Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  Demonic beasts unlike humans kept all their essence stored up in a core within their bodies. These cores were extremely valuable and very beneficial for cultivation. They could be melted and then fused with herbs to make pills.

  Zhang decided to hide in the bush until the Voracious Eater had its fill and left. However, what it did next stunned him. The Voracious Eater was gnawing on the Frost Ape’s core.

  Upon pulling the core out of the ape’s chest the voracious eater began gnawing on it. A short while passed and the entire core was consumed.

  After consuming the frost ape’s core, the voracious eater began to emit a dazzling light from its body.

  Thanks to the core of the ape it had advanced into the next level.

  “Shit… It’s time to get out of here.”

  Zhang turned back and began to walk away into the forest. As Zhang walked away something followed him.

  As he ran through the forest Zhang could feel that something was watching him.

  Then out of nowhere a big shadow pounced at him from a bush. It was the now level 8 three eyed voracious eaters.

  Zhang ducked and rolled to the side and dodge.

  “You damn glut; you just ate that huge frost ape and now you want a piece of me?”

  The Voracious Eater charged at Zhang, and when it was about to reach him, Zhang pulled out his canteen of poison.

  A stream of corrosive poison flowed out of the canteen and splashed onto the charging beast.

  “Ha! Maybe now you’ll learn not to bite on more than you can chew!!!”

  Howling and scratching at its face, the lion was rolling about on the ground.

  Using this opportunity, Zhang ran once more. This time though, he was not headed to where the girls were but back to the corpse of the Lightning Eater.

  The lion sensed that Zhang was trying to get away fell into a raged frenzy, ignoring its pain, it rushed after Zhang.

  Zhang and the lion stormed through the forest. In its wake nothing was left standing, trees were knocked over and stones were crushed to dust.

  As the two of them dashed through the burning forest, Zhang was barely able to stay in front of the lion, had it not been for the trees he would have been caught long ago.

  It was exactly when White Jade Panther had chased Zhang before.

  Soon the corpse of the Lightning Eater was in sight and a smile appeared on Zhang’s face.

  After reaching the corpse Zhang turned back and waited for the lion to appear. A few seconds passed before he was once again in front of Zhang with blood thirsty eyes.

  The Voracious Eater was filled with rage because Zhang had blinded one of its eyes and badly damaged a part of its face with the Lightning Eaters poison.

  “Come and get me if you can, you overgrown cat!!!!”, Zhang roared.

  In response to Zhang’s taunt, an extremely loud roar echoed out of the Voracious Eater’s mouth.

  Then it began charging at Zhang once more.

  Zhang had a broad smile across his face as he watched it rush toward him.

  At the very last second he jumped to the side dodging it yet another time. This time however would be the last.

  Behind Zhang was a small pond that had formed beside the Lightning Eater’s corpse. This pond was made entirely of corrosive poison.

  The Voracious Eater became entirely coated in the corrosive poison as it landed in the pond. Slowly it’s skin began to sizzle and liquefy. Chunks of its flesh began sliding off and eventually bone began to show. But once the bones touched the poison they too liquefied.

  Zhang watched as the beast slowly turned into nothing and laughed.

  In the end the mighty beast was no more and all was left was a bloody puddle and a pair of fairly large fangs.

  “This poison…. I NEED MORE!!! Hahaha” Zhang laughed as he formed another canteen and filled it with poison.

  Although he wasn’t able to get anything from the body of the Frost Ape, Zhang had a huge harvest anyway. Two canteens of Lightning Eater poison, a huge sack filled with Lightning Eater scales and skin, along with a pair of fangs with the size of daggers from a Voracious Eater.

  These things could not be easily found for sale anywhere and even if they were, it would cost a fortune to acquire them.

  Zhang tied the sack tightly to himself and began running back to where Yuying and Ai was.

  However, before he even made it half way back he heard a couple voices.

  “Zhang you're safe!!”

  As he looked in the direction of the voice he saw Yuying and Ai.

  They had been worried because he was gone for far too long and decided to go look for him in case he had gotten himself in over his head.

  Zhang ran up to the two of them and as they went back to where the raft was he narrated the events that had occurred.

  “Ha serves that cat right!” Yuying laughed after she heard what happened to the Voracious Eater. While Ai simply smiled.

  After reaching the raft, the two girls hopped on while Zhang pushed it out into the water once more.

  This time they would truly bid the island goodbye.

  =================================================

  A couple days flew after the trio had set sail from the Cursed Island. The weather had been clear and sunny but there was still an abundance of wind which made ideal for sailing conditions.

  Since they had a large amount of fur, and the raft was basically the size of a barge, the trio had made a hut out of fur to sleep in. However, the two girls would sleep together as Zhang slept in a corner of the hut alone.

