A Beginning's Continuation

by Tony Tran

  Be it a scratch or a single nick, that was all she needed to take a life. Sometimes there wasn’t even a need for injury at all thanks to the variety of poisons at her disposal.

  The two needles that shot out of her hand pierced through the air and honed in at Tao Qian who by now has realized that there was no salvation for him in Lingqi’s arrival, rather instead of salvation he was now face to face with certain death.

  Looking at the needles speeding toward him, Tao Qian’s legs gave out and he kneeled onto the ground, with the eyes of someone who no longer has the will to resist present on his face. Facing the end of his life, Tao Qian gave off a maddening laugh the reverberated in the hearts of his men who were desperately fighting a losing battle. Afterward he closed his eyes, giving into and embracing death. There was no way for him to dodge these needles in time, Lingqi had shot them are peculiar angles and had aimed for his legs, which in turn became his torso after kneeling.

  Inches away from Tao Qian’s face were the two needles that shot out of Lingqi’s hand, mere seconds away from lodging themselves into their target. However, before Lingqi’s needles reached their target, Tao Qian whose eyes were still shut, felt something wrap around his body.

  Pitch black vines, wrapped around Tao Qian’s body and tossed him into the air, causing Lingqi’s needles to shot past where Tao Qian was kneeling and lodge themselves into the ground.

  Both Zhang and Lingqi stopped in their tracks and looked up into the sky, where Tao Qian had been through. The black vines had thrown him unbelievably high into the air and now he was currently freefalling at high speeds, soon he would most likely smash into the ground and turn into paste. But of course, such a death would be too gruesome, so right before Tao Qian smashed into the ground dozens of black vines caught him and then ripped his body apart into four pieces, raining blood and gore everywhere.

  “You win this one Ai…” Lingqi thought as she disappeared back into the battlefield after pulling up a black cloth to cover her face.

  Zhang couldn’t help but shake his head because he had specifically asked that no one use any of their magic because of the possibility that someone might recognize them.

  “Well I guess even if there are any witnesses, they’ll all be dead soon.” He thought shaking his head as he gazed through the white screen of smoke in front of him, to see Ai giving him a thumbs up before running off.

  With Tao Qian in pieces, Zhang also rejoined the fray and the slaughtering continued. The armies of the three aristocratic families did not stand a chance, due to the high level of cultivation of Zhang’s men and the confusion caused by the ambush.

  As Zhang was cutting his way through the chaotic scene that laid before him, a familiar sight caught his attention. A well-built bald man with a scar that ran to his forehead and a handsome younger man was standing back to back, fighting four masked men and women.

  “Looks like I’ll get to have some fun today after all.” Zhang thought as he saw the two men who had offended him the other day.

  However, before he could even get close enough, dozens of needles shot through the air and embedded themselves into the two men in question. Soon enough the two men slumped over and fell to the ground without uttering a single cry.

  Outside of the pass, Ran Kaitou’s men were at a lost at what to do, although they could see that the people from the aristocratic families were being slaughtered inside the pass, they had been tasked to protect the common people. So far it did not seem like the assailants attacking the aristocratic families were going to go after anyone else because they did not move out the pass to attack the civilians at all.

  “Boss what should we do!?” One of Ran Kaitou’s men yelled.

  “Retreat! Keep the safety of the people as our priority!” Ran Kaitou commanded. Although he did not say anything, to him it was obvious that the people dressed in black were Zhang’s men and right now he deemed that the best thing for him to do was improve his image to the common people.

  By showing them that instead of worrying about the aristocratic families and worrying about the common people instead, then that would help him gain the loyalty amongst the commoners. Since he knew that there was no reason for him to help anyone because Zhang was the one attacking. Thus, the civilians were safely kept away from the chaotic fighting that was unfolding in the Qilin’s Pass.

  “Sigh I’m probably going to be the one who has to clean this all up…” Ran Kaitou sighed as he peered into the pass. He could see that so much blood had been spilled inside the pass that the ground was dyed a deep crimson red.

  At the rear of the expedition Su Rou and Kuai Lan looked in the direction of Qilin’s Pass anxiously. They were betting their futures on whether or not this plan succeeded or not, if the plan failed then they would be pitted against the other three aristocratic families and surely, they would be eliminated. But if the plan succeeded then they would be free to absorb the other factions in the province and rise to prominence.

  As all eyes were looking toward the Qilin’s pass, a red flare could be seen streaking through the sky, signaling the end of the battle. Inside the pass severed limbs, guts and body parts were scattered all about on the ground as Zhang’s subordinated could be seen scaling up the side of the cliff, using the silk ropes they had used earlier to bungee down.

