Ye Yang gave them a long look and then nodded at one of them. “Get me Xia Wei.” Then, he simply turned around, walked back through the throne room, and took his seat on the throne for the first time.

The two guards stared at him, exchanged a glance, and then moved in a hurry. One went to close the gates while the other rushed off to find Xia Wei. It seemed they weren’t about to be killed but it also seemed like their new king wouldn’t tolerate nonsense. They’d better work hard in the future!

With that thought at the back of his head, the guard naturally didn’t take long to find Xia Wei and bring him back.

Anyway, Xia Wei had no problem meeting with the new king. In fact, he was rather curious about why Ye Yang wanted to see him. He had won the fight before and had been acknowledged as king so he didn’t think that they should have anything to do with each other. Ye Yang simply didn’t seem like the type to lobby.

Walking into the throne room, Xia Wei raised his brows at the sight of Ye Yang on the throne. He hadn’t thought about it much before but he was rather accustomed to the sight of Jin Ling there.

Ye Yang waited for the gate to be closed behind him and then motioned for Xia Wei to step closer. “Let’s have a chat.”

Xia Wei nodded and then stood there awkwardly, not sure if he should say anything.

Ye Yang didn’t bother to talk in circles and got right to the point. “It seems I somehow became king. Frankly, I don’t have much interest in the position but this battle today was laughable. Yong Hai wasn’t prepared and I find the whole war with the dragons to be distasteful.”

Xia Wei nodded a bit but wasn’t sure what else to do. How was this related to him?

“Xia Wei.”

Xia Wei raised his brows and finally forced himself to speak up. “I’m afraid I can’t quite follow your thoughts, Your Majesty.”

Ye Yang gave a hum. “Don’t worry. Just let me ask something: What is it that you want?”

Xia Wei’s brows raised higher. “Nothing in particular.” Anyway, he had gotten the weapon Jin Ling had promised him and outside of the war, as long as the king didn’t bother him, he couldn’t care less who was on the throne. It made no difference to him.

Ye Yang sighed. This Xia Wei wasn’t that easy to talk to. He really wondered how Jin Ling had done it. But then, he had always been a natural charmer. Even with men like Xia Wei, he could deal easily.

He rubbed his temple and then motioned for Xia Wei to sit down at the side. “I’ll be frank: I think what you desire is strength. You’re unhappy with losing against me and the reason you wanted to participate in the battle was so you could hone your skills. There isn’t more to it, is there?”

Xia Wei shook his head while taking a seat. “Not really, no.”

“Well, it’s bothersome though, isn’t it? Fighting a whole war with so many people around … Why go to such lengths for a simple fight?”

Xia Wei gave him an odd look but he felt like he slowly understood what Ye Yang was getting at. “Your Majesty wants to offer me an alternative?”

“An alternative perspective for sure. Please indulge me for a moment and just follow my line of thought: The demons and dragons were one race once.”

“Yes.”

“They split off and the dragons became a race of their own. Since then, many demon kings have tried to wage war against them to force them back under their rule and make them part of the demon race again.”

Xia Wei nodded. That was really common knowledge.

“Now, hundreds of millennia have passed since then. The dragons and demons of today have nothing in common. The dragons can’t use our dark energy, their magic is on the opposite end of the spectrum, and they suffer from a curse that is almost the opposite of ours as well. What benefit would it have even if we managed to force them back under our rule?

“The dragons would be unhappy and resist. People with our curses put in proximity could also lead to disaster and might cause both sides heavy losses even while living side by side. Since that is the case, then isn’t the war and the wish to subjugate the dragons just so as to satisfy our vanity?”

Xia Wei tilted his head. “I suppose so?”

“If this war has no benefits to us, why should we wage it? Rather than that, imagine the following: Imagine you could travel to the dragon realm, maybe even all the way to the dragon realm’s capital city. You could walk up to the gates of their palace and tell the guards you want to see one of their soldiers or even one of their generals.

“Then, imagine you could have a friendly spar. One that doesn’t need to end in bloodshed or death but just tests both sides’ skills. The kind of spar where you can’t anticipate from your own experience and behavior what kind of skill will be used next because you simply don’t share the same type of magic and your bodies are different. Wouldn’t that be exciting?”

Xia Wei’s lips curled up. “It does sound exciting for sure. I just doubt the dragons would ever let that happen considering the history we have.”

Ye Yang smiled as well. “And that is where you are wrong. Yes, they might not trust us but there is a possibility to make this work. Either way, we won’t know for sure unless we try, isn’t that so?”

Xia Wei lowered his gaze, his mind churning. Actually, the kind of possibility that Ye Yang described did have a high appeal to him. So yes, he would very much like to try.

« ToC »