Dad?
Even Shi Qing was momentarily taken aback by this, but soon, the little mermaid happily called out, swaying her tail.
Her voice was sweet and tender as she cheerfully shouted at the golden dragon in front of her:
"Daddy! Daddy, daddy, daddy!"
System: [...]
System: [Host, what are you doing?]
Shi Qing: [Can't you tell? I'm calling him Daddy.]
System: [...]
It felt like it would have had a heart attack if it had one. It cautiously reminded its host, "You two... aren't related by blood, right?"
Shi Qing: [That's right, so what? Look how happy it makes him when I call him Daddy.]
Shi Qing: [I'm happy calling him that too—calling him 'Daddy' brings double joy, isn't it a good deal?]
System: [...]
It was thoroughly perplexed, feeling like this was both okay and not okay at the same time. Meanwhile, Shi Qing, who had been swaying his own tail, began to play with the golden dragon's whiskers.
The delighted father, the silly daddy dragon, became even happier when he heard Shi Qing calling him.
This was the first time in tens of thousands of years that he had someone to communicate with, and it was his own hatched baby dragon. Although he had been eating and sleeping all along, he vaguely realized that the sea creatures seemed to have lost their voices whenever he ate. They were no longer like those creatures from the memory, tens of thousands of years ago, when he, the Dragon Clan, went out to play, and a group of creatures who couldn't escape shouted, "Great King, spare us."
But now, the baby dragon he hatched could spit pearls, just like him, and was not mute.
The golden dragon carefully controlled its whiskers to catch the little mermaid playing in the water. Its two dragon claws were carefully spread out below in a posture of catching.
The "father" and "son" had no sense of strangeness and played happily as soon as they met.
So, in the deep sea, if there were any creatures brave enough to approach and had night vision, they would see a long golden dragon circling, with a tiny mermaid much smaller than him playing around his whiskers.
The golden dragon had a dignified appearance; every part of his body was enough to make any creature shudder. Sharp dragon claws could easily cut through rocks, tough scales could withstand the most powerful attacks, and those large fangs in his huge dragon mouth.
As long as he bit down, no creature could escape from under his jaws.
But, despite being able to cause a bloodbath with a single move, he remained as still as a statue to ensure the little mermaid could play freely. He even breathed the seawater gently, afraid of accidentally sucking the little mermaid into his mouth.
Such a colossal creature, but he was extremely cautious, cherishing the little mermaid lying in his palm.
Seeing the little mermaid fearlessly approaching his dragon claw, the golden dragon nervously stiffened his nails.
Although his dragon claws had hardly been used for anything other than holding dragon pearls from childhood to adulthood, the inherited memories told him how sharp his nails were.
What if the little mermaid accidentally landed on his nail?
The golden dragon dared not move away, fearing that any movement would create a vortex in the surrounding water. He tried his best to retract his nails to avoid the little mermaid.
Fortunately, the little mermaid gently landed in the center of his dragon claw, avoiding the nails.
The golden dragon breathed a sigh of relief and happily waved his whiskers again.
Indeed, this baby dragon he hatched was impressive.
As he became even happier, he swayed his dragon tail, and the unlucky sea area below suffered once more.
Fortunately, since the previous incident, the creatures living there had quickly fled for their lives. Otherwise, if he were to pull off another stunt like that, he might have killed them even while they were still alive.
Shi Qing was also quite pleased. Despite the enormous size of the golden dragon, it turned out that he was quite convenient to ride. When he had swam around earlier, Shi Qing had found every scale on the dragon's body smooth and shiny, and it was incredibly clean.
Now lying on the dragon's claw, he curiously extended his pale arm to touch it and found that the dragon's claw was soft at the center, much like a cat's paw. Although this "paw" was larger than his entire fish body.
The little mermaid playfully swayed her tail and floated on the dragon's claw. She touched the flesh beneath her, which was thick enough to resist bullets but felt soft, like a water bed.
Shi Qing laid comfortably on it and looked up at the golden dragon, who had been watching him carefully.
"I'm hungry," he said.
