by Tony Tran
Zhang, Yuying, Ai and Ling decided to split up and look at the treasures then come back after having found something to their liking or to recommend something for someone else.
“This looks like a magical sword.” Zhang said as he looked at a gleaming blue sword in a glass case.
“Yes that sword is called the Aquatic Overlord. It has the ability to manipulate water that is close to it.” Huang Zu said he has walked to and stood beside Zhang.
“That is a very interesting ability Zhang said. How about that mirror right there?”
“That is the Mirror of Truths. It has the ability to look through illusions and show its user the truth. Brother Zhang you if you have any further questions feel free to ask.” Huang Zu said he as walked away.
“With so many things to pick from this won’t be easy.” Zhang thought as he continued looking at the various treasures.
As he continued walking through the rows of glass cases. That was when Zhang noticed a pedestal without a glass case. On this pedestal was a black book without a name. The book had a white ribbon tied onto it but beside that there was nothing else that stood out about this book.
“That must be the book that Huang Zu was talking about.” Zhang murmured as he walked closer to the pedestal where the book was.
Zhang reached out his hand and picked up the back and tried to open it by untying the ribbon. However, oddly enough Zhang was not able to take off the ribbon. It was as if the ribbon was a part of the book itself and did not want to come off. After trying to open the book for a while without any success Zhang put it back down and walked away.
But what he did not noticed was when he was walking away a tiny black flame appeared on the ribbon and slowly burned it. A few moments later the white ribbon was gone.
As Zhang continued walking he noticed something else that caught his eye. it was a set of throwing daggers that looked extremely delicate with many intricate carving on them. Although the daggers looked very delicate Zhang could tell that they were extremely sharp.
Zhang counted around twenty of these throwing daggers in the glass case.
“These would go along great with my chained daggers.” Zhang thought. He decided to go do some more looking around and then ask for some more information about the daggers.
While Zhang was browsing the various treasures, Ling was looking for the thread of fate.
“If I can get this thread then I won’t ever lose brother again.” Ling thought to herself as she combed the rows of glass cases looking for the thread of fate. Besides the thread of fate, no other treasure currently entered Ling’s radar.
After a while of searching Ling came upon a glass case with a single piece of string.
“This has to be it.” She murmured as she lifted the glass case and took the string.
Elsewhere Yuying and Ai were looking for treasures for themselves. Yuying had picked out a flute that she was told was called the Soul Charmer flute. This flute has the power to mesmerize its listeners and place them under a trance.
It was said that hundreds of years ago the previous owner of this flute after completely mastering it had used the flute to charm thousands of people to follow under him. With these people under his influence the man used them to overthrow the lord of a city.
Ai had picked magical bracelet called the Necklace of second chances. It was said that each user could use its power once. The bracelet was able to shield the user from certain death. After a single cast it would not be usable afterward.
After a while the group met back up at the entrance. Once arriving at the entrance Zhang asked Huang Zu about the set of daggers.
“Ah you must be talking about the daggers called the Dragon’s Talons. Those daggers were created from the talon of a dragon.” Huang Zu said.
“Those daggers are very mysterious. And over the course of many years’ no one has yet claimed and used them in battle. This is of course since they are throwing knives it was hard to retrieve them during battle.” He added.
Shortly after some thought Zhang decided to pick the Dragon’s Talons throwing knives as his reward.
Prince Ming Jiang had picked out a sword that had the ability to shoot out lightning. This sword was called Heaven’s Judgment. While Shu Shang selected a spear that can extend its length and bend its shape. This spear was called the Ever Changing Spear. Beside the spear Shu Shang had picked out one more item and then let his two wives select one item each.
“Brother what should we pick out as our last item?” Ling asked Zhang as she touched her finger and smiled. Ling was touching a red string that was tied to her pinky on one end while the other seemed to be tied to Zhang. But of course only Ling was able to see this.
“Actually as I was looking around I found something that would be useful for us to use.” Zhang said.
“What is it brother?” Ai asked Zhang.
“A magical carriage that can change size and appearance. We can change its size to be easily stored away and able to change its appearance at will. Besides being able to change size carriage appears to be smaller on the outside bigger on the inside. The space inside the carriage is roughly the ten times bigger than the outside.” Zhang said.
“Hmmmm I think they will come in handy since we travel so much.” Yuying said.
“Yea travelling on horses for long trips is so tiring.” Ai added.
“Then it’s settled let's get that magical carriage.” Ling said.
