The Ugly Little Snake: My Dragon Son | Chapter 24 | The Silence of the Heavens | Novela.app

Chapter 24 - The Silence of the Heavens "What is the truth behind all of this?! Tell me!" Leng Jing’s voice was like a crack of thunder in the small, oppressive space. He reached out, his fingers digging into Xu Yu’s shoulders with a desperate, iron grip. He needed to know. The fragments of the past were swirling around him like a storm, and this boy was the only anchor to the reality of what had transpired in the celestial realms. "I don't know! I truly don't know!" Xu Yu wailed, his body racking with violent, uncontrollable tremors. He looked small, fragile, and utterly broken, a survivor of a nightmare that had no end. "I only know how hard we fought... how much we suffered just to stay alive! We had to keep eating... we had to eat the meat, or we would have ended up just like the others! One mouthful of that flesh bought us one more day of miserable life! I hated it... I hated eating that dead, cold meat so much! It was foul, it was wrong... I can still taste it!" Xu Yu collapsed into a fit of hysterical sobbing, his tears soaking into the front of Leng Jing’s robes. The boy’s grief was raw and visceral, the sound of a soul that had been forced to abandon its dignity for the sake of survival. Leng Jing stood frozen, his mind racing at a speed that would have left a mortal breathless. He wasn't merely listening to the boy’s cries; he was synthesizing every scrap of information, every whisper of rumor, and every historical anomaly he had encountered. The puzzle of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths was finally beginning to take shape, and the picture it painted was one of profound horror. The signs of the celestial cataclysm had been there long before the end. A prophet had emerged, a harbinger of doom who had tried to warn the Divine Court of the coming rift. But his words were met with mockery and dismissal. Driven to despair by the apathy of the gods, the prophet had taken his own life—perhaps because he knew that death was a kinder fate than witnessing the inevitable collapse of the world. Leng Jing realized that the Cloud-Painting Immortal, the Flower God Su Luo, and the Dragon Emperor had all been aware of the impending disaster. They had worked in secret, a clandestine trio attempting to forge a shield against the darkness. Yet, for reasons known only to the throne, the Heavenly Emperor had isolated them, cutting them off from the resources of the Heavens. Desperation must have driven Hua Yun to seek an audience with the one entity no immortal should ever acknowledge: the Curse Demon. A master of forbidden hexes and the weaver of silence, the demon had likely seen the coming chaos as a banquet. To ensure his own machinations remained hidden and to prevent the truth from leaking, he had imposed an ancient, unbreakable gagging curse upon all who knew the secret. This was the source of the silence that had haunted the realms—the same curse that had surely ensnared Cang Lie. As a member of the Snake God Clan, Cang Lie was inextricably linked to the original prophecy. "The prophet who took his own life," Leng Jing said, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous rumble as the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place. "What was his name? Which clan did he belong to?" Xu Yu hiccuped, wiping his nose with a trembling hand. "That person... I think... he was... from the Snake God Clan..." "So that is why they were wiped out!" Leng Jing’s exclamation was a sharp blade of realization. The mystery of the Snake God Clan’s extinction was no longer a mystery. It hadn't been a war or a natural disaster; it was a cold, calculated purge. The Curse Demon had likely manipulated the situation, perhaps even using Cang Lie himself, to ensure that the only people capable of foreseeing the truth were silenced forever. But despite the blood spilled and the secrets buried, the trio had failed. The Dragon Emperor and the Flower God could not stop the inevitable. The anomaly had erupted, the rift had widened, and the Heavens had fallen into a nightmare where survivors were forced to feast on the dead just to see the next dawn. The tragedy of the past was a weight that now sat heavy on Leng Jing’s heart, even as he prepared to face the uncertain future.