A Beginning's Continuation

by Tony Tran

  “Surround him!” A lesser Saint bellowed to his comrades as he used his sword to redirect Zhang’s lightning bolt. But much to his misfortune as the lightning bolt was being redirected, Zhang appeared before the lesser saint and left a large gash across the man’s neck.

  Much like when he was fighting amidst large groups of enemy soldiers, Zhang tried to create large showy moves that distracted his enemies when he could and move in for the kill with precise and swift movements.

  “Brother Xue Huo it seems like it’s time for us to intervene.” The other full saint said as he saw how quickly Zhang was killing his underlings.

  “Let’s go.” Xue Huo said he gripped his battle ax tightly in his hand.

  Seeing that the two full saints were finally joining the fray, Zhang performed a series of graceful movements and sped his way toward the Sky Fortress’s main essence core. Before anyone could figure out what he was going to do, Zhang’s hand pressed against the essence core and the fortress’s barrier was reactivated and an extremely powerful gravitational force soon enveloped the lesser saints causing their movements to slightly slow.

  “Maybe if I used maximum power for a bit.” Zhang said as the gravitational force exerted by the barrier increased exponentially.

  The lesser saints soon found themselves unable to move while the full saints found themselves slowly being weakened.

  “Now that things are a bit more, fair I'll play with you guys a bit more.” Zhang said with an evil grin as he shot back into the air and began to wildly slash at the weakened lesser saints.

  “You can have my interspatial ring! I'll even kowtow while calling you daddy!” A lesser saint said moments before Zhang decapitated him.

  Soon enough all of the lesser saints fell from the sky and Zhang set his eyes on his two remaining opponents.

  “Flee!” Xue Huo yelled to the other full saint as he felt that he was now at a disadvantage when facing against Zhang.

  “If I was the one who controlled this fortress…” He also said as he tried to escape.

  “Come to my place, kill my men, try to take my wives and my pets and think you can just leave like that?” Zhang’s voice rang through the air as he charged after Xue Huo.

  “Younger brother, it seems you have mistaken because I did not kill any of your men nor did I want your wives or pets.” The other full saint beside Xue Huo said in a hurried voice.

  “Then why don’t you stay a bit longer brother Xue Huo, allow me to show you a bit of hospitality. But first, let me kill this bastard Xue Huo!” Zhang said as dozens of bolts of lightning crackled through the air.

  “Tsk…” Xue Huo clicked his tongue as he cut apart a few of the bolts of lightning while evading the rest then waving his hand and creating dozens of blades of wind that cut through the air and headed toward Zhang.

  “Damn…” Zhang cursed as he tried his best to evade the razor-sharp blades of wind. Despite his attempts to evade, the sleeve of Zhang’s robe was shredded while dozens of cuts were left on his body leaving streaks of blood. Much to Zhang’s discomfort a large gash was left on the side of his stomach but due to the nature of the situation, he did not stop his pursuit and continued to charge toward Xue Huo.

  “Peng Yu stop watching and help me!” Xue Huo yelled to the other full saint as Zhang closed in on him with fiery eyes.

  “You’re on your own! As long as we are in this barrier we are at a disadvantage against him!” The full saint named Peng Yu retorted unhappily.

  “You think you can leave the barrier but you forget that this fortress can move.” Zhang inwardly laughed as he made the Sky Fortress move moments before his two opponents made it out.

  Chapter 75: Black Droplet

  As the Sky Fortress moved and prevented the two full saints from leaving the boundary of its barrier, Zhang closed in on them with red lightning coiling around his two swords.

  “Die!” Xue Huo roared as he spun and slashed at Zhang with a sweep of his ax.

  Much to his surprise, two large abyssal vipers shot out from the inner side of Zhang’s cape with their jaws that were large enough to swallow a small sized dog unhinged.

  As the snakes extended out from the darkness one of them latched onto Xue Huo’s battle ax while the other bit into his arm.

  “Pests…” Xue Huo said as afflicted his wrist and performed a backhanded sweep with his ax, cutting off the heads of the two Abyssal Vipers.

  But of course, the vipers were simply distractions as Zhang appeared beside Xue Huo and slashed downward with one of his swords while stabbing forward with the other. Despite being able to avoid being stabbed, Xue Huo’s arm was left with a deep gaping wound that revealed cut muscle and bone.

  “If only I had a stronger weapon…” Zhang sighed as he found out his sword wasn't able to cut through Xue Huo’s bone.

  “Brother Xue Huo I wish you luck.” The other full saint said as he neared the barrier and sent a fury of sword auras cutting through the air creating an exit through the barrier. But before he could exit the barrier, a bolt of red lightning pierced through the air and wrapped around his arm, charring it beyond recognition. Biting his lip and gripping his charred arm, the full saint sped through the opening in the barrier.

  After nearly having his arm cut off Xue Huo had retreated a small distance from Zhang and began to focus his powers on mending his wound, giving Zhang the opportunity to attack the other remaining saint.

  “Tsk… He got away…” Zhang thought as he watched the barrier reseal itself and the other full saint flee.

