The oxcart slowly passes through the bustling market.

The "silver-white lioness" sits on the oxcart with her legs crossed, wearing heavy shackles on her hands and feet, and a metal collar around her neck. In addition, her body is wrapped in a black iron chain, the size of a teacup, with one end attached to the metal collar and the other end attached to the iron ring of the oxcart.

She looks around curiously.

When she was captured by Anandibub, she was drunk and when she woke up she found herself in a prison cell. Besides the prison cell and the arena, she has never seen any other sights in this city.

Such a dense crowd, and such dense houses.

Under the blue sky, the oxcart walks through the bustling crowd. The scorching sun shines on her, making her squint her eyes.

On either side of the flow of people are high and low houses that are close together.

The houses here are different from the long houses in my hometown.

The houses are square and have flat roofs, and the walls are made of dried mud bricks, either light brown or beige. They look unremarkable, but against the endless blue sky, they look beautiful.

Sometimes, Anada can see walls with wonderful paintings as they pass by in the oxcart.

Soon, Anada can tell that the walls are painted with people, swords, weaving, war chariots, and animals.

The most painted animal is the lion, with sharp teeth and claws, looking very fierce. There are also spotted four-legged beasts, with short hind legs and long front legs. That must be the hyenas that Lucius mentioned.

She also found two animals that she was familiar with in the paintings, the mammoth and the rhinoceros, but the artist painted them without fur, and even without a single hair, which is a bit distorted.

Lucius rides his horse slowly beside the oxcart.

"The courtyard of the Menes family are on the opposite side of the west bottom of the Graciosa River in the city."

Lucius told Aradia, "We first go north, cross the ruins of the Bell family temple, exit the city from the north wall's Rich God's Gate, then turn west, cross the Lionhead Bridge, and we'll arrive."

Aradia asked, "Why don't we just go west?"

"We can't take the water-bearer's gate," Lucius said calmly, "That is the path for the humble, and House of Silver Fangs is noble. Any Silver Fang will not degrade themselves."

She looked at his profile and saw intense light in his eyes.

The old cattle driver who was driving the cattle laughed out loud.

The old cattle driver had white hair, wrinkled face, a bronze-colored skin that had been tanned by the sun, and only a white eye ball without a pupil in his right eye. He was wrapped in a black cloak and wore a wide-brimmed sun hat on his head.

Lucius's face fell.

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

"No," the old cattle driver shrugged, speaking in the unfamiliar northern language, "Noble young master of the House of Silver Fangs, you sure have a big mouth, but since that's the case, why did you come to hire me, a humble water-bearer?"

The old man turned his head back, exaggeratedly put his hand on the shade, and looked back with his only eye.

"Your Excellency, Silver Watch Clan's Young Master, why are you out here with only a slave, where are your followers and guards?"

Blood rose to Lucius's ears.

Anada watched the two people calmly. She did not expect the old coachman to understand their language, and it was clear that Lucius was being provoked.

Lucius's face turned red, but he finally gave the old coachman a smile.

"Pride is a stubborn thing, I deserve to be ridiculed. That's me."

He said lightly, "But I can't help it, people have to have some persistence in their hearts. Old man, if you want to laugh, go ahead and laugh."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The old coachman looked at him in surprise and did not say any more. He hummed a tune and continued to drive the car.

The wheels rumbled, and the crowd gradually thinned.

The mud houses crowded on both sides of the street in the market were also replaced by large patches of scorched earth ruins.

They traveled by horse and carriage.

Anada sees that the remaining stone pillars on both sides are covered in burnt black, and the broken reliefs are full of marks from sharp blades.

The dry bloodstains remain in the cracks of the floor's square bricks and stone steps.

She listens. The wind penetrates the gaps between the broken walls and ruins, wailing, like tears and complaints, and as if countless people are murmuring in her ear.

'Fame and status, magnificent attire and cuisine, there will always be a time for extinction, centuries of extravagance will eventually disappear like smoke in the wind.'

The old coachman hummed a tune, 'With the power of the boundless deity, even its palace can hardly escape the wickedness of human hearts.'

Anada glanced at Lucius. At this time, he was riding on horseback, with a stiff face, pursed lips, and a gloomy expression.

She remembered that he had said, 'Pass through the ruins of the temple of the Bell family,' and this must be it.

She asked the old coachman, 'Which clan are you the elder of?'

