While the three of them were discussing, Qiu Ling was already pondering how to continue. He had already taken care of that matter and now, there once again didn’t seem to be anything to do. Naturally, he wasn’t happy with that.

Pondering for a moment, he realized that there was one other matter that he could busy himself with. He took out the transmission stone again that he had just put away and used it to contact one of his other advisers.

“Your Majesty.” Xiang Yong also felt better about his king since the time he had been told about his matters by himself. Even though they had figured it out before, he realized now that to a certain degree, Qiu Ling really trusted them. Thanks to that, working together had definitely become much easier. Thus, when he was suddenly contacted, he believed that it had to be something important.

“That matter with the half-bloods, have you taken care of that already?”

Xiang Yong nodded. “I gathered everyone. They should be ready to be sent over.”

Qiu Ling winced. “Well, I’m afraid that won’t be necessary anymore.”

Xiang Yong faintly raised his brows, not quite sure what to make of this. “Might I inquire as to why?”

“There was a bit of a … problem. Let’s just say that I had to take Jing Yi away from there. We’re back in the dragon realm now so I’m afraid it won’t be necessary anymore to have them join the idle gods’ courtyard. I’m sorry you had to do this just for this to happen.”

Xiang Yong slightly furrowed his brows but shook his head. “Well, nobody could guess that something like this would happen.” Whatever ‘this’ actually was. But his king didn’t seem as if he wanted to talk about that so he didn’t pry. “Then I will tell them to disperse again and go back to their original positions?”

He wasn’t quite sure if that was a good thing or not. Usually, the half-bloods would have some problems fitting in. That was the same whether they were in the dragon realm or over in the Nine Heavens. Getting a task directly from their king or one of his advisers was something that greatly made them feel more welcome in the dragon realm.

Now, this was the second time that they had been given one and it was even a task where the exact combination of their blood wouldn’t decide whether they could finally take part like in that matter with the demon-hunting sects back then. Thus, they had been even happier when they had been called over. To tell them now that things had changed and that they weren’t needed anymore … He was worried about that.

Qiu Ling looked at him and then furrowed his brows. “Actually, why don’t you just come over to the throne room?” Why should they talk through a transmission when they could just sit down and talk? Even though Xiang Yong hadn’t explained himself, he could see from his expression that he had some words left to say about this. But if they wanted to have a longer talk, he didn’t want to do it like this.

Xiang Yong was surprised but tried not to show it. “Of course, Your Majesty. Then I won’t tell them beforehand?”

“No, let’s first figure out the whole thing.”

Xiang Yong nodded and cut the connection before he rushed over to the throne room. In his heart, he felt exhilarated. He had seen that Qiu Ling was doing a lot better as king in the last few weeks. But that had been in the Nine Heavens, not in the dragon realm. It was a nice change to how things had been in the last years, but it wasn’t the end result he wanted to see.

No, he wanted this: To see Qiu Ling in the dragon realm, actually reigning as king, showing the dragon race the kind of king that he could be. And now, it seemed as if they might actually get to see that. Needless to say, he was more than happy.

When Xiang Yong arrived in the throne room, he saw Qiu Ling sitting on the throne, and he couldn’t help but feel solemn. He had seen him on the throne before but it had usually been when they managed to drag him there. To see him choose that seat on his own … it gave him a certain feeling that he had trouble describing.

He stepped forward and inclined his head. “I’m here, Your Majesty.”

Qiu Ling nodded and then motioned for him to come closer. “Let me guess: You think that they will be unhappy when the promised task is suddenly taken away before they had a chance to prove that they could do it.”

Xiang Yong raised his brows, not having expected that.

Qiu Ling gave a wry smile. “Wanting to prove yourself, your worthiness, I understand that urge.” In his case, he had always wanted to prove as well that he was just like any other dragon. But it hadn’t always been easy. If there had been a task given to him where he could show his worth, and then that chance was taken from him before he could even try, he would’ve been furious. He would have felt betrayed.

He didn’t think that it was much different when the other half of your blood was that of a god. Even though there was an alliance and they didn’t have any bad blood with them, it still didn’t make you a full dragon. And when living in a land where most other people were full-blooded, that could make you feel left out.

Xiang Yong’s expression changed a little and he sat down on the closest seat to Qiu Ling. Right, usually, he forgot about this but his king knew very well how that felt. “Then … might I suggest finding some kind of other task for them? Just something that they can do that will be of some kind of benefit?”

Qiu Ling nodded faintly but he wasn’t quite sure what kind of task that might be. This question … It seemed that they would have to invest some more time into this. Well, not that he had any problem with that.

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