4 Beast Shadow from Another World

Chapter 4: Beast Shadow from Another World

As Bao Shu's consciousness faded, the consciousness of the slumbering dragon awoke. Six giant blue eyes shined in the darkness of his withering soul, illuminating the space completely. Tiny particles of light enveloped his body. The elemental spirits gathered around him, slowly dispersing him into light. The spirits danced around as if honoring the beast inside Bao Shu. This came as a great shock to the princess and burly man. They clearly never expected this reaction from the elemental spirits. After regaining their composure the third princess said, "This must be what occurs when a great hero dies- should my child ever meet the same fate, at least he can expect a ceremony of death befitting of royalty. Although it is a bit much the spirits think this bastard deserves one as well, even if he did bring my child such a treasure." As Bao Shu completely disappeared into the fragmented light particles, the eyes of the dragon slowly closed once more. The princess began to speak once more, "Embark on a training to the forest. Make sure you bring enough equipment and supplies for two people, so it doesn't look suspicious in the future. We will tell everyone that he died while doing training to control his wild beast spirit. No one will suspect a thing since he was just a pitiful peasant. That should also please general Lu Bu. Poor, poor boy, given a power he could never control."

"Yes your highness, it shall be as you've said" came the rough voice from the burly man. The third princess left the room and the man followed soon after stuffing Qin Ya's head back into a knapsack. Back in the study room, the door of an armoire swung open. The gasping breaths of a young girl echoed inside the room. The girl muttered between gasps, "Third sister is truly crazy and cruel. What would she had done if she had discovered me… Thankfully they left quickly, I couldn't hold my breath much longer. I'll have to apologize to master someday… The art of being as still as jade actually came in handy, he'll never let me live this down."

Inside the darkest part of a forest, shimmering light flickered into existence. The elemental spirits located here, that haven't moved for thousands of years, slowly started to vibrate. The spirits gathered around and offered the light their energy. They slowly increased the strength of the light until it was almost blinding. After a long period of time, the blinding light materialized into Bao Shu.

Drip. Drop. Bao shu awoke to the feeling of raindrops splattering against his face. He tried to get up in his groggy state but, couldn't move his body. Out of the depths of his heart, granted sound by his mouth, came a scream so ferocious it scared even himself. His body re-actively started to tremble at the voice. Bao shu started to cry at the last thing he remembered. His mother. Dead. He mumbled to himself in his insanity, "Hic- if it wasn't for the beast spirit… My mother would still be alive! Why-why-why, my mother! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DIE!? HOW DARE SHE, how dare she- murder my mother. I swear an oath to my mother, my lost shadow beast spirit and myself. I will murder that bitch, the third princess! No, I will do one better. I will murder your child in front of you, take back my shadow beast spirit and then murder you with it! You royal fucking bitch! Just wait."

After crying and sobbing for hours he finally regained some composure. He looked around and wondered to himself, "Where am I? What is this place, how am I even here?" Questions swam around his his brain constantly. He thought, "I should be dead, why am I not dead. Heavens you help me live now that my mother is dead? Why couldn't you help her?" He finally moved his shaky arms and legs. Struggling to his feet, he fell back down. Bao Shu sat down cross legged and started to study his surroundings more closely. As he went to send out his elemental vision he realized he couldn't sense anything anymore. Not the spirits, nor the light. Nothing but the blackness of the night. He had lost his temporal vision. He crawled around with feet and hands until stumbling upon an object in front of him. He felt around it outlining what seemed like a building in front of him. The building felt cold, so cold. He caressed his hands around it, realizing it was that of a door. In the middle of the door some words were carved in it, that read, " Temple of Forgotten Beasts". Underneath that were some symbols seemingly similar to the ones that were on his bow. He had an idea and decided to try infusing the door the same way as the bow. Bao Shu placed his hand below the symbols on the door and tried to channel the spirits into them. He couldn't. Bao Shu tried again and again but couldn't channel the spirits. He realized how stupid he had been, thinking it was possible to channel spirits after losing your shadow beast. How foolish was that. He started to bang his head on the door lightly because he felt so retarded. He felt hopeless as if the heavens gave him this chance of life only as a way to mock him. As his helplessness overwhelmed him Bao Shu fell back into a deep sleep. Inside his dream he imagined his long lost Shadow beast. He jerked awake from the feeling of the door behind him giving way. As his eyes opened he felt the warmth of the sun on his skin if only temporarily. He fell backwards tumbling down stair after stair, after stair. Bruising his body constantly as if getting hit by blow after blow. Finally he collapsed at the bottom bruised, battered and desperate for life yet again.

