"According to the legend from thousands of years ago, there was a mighty dragon who then became the ruler of the entire heaven.
He ruled over nine clans: the dragon clan, the tiger clan, the wolf clan, the fox clan, the phoenix clan, the lion clan, the mermaid clan, the ox clan, and the tortoise clan."
"At the time of his ascension, the Heavenly Emperor had yet to take an empress. To curry favor with the newly anointed emperor, all clans thus put forward their nominations for the empress position."
"The most beautiful omega maidens were given to the Heavenly Emperor and thus entered the Golden Dragon Palace. Enchanted by the otherworldly beauties, the Heavenly Emperor took them all in as wives."
"Each wife gave the Heavenly Emperor at least one child. When the time came to select the crown prince, the competition among the alpha princes was very fierce. Whichever alpha prince was selected as the crown prince, his mother's birth clan would definitely prosper."
"One alpha prince was stronger and wiser than the former. All of them excelled in the six arts.
It was practically impossible to declare one of them to be the best."
"In the end, the Heavenly Emperor decided to be selfish. He picked his own birth clan. From then on, the crown prince of each generation was always selected from the dragon clan. The eldest alpha prince of each clan was given the title Palace Master."
"All clans fully accepted the Heavenly Emperor's wise decision once the imperial decree was issued, but they secretly begrudged the partial decision. In all other clans but the dragon clan, all heavenly creatures kept whispering about the decline of the Heavenly Empire due to this selfish custom."
"A crown prince should be selected in a fair process in order to ensure the stability and unity of the Heavenly Empire."
"Looking back the past hundred years, the grudge that accumulated over generations was the reason why some clans were quick to assert their claim upon the Dragon Throne whenever a crown prince from the dragon clan failed to live up to their expectations."
"Dragons and their descendants, even with mixed blood, enjoyed lives of eternal youth and longevity. In turn, descendants were hard to get by. Having one child was a blessing, having two children was a miracle. Having three or more children was practically black sorcery."
Cheerful laughter resonated in the classroom when the teacher said the last sentence. He had to suppress a smile and shush them gently before he continued.
"That being said, dragons were faithful creatures. So faithful that once they mark or be marked by their mates, they are tied to their mates for life. Not many dragons survived betrayals by their mates."
Zhang Fengxi almost dozed off in class.
It was so boring, he thought. He already listened to the same lesson six years ago, and it was as boring as it was today.
The teacher turned on his heels and shot Zhang Fengxi a knowing look. The latter quickly sat ramrod straight in his seat. He might know what might happen in the next six years, but the knowledge was useless for the upcoming history lesson.
Before he said anything to chastise Zhang Fengxi, a savior's excited hand shot in the air.
"Yes, Little Lu?" The teacher was quickly distracted.
"How does one become an alpha?" Little Lu asked, her voice sounding like that of a little bird.
The teacher gave her an indulgent smile.
"After heavenly creatures reach the age of sixteen years old, they might undergo a differentiation process. Through this process, one can become an alpha or an omega. Those who don't differentiate are betas."
Little Lu's mouth formed a huge O.
"I want to be an alpha!" she shouted. "Alphas are all so strong and cool and graceful!"
Little Lu blinked coquettishly at Zhang Fengxi, who almost choked on his own spit.
This brought the teacher's attention back to him.
"Of course," he said with a grin. "We all are very lucky to have Prince Fengxi differentiate into an alpha. As you all know, alphas, betas, and omegas are all very important and have their own roles and responsibilities within society. Alas, only alpha princes can inherit the Dragon Throne."
"But Teacher, didn't you say that the Emperor will only pick a descendant from the dragon clan to be the crown prince? We are from the tiger clan," a boy reminded him.
The teacher wagged his finger at the pessimistic boy, "One must never give up, Little Wang. Never."
One really should give up, Zhang Fengxi was tempted to say. The Emperor would rather swallow a hundred needles than break tradition and pass the Dragon Throne to another clan.
In Zhang Fengxi's class of twenty students, two had differentiated into alphas and one into an omega. The female omega was quickly taken out of the school for fear of unwanted interaction with alphas. Omegas were usually homeschooled.
The other seventeen children were either betas or late bloomers. They all hoped to be the latter. The teacher said that all genders played a role in society, but they all knew that all parents wanted alpha children first, omega children second, and beta children last.
Betas are too uninteresting.
Plain.
Useless.
As soon as Fengxi differentiated into an alpha, the Longjing Palace received a lot of matchmakers. They all came with a lot of paintings that depicted the most beautiful omegas across nine layers of heaven, both males and females.
It was important to marry early and start trying to sire a child from a young age, they all said. Heaven knew how long it took to get pregnant, and there was no guarantee that the child would turn out to be an alpha sixteen years later.
Zhang Fengxi rejected all of them without even taking a look at the paintings. There was only one omega who deserved to be his wife. It was none other than Liu Wenyuan from the Wuyang Palace.
After counting days forever, Zhang Fengxi finally got a chance to meet Liu Wenyuan for the first time.
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Author's note :
It is a good time for this author to introduce all of the palaces and their ruling clans.
Dragon clan -- Fuxi Palace (Current master : Xie Jianyu)
Tiger clan -- Longjing Palace (Current master : Zhang Zhiyuan)
Wolf clan -- Wuyang Palace (Current master : Liu Yichen)
Fox clan -- Ling'an Palace
Phoenix clan -- Qifeng Palace
Lion clan -- Shuiran Palace
Mermaid clan -- Qingyuan Palace
Ox clan -- Juhua Palace
Tortoise clan -- Xiyu Palace