Chapter 2: The Deal with the War Deity

Soon after, Ruo Yin found her way back to the reunion hall. The War Deity was already in his seat again and some immortal was talking about the plants or something like that when Ruo Yin silently slid back to sit beside You Xie.

The seven days of the reunion went on smoothly, You Xie was very pleased with Ruo Yin's performance and was speaking happily to the officials from the other clans about how the War Deity himself proposed to marry her.

Everyone was surprised by this apparently because Zhan Luo has always been unapproachable, and many goddesses had tried to and have failed miserably.

Ruo Yin thought that the Sky Empress was always beside the Sky Emperor, but after their first encounter, in the whole seven days of the reunion, she was beside her son talking to him about something. The Sky Emperor himself was busy tending matters with the high-ranking officials of the other clans, and You Xie.

Zhan Luo was true to his word and was always beside Ruo Yin when there were members of the other clans. They did not speak; they just ate and saw the presentations the Sky Emperor had prepared for his guests. But on the day before their departure, Zhan Luo took her again to the pavilion of the last time and said, "Do you know war starts way before the bloodshed?"

Ruo Yin thought he was trying to see how good of a tactician she was, so she answered, "Well, obviously, the war begins when one of the two or more parties feel the need to destroy the other. You don't go headfirst to the battlefield when a war begins. It begins with information, spies, where loyalty lies, etc..."

She then waited to see if her answer had impressed the War Deity.

"Then, I need you to make a deal with me. As planned, I will marry you and give you the freedom you deserve, but you shall promise me your loyalty. Not to the Sky Clan, but to me," Zhan Luo stared at her with his cold eyes.

"Did he go mad or what?" Ruo Yin was not sure why the War Deity wanted her loyalty. She knew that You Xie was ambitious and was also sure that he was going to ask her to report back about any abnormal movement of the Sky Clan. It was not as if she was going to help him in case, he was planning a coup d'état.

The Demon Clan and the Sky Clan could have their differences. The Sky Clan could believe they were better than them, but nothing justified the loss of millions of lives if a war began. Also, there was no way they were going to win, they had their powers sealed by the red tattooed collar around their necks. It prevented all members of the Demon Clan from using most of their cultivation power.

Nonetheless, she was not sure that the Demon Lord considered her more than a pawn for a political marriage. He just let her learn whatever she wanted because she already excelled in music, chess, poetry, and art. He also never thought that her opinions about how their army was conformed were of any value.

Ruo Yin had seen how the elite army of the Demon Clan has become from disciplined trained soldiers to rascals hungry for bloodshed. Yet, You Xie thought that was better.

"You just need men who will fight for you, not philosophers," You Xie had once said to Ruo Yin when she said that the troops now were undisciplined.

She knew that if she promised her loyalty to Zhan Luo, she was technically betraying the whole Demon Clan, but maybe just maybe she thought, You Xie really had ulterior motives for bringing her to the reunion and trying to marry her with any royal member of the Sky Clan.

"He does nothing without thinking if it will be beneficial for him in the future," Ruo Yin thought, trying to make it sound logical.

She has already witnessed how cruel and vicious You Xie could be if he wanted something, and he has been hungry for blood in these couple hundred years that have passed by.

Without overthinking more of her current situation, Ruo Yin confided her trust in this deity that she has met for less than a week and said, "I, Ruo Yin, Princess of the Demon Clan, promise that from today onwards my loyalty lies to the High God of War, Zhan Luo."

Zhan Luo satisfied with her answer just gave her a nod and left her all alone again in that pavilion.

"What the hell was all that about and what have I just done?" Ruo Yin could not believe the deal she had just made with the War Deity. At that moment, she could only hope that she did not make a mistake.