Dragon's Soul
Chapter 183
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Special Thanks to: Gault for pointing out errors to me on chatango, and to the proofers who are helping me look at the older chapters.
Wish you all a great rest of the day and hope you like this arc o_o, always wanted to a water world arc lol.
Niao w.a.n.g is not to be confused with Niao Fang
Niao w.a.n.g= Seagull
Niao Fang= Saint from the Golden Peak Province.
Just wanted to make that clear :D will try to keep names not too common like this one sorry folks :D
Mantis Shrimp
Flying Fish ( the ones in the story have mouths like sword fish though.)
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While Zhang faithfully sat crossed legged in front of the stone gates that led into the Sky Fortress’s inner sanctuary where the beauties were attempting to break through their bottleneck, the depths of the sea was filled with activity. Countless horse sized fish equipped with bug-like wings and countless more ma.s.sive shrimp shot through the water with armed riders clinging onto their backs. Mixed in with the horde of sea creatures and their riders were dozens of intimidating figures who extruded an intimidating aura.
Like arrows soaring through the sky, this army from the depths pierced through the water at unbelievable speeds. In a flash, they shot out of the water’s surface in an amazing display of splashing water and glittering scales as sunlight shone down from above.
“Let us remind the land dwellers why they fear the seas! Ahahahahaha!” A man clad in bright red colored scale armor roared as he lifted his spear into the air.
“This way!” Niao w.a.n.g said as he morphed into a seagull and began leading the army of the sea in the direction where Zhang and the beauties were.
As the army of the sea continued to near their destination and Zhang’s location, high up in the sky and deep within the Sky Fortress, Zhang’s eyes suddenly opened as he pushed himself up from the ground with an emotionless look on his face and with unhurried steps made his way through the large corridor that led outside while his hands with behind his back.
“I wonder who’s coming this time.” Zhang mumbled in a low tone as he traced the wall beside him with one of his hands.
Although the beauties were rather preoccupied and did not know about the approaching force of sea dwellers, Zhang was not the only one preparing to intercept the sea army. Out on the exterior of the Sky Fortress, every single one of the towers containing an essence core began sending out beacons of red light which acted as signals to Zhang’s armies and the members of the Imperial Inst.i.tute.
Before long hundreds of thousands of soldiers clad in black armor that was giving off a mysterious green sheen could be seen hurriedly making preparations for the arrivals of the incoming force.
Thousands of ballistae were brought out and loaded while hundreds of Golden Winged Eagles that were now outfitted with razor-sharp metallic talons and armor took to the skies with their riders brandishing bows and spears in hand.
“Brace yourselves men, for today we will show the might of the armies of Aurora! Be it man, beast or even a saint we will show them that we will not be trifled with, without putting up a fight! We will show our lord that his faith is not misplaced!” The commanders of Zhang’s army roared at the tops of their lungs.
“All inner branch students who are levels seven or high are to report to the defense towers while the rest of you are to go and guard the inner sanctuary!” The teachers and professors of the Imperial Inst.i.tute said as they directed their students.
Soon enough a large portion of the inst.i.tute"s students along with a large group of soldiers marched off to the Inner Sanctuary while other groups of students made their way to the various towers positioned around the fortress. Along with the students were also countless different demonic beasts of all shapes and sizes.
After his ascension and the needless loss of thousands soldiers, Zhang, hoping to not send his men into a one-sided battle that would certainly lead them to their deaths, had given specific orders for every soldier who had yet reached the sixth level of cultivation and every student who had yet reached the seventh level of cultivation to hole up in the interior of the Sky Fortress.
So currently only roughly half of Zhang’s forces were a.s.sembled outside but even with half of Zhang’s forces a.s.sembled, hundreds of thousands of people could still be seen.
“Scatter and report back any signs of enemies!” One of the captains of the Winged Legion said prompting the riders of the hundreds of Winged Eagles to split up and flew in all directions.
After fleeing from the elders of the Lunar Sect and gaining a lot of firsthand experience, every member of the Winged Legion was now much more precise in their maneuvers and were much more vigilant of their surroundings than before so before long they caught sight of the army of the sea.
