Ye Yang didn't lose any time and went to investigate the two guards that had been involved in the matter. He needed to find out if An Bai was still somewhere in the palace or if he had actually managed to leave somehow. If it was the former, then the situation could still be salvaged. If it was the latter … He'd really have a hard time making this work.
Having a high-ranking dragon in the dungeon had been the easiest way to find out what Jin Ling wanted to know. But with him gone … It wouldn't be that easy to find somebody else who could take over that position. Just any dragon wouldn't do. It needed to be somebody who had the knowledge about formations and also some insight into what the dragon king was up to. How many of them actually fulfilled these requirements?
In other words: He needed to get An Bai back.
Since he didn't know where exactly they had gone, he first went to their quarters. Asking around the first guard's chambers through, the demons living close by could only shake their heads. Nobody had seen him since yesterday morning when he had gone to the dungeon for his shift.
Ye Yang furrowed his brows and pondered what to do. Should he go check out the other guard's place first? But it could still be that he'd have just missed him when he returned.
After a moment of hesitation, Ye Yang decided against it and finally forced the door to the first guard's chambers open. When he did, he was greeted by an empty room. Continuing to furrow his brows, he stepped further inside, looking around for any signs as to what he could've gone. After just a few steps, he noticed that the door to the bath hadn't been closed completely. There were some traces on the ground as if there had been vapor clinging to the walls and ground that finally dried off after some time.
Ye Yang went over and pushed the door open, his brows raising when he saw the scene inside. "I guess that explains a lot." Walking over to the bathtub in the middle of the room, that was still filled halfway with now completely cold water, he shook his head. Then, he turned to the guard that looked as if he had been completely taken by surprise when he died.
Ye Yang took a moment to inspect the wounds and finally shook his head with a smile. "You looked so refined but I guess that's no guarantee. I probably shouldn't have judged a dragon like that." He shook his head and got up, not bothering to investigate the second guard. While he didn't have the full story, he was already very clear that this person wasn't in the palace anymore. No, most likely, he wasn't even in the demon realm anymore.
Now, that did leave the question as to what he should do. As he had already realized, another dragon wouldn't do. Even if there was one, finding that kind of dragon would be difficult. So what to do?
Thinking for a while, Ye Yang's lips finally hooked up in a captivating smile. Well … Thinking of An Bai's gentle features and that white hair, he felt that it really would be a pity to just give up on this even if it wasn't because of what Jin Ling had asked him to do. And anyway, there hadn't been any bigger fights with the dragons recently. The worst thing had been the time when their king had abducted the dragon king's fiance but … That kind of small matter probably shouldn't be too much of a problem, right? His advisers shouldn't be trying to keep a loving couple apart just because of that, right?
He chuckled to himself and then left the demon realm, going right over to the dragon realm's capital city.
The guards in front of the palace eyed him warily but there was no way to tell that he was a demon at first sight.
Ye Yang gifted the two of them a smile and then nodded his head. "Greetings. My name is Ye Yang and I'm here to see An Bai."
The two of them exchanged a glance. "An Bai?"
Ye Yang showed them a slightly embarrassed expression. "My partner. I guess it should be adviser An Bai. I'm just not used to calling him that way."
The two guards exchanged yet another glance, feeling a bit unaccustomed to this. They had never seen this guy. And save for the other advisers, they had also never seen anybody who would dare to call that person by just his name. Even if you weren't calling him adviser An Bai, at least Scholar An Bai should be a given. Just using his name … That did seem a bit rude. But maybe …
They gave Ye Yang a once over and couldn't deny that he was a handsome man. It absolutely wasn't impossible that one would fall for him just based on his looks. As for his personality … If they really were a couple, then using his name wouldn't be rude so they didn't dare to comment on that.
Anyway, even if they were a couple, they didn't know that for sure. There was no way they would just let this person in without making sure that he was welcome. "Please wait for a moment. We will inform adviser An Bai that you've come here."
Ye Yang nodded and patiently waited in front of the gates. He wasn't worried at all. While he was of the demon race, he didn't feel like he had given this person any reason to make trouble for him. And anyway, with how his position in the demon realm was, he really doubted that An Bai would dare to do anything to him. Especially not with the current situation. It seemed that this strife for the throne was really a heaven-sent blessing in regard to the task that Jin Ling had given him.