1790 The Beasts' Choice

After learning about how his mother and father had died at the hands of the Dragon Emperor, Pearl had thought that his hatred for the man could not go any higher.

It was only now that Pearl was realizing just how incredibly wrong he had been.

"My grandparents were killed by the Dragon Emperor too?" Pearl asked in a stunned voice.

The Deer, who had told him that, nodded.

Pearl looked toward the rest of the group and most could only look away in shame.

"What is the meaning of this?" the Lion stood up from his seat, walking to the middle of the gathering. "What do you mean that my uncle and aunt were killed by that human emperor?"

"That is the truth, Leader Zhu," the Lizard spoke. "That is unfortunately the truth."

"Why am I only just hearing about this?" the Lion demanded. "If my uncle and aunt were murdered then I should've been made aware. Why would you not tell me?"

"To protect you," the Swan said. "As we said, if we told you the truth, you would rush to attack the Emperor. That would only add one more dead beast to the list, nothing more. And we know how hot-headed you are. You would absolutely attack them."

"It doesn't matter what I would do or wouldn't do," the Lion said. "It is my right not only as a nephew to the previous leader but also as his successor to know how he had died. Hell, it is my right the Leader of the Lion Colony to know the truth that all the leaders already know about. So I ask you all this again, why was I not made aware?"

Pearl was still stunned by the information he had just learned about his grandparents. A million thoughts went past his head, morphing each time he thought he had a grasp on one, leaving him speechless.

It was only a while later that he realized he had stood still without talking. Somehow, no one had noticed this behavior from him. They all seemed focused on something else.

"It was on that day when the massive lightning strikes filled the southern skies near His Majesty's secret realm," the Eagle started speaking. "Everyone was concerned what those lightning strikes were, but no one knew enough to make any logical conclusions."

"Later that night, we sensed some faint but strong and violent aura in the distance. We weren't very concerned at the moment as the aura was very vague and hard to tell where it had come from."

"It had come from the Lion Colony," the Ox took over. "We couldn't tell at the time, but given the direction, it is obvious in hindsight."

"You didn't go check?" Pearl asked.

"There was nothing to check," the Swan said. "To us, the aura could have been anything. Besides, it was so vague that it wasn't worth checking. We only ever remember it because we realized what it had been just hours later."

"We were abruptly notified to gather outside our colonies and meet the Dragon Emperor alone," the Ox said. "When we arrived at the location, we met with a bloody and wounded Dragon Emperor who notified us what had happened."

"He had killed Leader Shi and his wife; he straight up told us that. That man… he had no remorse at all. Looking at him, you wouldn't even believe that it was the same day when his wife had died."

"And?" the Lion asked. "What happened when you met him? If he was wounded, you could have attacked him, right?"

"We couldn't," the Lizard said. "We were still shocked by Leader Shi's death when we learned that the Azure Dragon had died that very day as well. He told us how he hadn't wanted the Azure Dragon to die, but he still had."

"Wounded as he was, he was still very much stronger than us. If we had tried to attack him that day, he would kill us without mercy. We… chose to keep our lives instead that day," the Elephant spoke up.

"And what? You let him get away just like that?" the Lion asked. "He told you that the Azure Dragon was dead due to him. He told you that my uncle and aunt were dead due to him. And you guys simply let him walk all over you and leave without even trying to fight back? Are you all that much of a coward?"

"We are pragmatic," the Deer answered. "What choice do you think we had? Kill the Dragon Emperor?"

"Yes!" the Lion said.

The deer shook her head. "Think about this. If we had hurt the Dragon Emperor in any way, let alone kill him, he would have come back with an army 10 times what we could muster even with our weakest forces combined. Our paradise would have been destroyed within days. Yes, we wanted to attack the Emperor, but we needed to take care of ourselves."

"Instead of trying to do anything to the Dragon Emperor, we decided to save ourselves. The Dragon Emperor had demands, and we chose to meet them."

"What demands?" the Lion asked.

"Simple demands, ones that went into effect the very next day," the Deer said. "We were to close our land to the humans. And we were to never talk about the Azure Dragon or the Lion Leader's death to anyone else."

"And that was it?" the Lion asked. "You said yes and you forgot all about my uncle and aunt, his Grandparents."

The leaders looked toward Pearl whose eyes had grown teary by this point. He was close to weeping after hearing about his grandparents.

The last time he came, he had learned about his grandparent's death. But he was led to believe that they had died due to some cultivation problems.

The eagle floated next to Pearl and put her wings around Pearl, slowly rubbing his back. "I'm sorry you had to learn it this way, my child," she said.

Pearl quickly wiped his tears and looked up. He looked at all the leaders, including the Eagle next to him, and said, "You were afraid that you would be wiped out if you fought back because you don't have the numbers. But you do have one now. My brother is in a battle with the Dragon Emperor right now. You can feel the battle from here, I'm sure you can."

The leaders all looked in a certain direction. They had long since sensed the turbulent aura that could only be Saints fighting each other.

"He has a lot of soldiers fighting alongside him, but he needs more. If we add your numbers to him, then we can win. We can defeat the Emperor for all the crimes he has committed until now."

The leaders looked around for a moment or two and then slowly shook their heads. "The other continents are not strong. Your brother will lose, even if we join. It is better if we protect ourselves," the Lizard said.

The others gave a hesitant nod.

"How… how can you be like this?" Pearl asked.

"If this is all, we would like to return," the Ox stood up to leave.

"No, this is not all," Pearl said. "If a request won't work with you all, then I will make commands."

"I, Pearl, son of Shi Meiyoung and Qing Tianchui, command you all to rally your beasts to join my brother in the war."