Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 334 – Seeds of Jealousy

The images of memory flickered through Lin Fan’s mind like an old, worn-out film reel.

On that rainy night in the abandoned garden, a young Long Xuan pressed her hand tightly over her own mouth.

She watched the Long Qingyue who always cowered before her—who even seemed somewhat affected—now clinging to the chest of Long Yi, the Dragon Clan’s most wanted criminal, weeping like a helpless child.

“Brother… you have to survive…”

Those simple words detonated like a thunderclap inside Long Xuan’s mind.

Lin Fan floated above this memory, clicking his tongue.

“Tsk. So that’s how it was.”

The Dragon Clan had an ancient legend.

The Ancient Divine Dragon Bloodline was never a simple matter of direct inheritance. It was a gift from the Heavenly Dao—and the Dragon Emperor’s nightmare.

Should this bloodline ever suffer a break in succession, at some point in the future, it would randomly awaken in a member of the Dragon Clan.

It could be a pureblood or a branch descendant.

This was what they called—atavism.

The one who awakened it would be the Heaven-Mandated New Emperor.

How could the current Dragon Emperor possibly allow anyone to usurp his throne?

So the Grand Elder Long Zhan was ordered to suppress the branch families—officially to quell a rebellion, but in truth, to “kill the emperor.”

The scene shifted.

Long Yi had been gone for a long while. The rain had stopped.

Long Xuan stepped out from the shadows, blocking Long Qingyue, who was trying to sneak back to her quarters.

“Sister…” Long Qingyue’s face went pale with terror, her whole body trembling. “You… what are you doing here?”

“Shut up!”

The expression on Long Xuan’s face at that moment was as ferocious as a demon’s.

She seized Long Qingyue by the throat and slammed her hard against the damp artificial rockery.

“The rebel leader is your brother? You’re Long Yi’s sister?!”

Long Qingyue’s eyes widened in horror. She shook her head desperately, tears mingling with the rain as they streamed down her face. “No… no… Sister, let me explain…”

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“You dare lie to me?!” Long Xuan’s fingers tightened, her nails piercing Long Qingyue’s delicate skin. “I heard it with my own ears! You lowly branch descendant—you’ve been hiding this so deep!”

“Please… don’t tell Brother Teng…” Long Qingyue’s face flushed red from suffocation as her hands clawed weakly at Long Xuan’s wrist. “I never thought my brother would take this path… I’m innocent…”

“Innocent?”

Long Xuan laughed—a laugh tinged with madness.

“Of course you can be innocent. As long as you disappear.”

She released her grip, watching Long Qingyue collapse limply to the ground, gasping for air.

“Take your secret and get out of the Dragon Clan. Get out of Brother Teng’s world. I’ll pretend I never saw anything today.”

That was Long Xuan’s final mercy.

Or rather, it was the greatest concession she could make to keep Long Teng all to herself.

Long Qingyue knelt in the mud, nodding through her tears. “Fine… fine… I’ll go… As long as Brother Teng isn’t hurt, I’ll go…”

The memory went blank here.

Lin Fan could roughly guess what happened next—the rebels were suppressed, and Long Yi was gravely wounded and disappeared.

By all rights, Long Qingyue should have kept her promise and vanished.

But when the scene flickered back to life, it was one so warm it was almost blinding.

Outside the delivery room.

Long Teng held a newborn baby in his arms, his face overflowing with the ecstasy of a first-time father.

That baby was Long Wu.

And Long Qingyue, lying weak in the bed, gazed at the father and daughter with eyes full of love.

Long Xuan stood outside the door, her hands trembling.

“Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar.”

“LIAR!!”

The seed of jealousy in her heart was, in that moment, watered into a towering tree.

She hadn’t left after all—she’d even given Brother Teng a child!

That is my place!

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The one in Brother Teng’s arms should have been my child with Brother Teng!

A stream of black-purple energy surged wildly around Long Xuan. Lin Fan could clearly feel the power of this emotion—it was pure, twisted envy.

Her innate ability, the Heart of Envy, had erupted!

The scene shifted.

The solemn and imposing Hall of Elders.

Long Xuan knelt on the ground, and seated above her was none other than the Third Elder whom Lin Fan and a few Dragon Clan rebels had joined forces to kill—Long Jingtian.

The Long Jingtian of that time was somewhat younger, but the sinister look in his eyes had not diminished in the slightest.

“Girl, have you thought this through?” Long Jingtian said gravely. “This is a crime punishable by the extermination of your entire clan. If that woman from the collateral branch truly is Long Yi’s sister, then Long Teng, as the one who shares her bed, won’t be able to escape blame either.”

“I just want that woman dead.”

