampments for all of them. This entire area was circular in shape. In fact, it was like a huge ring, larger than some small-sized regions. And this was only one part of the Imperial Region. There was an outer ring, separated by a sea of nothingness, followed by a slightly smaller ring. Then another, and another. In total there were about a hundred.
And in the middle of those rings was a gargantuan planet. Even from a great distance, it was possible to see its shape. It wasn’t covered with solid matter, but rather, gas! Its surface was covered with clouds, out of which vortexes would occasionally appear, along with crashing lightning. This planet was a gas giant! The planet had rings around it, which were concentric continents. Beneath the planet was a pitch black abyss.
As Xu Qing’s party appeared on the outermost ring, Princess Anhai began to speak.
“Welcome to the Imperial Region! The entire region is actually suspended in midair. Beneath it is an abyss so deep that nobody knows what’s inside. Legend has it the abyss leads to a place called Brilliant Heaven.
“The Imperial Region is actually an astonishing gas giant. Years ago, Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity pulled it here from beyond the heavens and turned it into the imperial palace. Nowadays, it’s considered an ancestral land for all humans.
“Not even children of the imperial clan are allowed to go inside the gas giant. Only the emperor and the crown prince can go inside to offer ancestral sacrifices.
“The gas giant is surrounded by a hundred rings, which is where the common citizens live. Right now, we’re standing on the outermost ring. Although it looks like solid ground, it’s actually pure light, solidified by means of a divine ability.
“As you get closer to the planet, you’ll find that the rings are increasingly formed from gas. Of course, the qualifications to live on the rings increase as you get further in. The innermost ring... is the imperial capital.”
Everyone from Sea-Sealing County was stunned. It didn’t matter the level of their cultivation base, or how worldly wise they were. Princess Anhai's description struck everyone to the core.
The only exceptions were the Captain, who sneered slightly, and Plumdark, who looked at the planet with her eyes glittering. Everyone else, despite being shaken, managed to recover their composure quickly. Xu Qing, meanwhile, looked at Princess Anhai and nodded.
Princess Anhai’s expression didn’t change. However, she was secretly surprised. Considering that the Imperial Region had once been the number-one region in Revered Ancient, when ordinary people saw it for the first time, they usually had a hard time processing what they were seeing. But these Sea-Sealing County cultivators had recovered very quickly.
Suppressing her surprise, she led Xu Qing and everyone else onward. A few days later, thanks to Princess Anhai’s arrangements, they were nearing the inner ring that was the imperial capital.
The gas giant became clearer and clearer. The clouds on its surface swirled endlessly. Occasionally, they would part, revealing an astonishing statue of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity.
The statue sat cross-legged on the planet, and though it wasn’t alive, it looked extremely lifelike.