A Beginning's Continuation

by Tony Tran

  Meaning soon enough the undead would slowly start gaining an advantage and eventually overwhelm the living.

  Zhang was in the middle of a sea of undead as he made his way toward the three Jiangshi that were standing at the back of the horde. He knew there was no way for him to fight all three of them alone, but for his plan to work, he needed them to join the rest of their horde in the assault against the hotel.

  “Man, I can’t imagine how someone would be able to beat back a Jiangshi horde if it managed to convert an entire city or worse yet a province.” He thought as his ten-dragon talon throwing knives were withdrawn from his interspatial ring, along with his two chained daggers, his halberd and a variety of other weapons.

  These weapons floated into the war while being enveloped by a layer of purple essence and pierced through the sky and cut into the undead. Then a thick black shadow appeared behind Zhang and dozens of abyssal beasts crawled out from the darkness and joined the fray.

  Thanks to the abyssal beasts, he was able to steadily make his way through the horde and get closer to the three Jiangshi. Soon a large abyssal beast slithered out from Zhang’s shadow and towered over the undead. This shadow turned out to be a twin headed mirage viper.

  The viper swooped his head down and in the blink of an eye sank its fangs into the lesser Jiangshi. As the viper neared him, Zhang jumped into the air and landed atop its head. While atop the viper’s head, dressed in head to toe in nearly transparent white armor, a long pitch black cape draped over his shoulders, while wielding a pair of twin swords. While looking down upon the undead below, Zhang looked more like a heavenly king looking down on those beneath his feet.

  One could say it was a sight to behold, as the young hero attempts to purge the evil that is terrorizing the New Moon Province.

  Chapter 12: Green Flower

  Atop the abyssal viper’s head, Zhang continued to manipulate and maneuver his throwing knives and chained daggers with deadly precision. He had not taken out the thousands of arrows he had in his interspatial ring because last time he had used it; the technique had nearly drained him dry.

  “Unless I absolutely need to I shouldn’t use that move, just like the black fire.” He thought to himself as the abyssal viper slowly made its way through the undead horde.

  Dozens of other abyssal beasts were out and about on the ground and rampaging through the ranks of the undead.

  Although they weren’t too strong, the abyssal beasts proved to be worthy opponents against the undead because even if they were destroyed, Zhang could simply summon more from the shadows. Of course, this required him to expend some of his essence but the benefits outweighed the costs.

  The Titanic Spiders living in his Ruler’s Domain ring might get slaughtered by the undead this time so they were not released either.

  Slowly but surely the undead horde was beginning to dwindle, the four thousand and five hundred men along with the dozens of abyssal beasts were able to hold back the incoming horde thanks to the various preparations made beforehand.

  But in an instant, this could all change, if the three Jiangshi were to spring into action and Zhang and the four beauties were not able to hold them back then the entire province or rather the entire region could be considered done for once the population of New Moon

  City were all converted to lesser Jiangshi then they would become an unstoppable force.

  Unlike the Heart Burrower Worms, the lesser Jiangshi did not possess a hive mind which meant that even if the if the Jiangshi themselves died their minions wouldn’t perish and would be able to convert more living people to join their undead army.

  “If those three were somehow created by people then whoever did so must be planning something big. After I take care of them I should investigate the provincial lord’s mansion and send word to Aurora to send a regiment of men over. Maybe we will be adding another province to our kingdom.” Zhang thought as he looked at the three Jiangshi that stood at the hole in the maze that was created earlier. They had not moved and were simply watching as their horde marched forth.

  “Gahhhhhhhhh!” A scream echoed out from the direction where the hotel was.

  A scene of horror had broken out as all eyes were glued on a man who had pushed out too far from the rest of the defenders and ended up swarmed by the undead. The spear in his hand extended and had pierced through an undead but before he could do anything else one of the undead bit into his arm and pushed him onto the ground. In a battle, such as this one must remember to never push too far or death was inevitable.

  Seeing the first and definitely not the last casualty of the night, many of the defenders were fear stricken. Soon after yet another man was caught by the horde and ripped apart. Not long after one after the other people were slowly being overwhelmed by the undead. Although Ran Kaitou was there to help, he was only one person and there was no way for him to protect everyone.

  “Sis they are getting overwhelmed, should we help now?” Ai asked one of the other beauties as the stood watching from the roof of the hotel.

  “Not yet, if we spend all of our energy fighting the horde, then who would help our husband?” Ling replied as she looked away from the fighting below. She and the other three could definitely help push back the horde of undead but if Zhang needed their help and let’s say they were drained of energy and had to drink essence water to replenish themselves then they might risk their husband dying while waiting for help. That was definitely something that these four did not want.

  Besides the four beauties, the people watching from the balconies and windows had not joined the fray yet either. Their jobs were to wait until the forces currently engaged in battle, retreated into the hotel. Only then were they to open fire against the undead, since more of these people were inexperienced with the bow and arrow, Zhang did not want them to mistakenly open fire on friendly forces.

