Dragon's Soul Chapter 148: Into The Night

So our entire water drainage pipe was blocked by buildup and I couldn’t fix it despite trying for hours which ended up resulting in lots of pain in my right hand and $350 for a plumber to come and work on the pipe :/

I’ll be trying to have a chapter of either Ascending or Ds up tonight if I can, but here’s a chapter for you all. Happy Memorial Day to those in the US.

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Once the moon rose and the sun was gone, the provincial lord’s mansions in both the Rainbow Rock Province and the Red Thorn Province were filled with activity. Whereas one was being surrounded by enemy soldiers and under siege, the other one had hundreds of people trailing a small silkworm. 

“Surrender and you’ll be spared!” The soldiers under the command of Yuying, Ling and Lingqi chanted along with the soldiers of the Rainbow Rock Army who had laid down their arms. 

Atop the tall walls of the provincial lord’s mansion which was resembled a fortress more than a mansion, thousands of soldiers desperately tried fought on. Although the some of these soldiers very much wished to surrender, they simply could not and did not dare to.

This was because the lord of the city had ordered every flag and every white piece of cloth in the mansion to be dyed black so that no one can raise a flag of surrender. 

Without a flag or anything to indicate their surrender, no one in the mansion dared to defect or open the gates. There was also the fact that there was a majority of soldiers who were not willing to surrender so any defectors would be slain on the spot.

So all they could do was pray that some miracle occurred and that the mansion walls and gates would not be breached.

However even if the mansion walls and gates were indestructible, Ling and Yuying could simply create lift themselves up into the air and rain down death from upon, that was of course if they managed to deal with the soldiers atop the city walls. 

Besides the soldiers inside the provincial lord’s mansion, there was also a pocket of soldiers atop a section of the city walls who were resisting heavily. 

Since the sun had set Ling could no longer condense rays of light into deadly beams, which gave the soldiers atop the city walls a new lease on life and the ability to resist.

“Just have our soldiers keep at it, our forces obviously outnumber theirs and by the time they tire we’ll send in fresh troops to wipe out those who do not surrender.” Yuying said as she and Ling and Lingqi walked into the city’s largest hotel. 

“Little White will keep an eye out on that guy in crystal armor on the walls…” Ling said with a sigh as she followed behind Yuying.

For the most part, none of them had been able to sleep on a soft bed for weeks so they decided that tonight would be a great night to do so. Since most of the city was under their control and the hotel was surrounded by their soldiers, they did not need to worry about being attacked. There was also the fact that the provincial lord’s mansion was surrounded and the enemy forces atop the city walls had Little White watching with preying eyes.

“Ho-ho-how may I help you your highnesses.” A middle-aged innkeeper stuttered as his gaze s.h.i.+fted between the beauties and his family that was huddled up in one corner of the room.

In times of war, and especially when one's city is being occupied for the first time by a foreign force, anything could happen and to anyone, be it man woman or child was gripped by fear.

“No need to be afraid, we simply want to check out all of the rooms in your hotel for ourselves and a few of the army’s officers.” Lingqi said with a smile.

“We’ll be paying of course.” Ling said.

“N-n-no need to pay.” The innkeeper said while still stuttering as his legs shook uncontrollably.

Regardless of how beautiful the beauties were and how brilliant and kind their smiles were; the innkeeper was frightened out of his wits by the horrendous stories he had heard about them. 

Also as invaders, it was without a doubt that the common people would hate and fear the beauties.

“Sister please don't hurt my father.” A little girl said as she ran toward the innkeeper and hugged his leg. 

“Mei, go back to your mother!” The innkeeper yelled at his daughter.

“Come here.” Yuying said to the little girl as she crouched on the ground and reached out her hand.

“Yo-your highness please forgive her, she's only a child.” The innkeeper said.

“Come here.” Yuying said with a smile before the little girl timidly approached her. 

After a soft pinch to the cheek and a pat on the head, Yuying waved her hand and a beautiful hairpin appeared.

“Here you can have it since your father won't accept payment for the rooms, I'll gift this to you.” She said with a smile as she stuck the very expensive looking pin into the girl’s hair.