He closed his eyes in pain. He saw a light inside the darkness and he heard an anciently but rough voice, "Do you seek the darkness or the light?" Bao Shu reached his hand out trying to grasp the fading light in his vision. The last fragment of light he's seen since his beast spirit was ripped out of him. "I seek the light." He spoke back inside his mind, thinking he'd finally lost his mind in grief. But once more the voice spoke back to him, "Then seek the light that is inside yourself Bao Shu." Hearing this voice he traced the sound back to where it came from. He realized it was coming from his soul, it was coming from the space that was now supposed to be empty. He heard it clearly. His mind was becoming unstable as he focused on sensing what was inside this space. He saw it. With his mind he saw what was inside his soul. It was a shadow beast spirit unlike anything he ever saw before. The first thing he caught glimpse of was giant crystalline blue eyes staring at him. Three humongous mouths so wide it could fit small house inside each one. Wings stretching out so far they reached the other end of his soul. It was a three headed, blue eyed, white dragon.

The scales were so white they seemingly reflected all light off of it, yet shimmered in a blue hue. The dragon got up off the ground standing on its legs looking intently at Bao Shu, as if it was studying his very being. He heard the ancient archaic voice vibrate the very core of his soul, "Do you dare, call me your shadow beast spirit?!" Bao Shu was frozen stiff at the impossible sight. His mind screamed as he thought, "I have a shadow beast spirit inside me even after my black dragon was extracted?" He lost his words like he lost his sight. Finally he mustered up the remaining intelligence he had left after banging his head on the door repeatedly and muttered, "Where...where did you come from beast?!"

A growl escaped one mouth of the beast as the other mouth began to speak, "I come from the shadow realm pitiful human. A place all shadow beasts go to decay after their human summoner has perished." Suddenly one of the other mouths on the gigantic beast opened as the last one closed, "I've been waiting for my chance in slumber for many eons. The last chance I had was three millennium ago. That poor boy could also only channel a sliver of my power before he died all the same. Humans are such fragile beings, so temporal as well." As that mouth sighed and closed the final mouth opened on the towering dragon, "He did well for himself, he became the most powerful person he knew. Ha, well I should say he did well thanks to my power. Fufufu. Do you also wish to have the power to achieve your dreams? To get revenge for your dead mother poor boy? I can help you, take my power as much of it as you can. I crave more destruction, more death in this world. To feel all beings kowtowing below my feet. That includes you. I've allowed you to stand on introduction enough."

A power force that seemed to overwhelm him, in his own soul, came over him. Forcing him onto the ground into his knees prostrated before the beast. Bao Shu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. His own shadow beast was making him bow towards it. Bao Shu didn't reject the feeling. He kowtowed to the beast. The beast opened all three mouths as once and started speaking, "With this kowtow I take this lowly human as my next human spirit vessel, until his death do we part. Now your turn human." Bao Shu opened his mouth and shouted as loud as he could, "I dare take this three-headed, blue-eyed, white dragon as my shadow beast!"

"Good, good, very good" came from the mouth of the beast. The middle mouth opened once more, "Since it has come to this I shall impart upon you the vision of elements. You shall be able to see all elements in all things once more, as you had cultivated before with the black dragon. But this time, you will see them as what they truly are. A source of your own power. Command them as you wish, for all things bow to me, even death." Bao Shu's consciousness was ejected from his soul as the dragon went back to slumber. He opened his eyes only to find he was still blind but, as he expanded his feeling of the elements he could sense once more. He could feel the presence of all the stairs, he could even count them. Each, and every, one of them. All nine-thousand-seven-hundred-and-eighty-two of them. He scanned around himself and discovered there were many statues around him lined up against the walls of a massive corridor. Every one depicted a strange shadow beast he's never seen before. Some took the form of a tiger, others an ape. A couple had many heads some had one. They all had one thing in common. Bao Shu had never seen them before. Not one. Countless statues lined the corridor and there was not one he'd seen before. It was absurd. Finally after he lost track of time walking down admiring the statues, he reached the end.

---

Lu Bu heard a knocking at the door. He opened the door to find a soldier who saluted him and handed him a letter. The letter read, "We are sorry to inform your that your son Bao Shu has passed away in training of becoming a guard for the third royal princess. A royal guard ceremony will be held in his honor in two days from now." Lu Bu thought to himself, "It seems it's all gone according to plan. Now I have a favor from the third princess herself and I cleared the filth that was overshadowing Lu Zhao." He passed the good news onto his son Lu Zhao, who in turned passed it onto the rest of his brothers. Lu Fei, Kei and Mao were saddened by the lost of their brother Bao Shu. They grieved in their own ways for two days, until finally it was time for the ceremony.

