Chapter Ninety-Three: The White Dragon Falls

In the mountains, mist hung thick and a stench of blood-laden wind swept through the trees.

There, half-hidden in the undergrowth, lay a huge white python. Its body was visible, but its head could not be seen.

The instant I saw it, I thought of the story my grandfather had once told me about my origins. What lay before me was identical to what had happened years ago. My grandfather had gone into the mountains, encountered a giant white python there, and that serpent had defended an infant me with its life. Afterward, at the python's request, my grandfather had carried me home.

I immediately went down into the ravine.

When I drew near, I realized just how enormous the serpent was. Even at such a short distance, I could not see its full shape.

The bloody wind was coming from here.

The white python was as thick as a large water vat. Its scales were spotless and pure, faintly shimmering with a purple sheen; each one was as large as a human palm.

At that moment, it was lying prostrate on the ground, seeming unable to raise its head. Weakly, it flicked its tongue and let out a faint hiss.

On its forehead were two protrusions. Those were dragon horns.

At that sight, I knew with certainty that it must be the white dragon beneath White Dragon Pool. Only now, wounded and fallen into the mountain forest, unable to maintain its true, majestic draconic form, had it taken on the appearance of a white python.

If that was the case, then when my grandfather had seen it all those years ago, it must have been in the same state as now.

Back then, the Taoist sects, in order to seize the divine dragon pearl, had surrounded the white dragon and wounded it, taking the pearl away. Yet there was one thing I could not understand: why was there a child beside it? Even when gravely injured, why had it still fought desperately to protect that child?

When I reached its side, the giant serpent's head rose higher than I was tall.

As if it had heard my footsteps, it opened its eyes. The moment it saw that it was me, it stared at me intently, its gaze burning. Then, for some reason, tears suddenly spilled from its eyes.

"Senior, who hurt you?" I asked.

But it only flicked out its tongue and, with that enormous head, tried to push me away.

"Why... why are you trying to drive me off?" I asked again. Yet it simply looked at me, then turned its massive head aside as if unwilling to pay me any mind.

Just then, a rustling sound suddenly came from the woods nearby. I instantly locked onto it, turned, and gave chase in that direction. The giant serpent hissed behind me; I did not know what it meant. But I paid it no heed. If I could catch the one who had wounded the white python, then I would also catch the one who had murdered the Master of Green Robe Temple. I would not let him escape.

Yet when I caught up, I saw a very short figure fleeing through the forest.

Though it knew the mountain woods well, it was no faster than I was. I caught up and blocked its way. It tried to burrow into the dirt, but I seized its long hair and yanked it up by the head.

The thing was hideously ugly, its face black as coal. A closer look told me it was one of the mountain spirits from the hills. I had seen such creatures before at the Mountain God Temple, sent to carry messages. Still, aside from being able to speak human words, these mountain spirits had no other magical ability. It was impossible that one of them had wounded the white dragon.

But why had it been running?

Since I had caught it, it could not escape. So it said, "Why are you grabbing me? Your mother is lying there on the verge of death, and you go after me instead of saving her. How unreasonable can you be?"

"What did you say?" I asked, stunned by the spirit's words.

"Mountain spirit, do not speak nonsense!" At that moment, the giant python not far behind me suddenly spoke in a human voice. Its voice was like thunder, and I had thought it incapable of speech.

The mountain spirit said, "At a time like this, what is there to keep secret? If you do not speak now, you will die. Your own son does not even recognize you. Do you not think that is tragic?"

"Shut your mouth!"

The giant serpent's voice boomed like thunder, shaking the earth and the mountains.

At those words, I let the mountain spirit go and turned back to look at the white python. I had once suspected that the scales covering my body meant I might be the child of that great white serpent from my grandfather's stories. But my grandfather had always tried to conceal the truth, and I had never known what really happened.

Now, all the signs made it clear that my suspicion had not been wrong.

It was my mother.

The mother I had longed for all my life.

I turned and looked at the white python.

There was nothing I could not accept. Only, I had never imagined that my mother would not merely be that white python, but also the white dragon beneath White Dragon Pool, that female Daoist elder.

That surprised me. I started toward her, but she said, "Lin Yi, do not listen to that mountain spirit's nonsense. I... I am only a white dragon beneath White Dragon Pool, wounded by others. I have nothing to do with you!"

