Emperor's Reckoning

Shen furrowed his eyebrows before he looked in a certain direction in the sky. Wide silver wings were flapping their way toward the island where they stood as the cracked space of nature was healing.

"Looks like we don't need to go and visit him huh," said Shen as his whiskers waved against his own aura.

Sun crossed his arms before he spat on the ground, "He won't be in that state if he used my blessings instead."

"Yeah sure, whatever, u-uh! a-a-a-!" said Shen as he shook his head before mimicking the voice of a monkey.

Sun furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at Shen, "Just now, y-you didn't..."

"What?" asked Shen as his expression feigned ignorance.

"Oh, I will get you later catfish!"

"Hah, try mimicking the voice of a catfish!"

Tuey had her lips twitched as she saw the behavior of the two. Both of them were feared by those around them, yet they behaved like children every time they disagree. The dignity inside their blood didn't resemble the personality they were within. (I guess, a race is just a race and blood is just blood).

The four stallions suddenly neighed as they raised their hind legs to Tuey's slight surprise before she heard a flap of dragon wings.

"Ah?"

The dragon lady landed on her bare feet with a slight thud on top of the beach's sand. Her menacing silvery pupils and jade iris turned mellow as her sight only looked at the bloodied face of the young man she carried in her arms. His heart was still beating but his consciousness was resting.

Tuey immediately got off of the Tetragram Chariot before she rushed in and approached the dragon lady. Her eyes opened wide at the moment she saw the condition of the one she always called older brother. There was blood from his head to his toes as if he had been baptized, yet there was something more than that. (He... he is smiling?).

"Little girl, do you know how to treat him?" asked the dragon lady.

"Ah? Um.... well I'm a healer but," Tuey shook her head before she said, "Leave it to me."

The dragon lady furrowed her eyebrows but she saved the questions for later as she put Lyon to rest on top of the sand just as Tuey instructed her to.

(Oi, why are you stop smiling?) thought Tuey as she saw the sudden change in Lyon's expression.

"Well sorry for not being well endowed!" shouted Tuey as she put her hands on top of Lyon's chest before she muttered, "Jerk."

"Little girl, you don't need to do anything honestly."

The dragon lady immediately stood up before her entire body froze. She didn't notice nor could she sensed the existence of another being on the island, but her eyes didn't lie. In front of her was a dragon that was very much different from her kin. A serpent but not a serpent, there was something different and majestic that the being in front of her had than what's running inside her blood.

A race like none other, A dragon with no wings, there was only one type of dragon that had the gemstone of jade-like as scales and a pair of brown horns. A mouth like that of a crocodile and the agility like that of a snake, but instead of swimming on top of the soil, the sky was its playground.

The dragon lady gulped her saliva. The first encounter she had with Lyon, she could tell from her sharp nose that Lyon had the blessing of a True Dragon. However, this was probably the first time she ever saw the real deal. Nothing like the scented book that she read when she was a child, the divinity aura that a True Dragon exuded was far above hers.

It was too obvious for her that this was the True Dragon that gave his blessing to him since the normal True Dragons that she read in the book stated that they were solitary beings that resided in Heaven. However, this was one singularity that the book didn't mention.

"Don't be scared, lady."

The dragon lady was surprised once more. There was more than one being that she failed to detect with her top-notch bloodline. Her parents used to boast how powerful the bloodline that she had compared to her brothers or how she was the ultimate breed of the dragon race. However, all that was for naught against corporeal bodies.

(This one is... what's this?!) thought the dragon lady. Unlike her feelings against Shen the True Dragon, it was as if the monkey bore a different kind of divinity, more like the opposite of one but not mortal. A devil was the term she came up with before she remembered at the time where Lyon casually took her on a date whilst being a prisoner of the empire. She did take a glance against his back and there were words there that probably described what he was. Devil Ape.

However, what surprised her the most was how casually the Devil Ape approached the mighty True Dragon as if they were nothing but drinking buddies. It was unprecedented that they could casually talk with each other.

She never heard the term Devil Ape before since there were none in the scented books that she read. She gulped her saliva before realizing something that was a probability. (Devil Ape... Devil... don't tell me a race that didn't come out of Heaven but....?! No way...).

To think that a human would get both blessings from an opposing force. Imagination was probably the limit of what Lyon's potential was. (If he... wow...) thought the Dragon Lady as she imagined the more adult and mature version of Lyon in the future.

"Stop playing big and return to your catfish form, Shen! You're scaring our new in-law!" shouted Sun before he smacked the dragon's head with his gourd.

The scene was both scary and comical to her but Tuey who had seen their antics could only smile wryly.

"Fine, fine, fine! Stop hitting me!" said Shen before he returned to the size where he would normally rest on Lyon's shoulder.

The dragon lady was confused at how she should react before she noticed something that the Devil Ape said. (I-In Law? In-Law?! Wait a minute, no way...).

She started to fidget as she looked at them both before she meekly asked, "Can I ask you what you're relationship is with him?"

"Hmm?" Shen and Sun both raised their eyebrows before Sun brazenly jumped and landed on her head with crossed arms.

"My name is Sun, I'm his grandfather," said Sun with a proud tone before he continued, "and the one in front of you is Shen, my catfish pet."

"What?! What do you mean by a pet?! I'm his favorite grandfather!" shouted Shen.

"Favorite my alcoholic ass! His favorite is gotta be me! Don't you realize how he always smiles when I'm around him?!"

"That's because you made him drunk, you stupid monkey."

"What's that?! You want my Rumbling Heaven against your face?!"

"What's that?! You want my Shattering World to knock out your teeth?!"

Both of them headbutted each other.

"I will pull out those whiskers on top of your croc's face!"

"I will pull out those tails on your butt!"

The dragon lady was lost at what to do before Tuey shook her head, "Don't worry big sister, there is no use in separating them. Just let them fight, they never did anyway."

"Ah? Are you sure?" asked the dragon lady. These two were from a race that lived opposite of each other. If a fight truly broke out, this shattered world would be in a huge threat and probably couldn't survive their bouts.

Tuey shook her hand, "Don't worry about it, they won't do something crazy, I mean just look at them, that's how male bonds. Even if they were fighting, it would only be verbal since they are just corporeal bodies."

"Corporeal bodies?"

Tuey nodded, "Yeah, unlike those avatars or astral or whatever you call it, corporeal bodies could decide to choose who could see them. If they chose not to reveal themselves, it would be impossible to detect their existence even if they were a breath away."

Her explanation finally cleared up her doubt about her innate skills. It was not that she couldn't detect them, it's just impossible from the start.

"However," Tuey pouted, "Older brother's innate healing capabilities are really amazing, I didn't even need to do anything and I could see that his wounds are getting better by the second." (Though I'm still slightly irritated by the fact that he stopped smiling the moment you put him down, a pervert even in his rest!).

The dragon lady smiled before she furrowed her eyebrows and her eyes turned sharp. She immediately turned around and looked in a certain direction in the sky. She could see a silhouette coming directly to her island.

Shen and Sun stopped their childish antics as they too looked in the direction where the silhouette was.