Dragon Vein Storyteller

Chapter 17 99 Human Emperors

No longer was that vibrant meadow, but countless scenes unfolded simultaneously… To the east, giants chased the sun, their bodies wreathed in crimson veins like raging flames; to the west, winged beings soared through the sky, their wingtips adorned with deep blue veins like the ocean; to the south, women with serpentine tails danced around a ball of cold fire, their tail tips swirling with emerald green veins like spring vines; to the north, a strange figure with a hole in his chest inhaled and exhaled clouds atop a mountain peak, his chest cavity swirling with dark, abyss-like veins of light. Every race, every person, was bound by a beam of light. The light varied, some intense, some cold, some bright, some dim. All things possess a spirit, and each spirit has its own veins.

"And then?" I heard my own voice echo in the void, as if my soul had been seized by the scene in this world, and I couldn't help but ask the question, my fingertips already starting to get cold.

"Later... the war between the Lich King and the Demon King resulted in mutual destruction. All races perished, and the Tianmai lineage scattered."

The scene shifted abruptly. Winged beings plummeted from the sky, their wings snapped, their blue light extinguished; colossal beasts crashed to the ground, their crimson flames dissipating into the dust; serpent-tailed women lay in pools of blood, the green light fading inch by inch from the tips of their tails; the strange figures atop the northern mountain peaks fell one by one from the clouds, the black light within their chests dissipating before they even hit the ground. Those lights… those veins of light… drifted from the corpses, like ownerless fireflies, aimlessly wandering between heaven and earth. The eternal night had begun.

"At this time, the human race seized the opportunity to rise up."

Before me appeared a magnificent palace. The palace was filled with people, and in the center sat a man dressed in black, leaning on a sword in his hand. The sword was entirely golden and covered with dense patterns. Two rows of people knelt before him, including civil officials and military generals, each holding their breath, as if waiting for something.

"Yu the Great," the old man said calmly.

The jade seal on my chest suddenly scalded again, its movement perfectly synchronized with the golden light of the Emperor's Sword. I instinctively touched my chest and discovered that the patterns on the jade seal were exactly the same as the engravings on the Emperor's Sword.

The scene zooms out, and I see countless humans traversing the land outside the palace. They are not fighting, nor are they farming… they are collecting. The scattered spiritual energy veins of the world are being gathered, collected, and refined by them. The spiritual energy veins of the gods, the spiritual energy veins of the witches, the spiritual energy veins of the demons… regardless of race or origin, all the spiritual energy veins in the world are being absorbed by the humans. Even the fireflies scattered across the world are being gathered, one by one, into the palms of their hands.

Hearing this, my stomach suddenly churned.

This wasn't some glorious era; it was blatant plunder! Looking at the gathered river of light, I suddenly realized it wasn't a dragon at all, but a maggot writhing in mid-air, every scale screaming in agony. I crouched on the ground, wanting to vomit, but nothing came out; my throat tasted awfully metallic.

"Humanity has no original lineage." The old man's voice was neither praise nor criticism, but simply a statement, like water flowing over stone, regardless of the stone's willingness. "So we take the essence of a hundred schools, gather the energy of all living beings in the world, and condense it into one lineage."

The collected energy converged above the palace, forming a dazzling river of light. The colors of countless races surged, collided, and merged within it—crimson, deep blue, emerald green, pitch black… all the light mingled together, gradually gathering and solidifying into the shape of a dragon. Not an evil creature like an earth dragon, but a true dragon, its scales and claws gleaming, its eyes radiating golden light, exuding an aura of absolute dominance. Yet, looking at it, I felt only nausea; every hair on my body stood on end.

"This lineage is the Nine-Nine Human Emperor Lineage."

A dragon-shaped river of light swooped down from above the palace and disappeared into the golden sword in Yu the Great's hand. The sword suddenly lit up, illuminating the entire palace as if it were daytime.

"From then on, the human race flourished. All other races retreated, and the world changed hands."

The old man's voice trailed off for a moment. I thought he would express some sentiment, or at least let out a sigh. But he made no comment, and continued speaking with an almost indifferent calm.

"However... prosperity inevitably leads to decline; this is the will of Heaven. Forcing it to grow will only bring misfortune."

