Dragon's Soul Chapter 11: Paradise

Three months had pa.s.sed, much like a breeze. Life on the island had been a paradise. There was an abundant food available in the ocean and various fruits at the edge of the forest. The trio’s small hut was now a st.u.r.dy cabin made entirely of logs.


Zhang had started working on the raft that they would use to leave. The raft had taken nearly two months to build. But now, it was near completion.


During the day, the girls would gather food as Zhang built the raft. At night, they would sit together and cultivate.


After reaching the 4th level of essence, Yuying was now able to use some of the techniques she knew. When she was in the Underworld, she learned many techniques but they all required her to possess a large amount of power.


If the trio were to be ranked by strength, Zhang of course would be strongest. Whereas if they were ranked by technique and skills Yuying would vastly outstrip Zhang. But if they ranked each other based on cultivation speed, Ai was leaps and bounds ahead of Zhang and Yuying. She had reached the 5th level and was one level ahead of the other two.


The three of them, under normal circ.u.mstances, would be considered monsters. No regular person would believe them if they said they had advanced from level 1 to level 4 or 5 within 3 months. The other party would most likely laugh at them rather than believe them.


Over these three months, they had stayed purely on the beach and did not venture into the forest. This was because at night, they would hear loud roars and howls off in the distance and thundering footsteps that shook the ground.


Who knew what lurks in the forest, and they did not want to be the ones to find out.
The island was truly odd, this was due to the fact that, so far, there had been no signs of people. You would think that, on an island with such an abundance of food, there would at least be a small striving population or at least a small port town of sort for s.h.i.+ps to dock.


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Today, the sky was clear and the weather was nice and warm too Zhang decided to take a day to rest. The raft was nearly completed now and he only had to do the finis.h.i.+ng touches. It was a fairly large raft or well we can call it a barge.


Many large logs were tied together using vines and then smaller logs crossed over the bigger ones in notches. This made the enter raft a single solid object.


Now, all Zhang had to do was add sails and a rudder. Then make some oars to use when there was no wind to propel the raft.


For sails he had planned to enter the forest and hunt some animals and use their hides or bind leaves together. Making the sails out of essence like he did with their clothes wouldn’t be a very smart choice. This was because compared to the clothes the sails would be ma.s.sive. And of course it would be much easier to mend the sails if they were made of fur or leaves.


After resting for half a day Zhang grabbed a wooden spear he had made and set out to survey the surrounding jungle.


Three months had pa.s.sed since Zhang last stepped foot this deep in the forest. However, this time he would be twice as strong and he was fairly confident that he would be able to take on anything that would jump out at him. Or at least he would be able to get away.


Zhang had his trusty spear and the rusty sword that he had found in the cave and some rope made of vines.


After walking a distance, he decided to climb into a tree and observe to see if there was any wildlife in the area.


He had chosen a fruit tree to climb up into. This type of fruit tree grew everywhere on the island and had a strange taste to it. The first bite into the fruit would be sweet, but the 2nd bite would have a strangely sour taste. The fruit itself looked strange also. It was an oval shaped, bright red in color and had small spikes all over.


As Zhang sat in the tree, a pair of deer pa.s.sed by under him. It was a mother deer and her fawn. They were eating the fruit that had fallen onto the ground. It was a somewhat heartwarming scene. That was when Zhang shot out of the tree and pounced on the two deer! The two deer didn’t see what was coming as one of them was stabbed by a spear and the other slashed with a sword.


Making quick work of the two deer, Zhang began to tie them with his vines and started heading back to the cabin. The two deer would serve as dinner tonight and their hides would be used at part of the sails.


Then suddenly, in the bushes ahead of Zhang rustled and behind them a giant white panther jumped out! It was a White Jade Panther. These demonic beasts were the kind that lived in solitude and were fairly powerful, maturing at the 7th level.


“s.h.i.+T!!!!!!!” Zhang yelled


The panther was attracted by the smell of blood.


Zhang knew he did not have a chance of victory over this monster so he bolted the opposite direction.


