After hearing news of Ying Yue possibly being in Xinjing, Jianyu wasted no time and creates a portal the following morning and heads out to Xinjing in search of Ying Yue. Quickly changing his clothing and hair color, Jianyu goes incognito. Fu Jia who was standing nearby as his emperor was preparing himself, couldn't help but feel uneasy about him going alone.
"Your majesty, are you certain you want to go alone? I'll be more than happy to accompany you."
"No, it's alright. While I'm gone, I need you to continue running things here."
"But if there are signs of Ying Yue in Xinjing, then there's a possibility of Bai Chun being there too. It's too risky to go alone!"
"Fu Jia, who do you think I am?"
".... The dragon emperor."
"I fear nothing, but I fear losing Ying Yue more than anything. You will do as you're told and remain here."
"Yes....your majesty."
Jianyu turns around and puts on his black cloak. With his hair being black and his outfit being plain as possible. Jianyu was now ready to leave for Xinjing.
"Safe travels, your majesty."
"If anything happens while I am gone, look for the head priest."
With those parting words, Jianyu jumps right into the portal and disappears from Fu Jia's sight. Within mere seconds, Jianyu was standing inside the kingdom of Xinjing inside the bedroom of a random tea house. After realizing he was inside a tea house, Jianyu exits the room and heads down to the first floor. He orders tea for himself as he listens in on chatters from people nearby.
"Hey, did you hear? The crown prince apparently removed the crown princess of her title."
"You serious? What did she do?"
"I don't know, but some man down the street was telling stories about it."
"She must've done something truly horrible then."
Jianyu stands up from his table and walks over to the two men talking on the table in front of him.
"Good sir, where can I find that man?"
"Oh! Are you interested in gossip too? It's some middle age guy who used to be a guard for the palace. He's by the large tree at the end of this block. He's still there, I think."
"Thank you, sir."
Jianyu drops three silver coins onto his table as he walks out of the tea shop. Jianyu heads towards the direction the man pointed at. After walking for ten minutes, Jianyu could see a large tree at the end of the block. Just like the man described, there was a man sitting under the tree surrounded by people as he was storytelling. Jianyu makes his way towards the tree and stands behind the crowd of people as he listened in on what the man was telling.
"The crown prince has been searching for weeks for this woman."
A young woman sitting down in front of the man asks him about the mysterious woman that the crown prince was infatuated with.
"Sir, what does this woman look like? She's got to be a beauty if she was able to win the heart of the crown prince."
"I've only seen her a few times myself. She had beautiful long black hair and her skin looked so pale and silky smooth. She's a rough beauty, but the more you stared at her the better she looked."
The man goes on and on about his encounter with Ying Yue. As he continued story telling; royal guards showed up and disbanded the gathering. Everyone quickly dispersed as it was illegal to talk ill of the royal family. Jianyu silently followed the man as he made a run for it from the guards.
"Wait!"
"Huh? What did you want?"
"Tell me more about your story."
"Just come back tomorrow, I'll tell more for free. "
"I'll pay you what you want if you do."
"My stories aren't cheap. You look like some young master, if you give me something, maybe I won't mind telling you what I know."
Jianyu throws a bag of money to the strange man and watched as his eyes enlarged. Quickly glancing around him, the strange man shoves the money bag into his sleeve as he motioned for Jianyu to follow him back to his home. The man leads Jianyu to a small worn out shack near the outskirts of the markets. He motions for Jianyu to take a seat as he prepared tea.
"I am fine, don't worry about serving me tea."
The man pours himself a cup and places the pot back. He seats himself across from Jianyu and takes a sip of tea before talking.
"Well, what did you want to know?"
"I want to know everything. Tell me what you know about this mysterious woman."
"Alrighty! Since you did just pay me quite a hefty amount, I'll be nice and tell you everything. Now, this mysterious woman was brought here by someone who worked for the crown prince. What was his name again...Hmmm...Bai? Bai what?"
"Bai Chun?"
"Yes! That's the name. He also had a few other people with him, but I never bothered to recognize their names. I happened to be inside the throne room when they brought the woman in. She claimed she was the dragon empress; can you believe that? Ha Ha!"
"And? What happened to her?"
"Hmmm...the crown prince mentioned that he was going to marry her, because she was the owner of the divine heaven's will sword. It's a famous legend in Xinjing, but I doubt that sword was real."
"You mean to tell me they kidnapped her just because of a sword?!"
"Hey, don't get angry at me. I'm only telling you what I saw and heard."
"Alright, my apologies; go on."
"Hmmm...what else happened that day?"
"Why didn't the crown prince wed her right away? I find that rather odd."
"Oh! The woman was apparently carrying, so the crown prince wanted to wait until she gave birth to wed her. He didn't like the idea of marrying a woman who was pregnant with another man's child."
"What?! She's was pregnant?!"
"Hey, that's what they said at the meeting. She was in her early stages so I'm not surprised she didn't know. The crown prince locked her up inside the palace and rarely let her go anywhere until that incident a few weeks ago."
Jianyu clenches his fist in disbelief. Holding back his anger, Jianyu continues to listen to what the strange man was telling him.
"What incident?"
"The crown princess was jealous and threw her into the cold palace while the royal family was out hunting. When the crown prince returned, the woman went missing without a trace. No one knows where she is or where she went. It's no thanks to the crown princess I'm in this state. I was placed on duty to guard the cold palace, so when she went missing, I lost my job and the crown princess lost her title."
The strange man sips on his cup of tea as he stares at Jianyu.
"What else happened? Any news on where the woman went?"
