"Why don't we attack Jinzhou first?"
Xie Tianxia offered her suggestion. "Since the situation in the Miao Frontier is so complicated, leave it alone for now. We should be ready to draw in the net in Jinzhou." The Heavenly Queen shook her head. "The trap in Jinzhou isn't ready yet. Drawing in the net now would only deal with those foreign races. They aren't worth the trouble. I'm waiting for bigger fish to bite."
"Be careful you don't end up hooking a dragon," Xie Tianxia warned.
The Heavenly Queen smiled. "That would be an unexpected bonus. The Dragon Clan hasn't been doing very well lately."
"You've even infiltrated the Dragon Palace?" Xie Tianxia was a little startled. "Doesn't the Dragon Palace forbid humans from entering?"
The Heavenly Queen asked curiously, "What, humans have human traitors, demons have demon traitors, but dragons can't have dragon traitors?"
Xie Tianxia: "..."
There were simply too many traitors.
"Humans already place great importance on pedigree and bloodline, but that's nothing compared to demons. And a large part of the demons' strict bloodline hierarchy was learned from the Dragon Clan. Nowhere takes bloodline supremacy further than the Dragon Clan. The purer your bloodline, the higher your standing. Mixed-blood dragons and other demons count for nothing in the Dragon Palace. Infiltrating the Dragon Clan isn't as difficult as you imagine."
Understanding dawned on Xie Tianxia. "True. I overlooked those shrimp soldiers and crab generals."
"You aren't the only one who overlooked them. The Dragon Palace did too," the Heavenly Queen said calmly. "Very often, that sort of oversight is fatal." Xie Tianxia grew solemn. "You're right. I've been losing touch with the ground lately."
Among any three travelers, one could surely be her teacher.
Xie Tianxia still maintained that fine tradition.
It left the Heavenly Queen