How is he a prince?

By the time they reached the doors of the courtyard, Tai Yang was wheezing. Beyond the massive wooden exit, a deep, authoritative voice could be heard barking insults at the people already present.

Ji Ru whined, abruptly let go of Tai Yang's hand, turned to him, and grabbed his shoulders.

"We're late. He's going to be mad. Really mad. I'm sorry you have to get right into it on your first day Tai Yang… Honestly, I have a good mind to hide you for now… But if you're going to aim for immortality, his majesty needs to accept you into the Kingdom. I apologize in advance if he becomes aggressive…But if his majesty tries to hit you, hide behind me, okay? You're still a mortal. True immortals are super strong so you gotta be careful or else there won't be any of you left. Even though I'm a Contrived immortal, I can still heal better than you will as you are, so don't worry about me, and duck if he swings at you." Ji Ru said, glancing back at the door.

"No matter what, don't anger his majesty. He doesn't like it when people transmigrate to our world especially if they're from a mortal Universe. He forcefully sent back the others who did, very aggressively at that and made us deliberately make them insane… so you need to stay strong and try not to upset him." Ji Ru looked back at him, letting out an exhale to calm his nerves.

"We'll be fine. My master will show up if he does anything too bad. We have this sort of link that lets him know if I'm injured. He's probably looking for me right now anyway, so he'll definitely come to rescue us if his majesty tries to slaughter us."

Tai Yang tried to listen between his labored breaths, but it was difficult, especially with the speed and hushed tone Ji Ru spoke at.

"Come on." Ji Ru said, grabbing Tai Yang's hand again. With his other pale hand, he pushed one of the doors and slipped through the gap with Tai Yang in a tow.

"- any minute now! And if ANYONE ruins it, I will personally execute them! Does everyone understand?"

The people in the courtyard started to say, "Yes-" when the tall, fine-looking man, standing on the podium snapped, "DON'T TALK BACK TO ME!"

Tai Yang's eyes narrowed…

He'd seen this snappish, arrogant person's well-defined face somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place it…

"AND WHERE THE HELL IS THAT MANGY MUTT?! IT'S BEEN THREE DAYS! ARE YOU ALL SO INCOMPETENT THAT YOU LOST A DAMN DOG?! IF HE'S KIDNAPPED AND I HAVE TO HEAR LI WEI'S WHINING I'M GOING TO EXECUTE EVERY LAST ONE OF-"

"Ah! Your majesty, I am in attendance!" Ji Ru said quickly, squeezing Tai Yang's hand comfortingly. Gasps of relief and sighs of people could be heard, saying, "Ji Ru…". The sounds resonated across the courtyard, and the man snapped his head towards them, so rapidly that his waist-length hair spiraled around him.

'Majesty? He's the prince? Oh… I'm sure I've seen him somewhere. Those features are admittedly quite handsome and too uncommon to forget, especially his jawline… But where? I'm certain I have seen him before…' Tai Yang thought.

"YOU!!! YOU STUPID DOG! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" The prince shouted, his light brown eyes narrowing as his brows knitted in fury. Both Tai Yang and Ji Ru tensed. The prince's electrifying rage seemed to resound off his clothes, hair, and even the tips of his long eyelashes.

He started to stalk towards them with his red and black hanfu billowing as he did so.

'Have I seen him in a videogame? Or one of those ancient magical series?' Tai Yang wondered.

The prince looked ready to kill Ji Ru.

Tai yang looked at him with even greater confusion. Up close, he was sure he knew this person.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH OF MY OWN VALUABLE TIME WAS WASTED BECAUSE YOUR MASTER WASTED TIME LOOKING FOR YOU INSTEAD OF TAKING CARE OF HIS RESPONSIBILITIES?! EXPLAIN YOURSELF AT ONCE YOU ATROCIOUS BEAST!!!"

He grabbed Ji Ru by the intricate, black dog collar he wore, and roughly jerked him back and forth; slightly lifting the much shorter man off the ground. Ji Ru let out several yelps at being choked but didn't make a move to defend himself.

"Answer, you filthy mongrel! Are you in heat or something to keep running off when you have work?! Mutt!!! Where were…you…" The prince trailed off when he suddenly noticed Tai Yang behind Ji Ru.

Ji Ru's eyes flicked sideways and then back at the prince. He made a sheepish face when his collar was released. The prince took two steps back with narrowed eyes, then pointed at Tai Yang.

"Mutt. What is this?" He asked in confusion.

Ji Ru laughed nervously and shoved Tai Yang further behind him. "I… Well, I found the last living version of him so-"

Everyone began to mutter amongst themselves. Who had their beloved little black wolf brought to the castle?

The prince blinked then tilted his head, still staring at Tai Yang.

"This is… The Cognitive Cultivator? I remember him. He was the best one of this Universe… What was his name?" He asked slowly. Ji Ru bit his lip, his long canines pinching into the flesh.

"Yes… Tai Yang."

"What is he?" The prince asked, looking at Ji Ru.

