Cultivating Immortality, Starting from Childhood Sweethearts-Chapter 358 - He Went to the Brothel.

For three consecutive days, the Dragon Empress of the North Sea Palace had yet to summon Xu Ming.

However, Xu Ming wasn’t particularly anxious.

Each day, he wandered around the North Sea Dragon Capital, taking in the local customs and way of life.

To his surprise, the Dragon Capital wasn’t much different from the human world.

The city had all kinds of shops, inns, and even brothels.

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Curious, Xu Ming decided to visit the most famous brothel in the Dragon Capital.

If one wanted to quickly understand a place, a brothel was often the best choice—it was a microcosm of the entire society, where all kinds of people gathered.

As soon as he stepped inside, the sea folk women saw a handsome young human man entering and immediately swarmed toward him.

These brothel girls were used to dining on seafood every day, so the occasional taste of something from the land was quite a novelty.

Judging by their enthusiasm, Xu Ming felt like he wasn’t the one who should be paying them—they should be paying him.

However, he didn’t call for any of the women. Instead, he found a private seat for himself and quietly watched the sea folk dancers performing on the central stage.

Perhaps due to the lack of sunlight in the deep sea and the reliance on glowing formations for illumination, the women here had exceptionally fair skin—generally much paler than humans.

Xu Ming also noticed that these sea folk women all appeared incredibly soft and dewy. Maybe it was because they lived underwater, but each one of them seemed to have skin that was practically dripping with moisture.

He didn’t stay long. After finishing a pot of wine and watching a few performances, Xu Ming left some gold on the table and silently walked out.

Continuing his stroll through the streets of the Dragon Capital, he noticed that aside from foreign envoys, there were also other humans present.

After all, the Dragon Capital wasn’t just the governing center of the North Sea—it also controlled all the surrounding islands.

So, it wasn’t unusual for cultivators from nearby islands to visit the city.

Xu Ming eventually found a tavern, sat down, and ordered a drink and some food.

But drinking and eating weren’t his real objectives.

He wanted to gather more information about this place—and especially about the Dragon Empress.

Taverns and brothels were always hubs for all kinds of news and rumors.

The brothel had been relatively quiet earlier, mostly because it was daytime, so he hadn’t heard much useful gossip. That’s why he changed his approach and came to the tavern instead.

Sure enough, once people had enough to drink, they loved to talk—about politics, about the heavens and the earth, about anything and everything.

Whether the rumors were true or not, Xu Ming listened intently, fully immersed in the information he was gathering.

“Do you think the other three Dragon Kings will come for this year’s Four Seas Grand Ceremony?”

Xu Ming had just placed his order, and before the food and drinks even arrived, he heard someone talking politics. He immediately perked up his ears.

“Of course, they’ll come,” said a shrimp-headed man. “Even though Her Majesty doesn’t get along well with the other three, this is the Four Seas Grand Ceremony. Would they really dare to skip it?”

“I agree,” added a shrimp-headed woman. “Not to mention, Her Majesty has invited many land dwellers this time. The ceremony is bound to be a grand affair. No one would have the guts to openly defy our Empress.”

“Speaking of which, has something happened to Her Majesty lately?” a crab asked.

“What makes you say that?” A lobster looked over curiously.

“I only heard rumors,” the crab said. “They say that for the past several days, Her Majesty hasn’t left her chambers—not even once.”

“Isn’t that normal for her?” a turtle chimed in.

Another turtle nodded. “Indeed. Ever since she parted ways with that person, she’s been uninterested in the outside world. Most matters are handled by her subordinates now.”

“Sigh, I also heard this from my grandfather’s grandfather (several generations of grandfathers). Let’s just say, the Empress has an inexplicable obsession in this regard. With her condition, what kind of person could she not find?” said a kelp fish.

“You don’t understand!” a mermaid responded angrily, “What the Empress has is called deep affection! It’s not like you men, who are always fickle. Who could be as loyal as the Empress?”

As she spoke, her eyes sparkled with stars. “It’s been over ten thousand years! Heaven is truly heartless. If Heaven really has eyes, with how deeply the Empress feels, and after waiting for so long, why can’t she be allowed to find happiness?”

Listening to the conversation at the nearby table, Xu Ming became more and more curious. He picked up the wine jug from his table, walked over to the group, and with a smile, asked, “Excuse me, may I ask what the Empress has been waiting for? Waiting for ten thousand years?”

...

In a garden within the North Sea Dragon Palace, a woman in a light blue gown sat on a stone bench, gazing up at the sky above the ocean.

Unless there was something to attend to, whenever she had free time, this eternal monarch always did the same boring thing. No one knew what their Empress was thinking or looking at.

“Your Majesty, the envoys from the Wu Kingdom have been here for three days. Would you like to meet them?”

A maid approached the Dragon Empress and bowed.

“No need, there’s no hurry. Let’s talk at the Grand Ceremony,” the Empress replied calmly.

Although the Dragon Empress thought that the man named Xu Ming might be the one she had been searching for, after all these years, her heart had become too calm to expect much.

She had encountered similar situations before, thinking she had found him. But after meeting them, she realized she was wrong.

The Empress didn’t have high hopes for Xu Ming. She was only entertaining the possibility—just a “what if.”

“Understood.” The maid nodded, placing the fruit platter down and preparing to leave.

“How about Xu Ming? What has he been doing these past few days?”

The maid, just a few steps from leaving, stopped and turned back. She bowed again and said, “The young master Xu Ming from the Wu Kingdom was quite composed in the palace these past few days, quietly cultivating, and did not go anywhere. But today, he left the palace and seems to have gone to a brothel.”