Hearing this explanation, this truly wasn’t surprising any longer. The demons operated under the assumption that the dragons were part of them, simply one of the many demon tribes and not their own people. At the same time, they didn’t consider all tribes equal, and the ones who usually led the demons certainly saw the dragons as beneath them. How could they accept a king of mixed blood? Especially one with the blood of what they considered to be the dragon tribe? It simply wasn’t possible.

Knowing this, the demon king indeed would have put himself in a worse situation by exposing their king and the demons were self-serving in nature. Injuring themselves to such a degree only to cause chaos on the other side? That simply wasn’t their style!

“I see.” The general lowered her head, furrowing her brows. Even though she understood this, it still felt almost unbelievable that throughout all these years, nothing had become known, not even a hint of it. “Then who knew on our side? It just … seems unimaginable that such a big secret was kept this well. I have some trouble wrapping my mind around this.”

Jinde smiled. He could see that she didn’t have a general issue with this. There was only some mild concern about how things would develop going forward. After all, this secret had been kept for so long. Because of that, it couldn’t have caused issues even though it had the potential to do so. But this time, too many people had seen. There was no way to keep it under wraps any longer. This would soon indeed become the rumor they all would have expected and that would certainly cause some changes. The only question was how exactly those would look.

“There indeed weren’t many people who knew. Among the people from my time, only me and Xin Lan are aware. Nobody else who had any knowledge of this should still be alive. Among the people from later generations, there are Qiu Ling’s advisers, his husband, naturally, as well as the Heavenly Empress and the God of War.”

The generals collectively heaved a sigh of relief when the crown prince of the Nine Heavens was mentioned. Even though nobody had said it out loud, the question of how the gods would react if they had been lied to and found out not just after the fact but after everyone else … that was a very concerning one. If it was just any god, it could still be dealt with, but this was the gods’ crown prince. You simply couldn’t marry him without full honesty. The alliance might be in danger if their king had tried that! Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

After a moment, Jia Su cleared his throat, having noticed something the others apparently missed. “That is to say … the Heavenly Emperor is not aware.”

The expressions of the other generals changed while Xiang Yong turned to look at the side and Fu Heng pretended not to hear. What this meant was obvious at once.

Jinde simply smiled though. “Well, it seems that way. But it doesn’t matter. The Heavenly Emperor hasn’t accepted him even while thinking that he is a full-blooded dragon and king of the dragon race no less. I frankly don’t care about such a child’s opinion.”

The expressions of the generals turned even more indescribable but nobody dared to criticize what Jinde was saying. Not to mention that this person had once been the king of their race and still had a bearing that commanded respect … considering his age, the Heavenly Emperor should indeed be considered a child. Actually, come to think of it now, even their own king was older than the Heavenly Emperor …

For a moment, everyone couldn’t help but wonder if their king also simply brushed off the Heavenly Emperor’s continued refusal to accept him as his son-in-law as a child throwing a tantrum. Considering that he had gone through the whole wedding ceremony in front of the Heavenly Emperor’s eyes this very morning, that seemed to almost certainly be the case. Oh, maybe they should be worried about the alliance after all?

Fang Hua rubbed her brow, feeling that they still didn’t have the whole story. Frankly, she cared a lot less than Min Jun about whether or not their king had some demon blood. In her mind, as long as you fought the demons, you were on the dragons’ side and there was no doubt about their king’s commitment to that cause.

Still, this matter had come out and the demon race had a new king so they couldn’t rely on the previous king’s reservations about being a half-blood any longer. If this one found out and made an issue out of it … it might make things very, very awkward very soon. And in her opinion, the easiest way to weaken the dragon race was to dissolve the alliance with the gods since that would cut the number of people fighting in half. “So … how exactly did this wedding come to happen if the Heavenly Emperor still isn’t on board? I feel that all of this doesn’t bode well for the alliance between our races.”

Jinde hummed faintly. Well, what was he supposed to say? It was indeed a fact that they had kind of tricked the Heavenly Emperor into writing invitations and then turned his celebration of his son’s return into the latter’s wedding ceremony. He was absolutely certain that the Heavenly Emperor was still sulking in his palace, maybe even still mute because Tian seemed like the type of guy who was really heavy-handed.

“The continuation of the alliance may indeed be a problem. But … this isn’t related to Qiu Ling’s blood. I hope all of you are aware of this. From what I have heard about the incumbent Heavenly Emperor, he is very … stubborn, to say the least. Bad-tempered also seems to be an attribute people like to mention when discussing him. That kind of person might threaten the alliance but … he isn’t the only one with something to say in the Nine Heavens and I believe he will face backlash for that from his people. For the time being, it is more important that everyone on our side stands together. So … what are your thoughts after discussing all of this? Most importantly … General Min Jun, you seem to be grappling with this the most. What are your feelings now that I’ve said so much?”