"About that… He's from Earth 72…" Ji Ru said slowly.

"Earth 72…" The prince's face looked pensive and calm very briefly as he thought. Then a look of utmost disgust formed onto his face, and his eyes grew incrementally larger. He grabbed Ji Ru by the neck and started choking him again.

"YOU MONGREL! YOU BROUGHT A *MORTAL* FROM A MAGIC-FREE UNIVERSE HERE?!? TO MY KINGDOM?!"

Ji Ru choked, and Tai Yang looked at him in shock and horror.

"Sir! He's going to die of asphyxiation!" Tai Yang said before he could stop himself. The prince stopped throttling Ji Ru, then turned his head mechanically to look down his straight nose at Tai Yang.

Tai Yang had always been a self-conscious individual, but he'd never thought that much about his height, compared to the rest of the features he scrutinized about himself.

However, at that moment as the 189cm tall, broad-shouldered and well-built man stared down judgingly at his 175cm (in his opinion, scrawny) form, he felt ridiculously small and irrelevant. Ji Ru was exactly his height, but at least his ears and tail gave him a sort of a presence!

"You…" The prince growled, grabbing him by the neck instead and shaking him violently, effectively cutting off his air supply.

"YOU DARE REFER TO ME AS 'SIR'? DO I LOOK LIKE SOMEONE YOU SHOULD ADDRESS AS *SIR* YOU DISRESPECTFUL LITTLE SHIT?! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM-"

"AH! YOUR MAJESTY! PLEASE DON'T HURT HIM, HE'S DELICATE! HE'S-"

"I KNOW DAMN WELL HE'S A MORTAL, FROM THAT WEAKLING UNIVERSE! HOW DARE YOU BRING HIM HERE!?! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE, YOU STUPID DOG?!"

Ji Ru let out a sound of pain when the prince brought his fist down hard on the top of his head. Tai Yang winced, forgetting his own pain, and glancing at Ji Ru in concern. if Ji Ru was a chimera of sorts, then hitting him was animal cruelty, and it irked him.

"Your majesty- can we talk- about this?" Ji Ru started, trying to get Tai Yang out of the prince's grip. Tai Yang didn't understand how this man was supposed to be a prince! Weren't princes more gracious, heroic, and chivalrous?

These were his frantic thoughts as he started to turn purple. As the prince pulled him away from Ji Ru, more people started to see him. Their voices grew as loud as the ringing in his ears.

"Tai Yang!"

"Hey! It's Tai Yang!"

"It's Tai Yang!"

"Oh my, Ji Ru found a living Tai Yang!"

The courtyard was thrown into a frenzied pandemonium. They were seeing their comrade who had died eight years prior, after all! Of course they'd become that way.

"TALK? WE TOLD YOU TO STOP JUMPING WORLDS, YOU FILTHY MONGREL! IF HE GOES BACK WITH THE INFORMATION OF OUR UNIVERSE, WE'RE GOING TO RISK THEIR RESEARCHERS FINDING THE POINT OF MEETING BETWEEN OUR WORLDS, AGAIN! THEN WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO GIVE EARTH 72 ANOTHER MASS EXTINCTION, YOU IDIOT! IMBECILE! MANGY MUTT! MORON! STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!" The prince said, abruptly throwing Tai Yang to the ground and punctuating each of his insults towards Ji Ru with a hard, open-handed whack on the top of his head. Tai Yang gasped in the air, feeling his world spinning.

Ji Ru was now being strangled as the prince hurled several more insults. The door on the other end of the courtyard was thrown open, and another equally tall, handsome figure in white was stalking in with a terrifying look on his face.

"Li Jun! Let go of him now!"

Tai Yang rubbed his throat as the oxygen allowed his thought process to function normally once more.

'Li Jun… Li Jun? I've heard that name before…' He thought.

"Mas-ter!" Ji Ru whined. The man yanked Ji Ru away from Li Jun, pulling him to himself protectively. He shot Li Jun a scalding glare and rubbed Ji Ru's head.

"Don't give me that look, Li Wei! Did you see what your damn dog dragged in?!" Li Jun snapped at the look.

Ji Ru seemed to cower into Li Wei's arms before gaining to courage to move towards Tai Yang on the ground.

"Do not call him that. No matter what he's done, it does not warrant physical assault. Don't you dare take out your pent-up frustration on my boy."

"Your 'boy' did THIS!" Li Jun snarled, wrenching Tai Yang off the ground by his upper arm. "No! Your Majesty! Be gentle, I beg you! His arm-" Ji Ru whined.

Li Wei looked at Tai Yang and his eyes widened. After a moment of silence, he looked at Ji Ru, almost exasperatedly.

"My love… Is that where you disappeared to all these days?"

Ji Ru nodded, looking down in guilt. Li Wei sighed. "Ji Ru, you know you are not supposed to do that unless we need you to…" He said disapprovingly, but his handsome features had no acidity.

