“Chang grab on!” As he grabbed onto one of the vines sticking out of the black thorn which carried him upward. Once it grew to a large size a flower bloomed at the very top. Jin Sho and Jin Chang used the giant thorns to climb their way up and stood on top of one of the giant flowers petals. (Imagine jack and the giant beanstalk but as a flower.)
That being said it did not take him very far up the surface of the water due to how deep the lake was and how much power he put into it.
“Bastard….” Zhang and a few other people cursed.
Thousands of arrows shot through the air targeting the father and son however before the arrows could hit their targets small vines came from the black thorn and whipped them away.
The chained dagger flew out from Zhang’s hand a white light appeared in Zhang’s hand where he gripped the chain and it began extending. Once the dagger lodged itself into one of the petals of the flower Zhang held on and made the chain shorten.
“Fool! Now fall into the sea of fire you lit.” Jin Sho yelled out as he ran toward the petal where Zhang’s dagger had stuck itself into the flower. A sharp looking sword appeared in his hand and with a chop he cut off that petal.
However, this time Zhang was close enough to the stem grab onto one of the huge thorns. As he climbed up the stem of the giant flower many small vines extended and whipped at him. However due to how slick his armor they didn’t do very much damage to him at all. But they did slow him down a for a while.
Had his armor not been made of scales overlapping each other than the vines more likely would have ripped through it.
“Fool you think you can get up here just like that?” Jin Sho and Jin Chang were standing at the ledge where Zhang was trying to climb over with swords drawn. The two of them chopped down toward Zhang looking to kill him.
That was when a chained dagger appeared in his hand and with some usage of the Underworld Heart it snaked through the air and pierced into Jin Chang.
“Chang! Chang are you okay?!” Jin Sho yelled while holding his son up. The dagger he stuck itself straight into Jin Chang’s chest.
Then suddenly the dagger rose to the air lifting his body and shook him into the air. The dagger had launched Jin Chang into the air and sent him falling into the sea of fire below.
“You have other things to worry about.” Zhang’s voice sounded out behind Jin Sho.
“I surrender. Kill me.” Jin Sho said looking disheartened and closed his eyes.
“So be it.” Zhang said as he lifted the sky piercer in his hand and swung down. The sky piercer with one swing disconnected Jin Sho’s head from his body.
“VICTORY!!!!!!!!”
The cheered as they remembered the tyranny of the Jin clan and it was gone now. But a part of them was filled with fear, what if the new ruler of the city was even more ruthless than the previous rulers.
Three days had passed since Zhang had taken over the city and slain its previous lord. The odd thing was the streets were bustling with people as if a war had never taken place. Merchants opened shop ready to do business. Customers lined up in front of stores with money in hand ready to purchase goods.
After taking over the city the new lord of the city Zhang had proclaimed that taxes would be cut in half and all of the people who had the assets frozen by the previous ruler would be investigated and if found innocent their assets would be returned. He also promised to get reparations to the owners of the burned down buildings and to the families of those who had died in battle.
Of course there were some dissatisfied people, whose family members were killed in the fighting. After the battle the casualty toll on both sides combined with roughly twenty thousand to twenty-five thousand soldiers. Oddly enough none of the soldiers from Xi Ning’s village died. But in a city that had millions of inhabitants this number wasn’t very large.
So once he disbanded the old army Zhang tasked Xi Ning with recruiting new soldiers and maybe re enlisting some of the soldiers that had been disbanded. This of course would be done with lots of caution.
Today Zhang was sitting in the lord’s mansion specifically in the study room planning things out for the future.
“Good did you make sure that he didn’t find out?” Zhang replied.
“Ah yes has our cavalry been supplemented?” Zhang asked.
“Also my lord the villages around the city have all be subjugated and we are now in control of the entrance to the Dragon’s Maw.”
Lu Xun saluted and walked out of the room leaving Zhang in the room alone.
He sat there remembering the faces of his loved ones who he hadn’t seen for three years. His mother, father, and Ling were the ones he longed to meet the most.
“My lord you wished to see me?”
“What might you need me for today my lord?” Sima Ya asked.
A while later the two had left the lord's mansion and walked around the massive city. People were bustling about and a cheerful air was present as they roamed the streets.
They had walked in a large circle from the inner ring out to the outer ring and now were back in the inner ring of the city.
“Why not enter?”
“We can’t? I own this city I can go wherever I like and as long as you're with me you can too.” Zhang said and he held onto Sima Yi’s arm and led him inside.
“Wedding decorations….” Sima Yi murmured.
Sima Yi having been inside these walls many times found it very strange how there was not a single person around. He kept walking and eventually ended up in a large courtyard. In this courtyard were hundreds of table with red table clothes. On top of them were many delicious looking dishes of food.
Just from the figure Sima Yi knew who it was. It was the person he longed to meet every waking minute of his life but was too ashamed to. It was Xia Mei his ex-fiancée.
Hearing Zhang’s voice the Xia Mei turned around and lifted her veil once she saw Sima Yi tears filled her eyes and rolled down her rosy cheeks.
They were embracing and happy to see each other after so long.
Sima Yi did not know what to say. As intelligent as he was in front of this women he was at a loss of words. Emotion filled his heart and no words could describe it so instead he embraced her tighter.
The two lovers looked around them and they could see friends and family surrounding them. Hundreds of gazes were on the two. Somewhat embarrassed they let go out each other. Confusion could be seen on their faces.
Behind Sima Yi was Zhang with a big silly grin on his face. He had learned about Sima Yi’s past through some investigating because of course you can’t have someone work under you without knowing where they’ve been and who they were.
“Of course who else can grant a marriage besides the lord of the city.” Zhang said and he proceeded to explain what had happened.
The clan leader had a much better impression of Sima Yi then Jin Chang and he somewhat regretted breaking up their engagement before so of course he would accept.
The next part was to keep it a secret from the two love birds. Zhang had ordered Lu Xun to make preparations for the wedding in secret and on the day of the wedding he had his men drug Xia Mei with the spider venom he got from the Titanic Golden spiders.
Upon hearing what Zhang did Sima Yi was at a loss of words.
The clan leader of the Xia clan called Xia Bao had invited many of the influential people in the city to his daughter’s wedding and those people all tried to close up to Zhang. As the new lord of the city Zhang was someone they had to stay on the good side of.
But once Yuying and Ai appeared wearing extremely elegant dressed with lavish jewelry on them everyone stopped. How could their daughters and granddaughter compare to these two? If Zhang had these two, he wouldn’t bat an eye at other women.
Sima Yi staggered his way into the bridal room. Xia Mei helped him up and the two sat there embracing.
“What are you doing. Come with us and drink some more!” Xi Ning yelled.
Also vote for me T__T lol