Dragon's Soul: An End's Beginning

by Tony Tran

  Soon the doors to the study creaked open.

  Although Zhou Cheng was a bit surprised when he saw so many standing in front of his study he did not give such a reaction.

  "Ah young lord of Aurora welcome to my home. What brings you here are such a late hour." Zhou Cheng said.

  "I'm here to meet my father." Zhang replied with a smile on his face.

  "Your father? I don't think any other guests are currently in the mansion. Perhaps your father is staying elsewhere?" Zhou Cheng replied somewhat confused. He had told himself many times that the young man he met at the banquet was not his son so by now he no longer believed Zhang was his son.

  "Oh I know for a fact my father is here within this mansion. In fact, I can see him right now." Zhang replied.

  "Where?" Zhou Cheng asked but before he could finish his sentence Zhang had gotten on his knees?

  "Why are you kneeling? Get up?" He proceeded to say but like before he could finish his sentence he was cut off.

  "Father your son Zhou Zhang has been unfilial." Zhang said as he began kowtowing to his father.

  Hearing these words all of the confusion in Zhou Cheng's mind was washed away.

  "My son! You're alive!" He yelled as he hugged Zhang who was kneeling on the ground.

  He no longer questioned if Zhang was his actual son or just a look alike any longer. Perhaps somewhere deep down although he did not acknowledge it he had always thought that young man from the banquet was his son.

  "Get up. Why are you kneeling. You have finally come home." Zhou Cheng said as he helped Zhang up.

  "Father it's been so long." Zhang said as he hugged his father.

  "Where have you been all this time. We searched all around what's left of Blue Tear city. You don't know how many people and how many times I personally went there to look for you." Zhou Cheng said.

  "Father where is mother? I'll tell you both what happened." Zhang said.

  "Ah yes your mother. She will definitely be happy to see you. All this time she still believed that you were alive." Zhou Cheng said with a pained expression of his face.

  Soon they all walked to the room where his mother stayed. Once they entered the room they could see a beautiful lady sitting grooming her hair.

  Zhang was the first one to enter the room. He went directly to his mother and hugged her.

  "Mother I'm back!" Zhang said.

  Hearing these words, the beautiful women stopped what she was doing and turned back. One she saw Zhang's face tears began rolling down her cheeks.

  "Your back!" She said as she embraced Zhang. Having thought he was alive the entire time she was not surprised. Instead she was very happy that he came to visit.

  "How are things in the academy? I know you've been studying hard to you haven't been able to come home to see me." She said to him.

  "Yes mother I've wanted to see you for so long but I wasn't able to." Zhang said.

  After hugged her son Zhen Ji noticed the people standing at the door way.

  "Who are those two young ladies? Your friends from the academy?" She asked happy to see that her son was making friends and better yet two beauties.

  "Ah those are your future daughter in laws." Zhang replied as he stopped hugging his mother and led her toward the group at the door.

  "Daughters in law?" Zhen Ji said somewhat surprised.

  "Madam." Yuying and Ai said while they did a courtesy to Zhang's mother.

  "Come here let me have a closer look at you two." Zhang's mother said as she used her hands to trace the outlines of Yuying and Ai's faces.

  "Zhang I never expected you to be such a ladies’ man. It's good that you weren't like your father at your age." Zhen Ji said with a smile.

  "Unlike me?" Zhang's father Zhou Cheng asked.

  "Yes unlike you brother Zhou." Ling's father said with a chuckle.

  "You were lucky, sister Zhen even agreed to marry you. You know she was the prettiest women in our city." Ling's father Wu Tong added.

  Leaving Yuying, Ai, and Ling to stay with his mother Zhang followed his father and Ling's father back to the study.

  "I think it is best if we do not tell mother what I'm going to tell you father." Zhang said as he proceeded to recall the events after the Siwang empire attacked.

  Zhang's father had the same reactions as Ling's father when Zhang told him the story.

  "It doesn't matter how you got back, as long as your back with us everything is alright." Zhou Cheng said to his son as he patted him on the back.

  "Also you brought back two very beautiful future daughter in laws for me." Zhou Cheng added. Regarding this he was very happy because it meant that his son would have many grandkids for him on day.

  "So my daughter alone was not good enough?" Ling's father asked with a stern face.

  "Ah brother Wu know I didn't mean that." Zhang's father said.

  "Ha you should see the look on your face. I don't mind as long as my daughter is happy. It's not like it's uncommon to have three wives." Ling's father said with a chuckle.

  Shortly after some chatting Zhang's father got up and closed the door to the study.

  "Son I have something to tell you. This matter is not to be told to anyone or our entire clan and the Wu clan will be executed." Zhou Cheng said with a stern face.