  Outside of the barrier let along two full saints, Zhang would have his hands full with a single full saint so, he did not attempt to pursue and focused his attention solely on Xue Huo whose arm was completely mended after a minute or so.

  “Now we can fight one on one uninterrupted.” Zhang said as his cape fluttered in the air and dozens of Abyssal Beasts began to be released from the darkness.

  “One on one it is then.” Xue Huo said as he tossed his battle axe and ripped off his robes revealing bulging muscles. Moments later a pair of metallic gloves appear and slid onto his hands before Xue Huo posed with his two arms raised.

  “Boxing?” Zhang mumbled as he used the Underworld Heart to retrieve dozens of mithril tipped ballista bolts from the ground along with his ten Dragon Talon thriving knives. Remembering how powerful a boxer could be when they closed in on their opponent, Zhang decided he would use the ballista bolts to maintain a suitable distance between himself and Xue Huo on top of relying on the Abyssal Beasts to provide distractions.

  “Fist of the angry Buddha!” Xue Huo roared as he began to release a golden colored aura while launching dozens of fists created out of essence at Zhang. Much to Zhang’s surprise these fists made out of essence would randomly explode and expand, making it difficult to figure out a proper way to deal with them.

  “Lightning god’s fury!” Zhang yelled as he shot a red colored thunderbolt through the air.

  “Isn’t that just one of brother’s regular red lightning bolts?” Ai asked as she watched Zhang’s battle. Not too long ago she had absorbed all of the heavenly energy released by the dead lesser saint and had nothing else to do.

  Regarding Ai’s question, Zhang’s red lightning bolt was in fact no different than all of the lightning bolts that he had been using this entire time. However, seeing as his opponent had a cool name for his technique, Zhang figured it would only be proper to yell out something also.

  While Ai was watching, the red lightning bolt snaked from one fist of essence to the next causing a series of small eye-catching explosion.

  “Lightning dragon’s rage!” Zhang yelled as he shot a regular red colored lightning bolt toward Xue Huo.

  Utterly confused by what Zhang was yelling out, Xue Huo stopped his technique and began to dodge instead.

  “Art of yelling random things, success…” Zhang laughed as he flicked his wrist and made the dozens of mithril tipped ballista bolts and Dragon Talon throwing knives pierce t
hrough the air.

  As Zhang’s weapons danced and weaved through the air around Xue Huo it eventually became impossible for him to dodge. At first, Xue Huo was able to evade but as the weapons began to perform unpredictable turns and such he had to repel them using his fists. But soon enough Xue Huo’s body was littered with wounds, a few ballista bolts were even sticking out of his back.

  However, these were all superficial wounds that seemed to heal in no time at all.

  “Eat this!” Xue Huo roared as a pulse of essence was released from his body sending all of the weapons under Zhang’s control to be sent flying away. In a blink of an eye, he appeared in front of Zhang and his first shot forth at blinding speeds.

  A shattering sound could be heard as his fist shattered Zhang’s twin swords as and smashed into his chest, sending him flying into the Sky Fortress’s barrier. Luckily inches before crashing into his own barrier, Zhang was able to use the silver ring that controls the fortress to open up a small hole in the barrier.

  Thankfully despite packing a lot of power Xue Huo’s attack was not enough to kill Zhang, that is to say, it still dealt substantial damage.

  After a split second, Zhang charged back into the barrier to confront Xue Huo once again, but much to his discomfort he was greeted by yet another one fist packed with power.

  This time instead of flying toward the barrier, Zhang was sent crashing into one of the many stone buildings that lined the Sky Fortress. As he was getting up from under a pile of rubble, Zhang’s Dragon Heart Necklace began to glow and a black colored droplet flew out of it and into the air.

  Unlike the golden drop of essence, the Necklace had given to him in the Underworld that granted him the use of the dragon’s black flames, this droplet was pitch black and seemed to bend the space around it.

  “No, thank you for waking me up. I've been asleep for a while or I guess I've been dead for a while?” Zhang thought as he recalled the voice that came from the pendant many years ago. Perhaps this pendant was not the same pendant as before and the voice inside it had died off long ago, Zhang did not know. But what he did know was if the black droplet floating in front of him it would give him strength.

  Plucking the droplet out from the air and placing it inside his mouth, Zhang swallowed the thing with a single gallop.

  Maybe it was because he already had control of the black flames, but a fragment of memory flowed into his mind as a smile crept onto Zhang’s face.

  In a few breaths, a pulse of essence emanated from Zhang’s body causing hundreds of weapons that were laying on the ground to shoot upward toward Xue Huo who was able to unleash some sort of technique down at Zhang.

  Once the storm of weapons swirled around Xue Huo, he unleashed a massive fist made of condensed essence down at Zhang before deflecting defending himself.

  Suddenly something totally unexpected occurred, as Xue Huo tried to repel Zhang’s weapons he felt a sudden pulse of essence fluctuate through the air and a thin black slit appeared in front of him and in a flash a sword’s blade shot out of it and pierced into his chest as a bolt of lightning shot upward from the ground and colliding with the massive first made of essence causing a huge explosion.

