Dragon's Soul Chapter 75: Deception

Many thanks to Myles for his pledge. His character Ran Kaitou will probably show up after this arc :D

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"General Chao Chang! General Chao Chang!!!" A middle aged soldier with saggy eyes yelled as he knocked on a sturdy looking door.

"Buzz off!! I'm trying to have some fun in here!" A deep, rough voice pantingly sounded from the other side of the door.

"But it is urgent general!" The middle aged man yelled.

"Speak and leave!" The deep voice inside sounded out once more.

"The soldiers of Aurora retreated after reinforcements from our Heavenly Sword Province arrived from the south!!" The man yelled cheerfully.

"What!!? Why didn't you tell me sooner!" The deep voice yelled with glee.

"Wait you said reinforcements? Didn't the correspondence from our lord say that the reinforcements would take about another month to arrive?" The deep voice said as the sturdy looking door crept open and an obese man dressed in a nightgown walked out. With each step this man took, his fat folds jiggled up and down.

"My lord we haven't finished our business yet." A middle aged woman dressed in revealing clothes, stood partially hidden by the door panel, said in a teasing tone. This was the same women who had wrecked Lu Lingqi's life, the former madam of the city lord, Guo Meiyan.

"Get back in there. I'll accompany you later." General Chao Chang said without looking back into the room.

"Hmph! If it was not for me then your plans wouldn't have gone so smoothly, and now you're ignoring me?" Lady Guo Meiyan screamed.

"Tell me where these reinforcements are now." General Chao Chang said to the middle aged soldier, totally ignoring Lady Guo Meiyan.

"My lord they are currently camped outside of the city, awaiting permission to enter."

"Accompany me to the city walls." General Chao Chang said as he reentered the bedroom to get dressed. Soon, he walked out fully dressed in purple armor with a saber hanging from his waist.

"Lets go." General Chao Chang said as he made his way out of the provincial lord's mansion with the middle aged soldier.

After they made their way through the city and arrived at the top of the city walls, creases appeared on General Chao Chang's brow.

"Zhuge Dan what are you doing here? Didn't I tell you to return home?" General Chao Chang said with a sneer.

"Hmph who are you to order me around? Our lord had specifically ordered me to stay here and make sure that everything goes smoothly." General Zhuge Dan replied while glaring at General Chao Chang.

"Go smoothly? Didn't you fail to defend that measly city and ended up running with your tail between your legs?" General Chao Chang said mockingly.

"Generals I believe we have some more important business to attend to." The middle aged soldier with saggy eyes said.

"Send a messenger out there and ask them to show us their Heavenly Sword emblem that every generals in the Heavenly Sword Army possess." General Chao Chang ordered as his hand traced a sword shaped piece of jade dangling by his side of his waist.

Moments later, the city gates parted and a lone rider charged out heading for an encampment built a short distance away from the city where he was led through a rows of tents. Wherever he went, he felt many watchful eyes spying on him from a distance.

As he made his way toward a large tent, located in the center of the encampment, something caught his attention. Beside it was a mid-sized tent and from a sliver between the tent's flaps, he spotted three extremely beautiful women. But before he could admire their beauty, he was led into the large tent. Waiting there was a young man dressed in standard purple armor of the Heavenly Sword Army with a helmet covering his face seated on a chair behind the table.

This young man was clearly someone of high social and military standing, so the lone rider took off his helmet to reveal a middle aged man with a long scar running across his face and then quickly saluted.

"Gong Jiang pay his respects to the general." He said while bowing and clasping his hands.

"At ease." A kind voice emitted into the messenger's ears.

"Have you come here to tell me that we have permission to enter the city?" The young man's kind voice sounded once more.

"I've come with orders from General Chao Chang to verify that the general, you my lord, is in possession of the Heavenly Sword emblem." The messenger replied respectfully.

"Ah yes! The Heavenly Sword emblem, I lost it on the trip here." The young man said as he rose from the chair where he was seated and stood by the desk that was in front of him.

"Lost the Heavenly Sword emblem?" The messenger who had had a long history in the Heavenly Sword Amy muttered as he questioned the young man in front of him. The emblem was something that was given to every general of the Heavenly Sword Army, to lose it was punishable by death.

"Is there something wrong?" The young man asked, but the kind voice from before was no longer present and was replaced with an intimidating tone.

Soon, a suffocating presence filled the air as the messenger knew that something was wrong and his answer would decide his fate.