"Then how do you explain the fact that my grandfather found me in the mountains back then, while you were using your own life to protect me?" I asked in return.

She replied, "You promised me that you would never investigate your own origins again!"

"My mother is standing before me, and you want me not to acknowledge her? I cannot do that!" I said, tears already welling in my eyes.

Not only me, but her eyes too were brimming with hot tears.

Then the mountain spirit came forward as well. It said, "Your mother refuses to tell you, and that is not fair to her. I can tell you the truth. Do you know how terrifying true dragon authority is? Those Taoist men were nothing but mediocre fools. How could they possibly be your mother's match? Back then, your mother was carrying you, and it was almost time for you to be born. At that very moment, her power was at its weakest. Those shameless Taoist villains seized the chance to lay a murderous formation and steal your mother's dragon pearl. That was how they harmed her!"

"Your mother, to keep you alive, willingly endured the formation's blow. Even while gravely wounded, she gave birth to you. Thanks only to your grandfather going into the deep mountains to gather medicine did you survive!"

Hearing the truth laid bare like that, tears poured down my face.

So back then she had been wounded for my sake, and the people of the Taoist sect had taken her dragon pearl?

Those so-called righteous Taoist sects were this shameless?

Yet the white python said, "Mountain spirit! You once swore to me that you would never breathe a word of this truth. Why do you break your oath today?"

"I would rather break my oath than let your son go on without knowing the truth. Otherwise, what would be the point of you dying like this?" the spirit answered.

"Mountain spirit, you do not understand. My son died long ago. The one alive now is not my son. Lin Yi, your grandfather should have told you that your life was not given by me!"

I shook my head and said, "Skin and hair are received from one's parents. I survived because my grandfather and Wei Yang saved me. That is the kindness of saving my life and raising me. But you are my birth mother, and I am your son. That will never change, no matter when it is. Why will you not acknowledge me?"

My words left her silent.

In truth, I understood. She would not admit to me because she had her own reasons. But this was the knot in my heart that had bound me since childhood, and when I finally saw my mother, I could not suppress my feelings.

At last, after a long silence, she spoke.

"Child."

She called out at last, tears once again filling her eyes. I stepped forward and gently wiped them away, only to find blood suddenly seeping from her mouth and nose.

"Mother!" I cried, a sharp pain lancing through my heart.

"Child, it is not that Mother will not acknowledge you. It is only that if Mother acknowledges you, I will harm you. Child, there is one thing you must remember after I am gone: no matter what happens, never investigate your father's affairs again. Remember this well! So long as you can live on safely, Mother will... be at peace..."

With those words, her head tilted to one side, and her eyes, emptied of spirit, slowly closed.

Only then did I see the enormous wound ripped open along her back. Blood was still pouring from it, unceasingly.

"Alas... those shameless Taoist villains have already taken her dragon essence. For her to have lasted until now is remarkable enough. Now even the last trace of her vital energy has been exhausted..."

The mountain spirit said this, and I asked whether there was any way to save her. The spirit replied, "Her dragon pearl has been taken, and now her dragon essence as well. How can a dragon live after that?"

When it finished speaking, my mother's colossal dragon body began to change. Under layers of glowing radiance, her form gradually faded away and became two strands of clear vital breath.

One strand circled through the ravines of Old Boundary Ridge before plunging into the earth's dragon veins. The other coiled toward me, and when I raised my hand, it settled in my palm.

"This is a strand of your mother's dragon energy, the last thing she could leave you. Keep it," the mountain spirit said.

As it spoke, that wisp of breath coiled and entered my palm.

In that instant, I felt it course through my entire body, completely merging with the breath within me until it became impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.

I never imagined that the moment my mother and I were reunited, she would already be gone.

I lifted my hand and touched the place where she had vanished. My vision blurred with tears, yet I did not let myself cry.

My mother's vengeance had not yet been taken. I, Lin Yi, would not shed another tear!

The ones who killed my mother could only be those Taoist men, those so-called noble and righteous sects. I clenched my fists until they cracked like thunder.

"From this day on, I, Lin Yi, am at irreconcilable enmity with the Taoist sects. Unless I slaughter every one of my enemies, I, Lin Yi, swear I shall never again be called human!"