"It is such a great honor for you to be received by His Majesty," said Roy.

He happily led Lin Yuan all the way into the gate of the White Pagoda.

"Xiao Yuan, are you nervous? Are you excited?"

Lin Yuan: “…”

"Her Majesty has rarely appeared in public in recent years and has rarely received outsiders. Who would have thought that she would summon you?" Roy mentioned the queen with a sincere look of admiration and love on his face. He even envied Lin Yuan.

"Oh my God, I really hope I can have such an opportunity to see your Majesty's holy ceremony up close. If there is such a day, I will be so nervous that I will faint."

"You? Haven't you ever met Her Majesty the Queen?" Lin Yuan was a little surprised.

Roy is the leader of the Special Research Department. Although the Special Research Department is a pension department, it is a department that starts with "Special" and is directly under the Queen. Roy has never met the Queen herself.

"Of course, Your Majesty can't just meet him casually." Roy looked at Lin Yuan with some resentment.

"Even members of the royal family with royal blood find it difficult to get the opportunity to meet His Majesty. Officials of my level have only seen His Majesty's sacred ceremony from a distance."

The White Pagoda is a building that covers a very large area. The area at the bottom is almost as large as a small village.

Lin Yuan grew up inside the White Pagoda and only moved around on the lower floors.

This time she followed Roy, swiping her ID card as the head of the Queen's department, and took the dedicated elevator all the way up.

Looking out through the transparent elevator compartment, the scenery on each floor of the White Tower is quite different.

Lin Yuan saw the guidance academy where he had lived since he was a child, the busy research institute where people in white coats came in and out, the arsenal filled with large military equipment, the training base for the sentries of the Royal Guards, and even the farms with greenhouses where various crops were grown.

There is no sunlight inside the White Pagoda, but the artificial ceiling on each floor is lit with fluorescent lamps that imitate sunlight, making the floors as bright as day. It also has an internal circulation ventilation and water purification system.

As we take the elevator up and down the floors, the entire White Tower looks like a miniature human society, condensing all the functions needed for human survival.

The higher you go, the more exquisite and beautiful the scenery inside the floors becomes.

We arrived at the upper floors of the White Tower, the center of imperial power, where ministers worked and royal family members lived.

The environment became more luxurious and sophisticated, with exquisite gardens and clear pools everywhere, decorated with magnificent decorations, sculptures of the queen's head and majestic imperial symbols.

The elevator finally stopped after a long ascent. Luther, the chief of the Royal Guard, was waiting there, and replaced Roy to lead Lin Yuan up on foot.

There is no elevator from here. Visitors must walk to the top of the palace as a sign of respect for the supreme ruler of the empire.

A pure white staircase winds its way up the interior of the White Tower.

The steps are clean, neat, solemn and so long that one can hardly see the end.

Lin Yuan held up the hem of her skirt and followed Luther, walking up the stairs.

"How is it? Can you still walk?" The leading sentry turned around and asked.

Lin Yuan nodded slightly.

She used to live in the White Tower. The academy advocated obedience and pampering. Like most guides, she had a weak constitution and thin limbs.

After going in and out of the battlefields over the past year and exercising regularly, her physical condition has improved a lot.

Climbing this short staircase was nothing for her now. In the contaminated area, she would have run all the way up such a long staircase.

Luther saw the young guide following behind him walking up the stairs for a long time. He was still neatly dressed and calm. He looked much better than he had imagined, even better than the nobles he usually brought with him.

So he smiled at Lin Yuan and said, "You will be able to see His Majesty soon. His Majesty is a gentle and kind person. You don't need to be too nervous. Just be respectful."

Lin Yuan had met the highest commander of the Royal Guard before, on the night of the murder at Earl's Court.

Lin Yuan still remembered the disgust and impatience of the sentinel commander in the face of the nobles present. At that time, she could clearly feel the fierceness and majesty of this top sentinel of the empire.

But at this moment, at the top of the White Tower, near where Her Majesty the Queen was, the aura around this commander became very gentle.

Gentle, peaceful, and full of respect and love for those Majesties.

