"Fengliang Empire." The man answered.
"Fengliang Empire?" Jiu Xinyi asked in confusion. She hasn't heard anything about the said empire so she was entirely clueless about where she is at the moment.
"I suppose you outsiders call it the dark continent." He replied, smiling wickedly at her wide-eyed facial expression. 'Now that's new.' To put it off, he was quite entertained by her facial expression. This straight-faced woman managed to catch a bit of his interest as the second goes by as he kept trying to uncover every bit of information he could get from her with her roundabout responses.
The dark continent was situated in the Southern part. To put it simply, the Qin continent can be found in the North, while the dark continent is in the South. Both continents are separated by a huge trench called the Spiritual Abyss that it was even safe to conclude that the land on the other side can be claimed as another continent. Although not entirely certain and purely based on the rumors circling around, some people claimed to caught sightings of another landmass on the other side of the trench where gigantic beast carcasses can be seen scattered around when the heavy mist lightened up for a few moments.
The general public came to a conclusion that those who caught sightings were pertaining to a mirage at the other end of the Spiritual Abyss and proceeded to call it the dark continent because there were no ways to gain access to the other side. They had once tasked a few individuals to scout the area but they were unable to return safely and had never shown up again. There was also a rumor that a middle ranked mythical king went out to venture into the dark continent and was fortunate enough to come back alive. Although he was barely unrecognizable due to the severe state he was in. He came back heavily wounded and stated that there was only eternal darkness on the other side. Furthermore, the vast lands that made the Qin continent only second to its entire land area were occupied solely by what they call the hidden empire and ruled in tyranny by its emperor.
Regardless of what the man had testified, his words weren't really taken seriously because he had shown signs of insanity upon coming back from the dark continent, still, his words had spread like wildfire to the common people and soon enough became the basis of information and how people perceived the dark continent.
Jiu Xinyi's jaw-dropping reaction wasn't entirely baseless. Right before departing from the Jiu residence, she had already skimmed through almost all of the important pieces of information she could get from their family's personal archives and library. Of course, she had heard about that little information in regards to the dark continent. True enough, there is a single empire taking control of the entire continent. But what Jiu Xinyi had feared of, is that if she would be able to go back to Nanchang Empire in one piece now that she's being kept watched by a certain stranger.
The man stood up from his seat, "I'd leave you for the time being. You could stay here or take a stroll outside, don't even think of going back, not that you can leave my domain freely that is." He didn't wait for her response and helped himself out of the room to tend to his own business.
Jiu Xinyi pondered for quite some time before finally deciding to go out and take a look at the place she was brought into. Leaving through the same door the man had used, she made her way out of the place.
A well-lit hallway came into her view. The surroundings were clear, not even a single silhouette was caught by her sense of sight. She followed the hallway and end up seeing another door on the far end. Pushing the door open, she was greeted by a festive atmosphere. Lanterns were put up every corner, food stalls and booths that sell goods were set up on the roadsides. People have smiles on their faces as they enjoy the festivity. This wasn't what Jiu Xinyi had imagined it to be. The least she had expected was criminal minds alike were roaming about in the entire place. Bright faces and a harmonious atmosphere weren't the things she expected to play out.
Jiu Xinyi was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she didn't manage to notice someone was walking right behind her not until she felt a small tug on her skirt, making her spin 180 degrees to look at the person who approached her. She was confused to see a small child, around five years of age, looking lost and was clutching at her skirt. "M-mama?" The little boy managed to croak, staring right at her eyes with his doe-like puppy dog eyes and innocent expression.
'What the hell? The last time I checked, I haven't had sex in this lifetime yet, so having a child is out of the question!' She exclaimed inwardly, looking confused as ever. She even lost count of how many times she experienced shock and confusion in a short period of time.
Meanwhile, on the other side. The man who brought Jiu Xinyi has yet entered another room after receiving an urgent call from one of his most trusted subordinates.
"What the rush?" He asked in a calm collected voice.
Another man in all black clothing fell into one of his knees, paying his respects to his master before taking up the courage to respond to his master's inquiry. "Master, the young master is gone! I took off my sight from the young master to fetch his food when he disappeared from my sight right after. It was due to my negligence that the young master had run away master, please punish this servant as what you deem fit!"
A sudden sharp pang of headache shot through his frontal lobe, making the man unconsciously pinch the gap between his brows in annoyance. "I'll deal with you later, for now, get the guards and search the grounds, he mustn't have gone far off of yet." The man instructed his subordinate.