The Dawn of the New World

The young guards that were about to welcome death slowly opened their eyes and saw five people standing between them and their attackers.

"Move back, we'll take care of the rest. Take care of any stragglers!" a cultivator shouted from the other side. He was as big as a bear and was able to stop more than 7 attackers with his bare hands, which were thicker than most people's legs.

The guard's captain suddenly came to and shouted at his underlings, "You heard him, move back quick!"

In front of Hao Xuan were five or so of these cat-like creatures. The bottom half of their faces were covered by a mask, exposing only their eyes and ears. Emperor's Qi circulated through his body and slowly started spreading out, affecting everyone in the surroundings.

*Thruuum*

His allies suddenly felt their bodies become lighter while the enemies felt like the gravity had increased by an entire fold. The change in their expressions was proof enough of the sudden change of tide in the battle that had only just begun.

"Go!" one of the cat-like creatures shouted and all of them started running in different directions.

"Catch them!" the cultivators shouted with such enthusiasm that it took Hao Xuan by surprise. He looked at Jin Wang for answers.

"Every pirate you capture or kill will be paid for by the company that owns the ships. It's pretty good money even for cultivators," Jin Wang explained quickly before running after 3 of them.

One side was covered by the guards. They were able to kill the pirates coming for them with relative ease. The other side was taken care of by the 3 other cultivators there.

Jin Wang followed the 3 that had broken through and gone into a nearby room. Only Hao Xuan was left standing in front of the torn hull as he was the last one to react. He looked to the front, at the five that were still there.

"Stay," he said in a low voice and raised his hand. Force Qi came out along with it and fell on the 5 creatures like a hammer.

Their weak little bodies instantly fell to the ground, even knocking 2 of them out on the spot. Hao Xuan looked at his hand in surprise. That was much stronger than he had expected.

Even though the cat-like creatures were around the origin realm, they were still much more agile and physically stronger than your average human. Yet they could do nothing but look at Hao Xuan with fearful eyes at this point.

Hao Xuan glanced at each of them for a second before stopping at the one that was the smallest in the group.

"You, call them out," he ordered coldly. The creature's expression turned ugly as it realized their plan was found out so raised its head and shouted.

"ATTACK!"

Following its shrill voice, the sound of metal clanking came from the hole and one after another pirate after pirate starting pouring out like a broken dam. All of them were different and there were even a few humans mixed in there, although they looked more beast-like than actual beasts,

They were all covered in relatively old armor that looked like it was scavenged from a junkyard. Hao Xuan frowned looking at them.

He closed his eyes and listened once again before letting out a deep sigh.

"Why are you hiding?"

He was able to hear every single creature's heartbeat like it was next to his ear and all of the ones standing in front of him in the hallway were the weakest bunch. There were a few really powerful energies trying to stay low just on the other side.

Yet there was no response to his query.

"Fine, I'll come to you then," he shook his head helplessly and waved his hand, a slim silhouette appeared next to him.

"Kill any that resist, capture the rest. I'll be back," he said before walking towards the hole in the wall. There were still a few dozen pirates between him and it but before they could even react, a shadow appeared behind them with a black sword.

The shadow made no movements but all the pirates simply fell down lifelessly like they had lost consciousness. It was unknown whether they were alive or dead.

The guard captain saw that and his mouth fell open before he quickly yelled at Hao Xuan.

"Don't go in there! It's a trap!"

But it was too late, his back vanished from sight leaving only a hallway full of bodies in his wake.

***

In the uppermost section of the ship, the atmosphere was completely different. No alarms were going off or blinking red lights. It looked like a five-star hotel from earth with a massive swimming pool that still had a few people floating about inside.

Above the pool was a deck that overlooked it. On it were 10 or so people sitting idly on chairs. All of them were young men and women in their bathing suits.

"Princess!" Alte's voice came from the door behind as he walked in with hurried steps.

A group of 3 girls was sitting on the left side and two of them looked towards him with half a smile.

"Look, your caretaker is here!" one of them said with a giggle.