After leaving the Dragon Palace, Captain Cheng returned to the building where Yuan and Wang Xiuying were being held.
"Are the humans still inside?" Captain Cheng asked the guards standing outside.
"Yes, Captain! Nobody has entered or left this place ever since you left!" The guards responded.
"Good."
Captain Cheng went inside a moment later to see Yuan and Wang Xiuying sitting in their jail cell with bored-looking expressions on their faces.
"Guards! Open the cells!" Captain Cheng said to them.
"Yes, Captain!" The guards didn’t question him and immediately opened the cell doors.
"Are we free?!" Wang Xiuying’s face immediately brightened.
"No, you’re not free. You’re coming with me now." Captain Cheng said to them.
"Oh..." Wang Xiuying sighed after hearing this and returned to look dispirited.
Once they were outside, Captain Cheng carried the two of them into the skies using Qi Manipulation.
"You’re... a Spirit King?" Yuan recognized his spiritual energy. However, it was much more powerful than Senior Nie’s and even Xiao Hua’s cultivation. If he had to take a guess, this person was around the peak of Spirit King.
Captain Cheng looked at Yuan and said, "You can tell? Not bad for someone only in the Spirit Grandmaster realm."
"Only?" Wang Xiuying raised her eyebrows. "How powerful are the people here when you make it sound like Spirit Grandmasters are insignificant?"
"Hmph. You’re from the Lower Heavens so Spirit Grandmasters are probably the peak of cultivation there and are revered by everyone and their mother. However, in this world, Spirit Grandmasters are only qualified to become bodyguards at best!"
"What? Bodyguards at best?" Wang Xiuying stared at him with a dazed look on her face, as she was having trouble imagining the power scale of this place.
"Just where are we, exactly?" Yuan asked him a moment later.
"You’re currently in the Ancient Dragon City, a place isolated from the Nine Heavens. In other words, we don’t belong to the Nine Heavens. However, if we were, we would probably exist somewhere in the middle of the Nine Heavens."
"So even higher than the Spirit Heavens? Amazing." Yuan expressed his admiration.
"Spirit Heavens? Hah! That place is like a backwater area compared to our sacred place!" Captain Cheng laughed out loud.
Sometime later, Yuan asked, "By the way, where are we heading? We’ve been traveling for almost an hour now."
"It’s a place that’s too good for you humans, that’s for sure. We’re almost there. I’ll explain it more once we get there."
A few more minutes later, Captain Cheng started descending from the skies.
"That’s... a palace? What a beautiful place." Yuan expressed his admiration for the palace made out of white jade.
"A breathtaking place, indeed..." Wang Xiuying mumbled with a dazed look on her face.
Once they landed, Captain Cheng said to them, "This is the Dragon Palace, where the Royal Family lives."
"The Royal Family?" Wang Xiuying swallowed nervously. These people sound like incredible big shots! Why were they brought here? To meet the Royal Family?
"I will warn you now, and I will only warn you once. If you show even the slightest disrespect or hostility towards the Royal Family, I will immediately kill you on the spot." Captain Cheng warned them with a stern look on his face.
"Do you two understand?"
"Yes." They quickly nodded.
"Good. Then follow me." Captain Cheng then led them to the staircase where other guards were stationed.
’Wow, they’re really all Spirit Grandmasters...’ Yuan said to himself after seeing their cultivation.
Once they climbed the staircase, Captain Cheng brought them to the audience room, where the Royal Family was already seated.
’That’s the Royal Family? They have such a powerful atmosphere around them!’ Wang Xiuying could feel a suffocating pressure around her body just from looking at them.
"Stop right there!" Captain Cheng suddenly said to them once they got within a certain distance from the Royal Family.
Yuan and Wang Xiuying immediately stopped walking.
"Greet the Royal Family!" He continued.
"Uhh... Hello?" The two of them greeted the Royal Family awkwardly, as they have never met royalty before, much less greet them.
"The audacity! Why aren’t you kneeling on the floor when you’re greeting the Royal Family?! And what’s with that greeting?! Do you have a death wish?! I even warned you right before we entered this place!" Captain Cheng roared at them before grabbing the sword by his side and raising it into the air, seemingly prepared to chop them to pieces.
"Aaah! Yuan!" Wang Xiuying shouted in a terrified voice.
Yuan subconsciously responded to Wang Xiuying’s voice, and he immediately summoned the Empyrean Overlord and stood between Captain Cheng and Wang Xiuying, protecting her from him.
"Y-You! How dare you point a weapon at me! A mere human!" Captain Cheng’s Spirit King cultivation base exploded from his body.
*Cough*
Wang Xiuying coughed up a mouthful of blood after experiencing Captain Cheng’s tyrannical cultivation base. Yuan wasn’t much better. Even with his talents, the disparity between Spirit Grandmaster and Spirit King was simply too much. Furthermore, his opponent was a dragon.
However, he wasn’t just going to stand there and do nothing while Wang Xiuying was feeling pain.
But before he could really do anything, the middle-aged man sitting at the end of the room suddenly stood up and shouted in a loud voice, "Halt!"
A powerful aura that was far stronger than Captain Cheng’s aura suddenly filled the place, yet it didn’t hurt Yuan or Wang Xiuying. Instead, it canceled out Captain Cheng’s aura.
Captain Cheng immediately withdrew his pressure after hearing the middle-aged man’s words.
"Who told you to treat the guests so roughly, Captain Cheng?! If you’d hurt them or worse— killed them— the death sentence would be the least of your worries!" The middle-aged man exclaimed, shocking him.
"T-This subordinate was wrong!" Captain Cheng immediately kneeled on the ground and apologized.
However, the middle-aged man ignored him and approached Yuan and Wang Xiuying.
"Be at ease, guests. Things had gotten out of hand just now, and it was never our intention." The middle-aged man said to Yuan with a friendly smile on his face.