Before It All Began

[But... if it isn't a dragon, what is it?]

An Qianshan had always trusted An Jing, but he was a broad-minded man. He laughed and didn't give it a second thought. [It doesn't matter. Dragons are already patchwork creatures stitched together from the forms of all sorts of spirit beasts. This little thing looks like it's stitched from quite a few, too. Even if it isn't a dragon, it's something close enough.]

[Anyway, I came over this time to ask how to mix feed for raising this kind of spirit beast, and what I should watch out for.]

"That's easy. I'll ask a specialist to come take a look in a bit."

An Jing had made his quip, but he had also thought of what Jin Yanhua had said: since the Ancestral Dragon, there had been no true dragons in Huaixu. Every dragon in the world was merely a descendant of the Ancestral Dragon, bearing blood that resembled his. Even she was no exception.

But was Huaixu's Ancestral Dragon... really a dragon?

That essence was both Divine Wood and long-bodied... If he had to make a comparison, then the Whale-Qi Dragon wasn't all that strange.

Shaking his head, An Jing looked up and said seriously to An Qianshan, "Dad, I understand. If all you wanted was to know how to raise it, you could've sent me a letter ages ago. You wouldn't have needed to contact me through a Water Mirror."

"Don't worry. A True Lord personally watches over our communication channels. Nothing will leak, so speak freely."

[You're still as sharp as ever, Jing'er.]

An Qianshan let out a breath. Seeing that An Jing had easily understood what he was getting at, the middle-aged man smiled. [Actually, it's not that big a deal... Lately, the Tagu Tribe and even