Heilong-kou (Black Dragon-Mouth/Pass)
Heilong-cheng (Black Dragon-City)
Censorate (Supervisory Court)
Yuling City (Jade City)
Jingui Town (Golden Turtle Town)
Xuanwu City (Black tortoise City)
Qinglong (Azure Dragron)
...
The teacher stood at the front, smiling as he announced some good news.
"Today, the Queen Consort has sent something special. Every student will get one. Please line up to receive it."
The box was, of course, filled with learning devices.
"This is a learning machine, produced by the Demon Palace, manufactured by the Mechanical Factory, and the batteries were made personally by the Demon King.
Remember to handle them carefully and don't damage them."
Little Lianze tilted his head up. "Teacher, what's a battery?"
Qinghe smiled warmly. "Don't worry, you'll find out in today's lesson."
Because of his exceptional background, Qingyuan had been assigned to the last row.
His seatmate, however, was the sour-faced Yanye.
Thinking about how Yanye had once chased him down, Qingyuan rubbed his nose awkwardly.
He said sheepishly, "Um… Last time it was my fault for ambushing you first. You've already gotten your revenge, so... can we call it even?"
"Are you from the Qingluan Clan?"
Qingyuan quickly nodded. "Yes, I'm Qingyuan Shaojun of the Qingluan Clan. I used to stay at the palace."
Yanye still looked cold, but since Qingyuan was a guest of the Queen Consort, he no longer disliked him as much.
"Fine. We'll call it even."
Qingyuan grinned brightly. "I'm Qingyuan. What's your name?"
"Yanye."
Qingyuan's eyes widened. "I've heard your name before! The Queen Consort mentioned you."
Yanye's ears twitched, visibly perking up.
Qingyuan didn't keep him in suspense. "Her Highness said you're very smart and have great potential."
Yanye's ears turned bright red.
Qingyuan hadn't expected the cold boy to be so easy to embarrass.
Soon, the learning devices were distributed to everyone.
Qingyuan curiously poked at the device with his stylus.
Qinghe wandered around the classroom, explaining,
"Children, if you come across anything you don't understand, just tap it on your learning device. Wherever you're stuck, just tap there."
Qingyuan tapped a line of text — immediately, a childlike voice read the line aloud.
"Wow, amazing!"
Was there a little demon kid trapped inside this thing?
He flipped the device around, but it was just a thin, flat board — no way a child could be hidden inside.
His seatmate tried it too — same voice.
Qingyuan gleefully tapped random places on his textbook — the device read everything out loud.
If only he'd had this back in the Qingluan Clan... he wouldn't have spent every day running wild instead of studying.
Thanks to the learning devices, the classroom quickly turned lively and energetic.
...
Meanwhile, a group of demons wearing rough beast skins entered Black Dragon City.
At first, they held their heads high — but gradually, their heads drooped lower and lower, until their mouths hung open in shock.
"Elder, is this Black Dragon City?"
A young demon asked pitifully, "Elder, didn't you say Black Dragon City was poor and ruined, with no proper buildings left?"
The elder's face turned bright red.
"That's how it was last year! What, are you accusing me of lying?"
Of course, that's exactly what they thought.
The elder had always tried to scare the young ones into staying home, saying the outside world was dangerous, full of monsters that ate demons, and that they should never wander off alone.
Thus, they had stayed in White Tiger City all their lives, never seeing the outside world.
Technically, they were from the White Tiger Clan, not the Winged Tiger Clan — their bloodline was pure White Tiger.
A younger demon piped up, "If Little Brother is in Black Dragon City, he must be living the good life!"
The elder snorted angrily.
He shouldn't have brought these little brats out — a bunch of ungrateful cubs, ready to forget their home the moment they stepped outside.
Looking around, they saw Black Dragon City's citizens were neatly dressed, with carriages and vehicles bustling through clean streets —
While they were wrapped in beast skins, looking like bumpkins from the countryside.
The weather was warming up, so they were already sweating through their heavy furs.
Normally, Winged Tiger Clan members went bare-chested in summer, wearing only grass skirts below.
But since they were traveling far, they had reluctantly worn heavy beast skins — plus, Black Dragon City was colder than expected.
Now that they were in the city, they were completely lost — even the elders didn't know where to go.
At that moment, a young low-rank demon approached them.
The elder frowned in displeasure — since when could low-rank demons walk freely inside the city?
But looking closely, he realized — this was bloodline reversion!
In the demon world, bloodline reversion meant returning to a purer ancestral form.
Those who failed still became "secondary" purebloods — still considered noble.
For example, in the Black Dragon Clan, the purest bloodline was the Azure Dragon.
If someone's aptitude was lower, they became a Black Jiao; lower still, a Black Python.
Long ago, all Azure Dragon retainers were pure dragons — just of varying ranks based on color.
Now, only the Demon King himself was truly pure-blooded — the rest had severely diluted bloodlines.
A Black Jiao, who would once have been a slave dragon, now counted as secondary noble blood.
Such was the decline of the demon clans.
"You're new to Black Dragon City, right?"
The young demon, who was a colleague of the Empress's former tour guide, greeted them.
The elder sighed. "Black Dragon City's changed so much, we don't even know where to start."
The young man kindly explained the city's layout and handed them a guidebook — everything written in the common demon language.
"The first thing you need to do is exchange for Black Dragon Coins.
All transactions here require Black Dragon Coins — we don't accept anything else."
The elder snorted. "Your Demon King sure has guts. Even made his currency."
Even the Xuanwu Clan, who first invented demon currency, hadn't dared name it after themselves. (Though the old demon currency system eventually collapsed.)
The young man kept calm and professional:
"If you want to eat or find lodging, you'll need Black Dragon Coins."
The elder sneered, "What food could you Black Dragons possibly have? Dirt?"
Thankfully, one of the younger demons quickly interrupted:
"Let's look around first, then exchange money."
Soon, the elder's face was slapped by reality.
The young man deliberately led them near the Food Exchange Festival site.
"What's that smell? It's amazing!"
The young demons sniffed the air frantically.
The elder couldn't help swallowing his saliva.
It smelled... incredible.
"What's happening over there?"
The young man smiled smugly.
"That's our first-ever Black Dragon Food Exchange Festival.
Today's the final day — they're unveiling a special celestial brew."
The elder snorted proudly —
They must have bought that celestial brew from the Winged Tiger Clan!
See? No matter how much Black Dragon City developed, they still had to rely on the Winged Tigers!
The young guide didn't understand the elder's strange mutterings, wisely choosing to stay silent.
Meanwhile, the young demons, who were all massive foodies, pestered the elder until he gave in.
He grudgingly exchanged their money for Black Dragon Coins and bought them tickets.
Especially when they found out — once inside, all the food was free!
The moment they entered, each demon grabbed a skewer of roasted pig trotters.
Even the elder, unable to resist temptation, shamelessly snagged two skewers for himself.
At that moment, the countless thoughts in his mind condensed into a single, defeated phrase:
"Truly delicious."
The young demons eagerly nodded beside him.
One of them licked the grease off his fingers.
"If I'd known Black Dragon City's food was this good, I would've run away with Little Brother back then!"
His words earned him a hard thump on the head.
He pouted —
Why hit me? The elder's mouth is full of oil too!