The Dawn of the New World

[Devour!]

The Capra Demon's mutilated body parts began to shake while being pulled up into the air. They ripped and tore into smaller and smaller pieces until they resembled fine red mist which was swiftly absorbed into Hao Xuan's body.

The glowing red ruby that he had been looking for finally revealed itself in the nick of time and Hao Xuan could not be happier. He quickly picked it up to toss it into the storage space for the time being but the space around it shifted once before returning to normal.

"I can't store it??? Why?"

*Beep*

Rather than answer his query Baracus expanded the minimap once again and showed him the position of the largest red dot getting closer by the second.

"At its current speed the Turtle demon will arrive within the next 15 seconds."

"Okay okay, later then."

He quickly tried to reach out to Grey and see where he was but even at full speed it would take him at least 140 seconds to get back to him, not that he even had the energy to do that right now.

'On foot it is.'

With the red ruby still within his grasp Hao Xuan turned around and started running at full speed. The moment he was out of the mass grave and the influence of the black smoke he stopped trying to hide his presence and began to [Blink] through the dark forest without any reservations.

It would be an extremely costly endeavor Qi-wise but was the best option to get away as far away as possible as quickly as possible without leaving a trail.

With every [Blink] he appeared a little over 300 meters away before disappearing again the moment his body stabilized.

In 12 seconds he managed to [Blink] seventeen times covering more than 5000 meters (or 5 kilometers) but at the cost of more than 85% of the total internal energy reserves. Using it in such quick succession cost a lot more Qi than usual.

And he found out soon after that this was indeed the right choice because the moment the Turtle Demon appeared at the mass grave and saw what had happened it went crazy.

With a mournful roar the black smoke shot up into the sky and began falling down like goey rain. It instantly locked down the surrounding area with a radius of 3000 meters in every single direction.

When Hao Xuan looked back he could see a large black dome solidifying over the space, locking everything inside of it.

And only now did he realize what it actually was.

"A domain!? That black smoke was the Turtle demon's domain! No wonder I couldn't invoke my law, there was one already there and it was powerful enough to squash mine completely."

Now that he was out of immediate danger all the notifications that had been piled up came flooding back in. They started from when he absorbed the Capra Demon-

[Internal Energy Reserves Reached Maximum Capacity]

[Limb Renegenration Underway]

[Intenral Injuries Reduced to 5%]

[Influx of Internal Energy Detected]

-And continued until a moment ago.

[Warning!]

[Internal Energy Reserves at 80% and Falling]

[Repeated Spatial Distortion Detected]

[Molecular Integrity Disrupted]

[Energy Reserves at 60%...]

[50%]

[40%]

[30%]

[20%]

[Remaining Internal Energy: 14%]

Hao Xuan felt like he had been chewed up and thrown out ten times over. There weren't any obvious dangers to his body but by using [Blink] in such a high frequency he had reached the absolute limit of what his body could handle.

[Blink] transported him through space by displacing matter around him. Using it a handful of times one after another would pose no real danger but he used it almost 17 times without resting for even a moment and the toll it had taken on his body was nothing to scoff at.

If his physical abilities hadn't reached such a level then he would be nothing but a bubbling pool of plasma by now.

Hao Xuan leaned against a tree to rest while waiting for Grey to reach his location.

His arms and legs were covered in deep blue and black bruise marks but they were healing relatively quickly albeit at the cost of even more internal energy.

His stomach grumbled loudly and deep a hunger took root within his heart.

"Argh! I feel like my body is about to collapse in on itself. Is there anything still left to eat?"

*Beep*

"Negative. If the host desires system can create a nutritional pill. It would not be very fulfilling but should be enough for the time being."

"Yeah do that."

A couple of seconds later a metal tube appeared in Hao Xuan's hand but when he looked into it only a grey slime could be seen.

"What is this? Wasn't this supposed to be a pill?"

"It will take approximately 540 seconds for the formula to stabilize and dry enough to turn solid."

"Too long. Can I eat it like this?"

"....Yes."

Hao Xuan chugged it down without any hesitation.