Prologue
The Fallen Scale
Long ago, when the land and the sea went to war, a dragon came down from above the clouds to end it. The old books call it Rayquaza. The people of the valley called it Bích Long, the Jade Dragon.
The war ended. But in the last storm, one green scale tore loose from the dragon's body and fell into the mountain.
A miner found it, a stone the colour of spring rice. Merchants came from three valleys to buy it. He sent them all away and built a wall around the stone, then a city around the wall.
When the dragon came back for its scale, it found the city keeping it safe. It left the stone where it lay, and named the miner's family its keepers. That was the first day of the dynasty, and its first law:
Jade is never given. Only found.
The dragon gave once. It will not give again.
Chapter One
The Mountain Gives Nothing Freely
The miners of Bích Kinh say that every emerald vein is a piece of the dragon still sleeping in the stone. Whether that is true or not, one thing is certain: the mountain is the only place jade comes from.
You will learn it on your first night. The merchants smile, bow and take your emeralds, but none of them will ever pay you in jade. The chests in the old ruins hold bread and bones, never green stone. The trainers you defeat on the road have nothing to give.
So you take a pickaxe, you climb, and you dig. Every emerald you will ever see in a stranger's hand was pulled out of a mountain by someone.
That is why, in Bích Kinh, a single emerald block is worth more than a sword.
Chapter Two
The Herald at the Gate
On the day you arrive, the lanterns are already lit and the dragon banners hang from the wall. A herald waits at the Meridian Gate with a scroll of yellow silk. He has read it to every newcomer since the first keeper, and he will read it to you.
Six laws, given under the dragon's mandate. He does not hurry. When he reaches the last line he rolls the silk, presses the imperial seal into the wax, and steps aside.
The gate is open. Whatever happens next is up to you.
Chapter Three
Three Rings Around the Jade
Past the gate, a red carpet leads into the Imperial Quarter, built over the place where the scale fell. These streets belong to everyone and are guarded by the Throne itself. No stone here can be broken, no roof burned.
Around it spread the City Wards, where families buy houses, hang their own lanterns and leave their homes to their children.
Beyond the outer wall lie the Wilds: mountains, forests and rivers full of Pokémon. That is where tales are made.
Chapter Four
The Fletchers Who Keep the Secret
No hand in the capital can make a Poké Ball. Only certain fletchers know the craft, and they guard it like the keepers guard the dragon's jade.
The young ones sell honest Poké Balls from crowded stalls. The old masters sit in quiet workshops and sell Ultra Balls cheaper than anyone alive, but only a few each day, and only to those who find them.
And somewhere, the trainers whisper, there is a master who sells the one ball that never misses.
They say a good master fletcher is worth a week of walking.
Chapter Five
The Dragon Above the Clouds
Rayquaza never left. On clear nights the old keepers climb to the roofs and watch for a green streak crossing the moon. Some swear they have seen it. Most have only seen the clouds part, as if something huge had just passed above them.
No trainer of Bích Kinh has ever caught the Jade Dragon. Many have tried. The ultra-rare remain ultra-rare, and the greatest of them stays the rarest of all.
But the dynasty keeps one more story, the one the heralds never read aloud: that the dragon is waiting for a trainer worthy of its scale.
Legends stay legends. Until someone earns one.
Chapter Six
Your Tale Begins
Somewhere in the mountains, a vein of jade waits for the first pickaxe. In the Wards, an empty house waits for a family. Above the clouds, a dragon waits for a name.
Every story in Bích Kinh starts the same way: a traveller at the gate, with nothing but a pack on their back.
The next one is yours.
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