Yun Jhin didn't dare to look up at the Empress so he sat there kneeling and waiting for the Empress to permit him to talk, the Empress looked at him and the little dragon for a few seconds before she said:
"Come on tell me, what happened to my husband?"
It seemed she wasn't that interested, on the surface but the words that Yun Jhin would say would determine his future.
The little dragon Luo Shang didn't say anything as he thought that he might break things further if he opened his mouth, even though he didn't have much social EQ that didn't mean he didn't know when to talk or not.
Yun Jhin started to tell her about the events in the tomb while leaving out a few important subjects that would make him an even bigger target, the Empress's eyes narrowed as she said:
"My husband died due to the formation of the tomb? That's what you tell me?"
Yun Jhin nodded his head repeatedly while making himself look as small as possible in her eyes, the Empress didn't feel he was lying, unfortunately for her she wasn't a peak God Realm expert so she couldn't go through their memories, only her husband was the sole peak God expert and now he was dead.
The Empress caressed Yun Jhin's cheek as she made him look deep into her eyes, Yun Jhin face turned slack as he gazed into her eyes and she gave out a big smile as she asked:
"Have you said the truth?"
Yun Jhin nodded his head while keeping the slack expression on his face, the little dragon was inwardly giving a big thumbs up at his acting ability, the Empress took her eyes off Yun Jhin only to gaze directly at the little dragon, the little dragon's heart almost jumped out of his chest as the Empress appeared in front of him and grasped his skull while she said:
"Now let's see what you are, why do I have a feeling your bloodline suppresses mine? This shouldn't be possible at all..."
The little dragon coughed wanting to get Yun Jhin's help, Yun Jhin seemingly broke through the Empress's spell and meekly told her:
"He is my companion that followed me since I was in the lower continents, please spare him, only with his help I have achieved what I have today."
The Empress's eyes narrowed, could this youth have such a stroke of great luck, the eunuch that now stood behind her didn't say anything as he eyed both the little dragon and Yun Jhin then he told his empress:
"Your majesty, we should pardon them, after all, with the lowly cultivation bases they have they wouldn't have been able to save his majesty anyways, they are lucky they are alive, they must have likely scuttled around when the fight began and hid thus saving themselves, they might be cowards but least they survived and got the news back to us, you know that we must protect the news from leaking out our the Bumi Empire might attack without notice if they get wind of happened here."
The Empress grip on Luo Shang's skull softened as she dropped him to the ground, Luo Shang was cursing her inwardly so hard that even the most perverted fellows would want to take notes from his colorful vocabulary.
The Empress moved a little bit backward as she said:
"Even though they have got us the news, their cowardice should be punished, don't you say Simbad?"
Simbad looked at the imploring faces of the duo and said coldly:
"Your majesty, you should administer the punishment, however, I recommend you to keep them alive, after all, they must have gotten somethings that they assimilated from the tomb, they are also young geniuses of the Empire and the Emperor would have surely left them alive as well if something similar happened."
The Empress gritted her teeth when the Emperor was mentioned but then her face straightened as she said:
"Ok then, you two will have to infiltrate the Bumi Empire and make sure to send back news whenever you would see something suspicious happening, now go immediately!"
The Empress disappeared along with the Eunuch, but before she did, she left two tracing formations on their bodies to make sure they wouldn't run away or try to trick her any other way, fortunately, the tracking formations couldn't read their thoughts or hear their words.
After going back to the Zhu Family and sending the news to the head of the house who was almost livid in anger they went back for a little rest in Yun Jhin's room.
The head of the house lost his strongest elders today and his anger was through the roof, fortunately, the other houses also lost some of their strong elders and it counterbalanced what happened, he didn't know about the Emperor's death but he was informed of the fact that Yun Jhin had to go to the Bumi Empire undercover and he just let it be since it was an order from the imperial family.
Yun Jhin checked his equipment before making sure that everything was alright and leaving, the little dragon was lazily sitting on his bed but if you would observe closely you could see that he was cultivating even while staying around.
