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Chapter 21: The Purple Palace

When Ye Yan left the Adventurer's Guild, he thought of going outside the city to test his new power but decided against it because if he goes there, it would waste too much time. And as he had yet to go to the palace, he decides to do the delivery for the Alchemist's Guild while his friends are doing the last step of their job change quests.

He got the items in the Alchemist's Guild, that now are ready for delivery, and took them to the Palace.

The Purple Palace is in the center of the entire city. It is 961 meters long from south to north and 753 meters wide, covering an area of 0.72 sq km ( 0.72 km / 0.28 sq mi) and is surrounded by a 10-meter-high wall, which is 3.4 km (2 miles) long [1]. There is a 52-meter wide moat around the palace as the first line of defense against enemies and at each corner of the Purple palace, stands a magnificent watchtower, which is heavily guarded by soldiers. There are four gates, one in each direction of the Palace: the Meridian Gate on the south, the Gate of Divine Might on the north, East Glorious Gate on the east, and West Glorious Gate on the west.

Ye Yan went through the east gate, across an expansive brick-paved square, to reach the main entrance of the palace, the East Glorious Gate[2]. There are 81 doornails on the gates of the Purple Palace, arranged in nine rows by nine rows [3].

When Ye Yan passed through the gate, he saw the splendor of the Palace and it took his breath away. The mainframes of all buildings were built with high-quality wooden beams and columns, including whole trunks of precious Phoebe Zhennan wood from the jungles in the southwest of the Yan Empire. The carpenters used interlocking mortise and tenon joints to build the great palace buildings without nails because they are considered violent and inharmonious. The Purple Palace's main colors are red and yellow. The walls, pillars, doors, and windows were mostly painted in red, which is regarded as a symbol of good fortune and happiness, and you can see the yellow on the roofs, which is a symbol of supreme power and only can be used by the imperial family[4].

The Purple Palace is composed of three parts: the defenses (moat and wall), the ceremonial Outer Court, and the residential Inner Court. It consists of more than 90 palaces and courtyards, 980 buildings, and over 8,728 rooms.

As the Purple Palace is considered a divine place because it is where the Emperor, the Son of Heaven, resides, it is a forbidden place to ordinary people. So the guards stopped Ye Yan and didn't let him enter until they confirmed with one of the imperial eunuchs [5] if he could be there.

A eunuch called Hao Haoxue lead Ye Yan to a building in the outer court, where he took the items from him and looked if everything was alright. After he keeps away the medicinal herbs and potions, the eunuch started to look at Ye Yan in a strange way that made him got goosebumps all over.

"You are not from the Alchemist's Guild, I can tell just looking at you because you don't have the same air of arrogance of those alchemists. So... Who are you?"

"My name is Ye Yan and I am an adventurer. I was just helping the Alchemist's Guild with the delivery this time." He spoke a little uncomfortable, without knowing what the eunuch want from him.

"Hum. Good, very good! If you are an adventurer, it's the best. I need help with something that only an adventurer can do, and as I can't leave the Palace, I didn't have a way to contact one before." Hao Haoxue became excited as he spoke.

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"I will be honored to help. Please tell me what you need." Ye Yan finally felt like exchange some silver for his entry into the Palace was worth it.

"What I need is not something easy to acquire. I heard that the Goblin Chieftan of the goblin's tribe that invaded the mountain forest in the northeast of the city acquired a recipe for a very precious potion that can help me. What I need is that you kill him and bring that recipe to me as well as its ingredients, and I will pay you handsomely for it."

System: 'Eunuch Hao Haoxue has a quest for you. Will you accept it?'

"Don't worry. I soon will bring it to you." The place that the eunuch wants him to go is the first dungeon available in the region and only level 5 players can enter, and probably this Goblin Chieftan is one of the bosses of the dungeon. And as he is bound to go there anyway, the better.

"Good. My life will depend on you now. Please take care and bring those items to me as soon as you can. You are my only hope." The NPC acted a little too dramatic that Ye Yan thought maybe this quest is more important than it looks at first. He opened the scroll that has the quest's details and took a look.

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Quest: [A Eunuch's regret]

Description: Help eunuch Hao Haoxue change his life.

Type: Unique

Difficult: S

Objetive: Bring the recipe to Hao Haoxue.

Progress: Step 1: Kill the Goblin Chieftan (0/1), acquire the Wonder Potion recipe (0/1).

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This [Wonder Potion] must be a real treasure with this name and the ability to change the eunuch's life. Maybe he can use this recipe later to help his future guild.