Ji Ru was looking off to the side with his eyes. A few times they flicked to Li Wei, and then away from him. It was identical to the way a guilty dog looked away when being chided by its owner. Li Wei continued his staring, but Ji Ru didn't seem to have anything to say in defense. He knew what he'd done was against the rules already.

Li Wei knew that Ji Ru was a good boy, he wouldn't do something like this unnecessarily. It would be a lie to say that he didn't know the true reason for his disobedience. Spending most of his days with Ji Ru had made Li Wei quite aware just how much Ji Ru longed to see his deceased friend once again, to the point of depression.

He let out a sigh. There was no helping it then.

Li Wei looked at Li Jun, his face becoming stern.

"Tai Yang is already here. It would waste Ji Ru's efforts to return him. So, we'll keep him." Li Wei said.

"Keep him? He's a mortal from Earth of Universe 72! No. I won't have it." Li Jun said in a disgusted tone.

"If you don't remember, Tai Yang was the greatest Cognitive Cultivator of this Universe, and several others immortal universes too."

"We have Ji Ru. Right now he's the greatest Cognitive Cultivator." Li Jun crossed his arms, letting go of a flustered Tai Yang.

Li Wei crossed his arms behind his back. "Ji Ru is a Cognitive and Support type, like Tai Yang. You know they work exceptionally together."

"Ji Ru has been working fine on his own for the last seven years, hasn't he?"

"No. He's barely been able to sleep at night since Tai Yang's death. He has nightmares all the time of the scene he found him in, cries randomly, and escapes to the other universes trying to find him because he misses him so much." Li Wei said.

"I asked if his work was fine, not his mental health. That isn't my problem." Li Jun said.

"It is your problem if Atarah is interesting in seeing the recent developments of our Kingdom, especially our Research department. If you want Ji Ru to stay focussed, this is mandatory." Li Wei said.

"As I said, he focussed fine before. Right now, this mortal hasn't cultivated anything, he has no skills useful in this Universe. He won't be able to help Ji Ru. He'll distract him and hold him back. Don't think I don't know that."

"Maybe not with his research, but Ji Ru has to have a steady mind to continue his work efficiently. If we send Tai Yang back, Ji Ru's ceaseless attempts to bring him back will be imminent."

"You want me to keep a mortal here, to offer your dog moral support?" Li Jun snapped.

"My spouse, Li Jun." Li Wei said warningly. Li Jun scoffed in annoyance.

Tai Yang who'd been standing with Ji Ru flushed. 'So they're definitely together… Cute.' He thought, glancing between Ji Ru and Li Wei.

"Your majesties, the Princess of Atarah is nearing the castle." A young page said, running in.

Ji Ru sighed and looked at Li Wei.

"Brother, we will talk about this after meeting with the princess. For now, put him somewhere where he can't cause trouble." Ji Ru said, looking at Tai Yang with a twitching brow.

Li Wei glanced at Tai Yang. "I believe we should keep him around when the Princess arrives. Years ago, she'd been eager to meet him before his untimely death. His death was what caused her to cancel her visit here, was it not? It could be good to have him present."

Li Jun rolled his eyes. "That was a skilled cultivator. This man isn't the same. He may look like him, but he could be a complete idiot."

"Actually," Ji Ru perked up. "He's a highly sought-after 'Scientist' who's made many patented, novel discoveries on Earth 72 despite his young age. A Scientist is the equivalent of a Researcher, Expert, or Alchemist so Tai Yang must be very intelligent, no doubt. His personality is the same too-"

Li Jun looked more than displeased but raised a hand. He looked at Tai Yang venomously then at Li Wei. "Enough. We're wasting time. If you're both going to be idiotically adamant about him being present, then you'd better keep him quiet when Princess Xiao Xia arrives here. If I hear so much as a peep out of him, I will execute him myself, and you nor your mutt will stop me, understood? This is the first time we're meeting her, and I won't have him messing up my possible union in marriage."

Li Wei pursed his lips. "I worry more about your putrid personality warding her off than Tai Yang's talking. At least he isn't obnoxious."

"Shut up. We're going down to meet her." Li Jun snapped at Li Wei's smirk. He turned to Tai Yang who kept thinking that this situation sounded very similar.

"You better not ruin this for me. This woman is important." His handsome features were scowling.

Suddenly, it clicked in Tai Yang's mind.

The moron who had made them travel needlessly, and canceled his meeting twice…

The handsome man in the meeting brochure who didn't even leave his home when the meeting was supposed to have begun… The young Director of the 'Li Shing Wei' conglomerate… He was named Li Jun…

Tai Yang's eyes widened. It was definitely him. Hadn't Professor An mentioned that the man was trying to impress a woman?

His eyes widened further.

Professor An had said, 'I can tell you now, that guy isn't gonna understand a damn thing we're saying. We'll go crazy trying to explain it to a layman like him. But the word out is that he's really trying to impress Xiao Xia.'

XIAO XIA! That was the Princess coming to the castle!

The situation wasn't identical to the one on his Earth, but it was very similar.

Yes, Tai Ying was suddenly quite sure.

Li Jun… The sadistic prince standing before him was that guy!