Yun Jhin could do the same now because of the cultivation technique from Luo Shang, it was a special passive cultivation state that one could induce oneself in, only those of the four sacred beasts had such a cultivation technique and today's descendants didn't have it as it was lost in time.
The little dragon jumped on Yun Jhin's shoulder after Yun Jhin finished checking everything and he said:
"That piece of trash Empress will be the first one I will assimilate after I break through the God Realm."
Yun Jhin shook his head if they didn't get any fortuitous encounters any soon, breaking through the god realm will be a huge endeavor, after all, they weren't even in the late stages of the King Realm!
Yun Jhin and the little dragon left the capital of the Luo Empire behind as they started their journey towards the Bumi Empire even though they didn't want to, the Empress would realize they disobeyed once they removed the formations on their bodies and they didn't want to be wanted fugitives of the Luo Empire.
The Bumi Empire sat inside the biggest jungle on the Azure Dragon planet, it was quite far away from the Luo Empire but stood on the same piece of land, only the Sumo Empire was a huge distance away as you would need to use a teleportation formation to move between the Luo and Sumo Empires.
The Bumi Empire wasn't hard to get to as it was an open Empire just like the Luo one, as long as you were strong enough you would be welcomed to join both Empires.
Yun Jhin and Luo Shang took around 2 months of traveling at their quickest speeds to reach the Bumi Empire in the jungle, around them stood tall trees that were around the height of 90 to 100 meters.
The Bumi Empire was hidden deep in the jungle, Yun Jhin had to kill quite a few beasts along to get to the Bumi Empire but fortunately, they weren't attacked by any cultivator along the way, that was until they reached the borders of the empire and met with a scout team which coincidently found them, the scout team wasn't that strong but they let out a flare with their techniques which alerted the nearby city.
Yun Jhin and Luo Shang then had to hide after they killed the scouting team and make sure they avoided any type of open areas, fortunately, they didn't know how they looked nor how their auras were so they could change their appearance to look like natives of the Bumi Empire and make their way to the capital.
It took them around one more month before they reached the capital disguised as youths who wanted to open a business in the capital with their meager savings, Luo Shang changed himself into a dark-haired youth with a big smile on his plain face, he wore clothes similar to Yun Jhin's but instead of the five elements look which Yun Jhin had he only wore dark ones.
They easily slipped into the capital with their identifies and opened up an antique identifying shop, this type of shop would be able to work with both information and they could also make some money on the side, there was also the chance they could truly find some good antiques that they could scam out of their customers.
Yun Jhin was smoking a tobacco pipe as he waited at the door of his new shop, Luo Shang was inside cleaning the floor and the receiving desk.
While Yun Jhin waited a dirty looking youth quickly made it's way to Yun Jhin and asked:
"This brother, is this a antiques identifying shop? Might I be able to inquire if my badge has anything of value so I could sell it?"
The youth took a badge out of his dirty clothes with shaking hands, Yun Jhin took a quick closer look at it and shook his head as h said:
"No value, get out of my face!"
The youth left with his head down and his stomach grumbling, he was both hungry and disappointed as he disappeared in an alleyway of the capital.
The capital of the Bumi Empire was as boisterous as the Luo Empire's capital, however, Yun Jhin opened his shop on the outer edges of the capital to not attract bad attention.
Yun Jhin continued to smoke his pipe as he waited for another customer, the sign on the front of the shop also said that it dealt with information and gossip, they wanted to use the poor people of the outer edges of the capital to get information in exchange of food and spirit stones, which Yun Jhin wasn't lacking.
Yun Jhin watched people move along in front of his shop as he waited for another customer...
The same youth from before came quickly as he said:
"I have some information for you."
Yun Jhin's eyes shined as he looked at the dirty youth and said:
"What type?"
The youth scratched the back of his head as he said:
"Important."
Yun Jhin nodded and invited him to the inside of his establishment and closed the doors behind him.
Hopefully, the youth wasn't trying to scam Yun Jhin or he wouldn't leave the building alive.