  "No one will hear a word of this father." Zhang replied.

  Zhang's father then began to tell him about the plan they had concocted to get revenge for him. They had climbed to high positions in the kingdom to allow them to easily manipulate it.

  With Ling's father as the minister of war they could easily move the force of the kingdom around. While as the minister of finance Zhang's father could use the kingdom's money to further their plan.

  The two of them had arranged for all of the ally kingdoms to be present at the tournament. Then they would send a secret correspondence to the Siwang empire to fake their surrender. This correspondence of course would include a fake account of the Heilong kingdoms current number soldiers and finances.

  They would have pretended to betray the kingdom by moving the soldiers along the border at the excuse of a military exercise during the tournament.

  This would create a gap in the border where the Siwang empire could move its soldiers through. Then the Siwang empires soldiers would attack the capital during the tournament which would cause the alliance to take action.

  Of course they would have provided a detailed path to the Siwang empires soldiers to allow involving civilians. Then once the Siwang Empire’s soldiers were close enough to alarm the alliance they would move the forces of Heilong kingdom to repel them.

  By doing so they might be able to change the stance that the alliance was currently taking. They would possibly be able to convince the alliance to take the initiative to attack the Siwang empire.

  Then using the power of the alliance they would invade the Siwang empire to get revenge for Zhang's death. Of course this was a very selfish action of a grieving father.

  "Thankfully the heavens have its own plan and your back." Zhang's father said.

  "Originally we were going to send the correspondence once the tournament happened. This would not allow the Siwang empire to mobilize that many soldiers." Ling's father added.

  "Father I had asked uncle already but to I want to ask you to also pack up all of our things and come back with me to Red Mist city. It is much safer there than here." Zhang said.

  After a short moment of silence.

  "Certainly if that's what you want son." Zhou Cheng replied. Having gotten his son back he would accept any demand his son said.

  "If we are moving then I will mobilize the soldiers." Ling's father said.

  "Mobilized the soldiers?" Zhang asked.

  "Yes although not all of the kingdom's army is loyal to us a portion of it is. Those generals and men of course would leave with us. However, for such a thing to happen we will have to keep all of it unwraps. Neither king nor anyone else can know of it. Because what kind of kingdom
would allow a part of its army to walk away to join another force." Ling's father said.

  Chapter 43: Tournament

  Today was the day the tournament began. Tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people signed up to participate. Simply by making it to the last round even if they did not win they would still receive a bit of gold.

  "My lord all the arrangements have been made." Lu Xun said to Zhang.

  "Good let's head out to the colosseum now I think they will start the trip to the Demonic Forest soon." Zhang said to Lu Xun.

  The demonic forest was located roughly two days from the capital of the Heilong kingdom. It was a large forest where many low level demonic beasts lived making it a great place to train.

  Lu Xun after talking to Zhang had left to enact their plan.

  Once Lu Xun left, Zhang, Yuying and Ai met up with Ling and rode horses to the colosseum. On the way they could see many people preparing carriages or horses to make the trip to the Demonic forest.

  "Brother so we are taking part in the tournament?" Yuying asked.

  "Of course I want to see how far we can get. And it's not like we have anything to do." Zhang replied.

  "Unless perhaps you want to go to a wedding?" He said.

  "Who's wedding brother?" Ai asked.

  "Our wedding." Zhang replied as he grabbed her and gave her a big hug.

  "Your wedding?" Ling asked as she looked at the two of them.

  "Our wedding." He replied as he grabbed and pulled her into his embrace also.

  " what are you waiting for come here." Zhang joked to Yuying.

  "Why? It's not like I'm getting married." Yuying joked.

  "C’mon don't be like that come here." Zhang said as he pulled Yuying into his embrace too.

  The four of them ended up with Zhang having one arm around Ai and this other arm around Ling. Then finally Yuying was sitting on his lap. Zhang was having lots of fun teasing the three beauties since no one else was around.

  A short while later they arrived at the colosseum. And departed their carriage.

  In front of the colosseum was a sea of people. From youths in their teens to elderly men many people signed up to be a part of it. This tournament was an opportunity for some to meet influential lords and possibly get employed. For others they had high hopes of winning the chance to select one item from the kingdom's treasury.

  Of course Zhang himself was pretty interested too. Although the Sai empire had a huge treasure trove of gold it lacked actually magical items. Although he did find a few they were not very useful in combat. For instance, the flask that held a huge amount of water although it was a magical item if had little usage in a fight.

  Most likely all of the magical weapons in the Sai empire were stored where the map in the imperial seal led to.

