Negotiations with the Dragon Race were a genuine icebreaking journey, which was why they were difficult.
Although the Ascending Dragon Hall had dealt with the Dragon Race before, and with quite a few dragon factions, this was their first time negotiating with a Sub-Dragon Race on equal footing. It was not that they lacked experience—they had none at all.
The Dragon Race was proud, even the Sub-Dragon Races. Opportunities to negotiate with the Dragon Race as equals were probably few and far between throughout the entire Mystic Dragon Domain.
To the Dragon Race, they were the masters of the Mystic Dragon Domain. How could a master negotiate with guests? Even for somewhat weaker Sub-Dragon Races and the Flood Dragon Race, asking for aid meant asking their own kind for help.
Because of these traditions, the Dragon Race's external "cooperation" was mostly commercial in nature, with little of it being political.
Take the Azure Dragon Realm, for example. It was almost entirely commercialized. Anyone could do business there or lease land offered by the Dragon Race, but if they wanted political cooperation with the Dragon Race... heh, they were not qualified!
Of course, some major factions had "concessions" in the Azure Dragon Realm, but those concessions were all exchanges in nature. You established a concession in my territory, and I established one in yours. The only ones qualified to communicate with the Dragon Race were other "great domains" on the same level as the Mystic Dragon Domain, such as the Tianhe Domain and Xuanyang Domain.
Within the Dragon Race-dominated Mystic Dragon Domain, the Dragon Race's attitude could roughly be summed up as: You may take what I give you; you may not take what I do not give you!
Thus, the Dragon Race could engage in commercial cooperation with other races,