by Tony Tran
Dragon’s Soul:
An End’s Beginning
By: Tony Tran
Table of Contents
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Prologue: An End and A Beginning
Chapter 1: New Life
Chapter 1.5: Childhood
Chapter 2: Strength
Chapter 3: A New Place
Chapter 4: Against Heaven's Will
Chapter 5: Gatekeeper's Fury
Chapter 6: Fateful Encounter
Chapter 7: Fate and Destiny
Chapter 8: Unforgettable
Chapter 9: The Other Side
Chapter 10: Survival
Chapter 11: Paradise
Chapter 12: Man vs Beast
Chapter 13: Suspicion
Chapter 14: Cornered
Chapter 15: Storeroom
Chapter 16: The Truth
Chapter 17: Escape?
Chapter 18: Many Against One
Chapter 19: Land!
Chapter 20: Happy Endings Inn
Chapter 21: Golden Lotus
Chapter 22: Friends and Enemies
Chapter 23: Views
Chapter 24: Escape
Chapter 25: Promises
Chapter 26: Destination
Chapter 27: Creatures
Chapter 28: The Swarm
Chapter 29: Red Pearl
Chapter 30: Silver Spear
Chapter 31: Home
Chapter 32: Voices
Chapter 33: Next Time
Chapter 34: Invasion
Chapter 35: Battlefield
Chapter 36: Loyalty
Chapter 37: Wedding!!!?
Chapter 38: Departure and Arrival
Chapter 39: Red String
Chapter 40: Proposes?
Chapter 41: Banquet
Chapter 42: Aurora's Gift
Chapter 43: Tournament
Chapter 44: Dead Forest
Chapter 45: Surprise!!
Chapter 46: Ten Towers
Chapter 47: Young Phoenix
Chapter 48: Winners
Chapter 49: Treasures
Chapter 50: Devourer
Chapter 51: Necklace
Chapter 52: Stalker
Chapter 53: Departure
Chapter 54: Absolute Power
Chapter 55: Wrath
Chapter 56: Message
Chapter 56.5: The Messenger
Chapter 57: Pact with a Demon
Chapter 58: The Trip
Chapter 59: Long Night
Chapter 60: Broken Walls
Chapter 61: Savior
Chapter 62: Heart Burrowers
Chapter 63: Unleashed
Chapter 64: Survivors
Chapter 65: Brewing Storms
Chapter 66: Demon Child
Chapter 67: Prison Break
Chapter 68: The Giant
Chapter 69: Forsaken Land
Chapter 70: Clandestine
Chapter 71: False Enemies
Chapter 72: Obstacles
Chapter 73: Conqueror
Chapter 74: Quid Pro Quo
Chapter 75: Deception
Chapter 76: Unexpected Outcome
Chapter 77: Sweet Revenge
Chapter 78: Venomous
Chapter 79: One Condition
Chapter 80: Beast's Gorge
Chapter 81: Devious
Chapter 82: Shifting Tides
Chapter 83: Abandoned
Chapter 84: Sima Yi
Chapter 85: White Crane
Chapter 86: Tall Tales
Chapter 87: War Preparations
Chapter 88: Sima Yi's Gift
Chapter 89: Samsara Gate
Chapter 90: Intoxication
Chapter 91: Unending War
Afterword
Prologue: An End and A Beginning
There is a saying that for every beginning there is also an end, but this is not always the case.
At least not for Lang Lei, who was born as the 2nd son of a successful business entrepreneur.
Lang was born with a gift, since the age of three he was able to remember everything he saw and learn from it, he could recite books he only read once word for word and paint perfect pictures of his memories. This was however, not only a blessing but also a curse. Thanks to this gift Lang would be considered a genius, but because of this he would walk a lonely path, being the only one at his age with an intellect such as his.
Ever since then, he had immersed himself in gaining knowledge. He did this for no real reason, but purely out of curiosity. From an early age, Lang had always been a “the pen is mightier than the sword”-type of person, he did not see the point of violence and the only reason he learned military tactics was because they tied in with history. There was also the fact that his father had always taught him to be kind to others and to always help those in need, thus enforced his beliefs. But all of these beliefs would, on one fateful day, prove to be misguided. For nothing is clad in black and white.
It started out like any other day, Lang was getting ready for school, today was the first day of the new school year. Instead of going to university where he belonged, his parents had made him enroll with the rest of the kids his own age in the hopes that he would be able to make some friends.
Lang was now twelve years old and was known around the world as a prodigy who possessed vast knowledge in science, art, history and even other more obscure subjects such as military tactics.
He had gone to school, as always, even though it did not offer him any knowledge that he did not already know. He would go to school and just sit there for hours to learn about things that he had known about for years. All due to his parents hopes of giving him a normal childhood. And after an uneventful day at school, he would go home. His teachers and classmates paid him no mind. Lang had always been alone, normal students and teachers just couldn’t relate to him, not that they tried to.
