Chapter 834: Chasing the Ghost

Chapter 834: Chapter 834: Chasing the Ghost

Xuan Long was completely broken. His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at the unconscious Yueyue.

Teng Yunxiao.

That name kept echoing inside his mind, ringing like a deafening bell through his shattered soul.

Teng Yunxiao...

The name he had thought he would never hear again in this lifetime. Slowly, Xuan Long raised his head. His bloodshot eyes met An Mo’s.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. The wind carried clouds of grey ash and dust around them, but time seemed to stand completely still.

Xuan Long’s pale lips moved. He wanted to say something. He wanted to ask if it was really possible. He wanted to say that it couldn’t be him that a tiny cub’s dizzy words were just a mistake. It couldn’t possibly be him.

But no words came out. His throat felt painfully tight, as if a sharp blade were choking his breath.

He’s here.

The thought suddenly burned through his mind with terrifying clarity.

He is here.

The person he had searched for his entire youth. The person whose heavy shadow had followed him for countless painful years. The father he had once desperately, endlessly wanted to find... had been right here, buried inside this cold, wretched mountain.

Xuan Long’s chest heaved heavily, his scales trembling violently.

"No..." A broken whisper finally escaped his lips. "How could it be..."

His mind refused to accept it. But his body, driven by centuries of ingrained yearning and grief, had already moved.

Before he could even think, his figure suddenly shot towards the collapsing mountain!

"Xuan Long!" An Mo was startled, reaching out a hand to catch him, but Xuan Long was already a streak of shadow.

Xuan Long did not stop. He rushed straight into the storm of dust and falling rocks, his red eyes fixed entirely on the crumbling peak ahead.

He did not know what he would find there. He did not know whether Teng Yunxiao’s soul had already faded into nothingness. He only knew one thing: he had to find him. He had to see him with his own eyes.

Behind him, An Mo shouted frantically, "Xuan Long! Where are you going?!"

Xuan Long finally stopped for only a brief moment. He did not turn around. His voice was low, hoarse, and filled with a tragic, absolute resolve.

"An Mo... Leave with Lanlan."

Su Qinglan’s eyes widened in horror. "Xuan Long, no! Don’t go back in there!"

An Mo’s expression changed instantly. "Xuan Long!"

But Xuan Long had already turned away. Without another word, his figure vanished into the thick, blinding veil of dust.

"Xuan Long!" An Mo shouted again, his voice echoing against the rocks.

There was no answer. Only the horrifying, thunderous rumble of the collapsing mountain remained.

Xuan Long continued forward, throwing himself directly into the falling debris. Every step carried him closer to the past he had spent so many painful years trying to bury.

His heart was churning in complete agony.

Fear, Hope, Disbelief and Pain. Everything mixed together, threatening to tear his soul apart.

He was desperately afraid that he would find nothing but cold dirt. But he was even more afraid that he would actually find him...that he would find the empty shell of the father who had forgotten him.

Xuan Long felt as if the entire world had disappeared behind him.

He rushed into the place where the huge mountain had collapsed, his emerald body moving frantically through the suffocating, thick clouds of dust.

But when the dust slowly cleared, Xuan Long suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

His pupils shrank to tiny vertical slits.

There was no mountain left standing. There were no huge rocks piled up in front of him.

Instead, a massive, yawning hollow opened up before his eyes. It was so large that it looked as if the outer shell of the mountain had simply fallen away, revealing an empty, sacred space hidden deep inside the earth.

Xuan Long’s heart lurched violently.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

His bloodshot eyes frantically swept across the barren stone ground.

"Where are you?" he shouted, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

He searched through the broken ground, pushing away massive rocks with his bare hands, the jagged edges slicing his skin, but he didn’t even feel the pain. His breathing became heavier and more desperate with every passing second.

He did not even fully know who he was searching for anymore.

Yueyue was safe. But his daughter’s broken, dying words kept echoing inside his mind over and over.

Find his son.

His name is Teng Yunxiao.

And now... Xuan Long had a strange, terrifying feeling that the answer he had spent his entire agonising life searching for was right here.

Suddenly, his body froze completely.

His eyes widened in sheer disbelief.

A figure was lying several dozen steps away on the flat stone.

A lean, lonely figure.

Xuan Long’s heart seemed to stop beating altogether. His feet refused to move, glued to the dusty ground.

No. It can’t be.

His heart began pounding violently against his ribs like a war drum.

"Is it really you?" his lips trembled, barely making a sound.

For so many painful years, he had searched. He had searched through countless continents, followed countless dead-end clues, and entered deadly, forbidden lands all because of a faint, stubborn thread of hope in his heart that this person was still alive.

That somewhere in this vast, cruel world... his father was still breathing.

But he had never found him. And after so many centuries, Xuan Long had finally stopped searching, forced to bury his hope in the dirt.

Yet now, when he had given up on ever finding him... he was standing right in front of him.

For a moment, Xuan Long did not know whether he should laugh wildly or cry his heart out.

He was terrified. Afraid that if he walked a single step closer, the fragile hope inside him would shatter into pieces. Afraid that the figure lying there would not be the person he had spent his entire life longing for.

Still, Xuan Long forced himself to take a deep, shaky breath.

One step.

Then another.

He slowly walked towards the silent figure.

But before he could get close, something horrifying happened.

The man’s lean body suddenly became faint. It shimmered softly in the air, glowing with a fading emerald light, almost as if his very existence was slowly dissolving into dust!

Xuan Long’s eyes widened in sheer terror.

"NO!"

He rushed forward with all his strength, throwing his pride and restraint to the wind. And before he even realised what he was screaming, the deepest, most painful longing buried inside his soul finally broke free:

"FATHER!"