Chapter 2 Lance Loong.

Lance Yang carried Ian Loong out of the hole and put him under a tree so that he could lean his body on it. “This old man has been pretended to be dead!” After a closer watch, Lance found that his father even was still breathing so he couldn’t be a ghost. Yet Ian seemed to understand what he was thinking, “I’m not alive! It’s just temporary, my soul will leave again! Now, listen, son, I’m going to ask you to do something, but if you fail any of them, I will haunt you for the rest of your life! Do you hear me?” Ian rolled his eyes and was clearly not convinced, “Yeah, yeah, just, yeah, tell me what do you want.” “You look just like me at your age, okay, listen, first of all, take the dragon-shaped jade.” Lance interrupted, “You take me as a fool, old man? How can you live so well for so many years if you have a piece of jade inside your body?” “Did I look well to you for the past years, you little shit? Eighteen years ago, when I came to this little town alone, none of your mother’s generation was a match to me, or how do you think I get your mother on my bed, huh? But after that fucking jade, all my Chi that helped me to break through even the eighth stage of dragon-veins was empty, and that was how I get here!” Lance didn’t know this story at all, and the old man was quite angry when he said, so it might not be a lie, but Lance just couldn’t imagine. What kind of jade was capable of sucking people’s Chi all up? And how could his useless father to be a genius at the eighth stage? Lance knew that his grandfather was one of the most powerful men in Baiyang, but still, he was only at the ninth stage. Having ignored the suspicious expression on his face, Ian continued, “Okay, now, let’s move on, the second thing is...changing your last name! From now on, your name is Lance Loong, and remember that we the Loong family is the overlord of this world!” “Overlord? Are you...Loong is also quite good.” Lance Loong, that would work, too. Looking at the smile of Ian, Lance suddenly felt something he never had before and could not help smiling along. He sat down next to Ian, shoulder to shoulder. “I had my days, back then, I dominated the Dragonia and when I roared, the whole continent would tremble before me, but now, I’m going to die in this little town...that’s life.” “Did you break your head when I pushed you down the hole? Stop bragging, old man. Oh, right, how about you live with me from now on and we will never have to deal with those fuckers from the Yang family anymore, what do you say?” Lance said as he looked at the grass and flowers in front of him, expecting his father’s answer, but for quite a long time, he heard nothing. After turning his head, he saw Ian was just staring at him, crying his eyes out. “What the...” “Lance...” “Y...yeah?” “I’m not a good father to you, but you must be warned. What you will deal with in the future is beyond your imagination, be prepared!” “And listen, in this motherfucking world, your own strength means everything, without it, you’re nothing but a piece of shit!” “After my soul leaves again, you need to be stronger, and not the strongest of Baiyang, but the strongest of the whole fucking Dragonia, that’s my pursuit and it also should be yours...” Lance was taken back a little because the old man turned to be so serious all of a sudden. Ian looked at his face and smile, “Now, I said what I need to say, there’s only one thing left. There will be a family competition held by the Yangs to test the young generation, and the award will be the most precious secret method, Dragon’s Mark. That’s the key for you to be a dragon warrior, so get that no matter what happens...remember that...” Lance shrugged, “Well, I can take care of several punks if you like, but the competition, I’ll let you down, old man, oh, and what the hell is a dragon warrior, a warrior like a dragon or something?” “The dragon warrior...is a legend...in Dragonia...” Finally, Ian stopped breathing with a smile on his face. Lance was going to ask his father what Dragonia was when he found Ian’s body lost its last energy. Though his eyes didn’t close and he was even smiling, Lance could tell that his breathing stopped already. Instantly, Lance panicked. Before this talk, he could accept Ian’s death easily, but now, when he was expecting to take his father away and finally could live a happy life with his family, Ian died... Lance hung his head painfully, and Ian’s words resounded in his head over and over again. This pain almost killed him. He thought he lost humanity long ago, but right here, right now, the feeling that was like cutting his heart into pieces reminded him that there was still something left. It was until the midnight that Lance was going to bury his father after he was certain that the corpse wouldn’t come back to life again. Looking at the man lying in the hole, Lance clenched his fists. “Father, I will follow your command...” And he suddenly thought of the dragon-shaped jade Ian mentioned. “But I will ruin his body if I try to take the jade...” Thinking of that, he was going to give up on the jade but another thought hit him, “No, the old man said the jade tortured him, and he told me several times to do what he asked, it must be important!” Having made up his mind, Lance didn’t hesitate any more and took out a dagger. Taking a deep breath, he cut Ian’s stomach open and as expected, there was a black jade. Lance then put the jade down and buried his father. He set a tombstone and bowed to it before sitting down and checking on the jade. “So, this is the shit emptied all his Chi and destroyed his life.” Yet with a closer watch, Lance found the jade was nothing special except for the strange lines and the shape. He just couldn’t understand how this thing was stuck into his father’s body and destroyed his life. All of a sudden, the jade started to glimmer, and the next thing he knew, it disappeared. “What the...” Boom! Before he could finish the sentence, Lance felt an explosion in his head, and he closed his eyes subconsciously. In a blink, he found himself floating in fog, with the wild wind blowing over his ears, and he couldn’t even tell the direction. “Is this...the spiritual space? Shit, this must be the spiritual space! But I’ve read about it, I remember that only those who have Chi could enter the spiritual space, how come I’m here?” Lance tried to move and luckily, he found that he could run in this space, but no matter how far he went, he was still trapped in the fog, and that was when he saw the black, dragon-shaped jade was also floating right in front of him, still glimmering. Feeling scared, Lance opened his eyes in astonishment. “Shit, that jade is in my spiritual space as well, is it going to empty my Chi?” “No, wait, I don’t have any Chi!” And that was when a wave of pure energy flowed out from the jade and crossed the limit between spirit and body to appear in Lance’s body. The warmth of it comforted his whole body. “Chi?”