348 I'm not a dragon

The First Royal Draconian Legion had roughly 7000 members still alive at last count. They were divided into seven Cohorts, each led by a middle Earth Qi stage (11th Stage) Colonel. Each Cohort had a pair of batallions commanded by lower Earth Qi stage (10th Stage) Majors, each having 4-5 Centuries led by higher Body Qi stage (9th Stage) Captains. The sole exception was the Crown Prince's Honor Guard, the Crown Century, all of whom were at least in the Earth Qi stage. That one was led by General Gar'na-dras himself, the commander over the entire legion, widely proclaimed to be the strongest middle Earth Qi stage practitioner in the Empire.

Similarly the First Legion's First Cohort consisted of elites a whole stage above all the other Cohorts. While the Second to Seventh Cohorts had troops mostly at Stage 7 or 8 (lower or middle Body Qi), the majority of the First Cohort were at Stage 9 (higher Body Qi). Within the whole First Legion, more than half of the counted members were Stage 7 lower Body Qi practitioners who were often armed with long ranged weapons and posted in guard roles.

Corporal Ling Yun was therefore considered above average in the Legion, a Non Commissioned Officer who only recently broke through to the middle Body Qi Stage (Stage 8) and earned his promotion. For a seventeen year-old, that was already somewhat impressive in the Capital although not particularly amazing.

No, what was amazing was seeing a thirteen year-old at the lower Earth Qi stage. Goodness, Darian was at the same 10th Stage as Captain Yang Feng! He tore up that Lich like it was nothing! From what Ling Yun could tell, the guy might very well be able to take on a Death Knight one-on-one and depending on which Death Knight he fought, he might actually be able to fight it evenly. Even Mindy seemed to be stronger than himself, or at least at the same level.

"Do you want to join the First Royal Draconian Legion? You two would be made officers in no time flat. Oh, but you'd have to get past all the training first. Also, I actually don't have the right to recruit, we'd have to get Captain Yang Feng to do it…"

"Uh… no, thanks." Mindy said, blinking. "We're just looking for a friend."

"A friend?" Ling Yun frowned. "Is he a member of the First Legion?"

"No, I don't think so."

"A member of the Imperial Police, then?" Ling Yun asked.

"Why would you think that?" Mindy had to wonder.

"Because…" Ling Yun gestured toward Darian.

Darian's outfit wasn't First Royal Legion armor. It was police armor. Since the Crown Prince was also chief of police, he had his police forces guard the Fortress within the city so that his military forces would be able to focus their full strength on mana-hunting expeditions.

Ling Yun himself was wearing Tier 6 Dragon-molt Leather Armor, which was naturally fire resistant by itself, but was further augmented with all the fire-resistance runes the Empire's runesmiths could squeeze into it.

According to Imperial Standard Measurements, between Ling Yun's bond with the Dras Clan and the armor he wore, he was rated at 97.5% fire resistance. That meant that the Purification Process only tanned his skin a little when he went through it. Within the Legion, the lowest level of fire resistance permitted through the Portal was 96%. Even then, the poor fellows would only suffer what amounted to a sunburn.

That much fire resistance was unheard of in the rest of the world. In fact, Ling Yun would have gone so far as to say that without a strong bond with the Dras Clan and at least Tier 6 armor made of naturally fire-resistant materials AND powerful runes, there would be no way for a human to achieve that kind of fire resistance…

But what was this? Here in front of him was a girl still in the Body Qi stage who was literally holding fire with her bare hands and she didn't even get singed.

Several other very queer questions floated through Ling Yun's mind as he stared at her. Questions like, "Are you a practitioner of the Fire Lotus Fist?", "Does that mean you'll never be a hot girl?", "Are you about to burst into song?", "Will you marry me?", "Just how intense WAS that chef training?", or even "Are you… Se'lea-dras?!"

After all, perfect or near-perfect innate fire immunity had to mean an extremely pure Dras bloodline. Was she the Emperor's daughter? No, Rou'khan's human form was taller. Granddaughter, then? No, Nai'khan's human form was shorter and had much longer hair. Did the Crown Prince or the Third Prince have any daughters? Ling Yun didn't think so. Then the only possibility left was… the Emperor's sister! In disguise!

"Your Imperial Highness!" Ling Yun saluted formally, heels together, fist over heart.

"Err…?" Mindy scratched her head. "Is there some sort of misunderstanding?"

But Ling Yun felt sure he'd gotten it right, and her Imperial Highness Se'lea-dras was only faking it in an attempt to hide her identity. Cooperatively, Ling Yun nodded seriously. "Don't worry, your Highness, I won't tell anyone."

Darian let out a snort of laughter.

"I'm not a dragon!"

"If you say so, your Highness!"

"Stop calling me that!"

"Yes, your Highness!"

"I'm not a Highness! I'm not a dragon! I'm not any of that!"

"Whatever you say, your Highness!"

"Darian! Help me out here!"

Darian was laughing away. "What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know! Stop him from calling me a Highness!"

"Fine!" Darian chuckled, and punched Ling Yun in the face.

Everything went black.

***

Ling Yun had a weird dream. He dreamed he had reincarnated into a family that made a living by fishing, and scavenging seafood from the beaches, except his father kept growing older, and there were three other siblings to feed, and his mother was crazy about making them study for exams that they could only struggle to prepare for under an overpaid teacher who actually couldn't read half of what the textbooks were saying…

Oh wait. That wasn't reincarnation. That was just his actual family. Like all poor families, they dreamed of glory and riches earned with getting good governmental jobs from passing difficult exams. For that, they had to study, study, study like their lives depended on it, and their mother never quit reminding them of that fact, and once they succeeded, they of course had to take care of their aging parents, like herself, and they would thank her for her strictness to force them to study at the time…

Except that he already was a government officer, and a military one to boot, and it had nothing to do with studying for any exam. It actually had more to do with how fast he could run and how long he could keep running. His speed and stamina was what got the attention of the officers in the Legion. As for study… until now, Ling Yun still couldn't understand all the words in a single text book. Neither could the so-called teachers in his old village.

On top of that, Ling Yun's dream got weirder. He dreamed he met a dragon princess in disguise trying to sneak through the Undead World accompanied by a high level Draconian Knight, who punched him in the fact and knocked him out cold…

Oh wait. That wasn't a dream either.

Ling Yun groaned as he opened his eyes and felt a throbbing pain in his face. The first thing he saw was a stack of mana crystals having been recently extracted from the bodies of fallen Undead. The second thing he saw was a Legion tent somehow having been set up inside-out. He could easily tell from the seams facing himself that he was looking at what should have been the outer side of the tent.

There with him were the disguised princess and her knight. Ling Yun felt very certain now that these two were not Legion-trained and never had Imperial military service a day in their lives, or else they would have known the tent was inside-out.

"Uh… where are we?" Ling Yun managed.

"Still in the Undead World."

Doh. That was obvious. "Am I a prisoner?"

"Sort of. We'll let you go as soon as we're done here."

"When is that?"

"When we've got all the mana we can carry!"

"That's going to take ages! Can I at least go back to camp and report first?"

"NO!"

Ling Yun sighed. "As you wish, your Highness."

"I told you, I'm not a Highness!"

"Whatever you say, your Highness."

"AARGH!!"