Threads of Destiny (the other OEX meat) Chapter 411-Development 3.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21188/...elopment-3
Yrsillar Wrote:Ling Qi listened to (Zhen and Gui) bicker with the ease of long practice. As the final remains of the boiling mist faded from the air, deep below, she could feel the pressure building up again.
"Can I ask how it is different?"
They both paused, looking at each other in silence. It was Zhen who finally spoke up with some reluctance.
"Because humans are humans, and beasts are beasts. Human kings are kings because they are strong and because they have many strong people who listen. A spirit king is king because they are king."
Gui snorted. "And Zhen says he is the refined one. A spirit king is the land. They make things happen right because they are the thing which makes all the small things move like they should. Like the little star, if she did not have to write all the papers and say all the words and if the humans listening were the wind and the stones and the trees and stuff."
"It seems to me that you must still convince others to fall in line and do their duties," Ling Qi said.
"That is how Hanyi is, but she is not a king, and won't be, Gui thinks. She is a more human-y thing." Gui’s glowing eyes were slitted and squinting in thought. "What scholar-friend calls an int-er-med-iar-y spirit, one who is like Big Sister, but for spirits and spirits instead of humans and spirits or humans and humans like Big Sister."
Ling Qi furrowed her brows as she parsed what he’d said. She didn't fully understand the difference he was speaking of, but she did understand that as he was coming to the verge of actually acting on his claim, he found himself anxious and without guidance. And unfortunately, it wasn't guidance she could give him because in the end, Ling Qi was not a spirit, whatever jokes others might make about her attitude.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21188/...elopment-3