Time seemed to stand still in the Nine Heavens while things were slowly moving in a different direction in the dragon realm. Meanwhile, the demon realm ushered in a time of explosive changes.

Ye Yang entered the building that had been designated as the place where the paintings for his people’s currently ongoing competition were hung.

Two guards stood at every door to ensure nobody would cause trouble. Each of them had been chosen from among the demons who were close to Xia Wei, all of them excellent fighters who were just itching to show their might any chance they got. If somebody dared to do something under their eyes, they were likely to believe the person doubted their skills and would understand it as a provocation. Of course, they wouldn’t deal nicely with such a person which should manage to quell any nefarious thoughts in a short amount of time.

Apart from the guards, Ye Yang had also instated additional people walking each of the floors who would keep an eye out for any troublemakers who tried to influence the direction of this competition in a more subtle way.

Originally, he had been doubtful about whether this could work but after a while, he thought of one part of their realm’s population that could be trusted above anyone else: the spouses who had married in from other realms and the half-bloods who had resulted from such unions.

Admittedly, this idea had been inspired by the current trends in the dragon realm. Ye Yang wasn’t afraid to say so. What the incumbent dragon king was doing could be considered a positive direction for his realm and since Ye Yang intended to better the demon realm as well, why not copy what he was doing?

Anyway, those spouses and children who couldn’t bear to leave should receive a better standing in the realm. Only this way would they be somewhat protected against the maliciousness many of the demons showed. Involving them in the current competition and the follow-up plans he had was a good way to make that happen.

It was also one that seemed organic because clearly, those people were the most trustworthy in the whole realm so if they overlooked the proceedings of the competition, the level of trust the demons had in the whole process would go up and might inspire them to participate more eagerly.

Stepping into the building, Ye Yang’s first look around was naturally to ensure that everyone was in their position and doing their job. Even though he felt that he had chosen wisely, that didn’t mean that he would trust the guards and their helpers completely. In the demon realm, you could never be careful enough.

To his pleasant surprise, none of the people in sight were slacking off or abusing the power they had received. Instead, they were seriously doing their task. It almost made Ye Yang wonder if he had been too harsh before. Maybe the people of his race weren’t that bad. Then, he walked up to the nearest assistant and asked whether something noteworthy had happened so far and immediately changed that thought.

The opening ceremony of the competition had been held the day before. Since then, the venue was open to the public and everyone could view the paintings and cast a vote. To do so, you used a small jade coin that was imbued with spiritual power to distinguish who had and who hadn’t voted yet. Everyone was only allowed one vote, not more, so this precaution was necessary in his eyes. Otherwise, he knew what would happen: Someone would gather coins through some means and try to influence the competition so they or someone affiliated with them won.

Of course, there were also those who would want to influence the competition in another way or make use of it by casting a strategic vote or becoming a topic of conversation through some actions. That was precisely what the assistant told him about.

“It was yesterday. Na Ling walked in early in the morning. She walked around the first floor, then came back here, and asked who Your Majesty voted for.”

Ye Yang’s brows twitched. Na Ling was a demon woman living in the capital who was … somewhat notorious. She was beautiful and had many suitors. She also couldn’t be called talentless but when it came to the things she could do well, then the first thing on that list was her ability to put her nose where it didn’t belong and try to gain advantage from that.

He knew that back in the day, she had been trying to get into Jin Ling’s harem but supposedly, he took one look at her and dismissed her which made her complain to everyone who would listen for the following half a year that their new demon king had no eyes. Ye Yang didn’t know how much of that story was true but knowing Jin Ling, if he saw no benefit in the union and even saw a possibility of things turning out badly, he indeed wouldn’t bother.

Either way, it seemed that Na Ling had now cast her gaze on him. It … could be considered somewhat flattering but, unfortunately for her, he wasn’t interested either. She wasn’t one to only have one lover, something that he cared about if the relationship was supposed to be long-term, and … that was what he was looking for. If he had to stay king, then he didn’t want changing partners at his side even less than before so she was out of the question. Not to mention that she was already trying to screw up his plans when he had barely even started implementing them.

He had not yet voted, precisely because he was afraid that it would influence the outcome of this competition if he gave voice to his opinion publicly and you just couldn’t keep that kind of thing secret if you were the king of the demon race. No, he wanted a genuine winner as much as that was possible in the current demon realm, and whatever he could do to achieve it, he would.

As a result, it was better to hold back and cast his own vote at the very end before the competition ended. At that point, it could be his vote that decided if two of the paintings were tied or maybe it would just be one vote of many on any of the paintings, showing that even if he was king, much was left in the hands of the demons as a whole. In short, this was important to him and he wouldn’t let Na Ling destroy his efforts.