  The hut even came with a cooking place. Which was basically the Lightning Eater’s large scale, it was used to hold a fire and prevent it from burning the raft. They’d roast fish that they caught from the ocean on top of the scale using fire made by essence.

  It had been a smooth sailing so far however; black clouds could be seen in the distance.

  “We should be okay for now but soon, as we sail under those black clouds, most likely, we will get hit by a heavy storm and the water will start to get rough.”, Zhang said as he stared at the clouds.

  “Then me and sis should go put everything that shouldn’t get wet into the hut!!”, Ai said cheerfully.

  Yuying and Ai had begun calling each other sisters and had grown awfully close. While Zhang would occasionally be called brother, mostly when they wanted something from him.

  He could not refuse neither of the beauties when they made puppy eyes at him and begged him to do something. Well, who could?

  As Zhang stared at the clouds. something else caught his attention. It was a ship! A very large ship with four massive sails. The ship was currently in the storm going up and down the huge waves.

  Seeing a ship made Zhang excited, this was an opportunity to come in contact with civilization. The sailors on the ship must have set sail from a port and was currently headed towards one so they’d be able to give Zhang general directions back to the port.

  And after reaching the port, Zhang would be able to make his way home and back to his family.

  However, the ship was far distance away from the raft. And there was no way to be sure that they’d be spotted on the raft by the people on the ship who were caught up in a storm.

  The only thing Zhang could do now was wait and prepare to face the storm himself.

  An hour or so later, the raft entered the storm. The winds howled as the waves towered above one another. Lightning rained down from the sky and an endless amount of rain sprinkled down from above.

  Zhang, Yuying, and Ai had retreated inside of the hut where it was nice and cozy. A fire was lit in the giant scale and food was cooking. Each of them was embraced by a warm fur blanket.

  Occasionally, Zhang would peak out of the opening of the hut and see if he could spot the ship from before.

  But most of the time was used to converse amongst themselves.

  “Brother tell us about the kingdom you came from?” Yuying asked.

  “Well I gre
w up in a small city at the border of the kingdom so I don’t really know much about the entire kingdom but I can tell you about the place I grew up.”

  Telling stories and jokes was the main source of entertainment within the hut and it kept everyone occupied and not bored. It also helped them bond with each other.

  As Zhang was telling the girls about his birthplace, he saw something in the corner of his eye.

  “What the... That couldn’t be”, he murmured.

  Zhang saw what seemed to be a person walking on top of the water in the middle of the storm. However, the person was too far for him to make out any distinguishable features. But he was fairly certain that his eyes were not playing tricks on him. He was sure that he saw a person.

  BANG!!! A blinding lightning bolt had snaked down from the sky and struck the surface of the water.

  When Zhang opened his eyes the person wasn’t there anymore.

  “It must have been a saint.”, Zhang mumbled

  “What was that brother?”, Ai asked

  “Nothing. So back to that story!”

  ==============================================================

  The storm had raged on for three days and three nights before dispersing. The sun came out of its hiding and began to shine once more.

  Since the storm dispersed, the watered became calm and there weren’t any more gigantic waves towering about.

  A school of dolphins could be seen frolicking in the distance and after a while, they began swimming alongside the raft.

  “Brother! Look! Look!!! What are those!” She yelled out as she saw the dolphins. Since she was born in the underworld there was no such creatures like them.

  It was the first time anyone in the trio had seen a dolphin so they were very excited and continued to watch the dolphins for hours.

  Zhang still kept an eye out for the ship he had spotted before entering the storm. Which eventually paid off because Zhang was able to spot the very same ship from before a distance away from the raft.

  Zhang grabbed the oars and began rowing. He became hell-bent on reaching that ship. It was his ticket back home and he couldn’t afford to lose sight of it a second time. Because if not, Zhang wasn’t sure if they’d ever make it back to civilization. None of the members of the trio knew how to navigate at sea so they had no way of knowing what direction they were even going.

  The ship seemed to be anchored and not moving so Zhang was able to close in on it.

  Soon, he was able to see people on top of the bow of the ship.

  “HEYYYY!!!!” He screamed, trying to get the attention of the people on the boat.

  Soon after, the two girls joined in and began swinging their arms side to side.

  The people on the ship had lowered a small dingy and began rowing toward the raft. Moments later, the trio, would for the first time in a long while, met people who was not a part of their party.

  A mid-aged man with long black hair tied in a ponytail walked onto the raft from the dingy. As the man stepped onto the raft, the first thing he noticed was the two beauties aboard and the next thing he noticed was the many commodities on the raft.

  “Hello?”, The man cordially said.