Thus the group picked the magical carriage as their last prize. After choosing their prizes the group had to wait for king Huang He’s soldiers to inspect the treasury to make sure they only took the treasures they had chosen
After the inspection the group was free to go. Shu Shang, Huang Zu and Ming Jiang all bid farewell to Zhang. Although Ming Jiang did not like Zhang very much he still had the decency to thank Zhang.
Once the group consisting of Zhang, Ling, Ai and Yuying arrived at the mansion the king had arranged for them to sleep at.
“Time to hit the hay!” Zhang yelled out as he jumped onto his bed that was located in the same room as Yuying, Ai and Ling’s. The three beauties were also on their huge bed gossiping or something.
However, something odd happened that caught his eye before he could fall asleep.
“This is the book from the treasury.” Zhang thought as he reached out his hand and touched the book.
When Zhang picked up the book he noticed the white ribbon was gone. So Zhang opened the book and a bright golden light enveloped him along with Yuying, Ai and Ling.
Chapter 50: Devourer
Once Zhang opened the black book and blinding golden light enveloped him, Yuying, along and Ai. As the light enveloped them their consciousness began to slowly fade away until it was gone.
The consciousness of the group of four drifted through a sea of empty thoughts. Without a worry, without a care they continued to drift.
Sometime later Zhang slowly began to regain his consciousness.
"Where am I?" Zhang murmured as he looked around only to see a vast empty white room.
"Where is everyone else." Zhang thought as he looked around.
"I'm certain that they were enveloped in light as well." However, that's when Zhang noticed a misty smoke began to form a short distance away from him.
As time passed the smoke began to concentrate and form the figure of a person. Slowly but at a decent pace the smoke condensed and formed the body of a young girl.
"Yuying!" Zhang yelled as he ran toward her.
"Yuying! Wake up!" Zhang yelled as he held her up by the shoulders.
Her eyes began to open and he could see her dazzling pupils look at him.
"Brother what's wrong?" Yuying said.
After looking around she asked Zhang info a confused tone, “brother where are we? Last I remember we were in our room."
"I don't know either." Zhang said but before he could say another word some more misty smoke appeared and another after that.
Not much time pa
ssed until the forms of Ai and Ling could be seen. Zhang and Yuying ran up toward them and tried to wake them up.
Shortly after Ai and Ling regained consciousness but before they could say anything a voice rang out from nowhere.
"It seems you have all made it." The voice said. This voice sounded oddly familiar to Zhang but he was not able to remember who's voice it belonged to.
"Where are we?" Zhang asked.
"Where? When? That is of no importance. What is important is that you are here and not elsewhere." The voice said.
"If when and where are of no importance then who are you?" Yuying asked seeing that the voice did not want to tell them where they were.
"I am spoken of by many but known by none. I am called the creator and the destroy. I am me and I am no one. Some call me a god, some call me a demon, some call me the devoured of souls. I am king my kingdom is endless, my kingdom is border less, my kingdom is timeless." The voice spouted.
"King of the endless kingdom please tell us how to return from whence we came." Zhang said.
"That is simple to return from whence you came you make listen. You must listen well and remember. You must remember the story that has been lost. The story of this King." The voice said as a giant golden eye appeared above the group of four.
And with a flash of golden light a vast scenery appeared from nothingness. The group found themselves in an extremely dense jungle.
The one odd thing was that as Zhang tries to lean on a tree trunk he fell through it. Soon the group found out that they could walk through everything.
As they continued to go through the forest quite literally they stumbled on a large egg.
"Had we not been able to walk through things then perhaps we would never be able to navigate through such a thick jungle." Ling said to the others.
"That's right I've never heard not seen a jungle so thick like this. And there are odd plants I've never see also." Zhang said.
The egg in front of group slowly began to show cracks on it and soon a large lizard the size of a fully grown man emerged from it.
As the lizard took in its first breaths of life a rumbling sound could be heard approaching. Trees could be heard falling down and crashing into one another. Soon a gigantic lizard could be seen emerging from the forest and with a single chomp consumed the newly born lizard.
That was when a voice sounded out.
"The world this King was born into was one where the strong thrived and the weak perished." The voice from before said.
Then the world faded back into nothingness and was once more recreated into another scenery. This time the group was floating in the air.
"In the beginning I stood above every living being and everything below submitted to my will. Those who did not were sent to oblivion." The voice said.
Zhang could see countless beasts of all shapes and sizes looking as if they were bowing at the foot of a tall mountain.