Seeing Zhang ran the panther began pursuing. It was extremely fast but luckily for Zhang the forest was dense so it was not able to run at full speed. Trees fell over and rocks were crushed as the panther pursed Zhang.


“Maybe this will work”, Zhang tossed the fawn at the Panther hoping it would stop pursuing him. But when the fawn landed in front of the panther, it was totally ignored.


“f.u.c.k!!!!” ( T___T greedy panther lol)


Off in the distance there was a side of a cliff. If he was able to climb up this cliff the panther would not be able to pursue him but to do that, Zhang would have to abandon his deer.


He cursed as he tossed the deer’s carca.s.s to the ground toward the panther. The panther stopped pursuing Zhang and began eating the deer.


Then out of nowhere a giant lion appeared. It was a three eyed voracious eater. This type of demonic best also matured at the 7th level like the panther but it was double the size of the panther.


The lion pounced on the panther and the two began an epic battle.


Zhang took the chance to escape and he prayed that neither of the two beasts would pursue.
Luckily, Zhang was able to make run a fairly long distance before the battle concluded.


The voracious eater had snapped the panthers neck with its powerful paw and then began eating the panther and the deer.


Not willing to leave empty handed Zhang came back and picked up the carca.s.s of the fawn.
By the time he returned to the cabin, it was night and the stars shone from the skies.


He skinned the fawn and began grilling its meat. The deer’s meat was most welcomed because eating fish and sh.e.l.lfish for three months would make anyone feel sick. Thus, the deer meat quickly disappeared.


Zhang decided the he, very next day, would try his luck again and try to get more meat. This time, he would have to be cautious. He could, instead of using his spear or sword, use brute force to take care of the animals. This would prevent other predators from picking up the scent of blood.


Three months had pa.s.sed since Zhang started hunting. He had long ago became an extremely skilled hunter and after a short while, an area of the forest was filled with various traps that he had set. Pitfalls and countless other traps littered everywhere.  


The cabin was now filled with furs of different animals and even some demonic beasts. Yuying had asked Zhang to get fur so she could make blankets for the voyage. They did not know where they were and how far they were from civilization, and on the sea the weather was constantly changing, one day it could be warm and sunny and the next it could be freezing cold. So it would be best to be prepared.


Yuying was extremely skilled at sewing and had made many blankets and even sewed together most of the sail.


Now they were preparing food for the voyage and after doing so, they’d be ready to embark and leave the island.


Dried fish and dried meat were being prepared. Fruits were being picked and stored away for later. The trio had gathered a large amount of food for the trip. They had basically everything they’d need for a long voyage.


So today, would be the last day the trio would stay on the island. So they had a small feast because it would be their last warm cooked meal for a while.


After stuffing themselves full, the three had went to bed early to rest in preparation for the long voyage ahead.


However, that night a loud roar sounded in the night.


The loud roar had woken up the trio. Soon after the first roar another could be heard but the second roar sounded different from the first. One after another, many roars and howls could be heard and it was as if they were coming closer. The whole island felt as if it was shaking.


Zhang was the first to run out of the cabin to see what was happening. In the distance, he could see a giant snake sticking out high above the forest. In front of it was an equally giant ape.


The two monsters were battling each other in the middle of the night. The snake opened its huge maw and attacked the ape. It was able to latch its fangs onto the ape and then began coiling around its body to constrict it.


Just when it seemed like the snake had the advantage, the giant ape overpowered it and broke out of its coils. The ape then tossed the giant snake away and when the snake's body landed it caused a huge boom. Many trees fell over due to the impact of the giant snakes fall and clouds of dusts were formed.


The giant snaked opened its mouth and a huge lightning bolt shot out and struck the giant ape.
“That’s snake is a level 8 Lightning Eater!!!”, Zhang yelled.


The ape after getting hit by the lightning bolt, it had been knocked to the ground. It slowly struggled its way up from the ground and also opened its mouth and from within, a blue beam shot out.


Anything that was touched by the blue beam was instantly coated in a thick layer of ice.
“And that is a level 8 Frost Emperor Ape!!!”, Zhang yelled even more excited than before.


