Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 394 – The Girl Named Ningshuang

By this time, Long Yi had already restrained his wild and violent Dragon Qi. He was wearing an oversized camouflage vest he’d swiped from Azurewood City, showing off a body of granite-like muscles.

Long Teng didn’t take it, just shook his head, his voice hoarse like two pieces of rusted iron grinding together: “No need, I’m not thirsty. I just want to stay here a while longer, keep Wu’er company. The scenery here is nice.”

Long Yi opened his mouth, wanting to offer some words of comfort, but found himself at a loss for what to say.

The pain of losing a daughter—only a father could truly understand.

If it had been Long Yan lying there instead, Long Yi would have already charged back to the Dragon Emperor Hall, even if it meant self-detonation, dragging that old bastard Long Zhan down with him.

At that thought, Long Yi turned to look at his son, who had been kneeling on the other side of the grave the entire time.

Long Yan’s spine was ramrod straight, like a javelin planted in the ground.

Though the wounds on his body had mostly healed under Lin Fan’s treatment, the exhaustion and grief seeping from the very marrow of his bones couldn’t be concealed no matter how hard he tried.

“Alright, enough kneeling.”

Long Yi walked over and gave Long Yan’s backside a light kick. “A man’s knees are worth their weight in gold—you kneel to heaven, to earth, and to your parents. What are you doing? Wu’er is your sister. Having her in your heart is enough. Do you think kneeling like that will bring her back to life?”

Long Yan’s body swayed slightly, but he didn’t rise.

He kept his head lowered, his voice muffled: “Dad, I let Wu’er down.”

“That was the fault of those old bastards. What the hell does it have to do with you?” Long Yi cursed as he sat down nearby. “Besides, what’s the deal with your current strength? I’ve been wanting to ask you since Border Dragon City.”

Though Long Yi seemed rough and careless, he was, after all, a Rank 8 Powerhouse.

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Long Yan’s pure Five-Clawed Golden Dragon Bloodline was even more concentrated than his own father’s.

What they called—atavism.

Hearing this, Long Teng, who had been sitting like a statue, also turned his head slightly.

Long Yan took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind about something.

“It’s because of Ning Shuang.”

“Ning Shuang?”

Long Yi’s brow furrowed into a deep frown. The name rolled around on his tongue, carrying a strange, unfamiliar flavor.

After fifteen years, things had changed so much that he didn’t recognize the name—that was only natural.

“Who’s that? Which family’s girl? She managed to awaken your atavistic bloodline?”

Long Teng also unconsciously sat up straighter. Though he still held the empty wine jar in his arms, a hint of curiosity had crept into those murky eyes.

He had always assumed Long Yan had naturally inherited and awakened the Golden Dragon Bloodline, but from the sound of Long Yan’s words, there was more to the story—a rough road behind it.

Long Yan took another deep breath, his gaze passing over the lonely grave before him, as if piercing through layers of mist to see the figure that haunted his dreams.

“Dad, there are some things you don’t know.”

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Long Yan’s voice was soft, yet each word landed like a stone hitting the ground, heavy and weighty.

“After what happened back in your day, the collateral branch’s status plummeted. Back then, I was seen as a genius in everyone’s eyes—I’d touched the threshold of Rank 6 by the age of eighteen.”

Long Yi let out a snort, a hint of paternal pride coloring his face. “Of course. He’s my blood—how could he be anything less?”

“But genius breeds envy.” Long Yan gave a bitter smile, his hand unconsciously moving to his chest—a place that had once been hollow, now housing the Dragon Bone of his beloved. “The Pureblood line produced a kid named Long Ao. His talent was mediocre, but his father sat on the Council of Elders. He feared I’d grow too fast and steal his spotlight.”

“So he made trouble for you?” Long Yi’s fists clenched, the air around him beginning to crackle and pop.

“It was more than just trouble.” Long Yan shook his head, a flicker of pain passing through his eyes. “Back then, I had a fiancée named Long Yanran. I thought we’d marry, have children, and live out our lives together. I gave her every resource I had, trusted her with my back…”

He paused, his breathing growing ragged.

