148 To Break an Alliance

Ren's eyes narrowed as he gazed at his friend, he could feel the icy aura radiating off Xinglong. What the hell, he thought.

"What did that bastard do?" Ren asked his voice soft but deadly. Even though he wasn't a dragon, he considered Xingteng and Yinglong as his younger sisters.

Xinglong shrugged his massive shoulders as he held his paws out helplessly, "I don't know, but that fucking bastard did something to Xingteng. She won't talk to anyone about it, but that asshole stole her smile, she never leaves the clan holidays anymore, she barely interacts with any of us anymore," Xinglong said, his voice choked with barely suppressed grief and rage.

Xinglong had to pretend in front of everyone that he wasn't aware that something had happened to Xingteng but he wasn't a fool, he had watched as his younger sister became a shadow of herself over the past couple of years.

He had tried his best to investigate, but every lead led to dead ends. All he knew was that Xingteng had disappeared a few years back for a couple of days when she had returned she had locked herself in her room for a few weeks with only Yinglong attending her. When she finally came out, she was a shadow of her former self, and from then onwards she had refused to leave the family grounds.

What had raised his suspicions is at the same time his sister was locked in her room, Heihuo had sustained severe injuries and spent months recovering, and no matter how hard he tried to investigate how he was injured, all he could find out it that Heihuo was during some training exercise. Which he didn't believe for one second. Elder Shanshe would never allow any danger to his precious grandson.

Not only had Heihuo been so severely injured, but the day before Xingteng returned, many Bronze dragons were seen combing through the forest near their ancestral home, according to rumors it was to find a trespasser. Trespasser my ass thought Xinglong, thinking back to the event a couple of years ago, one does not empty out every single warrior from their ancestral home for some insignificant trespasser.

Nevermind that there were nasty rumors about the young bronze dragon prince, especially his taste for abusing some of the young female dragons of the bronze sect. Xingtong was also aware of a few missing female dragons from other factions, all who seemed to have disappeared after attracting Heihuo attention.

The only reason Heihuo was still breathing was that Xinglong hadn't found a way yet to end the bronze dragon without dragging the whole shadow dragon sect into a war with the bronze dragons and their allies.

An intense chill brought Xinglong back to the present, feeling an imminent sense of danger he quickly glanced at Ren. Seeing Ren's eyes darkening, the purple hue changing to nearly black, Xinglong swallowed nervously.

Oh, fuck! Xinglong thought, he had forgotten, if there was one thing that would set his blood sworn brother off it was any female being harmed, and Xinglong had just stepped on one of Ren's landmines.

"Tell me!" Ren hissed his voice overlayed with a slight sibilant undertone.

Xinglong felt this stomach clench at Ren tone of voice, it was one of the danger signs that he was close to the edge, Xinglong had confidence in his own strength, but he knew that if Ren's feral rage was ignited, it would most likely take ever single dragon within the Dragon Realm to subdue him.

Xinglong quickly lay out the facts that he knew, as well as the reason why Heihuo was still breathing. As he explained the situation to Ren, he could feel his friend's fury beating at him in waves. Once he had finished with his tale, Ren closed his eyes as he pinched his nose between his right index finger and thumb, trying to calm the icy rage that was beating at him.

As Ren was trying to bring himself under control, Xinglong gazed out the window, deep in thought. A faint rustling sound brought his attention back to Ren. Seeing his friend eyes had starting to show more purple than black, he breathed out a sigh of relief.

"That is why that bastard must live, Xingteng deserves to carry out her own justice, it is the only way for her to heal this thorn in her heart," Xinglong said tiredly.

Looking at the tired look on his friend's face, Ren realized that Xinglong was right, he was allowing his emotions to rule him, it was just as well that his beast was asleep, else he might just have lost control knowing that his little sister had been harmed.

Ren also recognized that he was too emotional he needed to take some time and meditate to gain back his emotional equilibrium, it had been thousands of years since he had lost control of his emotions. For someone who prides himself of his self-control, he was distressed that he was losing control so quickly.

Ever since he had that first dream of his true-mate over six months ago, he could feel his control slipping. Smiling bitterly to himself, a demon male usually becomes emotionally unstable when his true-mate appears. Bonding madness was the price that all male demons risked when their mate emerged. That was the price they paid for the gods' gift.

