The imperial palace of the Sun-Moon Empire stood in the heart of Mingdu. Meticulously designed and exquisitely decorated, it was the largest imperial palace complex on Douluo Star, its buildings resplendent in gold and jade, majestic and magnificent.
The layout of the Sun-Moon Imperial Palace strictly followed the ceremonial hierarchy of the nobility. Everything was rigorously ordered. Ordinary citizens were not merely forbidden to enter; they could not even approach it, a testament to the supremacy of imperial authority.
More than ten meters above the Meridian Gate rose lofty towers, their double-eaved, pointed pavilions jutting upward like five phoenixes spreading their wings to take flight, imposing in their grandeur. Walls enclosed the palace, and a moat encircled them on all four sides, forming a complete defensive system.
Across the bridge over the moat lay a spacious square. At its center stood a palatial building, with a mighty bronze lion crouching on either side of its entrance.
The palace's vermilion walls and yellow tiles shone brilliantly. Its carved beams and painted rafters were magnificent, its soaring eaves arranged in harmonious tiers, every scene and beast rendered with lifelike detail.
Inside this grand palace of refined elegance, pale-blue glazed roof tiles, immaculate jade balustrades, and intricately carved bluestone foundations complemented walls of soft yellow. Pillars so thick that five people together could barely encircle them supported the great beams. Carved from white marble, they bore coiling flood dragons amid wind and clouds, solemn and majestic.
It was still the same palace, still the same round rosewood table inside, and still the same five people seated in five high-backed chairs, representing the highest authority in the Sun-Moon Empire.
Yet now, whether it was Emperor Xu Maocai, who held the empire's reins of power; Kong Buyu, master of the Court Consecration Hall, and Hong