The words had barely left my lips when the scene shifted. I was pulled from the palace of Yu the Great to another setting, a time-space jump, and before me stood a small tribal village. Two groups of people stood at the village entrance. One group, judging by their attire, belonged to Yu the Great's tribe. They were numerous, their armor and weapons in perfect order, their formation imposing. Several of them surrounded a young man, whose handsome features were somewhat stiff. Though he leaned forward, his eyes kept darting between the crowd, a mixture of tension and excitement in his gaze. The other group was dressed completely differently, their robes loose and dark in color, with snake patterns embroidered on the cuffs. Leading them was an old man, followed by a woman.

When that woman came out, I was completely stunned.

She was no ordinary person. There was an indescribable cold beauty between her brows and eyes, not ordinary beauty, but a kind of divine power that made people afraid to look directly at her. Her robes were ruffled by the wind, and what was revealed beneath the hem of her skirt was not her feet, but a snake's tail... grayish-white scales extended all the way to her ankles, and the tip of the tail gently tapped the ground, one tap after another, as if counting.

"The princess of the Nine Witches clan," the old man said calmly. "The Nine Witches and Yu the Great have been enemies for generations. But this man... the son of Yu the Great's general... has fallen in love with her."

The man in the video stepped forward and knelt before everyone. He was pleading. What he was pleading for, I know without being told. The leader of the Yu tribe remained silent for a long time, so long that the kneeling man's knees began to tremble, before he slowly nodded.

"Yu the Great agrees."

The scene then changes.

The wedding procession set off from the village of the Nine Witches. The bride's party formed a long, impressive line, with the snake-tailed woman walking in the middle, surrounded by the crowd. Everyone in the procession wore dark gray robes, short swords hanging at their waists, the tassels adorned with snake fangs that jingled as they walked, a sound that was both laughter and weeping. When she arrived at the territory of the Dayu tribe, the tribe's drums and music resounded. The wedding party stood in two rows, as if welcoming her from the sidelines. The young man… the one who had knelt and begged for the marriage… stood at the very front, a broad smile on his face, extending his hand to the bride.

The wedding procession slowly made its way to the groom's house. The drums thundered, and firecrackers littered the ground with red smoke. Just as the bride's fingertips were about to touch the groom's hand…

Her eyes suddenly widened.

She saw something. Not behind the groom, but something in the crowd that shouldn't have been revealed at that moment. Her snake tail lashed out, scales bursting open, and she was thrown back half a step.

late.

Amidst the wedding procession, the flash of knives erupted.

It wasn't just one knife. It was dozens, even hundreds of knives drawn simultaneously from beneath their robes, the flashes of blades forming a continuous, cold white in the sunlight, like an avalanche rising from the ground. The two rows of wedding procession, smiling one moment, had transformed into executioners the next. The drums and music continued, the firecrackers continued to explode, but those who had accompanied the bride were already falling.

The screams mingled with the drumbeats, making it impossible to distinguish between joy and sorrow.

The Nine Witches also drew their swords. They were prepared... after all, the two clans were sworn enemies, and carrying a sword during a wedding procession was an instinct ingrained in their very being. But they hadn't anticipated that the blades would be drawn first from within the wedding party. An elderly woman who was seeing off the bride was stabbed through the chest, and as she fell, she was still cursing, not at the murderer, but at the person who had agreed to the marriage.

The groom stood there, his smile still on his face, when blood splattered all over his face.

He stared at everything before him, as if he hadn't quite grasped what was happening. Then he saw the bride.

The bride was also looking at him. The woman with the snake tail stood in a pool of blood, several axemen who had been felled by her tail lying around her. There was no hatred or pain in her eyes, only an indescribable sorrow. She reached out her hand to him, her lips moving as if she were saying something.

I was too far away to hear what she said. But the young man clearly heard her. His face contorted, not with anger, but with a deeper, more desperate pain. He lunged at her. A knife slashed from the side, but he didn't dodge. The knife struck his shoulder, but he didn't even stop. Another knife struck his leg, and he fell, then got up and continued crawling forward.

He finally climbed up to her.

She looked down at him, tears falling onto his face. Her hand was still outstretched, fingertips pointing forward, as if trying to grasp something. Then her hand fell limp. His body went limp too. Two corpses, piled on top of each other…