To his surprise, there was a man whom he did not know, sitting in his kitchen when Lang got home today. He learned that his father had let the man into their home because the man was laying in front of their house, injured. The man wore plain clothing, and there was a faint smell of blood coming off from him, most likely from his injury.
The man claimed that a passing car hit him, but that he was ok and would be alright with a bit of rest.
There was not anything out of the ordinary with the man, but Lang thought that something was off about him. In the end, he ignored his gut feeling and left for his room.
His father had offered the man to stay for dinner or if the man needed, he would drive him to the hospital. To which the man declined and asked to simply be allowed to rest on the sofa for a bit.
Before dinner, everyone in Lang’s family tried to strike up a conversation with the man, they had asked him what he did for a living, to which he simply replied “I help send people to a better place.”
After a light dinner, Lang headed to his room to read a book and get some sleep early. His father led the man to the door and said his goodbyes, while everyone else went to bed.
Lang hopped onto his bed, and opened a book to read before going to sleep like usual, today he had picked a book about religion, mainly focusing on reincarnation. This particular topic was mentioned in school today and Lang had never really thought about it before, so he figured he would give it a read.
But in the middle of the night, Lang heard a scream. It was obviously odd to hear a gut wrenching scream in the middle of the night so he put down his book and left his room to investigate.
Any regular teen would have simply ignored the scream or ran to their parents, but not Lang. He had always been the independent type, who didn’t ask for help unless he absolu
tely needed it.
Eerie red moonlight shone on him as he walked down the stairs and a flash of light caught his attention. It was the moonlight reflecting off a bloody knife. Lang had stumbled onto the bloody scene of the man, whom his father had let into their home, stabbing his father.
Lang panicked, he realized that this man was the serial killer that they were talking about on the news this morning, the one that had killed nine people.
He tried to run to the phone to call for help, but instead stumbled to the ground. As he tried to get up the man had noticed him and came running.
He saw the limp body of his older brother lying in the kitchen staring at him, with empty lifeless eyes, still holding an empty plastic cup in his hand. Lang had stumbled due to his brother’s leg.
A sharp pain was felt on his back. Lang realized that the man had stabbed him and that he would most likely die.
Lang’s mother had heard all the commotion and came running down from the 2nd floor of their home. To her horror both of her sons and husband were laying on the floor. She let out a miserable scream, but it soon stopped and was replaced by the mad laughter of the man.
Lang heard him laughed as he proceeded to slowly walk past Lang holding his blood-stained knife, then ran towards Lang’s mother.
Lang’s life flashed in front of his eyes.
Lang began to question himself, why was it that he had to die, why was it that this was happening to him. At that moment, in a flash, he realized that so far he lived an empty life, he had done nothing but gather knowledge and live by that ridiculously black and white philosophy his father had ingrained into him.
Lang screamed in his mind “WHY?!! Why did this have to happened?!!”.
While staring blankly at his father’s bloody corpse, if he had not let this man into their home none of this would’ve happened. Lang’s mother would still be alive, his brother would also be alive and Lang himself would not have to die.
The sharp pain from his back, the sight of his dead family members further pushed Lang into despair and hatred, hatred for their killer but also for his own powerlessness.
At that moment Lang swore that if he were to survive this ordeal he would not live like he had before. He would live a different life, a life for himself and no one else, because he had nothing to blame but his lack of power and his family’s misplaced trust in other people.
Lang took his last breath and his vision blurred out. He believed that this was the end and his life had ended without him truly even living it. Thus he swore that if there was indeed a next life, he would obtain power, power to rule over others, power to shake even the heavens. And so this marked the end of his life, but for some, the end is only the beginning.
Chapter 1: New Life
Today was a joyous day because it marks the year of the creation of the Heilong Kingdom located on the Wulin continent. It was also the day of the Stellar Alignment that only happens once every 1000 years. The Heilong Kingdom had been established since the end of the great war between humanity and the Black Soul Eating Dragon, also known as Heilong. In honor of defeating the dragon, the kingdom was named after it.
The Heilong Kingdom wasn’t the only kingdom, nor was it the largest kingdom, it was actually the weakest kingdom and definitely the one with the least history. However, it was made up of people from different kingdoms that had been wiped out during the war.
Festivals and parties were at a full swing today, especially for one family, the Zhou clan.
The Zhou clan lived in a small city that could be categorized as a big town, that went by the name of Blue Tear City. Despite not being a large city, it had all the necessities of one due to its location at the very border of Heilong Kingdom.
Lots of merchants and people would pass Blue Tear City, thus allowing a large amount of money to flow into the city and made the residents wealthy.
