The Dawn of the New World

In just a couple of minutes, the Scorpion King finished his task.

Severed limbs covered the ground and the screams and moans of those of them that were still consciousness echoed along with the nightly breeze.

Hao Xuan calmly stood amidst the aftermath, partly covered in blood himself.

Currently all of his attention was focused on the inner workings of his body.

As if awoken by some unknown force, the Chaos Qi circulated through the meridians of its own volition as if searching for something with such a fierce longing that Hao Xuan could feel it as well.

It was like a hungry beast that had finally caught the scent of its prey. It went round and round in circles through Hao Xuan's meridians and with each cycle it became a little less ferocious.

At the start it was similar to a savage beast, ravaging through Hao Xuan's body like a wild animal. But over time it was slowly becoming tamer.

Hao Xuan tried changing its direction and managed to succeed to some degree, but any significant deviations from its already established rhythms were ignored.

He opened his eyes a few minutes later to find all the cultivators sitting right in front of him. They were down on their knees, at least those that still had knees left while others just laid there.

Hao Xuan examined them once again but each person lowered their heads as soon as they met his gaze.

Unknowingly, he let out a feeble sigh seeing their conditions. Many of them had streaks of dried tears on their faces.

Even these seasoned warriors couldn't help but shed a few tears in such a helpless situation.

"Leave this place. No matter what happens, do not come here again or the next time you will lose a lot more than just your limbs," Hao Xuan waved his hand and the Scorpion King who was floating above him was recalled to his Mind Palace.

Hao Xuan turned around and looked towards Jax and the three frozen natives.

"Help these degenerates back to your town."

"Y...Yes...my lord," Jax gulped, feeling his parched throat. Seeing the events of the last few minutes he even forgot to close his mouth and only now came to his senses.

He slapped the other three awake and came over to help move the cultivators that had no legs left.

Each one helped the other, not because out of the goodness of their hearts but they wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible without angering Hao Xuan any further.

The bald man was in the worst condition. His limbs had stopped bleeding but he was a little more than a stump right now.

Jax went over and carried him on his back.

Hao Xuan was paying special attention to him and the expression of mild disgust on the bald man's face as if he had touched something dirty was not gone unseen.

Even when looking at Hao Xuan who had caused him all this pain, he had not reacted this way. But just by being touched by this native man even though it was for his good, he reacted with such revulsion.

They probably thought of them as lesser beings, even lower than animals. He had seen that look before somewhere.

When the first few were just about to enter the forest behind Hao Xuan, he gave out one last warning.

"I will visit the town after I'm done here and if I found out you took out your anger on innocent civilians, you will wish you had died here. Treat them as you would want to be treated by me."

Jax who was at the forefront paused upon hearing that. He turned around and bowed once again in Hao Xuan's direction before walking out.

It was a fact that the natives were treated as lesser beings, especially by these mercenaries that were hired for no other reason but to safeguard each power's assets.

Even killing a native or two in broad daylight wasn't seen as anything too excessive.

For Jax and the three youngsters, this was but a death sentence. To keep the rumors of their defeat from spreading, the mercenaries would most probably kill them after reaching safety but that was not the case now.

With just a single sentence Hao Xuan had changed their fate and saved four lives.

A few minutes later when everyone had left, Bo finally emerged from the shrubbery.

"Your mercy is as high as the heavens, master!" he spoke with such a sheepish smile that Hao Xuan had to stop himself from slapping him across the face.

Bo certainly had a skill for making Hao Xuan mad with minimal effort.

He let out a helpless sigh and waved his hand, sending Bo back to the Mind Palace as well.

He checked the map again and the exact spot where the hatch was marked.

Over the last few thousand years, the terrain had changed a lot and now the same spot was buried at the bottom of the lake under tons of rock and even more debris caused by Baracus's methods.

"Fuck," he cursed out loud without even realizing it. Since the target was at the bottom of the lake, Bo was actually the best sever to take care of it since he could move freely down there and be actually faster than all the others.

Hao Xuan waved his hand again, "Go to the coordinates and clear a path for me," he clicked on the spirit band.

A couple of seconds passed but the same old ingratiatingly flattering behavior he had come to expect from Bo was nowhere to be seen.

Hao Xuan looked left and right but couldn't find Bo anywhere.

"What the hell..." with a frown, he closed his eyes and appeared in the Mind Palace.

Bo was sitting in his usual spot. Hao Xuan waved his hands again, this time looking right at Bo but nothing happened.

He switched to the Scorpion King but got the same result.

Black, White, the ant, even some of the Orcs that were asleep, he tried sending each one of them out but nothing happened.

"What the hell is going on?!"