  “My name is Zhang and this is Yuying and that is Ai. We have been stranded at sea for months and was hoping that you could help us reach land.”, Zhang said.

  “Of course! My crew and I would be more than happy to help you. I will signal for our ship to come over and we can tow this raft of yours with us to our destination.” Jian Wei said with a smile.

  “Many thanks sir.”, Yuying said.

  “No thanks needed, none at all, we are just doing what we should do.” Jian Wei replied as he pulled up a signal flare and shot it into the sky.

  After seeing the flare, his ship began moving towards the raft.

  Chapter 13: Suspicion

  Jian Wei’s ship sped its way toward the raft at high speeds. Minutes after the flare had been shot, the ship was towering over the raft. Jian Wei had suggested that he’d go back to his ship first and make some arrangements for Zhang, Yuying, and Ai before inviting them aboard.

  Jian Wei smiled at Zhang as he was hoisted up onto his ship while holding onto a rope that his crewmates had tossed down from above.

  “Yuying, Ai come here for a second.”, he said in a low tone as he signaled them to go inside the hut.

  Once they were in the hut, Zhang pulled out 3 pieces of Lightning eater skin.

  “Wrap this around your body underneath your clothes before getting on that ship. We don’t know if these people are friends or foes. It’s best to be on the safe side than to regret it later.”, he whispered

  “If they are bad people all we have to do it beat them up, right sister?”, Ai said with a smirk on her face.

  “This girl.”, Yuying said while shaking her head.

  Zhang had left the hut to let the girls put on the Lightning Eater skin. He himself would put it on after them and as a precaution he took out his canteen of poison.

  “This might come in handy”

  While holding the canteen in his left hand Zhang flipped his right hand and a tiny vial appeared. It would be too conspicuous to carry around the large canteen all the time, but if it was a small vial he could tuck it in his clothes without anyone noticing. Then he sent some energy into the canteen in his hand and drops of the Lightning Eater’s poison began floating out and entered the vial.

  After filling the small vial, Zhang tucked it into his sleeve and sent energy into the canteen both in his hand and in his sack. He had to supply them with enough essence to stay tangible for some time or else they’d disappear and all the poison would spill.

  Just when Zhang finished sending energy into the canteens, Yuying and Ai walked out of the hut. This signaled his turn to don the snake’s skin. After a short while, Zhang emerged from the hut and walked towards the two girls.

  As he was walking toward the girls, a rope ladder was dropped from the ship.

  “Come up, arrangements have been made.”, Jian Wei yelled from above down towards the trio.

  Soon tethers were tossed down from above and the trio fastened them to the raft. This was so the ship could tow the raft along instead of abandoning it.

  After securing the tethers, they began climbing up the rope ladder. At first, Ai wanted to go first, but Yuying grabbed her shoulder and whispered something in her ear. Ai’s face gradually turned bright red and she no longer wanted to climb up first anymore.

  “Bro brother!!!! You go first!!”, Ai said as she pointed to the rope ladder.

  Zhang had guessed what Yuying had whispered in Ai so a broad smile appeared on his face.

  “Don’t wanna, you can go first and I will go right after you.”, he said with a chuckle.

  Ai’s face became even more red.

  “Ouch!!” cried Zhang as he felt that the skin on his arm was being twisted.

  “Okay okay! I’ll go first” he said as he rubbed his arm, looking at Yuying with a dejected expression

  Thus, Zhang began his climb up the ladder. Since the ship was so big it took Zhang sometime to make it to the top. After him, Yuying was the next one to come up and finally it was Ai.

  Above the deck of the ship, stood four huge masts that hung four massive sails. There were people running around mopping the decks, moving various things or just lazing around.

  “Welcome aboard!!!”

  Zhang looked to his side and saw Jian Wei smiling at him while standing next to another man. The man next to Jian Wei had an eye patch on his left eye. A large scar ran from his forehead across to his left cheek.

  Just from looking at this man one can tell that he was a hardened veteran in combat and could probably hold his own against two men who were on the same level as he was.

  “Ah I almost forgot, this is my first mate Yan Li.”

  “Nice to meet you my name is Zhou Zhang, this is Yuying and Ai.”, Zhang said.

  “Yan Li here will show you guys to your lodgings. M
ake sure not to get lost, our ship is pretty big. Also, we have a curfew that is not to be broken. Everyone is to return to their room, 3 hours after the sun sets. I will see you guys later for supper.”

  After telling Zhang about the curfew, Jian Wei gestured his hand toward a big door and departed.

  After Jian Wei departed, Yan Li gave the trio a small tour of the ship as he led them to their rooms. The interior of the ship was like a maze, all the hallways looked similar and it was easy to get lost.