The Dawn of the New World

The initial earthquake created by the destruction of the black pearl was strong enough to shake the entire continent and its aftereffects sent tremors for hundreds of miles in all directions long after the deed was done.

Countless eyes turned in its direction. Some that were looking for aid and an escape from the chaos spreading in the inner world took it as a sign from the powers that be that it was meant to lead them to a safe haven.

Unfortunately, it garnered the attention of a great many others with insidious intentions, these namely being the forces led by Dai Zhi.

He was currently standing at the highest point within the treasure pavilion looking in the direction of the mushroom cloud.

It was too far to actually be seen but the disturbance it had caused within the world could not be ignored for a number of reasons.

His unfaltering gaze was fixated on the horizon while his hands hovered over a large bowl filled halfway with blood.

The surface of the blood had drops being pulled upward towards the palm of his hands while his lips silently uttered words in an unknown language. Every time a drop was absorbed into his skin Dai Zhi's eyes would burn with a crimson light for an instant before returning to normal.

This continued for a short while until the sound of clothes moving in the wind came from behind and a red flying beast landed behind him. He stopped whatever ritual it was and turned towards the creature which was a dark red sparrow.

It looked much like a normal sparrow only many times larger and with feathers that were as sharp as swords.

He extended a hand and the sparrow immediately leaned forward lovingly nuzzling in his embrace. At the same time a figure jumped down from its back almost landing face-first into the ground.

With quivering legs he quickly distanced himself from the sparrow while trying to fix his attire.

"S-Senior brother," he bowed from the waist towards Dai Zhi who smiled in return.

"Was the journey not to your liking, junior brother Micha?"

Micha's ashen face was enough to answer the query but Dai Zhi still took pleasure in hearing the expected answer.

"No, it was...just a little faster than what I'm used to."

With a satisfied nod he gestured for Micha to move to the side where a formation was in place to block all sounds from moving in and out.

Once in he snapped once to activate the formation before continuing.

"What did you see?"

Micha took out a scroll from his robe and opened it to reveal a detailed map of the nearby locations.

"The monsters from the surface world have begun infesting this place just as you anticipated. The explosion was over the main nesting ground and it seemed to have been destroyed completely," he pointed towards the eastern side of the landmass.

"But if our previous encounters with them are any indicator then that won't hold them back for long."

Dai Zhi took the scroll and began marking out several locations while talking.

"We will deal with them if we have to but it's better to just stay out of their way and let them focus on the natives. In the meantime, take this to Tian Zheng," he finished by handing it back to Micha, "Tell him to clear out these locations. There are a lot of those so-called resistance fighters mixing in with the mortals there. Better to wipe them as we go."

"Yes."

Before turning to leave Micha looked down at the empty land in front of the pavilion. He hesitated for a moment but decided to ask anyway.

"Are you sure it was a wise decision to lend all the remaining forces to a foreigner like Feng Huang? I understand he has a powerful background but letting him lead the main forces has a lot of people questioning your reasoning senior brother."

Dai Zhi stopped beside him with a weary expression.

"I too would love to be on the front lines but things are different now. My sister is causing me quite a bit of concern so I need to be extra careful with how I proceed. And as for Lord Feng Huang...well, he has reasons of his own to go forth. He is looking for someone too, someone that stole something very precious from his clan."

This was the first time Micha was hearing about that.

"What did they steal?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," Dai Zhi shrugged, "But one thing I know for sure is that he will turn the lands upside down to find it. And apart from Lord Xue Meng, he is the only person capable enough to be entrusted with the task of leading the main army."

"Is he...really that powerful?"

Dai Zhi couldn't help but chuckle at the somewhat ignorant query, "As a holder of one of the ancient divine bloodlines it would be strange if he wasn't powerful. If not for Lord Xue Meng he would undoubtedly be the strongest among our generation."