The Dawn of the New World

Hao Xuan stood rooted on the spot for several minutes before finally turning back and only because the cold started getting to him.

"Did you see that? If I hadn't buried them we wouldn't have gotten that information."

A red light blinked on the top left of his vision making Hao Xuan grumble, "You can speak now, just don't say anything stupid."

*beep*

"Which information is host referring to?"

"The hatching pits or whatever he called them. What else would I be talking about?"

"Apologies, I did not want to assume."

"Assume what? You heard the same thing I did."

"Negative."

"Negative what?"

"System only picked up the host's side of the conversation."

Hao Xuan came to an abrupt stop, "What are you talking about? You didn't see or hear Wern's soul talking to me?"

"Negative."

Hao Xuan looked over his shoulder towards the direction of the grave.

'Did that...really happen then?' he mused inwardly.

"Maybe because they were souls? Or maybe they chose to reveal themselves only to me?"

"Unable to answer."

"I guess it doesn't matter in the long run. The point is that there is more than one of those hatching pits. We know the one in the north is protected by the turtle demon so I will avoid that, but once Grey is back on his feet we will check out the one in the west. Wern said there was only one demon there and he wasn't that strong."

"And maybe, with some luck, I can find a few more hatching pits and absorb a few more demons and get their cores. Since I can't break through right now so this is the only way to increase my strength. It will be a huge boost if I can do it the right way."

By the time he was finished talking Hao Xuan was already at the entrance of the cave. Grey's heads looked over at him neighing and bobbing up and down in merriment.

That little gesture was enough to greatly lift his spirits and he couldn't help but pause to brush his hand through Grey's mane.

"Are you that happy to see me? Huh?" he said in a coaxing baby voice, "You're the only good soul-bond I have. All those other assholes leave me but you won't right?"

"Neigh!" x2

"Speaking of other soul-bonds..." his expression turned somber as Hao Xuan stood up and closed his eyes.

"Fortis! Where the hell are you?!"

Hao Xuan utilized the power of the soul-bond to call for the little octopus but several seconds passed and no response came.

When he activated [Arbiter] his vision went dark without any other signs.

'Either he is too far or someplace I can't reach him. All I can feel is that he is alive...at least he is alive.'

Closing off the connection with Fortis for the time being he opened the other one, the first and most powerful soul-bond.

"Zhurong!"

Upon activating [Arbiter] again his vision flashed with a blinding red light. When it receded a moment later Hao Xuan was standing in a giant red bubble.

'Where is this?'

He looked around at the surroundings but could only see raging flames in every direction. It looked like they were constantly attacking the barrier.

'Gurrhr...'

A weak purring noise sounded in his head, pulling Hao Xuan's attention to the back. Turning around he was immediately faced with two familiar figures.

One belonged to Zhurong and the other to Ma Jiang.

She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the red bubble and Zhurong was resting in her lap. Her eyes were tightly shut as beads of sweat rolled down her body. She was muttering what sounded like a spell under her breath and was entirely focused on it.

Zhurong on the other hand raised his little head with some effort to look directly at Hao Xuan.

"Meow..."

There was a cut on his back and burn marks on his abdomen. His breathing was shallow and even from this far away Hao Xuan could tell how serious his injuries were.

Hao Xuan's gaze turned cold.

'What happened?? Who did this!?'

Zhurong shifted his head to the left, gesturing towards the spot behind the wall of flames.

Hao Xuan's figure slowly rose into the air until it could not anymore and then he focused his vision to barely make out a single silhouette on the other side.

'Feng Huang! He did this?!'

Feng Huang was standing still with both his arms pointed towards the barrier. An unceasing torrent of bright yellow flames was being shot out of them and straight at the barrier.

Hao Xuan could see the barrier physically reducing in size every second. At its current rate, it would not last for more than 4 hours.

"Meow..."

Zhurong did not even have enough energy to keep his head raised and collapsed because of it. Hao Xuan felt the soul-bond waver and immediately came down to inspect him closely.

There was a string of concentrated red energy going from Zhurong to Ma Jiang.

***

Author's Notes:

Currently gathering a stockpile to upgrade the privilege chapter tier to 5 (with 20 advanced chapters) which is why the current release rate is a little slow. It will take effect from April 1st (hopefully).

Once I have the stockpile ready the release rate will return to 5 to 8 chapters per week.