All male demons who were gifted with a true-mate would do anything to get their true-mates to recognize the bond, and complete the true-mate ritual. But the bonding process couldn't be forced, the whole bonding process was always up to the female, and only if she was totally committed could the ritual take place.

The demons had learned the hard way during Salroch reign that no matter which methods were used, there was no way to force the bond. The penalty of trying to force the bond was not only having the gods withdraw the true-mate bond, but the male would fall into bonding madness and turn instantly losing his soul and forever being denied a chance at reincarnating.

"Hmm. So you want Heiteng to arrange unfortunate accidents for Huangyan❷ of the green sect and Honghuo❸ of the red sect?" Ren asked.

This was why Xinglong loved dealing with his brother, Ren always knew what he was thinking, often he was already ten steps ahead of him.

"Exactly."

"But you don't have to involve Heiteng," Ren said, "I can order for some of my demons to arrange everything."

Xinglong smiled gratefully at Ren upon hearing his offer, he knew that Ren was taking an enormous risk by getting involved in this matter, if demons were caught killing one of the heirs, it would mean war.

"Appreciate the offer, brother. But I want Heiteng involved. It is time for the black dragons to come out of their self imposed exile. I also want Heiteng and some of his elite guards to join us in guarding the new silver queen."

Ren wasn't surprised to hear that Xinglong wanted the black dragons to rejoin the dragon race, he had been nagging Heiteng for thousands of years, but to no avail.

"You really think that the black dragons will be willing to leave Blackrock mountain?" he asked.

Chuckling softly, Xinglong answered "For a silver queen, that is the only thing that will get them to leave," he said confidently.

Xinglong had given this plan of his careful consideration. It was the main reason why he had suggested starting the search for the silver queen in the demon realm. As he knew that Ren had a unique enchanted Ley Mirror.

Before the sundering Ley Mirrors were common throughout Doha, they were magic communication devices that were connected via the Ley Lines❹ on Doha, as long as you knew the address of the mirror you wanted to contacted, anyone could communicate face to face via two Ley Mirrors.

Any master level rune mage could create a Ley Mirror, but only silver dragons could connect the Ley Mirror to the Ley Lines on Doha. Unfortunately, since the last silver dragon was murdered, Doha had lost the ability to connect new Ley Mirrors to the Ley Lines on Doha, and as the years went by numerous Ley Mirrors were lost or destroyed.

Now there are only a few of these ancient treasures left, and they were strictly guarded and only used in absolute emergencies. Heiteng had inherited a pair of Ley Mirrors, which could only communicate with each other, it was set up as a private channel, Heiteng had gifted Ren with one so that the two of them could keep in contact.

To much suspicion would fall upon Xinglong if he or any of his dragons were to travel to Blackrock mountain, which is why whenever he needed to contact Heiteng he would travel to the Demon Realm and use Ren's Ley Mirror.

There was a second reason why Xinglong needed the black dragons to take part in his mission. The black dragons had a secret stone portal connected to the Demon Realm, a gift from Ren. This enabled black dragons to leave the Dragon Realm secretly without anyone being the wiser.

Very few knew of the deep friendship between Heiteng, Ren, and Xinglong. Not even Xinglong father and grandfather were aware that the three were blood sworn brothers. And with Heiteng being able to secretly meet with Xinglong in the Demon Realm, the three of them had managed to keep this secret for thousands of years.

After Ren agreed to speak with Heiteng and to arrange for the black dragon prince to meet them in the Demon Realm, the two of them discussed the rest of their plans. It was agreed that Ren would meet up with Xinglong and his siblings in the Demon Realm in two weeks. Xinglong was relieved that he would have his two blood sworn brothers at his side during this critical mission.

Removing the Dragon Concealer ward, the two chatted together amicably, it had been a long time since the two friends had been able to meet, and they had a lot to discuss.

Xinglong had just invited Ren to lunch when the door to his study banged open, and an enraged Laolong stormed in.

✽✽✽

➥ Notes

❶ Heiteng means Black Flying Dragon

❷ Huangyan means Yellow Eye

❸ Honghuo means Red Throat

❹ Ley Lines are subtle electrical current that runs around the entire planet. These electrical currents are known as "Ley Lines" and are almost like Mother Earth's veins.

Just like we have veins that flow in and out of the heart, Mother Earth has Ley Lines, which are lines of energy that coil around the earth in a similar fashion as a strand of DNA.

✽✽✽