Blue Tear City was run by three clans, the Zhou, Wu, and Liu. Each clan having control over a different aspect of the city.
The Zhou controlled the regulation of trade, making it the wealthiest of the three clans. While the Wu controlled a small army stationed to protect the town, thus making them the law enforcers of the city. And finally, the Liu who neither had the most wealth or power but control most of the land in the city. They alone own basically half of the city’s farmlands and possess the longest history in the city, being able to trace their lineage back to the founders of Heilong Kingdom.
The Zhou and Wu clan had a friendship spanning over many generations and were in league with one another. Whereas the Liu clan remained secluded by themselves, believing they were above the other clans and residents of the city because of their lineage.
Today the Zhou clan would be welcoming the newest addition to their family. The wife of Zhou Cheng the leader of the Zhou clan, had just given birth to his first son named Zhou Zhang.
Zhang’s birth was just like any other baby, but the midwife panicked when he came out, he was a particularly odd baby, unlike most babies he did not cry when he was born. She had thought that he was possibly stillborn.
But as soon as he opened his eyes, a ray of blood-red moonlight from the stellar alignment shone on his tiny body which attracted the attention of everyone in the room.
Zhang’s mother picked him up and cradled him gently in her arms, as he stared at her and everyone in the room intently.
“What a precious looking child you are.” She said as she cradled him in her arms.
Their mansion was filled with activity, maids and servants were running left and right in preparation for the big party that was going to be thrown tomorrow to celebrate Zhang’s birth. Invitations were being sent out to the other clans, and to just about everyone in the city, anyone who had considerable status would be at the party.
The next day, the Zhou mansion was filled with people, servants were outside keeping an eye on horses and carriages while their masters were congratulating Zhou Cheng.
Gifts of gold, jade, and other expensive things were stacked into a small mountain. Every guest was seated to a table filled with various food that would make anyone’s mouth water. Beautiful maids were pouring wine and dancing to add to the festivities.
Zhou Cheng was so happy that he had ordered his servants to allow everyone who wished to join the festivities to enter the mansion. People that usually would not be at such a social gathering soon flooded into the mansion and seated nonetheless.
Everyone was enjoying the food and the dancing until an old man dressed in rags walked in the front door. The man’s clothes were so tattered he was practically half-naked, and his body gave off a foul smell that made everyone take a few steps back as he walked in their direction.
“Is this the place that’s giving out free food?” The old man said cheerfully.
Zhou Cheng’s servants assisted the man to his seat as ordered to by their master.
“This way sir.” A maid said as she led him to a table.
“Oh, my so much food, and all of it looks so good.” The old man said as he stuffed food into his mouth with his hands, paying no mind to anyone else at his table. As soon as he finished a dish, he would move on to the next and then the next until there was no more. Servants would bring more food, but the man’s appetite was enormous, everything they brought soon disappeared into his stomach.
Not so long after the man had entered the mansion, Zhang’s mother, Zhen Jin, who was known as the prettiest woman in the city walked out of her room carrying Zhang in her arms.
Soon she was surrounded by a sea of people hoping to see the newborn and offer their blessings. But then a foul odor flew into her nostrils, which make her almost gag. Then she noticed standing in front of her was a man dressed in rags.
The man proceeded to thank her and husband for the food and offered to give them his greatest treasure, and a few words to the baby.
Zhen Jin thought to herself, “what could this man possibly have that her family did not already have?” Nonetheless, the treasure of so
meone of his status was probably worth nothing to her. But she kept quiet and simply smiled.
The man pulled out from his pocket a pitch black jade pendant, with an exquisite dragon carved onto it. The man said, “This has been in my family's possession for hundreds of year and is carved out of the crystallized heart of a dragon.”
The pendant had a strange glow to it, although it was pitch black there was a somewhat blue sheen to it, which mesmerized everyone who looked at it.
Stunned by the appearance of the pendant, Zhen Jin did not say a word except for “thank you” and received the pendant from the man.
The man then proceeded to say, “Your child’s future will be riddled with tragedy but also filled with greatness. He will experience the most terrible ordeals and enjoy the best world has to offer. He will stand on top of millions with power that can bring down the heavens or he will be like me, penniless, homeless, and alone. Being born during the Stellar Alignment and blessed by the Blood Moon could be viewed as a blessing, but it can also be viewed as a curse.”
Everyone was left speechless to what the man had just said, they did not know whether to laugh or cry at what he said.
Zhen Jin however was furious, she had not heard anything the man had said after he had told her that her child’s life would be filled with tragedy. She was certain that this man was a lunatic and then ordered her servants to kick the man out of the mansion. And in a fit of rage, she tossed the pendant the man had given Zhang into the pond in her garden on her way back to her room.