A violent roar sounded out and a huge shadow descended from the mountain and landed in front of the various beasts.
The thing that came down from the mountain was covered in azure scales and had wings that could curtain the sun and change day into night. With its two large golden pupils that gave of a terrifying gaze the large creature stared down at those below.
"A azure dragon." Zhang murmured as he stared blankly. Dragons were the beasts of legend and of course this was his first time seeing one.
Likewise, the three beauties also watched without blinking an eye.
But soon after the scene changed once more and a new scenery was created. This time the group found themselves in a gigantic cave.
"However like many others once I reached the pinnacle of the food chain I grew bored and went into a deep slumber." The voice said.
As I fell into a death like slumber the world outside changed. Time flew by and soon the races of old were replaced with new beings.
The scenery seemed to fast forward and show the landscape and creatures slowly change and gradually become entirely different or replaced.
"After countless years a new king had taken my place. This King came from the weakest of races. They were frail, and had short lives however they reigned supreme over the other creatures. They would eventually call themselves human." The voice said.
Scenes of weird looking people could be seen fighting large creatures. At first they would be killed and eaten but as time passed they dominated the other creatures.
"These humans were a curious race but thanks to this they quickly developed and progress as a species very fast. And their rate of expansion was frightening. Their birth rate gave them a vast advantage over the other creatures."
Scenes of humans harnessing fire and making various tools could be seen. The group could see how humans began forming small groups that eventually grew and became large communities.
"However sometimes having too much curiosity is not a good thing." The voice said as it showed the group how the curiously of the early humans provoked many predators and got them killed.
"Due to their curiosity and stupidity they almost brought about the ruin of their race. They had almost brought the end upon themselves." The voice said.
Zhang and the three beauties were now in gigantic cave following behind a larger group of early humans.
"I wonder what the voice belonging to the dragon meant when it said their curiously almost brought their end." Ling said.
"Perhaps they triggered something sort of event within this cave. It probably has something to do with the dragon." Zhang said.
Although they were following the group of early humans this was all of course an illusion so whatever they did would not have an effect.
As they walked behind the group of early humans they entered into a huge chamber within the cave. Within this chamber lying in a lake of steaming hot water was a huge blue scaled dragon.
Seeing the dragon, fear could be seen on the faces of the early humans. However, curiosity got the better of them and they approached the sleeping dragon.
"Idiots...." Zhang murmured.
From there the group of four could guess what would happen. And just as they thought a group of the early humans climbed onto the giant dragon. Once the humans got onto the body of the giant dragon they climbed all the way to its head.
"They are not doing what I'm thinking they are going to do." Yuying said.
"I think they are." Ling replied.
"Yup pretty sure they are going to do it." Ai added.
Moments later a loud roar sounded out. The early humans had stabbed the giant dragon in a small gap between its eyelids. Had they attacked elsewhere with their wooden spears then it would have done no damage. But they had stabbed into the beast's eye.
"I'm glad that we are able to walk through things." Zhang said as he stared at the giant azure dragon getting up from the steaming lake angrily.
Once the dragon goes up and out of the steaming lake it furiously began killing the humans.
"They sort of deserve this for attacking the sleeping dragon and waking it up." Yuying said without any hint of pity.
The dragon roared as it bit down on some of the humans rolling them to shreds. With a whip of an its tail some unlucky people were bisected. The dragon's weight alone was enough to turn bones into dust.
After this the group was once more in a white room and in front of them was a large screen showing a sequence of events.
Once the dragon made short work out of the group of early humans it gave out an extremely loud roar and began making its way out of the cave. Having been asleep for so long it was hungry. The massive azure dragon crawled its way out of the massive cave and for the first time in hundreds if not thousands of years spread its wings and took to the sky.
After taking to the sky for the first time in a long time the azure dragon began hunting down every moving thing it could find. Eventually it stumbled upon a large human community which it proceeded to attack.
As it rampaged through the human comm
unity some of the humans dropped to their knees and began pleading for mercy. Seeing this and as intelligent as the dragon was it decided that these beings perhaps would be more useful alive than dead. Thus they were spared.
From then on the humans would hunt and give offerings to the dragon such as food and various treasure they happen upon or create. As time went on the dragon and the people developed an intricate relationship. Although they were giving offerings to the dragon the population of the human community constantly grew.
Thanks to the dragon awakening all of the territorial creatures began moving away thus reducing the amount of predators around to hunt the humans. Soon the humans began to thrive and grow and develop as they continued to serve the azure dragon.