“Please show us the way to our rooms.” She said with a smile to the innkeeper after the little girl scampered away to show her mother the hairpin.

Although they were going to overpay for the rooms anyway, the hairpin was a treasure that Yuying had acquired in the remnants of the Sai Empire and was well worth enough to purchase this hotel two times over. 

But of course, if anything, the beauties all had a soft spot for children.

Before long the beauties were shown to separate rooms as the war continued to rage on outside.

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Back in the Red Thorn Province hundreds of curious people had followed behind Zhang and the Tang brothers are they trailed the grotesque looking silkworm crawling on the ground. 

Although the silkworm moved fairly fast for its size, the provincial lord’s mansion being a provincial lord’s mansion was pretty large so hours had pa.s.sed as everyone followed the worm.

To prevent new of spreading about what they were doing, Tang Wei and Tang s.h.i.+ang had ordered for everyone that happens to encounter them to stay with the group or be executed for treason. Lending a small helping hand, Zhang used the Underworld Heart to sense all of the people within the area that they were moving through so that no one was missed.

There was also a team of guards who surrounded the silkworm from all sides, creating a human wall to ensure its safety so that no wondering maids would accidentally step on it.

From Tang s.h.i.+ang’s att.i.tude, Zhang could tell that despite being rude snotty loud mouth, he did not use the silkworm on his father. This was because of he did then simply “accidentally” tripping on the silkworm and squis.h.i.+ng it would solve most of his problems.

“d.a.m.n couldn't this stupid thing move any faster…” Tang s.h.i.+ang complained as the moon was rising in the background behind him and while dozens of men stood around him with lit torches.

It was not until roughly an hour later did they find themselves exiting the provincial lord’s mansion and walking out onto the city streets. Roughly an hour after they descended upon the streets with hundreds of servants and soldiers following behind them did Zhang and the Tang brothers finally arrived at their destination. Although the few civilians were out in the streets during this time of day were curious none of them dared to draw near the group so for the most part no one could find out what they were doing.

“So it seems we’ve managed to reach our destination.” Zhang said as they stood in front of a large manor that was located not too far from where they had begun.

“My lords how may I be of service to you at such an hour in the night.” A young man in servants clothing said in a polite manner as he arrived in front of the group.

“Arrest him and surround the mansion! Call for more soldiers!” Tang s.h.i.+ang commanded.

“Wha-what’s the meaning of this! Do you know who I work for? Do you know where this is?!” The young servant said as two bulky soldiers seized him while man more charged inside.

However unexpectedly the moment Tang s.h.i.+ang’s men rushed inside they found themselves facing armored guards and fierce fighting broke out almost instantly.

“What do you fools think you’re doing here?” A man in his later twenties dressed in white silk robes said as he walked into the courtyard where the fighting had broken out with a sword in hand.

“By orders of lord Tang Wei and Tang s.h.i.+ang, everyone is to lay down their arms or be executed. We have the mansion surrounded and there is no way to escape!” A loud voice sounded into the mansion from the outside.

Of course, this was simply a bluff because only about a hundred or two soldiers had accompanied the group and that was nowhere near enough to surround an entire mansion and secure all of the exits. But since there was no way to tell what was happening outside, the people inside the mansion felt suffocated as they thought they were like trapped mice who were now caged without any way of escaping.

“Young master! What's the commotion about!? Could they have possibly figured out what your father did?” A bald middle-aged man said as he hastily arrived in the courtyard with a handful of guards by his side who looked like they had hurriedly dressed themselves.

“I don’t know, but have someone break out of the encirclement and alert father for reinforcements.” The young man said.

While the fighting was going on, Zhang stood all the way at the rear and did not partic.i.p.ate because he did not want others to notice his battle prowess.  Also, this fight was not his to fight because he was currently only a soldier of the Dark Legion who was simply lending his medical skills to his host.

“Tang Xiao lay down your arms and stop resisting!” Tang Wei said as he stepped through the front gates of the mansion.