"My lord there isn't anything wrong. I'll go back and inform General Chao Chang to let you enter  the city right away." The messenger said hurriedly as beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

"Then would you like for some of me men to escort you back into the city? If you can wait a bit you'll arrange for an escort." The young man replied with a smile on his face.

"It's not a problem at all my lord, General Chao Chang would reprimand me if I made him waiting."

"But I insist. Once my men enter the city they can help explain the situation to General Chao Chang also." The young man said.

"If you insist then I will wait a bit for the escort to be arranged.." The messenger said as he slowly backed out of the tent. He bolted for his trusty steed as to inform General Chao Chang not to allow the soldiers of this camp enter the city because there was a high chance that they were enemy soldiers.

However, before he could make it to his horse, the sound of something cutting through the air could be heard. A dagger embedded itself into the messenger's back and pierced through his heart.

"He asked for you to wait a while..." A familiar voice sounded as Zhang walked out from the mid-sized tent.

"Brother, how we will have our way in now?" A young girl who smelled like chrysanthemum asked as she followed suit Zhang.

"That's simple, I'll open the gates while you, Ai and Ling command the soldiers to charge into the city once you see my signal." Zhang said as he walked up towards the messenger's corpse, took off its armor and donned it.

"My lord that is too risky." The young man who conversed with the messenger said as he walked out from the big tent and removed his helmet.

"Sima Yi ready the troops and alert our men positioned over the hill, I'll be needing you to help Yuying and Ling in commanding the army." Zhang said as he hopped onto the messengers stallion and rode towards the Green Clover City dressed in the messenger's armor.

As Zhang sped towards Green Clover City, the city gates slowly parted allowing him to enter.

"Gong Jiang you're back! Did everything go well?" One of the soldiers who had pushed open the gates greeted.

"Wai-wait you're not Gong Jiang! Who are you!" The soldier shouted after taking a closer look at Zhang. From afar, it would be impossible to tell apart Zhang from Gong Jiang but up close, the two clearly had different built and height.

Without saying a word, Zhang's halberd appeared in his hand. After the Sky Piercer was withdrawn from his interspatial ring, Zhang jumped off from his horse and began slaughtering the soldiers by the city gates.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" A loud shriek sounded as Zhang's halberd sunk itself into the soldier's back.

"Without further ado." Zhang murmured as a flare appeared on his hands. A green light embellished the sky and the sound of thousand horses charging forth shook the ground.

"Who dares to attack when I'm here!?" A deep voice rang out from atop the city walls. Moments later a small crater was formed as General Chao Chang could be seen jumping down from the city gates and landed a short distance from Zhang.

"I dare!" Zhang roared as two chained daggers appeared on his hands. With a thought, the two daggers floated and shot through the air. However, their target was not Chao Chang but rather the hinges of the city gates.

A loud bang could be heard as the daggers struck the hinges sideways and smashed into the stone walls.

Seeing what Zhang was trying to do, Chang Chao rushed forward, withdrawing his saber from it's scabbard. "As if I'll let you do that!" He roared as he lifted his saber and slashed downward.

"Hmph!" Zhang snorted as the chains attached to the two daggers shortened, pulling him back. With a yank, Zhang pulled the two daggers out from the stone walls and shot them at the two remaining hinges on the city gates.

However, only one of the daggers was able to hit it's target, the other  was stopped when Chao Chang's saber flew out of his hand and knocked the dagger to the ground.

"One out of two is all I need." Zhang said with a smile as one of the gates fell over and smashed onto its counterpart causing both of them to slam onto the ground.

"Damn..." General Chang Chao cursed.If he had been able to stop Zhang, then there was a chance of closing the city gates and defending the city from the top of the walls. But now, with the gates laying on the ground, there was no need for Zhang's soldiers to siege the city, they would just simply rode their way in and began rampaging.

"Once your soldiers enter the city, they won't be coming out alive." A voice sounded out. General Zhuge Dan could be seen slowly descending from the top of the city walls, floating downwards to be exact.

"You!!" Zhang yelled once he saw Zhuge Dan. But then a thought ran across his mind and a smile once more appeared on his face. "Was running away from my fiance once not enough?" Zhang sneered as the rumbling sound of thousand hooves came closer and closer.

Hearing Zhang's words a frown appeared on Zhuge Dan's face.

"On a second thought they won't be entering the city! I'll make sure every last one of them dies before they set foot inside." Zhuge Dan roared as gusts of wind blew.