After a moment, he added, "Daddy!"
This "Daddy" practically melted the golden dragon's dragon-sized heart.
The silly daddy dragon immediately assured him, "Daddy will take you to eat something delicious right away!"
As a homebody dragon and an orphan dragon, the golden dragon was never picky about food. As long as he was full, he didn't care much.
He just opened his mouth, swam around while sucking, and all sorts of things entered his stomach. As for whether he might eat rocks, shipwrecks, or icebergs, well, he had an iron stomach and couldn't be harmed.
But it was different for his baby dragon.
The golden dragon carefully held his dragon claw, protecting Shi Qing under his eyelids, afraid of accidentally hurting him.
Who asked him to have such big eyes?
Looking at his baby, who was so small. His mouth was tiny, his arms were tiny, and even his beautiful fish tail was small.
Such a small baby dragon had to be taken care of meticulously.
The dragon, who had been living as a recluse for tens of thousands of years, decided to "go out" in just a second.
He asked his baby with affection, "Does baby want to eat small fish?"
Shi Qing, comfortably cradled in the dragon's claw, coquettishly replied, "I'll do whatever Daddy says."
The golden dragon was immersed in happiness once again.
Ah, this was his baby dragon.
Such a well-behaved baby.
In the inherited memories, there had never been a dragon as well-behaved as this one. Most of them were dragons that could catch prey on their own from birth, and some even fought with their parents for food when they returned to the group.
The Dragon Clan despised others stealing their food, but their nature prevented them from harming their own kind, so they could only resentfully threaten by swaying their tails nearby.
Perhaps this was why the Dragon Clan didn't like to raise their young.
After all, a young dragon was nearly invincible from birth, and aside from adult dragons, few creatures could harm them. They took advantage of their young age and snatched food shamelessly.
This led to the Dragon Clan not being very fond of their young.
Of course, young dragons weren't fond of adult dragons either, but when they grew up into adult dragons themselves, they became unhappy with young dragons who snatched their food and whom they couldn't attack directly.
In short, it was all about who was unhappy about food being stolen.
But the golden dragon, the last of its kind, was an anomaly among the Dragon Clan.
He lovingly cradled his baby in his claw and swam forward at a speed he had never used before, his heart filled with joy.
He didn't think of himself as an anomaly. The other dragons didn't raise their young because they could fend for themselves.
But his baby was different.
Look at his little arms and his tiny tail. How pitiful. His little arms couldn't even hold the easiest prey, the needlefish, let alone anything else.
And that beautiful but small and weak fish tail, it looked like swimming was a real struggle, especially in the deep sea. It was so slow that it was practically waiting to die.
The golden dragon thought with pity that if he left his weak and pitiful baby dragon in the deep sea like this, he would starve.
Definitely.
Just thinking about how his baby dragon might have been mistreated if he hadn't woken up made the golden dragon feel guilty.
The silly daddy dragon gently rubbed the beautiful silver-white tail of the little mermaid with his whiskers, filled with remorse.
It was all his fault for not being able to hatch a strong baby. This small dragon pearl was so weak that it would have to stay by his side and be protected.
But these thoughts of guilt were quickly pushed away by his joy.
This was fine too. He would take good care of the little dragon pearl and give him the best. He wouldn't let him suffer.
During their swim, Shi Qing looked up at the majestic-looking golden dragon, who was swimming forward with single-minded determination.
He appeared quite majestic, but when he flicked his fish tail and looked behind him, he could see the long, swaying body of the golden dragon.
Creating whirlpools in the sea.
He asked the golden dragon, "Where are we going?"
Sea monsters possessed a natural ability to enchant, and Shi Qing's voice was naturally pleasing to the ears. Although deep-sea creatures who didn't appreciate beautiful voices had become irritable and violent when they heard the sea monster sing hundreds of thousands of years ago, the golden dragon, evidently, had an appreciation for it.
He first admired, happily thinking, "My baby has such a lovely voice."
Then he remembered the unpleasant voices of sea monsters in the Dragon Clan's memories.