The ceremony started with a display of shadow beasts from the entire Lu family. They fired off countless abilities as Lu Bu himself walked down the path to the grave with the despised bow in hand. The bow was the only thing they recovered of Bao Shu after his body was burnt to ash by his uncontrollable shadow beast spirit. The third princess herself was there accompanied by the youngest princess, in honor of Bao Shu. The third princess spoke some words, "It is sad his mother couldn't be here since she already embarked for home before the accident. On her behalf I shall speak some words. Although he failed in the end, he died trying to hone his skills to be able to protect me from harm. For that reason he shall be honored as a hero of the Eirun empire. Let him forever rest knowing he and his spirit beast achieved a great honor."

Lu Mao gathered his brothers Fei and Kei to talk. Mao started with, "Isn't it suspicious his own mother wouldn't come to his funeral? If your only son just died you'd have come back to attend his funeral even if you had to run yourself. And they were only able to bring back his bow? That seems like such a joke, has any of you ever heard of something like this happening before?" Fei thought for a moment and said, "You know I've never heard of something like this happening before but then again we've never seen the black dragon constitution either." Kei spoke up, "It seems strange to me as well, the bow.. his mother.. and the fact he should have been supervised by someone with knowledge of how to train. Yet still managed to die while training? It's very suspicious indeed." They all shut up as they saw the ceremony coming to an end as the princesses started to descend from their small platform. Lu Bu came down as well and gathered his sons to go home. Once home the three sons gathered together again in Fei's room to continue the discussion. Fei shook his head and sighed saying, "It just doesn't make any sense. If his body was refined in the moment of awakening then how could he have perished so easily under training?" Mao nodded but continued with, "It's unfortunate but we have no proof regardless. If we want to really find out what happened we need to ask those involved. I can only speculate that our father or the third princess would know what really happened." Kei began to frustratingly say, "Well even the commoners know how our father felt towards Bao Shu let alone us but, why the third princess brother?" Mao answered with "Because she was the only one who knew where he went after meeting her. Well, her and this supposive teacher- if you can even call someone who lets their student die in front of them, a teacher." They stopped talking as they heard a knock on the door. Lu Zhao opened the door with a questioning look, "Brothers what are you all doing in here?" Mao responded immediately, "Talking about brother Bao Shu… we can't believe he's dead. We just saw him not too long ago!" Zhao frowned but said, "We've been summoned, father is looking for all of us. Let us go."

Lu Bu opened his mouth, "I know the time is rough but lets use his death as motivation for becoming stronger so that you guys can get stronger to protect the things you want to keep in this world. Then start!"

"Yes father!" Shouted the brothers in unison.

Lu Bu spoked up once more, "Except for you Zhao come over here you will get tougher training as my successor."

"Of course father!" Replied Zhao. As they walked away to another part of the training grounds Zhao spoke up, "Father thank-you." Lu Bu told him, "Be quiet and train! Naturally, I, your father will protect you."

The royal caravan left the ceremony. The third princess in her carriage started talking to her stomach, "It's so much work being nice, I'm such a nice person sometimes. You know your mother is a good person don't you baby? I bet you can't wait to show your aunties how strong your shadow beast is huh~"

In the carriage behind hers the youngest princess, Mallow, was telling her master about what occurred in the study room. "Master, master, guess what skill I actually had a use for!" The old groggily man replied, "Hmm, what skill did Miss Mallow use and what for?" The young princess looked down shy and said, "Well I was hiding from father in the study room and I saw something I wasn't supposed to. I made it out undetected even against third sis! The art of being as still as jade worked so well I can't believe it." He retorted with, "Of course everything I teach you will be of the utmost quality. Although even I find it a little strange she didn't detect you then. Are you sure?" Mallow shook her head and said, "Yes I'm sure otherwise I don't think she'd let me see you so easily." Her master put his hand on his beard and stoked it saying, "Hmmm perhaps she thought she didn't need to. It was the study room after all. Only royalty and those given permission of royalty are allowed in there at the time. And the fact you were supposed to with me probably made her let her guard down. Either way what did you see?"

Mallow put her hand up to her lips and went "Shh. I can't tell you Master it's a royal secret."