“Report back to base that we have a large force of fish and shrimp speeding right for us.” A member of the Winged Legion said, but he was somewhat flabbergasted by what he had said soon after.
“Look at what we have here.” A voice rang into everyone"s ears as they caught sight of a normal looking seagull soaring up toward them.
“Scramble!” A captain of the Wing Legion commanded. Soon after all of the Golden Winged Eagles present back to perform different maneuvers and break apart from one another.
“That won"t help you.” Niao w.a.n.g who was in his bird form said as dozens of gales of wind were formed and crashed into the members of the Winged Legion, knocking them off their mounts and plummeting toward the sea where countless horrors were awaiting.
“Come down to papa!” Many riders of the winged fish and mantis shrimp said as bloodl.u.s.t was extruded from their bodies.
However, to their surprise, the members of the Winged Legion began tugging on a series of cords and cables that were sticking out of armor and in no time at all wings extended out of the back of their armor.
Then came along a gentle breeze that lifted them up into the air before their winged partners swooped along and retrieved them.
“I"m glad his highness had the people from the Inferno Smithing Hall make these for us or else we would have been dead meat.” A member of the Winged Legion said as he pulled a wire that caused the winged that extended out from the back portion of his armor to fold away.
“Flying Fish Cavalry are you waiting for his highness to go up there and capture them himself? Go and show them that just because we come from the depths of the sea that we are able to soar in the skies also! First battalion with me!” A rider atop a large red colored flying fish three times the size of all the other flying fish roared, signaling for a late group of flying fish and their riders to dive into the water to moments later shoot out into the sky.
With their lance-like skull structure, the flying fish break through the air and unfolded their wings, using the wind to glide into the skies.
“Deploy lightning talismans and ready your weapons!” The captain of the Winged Legion said as he and his men unleashed a storm of lightning into the incoming, not fish riders.
“You think lighting at this level can stop us? Dream on! The scales of these fish are made of condensed essence that can nullify most attacks without even leaving a scratch.” A fish rider said mockingly as he closed in on one of the riders of the Winged Legion. But contrary to what he thought would happen, the fish rider was soon knocked into a daze.
One by one Zhang’s soldiers brandished pitch black spears that gave off an eerie green colored sheen, in a flash, these spears pierced through the tough scales of the flying no fish as if they were not there at all causing blood to rain down from above.
Once their spears impaled the flying fish, their winged partners would also lash out with sharp metallic talons that also gave off an eerie green awe.
“What the…” Niao w.a.n.g said as he fluttered his wings and shoot forth at one of the riders of the Winged Legion. With a sudden flash of light enveloping him, Niao w.a.n.g morphed into the form of a human and with a blade made of wind lopped off the arm of one of Zhang’s soldiers while grabbing hold of the man"s spear. Afterward, in a single fluid motion, Niao w.a.n.g sent the man and his Golden Winged Eagle smashing into the waves with a single kick.
“Interesting…. This weapon has a tiny hint of mithril in it. Not enough to be considered a threat to saints but for level seven beasts like the Flying Fish, these would be sufficient to bypa.s.s their defense…” Niao w.a.n.g said as he snapped the spear and stored away its tip.
“One mustn"t take what does not belong to one’s self, nor should one try to kill the subordinates of another without reason nor cause.” Zhang’s voice boomed through the air as he could be seen levitating inches off the water’s surface.
On Zhang’s right side was a large Golden Winged Eagle with a broken wing where bone could be seen sticking out and on his left side was the soldier who had his arm cut off.
In no time at all Zhang unleashed the power of the Underworld Heart and healed both the soldier who lost his arm and the Golden Winged Eagle.
“Tha-tha-thank you your highness.” The soldier said as seawater dripped off of his soaking wet garments and beads of sweat formed on his brow.
“You and the others head back to the fortress. Tell then I should be able to handle things and but to prep the five-layer defense that Princess Yuying had set up just in case.” Zhang said with a smile.
After Zhang’s ascension, Yuying, and her disciples had deployed four more inscription arrays around the Sky Fortress that would allow it to absorb the attacks of enemies to create a barrier, meaning if the enemy’s forces did not consist of a high saint or two then there was nothing to really worry about.
