Chapter 50: The Devourer

Once Zhang opened the black book and blinding golden light enveloped him, Yuying, along and Ai. As the light enveloped them their consciousness began to slowly fade away until it was gone.

The consciousness of the group of four drifted through a sea of empty thoughts. Without a worry, without a care they continued to drift.

Sometime later Zhang slowly began to regain his consciousness.

"Where am I?" Zhang murmured as he looked around only to see a vast empty white room.

"Where is everyone else." Zhang thought as he looked around.

"I'm certain that they were enveloped in light as well." However, that's when Zhang noticed a misty smoke began to form a short distance away from him.

As time passed the smoke began to concentrate and form the figure of a person. Slowly but at a decent pace the smoke condensed and formed the body of a young girl.

"Yuying!" Zhang yelled as he ran toward her.

"Yuying! Wake up!" Zhang yelled as he held her up by the shoulders.

Her eyes began to open and he could see her dazzling pupils look at him.

"Brother what's wrong?" Yuying said.

After looking around she asked Zhang info a confused tone, “brother where are we? Last I remember we were in our room."

"I don't know either." Zhang said but before he could say another word some more misty smoke appeared and another after that.

Not much time passed until the forms of Ai and Ling could be seen. Zhang and Yuying ran up toward them and tried to wake them up.

Shortly after Ai and Ling regained consciousness but before they could say anything a voice rang out from nowhere.

"It seems you have all made it." The voice said. This voice sounded oddly familiar to Zhang but he was not able to remember who's voice it belonged to.

"Where are we?" Zhang asked.

"Where? When? That is of no importance. What is important is that you are here and not elsewhere." The voice said.

"If when and where are of no importance then who are you?" Yuying asked seeing that the voice did not want to tell them where they were.

"I am spoken of by many but known by none. I am called the creator and the destroy. I am me and I am no one. Some call me a god, some call me a demon, some call me the devoured of souls. I am king my kingdom is endless, my kingdom is border less, my kingdom is timeless." The voice spouted.

"King of the endless kingdom please tell us how to return from whence we came." Zhang said.

"That is simple to return from whence you came you make listen. You must listen well and remember. You must remember the story that has been lost. The story of this King." The voice said as a giant golden eye appeared above the group of four.

And with a flash of golden light a vast scenery appeared from nothingness. The group found themselves in an extremely dense jungle.

The one odd thing was that as Zhang tries to lean on a tree trunk he fell through it. Soon the group found out that they could walk through everything.

As they continued to go through the forest quite literally they stumbled on a large egg.

"Had we not been able to walk through things then perhaps we would never be able to navigate through such a thick jungle." Ling said to the others.

"That's right I've never heard not seen a jungle so thick like this. And there are odd plants I've never see also." Zhang said.

The egg in front of group slowly began to show cracks on it and soon a large lizard the size of a fully grown man emerged from it.

As the lizard took in its first breaths of life a rumbling sound could be heard approaching. Trees could be heard falling down and crashing into one another. Soon a gigantic lizard could be seen emerging from the forest and with a single chomp consumed the newly born lizard.

That was when a voice sounded out.

"The world this King was born into was one where the strong thrived and the weak perished." The voice from before said.

Then the world faded back into nothingness and was once more recreated into another scenery. This time the group was floating in the air.

"In the beginning I stood above every living being and everything below submitted to my will. Those who did not were sent to oblivion." The voice said.

Zhang could see countless beasts of all shapes and sizes looking as if they were bowing at the foot of a tall mountain.

A violent roar sounded out and a huge shadow descended from the mountain and landed in front of the various beasts.

The thing that came down from the mountain was covered in azure scales and had wings that could curtain the sun and change day into night. With its two large golden pupils that gave of a terrifying gaze the large creature stared down at those below.

"A azure dragon." Zhang murmured as he stared blankly. Dragons were the beasts of legend and of course this was his first time seeing one.

Likewise, the three beauties also watched without blinking an eye.

But soon after the scene changed once more and a new scenery was created. This time the group found themselves in a gigantic cave.

"However like many others once I reached the pinnacle of the food chain I grew bored and went into a deep slumber." The voice said.

As I fell into a death like slumber the world outside changed. Time flew by and soon the races of old were replaced with new beings.

The scenery seemed to fast forward and show the landscape and creatures slowly change and gradually become entirely different or replaced.

"After countless years a new king had taken my place. This King came from the weakest of races. They were frail, and had short lives however they reigned supreme over the other creatures. They would eventually call themselves human." The voice said.

Scenes of weird looking people could be seen fighting large creatures. At first they would be killed and eaten but as time passed they dominated the other creatures.

"These humans were a curious race but thanks to this they quickly developed and progress as a species very fast. And their rate of expansion was frightening. Their birth rate gave them a vast advantage over the other creatures."

Scenes of humans harnessing fire and making various tools could be seen. The group could see how humans began forming small groups that eventually grew and became large communities.

"However sometimes having too much curiosity is not a good thing." The voice said as it showed the group how the curiously of the early humans provoked many predators and got them killed.

"Due to their curiosity and stupidity they almost brought about the ruin of their race. They had almost brought the end upon themselves." The voice said.

Zhang and the three beauties were now in gigantic cave following behind a larger group of early humans.

"I wonder what the voice belonging to the dragon meant when it said their curiously almost brought their end." Ling said.

