The City Lord's Strategy

Five hundred years ago, my ancestor Qi Lei was a mighty dragon tamer, second only to the ruler and above everyone else, a true The Outcast. The king held him in high regard and granted him a fiefdom and a city. But the good times did not last. After the old emperor died, the young emperor who ascended the throne developed a taste for dragon meat. He ate nearly all the dragons my ancestor had raised. A dragon egg takes a full five years to hatch, and a young dragon needs fifteen years to grow into an adult. How could anyone keep up with that demand? Then my ancestor had a flash of inspiration. He took the whole city’s inhabitants and several baskets of dragon eggs, packed up, and fled. They escaped to Hidden Dragon Valley, where they built Dragon Rearing City and made a life for themselves. To keep the young emperor’s lackeys from finding Hidden Dragon Valley, they planted thorn trees among the bushes starting right at the entrance to the valley. Five hundred years later, those tiny thorn trees have grown into towering giants. Outsiders can’t get in, and even the people inside can’t get out!