"There have been rumors floating around the kingdom. The crown prince sent out troops to neighboring kingdoms in search of the woman. Jianxiang recently reported back that there was a woman matching her description there a few weeks ago."
"You're saying she's not there anymore?"
"I don't know, this is all I know. I'm sorry if you're searching for this woman too, but this is as much as I know."
"What about that man Bai Chun? Where is he?"
"I don't know. They went missing completely after the meeting in the throne room."
"I see. Thank you for the information. I'll be taking my leave now."
"No problem. Just hope you find what you came looking for."
Jianyu stands up and heads towards the man's front door. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he creates a portal that was directly connected to the throne room in the Xinjing palace. The strange man that was sitting down was now spitting out his tea as he witnesses Jianyu creating a portal out of thin air. Without even looking back once, Jianyu enters the portal and arrives inside the throne room. Jianyu suddenly appearing inside the room, had everyone in an uproar. The king of Xinjing quickly calls for his guards to surround Jianyu.
"Who are you?!"
Jianyu turns around and gazes at the weak looking king.
"I came to retrieve what you took."
The crown prince and other ministers stared in shock as they watch Jianyu's hair turn red. The crown prince quickly stops fanning himself and walks towards Jianyu. In a mocking tone, he glances at Jianyu from head to toe.
"Well, if it isn't the dragon emperor. What brings you to Xinjing?"
"What? He's the dragon emperor?"
"Father, did you forget? Red hair is the trait of the royal blood line."
Jianyu walks forward and grabs hold of the crown prince's collar and slams him against a pole inside the throne room.
"Where's my empress?!"
"Hey....easy now. I'm looking for her as well."
"Give me a reason to not end your life."
The king of Xinjing quickly falls to his knees and begs Jianyu to release the crown prince. Jianyu quickly slams the prince to the hard floor and walks towards the king.
"I was not aware she was the empress of the dragon kingdom. Please have mercy and spare us!"
"Are you trying to start a war with the dragon kingdom? If it's bloodshed you want, I'll give you a war."
"A war? No! No, please! Just kill me and spare my son and my people. I will take the blame as the ruler of Xinjing!"
The king grovels at Jianyu's feet and pleads for Jianyu to forgive them.
"A weak and pathetic plea. I have no mercy for the likes of you. May the heavens punish you in my place!"
Jianyu heads out of the throne room and transforms himself into his dragon form the moment he was outside. The king and everyone inside the throne room runs outside to find Jianyu coiled up and blocking the sun. In his exact words, Jianyu cursed the kingdom of Xinjing.
"I curse your lands to become poisoned. Your forests will die and no rain shall fall for the years to come. Your livestock's will die in time. Unless my empress forgives you from the bottom of her heart. I will not lift this curse. You will not be able to leave Xinjing for this curse is engraved in all your blood and will follow you till your last dying breath."
The king of Xinjing falls to his knees and continues to beg Jianyu for mercy. Jianyu watched as everyone in the kingdom of Xinjing got on their knees to honor him as a symbol of a god. Even the crown prince was left in shock at what he was witnessing. He never planned for Jianyu to find out about where Ying Yue was or he never anticipated they would earn the wrath of Jianyu to the point where he curses the kingdom. After chanting his curse, Jianyu who was still in his dragon form creates a portal and transports himself back to the dragon kingdom. Once Jianyu was out of sight the crown prince moves to help his father off the ground.
"Father! He's already gone, get up!"
"Slaps!"
The king of Xinjing slaps the crown prince across the face.
"Look what you've done! You've doomed us all! And for what?! A woman!"
"Father...we just need to find her before the draong kingdom does!"
"You better find a solution to this! I warned you to not get mixed up with that man and you didn't listen to me! Now look what's happened?!"
The king storms off and heads back inside the throne room, followed by the ministers. Meanwhile, Jianyu returns to the palace and transforms back to his human form. Fu Jia who was speaking to nearby soldiers notices Jianyu and quickly runs to aid him.
"You returned much faster than I thought."
"She's not in Xinjing anymore."
"What? We have no more leads on where her highness could be."
"I'll head to Jianxiang tomorrow with some men. Creating portals such a distance away and transforming is taking a toll on me. I'm heading off to my sleeping quarters. Also, call the head priest here."
"Yes, your majesty."
Jianyu heads back to his sleeping quarters and waits for the head priest to arrive. After laying in bed for twenty minutes, the head priest was now standing outside his bedroom.
"Your majesty, I am here."
"Come in."
"What did you call me for?"
"Bai Chun was in Xinjing. That explains why we couldn't find him. Ying Yue was in Xinjing for a while, but now they've lost track of her."
"Xinjing?! Are they trying to start a war?! There's no way they would ever win against us."
"Bai Chun must've been pulling the strings. He's trying to get us to go to war with the humans."
"What would he even gain from trying to start a war?"
"I don't know, I only know he's no longer in Xinjing. That crown prince of Xinjing reeked of dark magic."
"What do you mean?"
"He was emitting such dark energy. He was definitely stronger than Bai Chun. People don't realize how meddling with the dark arts will eventually come at a high price."
"Ah....this is why it's forbidden. I doubt that prince even knows what he's gotten himself into."
"My empress is pregnant, old priest."
"What? Empress Ying Yue is pregnant?!"
"Yes....there's no doubt it's mine."
Jianyu breaks into a sad smile as he thinks of Ying Yue and their unborn child.
"Your majesty, I will do my best to help you. Please rest for now, I will send out men to Jianxiang first to gather clues."
The old priest quickly creates a portal and disappears. Jianyu continues to lay in bed and slowly dozes off as he thinks of Ying Yue.