The shocking news left behind the silence that perpetuated as time went on. Each and every person there looked at Shi Meiyoung with various emotions plastered all over their faces.
Bai Jingshen's eyes were wide, his wives tried to hide their shock, and Alex simply struggled to understand the possibilities surrounding the situation.
As for Pearl, he had the most number of emotions passing through his mind. Shock, surprise, confusion, happiness, sadness. Every possible emotion he could feel at the moment was all passing through his mind one after another and they left behind a blank face instead.
Shi Meiyoung looked back at everyone. "Were you guys… not aware?" she asked.
"We had no way of knowing," Bai Jingshen said as he nodded and gave a look of understanding.
"But you should have guessed, right?" Shi Meiyoung asked. "Shouchuang was born with the bloodline of both the White Tiger and the Azure Dragon. He has both Supreme Metal Root and Supreme Wood Root."
"He… does not have a Supreme Wood Root," Bai Jingshen said. "And he most certainly does not have the Azure Dragon's Bloodline."
"But… but he's…" a look of thought spread across Shi Meiyoung as she contemplated something. "He must have destroyed it."
"He?" Bai Jingshen asked. "Qing Tianchui?"
"He teleported us away," Shi Meiyoung said. "He must have done something to Shouchaung's bloodline then."
Pearl had been listening to the conversation, but his mind was all focused on the single bit of information he had received through all of this.
His father was the Azure Dragon. The same Azure Dragon that had died long ago.
He had always known or at least believed his father to be dead. He had no hopes of ever seeing his father in this lifetime at all.
However, hearing who his father was, and understanding the things that had most likely happened to him, the things that had most likely happened to his family, was not something he could come to terms with so quickly.
His mind reeled with all the knowledge he received back in the Eastern Continent.
His mother had died at the same time his father had died, and close enough to that period, his grandfather and grandmother had died in the Beast Paradise as well.
The Dragon Emperor was involved in his father's death, even though he claimed to not be the one to do it. It was all that man's fault.
Now, more than ever, he wanted to kill the man. He wanted to sink his teeth into his throat and rip his spine out from the front. He wanted to swipe at the man's chest and pull out his rips. He wanted to kill the man in any way possible.
However, Pearl was weak. He was so weak that he couldn't even avenge his own parents. What was all of this talent and potential good for if he could do nothing with it at all?
His fury increased and the emotions all combined together to reach a crescendo.
And something happened.
"Pearl!" Bai Jingshen's voice snapped Pearl out of his thoughts.
He turned around to look at Bai Jingshen who was staring at him with wide eyes.
"You…" Bai Jinshen had noticed something.
"Yes, Grandpa?" Pearl asked.
Bai Jingshen stared at Pearl for what seemed like a long time before he stopped staring. "Don't do that again," he said. "Never do that again."
Pearl was confused. 'What did I do?' he wondered.
None of the others were aware of what Pearl had done either. They were all surprised by Bai Jingshen's sudden shout.
"What… happened?" Shi Meiyoung asked, looking worried.
"Nothing," Bai Jingshen turned around. "Go on. Tell us how you two met."
After the battle 5000 years ago in the Central Continent, the Azure Dragon had been wounded heavily enough that if he waited for the Heavenly Judgment, he was sure to die. So, he decided to hide in his secret realm for centuries and centuries, healing himself.
He had pills to help him heal, but cultivating with a weakened body still took time and it was after generations that he was finally back to being as strong as he was.
Once he was fully healed, he had decided to deal with the Heavenly Judgment that stopped him from leaving the secret realm.
The Azure Dragon fought the Heavenly Judgment and came back injured but free of the lightning. Then, he spent another few centuries trying to heal himself from that.
All in all, 2 millennia had passed by the time he had healed himself, and was finally everything was back to normal.
That was when he had realized that in his 2 millennia of negligence, his beautiful secret realm had been completely destroyed and the beautiful floral gardens and pond were all beyond his control.
Even the palace that had been built in the center of the pond had long since been destroyed.
So, with little need for consideration, the Azure Dragon asked the beasts of the Beast Paradise to send him helpers to help maintain his realm and palace.
That was when Shi Meiyoung had first met the Azure Dragon.
On the very first day, Qing Tianchui had noticed the thick White Tiger's bloodline flowing inside of the White Cat and had taken an interest in her.
He had questioned her about her lineage and quickly found out that she was the granddaughter of Bai Jingshen.
Qing Tianchui had never been close to Bai Jingshen, but after his sacrifice in the Central Continent, he had come to think a great deal of him.
The beast was a martyr for the world and as such the Azure Dragon decided to treat his granddaughter with proper respect.
There were times when Qing Tianchui wanted to take Shi Meiyoung to her grandfather's home, but there never really was a proper time.
They kept delaying it, and before they knew it, thousands of years had passed. And in that time, the two of them had only grown closer.
While Qing Tianchui had initially been interested in just Shi Meiyoung's lineage, over time he had come to be interested in her as an individual.
The love between a tiger and a dragon was considered worthless, for it would not give fruit to anything. They were simply so incompatible.
However, out of some freak chance, they had managed to do the impossible. And out of the bloodline of the two greatest beasts to ever live in all of the realms, came a child born with both.
"When Shouchuang was born, the world glowed with the color of metal and wood, and we knew he wasn't just special to us. He was a special child for the entire world."
Shi Meiyoung's eyes glowed with happiness when she spoke those words almost as though she could perfectly envision the day her son was born.
"If someone told me this without the proof being right in front of me, I would've never believed them," Bai Jingshen said. "But it is real."
"He is," Shi Meiyoung said with a warm smile.
Pearl could still not believe that his father was the Azure Dragon, ruler of the Eastern Continent.
"And then?" Ren Xiao asked. "What happened after that? How exactly did you come to… die?"
