River dolphins circled, bubbles shrouding the waters.
"Good heavens, A Shui, this place of yours is truly magnificent—so spacious you could get lost in it... It's no worse than the imperial palace in the Imperial Capital." Xiang ChangSong walked across the White Jade Plaza with his head tipped back, turning in circles and looking everywhere, unable to take his eyes off anything. Then his gaze was utterly captured by the Fire Tree Silver Flower at the center, its orange radiance crowning the space. He reached out to touch it. "Hiss, this tree is coral?"
"I wouldn't dare compare it to the imperial palace. It's simply that the Dragon Palace is underwater, so it has that added novelty, which makes it seem unusual to you, Senior Brother. And though it is called the Dragon Palace, it would be more accurate to call it Dragon City. There are three levels above and below, with caves all around. The Old Dragon Lord lives here with the aquatic clans, which is why it seems so vast. If we were making comparisons, we would have to compare it to the entire Imperial Capital..."
Liang Qu walked ahead with a smile, all the tension from facing the heavenly tribulation completely gone. As he led them around and introduced the sights, he said, "The tree you're touching, Senior Brother, really is a coral tree. It's a rarity in all the world, with quite a history behind it. When the Dragon Palace was first built, General Yuan of Pengze—before he went to Pengze—carried it in his beak as a gift."
"General Yuan of Pengze before he went to Pengze? Wouldn't that make it a thousand years old?"
"More or less. Not quite a thousand, but several hundred years at least."
"Whew."
The Pengze demon leader had lived for