The Orphan of the Celestial Tree

Keke's sorrow was so human that even Xiao Chen felt a pang of bitterness. The three skeletons crouched around the little creature, their empty eye sockets betraying their astonishment—they had never seen the little terror in such a state.

"Wuu..." Keke whimpered, curling into a trembling ball of white fur.

Xiao Chen's heart was iron against his enemies, but toward those close to him, he was always true. Though Keke was but a beast, they had spent so long together that he had come to treat it as a strange, wonderful child.

"Keke, don't be afraid..." He crouched and lifted the little creature into his arms.

Keke seemed to find refuge there, burrowing its head deep into his chest, whimpering without cease. It looked just as pitiful as the day he had first found it—like a lost, abandoned child.

Click-clack. The three skeletons exchanged glances, their bone-joints grinding. They had always been wary of the little beast, and this display left them utterly baffled.

Through careful questioning and patient gestures, Xiao Chen pieced together the truth. Keke appeared to be an orphan. It knew it had been born here, yet it had never seen its parents. Shortly after hatching, the poor little thing had climbed down from the broken stump of the Celestial Tree, gotten lost among the mountain ranges, and eventually wandered to the outer reaches of the island.

Today, it had finally found its way home, only to discover that its parents were still absent. For a creature as emotionally rich as a human, the disappointment was crushing.

"Keke, don't be sad," Xiao Chen said, forcing a smile. "I'm the same as you. I can never be with my family again. From now on, we'll be each other's family. And look at you—you're a fierce little beast! You can't just mope around. Be a strong fierce beast."

"Ya-ya!"

His words worked. Keke flailed its tiny paws indignantly, baring its fangs in mock threat. It clearly did not appreciate being called a 'fierce little beast.' Xiao Chen was pleased to see the tactic had quickly diverted its attention.

"Come on, let's go see where this fierce little beast's nest is, and where you found that treasure tree." Still holding Keke, Xiao Chen led the three skeletons across the broken stump.

Keke huffed, jumped down from his arms, and bolted toward the center of the stump like a wild pony, its earlier sorrow already forgotten. It really was like a child.

The severed face of the Celestial Tree was as smooth as polished jade. At its center, Xiao Chen made a startling discovery: scattered fragments of a rainbow-colored eggshell, glittering like translucent divine jade, suffused with a faint, ethereal light.

Keke rolled among the shards with a mix of attachment and mischief. Xiao Chen's mouth fell open. Keke had been hatched from a divine, jade-like egg!

The little beast looked something like a lion cub, something like a tiger cub, its fur snowy white and lustrous as fine jade. It was hard to believe it had emerged from a rainbow egg—if it had been covered in scales, that would have made more sense. But it was not so.

Great origin indeed! Xiao Chen was certain that Keke's lineage was far from ordinary. It was likely the offspring of some immensely powerful primordial beast. How else could it have been born in this den of dragons and savage monsters, surrounded by roars and howls?

Still rolling among the eggshell fragments, Keke seemed to remember something. It pulled the 'treasure tree hat' from its head and planted it beside the shards. The roots of the Sacred Sapling immediately sank into the ink-jade surface of the stump.

"You're not telling me you dug up the Sacred Sapling from here, are you?" Xiao Chen asked in astonishment.

Keke nodded vigorously, its large eyes blinking.

The Celestial Tree had long since died; the Sacred Sapling could draw no life-force from it. Xiao Chen stared at the little tree, suddenly dumbstruck. The Sacred Sapling had sprouted from the broken root of the Celestial Tree—a rebirth from decay, a strange reincarnation, a miraculous transformation! It was clearly not the same species as the ancient tree. It was a true sacred tree, no wonder it could survive without soil.

But the little tree seemed unfortunate in its own way—it had become 'rations' for the orphaned Keke. After hatching, Keke had survived by suckling the jade leaves of the little tree.

Now that he understood the rough picture, Xiao Chen felt a wave of emotion. Had Keke's parents deliberately left it this 'food'?

This miraculous little beast was likely no less extraordinary than those legendary Companion Dragon Kings, Xiao Chen mused.

"Hehe..." Keke rolled happily among the rainbow shards, seeming to have completely shed its melancholy, laughing just as it always did when pleased.

"Get up, stop rolling around." Xiao Chen pulled Keke to its feet, then gathered the pile of rainbow-colored eggshell fragments. "This is your birth certificate. I'll keep it for you." He tore a strip of cloth from his robe, wrapped the shards carefully, and slung the bundle over his shoulder.

A tremendous dragon roar shook the surrounding mountain ranges. The rolling sound waves were immense in the high sky, and he could clearly feel the vibration in the air.

"Let's go take a look over there."

The roars came from the eastern mountain range. Xiao Chen and the others walked across the broken surface of the Celestial Tree toward the edge, peering into the distance.

Several colossal figures, scales gleaming with a hazy divine light, moved among the nearby mountains. They were no more than a few hundred meters apart, yet they did not attack one another. This was deeply abnormal.

Those were ferocious dragons! Each was a king that ruled its own territory, never allowing other primordial beasts into its domain.

Xiao Chen's heart pounded. He could clearly see a cyan Tyrant Dragon, its fifty-meter-long body wreathed in a hazy cyan radiance that made it look terrifying beyond words.

Not far from the cyan Tyrant Dragon stood another behemoth, equally fifty meters long, its aura no weaker. It shimmered with a dull yellow light, as if cast from bronze.

It looked exactly like a giant lion—but it could not be. Its entire body was covered in gleaming yellow dragon scales; its lion-like head was ferocious, its jade-green eyes as baleful as ghost-fire. Its 'mane' was composed entirely of meter-long bone spikes, gleaming with a ghastly yellow light. Four massive, powerful claws were like colossal pillars, each one requiring seven or eight people to encircle. Saving the yellow scales and the enormous crocodilian tail, this dragon truly looked like a mountain-sized lion.

Xiao Chen recognized it at once. This was the legendary Lion King Dragon. In terms of raw power, it was not inferior to the Tyrant Dragon, a rare and mighty dragon lineage.

The Tyrant Dragon and the Lion King Dragon stood close together, yet they tolerated each other's presence. Even more astonishing, another equally powerful dragon stood not far away—a colossal Sword Dragon, like a mountain of green jade, perched on a high ridge and roaring at the heavens.