It was completely different from the feeling he gave Lin Yuan that night outside the White Tower, in the Earl's Mansion.

Lin Yuan couldn't help but start to wonder what kind of person that mysterious majesty, the queen who had ruled the empire for many years, was.

…

"What kind of person is His Majesty?" Ji Xuan looked at Ni Ji beside him with a smile, "Why do you think of asking me this?"

Ji Xuan, the adjutant of the Royal Guard, was walking with Ni Ji in a long corridor on the upper floors of the White Tower.

"I'm ashamed to say that I've never actually met Her Majesty the Queen." Ji Xuan said, "Her Majesty has rarely received outsiders in recent years."

Ni Ji hummed softly, "I think, Commander Luther is so loyal to Your Majesty. Her Majesty must be an elder with great personality charm."

Ji Xuan pushed his glasses on his nose, and after a moment, he said something ambiguous, "Lao Lu wasn't originally like this. Since he was promoted to the highest commander of the Royal Guard and received an audience with the Queen, he seems to have changed a lot."

Ni Ji glanced at his boss. He felt that there was something else behind Ji Xuan's words, as if he wanted to say something to him.

But their friendship was not that close yet. So Ji Xuan kept the rest.

He had been with Ji Xuan for a while. Could he feel Ji Xuan's temptation and pull on him?

At the same time, he also noticed that this adjutant of the Royal Guard was subtly different from others, as if there were some unknown secrets beneath his ordinary appearance.

"The person you will meet later is the Minister of Finance." Ji Xuan explained to Ni Ji, "He has royal blood, noble status, and high power. You must be careful not to provoke him."

He glanced at Ni Ji and added in a low voice, "That guy has a very bad character. If anything happens, you must be patient and follow my instructions."

The corridor they walked through was very gorgeous. It was covered with gold foil and inlaid with gems. At the end of the corridor was the Finance Minister's office.

Pushing open the door, the room was found to be decorated in a very gaudy way, with pearl palaces, magnificent decorations, and luxurious furnishings. It did not look like an office at all.

Velvet curtains were hung from the roof, and the air was filled with a sweet fragrance.

When Ni Ji smelled that smell, he recalled a bad memory and held his breath. With the sentinel's physical fitness, he could hold his breath for a long time. He found that Ji Xuan seemed to have done the same thing as him.

Behind the huge desk inlaid with gold and jade? There was no one at all.

The portly Minister of Finance was reclining on a jade-carved imperial concubine couch, sniffing the sweet aroma wafting from the golden incense burner in front of him with a look of enjoyment.

Seeing Ji Xuan coming in with some documents, he glanced at him with disdain, his fat body motionless.

Ji Xuan squatted beside the couch and asked him to sign his name on the document.

The Minister of Finance glanced at it casually and said, "It's such a large sum of money. You guys are so generous. You don't know how to save money for the empire."

Ji Xuan squatted there with a smile on his face, "This winter is too cold. Many sentries can't hold on. They are waiting for this aid to save their lives. I hope you will be merciful."

"You always say that. This costs money, that costs money, who can think for us?" The fat and powerful man leaning on the warm couch snorted, "Did you get what I asked you to get? Without that thing, my incense will be gone."

Ji Xuan was in a dilemma. "There are not many Nether Stones left in the world. We can only find them by going deep into the contaminated area 338. Every time we go into that place, many soldiers lose their lives."

"They are just a few sentinels. I will provide whatever compensation they need." The minister said unhappily, "They are a bunch of useless people. I heard that even the guide can easily open the contaminated area. If it doesn't work, send the guide again."

Isn't it just the lives of a few sentries? The official lying on the upper floor of the White Tower said lightly with his fat lips.

Ni Ji saw that Ji Xuan still had a smile on his face, but the smile was superficial. There was a coldness in his eyes and the fists hanging at his sides were quietly clenched.

He could easily understand Ji Xuan's feelings at the moment. Every captain who had led a team to a contaminated area could understand.

He remembered the look of every soldier as they died in the contaminated area, how their blood turned cold, and the tears that rolled down their eyes before they died.