The eunuch leads Ye Yan to the West Gate that is on the opposite side of the one he entered and accompanied him until he was out of the Palace because he can't walk alone inside the Palace. On his way back, he could see from afar the imponent rows of mystical animal statuettes placed along the ridgeline of halls that were only for official use[6]. Stone and bronze lions can be seen beside the entrance of many halls [7] guarding the place, and they are positioned in pairs with the female on the left and the male on the right. Rows of auspicious animal statues, such as dragons, phoenixes, and lions, were placed along roof ridges of the important halls to invoke prosperity and good fortune. And to keep the birds from landing on the roofs, so as to retain the cleanliness and magnificence of the Palace, the slope of each roof was made higher and the roof spine wider than the width between a bird's claws so that birds are unable to land on the roofs. Also, the roofs are made of glazed tile, which is very slippery, making it impossible for birds to land on them.

Ye Yan observed everything so if he needs to enter the Palace later, it would be easier for him to find his way inside. The majestic Outer Court has no trees, probably to make it difficult to assassins to hide there, so it would be no ready matter to find a place in this part of the Palace where he could conceal himself. He noted that one of the areas in the west part of the Palace that he could see from afar, has an architecture different from the rest, with a strong Arabic style [8] but don't know what is the meaning of this, maybe it is a very important place.

In the Palace, he could see many cats that the eunuch told him belonged to the imperial concubines. At least they aren't dogs or it would make it more difficult if he wants to enter the Palace in secret in the future.

Ye Yan left the Palace and decided to apply to some quests from the Adventurer's Guild so he could farm some experience while his friends are still doing their quests. On the way to the West Branch of the guild, he saw a man holding a travel bag, with formal clothes and most important, a very shocking green hat. After seeing it and the way the players were laughing at him while he kept a clueless expression, Ye Yan couldn't stand still and went to speak with the NPC.

"My name is Ye Yan and I am an adventurer. Can I ask you something if you don't mind?"

"My name is He Zhixing. It's a pleasure to meet you." He curled his left hand and clasped it with the right, then placed both hands above the left hip and did a small curtsy, bowing slightly with knees bent. "Feel free to ask"

"Well... Why are you wearing a green hat?" The NPC was so polite that he didn't know how to tell him about the green hat.

"This?" He took off his hat and show it to Ye Yan. "This hat was given to me by my dear wife. She told me that this hat can give me luck in my travels and serve as a kind of amulet of protection." He said smiling.

'Oh no!' How he will tell this NPC about the meaning of the green hat? And that his dear wife may not be very loyal to him.

System: 'You started the quest [The Green Hat]. Now you need to look for a way to the clueless gentleman to find the truth by himself.'

'Ow, who would know that we can get quests like that?' Ye Yan thought to himself.

"You see... In truth, the green hat doesn't have a very good meaning and probably your wife doesn't know about it. So you should go back to your house right now and tell her. I will accompany you so I can tell her personally, what do you think?" Ye Yan spoke with a calm face.

"Sounds good. I think my wife would never have imagined it, poor thing." He leads Ye Yan to his house which is located in the Southwest part of the city. He followed him and looked at the quest details on the way.

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Quest: [The Green Hat]

Description: Sometimes even being a busybody can help enlighten others.

Type: Special

Objective: Help the gentleman to find the truth about his wife by himself.

Difficult: D

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Ye Yan:... He really is acting like a busybody. At least it is a quest and maybe it can give him something good. As he already started it, so he will make it to the end.

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[1] I am using the characteristics and measures of the Forbidden City (China) to describe the Purple Palace.

[2] The main gate in the Forbidden Palace is Meridian Gate in the south.

[3] In ancient times, the number of doornails symbolized status. Nine is the largest singular number, symbolizing supremacy.

[4] During the Ming and Qing dynasties.

[5] Eunuchs, or 'non-men', are men that said bye-bye for a certain important part of their bodies. Both parts were removed, generally with a single slash of a small, slightly curved blade of about 14,5 cm. The local anesthetic during the late Qing dynasty was hot chili sauce, and the parts to be removed were disinfected by washing them three times in hot pepper water. These emasculated men served as palace menials, spies, and harem watchdogs. The eunuch system came to an end when it was abolished on November 5, 1924. And all this was because the emperor didn't want to wear a green hat, become a cuckold, get horns and many other variants depending on the culture.

[6] The number of animals is different based on the importance of the buildings. You can see nine animals on the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the most important structure in the Forbidden City, and seven on the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, the residence of the Empress.

[7] In Chinese culture, the lion is the king of the animals and is regarded as a symbol of power and strength, and is popular as symbolic guardians.

[8] It is named Yude Hall and is in the northwest of the Hall of Military Eminence. It was built as a bathroom in the Yuan Dynasty (12711368). The Yuan Dynasty set its capital in Beijing, and a Persian architect was involved in the design of Beijing. He brought Persian architectural ideas to China and designed the Arabic-style bathroom. Fonte: China highlights