  While Zhang’s subordinates were making their way up the face of the cliff, the soldiers of the Su and Kuai families quickly headed for the exit. All they had to do was make it to the other side, hide themselves and when the expedition passes, they could blend back in with the others.

  “Have all of our everyone been accounted for?” One of the soldiers of the Kuai family asked.

  “Yes captain, all corpses have been collected and everyone is accounted for.” A soldier from the Su family replied. The two families had often trained soldiers together so it was easy for these men to cooperate together at times such as this.

  They had to make sure that they left nothing that could be connected back to their respective families. If someone made a connection between the attack and the Su and Kuai families, then a string of unpredictable events may unfold. Thus, upon retreating, every corpse, every sword and everyone had to be accounted for.

  Soon, silence filled the pass and not a single living soul could be spotted, everyone had either been killed or has made it out of the pass already. With no witnesses left alive and no trace of their involvement, as long as everyone who was involved keeps quiet then no one will ever know who perpetrated the massacre.

  Ran Kaitou had decided that it would be best to camp in front of the pass for the day, while his men move into the pass and tidy up the mess that Zhang had created. Such a sight was not something that he wished for people to see, it is one thing to know that many people were killed and an entirely different thing to see the mangled bodies of hundreds of people. If he allowed the commoners to view such a sight, panic would surely ensue.

  Thus, by the time the sun had set and the moon had rose, a large camp of thousands of tents was set up in front of the pass. The soldiers of the Su and Kuai family who were on the other side of the pass were of course, alerted of this and were ordered to sneak back into the camp before daybreak.

  Zhang, the beauties and their subordinates of course, had disappeared once more without a trace and no one had any clue where they were.

  But unbeknownst to anyone, there were other things to worry about instead of where Zhang had gone to.

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  With the moon, high in the sky, illuminating its rays on the bloodstained earth of the Qilin’s pass, amidst a sea of scattered limbs an eerie glow was present. Dozens of loose limbs were all emitting an odd red colored glow, if one looked closely, each and every one of these limbs had strange runes tattooed onto them.

  These limbs continued glowing until they began twitching and not before long they began moving on their own accord. If someone with a faint heart had witness this scene
then they’d more than likely soil themselves because a pair of severed arms were clawing their way across the ground, while a pair of severed legs were kicking about trying to move across the ground.

  As the night went on, the severed limbs, be they arms, legs, fingers, toes, or any other manner of body part, slowly headed toward a patch of blood stained grass that had a rapidly beating heart laying atop of it.

  Once the severed limbs managed to reach the rapidly beating, they liquefied and turned into scarlet colored blood. The scarlet colored blood then formed a perfect sphere that not before long began reshaping itself once more.

  Blood soaked hands and feet shot out from the inside of the sphere and soon enough the blood sphere had totally been reshaped into the form of a man.

  “Ahahahaha, to think I was so scared that I even forgot that I possessed such a technique at my disposal.” The blood-soaked man laughed as he his eyes scanned the surrounding area.

  “I guess delivering that bastard so many sacrifices paid off after all. Sadly, it only works once...” The blood-soaked man said as he wrestled a robe off of a corpse that was laying on the ground. After wrapping himself with the robe the blood-soaked man began making his way through the pass.

  Along the way, he would occasionally look down at a few of the many corpses that were lying about and an expression of grief and rage began to appear on his face. It could be said that this man was glad to bad alive, however more than often it’s the people who don’t die that are the ones that suffer the most.

  As the number of familiar faces kept adding up the expression of grief slowly faded from the man’s face and left only but pure rage.

  “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” The man screamed at the top of his lungs. His scream reverberated throughout the pass and echoed off into the distance, carrying with it the embodiment of his rage. This scream of anger however soon turned into mournful cries as the man fell to his knees and wept.

  “I’ll find you two… I’ll find you two and make you pay for what you’ve done!” The man screamed.

  Perhaps if Zhang had witnessed the sight of his man then he would show a bit of sympathy, but one reaps what one sows because it was because of one man’s actions that led to this massacre. Had Tao Qian acted differently toward Zhang, the beauties, and the Su and Kuai family then perhaps this calamity would have not fallen upon him and those around how would have not such a fate.

  But sadly, not learning from his mistakes and taking advantage of his new lease on life, he had chosen a darker path, a path riddled with death and vengeance.

  Thus, in grief and rage, Tao Qian made his way out of the Qilin’s Pass, heading toward the unknown, heading toward a path of no return, perhaps a path that would lead him to his end yet again.

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

  Elsewhere, Zhang and the four beauties were sitting comfortably inside their magic carriage. After taking care of the three aristocratic families, they decided that it was time to continue their honeymoon and once more began heading toward the Star Mist Province. They did not know when the invasion of the southern region would begin so they had to make the most out of the time they had left.