“It has been bugging me for a bit so I guess it"s time to make some things clear…” Zhang mumbled as he waved his hand and made the Rising Moon Sword appear in his hand. Zhang figured now that he has a good grasp of its power it would simply be a waste to not use it.
“First off, fish belong in the water.” He said calmly as he swung the legendary sword at the air. All of a sudden thousands of flying fish and their riders who were gliding through the air and using the wind to stay in the skies felt an unbearable pressure wrap pushing down onto them. Before anyone knew it all of the flying fish came crashing down into the sea.
“Secondly, please don"t change back into a seagull because people would laugh at me for bullying a bird.” Zhang said as he tried to contain his laughter.
“Ignorant human, I am Niao w.a.n.g, champion of the sea and supreme general to the ruler of the Blood Coral Cove, ranked among the twenty strongest forces under the waves, Lord Shen Yu! State your name so when the sea-folk sing of my victory they will know of the opponent that I had defeated.” Niao w.a.n.g said in a prideful and confident tone ignoring the fact that Zhang had just sent hundreds of his subordinates crashing into the waves.
“Look at that puny human shaking in his boots. He must have used up quite a bit of his power to knock those flying fish riders down.” A few of the riders atop flying fish and mantis shrimp laughed.
“I don"t know about those guys riding the fish and shrimp but I"m sure their saint level experts are divine beasts. This will be interesting.” Zhang thought as he saw that the aura that Niao w.a.n.g, Shen Yu and the other saint level sea dwellers were giving off were closer to that of a demonic beast than a human.
Suddenly a ma.s.sive shadow crept through the sky and blocked out the sun causing all of the sea people to look up in confusion. In its full glory, the ma.s.sive Sky Fortress loomed miles above the sea in the air.
“I can sense it! The source of the ascension is up there! My general and champions kill him and collect the heavenly energy for me.” A man with two horns protruding from his forehead said when surpa.s.singly another ray of heavenly energy descended.
“Hahaha, the heavens truly have blessed me today, for there is not one person going through ascension but two! To think something that rarely happens every hundreds or so years is occurring in pairs.” Lord Shen Yu of the Blood Coral Cove said in a laughing tone. But to further everyone"s amazement, another day of heavenly energy descended and then yet another, in an event that could be said to have never been witnessed before, a total of four ascensions was happening at the same time.
Had Zhang and the beauties stayed within the Wulin Continent then all of the saints there would have gone mad at the amount of heavenly energy being released. But luckily out here in the vastness of the sea only Shen Yu and his subordinates had sensed the ascension of the beauties and had come to interfere.
“I"m sorry but that"s not something you can take.” Zhang said as he saw Shen Yu eyeing the four ma.s.sive pillars of radiating heavenly energy descending down from the far reaches of the sky.
With a snap of his fingers, Zhang activated the five barriers that Yuying had laid down, causing five nearly transparent bubbles or envelope the Sky Fortress and overlap one another in succession.
“Attack! Kill him and offer this island and everything on it to Lord Shen Yu!” An intimidating man with eight tentacles protruding from his back roared and he flew out from the sea while brandishing a ma.s.sive scimitar with a coral handle.
“Octopus?” Zhang mumbled as his eyes twinkled before he disappeared in a flash and appeared in front of the man with eight tentacles.
“If I recall correctly, an octopus has a total of three hearts. I wonder if it"s true even after they"ve become saints.” Zhang said as a crazed expression appeared on his face.
Before the man with tentacles could react, Zhang’s hand pierced through his muscular chest and tore out a still beating heart causing the man to cough up a mouth full of blood.
“That’s one heart, let"s see if there are two more.” Zhang said with a crazed expression still on his face as he tossed the man’s heart into the sea and extended his hand once more.
Much to the man’s dismay, Zhang’s hand soon retracted once again with another one of his beating hearts in its grasp.
“No-no more, I only have one more, please don"t.” The man plead as he flew backward while blood dropped out of the corner of his mouth.
By now a scowl had appeared on Lord Shen Yu’s face.
“d.a.m.n he must have been hiding his powers…” Lord Shen Yu cursed as he realized that Zhang was not a lesser Saint like he and his subordinates had thought earlier.