  Looking down to where Zhang was lying, he could be seen gripping the hilt of a sword whose blade was nowhere in sight.

  “Interesting!” Zhang yelled as he tried out the ability that the black droplet had granted him. Unlike the golden droplet that gave him the power of the black flame that could burn away essence, the black droplet granted him the power to influence and slightly manipulate space within a small area of a couple hundred feet. Basically, the black droplet granted Zhang the ability to cut through space and open tiny portals through it within a small area.

  Although such an ability would naturally seem powerful, in actuality when facing against full saints or high saints it wasn’t an ability that can be used over and over again because once the trick is figured out it wouldn’t be as effective as before.

  “Now to finish him.” Zhang thought as his sword slid out of Xue Huo’s chest and out of the black slit cut in space. Soon after a bolt of lightning streaked upward followed by an eerie black fire the size of a person’s head.

  Stunned by being stabbed through the chest, Xue Huo failed to dodge both the lightning bolt and the black flame.

  “To think that even burning my heavenly energy and unleashing my body enhancement techniques would only amount to so, much…” Xue Huo muttered as he fell from the sky, heavily injured.

  Once Xue Huo was laying on the ground Zhang sped over him and with a single slash severed his head from his body. Normally he would at least try to extract some information before killing an opponent, but considering the many possible tricks that Xue Huo could have up his sleeve Zhang felt the need to end his life and absorb his heavenly energy as soon as possible.

  Since there was always the possibility of the other full saint returning. Had it not been for the sudden appearance of the black droplet and his new strange ability then Zhang would have more than likely be beaten to a pulp and killed despite the Sky Fortress’s barrier applying pressure on Xue Huo.

  So, if he didn’t catch Xue Huo off guard and had Xue Huo went all out with Zhang then he would have sadly lost, showing that Zhang was lacking when compared to peers. That is to say that when compared to the other full saints and lesser saints, the group that stayed behind to rob Zhang were not very powerful or else they would not have stuck around for scraps.

  “Next time I won’t leave it to luck.” Zhang said as he began to absorb the blobs of heavenly energy that was being released from Xue Huo’s body.

  A bit later, once all of the beauties had finished absorbing the heavenly energy of the lesser saints while Zhang had finished absorbing Xue Huo’s heavenly energy, they began to give out medical treatment to the injured soldiers and assess the casualties that was caused.

  “Considering that it was saints and their disciples who we were going up against, a loss of fifty thousand soldiers is not much…” Guan Yu said with a strained voice.

  “Those bastards weren’t even serious…” Zhang Fei complained with a sigh.

  “Uncle Guan if you can see to it that all of the injured are taken cared of and to assure all of the civilians that they are now safe.” Lingqi said politely.

  Soon as the moon rose and dozens of different matters were dealt with and after Zhang and the beauties retreated to their chambers, the group of husband and wives began to look through the interspatial rings that they looted off the corpses of the dead saints.

  Since even lesser saints were highly regarded, every interspatial ring was filled with a large variety of treasures that could be said to be impossible to acquire within the Warring States Region.

  “This one has a few million gold coins, a wide variety of medical herbs, some unique looking weapons and a bunch of other things.” Ai said as she checked the contents of a yellow colored ring.

  “This one also has a few million gold coins, a bunch of demonic beast parts, some books and strange pills.” Ling said as she held a purple colored ring.

  “There's a few thousand essence stones, hundreds of manuals, thousands of pills, and many other things in this ring.” Zhang said as he held up Xue Huo’s interspatial ring, a black and white interspatial ring.

  “If I can get the medical herbs and pills, I’d like to study them and see if I can remake them or possibly use the herbs to try out a few recipes I’ve found but have never been able to find the proper ingredients to make.” Lingqi said with a smile as she claimed the medical herbs and pills.

  “Brother, you can have the gold.” Ai laughed.

  “Let’s sort through the books and see if there are some techniques and cultivation methods we can learn.” Ling suggested.

  “I call dibs on those corpses. I can use them to create some high-level undead.” Yuying said with a devious smile. Although she couldn’t make saint level undead with the corpse, she could definitely make level ten or nin
e undead with them when considering her knowledge about the occult.

  “So how do you four feel after absorbing the heavenly energy?” Zhang asked, with a curious look as wondered if the beauties became half saints or not. Rather the thought of becoming a half saint fairly intrigued him causing quite a few questions to pop up in his head.

  “I feel the same.” Ai said with a shrug.

  “Me too.” The other beauties said in unison.

  Moments later Zhang and the beauties began to split up the loot they acquired.

  Chapter 76: Spoils

  Once the spoils were split, Lingqi ended up with a small hill of valuable herbs, plants, pills and ancient concocting recipes that most people only dreamed of having a portion of. From flowers and fruits that only appeared every thousand or so, years to rare demonic beast parts that could be used to treat countless illnesses. Much to her delight, Lingqi now had enough ingredients to try out dozens of recipes that she had always wanted to try but never had the proper supplies to do so.