Keke’s display of such humanlike sorrow caught even Xiao Chen off guard, a pang of bitterness rising in his chest. The three skeletons crouched around the small beast, their hollow gazes meeting in silent astonishment. In their experience, this little tyrant of chaos had never shown such an expression.
“Wuu…” Keke curled into a tight white ball, whimpering like a wounded thing.
Xiao Chen’s heart was tempered iron toward his enemies, but toward those close to him—human or otherwise—he had always been true. Though Keke was only a small beast, they had spent months together. He had long since come to treat it as a strange, wondrous child.
“Keke… don’t be afraid.” Xiao Chen crouched down and lifted the beast into his arms.
Keke seemed to find an anchor. It buried its face deep in his chest, sobbing softly—just as it had when Xiao Chen first encountered it, pitiful and lost, like an abandoned child.
“Kacha… kacha…” The three skeletons exchanged bewildered glances. They had always kept their distance from the small beast, and this scene left them thoroughly baffled.
Through repeated probing and questioning, Xiao Chen managed to piece together the truth with considerable effort.
Keke seemed to be a foundling. It knew it had been born here, but it had never seen its parents. A poor little thing, barely out of the egg, it had crawled down from the broken root of the divine tree and lost itself among the mountain ranges, eventually wandering to the outer reaches of the island.
Today, it had found its way home. Yet it still could not see its parents. The small beast, as richly emotional as any human, was crushed. Hence the wounded display.
“Keke, don’t be sad.” Xiao Chen smiled. “I’m the same. I can’t be with my family anymore. From now on, we’re family. And you’re a fierce little monster—you can’t be so weepy. Be a tough little monster.”
“Ya-ya!”
Xiao Chen’s words shifted Keke’s mood. It waved its tiny paws indignantly, baring its fangs and claws in a mock threat, clearly displeased with the label “fierce little monster.” Xiao Chen found that this method worked well; Keke’s attention quickly diverted.
“Come on. Let’s go see where this little monster’s nest is, and where you found that sacred sapling.” Xiao Chen held Keke, leading the three skeletons as they walked along the broken trunk.
Keke huffed, jumped down from his arms, and scampered toward the center of the broken wood like a wild pony, its earlier dejection already forgotten—just like a child.
The severed surface of the World Tree was as smooth as polished stone. Xiao Chen was startled to find, in the central area, fragments of an eggshell—crystal clear like multicolored divine jade, shimmering with faint rainbow light.
Keke rolled around among the jade fragments, both affectionate and playful. Xiao Chen’s mouth fell open in surprise. Keke had hatched from a rainbow-colored egg of divine jade!
Keke looked a bit like a lion cub, a bit like a tiger cub, its pure white fur as lustrous as fine jade. It was hard to imagine it coming from a colored egg. If it had been covered in scales, that would have been more believable—but it was not. Keke’s origins had to be extraordinary, Xiao Chen concluded. It was likely the offspring of a very powerful ferocious beast. Why else would it be born here, in the den of dragons and primordial monsters? The roars of dragons and beasts echoed all around!
As Keke rolled among the jade fragments, it seemed to remember something. It pulled the “sacred-sapling hat” off its head and planted it beside the broken shell fragments. The roots of the divine sapling sank into the ink-jade surface.
“You’re not telling me you dug the sacred sapling out of here?” Xiao Chen stared in disbelief.
Keke nodded emphatically and blinked its big, bright eyes.
The World Tree had long since withered. The sacred sapling could not draw life essence from it. But Xiao Chen was stunned. This sacred sapling had sprouted from the broken root of the World Tree—a kind of renewal amid decay, a rebirth and transformation. The divine sapling was clearly not the same species as the ancient wood. It was a true sacred tree, which explained how it could survive without soil.
But the sapling seemed somewhat unfortunate. It had become the “food supply” for the abandoned Keke. After hatching, Keke had survived by sucking the jade leaves of the small tree. Xiao Chen sighed softly. Had Keke’s parents deliberately left this “provision” for it?
This extraordinary little beast might not be inferior to those legendary companion dragon kings, Xiao Chen mused.
“Hehe…” Keke rolled among the jade fragments, finally free of its earlier gloom, chirping happily as it did.
“Get up. Enough rolling.” Xiao Chen pulled Keke to its feet and gathered the multicolored jade shell fragments. “This is your birth certificate. Let me keep it for you.” He tore a strip from his robe, wrapped the fragments, and slung the bundle over his shoulder.
“ROOOAR!” A tremendous dragon cry shook the nearby mountain ranges. The rolling soundwaves were immense in the high sky, the vibration of the air clearly felt.
“Let’s go take a look over there.”
The roar had come from the eastern mountain range. Xiao Chen and his companions crossed the severed surface of the World Tree and stopped at the edge, gazing ahead.
Several massive creatures, all covered in scales that shimmered with dim divine light, moved among the nearby mountains. They were only a few hundred meters apart but did not clash—an extremely unusual sight.
Those were several ferocious dragons! Normally, each one would rule its own territory and never allow another primordial beast to enter.
Xiao Chen’s heart raced. He could clearly see a green tyrannosaur, its fifty-meter-long body shrouded in faint green divine light that made it look utterly terrifying.
Not far from the green tyrannosaur stood another monster of similar size, its aura no weaker. It gleamed with a pale yellow light, as if cast from bronze.
It resembled a giant lion, but it could not possibly be a lion. Its entire body was covered in glittering yellow dragon scales. Its lion’s head was ferocious and fearsome, its green eyes like two ghostly flames. What seemed like a lion’s mane was actually a ring of bone spikes several meters long, gleaming with a dark luster. Its four thick, powerful claws were like massive pillars, each requiring seven or eight men to encircle. Apart from the yellow scales and the massive crocodile-like tail, this dragon truly looked like a mountain-sized lion.
Xiao Chen recognized it at once: the legendary Lion Dragon. In terms of strength, it was in no way inferior to the tyrannosaur. It was a rare and powerful dragon breed.
The tyrannosaur and the Lion Dragon stood close together without conflict. Even more astonishing, not far from them, another dragon of comparable power—a massive stegosaur as green as a jade mountain—stood on a high ridge and roared at the heavens.
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