Under Pressure

Chief Snowfur was standing in a daze as he witnessed the horrible scene in front of him. He knew Elder Dayak for many years, and it was incomprehensible to him that the same beastkin he grew up next to was now consuming another member for the tribe. Elder Datak sensed the two chiefs behind him and turned towards them to display a horrific sight. The elder's eyes with no longer brown, but a thick white layer covered the pupils, and blood was dripping from his mouth.

Elder Datak began to change, as he went from a humanoid form to a much larger one. Large white horns extended from his head and long amber hair covered his body, as he sprinted forward towards Chief Snowfur. Just before the elder reached the chief, a humongous bear crashed into the yak's flank, knocking it off course. Chief Ironclaw let out a loud growl towards Chief Snowfur before running after the attacker.

Chief Snowfur snapped back to reality before morphing into a giant yak and heading in the same direction as Ironclaw. Datak turned to see the two chiefs in pursuit of him and his eyes became slightly less cloudy. He realized that even with the stone's power, he was out matched and couldn't survive even if he stood his ground. Chief Ironclaw and Snowfur watched, as the elder turned and sprinted away into the forest.

Chief Snowfur was about to follow when he heard Chief Ironclaw, now back in human form, "Chief Snowfur, it's best not to follow. If we put him against a wall, the stone will activate its self defense ability, and we might not make it back alive."

The giant yak nodded its head before changing back into a man, "You're right, Chief Ironclaw, Thank you for your assistance earlier."

"It might be too early to thank me", Ironclaw replied, "How many tribes of the bull, buffalo, or yak are in the area?"

Chief Snowfur eyes widen as he understood the bear's question, "There are a few, I'll send message talismans immediately so that they can defend themselves."

"I'll send a message to Daoist Wei to see if there is a way to stop this like they stopped Ironspurs", Chief Ironclaw remarked.

Emperor Long Tian exited the carriage that carried him and strolled into the palace of his second son. As the emperor of the Draco Serpentus empire, he had seen many events, and the one before him didn't surprise him at all. Bodies littered the floor of the palace as it appeared that someone or some force had massacred all the guards and servants of his son. The emperor stopped and spoke to one of the guards following him, "Inform the ones who will clean here to persevere the bodies. They died with my son, and will be buried together with him."

The guard bowed in response and left to speak with the overseer of the palace.

The emperor continued to walk through the rooms of the palace before he reached his destination. As he entered the large bedroom, he saw his second son laying in bed. He walked towards the body while everyone else exited the room, and guards stood outside the door to prevent anyone from disturbing the emperor.

The emperor sat on the bed next to his lifeless son, and reached out to take an azure orb from the corpse's grasp before sighing, "Long Ying, you were just too talented, but fortunately, this should be the last time this needs to happen. Once I harvest the bloodline from you and your people, I'll enter seclusion. I should be able to breakthrough at that time, and I can rival the cultivator that stays on the island above us."

As he placed the stone back into his ring, he walked back to the door, "The merfolk have gone too far now, sending assassins to kill my child. Send all the dead to the palace to ready them for burial in the Tomb of the Dragon, and begin the period of mourning following their internment. The cowardly merfolk have gone into hiding on that island, and send kill through borrowed knives. I will concentrate on breaking through so that I can confront that cultivator and punish our enemies."

All the beastkin present went to one knee or bowed in some fashion, "Long Live The Dragon Emperor!"

As the emperor stepped back into his carriage, he thought to himself, 'I'm not a true dragon yet, but according to the senior inside the stone, I will be one soon.'

In the western region of the Shou Continent, there are large plains covering the land and is home to many beastkin tribes. On the surface everything looks normal, but underground tunnels are being dug by the Ashfur rats. After their raids on the dog's towns and villages, they abandoned their homes and headed west to raid the sheep's lands next. Tunnels dug out weaved through the region as bands of rats moved fresh dug dirt to inconspicuous places, and brought the few valuable materials found to their nests.

A roving band of rat beastkins were currently heading back to the newest tunnels.

The two in the back were tired, and decided to stop for a moment to sit down as the rest of the group ran ahead.

"This is too much", the first rat complained,

"Voideyes has changed lately, even if we are known for scavenging, we haven't had a moment of rest lately."

"Yeah", the second rat responded, "We ran off with some much stuff during that last raid, but I feel like I haven't seen anything from it and now we are already getting ready to raid the sheep? Makes me want to find my own burrow somewhere and hide out until all this over."

"Don't speak so loud", the first rat said in hushed tones, "If one of the others hear us and sell us out, we'll be done for."

The second rat looked around before relaxing, "You are worrying about nothing, old friend, we need to get moving before the others come to find us."

As he turned towards his friend, he was met with a frightening sight as he saw his friend trapped in the hold of a giant snake.

"SSSNNNAA…", the rat began to shout in alarm only to have his body completely surrounded by the body of a second snake, cutting off his voice. For several minutes, he did his best to struggle, but eventually he ran out of air, and as his view began to turn dark, his last memory was a large mouth opening up to swallow him.

An hour later, both snakes turned back to humans as a few more snakes approached the pair.

"Where are the rats you captured?", the leader of the newcomers asked.

The two looked at each other before the first one spoke up, "Well, we were feeling quite hungry so we had a snack."

"Again?", the leader said in disappointment, "How are we supposed to interrogate them if everyone keeps eating them first?"

The pair suddenly looked guilty before the second snake spoke up, "I don't think these rats knew anything important, they seem to be of lower status."

"Whatever", the leader said, "Let's find another one, and if anyone eats this one before we ask it questions, you'll be seeing Queen Silverscale and explaining to her why you can't follow basic instructions."

Grand Merchant Lord Kang was bored. Ever since they signed the contract with the Ministry, they had been meeting with architects who Drew's plans on paper, and then displayed the results again in the holographic simulator using the QR pod. He was amazed as he walked through the future building and could suggest changes when something didn't appear as he imagined it. All the planning was complete and construction of the building had begun, but each day, one of the Grand Merchant lords would take turns watching over the process to ensure that everything was up to standard. They ultimately decided to start with three businesses, the first was as an import and export company, the second was a transportation fleet, and the third was the island's first brothel.

Even though Kang was bored, he was glad to be overseeing the construction teams today in particular, because the other two were handling all the paperwork and purchases for these new ventures. He would wander around the teams as they built the new building, answer questions from the foremen and specialist as required, and watch his Qphone if nothing else required his attention. He also thought about Huoran's ideas when they brought the final project to him to evaluate.

'What a weird name, host or hostess club', Kang thought to himself, 'But the business idea is gold, I can't imagine how he thought of it. Customers come in and an employee will stay with them to drink, sing, or play games. Then if the employee agrees they can rent a private room for other activities. We get the profit from selling food, drinks, and renting room plus a small percentage of what the employee makes for their duties. At first, I thought that Wei kid was crazy, but after running the numbers, it's as profitable as our other stories back in the Shuo region.'

As Kang sat in his favorite chair smoking a pipe, he felt much better about setting up business here on Sun & Moon island.