The four Pearls Dragon

Xuan Ti stepped towards Phoenix, knelt beside her body, lifted her head into his lap, gently stroked her head, she was still breathing but weak.

Phoenix opened her eyes and smiled, while holding back the pain in her chest. Tears flowed from the outer corners of her eyes, Xuan Ti wiped her tears with his thumb finger. Tears also rolled down on his cheeks. Phoenix's breathing was irregular. She raised one hand, placing it on Xuan Ti's cheek. "Don't be sad, it has to end like this, to break the bonds of the three of us" she said trying to make Xuan Ti less sad "Don't worry, I still have one last trial, the two of us will meet again"

Xuan Ti raised his hand, placed his palm on top of her, smiling bitterly. "I'll always be waiting for you," he assured her.

Phoenix smiled at his words. And finally, she exhaled. Her eyes closed slowly, leaving. Still in Xuan Ti's lap, her body suddenly glowed, her body slowly turned transparent, sparkling. Then it turned into glittering beads, flying into the sky. The sparkling dust took the form of a human Phoenix, smiling at Xuan Ti. "In time, see you soon." The sparkling dust swirled in the air and flew higher and higher into the sky and disappeared behind the white clouds.

***

The sky is red on the eastern horizon, the sun is moving to greet the morning. The yellow kingdom was destroyed, Residents with sad hearts walked through the rubble scattered on the ground looking for other residents who could still be saved. The atmosphere became gloomy, eerie and silent. there are no residents passing by happily, the market is no longer crowded, the ruins of houses are scattered, the yellow kingdom has turned into a dead city.

Xuan Ti stood on the edge of the cliff on the east coast, staring at the sky in silence, the Yellow Kingdom he had built had now turned into a barren plain of black ash. "For the welfare of this earth I came down to bring peace, but now it is destroyed. I will return to Heaven, in time, I will be reborn as a human to make up for my failure." His calm face no longer radiated. There is a gloomy face, sad and disappointed.

Xuan Ti looked at the four pearls floating in the air, a white ray of light covered each pearl as a protector "Go to the four corners of the world to keep the balance of this earth, this barrier will protect you" The four Pearls flew into the sky and then flew separated to the four directions of the world. The blue color flew into the sky through the clouds, the black color went into the depths of the dark sea water, the white color went into the deepest cave, and the red color entered the mountain through the hot larvae. After that Xuan Ti disappeared.

*Present time*

Twelve years have passed, and now a baby with a dragon birthmark has grown into a child growing up. Oval face, silky black hair hanging around his neck, about 160 meters tall, legs on standby, swinging a wooden sword to attack an adult male with shoulder-length hair that let loose in the wind.

"Tch.... hyat...." the wooden sword swung from above to the shoulder of an adult male quite hard, which if hit could cause minor injuries but the adult male's was agile enough to dodge, attack after attack was launched by the boy to the adult male's but can always be avoided by the man. Finally, the boy got a chance, swung back quickly to attack the adult male's stomach but just as the sword was about to land, the attack movement was stopped, the boy looked at the adult male and laughed happily.

"Good, your learning progress fast, every move and swing of your sword has the power to attack the enemy" walked up to the boy and held his shoulder saying "remember, never give the enemy a chance, attack and kill the enemy every time you get a chance" said the man -the grown man reminded.

"Zhi Qiang, why, why should I kill an enemy that I myself never considered my enemy?" he brushed off and walked a few steps behind Zhi Qiang's body and looked up at the sky "This world would be peaceful if there was no war and killing each other, wouldn't that be a good thing?" Again, he asked but still no answer from him. "You trained me just to make me a killer like you, didn't you?" the boy turned around and looked at Zhi Qiang.

Zhi Qiang walked up to him, his always serious face said "Xuan Yuan, you don't know how cruel this world is, people kill each other for power, no matter if it's achieved by peaceful means or by killing, as long as they can get it then they will do it."

"You, yourself, what are you doing, you're not after power like I thought?" Xuan Yuan replied, in the room where they lived there were no valuables, other than the sword he always carried with him wherever he went.

"No," replied Zhi Qiang firmly, without batting an eye.

"Then why do you kill people, for what?" Xuan Yuan asked curiously, during these twelve years, he often went outside the palace. Sometimes it's just a few days, sometimes it's one to two months. And during that time, he would be alone in the Banquan palace, spending the days practicing and practicing because that was all he could do. Moreover, every time Zhi Qiang left, he always advised to him to practice every day and he would see and test the progress of his practice.

"It's returning the favour " Zhi Qiang replied curtly, after spending time with Xuan Yuan, his pure heart revived his long dead heart. The sight is numb and dull from the frequency of killing. It had become a normal thing he did in the name of returning the favour. And because he had sworn, he could not take it back. Then he could only continue what he had been doing.

"Returning the favour to Master Chi You? what has he done for you?" Xuan Yuan asked curiously, and his curiosity was quite great. Zhi Qiang didn't rarely break his heart, talk about personal things about himself because of that Xuan Yuan didn't know much about him even though they slept in the same room and spent days together.

"When I was young, when I was your age, my village was attacked by guards from the Zhuanxu kingdom, all the residents were brutally killed, my mother and father were also killed by them, my father and mother died to protect me, they prevented the guards to chasing me running away. To save myself. I saw them being killed and dead. While running I cried, I was chased by the guards into the forest, I kept running, I accidentally tripped over a rock and fell, they managed to catch me. The guards at the front swung his sword to kill me, but just as it was about to touch my chest, another sword appeared, slamming the guards sword and made a quiver in his hand, and the sword stuck in the tree. Everyone looked in the direction where the sword came from. A man ran swinging a sword and killed all the guards quickly without a trace. I was scared, the man killed them brutally. When everyone was dead, he looked at me for a moment without say anything and then just turn around walked away, at that moment what crossed my mind was I have no one else in this world, without thinking I knelt down, begging to be his follower, I swore allegiance over my life to him. The man stopped his steps and turned to look at me, beside him lay the dead guard. He took the guard sword and threw it at me. I caught it, the man turned back and walked away. I stood up and walked in his footsteps." Zhi Qiang let out a long breath.