The Dawn of the New World

"Stop wasting time and go get me these things," Cornelia changed the topic and quickly sent Ryfon away on an errand. She then turned around and started walking towards Hao Xuan.

"Leave us," she waved her hand and the 5-6 fairies buzzing around left the room in seconds, leaving only Hao Xuan and Cornelia there.

She stood next to a table right above Hao Xuan's head and started clicking away on a glass screen. She looked up at Hao Xuan's body with a frown.

"Are you awake?"

"Yeah," Hao Xuan replied without opening his eyes.

"Hmm, your metabolism is much faster than it should be. Normally it would take several hours for someone in your condition to wake up from the medication."

'Wake up? I never even passed out...' Hao Xuan thought inwardly but didn't say it out loud.

"I am going over the preliminary examination results and just have a few things to confirm. Did you complete your Physique's first two evolutions yet?"

"Evolutions?"

"Yes, did you reach the second major realm? Every realm has two evolutions where the body integrates with the physique on a deeper level. One happens just before breaking through and second right after."

"Oh, I have only completed the first one then I guess."

"Hm...that is not good. How long has it been?"

"Several months. Why?"

"Months?! You shouldn't wait more than a couple of weeks after the first evolution..."

From her tone, Hao Xuan could tell that she was both surprised and troubled by his answer. She clicked on the screen and several lights fell on Hao Xuan's body and he could feel them scanning him.

"What does it matter though?"

"After the first evolution, your physique demon is at its weakest for about two to three weeks. That is the best time to challenge and kill it because when it recovers, it will be exponentially stronger than ever before. I was hoping you would breakthrough to stabilize your Physical center but looks like that will have to wait now."

*Sigh*

"I'm not gonna hide anything from you. Your condition is really not that good right now. Both your Physical and Spiritual centers are unstable. Your soul's wavelength keeps fluctuating greatly. If not for the seal in your Mind palace, your soul would have disintegrated a long time ago."

'Seal? Oh, the old kings...' Hao Xuan remembered the golden sigils all over his main Mind Palace. So they were the ones keeping his soul in check.

"Having one unstable center is bad enough but two?! Your life is going to be hell until you get stronger and quick! I can't really do anything for you from my side other than treating the symptoms. Do you know what they are?"

"Not really."

"Alright, I'll go over a few main ones. For someone in your condition, its not uncommon to have hallucinations, hormonal imbalance, insomnia, sudden and uncontrollable outbursts of strong emotions like rage, anger, bloodthirst, or even lust. Now and then you will see and hear things that aren't there, it will all feel very real but you have to remember and try to be rational about i-."

Hao Xuan abruptly sat up, startling Cornelia. He looked at her with a deep frown.

"Hallucinations? Outbursts of lust, anger, and bloodthirst? Are you serious? I might as well be an animal!"

Cornelia wanted to say otherwise but it was true. She nodded.

"Indeed. That is why it all depends on your willpower. As long as you don't give in to these 'urges', then with the medicines help you should be fine. It hasn't been that long since your Spirit center became unstable so the symptoms aren't that obvious yet. You haven't experienced any of the symptoms yet right?"

As soon as the words left Cornelia's mouth, Hao Xuan remembered the voices he had heard on the ship (Ch 363). He hesitated at first but decided to ask anyway.

"I heard voices a little while go. It felt like they were coming from all around me and I was actually eavesdropping on their conversations. It really...didn't feel like a hallucination..."

Cornelia's expression turned serious.

"What did they say? These voices.."

Hao Xuan told her everything he remembered and she went silent.

"Normally, I would say they were hallucinations for sure but your soul is extremely powerful. You see those 13 chains?" she pointed at the chained tattoos that were moving around Hao Xuan's body now and then.

"Each of those chains is able to seal a stage 4 Spirit realm cultivators soul completely, but you needed 13 of them. Which means your soul is THAT much more powerful than a normal cultivator at your realm should be. A powerful soul means you can see and hear things that are invisible to normal people."

Hao Xuan looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "What 'things'?"

Cornelia was taken aback by his query but it was one she should have seen coming. She opened her mouth to speak but couldn't find the words.

"How should I put this, it's really not that easy to explain to a normal person but here goes."

She clicked a few times on the screen and a hologram was projected into the air in front of Hao Xuan. It was a square sheet laying horizontally in a straight line.

"Consider this our reality. This is where we exist, where everything we know and see exists. Meaning, this is our plane of existence, but it is not the only one."

Another square sheet appeared but this one wasn't straight. It twisted and turned, wrapping around the first sheet and even going through it occasionally.

"This....is the veil. It is a place between realities, specifically between us and the abyss, where neither time nor space is constant. But it is not empty. Within the veil are things we can never explain. People have seen some of the strangest things there and most of them soon disappeared after."

"But normal people don't usually have to worry about that since you need a powerful soul to interact with it. And for someone like you whose soul is not even under their complete control, it is not uncommon to accidentally touch the veil and see what's on the other side. But it is extremely dangerous and 80% of the time this endeavor would end in disaster."

"Here, I'll write down a few things that can usually help with this. Ryfon has a friend who's an alchemist, tell him to take you there. Give him this list and tell him your symptoms, he will make you something to keep you anchored to us. After all, wouldn't want you to get spirited away now...."