Long Xuan raised her head, her gaze hollow and resolute.

“As for Brother Teng… he was deceived. Third Brother, as long as that woman and that bastard child disappear, Brother Teng will come back around. He is a genius of the Dragon Clan; the Council of Elders cannot afford to lose him.”

“Heh heh heh…”

Long Jingtian let out a chilling, low laugh.

“Interesting.”

Long Jingtian rose to his feet, walked over to Long Xuan, and condescendingly patted her head from above.

“Don’t worry, Third Brother will handle this for you. But then again… when pulling weeds, you must pull the roots. That bastard child cannot be spared either.”

Long Xuan’s entire body trembled, but in the end, she did not argue.

As long as that woman died, the child… she could give Brother Teng more.

The next scene was the tragedy that had tormented Long Teng for his entire life.

The Dragon Clan’s enforcement squad surrounded Long Teng’s residence.

Long Qingyue was dragged away by force, while Long Wu wailed loudly in her swaddling clothes.

Long Teng went mad, swinging his sword to drive back the enforcement squad, until Long Jingtian personally made his move.

The oppressive might of a Rank 8 Powerhouse left Long Teng utterly unable to resist.

“Long Teng! You have harbored remnants of traitors and rebels. By law, you are to be executed!”

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Long Jingtian’s voice thundered across the heavens.

Long Teng was covered in blood, kneeling on the ground, clutching the swaddled infant desperately to his chest.

“Qingyue knew nothing! I did not participate in the rebellion either!” Long Teng’s eyes were bloodshot, like a lone wolf cornered with no way out. “Third Elder, if you must kill someone, kill me! Spare the child! Spare Qingyue!”

“Too late.”

Long Jingtian looked at him coldly. “By order of the Dragon Emperor—better to kill the innocent than let the guilty escape.”

In the distance, Long Qingyue, who was being escorted away, suddenly broke free of her restraints.

She turned back to look at Long Teng one last time.

In that gaze, there was no resentment—only boundless reluctance and resolve.

“Brother Teng, take good care of Wu’er.”

With that, she threw herself directly onto the enforcement squad’s spear.

“Thud—”

Blood dyed Long Teng’s world crimson.

“Qingyue!!”

Long Teng’s roar was heart-wrenching, so piercing that even Lin Fan, outside the memory, felt his eardrums ache.

Long Xuan hid behind the crowd, her face deathly pale.

She had not expected Long Qingyue to die so decisively.

Even less had she expected that Long Qingyue’s death would become an eternal scar on Long Teng’s heart that would never heal.

But this was not the end.

Long Jingtian had no intention of letting the infant go.

“Pull the weeds and pull the roots.” Long Jingtian raised his palm, black energy condensing within it.

“Wait!”

Long Teng suddenly cast aside his sword.

He knelt on the ground, drew a dagger from his waist, and plunged it into his own chest in a reverse grip.

“Brother Teng, are you insane?!” Long Xuan screamed from behind the crowd, trying to rush out but held back firmly by Long Zhan.

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Long Teng’s face was expressionless as he harshly sliced open his own chest with the dagger.

Blood gushed out.

Clenching his teeth in silence, amidst the sickening sound of flesh and bone separating, he forcibly dug out that section of spine bone that emitted a faint golden glow!

That was the foundation of the Dragon Clan, the source of their power.

Dragon Bone.

Long Teng held the bloodstained dragon bone with both hands, raising it high above his head, his voice extremely weak.

“The sinner Long Teng… offers up his Dragon Bone… willingly abandons his cultivation… to guard Border Dragon City for eternity…”

“I only beg the Council of Elders… to spare this child’s life…”

The entire scene fell into dead silence.

Even Long Jingtian was stunned by this ruthless act.

A peak Level Seven Pureblood genius, willingly throwing away his future for a bastard child?

Long Jingtian narrowed his eyes, looking at the high-quality dragon bone, a flicker of greed passing through his gaze.

“Fine. Since you have such resolve, I’ll grant your wish.”

Long Jingtian took the dragon bone and waved his hand. “Take that bastard child and get lost.”

Long Teng collapsed to the ground, the infant in his arms still crying.

He didn’t even have the strength to glance at Long Xuan, who was hiding in the crowd, already crying her eyes out.

From that day on.

Long Teng’s heart was dead.

And Long Xuan lived in endless regret.

Every time she went to Border Dragon City, all she saw were Long Teng’s lifeless eyes and that door forever sealed shut.

The images in the memory gradually shattered, dissolving into specks of purple light that faded away.

Lin Fan suddenly opened his eyes and let out a long breath of turbid air, rubbing his slightly swollen temples.

“What a melodramatic soap opera.”