Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Two possibilities went across Alex's mind when he heard what he did.

First, the Crown Prince was lying to him. He was lying about how his mother died and he was trying to hide information about the Azure Dragon's death.

Second, the Crown Prince himself wasn't aware that the lightning strike had been Heavenly Judgment and that there was no tribulation of lightning. It had all been a lie, given to him most likely by his father.

There was another possibility as well, a third one. And that was that the Crown Prince was telling the truth and the the lightning that Alex had thought had killed the Azure Dragon had instead been something that had killed his mother.

But Alex did not find that possibility very probable, so he dismissed it even as it formed in his mind. The two remaining possibilities were what he believed to be the real ones.

He needed more information.

"Oh, is it the same as that painting from the Hall of Fame?" Alex asked. "You've seen that, right?"

"Is it?" the Crown Prince asked. "Hmm, I think it is. I suppose young Honglui managed to grab my mother's final moments in a painting. I never thought of it like that."

"Were you there when she tried to break through?" Alex asked him.

"No, it's dangerous, so only Father went with her," the Crown Prince said. "I only learned that she had died after father returned. He was gone before I even understood what he had said."

Alex could hear the emotion in the Crown Prince's voice, the sound of grief. He felt guilty trying to gain information out of him during his moment of vulnerability, but he had no choice. This was life.

"Did you at least get to say goodbye?" Alex asked. "Before she went to breakthrough."

"She came to me before she went over to His Majesty's realm," the Crown Prince said. "I am given to hold a key to the realm and she needed it to go inside. I wanted to go with her, but she said that it was risky and made me stay behind."

"That was the last time I talked with her," the Crown Prince said. "It is sad for me, but it is sadder for my brother. He wasn't even in the palace when Mother left. He didn't even get to say goodbye."

"He only found out after he came back and decided to leave in anger," the Crown Prince said. "We tell people that he's out touring the continent. That is the excuse father uses too. But I'm sure he's just angry regarding the entire situation and wants to stay away from the palace for as long as he can. He'll return when it's time."

Alex nodded. He didn't care about the second prince right now. No one did. He wanted to learn more about the Empress and especially…

"There's a key to the Azure Dragon's secret realm?" he asked. "It's not a simple teleportation formation to enter the domain? I would have assumed most of the secret realms to be set up that way."

Alex couldn't help but wonder if he could somehow enter this secret realm if he had the key. Could he do it secretly?

Not that he needed it to begin with. He had a Dao of Space and could easily connect the two separated Space to walk from one to the other. Still, the key would most likely help with formations and everything else set 

"Yes, but there's more," the Crown Prince said. "From what I hear, the first Azure Dragon was someone quite fancy and wanted something special for his realm of stay. He built the usual teleportation formation and all, but for his son, he made two keys that he could use to enter the realm."

The first Azure Dragon had been the one responsible for making all the different secret realms, Alex remembered. "What sort of key?" he asked. "Is it something like the Dragon Medallion I hold?"

"No, nothing like that," the Prince said. "They were swords. I told you the Azure Dragon was fancy about it. He used actual swords as keys to the realm."

"…what?" Alex asked. He looked at the man, stunned at the words. "Swords?"

"Yes," the Crown Prince said. "You wouldn't think of swords as keys, would you?"

"No," Alex said. "What sorts of swords were these?" His heart beat faster and faster at this point.

"A pair of black and white swords. One was used to teleport someone through different layers of space, and another to tear through that space," the Crown Prince said.

Alex tried his best to show his emotions. "Do you mind if I see it?" he asked. "You have made me curious now."

"The swords?" the Crown Prince shook his head. "I'm afraid that's not possible, Your Majesty. One of the swords was destroyed by the lightning tribulation when my mother died."

"I see," Alex said. "Which one was it?"

"It was the black one, that let them teleport inside," the prince said. "Mother must have kept it with her when she was breaking through. Since nothing of hers survived the strike, the sword died along with her too."

Alex looked at the man, still sad about his mother's death. Each reminder a moment of grief that he hadn't fully dealt with yet. His emotions held clearly on his face.

This man was not lying at all.

'He doesn't know,' Alex thought. He looked at the prince's innocent eyes. 'He doesn't know what happened to the sword.'

The prince might not have known, but Alex did. He knew very clearly what had happened to the sword as he was currently in possession of it. 

It was the black sword that had the Dragon Imperium's insignia on it. The sword that carried a teleportation aura around it.

It was the same damn sword that had been stuck on Pearl's mother's body, the one that had killed her when he had ripped it out.

The sword hadn't been destroyed in some damn lightning tribulation during the Empress' breakthrough to immortality. It had been lost when Pearl's mother had somehow been teleported across the massive world to the other side of the realm in the Western Continent.

He had managed to weed out some lies from the truths he had heard today, but still, that didn't answer much. All he could come up with were some conjectures that he didn't want to believe right now

'So I have the key to the Azure Dragon's realm,' Alex thought. That was helpful to know about. 

"So only one of the keys remains," Alex said. "Right?"

"Yeah, the white one remains," the Crown Prince said. "Not that we needed them in the first place. We could always use the teleportation formation. Although not anyone can use it of course."

Alex nodded. "Did you get the white one too?" he asked.

"No, my father holds it," the Prince said. "Or wait, was it my brother? It is one of the two. I only held the black sword."

'And now I hold it,' Alex thought. It was fortunate that the prince couldn't sense his sword close by or else Alex's mission would've been compromised a long time ago.

The Crown Prince shook his head. "That's enough dwelling on the past," he said, looking at the dark landscape. "We should return soon."

Alex nodded and left the Azure Lake with more questions than before. Only this time around, he could tell that the questions were reaching deeper and deeper into the truth.

It would only be a while before the answer revealed itself.