  “You lot stop breaking away from the rest of the group! Stand together or die!” Ran Kaitou roared, he was enraged by the fact that dozens of his men and the men that Zhang had hired were killed because they pushed too far. He had created a perfect environment for them to defend against the undead, pitfalls and barriers had been placed to give them an astronomical advantage but these people weren’t using such an advantage and ended up getting themselves and those beside them killed.

  Just as Ran Kaitou roared another blood curdling scream echoed throughout the night. This time it was not someone who had pushed too far but rather the undead had managed to fill one of the pitfalls and were overwhelming the defenders.

  “Switch out the front line!” Ran Kaitou commanded. The tired defenders in the front had to be cycled and replaced with those who stood in the back or else they wouldn’t be able to keep fighting the undead. Since there wasn’t enough room for all four thousand five hundred people to fight at once, some were able to rest while others fought on.

  “Right away boss!” A few of Ran Kaitou’s men yelled in reply.

  AS the men were rotating positions a sudden flash branched into the night sky. Lightning could be seen snaking about across the sky and soon to follow the blinding light was a loud boom and a cloud of dust.

  Zhang head concentrated essence into his finger tips and shot a lightning bolt in the shape of a dragon straight at the three Jiangshi, hoping to deal some damage to them before having to confront them in battle.

  But once the cloud of dust dispersed a large crater was visible as Zhang gazed down from atop the head of the Abyssal Viper. The moonlight had struck his nearly transparent white armor causing it to gleam and send rays of light shooting into the darkness of the night.

  In the crater were the three Jiangshi with slightly charred clothing but without any sign of actual injury.

  “You’re kidding me… They’re absorbing the residual essence from my attack…” Zhang muttered in disbelief as he watched the Jiangshi absorb the essence from his attack that dispersed into the air. Had the Underworld Heart not become a part of his body then he wouldn’t have
been able to see such a sight or would he be able to find out his opponents possessed such an ability.

  “Ling! Do it now!” Zhang’s voice reverberated throughout the battlefield.

  “On it.” Ling mumbled as she began concentrating the essence in her body. Soon a blue glow was emitted from her body and the hundreds of barrels of water placed above the roofs of the buildings nearby busted open.

  A huge volume of water soon shot into the air and a massive glob of it formed in an instant.

  “Everyone fall back!” Yuying commanded from above the roof top.

  “All of you fall back!” Ran Kaitou’s voice followed afterward as a yellow earthen glow emitted from his body and dozens of barriers rose from the ground and connected with the barriers that were already on the battlefield, creating a wall.

  Moments later the sound of thousands of footsteps could be heard as four thousand odd man began running toward the hotel and the various buildings that Zhang had rented out.

  A few were unlucky and were caught by the undead, who were not cut off by the wall, as they turned their backs and began retreating. But for the most part everyone made it back inside and sealed the doors with Yuying’s talismans. Most of the people still had the talismans that Yuying had distributed earlier thanks to the protection they received from Ran Kaitou’s barriers. To them these talismans represented another life when facing these undead.

  “Fire arrows!” Someone yelled once the men on the battlefield had successfully retreated. In an instant hundreds of arrows took to the skies and showered down on the horde of undead behind the wall that Ran Kaitou had just created.

  “Water God’s Rage!” Ling yelled as the glob of water floating in the air turned into an indistinguishable face and descend toward the ground.

  While the face was heading down, Ran Kaitou could be seen bent over with his hands touching the ground as a yellow earthen glow enveloped his body. The barriers he had created outside slowly shrunk into the ground and the pitfalls rose to ground level.

  The Abyssal Viper that Zhang stood atop of coiled up onto a building near it as the massive wall of water smashed into the ground and the few buildings in its path. The force of the water alone would be able to smash bones into powder.

  A wall of water slammed into the horde of undead knocking them onto their backs and washing them away. The water raged all the way toward the crater that the three Jiangshi were in and a whirlpool was soon formed.

  Lightning once more crackled in between Zhang’s as he readied to unleash another attack. In a flash a dragon made purely out of lightning once more shook the air and snaked down into the whirlpool. With the water acting as a conductor the lightning’s destructive power was elevated at least ten times as the dragon shaped lightning broke into dozens of smaller versions of itself upon impacting the water.

  The smaller versions of the dragon shaped lightning swam about in the whirlpool, sending sparks of lightning shooting into the air around them before dissipating.

  Lingqi who was standing atop the roof of the hotel produced a clear glass jar that was filled with a dark green liquid. Uncapping the jar, Lingqi tossed it into the water below. Once the jar dropped into the water and the green liquid oozed out it created a dark green cloud underneath the water’s surface.

  The green cloud rapidly spread across the turbulent water and before long all of the water was turned green. Every lesser Jiangshi that touched this dark green water was instantly turned into ash.