The golden dragon didn't think along the lines of "My appreciation is different from that of normal dragons." Instead, he thought even more happily, "As expected, my baby dragon, hatched by me, has a voice that's so much better than other sea monsters."
After savoring this for a second, the golden dragon, deeply immersed in his pleasure, answered his baby's question:
"I remember there were tasty fish ahead. I'll take you to eat."
Although he didn't remember exactly what he had eaten, the golden dragon remembered eating until it was empty, and then he had been satisfied and gone to "sleep" a thousand years ago.
The golden dragon didn't know what it meant to "deplete a pond to catch fish," but he did know what it meant to rest and recover.
Now, a thousand years had passed, and based on his experience, there should be something delicious again in that area.
For the golden dragon, "ahead" meant swimming for over an hour at his extremely fast speed. Moreover, he was heading toward the surface of the sea.
Shi Qing, cradled in the dragon's claw, looked outside and found that the sea area was quite familiar. Wasn't this the area near the island where the female lead lived?
The golden dragon didn't know anything about female leads or not, but adult dragons had excellent eyesight. He could clearly see a school of small fish ahead.
These small fish were not even big enough to get stuck in his teeth, but they should be enough for his baby dragon to fill his stomach.
Thinking about it, the golden dragon accelerated and charged towards them.
On the island, Zeng Nan was preparing to go out to sea, holding a cigarette in her mouth. Her scar on the right side of her face was faintly visible in the sunlight. She had a buzz cut, tanned skin, and good facial features that were unfortunately marred by the scar. After hearing her henchman's words, she squinted her eyes slightly and looked at the sea.
"Not going out to sea? What do we do for food then? Starve to death?" She said, then took a drag of her cigarette. Analyzing further, she said, "There are all sorts of strange things happening nowadays, and although I don't know why that mermaid is pretending to be weak, at least he didn't kill us directly. The sea is so vast, who knows what else is lurking in there."
One of her henchmen had a worried expression. "Boss, maybe we should reconsider. What if we encounter that mermaid again?"
Zeng Nan exhaled the smoke and said, "Not going out to sea? Where else will we get food? Besides, we don't know what else might be out there, but if there were something else, it's probably small in size, just like the mermaid. Otherwise, the scientists would have discovered it long before any of this happened. It's not like they only started exploring recently."
After finishing her words, she extinguished her cigarette and said, "Alright, get ready to set sail."
Then, she noticed her henchmen's shocked expressions behind her.
Zeng Nan asked, "What's wrong with you guys? Why do you all look like you've seen a ghost?"
One of her henchmen stammered, "B-Boss, look behind you..."
Zeng Nan furrowed her brows, tossed a cigarette into her mouth, and turned around impatiently to address her men. "Can't you guys stop being so ignorant all the time? What's going on this time..."
Her cigarette dropped.
From here, they could clearly see a massive golden figure rising from the sea's surface and then submerging again in the distant sea.
Zeng Nan: "..."
The concept of objects appearing smaller in the distance was something everyone learned in school. They had spent almost three years in this sea area, so they were quite familiar with it. The place where the enormous golden figure appeared was already the farthest visible point from their current location.
If it looked this big from here, just imagine how enormous it must be up close.
From their perspective, they could only see occasional glimpses of the massive golden figure rising above the water, and it even glinted in the sunlight.
Clearly, it was a living creature because it kept moving its body.
If that colossal thing was part of its body.
Zeng Nan's hand, still in the cigarette-holding position, froze. "I suddenly feel like that mermaid is genuinely harmless."
At least he was willing to pretend to be harmless.
But looking at this unknown thing with such a massive size, no one would believe it.
[System Prompt: Zeng Nan's Disgust Level: 98/100]
When the system prompted her, Shi Qing was carefully looking at the golden dragon, who had gently released his dragon claw to allow himself to swim freely.
With a face that exuded authority, the dragon managed to squeeze out a hint of tenderness as he softly spoke, as if afraid of frightening his little mermaid.
"Little one, it's time to eat some fish."
