The dragons immediately beamed when Jing He said that he liked their gift. It seemed that all that last-minute frustration had indeed paid off.

“Oh, it’s great if you’re happy with it, Your Majesty! We really weren’t sure …” The woman rubbed her neck again, not sure what else to say. They hadn’t prepared so much and she didn’t know their king’s spouse any better than the others which was to say that she hardly knew anything about him at all. How was she supposed to find something to talk about all of a sudden?!

Qiu Ling watched them quietly and smiled to himself. Naturally, he was pleased that Jing He was well-liked by his people. This would definitely make things much easier in the future. He could also see that after handing over the gift and explaining themselves, they had no idea how to continue. It seemed he should lend a helping hand here.

He cleared his throat and motioned at the people in front of them. “Since you’ve delivered your gift, then don’t crowd around the entrance. Go and have fun. I will show my beloved the city and celebrate as well.”

The two dragons hurriedly nodded and dashed to one side each, not wanting to be in their king’s way when he took his husband around.

Jing He watched on and then looked up at Qiu Ling, hoping for a few words to tell him what to do now as well.

Qiu Ling turned to look at him and smiled. “Are you ready? Then let’s put that away for now and head in. You will like the city, I’m sure of it.”

Jing He inclined his head and closed the box with the jewelry, carefully putting it in the spatial bracelet before reaching out to Qiu Ling again. His husband took his hand and tugged at it gently, leading the way forward.

Jing He had been to this city during his trial and he had seen quite a lot. He naturally remembered but it was different to come here now when he was married to Qiu Ling. From now on, this would be where he lived. At the same time, as a trueborn god, he had a different understanding than he possessed during his trial. The comparisons he’d draw were between the dragon realm and the Nine Heavens, not the mortal realm. The questions he’d want to ask were the same: Not those a human would ask but heavily reliant on what he had experienced so far as a god.

As Qiu Ling led him into the city, he looked to both sides, taking in the buildings they passed by, but also gazed at what they were approaching in the distance. While he knew the maps of the immortal realms, he had never seen one specifically for any of the cities so he wasn’t familiar with the layout of the dragon realm’s capital city. From his trial, he only vaguely remembered where the palace was and a few of the surrounding streets. He wasn’t very familiar with the rest of this place.

Qiu Ling didn’t speak up at first, wanting to give Jing He time to familiarize himself with this new environment. Anyway, if his beloved wanted to know something, he would definitely ask, wouldn’t he?

Qiu Ling let his gaze roam over the buildings on either side of the street and then inwardly sighed. Who was he kidding? Jing He definitely wouldn’t ask him anything. His beloved was probably still worried about how the dragons would perceive him so he should currently be extra careful. It certainly didn’t help that everyone they walked past was looking at them excitedly and people were still following from behind. If Jing He could still scrape together the courage to speak about his doubts, that’d be nothing short of a miracle.

Well, thankfully, there was still him who thought for his beloved’s sake!

Qiu Ling leaned to the side, humming faintly. “My love … how about letting me tell you a bit about the city? I might not be as knowledgeable as An Bai about these things but I am sure I can mention a thing or two that’ll help you understand better.”

Jing He naturally nodded in response. “Yes, if you would.” He indeed wanted to know more. During his trial, he hadn’t asked much about these matters so now, he felt that his insight was sorely lacking.

“Alright, then …” He looked around again, wondering what he should actually tell him. He had grown up in this city and he had also lived here for several millennia since he acceded to the throne so he was more than familiar with this place. Even though he hadn’t specifically learned about it like people like An Bai certainly would, even he couldn’t help but find out about some of its history and peculiarities over time or hear a few whispers about the almost-forgotten past.

“Supposedly, this was the first place where the dragons settled down. The first building they erected was where the palace stands today. At that time, the border between the gods’ and the demons’ realm was roughly at this place, following the north-south axis.”

Jing He nodded. Even though he wasn’t as familiar with the past of the dragons as he was with that of the gods, he indeed knew of this. After all, part of what was originally considered the gods’ territory had been ceded to the dragons later on. So naturally, this was part of his own people’s history as well.

“The building was soon destroyed again in battle but it was rebuilt just the same and became the center of the later city we created. They took the door as the point from which they built further, paving a road to the north and one leading past it to both the west and east. Alongside it, new buildings were slowly added and the original building became the place to gather and discuss how to defend against the demons and lead our people toward a better future. Someday, when a sovereign was elected, this was the building he moved into as a sign of his duty to protect his people.”