People paid their respect to the dead Zhou Linfan, taking a moment to mourn his death.
The destroyed Dragon Capital was silent all the way through aside from a few sniffs here and there as people mourned the loss of their friends and families.
The entire city was in ruin, with the area around the Dragon Palace completely decimated after Alex's fight with the Dragon Emperor.
Some sections of the schools had survived, but a lot were still destroyed and had to be rebuilt. Buildings that were away from the school and the palace had been relatively untouched.
The only thing around that location that was pristine from start to finish was the Intercontinental Teleportation formation.
Liz hugged Alex and patted his back. "I'm so happy nothing happened to you. I was so worried," she said while wiping her tears.
"I'm okay," Alex replied. "How about you? How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling okay now. The headache is mostly gone," Liz said.
"I have received a message, Your Majesty," Qiu Jianhong spoke up close by. "Our people have met with Her Majesty. They are in the oceans outside the continent."
Alex nodded. "That's good," he said. "Deliver the news that we have become victorious here and the war has ended."
"That has already been done, Your Majesty," the elder said.
"I see, then have the soldiers return. There are many here that need the Phoenix fire. And there are alchemists in that ship that need to be put to work immediately. Many here can still be saved if we get to them quickly."
"Not to mention, we just won a war. We need to do a bit of looting, don't you think?" he asked.
"We're looting, Your Majesty?" the elder gave a weird look.
"Not from the living," Alex said. "But I doubt the dead mind if we take what they left behind. They won't be using it after all."
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"I see. I will send the message, Your Majesty," the elder said and went to do as he was told.
Alex moved over to where Pearl was next.
Pearl was surrounded by the beasts, who were talking among themselves. As Alex got closer, he could hear them speaking about their losses and how much it cost them to move against the Dragon Emperor.
He also heard something about Pearl's Grandparents being happy now that their murderer had died.
"What?" Alex asked, arriving next to them. "Were Pearl's grandparents killed by him too?"
"Yes," the Lizard colony leader said. They had been killed by him after he had killed His Majesty.
"And you guys waited until now to fight back?" Alex asked.
"It's alright, brother," Pearl said. "They are ashamed as well. They know what they did was wrong. They came to help us in the end and that is all that matters right now."
Alex sighed and nodded. "I suppose," he said. "How are the losses in your group? What about the injured?"
"There are a few," the Eagle said. "We lost sister Xiang and brother Niu, and quite a lot of others. There are also many injured, but they have been sent back to their homes, so they should be healing there."
'Xiang and Niu…' Alex thought for a moment. 'So the White Elephant and the Ox died?'
Two of the Colony leaders had died in the battle, it appeared.
"I will have my alchemists make some pills and have them sent over to you all immediately," Alex said.
"What about your pills?" the Lizard asked. "You make quite the pill, don't you?"
"I will need days to be back to where I need to be to make those pills. You will have to do with my alchemists until then," Alex said.
"I see," the Lizard said. "That's a shame. We've used up the pills you sold us last time, and were hoping to get some of it."
Alex gave a small chuckle. "Some other time," he said. "It will be a while before I choose to sell any pills. That is if I even decide to come back here."
"Your Majesty," someone called out from far away.
Alex turned around to see who it was and saw Yan Yating approaching him quickly.
He waited until the man landed next to him and walked over to him. "What happened?" Alex asked.
"Huh? Oh no," Yan Yating gave an awkward smile as he shook his hands to gesture that there was a mistake. "I didn't mean to call you. I was calling him."
He pointed behind Alex.
Pearl looked back, blinking in surprise. "Me?" he asked.
"Yes, Your Majesty," he said. "We were hoping that you would make the announcement of the result. The continent deserves to know what has happened, and I couldn't think of anyone better to deliver that information."
Pearl thought for a moment and nodded. "What must I do?"
Pearl left with Yan Yating to record the announcement that would be spread through the continent soon enough.
Alex left the beast and went over to where his sister and the 2nd prince were sitting on top of a small rubble together.
"The ship will be returning soon. We should go there once it comes back," Alex said. "We should prepare for your brother's funeral."
"My brother's…" Long Huan said softly. "Everyone is dead."
"Not everyone, we're not," Hannah said. "Cry if you must, but don't say you have no one."
"And truly not everyone is dead," Alex said. "You still have a brother."
"What?" Long Huan looked up. "My brother?"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Your little brother. The emperor's third son should still be alive. You still have a blood relative," Alex said.
"My brother? Right, I had another one," Long Huan said. "I forgot since he wasn't even born when I ran away."
"We'll find him," Alex said. "We should bring him to the funeral too."
Long Huan nodded.
The ship returned some time later and the now mostly healed soldiers started flying out.
Graham quickly ran over to them all, looking all around at everyone. "Is anyone hurt? Are you all alright?"
"Yes, Uncle," Hannah said.
"We're fine," Alex said.
"Where's Pearl? Where's Whisker?" Graham asked.
"Pearl is handling something right now. As for Whisker, he's resting in his beast space," Alex said. "Please excuse me, Father, I should go help the elders with the clean up."
"I'll help you too," Graham said and walked along while Hannah, Liz, and Long Huan made their way to the ship.
Meanwhile, Pearl was done recording the announcement which soon began playing on the Newsboards all around the continent.
Soldiers also copied the information into separate talismans and took it with them to spread to the places where the news boards were not present.
"I am Qing Shouchuang, the son of the Azure Dragon Qing Tianchui. Long Tiankong killed my father and mother in an attempt to kill me over 70 years ago. Now, after all this time, I have managed to get my revenge."
"Hear this, Eastern Continent. This is coming to you from the son of your true Ruler. The Dragon Emperor is dead. The war is over," Pearl declared.
The piece of news spread like wildfire throughout the continent within minutes.
And above the Dragon Emperor's own realm did Pearl proclaim that the Dragon Emperor had died.