In the golden dragon's eyes, the little mermaid swayed his tail, circled around his dragon claw, and seemed reluctant to leave his side, as if afraid.
Such a fragile little one.
If it weren't for him finding the taste of the already deceased not appealing, why would he let the little one eat by himself?
While twisting his dragon body into a circle, he continued to use his dragon tail to drive away the "small fish" that attempted to escape. He cooed softly, "Don't be afraid. I'm here, and they won't dare to touch you. Choose whichever one you like."
The various sharks and killer whales that had been driven into the circle by his tail: "…"
They panicked, darting around and trying to escape every time, only to be forced back into the circle by the terrifying and mighty dragon tail.
Although they didn't know what kind of creature the dragon was, an innate fear had made them too afraid to attack. They could only nervously swim in circles within the enclosure.
Finally accustomed to the dragon's aura and feeling a little less terrified, they suddenly saw a sea monster slipping out of the monster's claw.
This rattled the predatory hunters in the circle even more.
This was a sea monster!
Their survival instincts kicked in when they recognized the sea monster, and they frantically struggled to escape.
The golden dragon, puzzled by the sudden commotion from the creatures he had corralled, watched them scatter in fear.
These little fish were running away, but he didn't want them to scare his little dragon into spitting out the pearl again.
As expected, the little mermaid seemed genuinely frightened.
"Wuu..."
Shi Qing extended his delicate white arm, trying to hold (or rather, failing to hold) one of the dragon's fingers. He pouted and coquettishly complained, "I'm scared. I don't dare to catch them. You catch them for me."
The golden dragon's heart was melting.
He immediately promised with his mouth full of words, "Alright, I'll catch them for you!"
But how to catch them was a problem.
As an orphaned dragon without a clan, his previous method of eating was to open his mouth and start sucking. This way, food, including seawater, would enter his dragon stomach.
His stomach was large, and he ate a lot, so even if he accidentally swallowed something else, it didn't matter.
However, the little mermaid definitely couldn't eat like this.
The golden dragon hesitated and extended his dragon claw, carefully selecting from the "small fish" that were corralled together. Finally, he fixed his eyes on the largest killer whale among them.
In general, larger animals tend to move more slowly, but not the dragons. They were all plump, but every one of them was as fast as the wind.
The golden dragon extended and retracted its claw. In less than half a second, it had caught the tiger shark. It didn't give it any time to struggle. This deep-sea predator had turned into prey and died in the grip of the golden dragon.
Although the golden dragon had previously swallowed its prey whole, he had now learned, on his own, to use his sharp claws to remove the excess from the tiger shark's body, finding the most tender and delicious piece of meat, which he carefully offered to the little mermaid.
Shi Qing swam slowly after flicking his tail in the water. He accepted the piece of meat.
He cautiously took a bite. Sea monsters had varying tastes, but one thing was certain: the more formidable a creature, the tastier it was to sea monsters.
The taste of this tiger shark was somewhat like spicy chicken, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.
After a single bite, the little mermaid, without hesitation, devoured the entire piece of spicy chicken.
The golden dragon, still covering Shi Qing with his other claw, immediately offered the newly extracted tender meat to him as if presenting a treasure.
"Good boy, there's more here."
The little mermaid touched his slightly bulging belly, burped in the water, and released a few bubbles.
His voice was still sweet, "I'm full."
Considering how little he had eaten, it was astonishing.
The golden dragon looked at the little mermaid's slightly bulging belly with concern.
Eating so little, it wouldn't even fill the gaps between his teeth. His little guy had actually declared himself full.
From the inherited memories, he knew that sea dragons who ate very little were usually born with some illness. Sea monsters were probably the same.
He cared deeply for the little guy he was raising and resolved to take good care of him.
So, he slowly moved his claw that had been protecting Shi Qing and gently encouraged him, "Look, there are so many little fish here. After eating, why don't you play around with them?"
"How about chasing them for a while? They'll play with you."
From his memories, when sea dragon youngsters had weak bodies, eating more and playing around would gradually make them stronger.
