The Dawn of the New World



The path was narrow and relatively straightforward. Almost every inch of land was covered by the hordes of shadow beasts so it didn't really matter where he went from, the danger was everywhere.

And since time was a great factor in his situation the shortest path forward would be the best one.

With the floodlight hanging from his waist for dear life, Hao Xuan's figure cut through the squirming ocean of darkness as the only source of light on this side of the world.

Everything behind him was either slowly disintegrating from the increasingly unstable space or being torn apart from the pressure exerted by the colossal beast.

Hao Xuan was moving faster than he could think. His body reacted first and then the realization followed seconds later.

'Faster...faster...'

The sounds of explosions disturbed the otherwise silent eternal night every few seconds.

The 'barrier' created by the floodlight was enough to keep 90% of the shadow beasts away since their bodies would start to burn the moment they came into contact with it. They immediately moved out of the way upon seeing Hao Xuan racing in their direction.

But the remaining 10% had reached a level where they could maintain their forms even under direct light. These were the ones that had no qualms about exchanging a few blows with him.

They might be weak but none of them were stupid. They knew very well that as long as Hao Xuan had the light to protect him there was nothing they could do to. So their only purpose in engaging with him was to slow him as much as possible and...they had succeeded to a great degree.

No matter how fast he was, some altercations were unavoidable since these shadow beasts refused to move out of the way and the only way forward was through them. But every time Hao Xuan swung the hammer it was bound to take a life.

The rare few beasts that were either fast or lucky enough to survive the first hit came up against [Devour] since he did not hesitate to absorb every iota of energy back into his body.

Even in his semi-frenzied state Hao Xuan knew how important it was to keep his internal energy above a certain threshold because the real battle would start when the floodlight would inevitably run dry.

Within just a couple of minutes he had traveled far enough that his light vanished behind the teeming hordes.

The 'Death Mold' spiritual herb that had initially stolen the floodlight from Hao Xuan plucked itself out of the ground roots and all, while staring in the direction he had gone off to.

It looked back and forth between the mountain where it had spent all its life and towards the uncertain path forward.

To this little herb there was nothing outside of the sanctuary until Hao Xuan came through. And meeting him ignited a new spark deep inside of it. It was feeling and realizing a lot of things for the first time, one of which was that it did not want to be here.

It could not see or hear like a human but its sense of preservation was leagues ahead. It could feel an imminent danger in this place and nothing could be done to stop it.

It turned towards the other spiritual herbs and tried communicating with them in a much more 'human' way by using its leafy blades to explain that this place would soon cease to exist. But to them the concept of beginning or end was foreign.

They just 'were' until they weren't.

And that's when it realized that it had begun walking a different path than the rest. It had become sapient, discerning of a great many other things outside of itself.

Accepting its difference, it did not try and convince any of the others and instead went towards the exit. The shadow beasts that had previously been trying to force their way in with all their might were now nowhere to be seen. They had all followed after the brightest source of light that was none other than Hao Xuan.

Its roots left the ground completely allowing it to move on the surface like many of the other creatures. The only other beings it had seen aside from Hao Xuan were the shadow beasts so it took notes from them.

Parts of its form shuddered and fell off until only four thick "legs" remained, identical to many of the four-legged shadow beasts. The leaves rolled up and were pulled into the stem making it take a weird shape. The motes of light that it naturally exuded were also put out when the leaves were pulled in.

From afar it looked like a leek on four pudgy legs that were previously its roots. Just standing idly by was enough to make it sway back and forth like a drunkard.