The Dawn of the New World

"MISTER! IT'S NOT TIME YET! IT'S NOT READY!" he was waving his hands so hard that his entire body was moving left and right.

Somehow Sokol's squeaky little voice was amplified tens of times and reverberated throughout the surrounding areas for more than a mile.

And when it reached Hao Xuan he was immediately made aware of his situation as he looked back towards him and saw the First Gate trying to come into existence.

"I...know you..." Hao Xuan mumbled upon recognizing that face, "Jax's son...why are you here...why is this-"

His eyes opened wide from shock at the realization.

"Fuck! How could I let my guard down so much that I didn't even notice it had started?!"

He looked up to see the heavenly tribulation being brought forth as a consequence of the manifestation of the 1st Mind Palace which left him even more dismayed. It was already too late.

"I...don't have the energy to stop it..."

He was already experienced enough to know exactly what to do when breaking through to the Profound Realm but none of that mattered if he didn't have enough spiritual energy.

Normally when heavenly thunder would fall on a cultivator during the tribulation they would use their own Qi to protect themselves from the initial impact while allowing a small portion of it to seep into their bodies and temper their meridians and mind palace.

Then the mind palaces would be brought out one by one and for each palace more heavenly thunder would fall. The more palaces a person had the more they would have to endure especially since after every strike the heavenly thunder became even more destructive.

Hao Xuan had nine mind palaces aside from the central mind palace which housed his soul. The spiritual energy needed to contend against the tribulations a total of ten times was nothing short of a miracle without a dantian, which he did not have.

His face fell as he came to the inevitable conclusion of his demise.

'I'm going to die...for real this time. No coming back from this one...'

But when he thought to that point, for some reason, he stopped panicking.

'Maybe it's not such a bad thing. It will be over quickly and I won't have to worry about anything if I'm gone...'

Hao Xuan accepted his fate without a fight. He was exhausted body and soul and there despite being many things left unfinished-

'It's not too bad...I can just let go, it'll be easy. Just one strike...'

Streaks of white lighting coursed through the clouds congregating in the middle preparing to fall.

"MISTER!" Sokol screamed again but Hao Xuan was already lost.

A blast of icy cold wind shot in his direction from above but Han Rong and Zou Huan ran up from behind and picked him up.

"Move back, it's dangerous!" Zou Huan berated through gritted teeth but Sokol was unperturbed.

He looked down at him and Han Rong calmly, "It's time. This is what you came for."

"What?" Han Rong paused.

"Help him. He needs you."

Before Han Rong could respond Zou Huan butted in, "No one can help him. The heavenly thunder is already dangerous enough to the cultivator who is undergoing the tribulation but it is deadly to any outside party. One would have to be at least three realms above to safely guard against it. He is on his own now."

Sokol went silent for a moment while looking straight ahead before nodding in silence.

"She says you can stop it. You are the only ones."

Zou Huan was at the end of his limits. It was already a difficult decision to leave Hao Xuan behind to die but to be reminded of it over and over again was another thing.

"ENOUGH! I won't hear any more-"

*CRACKLE*

More Heavenly Thunder rumbled in the sky but when the light reached them it cast four shadows instead of three. There was another blocking their path.

Zou Huan and Han Rong both stopped dead in their tracks. The rain picked up even more and they watched in awe as the raindrops gathered together to create a vague outline of a humanoid figure.

It wasn't that the rain was not falling in a certain place but it was congregating there to create the figure.

It wasn't very tall and had almost no features other than a barely discernable nose mouth and eyes.

Its body was made from air and the insides from the raindrops. There were also some leaves and dirt mixed in randomly floating about.

It had no presence whatsoever. They were looking at it, seeing it and understanding that it was there but at the same time there was no difference between it and the surroundings.

Han Rong was the first one to realize what the entity was. He quickly bowed from the waist, "We great the World Spirit."