Meanwhile, Leng Jin Yu, Jinde, and Xiang Yu arrived at the capital city of the Nine Heavens.

Leng Jin Yu turned to his husband who had put his veiled hat back on and raised his brows. “Where to? The Heavenly Emperor’s palace?”

Jinde pursed his lips and pondered. He didn’t necessarily want to run into the Heavenly Emperor too much. For the time being, he didn’t mind exposing his identity in front of the Heavenly Empress and her brother but the Heavenly Emperor as somebody who was against Qiu Ling wouldn’t be alright. Thus, going there would be taking yet another risk.

“You know … I think it might be better not to.” He turned to look at Xiang Yu and smiled. “Xiang Yu, do you know where the God of War currently is? Or the Heavenly Empress?”

Xiang Yu nodded and brushed the Mark of Wisdom beneath the jewelry before pointing in two directions. “The Heavenly Empress is in her son’s palace over there. The God of War went to what seems to be his own palace. At the very least, there are other guards around. It’s in that direction.”

Jinde nodded. They couldn’t go without anybody else. If they got caught, especially in a situation like this, it’d be a problem. His veiled hat certainly didn’t inspire trust and the guards might cause issues. If his identity got exposed because of that … no, that wouldn’t do.

Turning to his husband, Jinde patted his shoulder. “How about you go and get the Heavenly Empress? Tell her our plan and see if she would accompany us. Otherwise, I’m afraid we’ll draw unwanted attention. I’ll wait here with Xiang Yu until you come back.”

Leng Jin Yu nodded and glanced at the fallen god as well. “Alright. You two pay attention then. Xiang Yu … if one of the guards comes over, you deal with it. Jinde can’t show his face yet so you’ll have to take charge.”

Xiang Yu froze and reached up to touch where his Mark of Wisdom was but only touched the cold surface of the jewel. Right. Currently, nobody would know what he was. He could do this!

He nodded with a solemn expression. “I will do it! Don’t worry, nobody will hurt him. If they try …” He wanted to say that they could just kill them but then remembered that Jinde didn’t seem to like that kind of solution. “Uh … I’ll hit them in the face?”

Jinde’s lips beneath the veil twitched but he barely held back his laughter. Well, he’d sure like to see that!

Leng Jin Yu almost choked when he got that response. He glanced at Jinde, wondering if he could really leave these two alone. In the end, he just sighed though. Anyway, he didn’t have another choice.

Turning back to Xiang Yu, he tried to look relaxed. “I don’t think anybody will try to hurt you. I was thinking more along the lines of them trying to question you because they’ll think you’re suspicious.

“Just try to act normal and tell them why you’re here and that you’re waiting until somebody comes and gets you. As long as you cooperate with them, I don’t think this should escalate to violence. So … don’t worry. Just …” Be yourself? Uh, that might not be the best idea. “Just try your best! And in the worst case, Jinde is still there and can take over.”

Xiang Yu nodded and then watched as Leng Jin Yu left. Seeing him talk to the guards and then entering the city, he suddenly felt anxious. Would he really be able to do this?

Jinde saw his mood and reached over, putting a hand on Xiang Yu’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. It’ll all be alright. This moment will be and so will the crown prince’s situation. As long as we all hold together, we can get through anything.”

Xiang Yu hurriedly nodded and then reached up to take Jinde’s hand. He felt a lot better just holding it.

Jinde watched him and couldn’t help but smile. Dealing with Xiang Yu was a bit like having another child or maybe having a nephew visit. He sure didn’t mind. Although … it did remind him of Jin Ling and with that came the pain of the loss he had suffered.

He turned to look at the walls ahead of them and suppressed a sigh. At such a time, a demon might have been able to help. Especially so if the person in question was the demon king. After all, they had people in the other two realms. As long as Jing He was anywhere there, they’d find him sooner or later. The demon realm was a problem though.

If Jing He hadn’t fallen and there was some other explanation as to why Xiang Yu hadn’t been able to find his location, then they couldn’t search for Jing He by just relying on a few people. A search like this would require his picture to be put up in every city and every citizen should possibly get one themselves. This could be organized in the Nine Heavens and the dragon realm without trouble but in the demon realm … it was impossible without Jin Ling.

Jinde raised his head and looked up at the sky which had turned into a beautiful blue that was dotted with white clouds here and there. It really was hard to imagine that somebody had fallen just a short while ago.

It really was a treacherous sight, making it seem as if life wasn’t fraught with all those dangers and you wouldn’t incur any losses. He knew better though. Even if you managed to get out on the other end of one thing, there would be more of it waiting for you further down the path. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be here, having gotten back the love of his life but also having lost a child, now on the brink of watching another of his children fall into insanity. It just … wasn’t fair.