Blasts of wind sent the two huge iron city gates spiraling at Zhang's soldiers who were about to enter the city. Screams sounded as dozens of soldiers and  horses were being crushed by the heavy iron gates.

Suddenly a loud bang resounded and the screaming ceased.

The soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army who were watching from above were completely dumbfounded. They saw the two iron gates spiraled through the air and smashed into dozens of soldiers dressed in the standard armor of the Heavenly Sword Army.

When suddenly, a young woman with long silky black hair appeared atop of fiery steed with a black whip on hand. Amazingly, with two strikes from her whip, the two iron gates were  smashing back into the city walls.

"Charge!!! Secure the city gate!!"  yelled Sima Yi as he could be seen in the center of the cavalry with a sword in his hands, still dressed in the same purple armor without the helm..

Hearing his words, many of the Zhang's soldiers once more began charging toward Green Clover City.

Seeing this, Zhuge Dan sneered as he looked up toward the walls and yelled, "Skew them with arrows! Soon, thousands of arrows were shot into the sky by the soldiers atop the walls.

To Zhang's soldiers below, it was as if night had descended due to the countless arrows blocking out the sun's warm rays. In part, this was also due to the large number of clouds floating in the sky.

"Yu Squad fall to the rear and ready your aim the rest of you, raise your shields!" Sima Yi ordered calmly to the former disciples of Yu Sect. Instantly, a portion of the soldiers under Zhang's command split off and move behind while the rest equipped the shields hanging from the side of their horses and raised them into the air.

A rhythmic melody sounded out as the arrows hit the iron shields. It sounded as if a heavy rain was tapping against the shields of Aurora's soldiers as they made their way toward Green Clover City.

"Make sure to shield your horses!" Sima Yi reminded as he rode forth. This was because if the horses under them were pelted by arrows the soldiers mounted would most likely end up being trampled to death by their comrades. Falling onto the ground. fully dressed in armor with horses all around you, definitely would not end well.

"If arrows can't stop you then how about this!" Zhuge Dan yelled as he could be seen flying in the air. Moments later, dozens of horses and soldiers were split into bloody pieces and splattered onto the ground.

From the entrance to the city, rage filled Zhang's eyes as he watched Zhuge Dan slaughtered his men and soon, essence gathered on his fingers and lightning began to crackle; but before Zhang could launch his attack a blade came by swinging to his head.

"Your opponent is me!" Chao Chang bellowed as his saber left a faint trail of blood on Zhang's neck.

Zhang clicked his tongue as he gave up stopping Zhuge Dan and focused his attention on Chao Chang. "I'll just have to hope Yuying, Ai and Ling can work together and kill that bastard." He thought as blood lust emitted from his body which suffocated the area around him.

"Your surprisingly fast for someone who's so fat." Zhang snickered trying to provoke Chao Chang into action.

"Your pretty strong for someone with such a puny build." Chao Chang said without reacting violently upon hearing Zhang's provocations.

"You forgot fast!" Zhang yelled as he jumped into the air and withdrew the ten dragon talon throwing knives from his interspatial ring and launched them at Chao Chang.

"You think these playthings can harm me?" Chao Chang laughed as he swung his sword at the throwing knives, however upon their clash, his saber snapped and a large portion of it spun through the air before embedding itself into the ground.

Using this opportunity, Zhang  lunged his halberd at Chao Chang's heart. Seeing Zhang's intention Chao Chang shot the broken saber at Zhang as he hopped back to avoid being ran through by the Sky Piercer halberd in Zhang's hand.

"Guess I'll have to use this sword." Chao Chang said as a long black blade appeared on his hands.

While Zhang and Chao Chang fought without either person gaining an advantage; outside the city walls, a tall pillar of blood was erected with Ling standing on top.

"With so little water you think you can defeat me?" Zhuge Dan snickered as he gazed at Ling.

"Not with this amount of water but with that amount." Ling said as she pointed up at a large cluster of clouds. Soon these clouds condensed into large blobs of water that flew to where Ling was and turned into hundreds of icy needles.

"Die!" Ling yelled as the hundreds of icy needles short forth at Zhuge Dan.

But with a wave of his hand, Zhuge Dan changed the direction of the ice needles and made them shot elsewhere.

Suddenly loud yells outside of the city could be heard in the distance. "For Lord Lu Gong!!" The voices yelled.

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"Your pretty strong for someone with such a puny build. [Do you even lift?"] Chao Chang said. Lmao I wanted to add that part but decided not to lol. So I should have a few more chapters to post today :D

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