How to cascade State List for Selected Country using jQuery Ajax in ASP.NET MVC?

I am writing a logic to display list of States on selection on Country.

I am using jQuery Ajax for this so that the State list gets updated instantly without reload of page.

I am stuck at place where I am getting the State list for selected Country but not aware to pass the jSon return type in view using ajax. Below is my code

View

<table>
<tbody>
<td>
    
@Html.DropDownList("countryVal", (IEnumerable<SelectListItem>)ViewBag.countryVal, "Select Country", new { @id = "Country" })
    
</td>

<td>
<select id="state">Selet State

</select>
</td>
</tbody>
</table>
<script src="~/Scripts/jquery-3.6.3.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

$(document).ready(function () {
    $("select").change(function () {
        var selectedCountry = $(this).children("option:selected").text();

        alert(selectedCountry);

        if (selectedCountry != '') {

            alert("Working")

            $('#state').empty();
            $.ajax({
                type: 'POST',
                url: "/Home/GetStates",
                data: { selectedCountry: selectedCountry },
                success: function (data) {
                    if (data && data.length > 0) {
                        $.each(res, function (i, item) {
                            $('#state').append(new Option(item.stateName, item.stateId));
                        });
                    }
                }
            })
        }

        
    });
});  
</script>

Controller

public ActionResult DropDown()
{

    using (Db db = new Db())
    {
        ViewBag.countryVal = new SelectList(db.Countries.ToList(), "countryId", "CountryName");

        //ViewBag.stateName = new SelectList(db.States.ToList(),"stateId","stateName");

        //var test = ViewBag.countryVal;

        return View();
    }
}

[HttpPost]
public JsonResult GetStates(string selectedCountry)
{
    using (Db db = new Db())
    {
        Country data = db.Countries.Where(x => x.CountryName == selectedCountry).FirstOrDefault();

        int id = data.countryId;
        List<State> stateList = db.States.Where(x => x.countryId == id).ToList();

        ViewBag.ID = id;

        ViewBag.SList = stateList;

        return Json(stateList, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
    }

        
}

Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you