'The icy blizzard that sweeps across the eight directions and the ever-growing weeds are with you, child.'"

The one-eyed man sighed and said, "I am not from Ice Sea nor from Surt. I have been wandering for too long and have forgotten my own name and my tribe, but I still remember the days of chasing deer in the forest with my family and my dialect that I have not spoken in years."

He looked at the shackles and chains on her and shook his head, waving his whip to beat the back of the oxen.

The old driver lowered his voice, so only she could hear:

"Remember, don't trust those who put shackles on you. No matter how beautiful their words are, what drips from their tongues is always poison."

After driving half the way around the capital, when they arrived at the Menis Courtyard, it was close to noon.

The Menis Courtyard of the famous Menis family was not so much a courtyard, but more like a small town.

The Menis city was also square in shape, with rammed earth walls slightly lower than the capital's. Warriors patrolling and guarding the walls were as numerous as ox hair.

The ox-drawn cart was stopped outside the city walls. Lucius removed the fetters from the mother lion's feet and took the other end of the iron chain off the car's iron ring, hanging it along with the handcuffs. He handed the horse over to the Menesian warrior and walked into the small town with her.

Walking around in the small town, Anada felt a different atmosphere than the capital.

Here, one cannot see the crowd of people, the streets are bustling with only Menesian family warriors and slaves.

She suddenly realized that the two of them were walking side by side, but Lucius had fallen behind her half a step at some point.

It seems that despite his hands being handcuffed, he was still not very willing to walk in front of her.

As a result, such a strange scene appeared on the streets of the small town:

A tall and silver-haired female slave, either bound with a black waist rope or an iron chain, carrying a shield, sword, and battle axe on her back, strode confidently down the road. Her elegant Assyrian master, on the other hand, followed her like a little follower, running behind her and sweating, sometimes shouting in northern language such as "Wrong", "Wait a minute", "Should go this way", and so on.

Whenever she heard such panting and shouting behind her, she couldn't help but lift the corners of her mouth slightly, slow down her pace, and wait for him to catch up.

Lucius, who was frustrated after taking three wrong turns, called over two Menes Warriors who were passing by and asked them to lead the way.

With the guidance and protection of the Menes Warriors, the two finally arrived safely at the central town, the Emerald Lion Hall.

Anada had originally thought that the Emerald Lion Hall would be a beast arena built with green jade stones, with many lions being kept inside.

But she found that it was only a grey stone hall with four sides.

The building was very tall, extremely tall.

The hall was supported by countless huge stone pillars. In the center was an atrium, where you could see the blue sky and the blazing sun by looking up.

Around the stone walls, there were seats arranged in a step-like manner, and on top of the seats, there were reliefs depicting the achievements of the ancestors of Menes.

Stone pillars and reliefs... this reminded Anada of the ruins of the Bell family temple she passed by, where she saw the broken walls and broken tiles.

The old one-eyed coachman's melody seemed to echo in her ear again:

"Reputation and status, clothing and food, everything has a time to fade away, thousands of years of prosperity, eventually vanish like smoke in the wind."

She looked up at the crystal-clear blue sky above the skylight.

She thought to herself that perhaps the magnificent Bel Temple before its collapse looked like the Emerald Lion Hall at this moment.

Below the skylight, countless female slave actors with various skin colors, each with only a waist cord, stood with their hands behind their backs.

Meanwhile, the men and women of the Assyrian nobility, dressed in magnificent long robes, sat or stood in the shadows around the skylight. They whispered secretly and evaluated the female slave actors' bodies.

"A few hundred years ago, this was the council chamber of the Menes family, with the elders sitting around," said the masked girl, Cynthia, as she approached Anada.

Without waiting for Cynthia's expression, the slave girls rushed over to remove Anada's neck ring and chains, leaving only her handcuffs, and helped her remove the weapons and shield from her back.

Anasya didn't even glance at Lucius, who was bowing to her.

"Welcome, 'Silver Mother Lion', stand beneath the 'Emerald Below'. Today's 'Emerald Below' is the bloody ground of warriors' glory."

"Those who wish to voice their opinions must go to the center of the skywell, face the crowd, and loudly announce their stance. They must stand under the emerald blue sky and make their speech loud and powerful like a lion's roar, so that everyone can hear their words clearly. This is the origin of the name 'Emerald Lion Hall'."

Anasya noticed that only the black-skinned slave girl was left following behind Cynthia.