Fallen Lotus: The Legends of Xiao Xue

Chapter Two: A serpent, two carps and an angry cloud

"Qinglong, we mean no harm—" the voices within the 'pearl' said.

"You mean no harm?" the dragon asked with an undercurrent of outrage. "Yet you bring that foul bird's vital essence into my domain, tainting it."

The dragon turned its attention to Chris whose soul had somehow now gained a crimson lustre. "And all this for a mere mortal soul? First, you undermined my divinity by supporting that foul bird's ascension, then your collective stupidity cost me a third of my life force, and now this?! Have I grown so complacent that you would continue to so causally slight me? If so, then let me remind you the reason why I, Qinglong, am named the ancestor of dragons."

"There is no reason to get angry, Qinglong—" the voices said in a bid to calm the angry dragon, unfortunately, their pleas fell on deaf ears.

Widening his maw, Qinglong growled, gathering the ambient energy in the air into his unhinged jaw. A spiralling azure orb of pure energy whirred into existence, the fabric of reality rending around it.

A disoriented Chris widened his eyes, terror manifesting within. Hey... W-wait! Can't we talk about this? I think we should talk about this!

The orb screamed forth, arching towards Chris, before a paper-thin film of light appeared in its path, dissipating the orb into nothing more than a violent gale. The diminished gale shook Chris soul, temporarily destabilizing it until the pearl released a grey mist that dissipated the force.

But before Chris could breathe a sigh of relief, he looked up to see the dragon dive-bombing on their position, approaching with the might of a falling star.

The descending dragon impacted with an explosive bang, a bright flash of white light flooding the plane before everything went eerily silent. Several seconds later, the explosive sound returned as the light dimmed until it disappeared completely.

Qinglong reappeared, suspended several miles up in the air. His serpentine body was coiled in a loose loop with his tail slowly swaying about, glowing in an eye-catching azure light— the remnant energies from the previous attack pulsing on its surface.

The dragon arched his neck to examine the result of his attack, his fearsome gaze squinted in a small frown.

Below the dragon, displaying a swirling, intermittent spectrum of perfectly reflective silver and all-consuming darkness was a dome of vibrating scales and coiled muscle.

Seconds later, the dome uncoiled to reveal two carps of monstrous proportions. The first covered in silvery mirror-like scales with a pitch-black spot adorning its forehead, and the other pitch-black in colour with a reflective silver spot on its forehead.

With body lengths, about five times their height, gigantic delicate-looking scales, whiskers about half their body lengths hanging from forward-protruding mouths and elongated, flowing finnage, both fishes nearly rivalled the dragon in size.

Tui and La swam serenely in circles around a glassy-eyed Chris, closely guarding him against the dragon's wrath. The mortal had been shocked into a stupor by the sheer display of power before him.

"Qinglong," Tui and La intoned ominously, "this is not wise."

Qinglong huffed dismissively. Arrogance suffused aura, his gaze, condescending.

"You've both grown weak."

"Qinglong, are you sure you want to continue on this self-destructive path?" the duo said again.

Qinglong responded by amassing another charge of energy, two orbs forming in his claws. The two lines of azure scales along his sides brightened in an icy-blue glow and as his mane, beard and whiskers flared out threateningly.