Chapter 4 — The Seven-Colored Blood of Sorrow

The agony of losing the child tore through my very soul, rending it asunder. I threw my head back and let out a harrowing cry toward the heavens: "Aaaaaaaah!" The sound was a primal shriek that seemed to shatter the very firmament. When my consciousness finally returned, I found myself surrounded by a line of palace attendants kneeling in profound reverence before me. "Welcome home, Your Highness, Princess! We celebrate your return from the cycle of rebirth!"

In that instant, the truth flooded my mind: I was the Water Dragon Princess of the East Sea. Long ago, while descending to the mortal realm to bestow rain, I was caught in a lethal tribulation of thunder and lightning. Just as my spirit was on the verge of total annihilation, a mortal named Lu Sung-Tran, who happened to pass by, saved me. She nurtured my shattered consciousness within her own body, sustaining my fragile existence. Alas, not long after, she was imprisoned by Don Hien within the Divine Realm, and my spirit was sealed away along with her.

I had been forced to witness it all: I saw her struggle to bring Bei-Bei into the world, and I saw, with my own eyes, Don Hien brutally crush the life out of that infant while the small sea-shell creature looked on in trembling horror. This debt of blood—even though Lu Sung-Tran’s soul had since dispersed into nothingness—I would avenge her, no matter the cost.

Lost in these thoughts, I moved toward the Water Mirror to see what had unfolded after my departure. In the shifting reflections, I saw the moment the attendant crushed Bei-Bei; the very cliffs of the Divine Realm shuddered violently. Massive boulders cracked and crumbled, and thunder roared through the cavern. The small sea-shell creature leaned against the rock face, a faint, chilling smile curling her lips—a grotesque, bone-chilling expression. Ngoc Thu, sensing a strange and ominous aura, turned sharply to glare at the creature.

"Audacious wretch!" Ngoc Thu roared. "How dare a lowly sea-shell spirit show such insolence here!"

The small creature wiped the streak of blood from the corner of her mouth, her eyes burning with fierce defiance. "You say I am insolent? I have been insolent more times than I can count!" She shot a cold, mocking glance at Don Hien, her eyes filled with deep-seated hatred. "I only laugh for the Crown Prince, who dares to claim the title of the North Sea's peak... only to slaughter his own flesh and blood with his own hands!"

At that very moment, the creature’s expression shifted entirely. She braced herself and stood, slamming her hand down upon a hidden mechanism concealed within the ground.

Rumble! The entire cavern shook as if the world were ending. Massive stone slabs fractured, and the ceiling began to collapse in a thunderous roar. Ngoc Thu coughed violently, shielding her face and clutching at Don Hien’s robes. "Brother! This place is falling! We must leave now!"

But Don Hien stood as motionless as a statue. He stared blankly at the mangled remains of Bei-Bei, his eyes filled with a suffocating, glassy panic. It was as if some long-buried memory were clawing its way to the surface of his mind. Don Hien’s face turned deathly pale. He stumbled forward, trembling as he knelt, cradling the broken pieces of Bei-Bei as if they were made of the most delicate glass. His voice was choked, sounding like a man lost in a fever dream. "Sung-Tran... you are lying to me again, aren't you? Bei-Bei is not my child, is she? And you... you aren't really dead, are you?"

The small sea-shell creature gathered her final strength to release the divine bloodline that Lu Sung-Tran had gifted her so long ago. The blood emitted a faint glow, seeping into the earth and manifesting into a Water Mirror, displaying the fragments of Lu Sung-Tran’s memories.

A thousand years ago, Don Hien led the heavenly armies to purge the Demon King. The land had been stained with the blood of the innocent, and the cries of the suffering had echoed across the mortal realm. The memory in the mirror played on, each scene cutting like a blade through my heart. Don Hien had scoured the land for the demon, only to fall into a poisonous mist trap. It was Lu Sung-Tran who had saved him with her own pearl. During his recovery, they had grown close, and Don Hien had sworn to her, "When I return to the Dragon Palace, I will surely make you my queen."

But then, Ngoc Thu appeared. From that moment, everything changed. Don Hien grew distant, his mind poisoned by her honeyed lies, convincing him that Lu Sung-Tran was a spy for the Demon realm and that their child was the seed of the Demon King. He turned his back on her, moving from suspicion to hatred. When Lu Sung-Tran discovered Ngoc Thu’s treachery, Ngoc Thu beat her to the punch, planting fake evidence in her quarters and poisoning herself to frame her rival.

Lu Sung-Tran had no way to clear her name. Don Hien did not hesitate; he froze her, exiled her, and locked her in the Divine Realm for eternity. Even then, she was pregnant with his child. She had wept and begged, "Don Hien, please... I carry your child..." But he only sneered, "Your child? You are nothing but a shellfish demon; how could you carry the blood of the Dragon?"

Ngoc Thu, fearing the truth, had kept her imprisoned there for three hundred years. When Lu Sung-Tran died, her physical form turned to dust. I, the Water Dragon, remained only as a flicker of spirit within her jade hairpin, waiting.

The memories ended. Don Hien now knew the truth: that Ngoc Thu was the demon’s descendant, that she had orchestrated three centuries of torment, and that he—the great prince—had murdered his own child. He looked at Ngoc Thu with eyes like frozen blades. With a snap of his fingers, the head of the attendant beside her exploded. Don Hien’s voice was the sound of an abyss. "Do you still want this pearl, then?"

Ngoc Thu trembled, shaking her head in terror.

The mirror faded. Don Hien’s realization was far too late. But suddenly, a terrifying thought struck me. Lu Sung-Tran had given birth to twins! A boy and a girl. Bei-Bei was the girl, but the boy—the Little Brother—was a true-blooded White Dragon. I had searched the entire Divine Realm, and he was not there. Don Hien must have taken him. Without a second of hesitation, I flew toward the North Sea Dragon Palace. "Attendance to the Princess!" the guards shouted as I descended.