  Zhang was hoping to find something useful in the treasury of the Heilong kingdom. It was bound to have some sort of powerful weapon since the kingdom was founded by a man who had slain a dragon.

  After the group had arrived at the coliseum they walked around for a bit. There were many people in the crowd some looked very normal while some looked very unique. Many people from different places came to the Heilong kingdom to join the tournament.

  If someone was able to make it into the final ten and showed good results in the last stage, then they might be picked by some minister or noble to be a general or something. Many of the participants held high hopes and wild dreams.

  As the group walked through the crowd they recorded many looks from the crowd. Some envious, some lecherous and some of reverence.

  A young man wearing silver armor came up to Zhang.

  "Hello there, my lord the prince of the Qin kingdom is looking for strong individuals to join his party. Would you like to join?" The young man asked Zhang's group while staring at the three beauties.

  "I think we are okay by ourselves." Zhang replied as he continued to walk.

  "Are you sure? The prince will pay handsomely to those who join him." The man said.

  "Yes we will be fine by ourselves." Zhang said as he tried to walk away once more.

  Seeing that Zhang was not interest the man walked away and tried to recruit some other people. Various princes, princesses and ministers were recruiting people to join their parties.

  They had original thought the tournament would be where individual fighters fought each other. But the king surprised them with a different kind of tournament. So since they did not bring that many servants they had to recruit from the pool of participants.

  A few people had walked up to Zhang’s group trying to recruit them to join. However, Zhang declined all of them. Unlike the other people who were invited by the king to attend the tournament he had actually brought a lot of servants. To be exact twenty thousand.

  However, he would not take all of them with him in the tournament. Zhang only brought the one hundred guards he originally had and roughly another four hundred to make a grand total of five hundred. He had sent Lu Xun with the rest of the men to accomplish another task.

  Soon after roaming about Zhang met up with his five hundred soldiers who all wore matching armor. Seeing this many of the people who had asked Zhang to join them was astonished. They had asked someone who had five hundred personal soldiers to join and become an underling for their boss. How funny was that?

  Once Zhang met up with his soldiers they formed ranks behind him. Five rows of one hundred men each stood uniformly behind Zhang. While Zhang was in front of them sitting on the beautiful throne he had offered to give to king Huang He.

  Zhang looked like a king sitting on that throne with the three beauties by his side. He did this to help promote his image of being someone tyrannical amongst the dignitaries. He wanted to make it so that the other dignitaries would think twice about messing with him.

  A few hours later the king of Heilong appeared. He walked on top of a stage arranged in front of the coliseum and addressed the participants of the tournament.

  “Welcome everyone to the first ever grand tournament in the Heilong kingdom. The first part of the tournament will take place in the Demonic Forest. I will announce that the tournament will be starting. I wish you all good luck on your journey and whoever arrives at the forest may start searching for the ten golden flags.” He said quickly.

  “Wait does that mean that the tournament has started?” Ling asked.

  “I guess so.” Zhang said.

  This had totally caught everyone off guard. One would think they the tournament would start at the demonic forest itself however instead it began in the capital city which was a day’s ride from the forest. This meant that those who had horses or means of transportation would have an advantage over everyone else.

  Thus began the mad race to the Demonic forest. Everyone rushed for their horses or carriages and began setting off.

  “Let’s head out everyone.” Zhang said as he put the throne he was sitting on into his interspatial ring.

  Unlike most commoners Zhang along with the other dignitaries all possessed horses and carriages which gave them an advantage over everyone. But Zhang had Inferno Wind Walks to be exact and his men all rode war horses.

  Once the journey began Zhang had the three inferno wind walkers hooked up to a large carriage and rode inside with Yuying, Ai, and Ling. While five hundred horsemen rode alongside them.

  They group traveled until the sun went down and pitched camp. Although there were many thousands of participants after leaving the capital city everyone seemed to go their separate ways. Once in a while Zhang would spot a small group of participants but he did not see a lot at one time.

  Zhang’s group had sent up many tents along a river as to provide a natural barrier to one side of their camp. They then divided into ten teams that would take turns keeping watch over the camp at night. Being in the wilderness they had to be vigilant and who knows maybe they might get attacked by the other participants of the tournament.

  Since prizes were at stake many people will
resort to underhanded ways to secure victory.

  In the middle of the camp was a large tent in which Zhang and the three beauties slept. Of course Zhang had to sleep in a separate bed.

  “Make sure to not let anyone come near our camp. Even if they seem like good people.” Zhang ordered to his soldiers before entering his tent.

  “Brother you think we will find a flag?” Yuying asked.

  “Who knows, but we actually do not need to find a flag. We simply need to possess one at the end of the five days.” Zhang replied with a devious smile.