A Beginning's Continuation

by Tony Tran

  He also found out that if he used too much power then the gold coin would liquefy and then evaporate, thus identifying the limit of the technique.

  “Young master, we can leave now.” Zhang said as he turned back toward Tang Wei and the rest of the group who were all but stupefied.

  As for Ai, there were sparkles in her eyes as she watched how cool Zhang was.

  “Do it again!” Ai said with a laugh.

  Chapter 60: Instigator

  As unbelievable was it was, none of the soldiers of the Western Fort were injured while and after Zhang’s new technique was unleashed. For the most part, they only sent a small unit to try and knock down the city gates and Zhang ignored the city gate and focused on the sections of wall, so, in the end, the city gate was still intact and the soldiers of the Western Fort were stunned but unharmed.

  “Quickly!” Tang Wei yelled as he ushered the group to flee toward the what used to be the city walls.

  “Maybe I should demolish some more walls.” Zhang thought as he moved along with the rest of the group. The more he destroyed now, using the excuse of helping Tang Wei escape, the fewer defenses the city will possess when his soldiers arrive.

  “Young masters, keep going! I’ll distract them!” Zhang said as he prepared to release some more gold coins at the city walls.

  “Brother Lee Ming, stop! If the walls are damaged any more than when the soldiers of Aurora arrive we won’t be able to defend the city.” Tang Wei cried.

  “What?!” Zhang yelled, pretending not to hear what Tang Wei said as he caused large sections of walls to crumble and huge explosions to ring into everyone’s ears.

  “Stop!!” Tang Wei roared as he began to stop moving toward the soldiers of the Western Fort but toward Zhang.

  It was only when Tang Wei arrived right before him, did Zhang stop unleashing havoc on the city walls and said sorry with an apologetic face.

  In split seconds, Zhang, Tang Wei and Ai began to catch up with the rest of the group and join up with the soldiers of the Western Fort. By now Tang Pan’s soldiers were either dead, scared out of their wits or still stuck in a daze so, they’ve all but become irrelevant.

  “Halt! Traitors!” A soldier from the western fort yelled as a wall of spears surrounded the group after they passed the remnants of the city walls.

  “Where is General Song Ren?” Tang Wei’s father asked as he took off his helmet and withdrew a pendant from his robes with the help of his two wives. Although the man still appeared very sickly, there was a certain presence that he gave off which demanded everyone’s attention now that he was cured of the pesky insect that plagued him.

  “My lord, I’m sorry that we were late.” A middle-aged man with eyes that resembled that of a hawk’s and had the presence of a lurking predator said as he kneeled on one knee in front of Tang Wei’s father.

  “Brother Song, please get up. In the end, you're the only one who I can rely on.” Tang Wei’s father said while coughing.

  “Had it not been for you my lord then I would have died many years ago, without your grace I would not have been able to obtain the position I am currently in, so, as long as my heart beats then I shall remain the sword who cuts your enemies.” General Song Ren said while reminiscing about a time that had long since passed.

  “Good, I want all of these rebels apprehended and I want Tang Pan’s corpse hung above the city walls.”

  “As you command my lord.” General Song Ren said as his men stormed into the city and quickly captured what remained of Tang Pan’s men in the area around the western city gate.

  While the soldiers of the Western Fort and their general grouped up with Tang Wei and the others, Zhang and Ai departed to cause more mischief and chaos.

  “Now to drag the Dark Legion into this.” Zhang said to Ai with a devious grin.

  Although Tang Pan’s forces near the western gate were in shambles due to the arrival of General Song Ren and his soldiers coupled with the destruction that Zhang had caused, for the most part, the other city gates, and the provincial lord’s mansion was still under his control. Thus, meaning there were many pockets of Tang Pan’s soldiers scattered around the city to which Zhang could use to his advantage.

  “Ai, hop on.” Zhang said as large serpent slid out from his shadow and rose up from underneath his feet.

  While extending his hand out, Zhang grabbed Ai and the two of them sped through the city atop a massive Abyssal snake.

  “We should do this more.” Ai said with a grin while her arms wrapped around his husband’s stomach as they moved through the back-alley streets at blinding speeds. Despite the Abyssal Snake being a few hundred feet long, it moved so, quick that anyone who saw it only saw a blur.

  “Hang on tight.” Zhang said as the Abyssal Snake increased its speed. What took a few hours by foot to travel took only tens of minutes as Zhang and Ai made their way back toward the area where Tang Pan’s soldiers were mostly concentrated.

  Before long the two of them hopped off their mount and it faded back into the shadows from whence it came. Using the Underworld Heart to scan the area, Zhang had found a group of Tang Pan’s soldiers numbering roughly three hundred in total, gathered in front of the provincial lord’s mansion.

  Upon making sure Tang Pan was nowhere in sight, Zhang and Ai made their way toward the group of soldiers while giving off an air of authority.

  “Who’s the one in charge here?” Zhang said while puffing out his chest and acting as if he was a high-ranking officer in Tang Pan’s army.