Long Teng sighed and patted Long Yan on the shoulder. He’d seen plenty of this kind of melodrama in his years at the Dragon Emperor Hall, but having it happen to his own nephew still left a bitter knot in his chest.

“That bitch betrayed you?” Long Yi gnashed his teeth, his golden hair bristling like an enraged lion’s mane.

“She conspired with Long Ao. At the critical moment of my breakthrough, she ran a sword through my back.” Long Yan closed his eyes, as if transported back to that desperate, rain-soaked night. “They pinned me down in the mud and carved out my Dragon Bone, piece by piece.”

“But thinking back now, it must have been that old bastard Long Jingtian pulling the strings. The shadow you cast over him back then was too deep.”

BOOM—!

A terrifying shockwave erupted from Long Yi, snapping several towering ancient trees clean in half around them.

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“I’ll slaughter that pair of dogs!” Long Yi roared, surging skyward, his eyes blood-red as if about to weep crimson. “Long Ao, is it? Long Yanran, is it? I’ll grind their bones to dust and feed them to the dogs!”

“Sit down!”

Long Teng slammed a hand onto the berserk Long Yi, his voice low and firm. “That was the past. Charging in now would be suicide. Let Yan’er finish his story.”

Long Yi heaved great, ragged breaths, his chest heaving violently. It took him a long while before he finally dropped back to the ground.

“What happened after?” Long Yi asked, eyes still red. “You just… ended up crippled?”

“Crippled.” Long Yan laughed at himself. “My bones were torn out, my cultivation fell to the third rank—weaker than a dragon who’d just come of age. They didn’t kill me. Said they wanted me alive to watch them thrive. I was sold to the black market as a slave, locked in a cage like a dog. Every day, people gawked at me, judged me like livestock at market.”

Long Yi’s nails dug deep into his palms, blood seeping through his fingers—but he felt no pain.

Missing his son’s childhood was the greatest wound of his life.

But he never imagined that, in the places he couldn’t see, his son had endured a hell like this.

“Until… I met Ning Shuang.”

At the mention of that name, the murderous aura in Long Yan’s eyes dissolved instantly, replaced by a tenderness so profound it was almost unbearable.

“It was in Azurewood City. She’d only just arrived there herself. She was the one who bought me. I thought she was just another person looking for entertainment. But she was different.”

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Long Yan’s lips as he recalled that memory.

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“She didn’t put shackles on me. Instead, she directly shattered my slave collar. She gave me Crystals to heal my injuries. She even went against other factions for my sake. She said I was a person, not anyone’s slave, and I was free to leave whenever I wanted.”

“What a good girl,” Long Teng remarked with a sigh. “These days, there aren’t many foolish girls like her left.”

Long Yi nodded repeatedly, the murderous aura on his face receding considerably, replaced by the satisfied look of an old father sizing up his future daughter-in-law: “This girl has good eyes, knowing my son is a promising investment. What happened next?”

“Next…” Long Yan’s gaze dimmed. “Next, we ran into Long Jingyun. He was Long Jingtian’s son, already a seventh-rank powerhouse by then. I fought with everything I had, but the gap in strength was too great. I was beaten half to death and fell into a coma.”

“When I woke up, everything had changed.”

Long Yan’s voice trembled slightly as he touched his chest, where surging golden blood energy flowed endlessly.

“My injuries were healed—not just healed, but there was a complete piece of Dragon Bone inside me. The power contained in that bone merged with my own, directly shattering the shackles of my Bloodline and allowing me to awaken my true form as a Five-Clawed Golden Dragon.”

Long Yi froze: “This bone… where did it come from?”

Dragon Bone, especially high-grade Dragon Bone, was a treasure one could only hope to encounter by chance.

After all, no one dared to kill a member of the Dragon Clan to harvest their bones.

Long Yan lowered his head, a single tear falling into the dirt.

“It was Ning Shuang. Her own Dragon Bone… given to me.”