Urban Dragon Rises

Author: Marcus Voss

Chapter 1: Azaleas Bleeding, Apes Lamenting

Words : 1953 Updated : Feb 28th, 2026

Mount Erwin, high above the sea of clouds. Several streaks of light cut back and forth through the mist, flickering in and out of view… All at once, a white radiance halted mid-flight. A heartbeat later, seven figures appeared in sequence along a nearby cliff face: seven elderly masters and a single youth. "Wunian, what is it?" An old man in black robes studied the boy in white, baffled. The youth lowered his gaze. His eyes settled on a spray of azaleas blooming on a sheer rock wall not far away. He stared as if the world had gone quiet. "Azaleas weep blood, and apes cry in grief…" His voice turned distant. "It's azalea season again." He lifted his head. "Master, I want to go down the mountain." The seven old men's brows twitched. The black-robed elder burst into laughter first. "Good! Ten years. You brat finally wants to leave the mountain. That's the best news I've heard in ages!" "We old fossils don't have anything left to teach you," another added. "Starting today, you can go train on your own." The black-robed elder flicked his wrist and tossed the longsword in his hand. "Take the Xenos Sword if you like it. And don't come back to pester me." The boy caught it casually. A yellow-robed elder immediately chimed in, shoving a ring forward. "This Fortune Ring has quite the history. With it… you can command the wealth of the world. Keep it on you. And if nothing's wrong, don't come back!" "If something's wrong, don't come back either," a green-robed elder snapped, beard bristling as he cut in. "The ruler of Chiton is your senior brother. If you need help, go to him. Don't come crawling to us. Take this Black Martial Token. It's proof for you two to recognize each other." "Right, right," a blue-sashed elder said, his voice crisp and forceful. "If trouble comes from the east, find your ruler senior brother. If the west gives you headaches, go find that pope servant of yours. With this Holy Shield Medal, you'll be a god in the western world." An elder in a gray scholar's robe listened to them bicker and only smiled faintly. "This Universal Tortoise Shell is yours as well. That thing causes trouble wherever it goes. If you've got any sense, don't take it out unless you have to. Otherwise, the people who come begging you to divine their fortunes and accept them as disciples will fill Delton to the brim. When you're sick of it, don't say I didn't warn you." A purple-collared elder casually tossed over a bundle he had kept close to his body. "The Green Pouch Book is yours too. You've already learned everything in it, but if you forget, don't come back up here to ask me. Read the book yourself." "Enough, all of you." A woman in a crimson palace gown finally spoke. Her hair was a cascade of silver, her beauty mature and poised, her elegance impossible to ignore. Half scolding, half amused, she shot the old men a look. "Wunian is going down the mountain to gain experience, not being kicked out. Why talk to him like that?" She turned to the youth and smiled warmly. "Wunian, don't take it to heart. Your Seventh Master promises you this: the moment you leave, these old geezers will start missing you." "And if you get bored down there, remember to visit your nine senior sisters. Every one of them is a stunner, the kind that topples kingdoms. If you don't mind… you should take them all-" "Ahem!" The black-robed elder coughed twice, cutting her off with obvious reproach. "Lust is a blade that scrapes the bones, Nadia Santee. Why would you tell Wunian that?" "You're harming him." "If anything happens to him, we'll hold you responsible." Nadia Santee giggled, her gaze sweeping over the six old men one by one, daring them with her eyes. "Fine. Are you all coming at me together… or one at a time?" "You-" The black-robed elder's thick brows shot up. "Masters, please." The youth in white, who had stood silently by the cliff for a long time, finally spoke in a calm, even tone. "You saved me when I had nowhere to run. You taught me for ten years. Your kindness was the same as giving me a second life. I, Brock Yale, will never forget it. In the future, I'll repay you a hundredfold. After I go down the mountain, I ask that all of you take care." He bent and bowed nine times to the seven elders. Then his figure dissolved into the mountain mist, vanishing among the clouds… The scholar-robed elder sighed softly, pinching his fingers as he calculated. "Misfortune is where fortune leans, and