An Bai kept quiet after saying his piece, giving the half-bloods time to think everything through. If they wanted to know more, they would certainly ask, and he’d try to answer everything as well as he could. As for everything he couldn’t tell, he was sure that Qiu Ling would get to that later himself. Probably not today but in the upcoming days for sure, after his husband had settled in and everyone calmed down a little.

The half-bloods indeed thought about everything he had said but before they could come up with further questions or speak about their own intentions, someone rushed up from behind.

All of them immediately tensed and looked back, suddenly afraid of what would happen. They hadn’t worried before but now that An Bai had already reminded them, how could they not pay attention to how precarious their situation and that of the king might be? Of course, they were on high alert now.

An Bai also turned to see who was going to accompany them from here on out. In general, there seemed to be two possibilities: Whoever arrived first was either very much on their side and quickly accepted the possibility of their king having some demon blood as no big deal or the opposite was the case and this was someone who would try to demand justice in whatever way they deemed necessary which would likely result in a fight. They had to be ready for both.

The other advisers also slowed down, worried about what would happen. As they were coming from the wedding celebration, nobody was having their weapons out in the open but among dragons, chances were that they wouldn’t use them anyway. Still, everyone got ready in whatever way was most suitable for them to fight in.

The people who finally arrived were none other than Shou Quan and Yu Gan. They glanced at the people up front and then slowed down, also taking on their other form again.

Shou Quan craned her neck and looked to the front, blinking her eyes in confusion. “Isn’t His Majesty with you?” She knew she had been a little slow because she was stunned but … everyone else had left earlier so how come they weren’t with the king? She had even hurried up so they could catch up with everyone!

An Bai smiled when she asked like this. It really didn’t sound as if she had an issue with their king’s heritage. “Well, it’s his wedding day. We didn’t want to intrude too much so we are trailing a little behind. Their family members should have caught up though.”

“Oh … makes sense.” Shou Quan didn’t ask further and instead turned to her wife, flying around her. “I didn’t fly too fast just now, did I? Do you want to rest for a while?”

Yu Gan quickly grabbed her wife’s sleeve and pulled her to her side before Shou Quan could make her dizzy by revolving around her the whole time. “It’s alright. Let’s just fly slowly with everyone now.”

“Oh, sure.” Shou Quan didn’t mention it further and just took her wife’s hand, feeling content. After a while, she couldn’t help but notice that everyone was awfully quiet though.

She looked at the half-bloods close by and realized that they probably just didn’t know them. After all, many of them likely weren’t from the capital city and even if they were, their paths might not have crossed before. She herself only recognized one or two who had come to report to the king before.

Shou Quan thought for a bit and finally pulled her wife closer to them, thinking that just chatting a little more would make things much less awkward. “Ah, that was a really nice ceremony, wasn’t it? I mean, I definitely like how uncomplicated things our back in our realm but it had a nice touch of … uh … things being official, right?”

The person she had sidled up to was Hai Ying. She looked at the two women and then nodded hesitantly. It sure was true that things had looked very serious but also celebratory. It was just … was that really the question right now?! Had this woman not seen that their king had mixed blood? Didn’t she have any thoughts on that?!

Shou Quan didn’t seem to notice Hai Ying’s complicated feelings and just continued her one-woman show in the hope the other side would warm up and talk a little more. “Ah, I guess nobody keeps us from adding a bit of a celebration either. You know, Yu Gan and I got married years ago and we at least celebrated with our families and friends the next day but it doesn’t have the same feeling to it. I wonder if things were different in the past …”

Hai Ying mechanically turned her head and looked at An Bai, hoping he’d help her. She just … didn’t know how to react to this!

An Bai smiled, understanding very well how she felt. He wasn’t that familiar with Shou Quan either but their king had sometimes acted like this in the past so he had no issue dealing with this kind of rambling. Anyway, in this case, it sounded like the kind of chat that was only supposed to fill an uncomfortable silence and he had just the perfect way to help her fill it.

“If General Shou Quan is interested, I actually know a little about that. Although the customs we have had for our weddings have never been as elaborate as those of the gods, there were indeed a few more customs in the past that have slowly fallen out of favor as they aren’t as important any longer.”

Shou Quan’s eyes lit up when someone finally gave her an audible response. She tugged at Yu Gan’s hand and flew over to his side, beaming at him. “Adviser An Bai, right? I’d love to hear all about it!” At the very least, she wouldn’t have to continue with her monologue and maybe he really had something interesting to share …