“A noble bloodline of the Dragon Clan… and not even a year old? How interesting…” The dragon circled Yueye, its enormous body making the ground tremble over and over.
“Looks like she still doesn’t know who she is… Hasn’t she even awakened her racial inheritance?” The dragon pressed its enormous, basin-sized face beside Yueye and sniffed at her… muttering to itself as if confirming something…
“…Looks like I came to the right place… I can’t believe there are still pure-blooded members of my clan in this world! I never would’ve imagined it… Hahaha!” Joy shone in the dragon’s golden eyes… Its entire scaly body seemed to sway gently with happiness…
“Little girl! Do you know where you were born!?” The dragon stared at the tiny figure on the ground… At that moment, it nearly let out an excited roar toward the sky… but it held back and kept its emotions in check.
Yueye paid no attention to the dragon’s words… Her mind was filled with her teammates’ pleading eyes and the sight of them walking away without even turning their heads… She’d already accepted her fate. Or rather, the Yueye she used to be had died the moment she saw Su Lin’s back as he walked away without looking back… She’d fallen into deep despair over this world… so deep that she’d shut herself off from everything around her.
“Looks like you grew up among humans… Otherwise, you wouldn’t have stayed in human form. You don’t even seem to know what you really are.” The dragon gently scratched Yueye’s little head with one claw… but she still didn’t respond…
“Don’t be sad. Humans are just like that… You’ll have to face the truth sooner or later…” A trace of pity showed in the dragon’s golden eyes… After all, the other one was a baby dragon, barely a year old. It could probably understand how she felt…
Only then did Yueye realize the dragon wasn’t hostile toward her at all… When it placed a claw on her head, she’d nearly thought she was going to die. In fact, she’d been hoping for death all along… “...Why… Why… why didn’t you kill me…?”
“Kill you?… Didn’t you hear a word I just said?… You’re one of my kind. Of course I wouldn’t kill you. Besides, if I did, those guys would probably hang me up and beat me!” The dragon looked a little annoyed by Yueye’s reaction, but then it seemed to remember something…
“One of your kind?” Yueye’s mind went blank… After everything she’d been put through, even though she’d known all along that she wasn’t human, she still had no idea how to accept this news… She instinctively looked down at her own frail little body, then at the dragon’s enormous frame. The stark contrast made her give up trying to think it through.
“I’ll forgive you, since you’re only one year old and haven’t even awakened the Dragon Clan’s inherited memories…” The dragon looked at the tiny figure standing there, completely at a loss, and sighed helplessly… Somehow, its mighty, imposing body was at odds with the gesture…
“No wonder your bloodline’s dormant… You’ve been around humans all the time. You’ve nearly forgotten you hatched from an egg, haven’t you? Here, I’ll help you awaken your bloodline and memories first…” The dragon paid no attention to Yueye’s reaction. A huge ice-blue cup appeared out of thin air before it, floating in midair as if prepared for something. Then the dragon raised one claw and made a cut near the wrist of its other forelimb, around where a human’s pulse would be.
Blue-gold blood gushed out… The ice-blue cup caught every last drop of it…
“What is this…?” Yueye watched what the dragon was doing… She was a little curious, but it didn’t matter anymore… She was like a puppet with its strings cut, with no thoughts of her own…
“Don’t be afraid… It’s nothing too serious… Drink it…”
The wound on the dragon’s left wrist slowly closed… The cup, filled with blue-gold blood and as large as Yueye’s face, floated right up in front of her…
After hearing the dragon, Yueye hesitated… She had a feeling that this cup of dragon blood was like Pandora’s box. Once she drank it, she’d never be able to go back… never turn back.
“This is all essence blood… It’s pure, too… I wouldn’t help if you weren’t one of my kind. Besides, it can help you forget your pain…” The dragon coaxed Yueye like a devil tempting someone toward hell…
“Forget my pain?” Yueye’s pale, vacant little face showed the faintest flicker of emotion… but she still seemed a little hesitant.
“And if you don’t drink it soon… I’ll catch up with those people and kill them…” Seeing that she still hadn’t moved, the dragon grew a little exasperated, as if she just wasn’t getting it. It tried using the threat to pressure her…
“…Forget my pain…” Tears welled in Yueye’s eyes again. After hesitating again and again, she finally cupped the cup in both little hands, paused, then tipped the blood into her mouth…
“Don’t spill a single drop… If you spill even one, I’ll torture those so-called human friends of yours until they’re dead.” The dragon’s warning rang in her ears… Yueye suddenly felt like a fool. Even after hearing that, she’d still held on to a glimmer of hope for those so-called teammates of hers… And yet, even knowing the truth, she couldn’t bring herself to spill a single drop… The dragon blood seemed to have a will of its own, flowing straight into her mouth… It felt like a cruel mockery, like a needle stabbing into her heart…
“It… actually tastes pretty good…” Amid all the pain and self-recrimination, that thought suddenly crossed Yueye’s mind…
It was as if the pain eased as the dragon blood went down… Her stomach never seemed to fill; her whole body craved more of it… Soon, the cup of dragon blood, as large as Yueye’s face, was empty… not a drop left. At the very end, Yueye even licked her lips, still wanting more…
“You really are a little vampire… After drinking all that, you should get some sleep… If you ever run into danger, awaken your bloodline and call for help. It’s not time for you to fully face this world yet, and I can’t stay by your side… Just enjoy your childhood. Don’t get hurt again!” The dragon beat its wings and soared into the sky… As if it had done everything it came to do, it left Yueye on the ground, still lost in her own world.
At that moment, Yueye wanted to call after the dragon and ask it to explain everything… but she didn’t have the strength…
A chill seeped out from within Yueye’s body… Her whole body stiffened… even her mind grew hazy…
“I’ll never trust humans like them again…” As if the dragon blood had stirred the thought to life, it kept growing in Yueye’s mind. The taste of dragon blood still lingered in her mouth, bloody-sweet, leaving her wanting more… She felt as if she’d changed… Her heart had changed… Her body had changed. In that moment, her whole being had changed… like a broken part that had been rebuilt.
