With Yijun holding on to the corner of the dragon’s robes, they travel to a hill overlooking a town. The settlement is nestled comfortably within a lush, green valley, surrounded by mist-covered mountains that rise like guardians around it. Beyond the wall of bricks around it, they could see curved, tiled roofs adorned with intricate carvings of dragons and phoenixes on top of wooden houses. Narrow, winding pathways of cobblestone weave between houses where lanterns hang from eaves, swaying gently in the breeze, casting a warm, inviting glow that contrasts with the cool, misty air.

 Yijun does not recognize it but it looks far more prosperous than his village. Too bad this may be the end of their prosperity. When the dragon starts making his hand seals, Yijun slips away, down the grassy slope of the hill and runs toward the town.

 The distance he has to run isn’t too far but the problem is there is a long line of people before the gate, with baskets of goods on their cotton-clothed backs or shoulders. He runs past the line, past the enraged gasps of people as they see him speeding them by. The guards at the gate look away from the villager in front of them and to the strange man running towards them. They start moving in front, planning to stall him.

 "Halt!" one of them bellows, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword as he stands stoutly in front of Yijun. "What is your business here?" the guard asks, eyeing him suspiciously. His companions abandon their post and assist him to surround Yijun.

 Yijun has skidded to a stop, his hands to his knees, panting. "Please, I need to speak with your leader," he begs to the guard, pushing the words out of his short breaths.

 "Why would I?" the guard skeptically answers, looking him up and down. Yijun hasn’t had a change of clothes or a proper bath for days. Even though his hair is tied up behind him; it is still tangled and full of twigs and leaves. His rough clothes are ripped, stained with mud and grass and in dire need of mending. There are holes in his deeply brown shoes and its seams are threatening to pull themselves apart from his soles.  

 Yijun takes a deep breath before replying, "Because a flood dragon is coming. I saw it nearby. It will attack this town and destroy everything in its path."

Since the dragon did not mind being mistaken as a flood dragon, Yijun has decided to use his old trick in the hope it will still work here.

 Hearing “flood dragon”, the people behind him begin to murmur and panic. The eyes of the guard in front of Yijun widens at his line breaking up in fear and quickly signals for his fellow guards. Soon Yijun finds himself surrounded by armed men. They arrest him and drag him inside the town walls, to the town square where most of the townspeople are gathered.

 As the guards march him through the street, Yijun sees the townspeople around them. They are dressed much better than the people outside and they gawk at at his wild appearance behind silk fans.  Noting their attention, he takes his chance. “Please, all of you, listen to me! A flood dragon is coming! Its-”

 The guard holding his arm raps at his head, making his mind ring with pain. “Silence!” the guard yells at him as he and his fellows drag him towards a building. Yijun presses the ball of his feet to the ground, feeling the rough stone under him, but the guards yank him up, making his feet dangle. They then carry him in without difficulty.

 “Hold on. Let the boy speak,” a deep, pleasant voice say.

 They stop and Yijun feels the grip on his arms lessen. He looks gratefully around to find the source of the voice and sees a middle aged man in silk robes. His black hair is tied back into a coronet and his moustache hang long and lush on both sides of his mouth. His eyes lined by age blaze with interest as he watched Yijun. Meanwhile, the strong-looking and tall men wearing cotton robes on both sides of him and behind him are frowning at Yijun.

 He definitely is rich, he thinks.

 The guards on both sides of him give a salute to the rich man. The guard beside him puts pressure on his shoulder and forces Yijun down on his knees. Yijun yelps as his knees made contact painfully with the cobblestones but the hand behind his head cut his grunt short.

 “Your Majesty, please don’t trouble yourself with him. He is just another troublemaker who wants to jump the line,” the guard says. 

 The king holds his hands up. “It’s no trouble, no trouble at all.”

 Yijun’s eyes widen and his jaw drops as he realizes he is in front of a human king. Human kings are Enlightened Humans who are of equal or lesser status to Enlightened Beasts. In order for humans to be enlightened, they must either be enlightened on their own through the blessing of heaven, learn from an enlightened beast like Yijun tries to with the dragon or they must ingest living parts filled with spiritual power. In order to get those living parts, they must of course battle and defeat those part’s owners who are powered by it. So it is rare for humans to reach the status of king as they must be personally formidable to get spiritual items. Animals are different on the other hand. There are more Enlightened Beasts than kings as animals simply has the advantage of finding spiritual animals and plants with their superior senses.

 The guard behind Yijun uses the butt of his sword to prompt Yijun to speak.

 “There’s a flood dragon on the hill outside,” Yijun’s voice pours out from his parched lips. “I saw it; it was chanting its spells. You have forty minutes to get out of the area before the spell completes.”

 However, contrary to what he was expecting, the king’s face lights up.

 “Forty minutes! Then we should rush then,” he exclaims and turns to the guards. “Call everyone! We have a flood dragon to hunt!”

Some of the guards no and speed away along with some of the king’s servants. Yijun’s mouth hangs open as he looks around at the scurrying people around him, trying to make sense of their actions. Aren’t they afraid of gods coming to destroy them?

 He tries to yank his arms away from the guards’ grip. “What are you doing? You can’t fight it! Its too powerful!”

 The king laughs. “Boy, do you know where you are? You’re in Jie Kingdom. This is the place for enlightened ones. Flood dragons are not a problem to us. Here, we hunt them like common animals.”