The Dawn of the New World

Branh's massive body turned to face the cultivators, "All of you should die."

He pulled back his arm to make a fist. Each of his fingers was thicker than an adult's wrist and as he clenched his fists, the muscles on his arm bulged and veins wriggled under the skin like worms. It made for a disgusting sight.

The air escaping from in-between his fingers sounded like the ripping of paper so it was easy to imagine how much explosive power was stored in that single fist.

Iris and Klem who were a moment away from attacking were left at a loss for words when Ceni who was in charge of this whole 'expedition' suddenly relaxed her tense body and sat back down on the chair as if the current situation had nothing to do with her.

Iris quickly leaned in with a worried expression, "Are you okay?" she asked in a hushed tone, worried that she wasn't feeling well.

But Ceni gently nodded, "I'm fine." She rested her chin on her right hand and leaned against the armrest, "Look, or you'll miss it," she gestured towards Branh.

The Iris and Klem along with the City Lord and the other robbed figure who was also paying attention to her looked towards the center of the hall.

Branh was about to attack any second.

The youngsters in front of him were ready to receive it as they all activated their own defensive techniques and some even got ready to escape, but it was obvious from their demeanors that none of them was very confident.

Branh's lips arched into a foul grin when he thought about ripping into the bodies of these youngsters when he froze.

"Aah hah, why'd you have to go ahead and do that, huh?" Hao Xuan's voice came from the garden.

Everyone present, be it the scared nobles or academy students, or the confused soldiers who didn't know what to do, all of them looked towards the source of the voice and saw Hao Xuan standing in front of the several meter deep crater he had just crawled out of.

His dislocated left arm was protruding out of the skin.

"Ah shit, I just got this shirt too," Hao Xuan grunted and pulled with his right hand, popping it back in an instant.

In his head, Baracus's voice was sounding continuously.

"I've calculated the force behind that punch. Taking the physical prowess of a normal stage 4 Spirit Realm Expert as the basis, that punch was about 8 times stronger. But I don't think that's all he is capable of."

Hao Xuan lightly slapped his forehead a couple of times to make the ringing stop, "I know I know. He just caught me off guard. I didn't think he would attack out of nowhere like that, so rude. Also-" he looked up and focused his blurry vision until he could see clearly once again, "-that was his raw power. I didn't feel a shred of Qi or spiritual energy from that attack. How.Very.Interesting."

Branh obviously wasn't expecting Hao Xuan to still be in one piece. No one had ever survived a punch like that from him and not lost a limb or two.

"Looks like you people are quite resilient," he mumbled unhappily.

Hao Xuan stretched his back, making a few cracking sounds and glared at him, "Big guy, thanks in advance."

Branh forgot about the cultivators and turned to face him, "Hoh, what for?"

Hao Xuan stretched his neck this time, once again making a few cracking noises, "I haven't had the chance to test my physical power against a human opponent so far. You'll be the first. Thank you, truly. I always held back because I didn't want to accidentally kill someone, but you can probably take it, right?"

"….HAHAHA!" Branh chortled. That was one of the funniest things he had ever heard. Many of the other spectators shared the same skepticism.

But he didn't have to wait long to get an answer.

Hao Xuan smiled, "Raise offensive power to 50%."

*Whiiiiiir*

An almost electronic whirring noise came from Hao Xuan's body. Using just his body's power, Hao Xuan was more than 13 times stronger than a normal cultivator of his level. With the 50% boost from the nanotech, that was instantly raised to almost 20 times.

"Hey," Hao Xuan met Branh's gaze, "Clench your teeth, don't bite off your tongue," he reminded him once again.

"Huh? What the hell ar-" Branh had just begun talking when an uneasy feeling crept into his heart.

This was his battle instinct and it was telling him to shut up and close his eyes but it was already too late.

Hao Xuan was already gone from his spot.

Instinctively, he raised both of his meaty arms and placed them in front of his face when the distinct sound of breaking bones travelled through is body. And then the ground was pulled away from under his feet as he felt the air whizzing by his face.

This feeling lasted for less than five seconds before he felt his body become weightless.