The Longze Marquis Residence stood deep within the Water Virtue Dragon Palace, built on land carved out of the Dragon Palace's Heavenly Grotto.
Its halls were laid out with such grandeur that, apart from Jiaozhu's palace as principal consort, no other residence could rival it.
Inside a secluded chamber of the residence,
a handsome young man with white hair sat cross-legged. Clear ripples circled him, and a gentle current of spiritual energy flowed along their course.
He was Gu Changze, Marquis Changze of Azure Sea Lake. He wore a blue-green robe embroidered with five golden dragons amid the clouds.
Gu Changze sat motionless with his eyes lowered. Though his body occupied no more than a small patch of ground, a vast thread of his divine sense spread outward to envelop the whole of Azure Sea Lake.
A wisp of mysterious light and shadow hung above his head. It was neither a magic treasure nor a living spirit, and its shifting form defied description.
It was a projection cast into the mortal world by a Fruit Status, and also the authority over heaven and earth that governed Azure Sea Lake.
Gu Changze lodged his Primordial Spirit within that light and shadow, gaining a view of every stretch of the lake across ten thousand li.
With that authority over the lake in hand, and while within the bounds of the Water Virtue Dragon Palace, his strength could rival someone half a step from the Ninth Tier.
It was because Gu Jingming had such support that he could travel to the Jianmu Assembly without worry.
There were two reasons he had entrusted all affairs of Azure Sea Lake to Gu Changze.
First, after two generations of Demon Emperors had brought order to the Demon Race of Southern Shu, the clans had set aside