Xuan Long stood at the very edge of the cliff, his long hair whipping wildly in the cold wind.
He didn’t know how long he had been standing there, frozen like a statue.
Below him, the forest was a dark, endless sea of green, but he didn’t see the trees. He only saw the mocking, bloody smile of the Lion King.
Shi Feng’s words were repeating in his mind like a curse. Every time he tried to push them away, they came back louder.
"Do you really think you know everything about your own bloodline, snake?"
Xuan Long’s chest tightened. In his entire life, he had been the strongest, the most cold-blooded, and the most certain.
But for the first time, he felt like a child lost in a storm. He felt conflicted, angry, and strangely afraid.
He had run away from the clearing not just because he was furious, but because he didn’t know how to look at Su Qinglan while his heart was in such chaos.
He took a deep, shaky breath. The cold air filled his lungs, helping him regain a sliver of his usual rationality.
He couldn’t stay here forever. He had a home. He had a female who was probably worried...or worse, angry, and he had a cub who needed his father’s protection.
He knew Han Jue and the others were probably cursing his name for abandoning them in the middle of a mess, but he had needed this moment of silence.
"I have to know," he whispered to the wind.
He moved back from the edge of the cliff. With a shimmering light, his body shifted and shrank.
He didn’t turn into his massive, mountain-sized form that would alert the whole forest. Instead, he became a smaller, sleek green snake, about the size of a man’s arm.
He began to slide through the undergrowth, moving with a silent, deadly grace toward the Fox Tribe.
But he didn’t go toward his own treehouse. He couldn’t face Su Qinglan yet...not until he confirmed the truth.
He slithered toward the edge of the village where the Lion Tribe had set up their houses.
The lions were mostly out, unaware of the small black shadow moving through the grass. Using his powerful sense of smell, he immediately picked up the scent of Shi Feng.
He found the large tree house as the Lion King’s house. He slipped under the heavy hide flap and entered the dark interior. The tent was filled with very few items; it’s almost empty.
Xuan Long moved quickly. He searched through the belongings Shi Feng had brought from the distant Lion Plain.
He didn’t care about anything else. He was looking for something specific. Finally, tucked away in the corner of a heavy wooden chest, he found a small, old wooden box.
What caught his breath was the carving on the lid. It was a snake, but not just any snake. It was carved with the ancient symbols of his own Teng Clan.
His heart began to hammer against his ribs. His small snake form trembled as he used his tail to flick the latch open.
Inside, resting on a bed of red silk, was a green jade pendant.
Xuan Long shifted back into his human form, though he stayed crouched low on the floor.
His hands were shaking as he reached out and picked up the pendant. It was carved in the shape of a small, coiled snake. But it wasn’t a normal snake. On its head were two tiny, distinct horns.
A Teng Clan Snake.
The moment his fingers touched the jade, a strange, ancient warmth seeped into his skin and traveled up his arm. It felt familiar. It felt like family. It felt like a part of his soul he had forgotten was missing.
Xuan Long sat on the floor of the lion’s house, the jade pendant burning like a hot coal in his palm. Looking at those two tiny horns carved into the jade snake, his mind drifted back to a time he had tried very hard to forget.
He had never met his father or his mother.
From the moment he hatched from his cold egg, he was alone. He grew up in the Teng Clan of the Upper Domain, surrounded by powerful elders and ancient stone walls, but there was no one to hold him.
He had spent his childhood believing his mother had abandoned him, leaving him in a nest of strangers.
And his father? He had always assumed his father didn’t want him either. He grew up as an unwanted child, a solitary snake who learned to rely only on his own strength.
As the centuries passed and he became one of the strongest beastmen in existence, those old wounds had scarred over. He thought he had forgotten the pain of being an orphan. He thought he didn’t care anymore.
But then, Shi Feng had spoken.
The Lion King’s words had cut through Xuan Long’s armor like a hot blade. Shi Feng had told him that the Lion Tribe had been saved by a mysterious, powerful man a long time ago.
That man had disappeared into the mist, leaving behind only a precious wooden box.
The legend of the Lion Tribe said that the man was preparing the contents of that box as a gift for his unborn son.
Xuan Long’s breath hitched as he stared at the jade. A gift for his unborn son.
He had never heard a single word about his father before. But as he held the pendant, a tiny spark of hope...something he hadn’t felt in hundreds of years...flickered in his chest. His heart started beating faster, pounding against his ribs for a reason he couldn’t explain.
Was his father really not a man who abandoned him? Was he actually a man who loved him enough to carve a gift before he was even born?
Xuan Long knew Shi Feng wasn’t lying about the man.
There were only a few snakes in the Teng Clan powerful enough to travel between domains, and most of them never left the Upper Domain.
But Xuan Long had always wandered this Lower Domain. Because one of the elders had once told him that he had been found right here, in this humble forest, centuries ago.
The pieces were finally clicking together. His father hadn’t disappeared because he was cruel; he had been here. He had walked this earth.