"Perhaps they triggered something sort of event within this cave. It probably has something to do with the dragon." Zhang said.

Although they were following the group of early humans this was all of course an illusion so whatever they did would not have an effect.

As they walked behind the group of early humans they entered into a huge chamber within the cave. Within this chamber lying in a lake of steaming hot water was a huge blue scaled dragon.

Seeing the dragon, fear could be seen on the faces of the early humans. However, curiosity got the better of them and they approached the sleeping dragon.

"Idiots...." Zhang murmured.

From there the group of four could guess what would happen. And just as they thought a group of the early humans climbed onto the giant dragon. Once the humans got onto the body of the giant dragon they climbed all the way to its head.

"They are not doing what I'm thinking they are going to do." Yuying said.

"I think they are." Ling replied.

"Yup pretty sure they are going to do it." Ai added.

Moments later a loud roar sounded out. The early humans had stabbed the giant dragon in a small gap between its eyelids. Had they attacked elsewhere with their wooden spears then it would have done no damage. But they had stabbed into the beast's eye.

"I'm glad that we are able to walk through things." Zhang said as he stared at the giant azure dragon getting up from the steaming lake angrily.

Once the dragon goes up and out of the steaming lake it furiously began killing the humans.

"They sort of deserve this for attacking the sleeping dragon and waking it up." Yuying said without any hint of pity.

The dragon roared as it bit down on some of the humans rolling them to shreds. With a whip of an its tail some unlucky people were bisected. The dragon's weight alone was enough to turn bones into dust.

After this the group was once more in a white room and in front of them was a large screen showing a sequence of events.

Once the dragon made short work out of the group of early humans it gave out an extremely loud roar and began making its way out of the cave. Having been asleep for so long it was hungry. The massive azure dragon crawled its way out of the massive cave and for the first time in hundreds if not thousands of years spread its wings and took to the sky.

After taking to the sky for the first time in a long time the azure dragon began hunting down every moving thing it could find. Eventually it stumbled upon a large human community which it proceeded to attack.

As it rampaged through the human community some of the humans dropped to their knees and began pleading for mercy. Seeing this and as intelligent as the dragon was it decided that these beings perhaps would be more useful alive than dead. Thus they were spared.

From then on the humans would hunt and give offerings to the dragon such as food and various treasure they happen upon or create. As time went on the dragon and the people developed an intricate relationship. Although they were giving offerings to the dragon the population of the human community constantly grew.

Thanks to the dragon awakening all of the territorial creatures began moving away thus reducing the amount of predators around to hunt the humans. Soon the humans began to thrive and grow and develop as they continued to serve the azure dragon.

After seeing this the large screen disappeared and a blinding golden light once more enveloped the group. A short while later as they opened their eyes they found out themselves in their room once more.

In front of Zhang the black book laid wide open with rows of text inside of it. Although it seemed like they had spent many hours within the empty white room in reality Zhang had only touched the book for a second.

Seeing the book in Zhang’s hand everyone looked at it intently.

“Brother read it.” Ai said.

“Alright.” Zhang said.

Thus he began to read the lines of words within the pages of the nameless black book.

“Hello there fated owner of the book of beginning.” Were the first words written in the book.

“To be able to open and read this text could only be destiny. As I’m sure you were shown the events that took place many years ago I would like to tell you a bit about this book itself.”

“This book is called the book of beginning, and is the first of two books. The other book being called the book of the end. Each book as a remnant of the soul of the dragon within it. However, each book only knows a part of the entire story. I created these book due to the final wishes of my greatest adversary with the hope that one day perhaps someone will happen upon the two book and be able to fulfill his true last wish. Only when the two books are together will one know their secrets. As for if you will be able to find the other book then let’s leave that to fate. But as a hint I will tell you look in the place where the sun does not reach, where beasts roam, and treasures lay abundant.”

As Zhang turned the page there were no more words but instead there were a few pictures. The first was an azure dragon, then on the next page there was a white tiger. The page afterwards had a vermillion bird and lastly a black tortoise.

“Brother have you ever heard of a legend about an azure dragon that fit the events we saw?” Ling asked.

“No growing up we mostly heard about various legends of the black dragon that ravaged the lands a thousand years ago but besides that there aren’t really that many legends regarding azure dragons that would fit the events we saw.” Zhang said.

“Perhaps if we happen upon the book of the end we will have an answer.” Yuying said.

“That dragon was truly fearsome.” Ai added.

“Indeed.” Zhang agreed.

“Well it’s late we should rest for the night and if anything talk tomorrow.” Zhang said.

“Yea I think we should get some rest today was a very long day.” Ling said.

Soon Zhang and the three beauties fell asleep soundly. Perhaps it was because of the exhausting final stage of the tournament or maybe the taxing versions from the book but the group of four slept until noon. But it was not like that had anything else to do.

When they woke up one after another the everything they saw last night seemed like it was a dream. However, the black book was still on the table which helped prove that they truly did experience those events last night. This meant that the golden light, various scenes of unknown places and the epic azure dragon were in fact not dreams.

“Maybe one day we will find the other book.” Zhang said as he looked at the pitch black book on the table.

“Truly a marvelous book. Who would have thought the a “Dragon’s soul” resides in this book like one might have did in my lost pendant?” Zhang said.

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

Enjoy? Rate me with a nice review? Thoughts? O_o tired lol T__T