  “Freeze!” Ling’s voice echoed as the spiraling whirlpool instantly turned into a huge block of semitransparent green ice. In this huge block of ice were three Jiangshi who were frozen solid, with glowing red eyes that were vision through the dark green colored ice.

  Black vines then shot out of the earth and extended into the skies, moments later two beauties could be seen moving toward the frozen Jiangshi above a black vine. Yuying could be seen with dozens of talismans in her hand while Ai was maneuvering the black vines.

  “Ran Kaitou move the earth and lift them up. I didn’t pay you to stand there and look pretty” Zhang ordered with a chuckle.

  With a snort Ran Kaitou walked out of the hotel and placed his hands onto the earth’s surface. Moments later the earth around the ice began churning and raising. Soon something that resembled a flower could be seen. The earth formed the stem while the frozen whirlpool formed the petals.

  Once the block of ice was raised above the ground, the black vines lowered the two beauties to the ground and Yuying began deploying her talismans. One by one the talismans shot out of her hand and stuck themselves to the ice. While four different colored talismans shot onto the ground. Moments later thousands of black runes flowed out from the talismans and created a perfect square on the ground and dozens of crisscrosses on the surface of the ice. Four pitch black chains shot out from the four talismans that Yuying had place on the ground and bound the ice along with the lines of runes.

  “Done and now all we have to do is wait for sunrise.” Yuying said with a smile.

  “No way they are getting out of that.” Zhang said as the Abyssal Viper lower its head, allowing him to get off. Once he hopped off the viper dispersed into nothingness and disappeared.

  By now most of the city had been woken up and hundreds of people were peeking out of their windows trying to figure out what was happening. Thanks to Ling’s manipulation, no water made its way into anyone’s home or demolish any buildings. Had she not done so then a portion of the city along with the people living there might have gotten washed away by the raging waters.

  “You’ve made me a believer…” Ran Kaitou said with a sigh as he walked up behind Zhang.

  “Glad I’ve managed to convert you. Now have your men stand guard and not let anyone near this location until the sun comes out or these monsters might get out.” Zhang said.

  “We have to pay someone a visit later today after we dispatch of these things.” He added.

  “Pay who a visit?” Ran Kaitou asked with a bit of confusion on his face. He had thought that after capturing the Jiangshi and waiting for the sun to rise and extinguish them, was the end of things. Little did he know this was just the beginning.

  “Someone who you will replace.” Zhang replied with a grin.

  A few hours later Zhang and the four beauties could be found on a large bed on the top floor of the Silver Swan hotel. They slept soundly as if there weren’t three high level undead outside that could possible break free of their bindings at any moment.

  To ensure the Jiangshi are kept bound, the four thousand odd men who fought against the undead were split into four groups to stand watch over the frozen Jiangshi while everyone else got some rest. Their task was to make sure no one approaches the frozen Jiangshi and to alert Zhang if anything were to occur.

  Chapter 13: Shatter

  Once the sun began to peek out from the horizon, Zhang and the four beauties climbed out of bed. After a few hours of sleep, they were rested and ready to go about the day.

  “My lord breakfast is ready.” Cheng Yu’s voice could be heard through the screen door that led into Zhang’s room.

  The four beauties were getting dressed and doing what women usually do in the morning, while Zhang was standing on the balcony of their room. His four wives had dressed him before dressing themselves so he was currently looking at the three frozen Jiangshi while they got ready.

  “If they created three then what's to say there aren't more? Perhaps I should prepare just in case...” He thought in his mind as he looked at the block of green semitransparent ice. A scowl creeped onto Zhang’s face the more he thought about the possibility that there were even more Jiangshi out there.

  “Darling what are you thinking about.” Lingqi whispered into Zhang’s ear as she crept up behind him and wrapped her arms around his body.

  Without replying Zhang placed his hand on top of hers and stood in silence. While the two of them were basking in each other’s warmth, sunlight reflected off of the huge block o
f ice and sent dozens of rays everywhere.

  “What are you two doing so early in the morning?” Ai’s soft voice sounded out.

  “Things that a husband and wife should do in the morning.” Lingqi replied with a smile on her face.

  “Now you two don't argue.” Zhang said with a chuckle as he turned back and took Lingqi’s delicate hand in his. Moments later he arrived in front of Ai and took her hand in his hand also and headed back into the room.

  “Let's go get some breakfast we have a long day ahead of us, things aren't over yet.” Zhang said to the two beauties whose hands he was grasping and the other two beauties who were inside the room.

  Moments later prince of Aurora and his four princesses departed from their room and were seated at a table with a scrumptious breakfast spread out.

  Despite the life or death battle that occurred last night everyone was having a merry time. Zhang had arranged for room and breakfast for everyone present last night. For some of these people this breakfast could be considered the best meals in their lives, so instead of pondering about the events last night they were enjoying this free meal.