Legend Management Bureau Chapter 336

[ … words ]

As the Dragon Ancestor, Yinglong naturally could not find another dragon to mate with.

Therefore, he had to settle for the next best thing, turning to other wild beasts to reproduce.

Yinglong first sought out pythons, the creatures most similar to dragons. This union produced Qiuniu, a beast with a dragon’s head and a snake’s body. However, a snake was still just a snake. The offspring grew absolutely no dragon claws, an outcome that thoroughly enraged Yinglong.

Without sharp claws, how could he slaughter enemies?

Yinglong originally intended to be patient, waiting for Qiuniu to grow up before teaching him other divine abilities.

But who could have known that Qiuniu would only care for music, showing absolutely no interest in cultivation? In a fit of fury, Yinglong punished Qiuniu, forcing him to stand upon the headstocks of stringed instruments for all eternity. He was condemned to only listen, never to play.

To this day, statues of Qiuniu can be seen carved into the heads of many zithers—this is Yinglong’s eternal punishment.

As a result, Yinglong quickly abandoned the snake mother and resumed his search across the world. This time, his requirements were low; he only demanded that his mate possess a pair of sharp claws capable of killing enemies.

It did not take long for Yinglong to discover wolves. Their claws were incredibly ferocious, and they often used them alongside sharp fangs to tear their adversaries apart in battle.

Even now, if one spots the fierce head of a wild beast adorning a blade, that is Yazi.

And so, Yinglong abandoned the wolf mother as well.

He had never expected producing offspring to be such a difficult endeavor, fraught with so many complications.

What animal in this world possessed sharp claws yet maintained a gentle temperament?

Yinglong soon set his sights on the sparrow mother. A sparrow’s claws were no inferior to those of an eagle, yet its nature was pure and kind, rarely initiating an attack.

Resorting to despicable methods, Yinglong claimed the sparrow mother, who gave birth to his third son, Chaofeng.

But contrary to expectations, Chaofeng was even more kind-hearted than his mother. He never killed. Instead, he spent his days standing upon rooftops, gazing into the distance. He told Yinglong that when he grew up, he wanted to fly across all the lands of the Nine Provinces like the sparrow mother, taking in the magnificent scenery.

Frustrated by his son’s lack of ambition, Yinglong punished Chaofeng, condemning him to stand eternally upon the eaves of roofs. He could only gaze outward; he would never travel far.

To this very day, Chaofeng remains standing there.

Yinglong began to understand. These creatures all had their own flaws. If he could not find a truly satisfactory mate, the resulting offspring would never be fit to inherit his legacy.

For the next several decades, Yinglong searched far and wide, but his efforts yielded nothing.

Finally, while soaring over a pond, he heard a resounding roar.

Yinglong landed to inspect the source, only to discover a massive golden toad.

The golden toad’s voice was resonant and powerful, and its eyes shone with extraordinary spirit.

“Golden Toad, are you provoking this Ancestor?” Yinglong demanded.

But the golden toad completely ignored Yinglong, continuing to croak and roar to itself.

Irritated and distracted by her constant noise, and driven by some inexplicable impulse, Yinglong forcefully planted his dragon seed within the golden toad.

Not long after, his fourth son, Pulao, was born.

Yet Pulao had an even louder voice than the golden toad mother. The moment he was born, his mighty roar echoed into the clouds, giving Yinglong a massive fright.

Humiliated and furious, Yinglong roared back, “How dare you startle this Ancestor! I will let you taste what it feels like to be startled by others!”

Thus, Pulao was cursed to rest atop giant bells forever. Every time someone struck a bell, Pulao on top would tremble all over, as if violently startled.

Yinglong resumed his travels across the mortal realm in search of the ideal candidate. If a wolf was too bloodthirsty and a sparrow too kind, what animal could strike the perfect balance?

Yinglong found a lioness.

Lions possessed a regal bearing. They were neither mindlessly bloodthirsty like wolves nor overly pacifistic like sparrows. Upon reflection, it seemed like the perfect choice.

His fifth son, Suanni, was born.