  “I am the commanding officer here, who are you?” A man who appeared to be in his late fifties with a head full of gray hairs said. Of course, although this man appeared to be in his late fifties since most people lived to be four hundred years of age, his age could range from anywhere in between. But general as soldiers who were living in an age of constant war, people don’t live very long.

  “I’ve come with orders from lord Tang Pan, to gather up as many soldiers as I can to attack a group of soldiers holed up in the city’s barracks.” Zhang said.

  “We were ordered to guard the provincial lord’s mansion. Are you sure it was lord Tang Pan who gave that order?” The old man said, questioning Zhang.

  “Are you questioning our lord’s commands?” Zhang said as he withdrew a soldier that he had picked up not too long ago.

  After Zhang’s sword was drawn the group of soldiers were relatively easy to convince. Since this group of soldiers only had about three hundred people, it was clear that their commanding officer did not have a high position. Meaning it would be relatively easy for Zhang to trick them into believing he was a high-ranking officer.

  When considering how large the armies were, it wasn’t farfetched for regular soldiers to not know what their commanders looked like.

  So, with three hundred of Tang Pan’s soldiers following behind him, Zhang and Ai headed toward where the Dark Legion was staying. Along the way, they absorbed every soldier they stumbled upon into their group, resulting in a force that numbered roughly six thousand total by the time they arrived at the barracks.

  “Isn’t this where the Dark Legion is staying? Weren’t we ordered to avoid conflict with the Dark Legion by all means possible?” A soldier said.

  “Lord Tang Pan changed his mind and wishes to send a message to the Dark Legion and show them that it would be best not for them to interfere in our business.” Zhang said.

  “Halt! Who goes there?!” Voices could be heard as the barrack’s gates opened and hundreds of soldiers clad in black armor and robes stormed out with weapons drawn.

  “General Hei Ang, had stated that he will not interfere in your civil war as long as it does not hinder our mission of stopping the forces of Aurora.” A soldier from the Dark Legion said.

  “Lord Tang Pan wishes for me to convey a message to General Hei Ang.” Zhang said as he produced a piece of parchment from his robes.

  “You Dark Legion dogs, if you know your place then you’ll stay out of our bus
iness or else I’ll have you all beheaded and hung from the city walls. Then after I deal with those idiots from Aurora, I’ll head down south and raze your cities to the ground, your children will become my slaves, your wives will be sold into brothels, your parents will be worked until they are buried underneath the earth.” Zhang said as he pretended to read off the blank piece of paper he pulled out of his robes.

  Standing beside him, Ai couldn’t help but have a silly grin on her face as she had come to admire Zhang’s trouble making skills.

  While Ai was on the edge of breaking out in laughter, Tang Pan’s real soldiers gulped as they heard Zhang’s words. Never could they imagine their master utter such words and on top of things to the Dark Legion which easily outnumbered their forces four to one.

  “My lord also requires a payment of one million gold coins or else you dogs will have to find somewhere else to camp. Lastly, he requires your precious general to kowtow to him three times while calling him daddy.” Zhang added as a devious grin appeared on his face underneath his helmet.

  By now even the calmest soldier in the Dark Legion had bulging veins and furies eyes.

  “You scum! How dare you speak about our general and our families like that.” Countless angry yells echoed through the night.

  “Tch… You all just a bunch of unruly dogs that need to be taught a lesson. Which one of you dares to fight me!?” Zhang roared while withdrawing his sword.

  Blinded by rage, a few of the Dark Legion’s soldiers charged forth and lunged their spears and slashed their swords at Zhang.

  With a sideward step and a shift of his center of gravity, Zhang skillfully avoided the barrage of attacked directed toward him before returning a barrage of attacks of his own.

  Delivering a backhanded fist as his first attack, following up by delivering a kick to someone's ankle, and a downward slash with his sword, Zhang took out three of the Dark Legion’s soldiers in a flash and moved forward to take out the remaining five or so, who charged at him.

  “Attack!!!” Ai cried as she withdrew a sword that was hanging by her waist and charged forward.

  Seeing Ai charge forward the soldiers of the Dark Legion who had yet to join the fray rushed in and began to attack Tang Pan’s soldiers. Soon enough a large brawl broke out with people being killed left and right.

  “Ai!” Zhang yelled as he signaled for Ai to retreat.

  With their objective of causing conflict between Tang Pan’s soldiers and the Dark Legion complete, all they had to do was to gather more soldiers to join the five thousand who was not engaged in battle with the soldiers of the Dark Legion.

  If Zhang’s guesses were right, then Tang Pan would currently have roughly about ninety thousand soldiers under his command, after subtracting the soldiers who were at the western city gate. So now Zhang’s goal was to lure the other eighty-five thousand soldiers to also join the fight against the Dark Legion.

  “I almost forgot…” Zhang mumbled as he flipped his hand and withdrew two flares from his interspatial ring. Moments later two green colored flares shot into the skies, signaling to his soldiers who were still undercover within the Dark Legion.