“What do you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds think you're doing attacking my home?! Do you not remember that we are family!?” The young man who was called Tang Xiao roared in reply.

“How do you explain this then!?” Tang Wei said as he held up the silkworm that they had been following for hours.

“What kind of rubbish is that? Because of some Corpse Eating Silkworm you're attacking us?” Tang Xiao mocked.

“How did you know it was a Corpse Eating Silkworm? Don’t buy into his act young masters!” Zhang said, as he inwardly called Tang Xiao an idiot for calling out the name of the silkworm.

“He’s a level five and they are both level fives also.” Zhang thought as he watched the two Tang brothers set aside their differences and rush forward to capture Tang Xiao. But of course, Tang Xiao had personal guards who aided him so the brothers could not gang up on him. 

Since Zhang decided not to take part in the fight Zhang found a relatively quiet corner by the mansion's gates and sat down. But due to Zhang not taking part in the fight and everyone else being fairly evenly matched the fighting dragged on as the moon shone down from above.

While everyone was fighting and chaos roamed about freely, a team of soldiers rushed into the mansion with panicked expressions on their faces.

“My lord! My lord! Lord Tang Pan has brought a large number of soldiers from the Eastern Fort and the guards watching over the eastern gate had let him into the city! It’s only a matter of time before he gets here!” One of the soldiers yelled.

“Send for soldiers from the provincial lord’s mansion, the Western Fort and request aid from the Dark Legion!” Tang Wei yelled.

The majority of Red Thorn City’s soldiers were placed in two strategic forts located roughly an hour away from the city itself with each fort housing roughly one hundred thousand soldiers each they served to provide Red Thorn City two s.h.i.+elds in case of enemy attacks. One of these sorts, the Eastern Fort, was under the control of Lord Tang Pan, the provincial lord’s right-hand man.

“Well, things sure have gone way out of proportion. If a civil war breaks out here and drags the Dark Legion into it then I won’t have to work as hard later. But if they manage to stop the civil war then I’ll have to try and come up with something else.” Zhang thought as he continued to watch the fight while sending a message to Ai on his magical message transmitter telling her to be careful.

“My father will be here soon and you’ll wish that you didn’t wake the hornet’s nest!” Tang Xiao laughed mockingly.

“When your father arrives, we will be using you as a hostage!” Tang s.h.i.+ang roared as he cut down one of Tang Xiao’s guards.

To be honest in terms of military prowess Tang Wei and Tang s.h.i.+ang were evenly matched, had it not been for Tang s.h.i.+ang’s hot temper and foul mouth they his father would have had to reconsider who to elect as his heir.

“I guess I should lend a hand…” Zhang thought as he used the Underworld Heart to materialize a dozen tiny needles which he then sent piercing through the air with a thought. These needles made their way through the thick armor that Tang Xiao’s men wore and found their way through flesh and skin.

Once inside the human body these needles dematerialized and turned back into essence causing small bursts of essence to explode inside the bodies of whoever were unfortunate enough to be hit. Of course, due to their small size, the needles were not lethal and only served to deal minor injuries that would allow the Tang brothers to quickly defeat their opponents.

With Zhang’s help, Tang Xiao’s guards were cut down one after the other and Tang Xiao himself was soon apprehended. Upon seeing their young master in enemy hands, the rest of the hostile soldiers and combatants in the mansion laid down their arms. 

If they continued to fight and their young master was harmed due to that then when the master of the household arrives with one hundred thousand soldiers, then it was obvious that they would be severely reprimanded and possibly killed.

“Tie everyone up and barricade the gate!” Tang Wei said, telling the soldiers who were fighting with him to prepare for Tang Pan’s arrival.

Since the barracks where the Dark Legion was staying was located west of the provincial lord’s mansion and the location where they currently located was east of the provincial lord’s mansion, there was no need to worry about the provincial lord’s mansion being attacked. However, since they did not know when Tang Pan would arrive with his soldiers, retreating on the open city streets could result in being caught by the enemy, so the most logical thing Tang Wei could come up with was holing themselves up in the mansion until reinforcements arrive.