When Suanni came into the world, he was accompanied by rosy clouds and thousands of auspicious rays of light—the clear sign of an auspicious beast’s birth.

Because he possessed extremely dense fire-attribute spiritual energy, Suanni breathed out thick smoke every time he opened his mouth. This annoyed Yinglong to no end.

Eventually, a puff of Suanni’s smoke made Yinglong cough. Furious, he punished Suanni, forcing him to perch upon incense burners for all eternity, inhaling the smoke and incense of thousands of households.

Later, Yinglong found the mate who would accompany him the longest: a turtle mother. He soon had a child with her named Baxia.

Although Baxia had the body of a turtle, he possessed a dragon’s head. His boundless strength won Yinglong’s deep affection.

Yinglong thought carefully about it. Although he had soared through the world for many years, he had yet to retain a proper heir. It would be a pity to lose this one, so he allowed Baxia to live.

But the surviving Baxia did not have an easy life. Yinglong imprisoned Baxia’s mother, the turtle, and threatened the son: if he did not bring back one hundred thousand coins every ten years, his mother would die a graveless death.

Baxia cared deeply for his mother, but he had no way to generate wealth; all he knew was how to carry heavy loads. Therefore, he spent his days drifting across the sea, ferrying passengers to earn meager sums of money.

Yinglong quickly tossed this matter to the back of his mind and went off to find a new mate.

After the lioness, Yinglong naturally set his sights on a tigress.

His seventh son, Bi’an, born of the tiger mother, was also an auspicious beast. Bi’an was rigidly upright, impartial, and passionate about justice.

Ashamed of Yinglong and disdaining to associate with him, Bi’an descended into the mortal realm to protect the common people and punish criminals.

He never referred to himself as a son of a dragon; he only called himself a son of a tiger.

Needless to say, this attitude quickly enraged Yinglong once again.

As punishment, Yinglong decreed that Bi’an’s image would be carved onto prison doors forever, leading future generations to jokingly refer to prisons as Tiger Head Jails.

Since he did not want to be a dragon, he could be a tiger for all eternity.

Gradually, Yinglong ran out of targets.

He no longer knew who else he could reproduce with.

At this time, he was surprised to realize that twenty years had passed. Just as agreed, Baxia had delivered money to Yinglong every ten years, and the sum now totaled a full two hundred thousand coins.

A thought suddenly popped into Yinglong’s mind: if he had another child with the turtle mother, wouldn’t he be able to collect two hundred thousand coins every single year?

With this in mind, he returned to the place where he had imprisoned the turtle mother and forced her to bear another son in her cell.

This child was his eighth son, named Fu Xi.

To Yinglong’s absolute shock, Fu Xi’s appearance was completely different from Baxia’s.

While Baxia had a dragon’s head and a turtle’s body, Fu Xi had taken the complete form of a dragon.

He looked strikingly similar to Yinglong, lacking only the wings. By his posture alone, he was unmistakably a true dragon.

Yinglong adored Fu Xi, but Fu Xi was entirely out of sync with his father.

Like some of his brothers, Fu Xi disliked slaughter. Instead, he had a passion for reading literature. He loved studying unknown cultures and found profound joy in scholarly pursuits.

In the end, Yinglong bound Fu Xi to stone tablets.

If you ever pass by a stone tablet and see a dragon carved into it, remember that it is not a dragon, but Fu Xi.

This was Yinglong’s eternal punishment for him.

Later, Yinglong attempted to mate with a fish mother. However, the resulting ninth son, Chiwen, enjoyed perching on doorframes, spraying water to put out fires for mortals. In just a few years, he went from a monster with a dragon’s head and a fish’s body to a beloved guardian deity among the common people.

Even Yinglong himself had never received such immense respect.

Furious with jealousy, Yinglong bound Chiwen to the doorframes for all eternity.

At this point, Yinglong was thoroughly disheartened.

To find a partner in this world who possessed spiritual intelligence, was obedient, excelled at slaughter, and harbored great ambition… he was afraid humans were the only option left.