Since he had no experience of his own and could only rely on his inherited memories, he tried to recall how young sea dragons used to play.
It wasn't much different from adult dragons.
Chasing other creatures, playing with them, and when they were having fun, they would eat them.
Eating while playing accounted for most of it.
Although his little dragon's breath had little killing power, it didn't matter. He would be watching closely.
The golden dragon was confident that if these little fish dared to attack his little dragon, he could intervene immediately.
Thinking about it, his voice became even gentler:
"Don't be afraid of them; I'll be watching you."
As the dragon claw that had shielded Shi Qing was moved away, the marine creatures that were witnessing the situation with Shi Qing:
"..."
Mom, mom!!
Help!!!
Normally, even the sea monster would hesitate when faced with so many predators. But with the golden dragon watching over them...
The little mermaid flicked his tail playfully, casting an unkind look at these large creatures.
Various sharks and killer whales: "..."
The sea area enclosed by the dragon's body immediately turned into chaos. Various fish swam around anxiously, and some even jumped out of the water.
Of course, jumping out meant they would come back down and land in the sea, experiencing the fear of being chased again.
In the past, they used to hunt in groups, but now they were experiencing the fear of being chased themselves.
In the eyes of the golden dragon, who was coiled around and fiercely guarding his little mermaid, it seemed that the little mermaid was small and slow.
After chasing for so long, he hadn't caught a single fish.
But that was alright; his little mermaid had him to rely on, and even if he couldn't catch them, he wouldn't go hungry.
Amidst the confusion of deep-sea predators fleeing for their lives, trying to escape the relentless pursuit of the fish-killing sea monster, the golden dragon was in a very good mood.
If his mental image could be visualized, it would probably be a chubby little child who could barely walk, holding a small net, and trying to catch butterflies in a flower field. He was the kind of child who might stumble at any moment.
One particularly large great white shark was so frightened by Shi Qing that it suddenly darted out from the sea monster's side.
Great white sharks had slightly myopic vision. In its panic, it swam straight to the golden dragon's dragon face.
Then, it was faced with the sight of sharp teeth in front of it, as the dragon menacingly threatened:
"You scared my little guy; swim more slowly!"
Great white shark: "..."
Its instincts made it roll its eyes inward to protect its eyes from potential harm, a skill that all great white sharks possessed because they had a membrane above their eyes, making it convenient.
However, in the eyes of the golden dragon, this action by the great white shark seemed like disdainful eye-rolling.
Golden dragon: "..."
What did that mean? Even with him backing up his little dragon's breath, did these little fish still look down on his little mermaid?
He was furious, and with a quick intake of breath, he directly sucked the great white shark into his mouth and devoured it along with the seawater.
After finishing its meal, the golden dragon emerged from the water, only revealing its head, and let out a long dragon's roar, proclaiming its sovereignty for the first time in thousands of years.
"——"
The strongest aspect of dragons was not their bodies, but this long-lost dragon roar shook the entire sea surface.
Even Zeng Nan and her group on the island had to cover their ears in pain and crouch down, waiting for the dragon's roar to pass.
They remained crouched until the sound finally ceased. Then, the group of people, with bewildered expressions, helped each other to stand up.
Zeng Nan patted her ears, which were still ringing. She felt like her ears had been damaged.
"What was that just now? My God, my ears hurt."
"I don't know, but I felt like the ground was shaking just now. Was it an earthquake?"
Everyone was speaking loudly. That was the only way to communicate because their ears were still ringing from the previous shock.
Zeng Nan had already calmed down, "I guess it must be that creature we saw earlier."
The group was dumbfounded.
This creature was so massive, and its roar was so powerful. It was astonishing.
Could it even be compared to the shockwaves from an earthquake? If it had been closer, they might have been shaken to death.
One of the gang members was getting scared, "Boss, should we retreat? These things in the sea are just too strange."
"Retreat where? Out here, we might get killed by the monsters. On the island, we'll definitely starve to death."
Zeng Nan patted her ears, and then she heard the sound again. She quickly shouted, "Cover your ears! Get down
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