After learning everything he could about the Bai from Chenglei, Dyon abruptly opened the cage doors and left. Chenglei couldn't understand what Dyon meant by this, didn't he intend to keep them under lock and key until they repented?
He stood, walking to the opened cage door and slowly stretched his arm out. Half of him was cynical and believed that Dyon was playing a cruel joke. With the seals in them, they couldn't leave even if the roof above their heads was torn open as long as Dyon didn't want it. But, surprisingly, even after his arm stretched over the entrance line, he didn't feel any rejection coming from within.
Complex emotions flooded Chenglei's chest as his brows furrowed.
The path before them was laid bare and obvious. They could either leave on their own and never follow the path of Dragons again. Or, they could remain here and wait for Dyon to come back. If they chose the latter, their futures would be bright. At the very least, they would have a chance at reaching their full potentials.
Chenglei understood that they had no right to hate Dyon for not undoing their seals before letting them go. They had lost their dragon bloodline due to a war they chose to take a part in. What obligation did Dyon have to unseal them and awaken his constitution? He had none.
Seeing the paths laid out before him, Chenglei's will steeled as he decisively stepped out of the cage, followed by hundreds of his clansmen. The moment they did so, the last remnants of the seals within them disappeared like the wind.
'The Daiyu Clan will be rebuilt by my hands. I am a Dragon! I would never rely on another.'
**
Dyon immediately sensed what happened, but he didn't really have any reaction to it. Sure, it would be great to have an army of Dragons at his back. Pure blooded Dragons like the Daiyu, despite the fact their Dragon Souls were only of the bronze realm, were incredibly rare. Although Dragons were promiscuous and hate high fertility rates, that was only when they lowered themselves to the level of other species. When Dragons mated with their supreme grade beast counterparts, the story was very different.
Plus, Dyon had the means to improve even Dragon bloodlines. Not only did he have access to an entire world's the limits of which he didn't currently understand Primordial Energy, he also had millions of Reverse Scales accumulated from the Daiyu Tombs.
Although it would be impossible to raise them to the Gold realm even with this many reverse scales, the Silver realm was definitely a solid possibility. Such a support for his Kingdom would be astounding.
One had to remember that Dragons were the second ranked among the quadrants not because of their inferiority to the Star Clan. In terms of raw battle power, no one could match the Dragon Species, even though their bloodlines, much like that of seemingly every other tribe, clan and sect, were also declining. Their physical prowess was mind-boggling and their energy stamina was endless.
There were two main reasons, though. Firstly, the faith of the Star Clan was so overwhelming that even the Dragons couldn't overcome it.
Although it was impossible to use faith within the Valley of Genius, the tower itself was a separate matter altogether. Special events like the Valley banned faith because their purpose was to give lower class individuals a chance to rise up. However, one had to remember that there were requirements Clan and Sect Grade in order to reach higher levels.
One couldn't step into the Celestial floors unless you were affiliated with a Royal God Clan, it was impossible to step into the Dao floors unless you were affiliated with a King God Clan, and the top floor, as the Demon Sage would attest, was blocked off to any not the ruler or legatee of an Emperor God Clan.
No one understood just why these rules were set in place and why the tower could be so fair in some aspects, but so unfair in others, but this was how the world worked. Sometimes, not everything was fair.
Simply for this reason, Dragons, an already scarce species, could hardly be found on the dao floors. This was because their arrogance pervaded their being so fiercely that they would often break off from clans they were affiliated with and attempt to create their own kingdoms.
This pattern caused a never-ending cycle of Dragon Clans becoming smaller and smaller. Despite the fact the Drago-Qilin Lands spanned an entire 5 quadrants, there wasn't a single Emperor God Clan among them, and the King God Clans were pitifully few.
As a sharp contrast, the Star Clan wielded the fate of a Second Comet Grade Clan, they were simply on an entirely different level.
The second reason Dragons were ranked second and not first was one that you could only shake your head at. A lot of the time, Dragons simply didn't show up to events they believed were beneath them. Often times, the only event Dragons would appear in at all was the ranking tournament, but they would place so poorly in the other events that their best outcome was usually second or third.
Even knowing all of this, though, Dyon didn't regret letting Chenglei go despite knowing full well that he have forcibly kept them under his thumb. Anyone with half a brain would know that enslaving a Dragon Clan wouldn't go over well with the rest of their species. However, this wasn't Dyon's reasoning.
The Daiyu Ancestor gave up his body and soul for a chance for his clan to survive. Dyon simply didn't feel right betraying that dream of his even if Chenglei felt his own pride was more important.
Chenglei needed to grow up, and he couldn't do that in a cage.
Dyon tossed this to the back of his mind as he entered the Eostre family tombs. It had been decades since he lasted visited Ms. Everdeen's resting place, so he wanted to pay his respects before he spent some time with Ri and his In-Laws. But, what he saw made his eyes widen in shock.
Dyon stood frozen, his brain seemingly short circuiting. He was usually proud of his demeanor it was an aspect of him that made him almost unflappable. It usually took something as big as suddenly leaping from a first level intent to a ninth to make his mind turn to mush, yet he could hardly process what he was seeing.
After leaving the Daiyu to their own devices, Dyon immediately used the Demon Sage Tower to travel to the Elvin Kingdom.
The truth was that Ri and had come with him to visit her parents, but he had insisted on dealing with the war himself. Ri had thrown herself into cultivation in order to be able to help Dyon with his burden, so over the last two decades, she had only seen her parents a handful of times, something that Dyon told her was unacceptable. So, she happily agreed to come.
As Dyon expected, King Acacia wasn't a fan of King Belmont's change either, but unlike Dyon, he didn't have the twins to tell him that something odd was going on. His True Empath abilities saw through King Belmont despite him being unable to change anything.
This aside, King Acacia remained in the Elvin Kingdom, focusing on building it back up while taking care of his wife because he felt that it likely wouldn't be long before the Elvin Kingdom was forced to take the mantle of Royal God Clan.
Knowing this, Dyon had been coming back to let his father-in-law know that there was nothing to worry about anymore, but that was when his attention turned toward the Eostre Holy Lands and he remembered Ms. Everdeen.
For a long time now, Dyon had felt a looming guilt over her death. It wasn't just for a simple and vague reason like he felt responsible for it, but it was rather deeper and darker than that
Despite knowing that Jade was entirely responsible for not only this poor and kind old lady's death, but also for her torture before death, Dyon almost forgave Jade
He didn't understand the feeling. He was usually cold and decisive when it came to parsing enemies and allies. It didn't matter how beautiful you were, it didn't matter if they had a good relationship in the past, nothing effected Dyon's ability to differentiate right from wrong.