Level 6 demonic beast's were rarely spotted by humans and level 7 were even more rarely spotted but here, were two beasts at level 8 battling in front of Zhang. It was a sight truly to behold.


But now was hardly the time to stand and watch because at any moment Zhang, Yuying and Ai could be caught in the crossfire of these two monstrous beasts. A random lightning bolt or even being skimmed by the emperor ape’s ice beam would send them straight back to the underworld. This time, it would be permanent.


“Quickly gather up our things we are setting sail. It is too dangerous to stay here any longer.”, he screamed


Time was of the essence so everyone grabbed what they could carry and headed for the raft. Luckily a lot of things had already been packed onto the raft or else they’d find themselves in trouble later on.


Yuying and Ai hopped onto the raft and each grabbed an oar as Zhang pushed the raft into the water.


BANG!! BANG!!


They looked back to the emperor ape and the lightning eater and saw that once more the lightning eater had wrapped the emperor ape. But this time. it had blasted the ape at point blank range with its lightning.


Scorch marks could be seen on the emperor ape’s white coat of fur.  A bit of blood could also be seen flowing out of the place where the snake had bitten the ape earlier.


In retaliation to the lightning eater, the emperor ape shot its ice beam also at point blank range. However, the ice beam had a devastating effect on the snake unlike the lightning on the ape. Being cold blooded the extreme cold temperature from the ice had greatly injured the snake.


But it wasn’t out for the count the lightning eater began strengthening its coiling around the ape. It wanted to crush the ape to death.


And for the first time, the ape did something he had not done before, it bit into the snake, a grievous wound appeared near the snake’s head. Streams of blood was now flowing out of the snakes wound.


Zhang, Yuying and Ai were not a short distance out in the water. Zhang had tossed some large stones tied to vines into the water to anchor the raft.


He wanted to see who would win this death match and afterwards try to scavenge what he could from the loser’s corpse. These were demonic beasts at the 8th level their bodies would be consider treasures troves.


Their blood alone could be used to make high level pills. Their fangs, scales, and claws could be used to make rare weapons and armor. Zhang was hoping the lightning eater would be the one to meet its demise.


The lightning eater’s scales would prove to be very useful and valuable. Those scales were incredible hard and since they belonged to a lightning eater the scales were resistant to lightning attacks.


The battle raged on until the emperor ape’s coat of fur turned entirely red. This wasn’t due to the huge amount of blood that had leaked out from its body but the emperor ape had entered a frenzied state and was now going berserk.


A weird bulge appeared on the lightning eaters upper body and this bulge continued growing until it popped and another lightning eater’s head appeared. Both demonic beasts were going all out and at the end for sure, one of them will perish.


The ape had jumped and managed to land on top of the snake and began pounding away at the snake’s head. Although it was able to keep one head down the 2nd newly formed head lunged at the ape.


One of the ape’s arms were now occupied with the snake’s other head. The ape still looked like it had an advantage though. This fight continued for hours and at the end of the fight the sun was about to rise. The giant snake had constricted the ape to death.


“d.a.m.n, but I guess I’ll have to make do with the ape.”, Zhang sighed


However, shortly after the giant snake began departing, it slumped over and also fell to the ground. It sustained too many injuries during the fight and had also expended too much essence.


Now, all Zhang had to do was go scavenge what he could from the two corpses before any other smart demonic beasts showed up.


An eerie silence broke out after the battle, to the extent where crickets could be heard. Zhang wanted Yuying and Ai to stay on the raft but they flatly refused him and wished to see the two corpses close up. Seeing that both of the huge threats were now gone, Zhang did not refuse.


The trio hopped off the raft and swam back to sh.o.r.e. Docking the raft on the island would take too long so they decided to swim.


Their first target was the Lightning Eater. Zhang was hoping to find some of its cultivation in a crystallized form. Zhang was also hoping to get many scales from the snake eater so he could use it to get an armor for Yuying, Ai, and himself.


The trio began walking into the forest towards the giant snake.