The Dawn of the New World

Hao Xuan's consciousness safely returned to his body in the physical world. When he opened his eyes again a bright golden light reflected within them before quickly disappearing somewhere deep inside.

He let out a deep breath and punched the stone doorway violently, sighing at the outcome of their meeting.

"Damnit, I didn't mean to come off like a spoiled brat but I can't even remember how many times I have repeated myself since coming to this world. I'm not...it's not my responsibility," Hao Xuan muttered under his breath.

Peering into the doorway he tried to look for Ashura of the Six Paths silhouette but even after a few tries he couldn't get back to him.

"How can a god be so petty?? Are you really not going to talk to me again?" he yelled at the empty doorway for a few seconds before walking into the side room indignantly.

The spot in the doorway where his punch had landed cracked and a few small pieces of debris fell to the floor. A shadow suddenly materialized on the other side, its blaring red eyes peering at the ground in anticipation.

**

Hao Xuan walked over to the bed where Wern's roughly bandaged body was placed. He checked his wounds and tightened a few of the bandages before looking over to the side.

The guard was sitting on the floor next to him blankly staring into space.

"You did well. We will leave once it's clear outside."

"Hmm," the guard replied absentmindedly but Hao Xuan didn't think much of it.

He made his way back out of the cave and towards the southern side of the mountain from where he could see much of the city in the distance. There was still a good chunk of the black forest in between them but it seemed to be teeming with life right now.

*Beep*

"Several lifeforms detected within scanning range."

Baracus quickly spoke up warning Hao Xuan of the danger ahead.

Hao Xuan craned his neck over the edge to peer into the dark forest, "Yeah I was about to ask about that, is there a weaker demon somewhere nearby?"

[Adjusting parameters for extraplanetary energy sources]

[Scanning...]

[13 Sources Found]

"Thirteen?! They really came out in full force huh? What level is the weakest one at? If it's not too much I can experiment with it."

"Weakest energy source equivalent to cultivators of 'Origin Realm' is present."

"Really?!" Hao Xuan's ears perked up instantly, "Where? That would be the perfect target. I can kill it quietly and leave before there is any more trouble."

A mini-map popped up on the top left showing several dots of varying brightness in front of him.

"I'm guessing the brighter the dot the stronger its energy source?"

"Correct."

"What's the big one there?"

On the left-most side there was one dot bigger than any of the others by a large margin.

"I am unable to measure exact energy readings since the target has surpassed measurable units. Can only extrapolate potential data based on the energy levels of the immediate surrounding."

"Yeah that's fine, what is it?"

"Target should be equivalent to an upper-level Saint Realm cultivator."

"Upper saint realm?!" Hao Xuan's eyes almost popped out of their sockets, "Are you kidding me right now?"

"Negative. Data suggests a standard deviation value of 0.02. Would you like to take a look?"

Before Hao Xuan even had a chance to respond a series of overly complicated formulas and rows upon rows of numbers began to flash past his eyes.

"What? No, stop showing me this shit, that was a rhetorical remark. I believe your data," Hao Xuan quickly promised, and only then did the numbers stop.

"I'll try to get a little bit closer and get a better look first," he mumbled before slowly jumping down the mountainside like a monkey.

He landed on the extreme right, as far away from the Saint realmed demon as possible before slowly crawling through the foliage one measured step at a time. He had hidden every possible sign of his presence but for some reason, it still didn't feel enough now that he knew there was such a powerful demon within the enemy ranks.

It took him a little over 20 minutes to actually cover the 150-meter distance and reach the area where the weakest demon was.

Hao Xuan had to quickly cover his nose when he came across it otherwise he would have vomited right then and there.

He was sitting in a tree top about three meters away and peering down at what could only be described as a mass grave. The ground looked like it had been pulled down from the inside to create this 7-meter-deep and more than 400 meters wide burial site.

Every side but one was covered in corpses of demihumans and humans alike.

In the center was a sizzling red spot spewing out plumes of black smoke.