fortune is where misfortune hides." "Wunian carries a sea of blood-debt on his back… This trip down the mountain will be full of variables. Blessing or calamity, no one can say…" … Zerton. Lux Garden. Villa Number Four… This had once been the Yale family's home. The laughter that used to fill it had long since turned into broken walls and collapsed stone. After traveling thousands of miles, Brock Yale finally returned. Standing before the ruins, his star-bright eyes reddened, and his lips moved in a whisper. "Ten years… I'm finally back." Ten years ago, at a family banquet, a group of masked men in black had stormed into the Yale family estate. They had said nothing. They had simply started killing. His parents had died on the spot to buy Brock and his sister a chance to escape. When the pursuers closed in, his sister had turned back to cover him. She never made it out. He had run until his lungs burned, but the men in black still caught him. He had come within a breath of dying alongside his family, only to be saved at the last moment by his Fifth Master, Finnley Letherdale, who happened to pass by. Finnley had killed his captors and taken him to Mount Erwin. Finnley had called him a once-in-ten-thousand genius of cultivation. He had even persuaded six other powerhouses who were discussing the Dao on Mount Erwin at the time to teach Brock together. No one had expected that in only ten years, Brock Yale would reach completion in his cultivation and master every ultimate art those seven experts possessed, including Finnley's. He stepped into the shattered remains of the home from his memories, letting the ache of a family warmth that would never return wash through him. "Ten years." His jaw tightened. "Whoever did this, I'll make you pay in blood." He swore it silently. Then a solemn, sacred white caught his eye. He walked toward it. It was the room that had once been used to enshrine the Yale family ancestors' spirit tablets. On a square table stood three tablets, for his parents and his sister. Beside them lay a bouquet of white chrysanthemums. Someone had set up their tablets and come to pay respects. Brock stepped closer and saw a few graceful words on the card tucked into the flowers: "Vienna Scurr, in mourning." "Vienna?!" His eyes lit up, and a girl's smiling face rose vividly in his mind. She was his fiancée. Their engagement had been arranged before they were even born. The plan had been simple: once they each finished school, they would marry. Then the Yale family catastrophe had happened, and the engagement had been left hanging in the dust… At that moment, hushed voices drifted in from outside the doorway. Two passersby were whispering. "Miss Scurr really is loyal. The Yale family's gone, but she still comes every month to pay respects." "Yeah. I heard she's the one who set up all the spirit tablets. For a bride who never even married in, she's done more than enough…" "Such a pity… A girl that good, and the Oldakers family treated her like that. Heaven's got no eyes." "Excuse me," Brock asked, voice tight. "What happened to Miss Scurr?" He appeared behind them in a single step, his movement ghostlike. "Ah!" The two passersby jumped, spinning around in shock. Seeing that he spoke politely, they didn't explode at him. One of them, quick-tongued, answered right away. "I saw it with my own eyes… Miss Scurr got dragged out of here by people from the Oldakers family. They broke both her legs and shoved her into a car…" "The Oldakers family's eldest young lady, Vera Oldakers, looked vicious as hell. She kept cursing, saying Miss Scurr dared to come lay flowers for the Yale family and was asking to die…" "Even the Scurr family's old butler got beaten badly…" What?! The Oldakers family?! Brock's gaze sharpened into ice. Back then, after his parents and sister died, he had been fleeing alone when he overheard one of the black-clad men calling Pierce Oldakers, the head of the Oldakers family. There was no way the Oldakers family had nothing to do with it. He had returned for two reasons: to avenge his parents, and to fulfill the engagement from years ago. Yet the Oldakers family dared to humiliate his fiancée like this? A razor-edged killing intent flashed through Brock's eyes. He had planned to pay his respects and then seek out his Ninth Senior Sister, who had gone down the mountain two years before him. But as he looked toward the distant city lights slowly brightening in the night, he changed his mind.

Urban Dragon Rises

Chapter 1: Azaleas Bleeding, Apes Lamenting

Comments (0)