"The fall of the world and the dragons?" Aotian repeated in perplexity. "The world I understand, but what about the dragons? What happened to them?" he asked in confusion.
In the current Lingxi world, dragons had become ancient legends, never again seen flying in the sky for millions of years. Many even believed that such a race was purely mythological, never truly having existed.
The Dragon King stared at Aotian for a few seconds, and a trace of resentment passed through his eyes.
"Humans. The disaster called the Human Race happened to us."
A trace of coldness appeared in his voice as he narrated.
"The sovereign was five hundred thousand years old when he felt that he had completely mastered the Mahayana realm and could not advance any further. The Lingxi world had simply become too small for someone as great as him, and fearing that his lifespan would be wasted without progress, he resolved to ascend to the immortal plane."
"But during those hundreds of thousands of years in which he ruled, my race, finally free from its shackles, was able to recover our strength without being slaughtered like animals that became dangerous when they grew too strong. That was an era of glory, and the dragons, with some members reaching the perfection of Tribulation Transcendence, became invincible in the world, second only to the sovereign, finally recovering the arrogance and glory that slept in our blood."
"We had a refuge in this immortal mansion for extreme cases, powerful leaders so we would not be underestimated, and even a headquarters in each of the mid-continents and the central continent, in the best locations, allowing our race to prosper throughout the world."
"Unfortunately, everything collapsed on that fateful day."
A sigh escaped his mouth.
"The day of ascension… a day when the world discovered that beyond him, what ruled was darkness."
"When the Dragon Sovereign failed in his ascension and was corrupted by the energy from the other side, he immediately began an insane massacre. The leadership of my race, who were accompanying and protecting the sovereign during his ascension, were the first to be killed by him, before they could even understand what was happening."
None of those present had witnessed that day, but just from the narration, they could imagine a small, solemn figure striking down enormous dragons and painting the sky and earth with blood.
"On that day, the leaders, known as the five Dragon Kings, fell without even being able to resist."
"After that, without the greatest powers of the dragon race, who barely had time to rise before falling, my clan plunged into chaos. But we had a common goal, which kept us lucid… to stop the sovereign, who had been so good to us, to end the massacres that were happening, protect our home, and honor his kind heart, which would hate to see what his corrupted body was doing."
"Many died in that era, and my clan returned to ruins, becoming even weaker than before liberation. Humans also participated, and although they were not as fierce as my clan, they still fought and many were lost among them. But it was all useless."
"In the end, all races were at their last strength, and the end seemed certain."
"But perhaps the massacre had been so great that, at that moment, the tree of life, which everyone treated merely as an enormous spiritual vein, truly moved."
"With uncontestable power, it quickly devoured the impurities in the air and defeated the sovereign, who until then had been invincible in the world. But even it could not truly kill him."
"So, with no other choice, it could only seal him within its own roots. His body was never divided as in the story you heard."
He gently closed his eyes at that moment, with bitterness.
"When everyone thought it was the end and that only reconstruction remained after the disaster, a weak voice sounded in the minds of everyone in the world. It said: The impurities must be purified with spiritual energy full of vitality, all living beings must contribute…"
"That voice was very weak and eventually faded completely. Everyone believed it was the voice of the Tree of Life—or the heavens themselves. But one thing was certain: the warning was real. And deep within the roots of the tree, where the sovereign's body lay, the impurities seemed to grow slowly but surely."
"All the leaders and generals, both humans and beasts, immediately tried to contain the impurities at the roots, but no matter how much they purified, it seemed to have no effect, with several of those who tried even being immediately corrupted by the intensity of that cursed thing."
"After several days of testing, the leaders of that era could only consider dispersing the energy to weaken it and then letting everyone in the world help."
Senior Long opened his eyes coldly at that moment, and Aotian could not help but feel that the old dragon carried a bit of malice toward him and his companions, or rather, toward their race.
"The plan was simple, to channel the impurities in the tree of life into a Seventh-Level vein of perfect grade in the central continent using powerful teleportation formations, and then isolate it there, where all living beings of the continent could help dissipate it."
"This would prevent them from coming into direct contact with the extremely intense energy in the tree, having to deal only with a small portion that was dispersed over a large area."
"Beyond that, the humans said they planned that four more fields would be opened in veins capable of accepting teleportation formations in the four mid-continents to increase the number of living beings involved, and a portion of the impurities in the Seventh-Level vein would be sent there…"
He clenched his teeth.
"It had only been five hundred thousand years since humans stopped being the absolute rulers of the world and began competing for space with the dragons at that time, and their animosity and malice toward us, their former slaves, were still very great."
"When such a plan was made, we dragons, who occupied the only four Fifth-Level veins of perfect grade in the four mid-continents, which could generate void-tier energy capable of powering teleportation formations, were the obvious targets."
Coldness took over the old Dragon's face, while surprised but understanding looks appeared on Aotian's and the others' faces.
"Humans are truly cruel and petty. Do not think we were selfish for taking the best veins of those four continents. Know that veins of that level exist in abundance in the central continent, and the sovereign gave us those veins because he knew that, in the future, when other human Mahayanas were born again, if we had good veins in the central continent, they might brutally take them from us under any excuse."
"So it was not a matter of there being no other places to send the impurities. Those were simply humans with a shameless desire to get rid of us, and that is exactly what they did."
