Walking into the capital city from one of the gates, one was certain to reach the palace sooner or later. When Qiu Ling reached this point in his explanation, the building could already be seen in the distance.

Jing He looked at it, feeling that it had a solemn air to it. Even though he couldn’t see them yet, he remembered from his trial that there were guards stationed next to the door who would check anyone for their reason to enter the palace. Of course, this was mostly a formality but it spoke to the meaning of this place and the person who presided over it.

Retracting his gaze and turning to Qiu Ling instead, he finally couldn’t help but ask further. “Apart from the sovereign, his advisers, the guards, and each of their families live in it as well, don’t they? How come it developed like this?”

In the Nine Heavens, the Heavenly Family had their own palace. In fact, in the far past, not only had the Heavenly Emperor lived in his own palace, but his wife, and the concubines he took each had their own as well. It was only after the curse that everything was downscaled with the introduction of monogamy in the Heavenly Family that the Heavenly Sovereign and their spouse lived in one shared palace. His parents were actually the exception, living in two palaces.

Apart from his own family, each of the titled gods had their own palace, often separate from the one they reigned over though. Just like the building that was part of the complex of the Palace of War where he had gotten ready for his wedding in the morning. Originally, the God of War and his family were supposed to live there and it was only because his uncle preferred to stay in the main building of the Palace of War directly that it had stood empty for so long.

Compared to the way the dragons lived, this was very different and while he had learned a lot of things prior to this day, this wasn’t among them. After all, he had only found out how the palace looked from the inside and who was living there during his trial. After that, there had never been a chance to ask about his doubts, and before that, he wouldn’t have known to ask about this. Somehow, he had always believed that it should be similar to what he was used to from the Nine Heavens. Now, he could see that he had been narrow-minded. Clearly, things were different in the dragon realm after all.

Qiu Ling smiled when he heard that question. He knew the answer to that back from his childhood days. It wasn’t a popular story by any means but as the disciples of the previous dragon king, his father and Jinde had naturally learned a lot more about the history of their realm than others did. And, well, Jinde had always loved telling him stories so he was familiar with some of them like this one.

“I suppose that goes back to the first king of the dragon race as well. His name was Jin Lan and the reason he was chosen as king was not simply his strength — which didn’t stand out among the others of the race as much as one might believe — but mostly due to his character. Jin Lan is said to have been someone with a strong sense of righteousness and an unbending will. He thought much of loyalty, whether it was between family members, lovers, or friends. He wasn’t one to retreat but always the one to think of others first.

“That was why everyone in the small group of people that made up the dragon race back then trusted him to lead them well. With this person, they all felt that they could rest assured that he would treat all of them equally and would defend them to the best of his ability, leading them to a brighter future for all of them. They were afraid that with somebody else as their leader, an imbalance would be created that would lead to some being sidelined sometime down the road, just as they had experienced it in the demon realm previously.

“Jin Lan lived up to their expectations. More than that, he thought about the reasons why he was chosen and he felt that by being put in this position, he might already be failing what they had in mind because how could there be true equality when one was king and the others were subjects?”

Qiu Ling faintly shook his head and sighed. “With the race only emerging, their understanding of how life should be shaped was certainly different. Still, his considerations led him to establish what is still the way the dragon realm works so many years later: He looked at what each of them knew and did well and he asked them to give him advice on those matters in the future and take on the tasks that were related to this.

“There weren’t many people back then and each of them found their role, even though not all of them did at the same time. Slowly, through their combined efforts, the city and the race of the dragons grew and Jin Lan took that as his cue to ask them to move into the original building as well because the result they had achieved would not have been possible without their input and effort. While he might have led them, they all laid the foundation of their future and thus, they should all be included in this place.”

“Without him asking them to though, would it have happened this way?”

Qiu Ling smiled faintly. “Who knows? Either way, he was happy to share the place and they were happy to follow him. In future generations, there would always be a few advisers chosen and I believe the system is quite sound. The burden of being king isn’t small and the right advisers can certainly help carry much of it as long as they are chosen for their merits. I’ve experienced that myself over the years.”