  This signal was for Zhang’s men to being to sabotage the Dark Legion from within and add to the chaos as much as possible. Now was the time to cause as much damage as possible to the Dark Legion and the Red Thorn Army.

  With Zhang’s direction, soon thousands of soldiers under Tang Pan’s command sparked toward where their comrades were fighting the Dark Legion. With the right number of lies and misdirection, a tale of betrayal was spun.

  “Those Dark Legion dogs are helping those two idiot brothers and are attacking our comrades!” Zhang cried every time he met a group of Tang Pan’s soldiers.

  “They said if we don't give them the province, they'll rape all of the men and sell all of the women and children into slavery!” Ai said adding more oil to the fire.

  Thus, the Dark Legion and Tang Pan’s soldiers began to slaughter each other, much to Tang Pan’s grief.

  Seeing how things were going, General Song Ren ordered his soldiers to halt their advance to avoid confronting the Dark Legion. Since the armor that the soldiers of the eastern and western fort wore were essentially identical besides the color of the thread lacing, it would be very easy to confuse the two forces.

  Amidst the chaos, Zhang’s soldiers within the Dark Legion used the once in a lifetime opportunity given to them to set a large amount of the Dark Legion’s the rations ablaze before blending back into the enemy’s army once again.

  One might wonder, with the conscience of interspatial rings, why would anyone even leave important things such as rations out in the open. But the answer is simple, in an army as large as the Dark Legion, it is impractical for a single or a few people to hold onto all of the food since there is always the possibility of the person holding all of the food defecting from the army.

  “Those bastards! All I wanted to do was conserve our forces to face the biggest threat the southern region will face, but they had to drag us into this stupid civil war…” General Hei Ang cursed as his soldiers were being killed and his army was dragged into the Red Thorn Province’s civil war.

  “Kill them! Kill them all! I want that bastard Tang Pan’s head on a spike! Find lord Tang Hong, and tell him we will aid him and for his soldiers to not engage our soldiers.” He roared in rage as he finally decided to commit his soldiers into quelling the rebellion and aiding Tang Wei and Tang Shiang’s father.

  By picking to help Tang Hong and his sons, the Dark Legion would have to face one hundred thousand fewer enemy soldiers and thus, would suffer fewer casualties. They would also be able to demand compensation for their losses since a lot of their rations were all but turned into ashes.

  Although he had a portion of the army’s funds and rations stored away in his interspatial ring, nearly half of the rations were turned to ashes. So if their supply was not supplemented then there was the possibility of starving

  Overall, Zhang’s plan had lit Red Thorn City ablaze and caused a sea of blood to form.

  Chapter 61: End to Fighting

  With the soldiers of the Dark Legion officially joining the fray, the soldiers of the Western Fort were able to easily recapture the city walls. Before long, Tang Pan’s forces became caged beasts as their numbers continued to dwindle. There were those who choose to fight till the bitter end and there were those who surrendered the first opportunity they got, but for the most part, Tang Pan’s forces were suffering a massive defeat.

  Although the fight was somewhat one-sided once the Dark Legion joined it, it was not like the soldiers of the Eastern Fort were going down without a fight. For every three soldiers, Tang Pan lost, the Dark Legion would lose one soldier.

  Meaning by the conclusion of the battle, the Dark Legion would have lost roughly forty to fifty thousand men, while the Red Thorn Army’s forces could possibly be halved. That would, of course, be if Zhang and his men did not meddle any further.

  Of course, it was without a doubt that Zhang and his soldiers would continue to meddle to further fuel the chaos.

  “We should do this more often.” Zhang said with a wicked grin as she and Zhang led a freshly gathered group of Tang Pan’s soldiers toward the ever-growing bloodbath in front of the barracks that the Dark Legion was staying at.

  “We should.” Zhang replied to his wife as he nudged her shoulder with his hand as they walked through the alleyways of Red Thorn City.

  While Zhang and Ai were out having the time of their lives causing chaos, thousands of soldiers under the command of the three beauties in the Rainbow Rock Province surrounded the provincial mansion. As Ling, Lingqi and Yuying entered the land of dreams and were fast asleep their soldiers had held the offensive and continued to attack the soldiers of the Rainbow Rock Army.

  “Bring the siege rams in!” A captain left in charge by Yuying commanded.

  However, before any siege rams were brought and any gates or walls were toppled over, th
e battle concluded. The twin gates of the provincial lord’s mansion opened and hundreds of soldiers from inside walked out with their hands raised.

  “We surrender!” They cried as they ushered an elderly looking man dressed in purple robes along with a dozen beautiful women and some children out from the mansion. This was, of course, the provincial lord, his wives, his daughters, and his songs.

  “Tie the soldiers up and bring that man and the others to the princesses.” One of the captains of the forces of Aurora said to his subordinates.

  Before long the lord of Rainbow Rock City and his family were brought into the hotel where the three beauties were resting, much to the amazement of the innkeeper and his family. They believed that although victory was a farfetched thing, the soldiers in the provincial lord’s mansion would at least hold out for a few more day, perhaps until reinforcement from the other southern provinces came.