"My race, already far more weakened than you humans after the battle, was simply massacred. Even the thinnest dragon bloodline was wiped from the earth in your vengeance, using as the banner of that massacre the argument that all the deaths caused by the Dragon Sovereign were our fault, and that, because of the sin he committed in freeing us, he was not accepted into the immortal world and was cursed, together with the entire Lingxi world, to ruin."
"Perhaps they truly believed that, or perhaps it was just a shameless excuse. But whatever it was, they committed terrible massacres, creating enormous lakes with the blood and corpses of my race in the places where the impurities would be dispersed, saying that the vitality of our blood would serve to purify them and also appease the vengeance of the immortal world… children, elders, men, women, no matter how much they begged, in the end, a trace of dragon blood was enough for them to be thrown into those lakes of blood."
"Your race, when they curse someone, call them a beast. But perhaps the greatest curse you should use… is to call someone human."
He finished with clenched fists, while closing his eyes once more, forcing himself to swallow that hatred carried for generations within his bloodline.
At that moment, the little girl stepped forward and gently patted his arm in comfort, her face hurt and worried.
Aotian paled upon hearing the full story, and his stomach churned completely.
He had been happily using the dew as an excellent supplement for quite some time.
Although he knew it came from dragons, he had always imagined them simply as beasts from long ago that had fallen there because of the impurities, never giving it much thought and treating it merely as a treasure he had found.
But now, upon learning that it originated from massacres committed by humans in ancient times—not only the blood of warrior beasts, but also that of millions of innocent creatures—he felt extremely terrible about himself.
Rihai beside him, with an equally kind heart, also paled, as Aotian had told her where it came from. And when she saw his face, she understood that both of them had not known the story behind it.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, using all his minds to quickly process that whirlwind of emotions, he gathered his strength again and faced the dragon with firm eyes.
Although he felt bad for having used their blood, Aotian would not fall into a spiral of lament and self-blame.
He was human, but he did not intend to carry all the sins committed by other humans. On the contrary, he had been judge, jury, and executioner of many criminals of his own race, and he did not agree with such atrocities.
So he would not blame himself endlessly, even though he felt very bad for having used the Dew of the Dragon's Lament.
But after some inner struggle, he still decided that he would continue using that dew in the future, metamorphosed from dragon blood after millions of years.
First, he needed to grow quickly. Second, everything had already happened, and he could not change the fate of those lives from so many years ago.
Finally, out of respect, he decided at least not to use the skeletons nor the unconverted blood that he extracted from the impure dew to create artifacts or talismans, and would bury them in an appropriate place.
'Ugh, well, if it becomes necessary to turn them into shadow soldiers to fight the impurities, I may still need to temporarily break that promise. But after I finish dealing with these problems, I will certainly deconvert them and bury them.'
He thought awkwardly, his conscience a little heavy and, even more so, feeling powerless.
It was not that he wanted to do this, but his current weakness prevented him from being arrogant enough to follow only his own whims when the life of the world was at stake.
"Senior Long, can you tell me how your bloodline survived here and still managed to obtain so much information?" Aotian asked gently, after organizing his thoughts, not knowing exactly how to face the dragon before him, but still wanting to know the full story.
The Dragon King seemed somewhat unwilling to deal with him after recalling those events, but still answered upon remembering that he was the chosen heir.
"The reason is the same reason why my race never completely gave up on finding an heir to the Dragon Sovereign's legacy… it is because good humans still exist!"
As he thought of this, the coldness on his face diminished greatly, and he let out a bitter sigh.
"Many of your kind became friends and allies of my race during those five hundred thousand years of peace. Sadly, almost all of them later died in the purge carried out by humans."
"But in particular, there was one family among the humans that, on the surface, appeared neutral, but was secretly allied with the Dragon Sovereign and helped mediate between the two races. A pact was even made, known only to the Dragon leadership, the sovereign, and them, stating that in the future, after the sovereign's ascension, they would assist us so that we would not become targets and slaves of humans again."
"They were just and kind humans, like the sovereign. But unfortunately, after the war against the corrupted sovereign, they became as weakened as we did. Thus, they could not openly oppose the other humans, or they too would be massacred, so they could only secretly bring some members of my race to hide in the Dragon Sovereign's Mansion, preserving our hope and future."
"But even being extremely cautious, many members of that family were still intercepted by the butcherous humans during the process, causing that family to lose even more members, dying side by side with my race, but proving their honor and word."
"Very few with dragon blood were able to reach the mansion safely, and among them was one of my ancestors, the young grandson of one of the five Dragon Kings who fell in battle."
He explained, placing his hands behind his back and looking toward the horizon, the anger in his eyes fading completely, leaving only sadness for those days.
"What is the name of that family?" Aotian asked, interested in that noble family, although, in a way, they might be considered traitors by humans.
But humans had been scoundrels in that case, so it could be said that those traitors were, in fact, good people.
When the dragon opened his mouth to answer, someone else spoke first.
"The Liu Family. It was my Liu Family, paying a bloody price, that saved the last of the dragons."
Liu Taixuan's powerful voice sounded, drawing everyone's attention to the old man, who sighed while also looking toward the green horizon of the sunlit prairie.
A touch of complexity shone in his eyes as he recalled those ancestral tales, which, ironically, came to confront him only after his death.