  Now instead of traveling with a single carriage and a dozen or so horsemen, they had a small caravan of carriages filled with subordinates. Although they would be much most noticeable compared to before, the number of subordinates they now had with them could be said to be very fitting of people of their status. For a prince and princesses to travel like they had done before was rarely done, if done at all.

  Even Shu Shang who could be considered on par with Zhang in terms of cultivation, rarely traveled without a hundred or so people with him.

  But besides the extra manpower nothing else really changed, Zhang and the beauties were still dead set on enjoying their honeymoon to the fullest and were hoping to avoid getting into anymore problems for the remainder of the trip.

  However, the future is yet to be written so who knows if they will face unbelievable peril or if they will be spared the hardships and be able to enjoy their honeymoon until they must return to Aurora to begin the invasion of the southern part of the warring states region. But there is a saying that goes, those in bliss are often met with adversity.

  Chapter 27: Kidnappers

  Before the sun rose and while the moon was about to go away, a caravan of carriages was currently making their way through a rocky road and forgotten road deep in the forest. The rattling sound of wooden wheels could be heard reverberating through the forest as the caravan moved forward.

  In a few dozen or so of these carriages with hundreds of men, women and children with their hands and feet tightly bound, there were of course, even infants whose mothers were my bound in order to hold their child.

  Despite not being bound, none of the mothers tried to escape because the knee that they would not be able to make it very far with their child in hand, and the thought of untying the ropes that bound everyone else was lost when a few tried and red colored runes appeared on the ropes and tightened.

  For the most part everyone was bound and even their mouths were gagged to ensure that they would not even make a sound.

  From the looks on these people's faces one could tell that they were horrified. For they do not know what the future holds for them, more than likely they wouldn't be killed because if they were then they wouldn't be bound in the carriage, but even if they weren't going to be killed there are many different futures that could hold fates worse than death.

  To these people, as long as the wheels of the carriages continued rolling then they had nothing to fear, because as long as they were kept inside the carriages then they wouldn't not have to face horrid possibility that await them outside.

  In the beginning some people had tried to use their cultivation to break out of their bindings and escape however they soon found out that their attempts were futile because they could not muster up any strength from their cultivation bases.

  However, even if they were to continuing their attempts to escape, they would not be given another chance to because currently the rattling wooden wheels of the carriages that sped through the rocky path slowly ceased and the carriages stopped.

  Anticipation filled everyone's hearts as the carriages stopped. Now that the carriages had stopped, silence filled the air and no one made a sound. But this did not last long because the sound of a cry baby soon echoed out from one of the carriages and seeped into the other ones.

  It was not long afterward that dozens of doors were swung open and light shone into the carriages. Squinting their eyes everyone who had been kept inside the carriages was being blinded by the sudden exposure to light.

  Once their eyes adjusted they could see tens of people standing outside of the carriages. A mix of men and women were present and gazing into the carriages.

  Without saying a word, the men proceeded to carry people out of the carriages, one by one until everyone was gathered outside. Of course, a few of those who were bound inside the carriages tried to resist as best they could be squirming about, but like their previous attempts to escape or retaliate, resistance was futile.

  Once everyone was taken from the carriages and gathered up outside a beautiful young woman, with long flowing reddish hair, and eyes that possess a hint of red in their pupils, stood appeared. Although she was beautiful, this young woman gave off an aura of that of someone who is used to death, making everyone who were bound tremble in their hearts.

  They could tell that if this woman wished for it then they'd soon arrive before the gates of the underworld.

  A hint of a smile appeared on her face as this young woman’s gaze fell on a crying baby. As she approached the baby and opened out her arms toward it, the child's mother had a face full of fear. The mother did not know what this woman would do to her child so she was not willing to hand the child over.

  After a few moments, the young woman gave up on her attempt to hold the baby and walked
toward someone else with a dejected look on her face. The person she walked toward was a young boy in his teens. This boy had been one of the few who had struggled and tried resist the most out of the entire group.

  Although he was bound he continued squirming about, although he was gagged one was certain that he was currently cursing his captors.

  With a wave of her hand, the woman called for two men to come over and grab the boy.

  “Take out the gag.” The woman said to the two men who were holding the boy. The moment the gag was removed, a series of words that should not be repeated flowed out of the boy’s mouth.

  However, no hint of anger appeared on the young woman’s face, despite the boys cursing and provocation. Unexpectedly a smile crept onto her face.

  The sweat dripped down the brow of the boy's father as he watched his son doing what could be considered then dumbest thing possible for anyone to do in their current situation. Now was not the time to be a hero, now was not the time to taunt your captors because now was the time that death could approach at any moment.