Those intense sorrows, in the mouth of this nobleman living in the White Tower, turned into a few light pensions.

Ni Ji tucked his fingers behind his back and clenched them quietly. There seemed to be still the heat of boiling blood there.

He thought of the Golden Tree contaminated area. He held the frail guide in his arms, and the blood flowing out of her body could not be stopped. The boiling blood seemed to be still staining his fingers and engraved into his bones.

She lay in her arms and said to herself that this polluted area was too dark and she wanted to destroy it.

The thing she risked her life to save turned into a joke in the mouth of this man.

The Minister of Finance noticed Ni Ji, and his eyes, which had been narrowed into slits, opened and his gaze fell on Ni Ji.

That gaze was like a snake's tongue, cold and sticky, and it looked at Ni Ji from head to toe without any scruples.

He was not looking at a person, just a lowly sentinel, an object that could be consumed at their will.

Ni Ji lowered his eyelashes calmly, with no expression on his face.

"The new sentry in the Royal Guard? He has a pretty face, but he's a little too tall. He's not my type."

Finally, the man said with a hint of regret, and reluctantly stretched out his fat hand to sign Ji Xuan's grant application, and told Ji Xuan to get him the ingredients for the spices.

"Leaving" that extravagant house. Ji Xuan and Ni Ji walked quietly in the gold-leafed corridor for a long time without saying a word.

"Do you hate these people?" Ji Xuan, who was walking in front, suddenly said softly.

Ni Ji, who was following behind, seemed not to hear anything and remained silent.

Ji Xuan didn't turn around, and said in a low voice, "I've checked your resume, and I know you hate this person."

After a long time, the sentry behind him replied, "In the past, I hated one or two people. But now I feel that such hatred is meaningless - it is not the individual who is corrupt."

He didn't say the second half of his sentence.

Ji Xuan stopped walking and turned to look at him. Under the thin lens, his eyes were bright and full of spirit, with a hidden spark.

He understood what Ni Ji didn't say.

It is not just one or two individuals that are corrupt, it is the entire empire.

Killing one or two imperial officials is meaningless. This entire pure white tower is black from the top of the tower.

…

Lin Yuan stood on the top of the White Tower and saw the most powerful person in the empire, the legendary queen.

This majesty has been in control of the empire for many years, and Lin Yuan thought he would see an old man with white hair.

But the emperor sitting on the throne, wearing a crown and with a veil covering half of his face, did not look as old as imagined.

For the first time, Lin Yuan felt that his tentacles were not working properly.

Before her eyes, in the bright and spacious hall, the throne of the empire stood majestically. It seemed as if holy light had descended from the top of the tower, enveloping the throne that looked like porcelain or jade, pure white and flawless.

There was clearly someone sitting on the throne, but she felt nothing.

I don't know whether the other party is strong or weak, I don't know her age and mental state, I can't detect her emotions, and I can't even tell whether she is a sentinel or a guide, or just an ordinary person.

She can't be an ordinary person. Ordinary people at least wouldn't be so emotionless.

The only possibility is that it is too powerful, so powerful that Lin Yuan cannot test it.

Luther knelt devoutly before the throne, held up the queen's hand and kissed it.

"Let the child come to me." The queen's gentle voice sounded from the throne.

Lin Yuan subconsciously wanted to take a step back. A strange feeling surged in his heart.

She had never experienced this feeling before.

Maybe it should be called fear, but it also feels like yearning.

I kind of want to escape, but I also want to get closer.

The throne bathed in holy light, pure white and full of mystery, seemed to have a strange attraction to her.

It made her feel scared, but at the same time she wanted to go up and take a look and touch it.

"Don't be nervous, come to me." The queen on the throne stretched out her hand to Wang Linyuan.

The voice was gentle, and the tentacles detected a feeling of tenderness and love.

At least the sentiment is genuine and contains no ill intent.

Lin Yuan followed his instructions and walked forward to the throne that was as pure white as bone china.

On the throne, the queen's red lips hidden under her veil had a slight smile on their faces. She reached out and held Lin Yuan's hand.

"You are a lovely child. Seeing you reminds me of your mother."