“The child will be able to control the Dragon’s Song Qin,” the man said. “A child with ancestral return will possess the same power as an ordinary dragon and will have an extended lifespan, but there is also a downside.”
“Growth will be slow,” the man continued. “Dragon’s lifespan is different from that of humans, and slow growth is normal for dragons, but for humans, it is not.”
“A child with ancestral return may be seen as an anomaly.” He paused here.
An anomaly?
It wasn’t maybe—it was certain they would be seen as an anomaly!
But being seen as an anomaly wasn’t the most important thing. The most important was the human race’s obsession with dragons.
Once it was known that someone possessed dragon blood, those people would never let him go!
After a long while, the man in the bubble spoke again. “I left behind one last thing.”
“A Dragon Pearl.”
“It is a treasure formed from a dragon’s essence and blood. It is the most sacred item of every dragon. When a dragon dies, if it is buried with its Dragon Pearl, its body will remain uncorrupted for a thousand years.”
“Without the Dragon Pearl, the body will soon turn to dust after death.”
“I left the Dragon Pearl behind, so if there is a child with ancestral return, that child can swallow the Dragon Pearl. The Dragon Pearl will help regulate their internal power, allowing them to grow up like a normal child.”
“I don’t know how many children will undergo the ancestral return phenomenon, but I only have one Dragon Pearl. I can only leave one.”
“A child with ancestral return will have a long life. If more children with the same bloodline emerge afterward, the first child will protect them.”
“The Northern Snowfields are beautiful. I will rest here forever.”
With that, the flashing images in the bubble stopped.
They had seen all of the memories stored by Jing Xu.
Jing Chen stared at the bubbles floating before him, lost in thought. He appeared very silent.
“Dragon Pearl.”
Bao Bei’s gaze flickered as she looked at Jing Chen. “With the Dragon Pearl, why are you still so small?”
Jing Chen didn’t immediately answer Bao Bei. After a long pause, he finally came to his senses and said, “The first person to show signs of ancestral return wasn’t me, it was my father.”
“Your father?”
“Yes,” Jing Chen nodded. “When my father was born, he already had horns on his head and scales on his body. The person who helped my mother give birth was so scared that they went mad and started shouting. My grandfather, who was guarding outside, immediately captured them.”
“Except for the trusted subordinates who had sworn blood oaths, everyone else was killed by my grandfather.” Jing Chen continued, “My father was the first person in many years to show signs of ancestral return, and without saying a word, my grandfather gave him the Dragon Pearl.”
“Thanks to the Dragon Pearl, my father was able to grow normally. He looks like an ordinary person, but he’s actually a little different,” Jing Chen explained. “After my father reached a certain age, his appearance stopped changing. People thought it was because of his cultivation that his appearance remained the same, but in reality, it wasn’t.”
Dragons live much longer than humans, and their growth speed is different. Naturally, they can’t change so quickly. For hundreds or even thousands of years, they might remain in the same appearance.
It’s only in the latter half of their lifespan that their appearance gradually ages.
This was also why Jing Lin had rarely appeared in front of outsiders in recent years.
Because his appearance hadn’t changed at all compared to twenty years ago.
If there had been even a slight change, no one would have questioned it, but Jing Lin hadn’t changed at all.
This was very intriguing.
395
Jing Lin knew his own situation, which is why he rarely appeared in front of the public.
“When I was born, my grandfather was still alive,” Jing Chen said. “My grandfather always thought that, after so many generations of the dragon bloodline being diluted, there shouldn’t be any signs of ancestral return.”
“My father was an exception,” Jing Chen continued. “After all, the first child of our ancestors didn’t even have the dragon bloodline.”
“So, my grandfather forced my father to marry,” Jing Chen’s expression became somber as he spoke about his parents. “My father didn’t want to marry after learning about his bloodline.”
“Because his lifespan meant that he would watch his wife grow old and die, while he remained unchanged.”
“But my grandfather and grandmother disagreed. They thought that, with my father’s long lifespan, if he didn’t marry, once they were gone, he would be alone.”
“Dragons live so long, and without anyone by his side, no one knew what would happen to my father. My grandfather and the others were worried, so they kept communicating with him. Eventually, my father agreed to marry.”
“My father agreed to marry, but he didn’t choose one of the young ladies that my grandfather found for him from prestigious families. Instead, he married my mother,” Jing Chen said. “My mother was an orphan.”
“She lived alone in Snow Village. She was beautiful, but with no relatives, she lived a very hard life.”
“One day, two men from the village got drunk and tried to assault my mother. She injured one of them in self-defense. One of the men was the village chief’s son, and when my mother hurt him, the village chief gathered some others and tried to make my mother pay for it. My mother fled Snow Village overnight, ran into the snowfields, and met my father, who had just returned from the forbidden lands.”
“My father took her back to Jing Xue Palace, taught those men a lesson, and appointed someone who treated my mother well as the new village chief, driving out those who had mistreated her.”
“Those people wanted to cause trouble for my father, but they couldn’t defeat him, so in the end, they had to leave in shame.”
“After the bad people left, only those who had helped my mother stayed in Snow Village. My father, because of my mother, always protected the village,” Jing Chen continued. “That’s why the people from the Yunzhong Auction House were able to lure my father away by poisoning the people of Snow Village.”
Bao Bei and Huang Quan listened quietly, not interrupting Jing Chen.
Jing Chen continued, “Afterward, my father married my mother. In truth, my father didn’t have much feeling for my mother. He’s a cold-hearted person.”
“Since he was young, he knew his bloodline was different. He carefully concealed it, but because of his own strength, he became used to not caring about anything.”
“Cold-hearted.”
“Not only toward others, but also toward himself.”
“Before my father married my mother, he told her about his true identity. My mother was shocked at the time, but she still resolutely married him,” Jing Chen said. “One reason was that the life-saving grace made her feel that my father was not a monster. The other reason was that my father’s honesty reassured her, and most importantly, at that time, my mother had already fallen in love with him.”
“My mother thought, if she didn’t marry my father and someone else did, what would happen if they found out my father’s secret and spread it to others?”
“My mother insisted on marrying him. Even though my father didn’t have feelings for her, he was equally indifferent to everyone, so in the end, they got married.”
“After marriage, my father did his best to take care of my mother. Two years later, I was born, and I was an accident.”
At this point, Jing Chen’s expression grew even more sorrowful. “When my mother was pregnant with me, my father and my mother, along with my grandparents, said they didn’t want to keep me.”
