The world was built on beasts.
Small ones, weak ones, ugly ones — goblins, rats, boars.
Great ones, cruel ones — wolves, tigers, serpents.
And above all… the kind no one dared to name.
Once, there was a dragon.
Its flesh was real, its shadow endless.
They called it the Forgotten One.
The dragon was betrayed. Hunted. Cornered.
When it fell, the world cheered.
When it roared, the sky tore.
And when it died, a child was born.
The dragon refused to vanish.
Its hatred was too deep.
So it reached across the veil of death and forced itself into the boy's body.
Not as a blessing.
Not as a gift.
But as a prison.
That boy's name was Xu Feng.
Humans awakened their beasts at sixteen.
A goblin today, a hobgoblin tomorrow, maybe one day a king.
A wolf might climb to moonlight.
A tiger might devour the heavens.
Evolution was endless.
But ceilings were real.
Everyone's path had a chain around its neck.
Everyone's except his.
When Xu Feng placed his hands on the Awakening Stone, the surface cracked.
Light flickered.
Words burned across it:
Half-Shadow Dragon Vessel
Half. Broken. Wrong.
The crowd laughed.
Trash. A crippled awakening. Not even a complete beast.
But deep in his chest, something ancient opened its eyes.
"Pathetic vessel. Fragile flesh. You think you are worthy of me?"
The voice was old. Cold. Cruel.
It didn't come from outside.
It came from within.
Xu Feng had not gained a beast spirit.
No wolf. No goblin. No tiger.
What he gained was something worse.
The last breath of a dead god.
The dragon's shadow, rotting inside him.
He could not summon it.
He could only become it.
At first, a flicker. A claw, a scale, an eye.
Later… wings blotting out the sun.
The dragon hated him.
Mocked him.
But it would guide him.
Not for love. Not for kindness.
But for vengeance.
One day, the world would remember the Forgotten Dragon.
And when it did, it would be too late.