Imperial Advisor's Residence.
After stepping through the vermilion-lacquered gate, an Eight Trigrams Courtyard suddenly opened up before him.
The entire ground was paved with black and white jade. The Yin-Yang fish flowed beneath their feet, while faint green light drifted between the lines of the trigrams.
At the center of the Eight Trigrams, a Bronze Giant Sword Sculpture stood embedded in the ground, its edge pointing straight at the heavens. Fine thunder patterns as thin as hair coiled around its blade, as though it might cleave down Heavenly Punishment at any moment.
At that moment, the Imperial Advisor's Residence was exceptionally quiet, without the slightest sound coming from it.
"Does the Imperial Advisor like peace and quiet?" Jiang Ning suddenly asked.
"Yes!" The girl nodded. "In this enormous residence, the Imperial Advisor only raised me and one other servant. Including the Imperial Advisor, there are only three of us. Whenever night grows deep, I always feel that the place is frighteningly desolate!"
"With the Imperial Advisor here, what is there to fear? She is the Great Xia National Teacher!" Jiang Ning said.
"That's true!" The girl nodded as she walked. "Looking across the world, the Imperial Advisor is also among the strongest. With her here, no one would dare sneak into the Imperial Advisor's Residence."
As they conversed, the two crossed the open area in the front yard of the Imperial Advisor's Residence.
Then they passed through a Round Archway.
The scenery suddenly grew deep and secluded.
Dozens of Thousand Year Old Ancient Cypresses rose from the earth, their twisted trunks resembling Coiled Dragons. Their ink-green crowns intertwined into an impenetrable dome.
The sunlight was torn into shattered gold and mottled the moss-covered stone path.
The deeper they went, the denser the pale green mist suspended in the air became.