The Dawn of the New World

*Huff*Huff*Huff*Huff*

A gaunt and emaciated figure was running through the Endless Forest. He was completely naked from top to bottom, covered in some sort of a pinkish slime that slipped down his body every time he made any large movements.

With one hand he was clutching his chest and with the other trying to cover his ears, all the while gasping for breath. It made for a truly pitiful sight but thankfully no one other than the small woodland creatures were around to witness it.

This figure of course belonged to Hao Xuan.

From afar one would think it was some kind of a skeleton that had managed to come back to life and was trying to learn to walk again. There were basically no muscles on his bones to speak of, or if there were, they were only a paper-thin layer attached to his skin that already looked like wrinkled wrapping paper.

He jumped over a small tree root that was popping out of the ground in front of him and lost his balance, landing face-first into the dirt. He quickly jumped up and looked behind him.

"No! No! You can't be real!" he cried shaking his head left and right like a madman.

Inside his head Baracus's voice was continuously calling out, trying to calm him down.

"There is no one following you. Please slow down, you are dehydrated and malnourished. Vital blood energy levels are almost depleted. If you keep making such unnecessary movements then organ failure will ensue within twenty standard minutes!"

But his warnings fell on deaf ears since Hao Xuan had other things to worry about. Due to the sudden change in cultivation realms the energy and spiritual centers inside his body had completely fallen out of sync.

The moment he had stepped out of the cocoon his soul became unsteady and he started seeing things that weren't there, or at least not at that moment. Right now his vision was in shades of black and white and he was seeing an army of small apparitions chasing after him.

They looked like small glowing mushrooms with hands and feet, jumping after him in droves from every side. Their facial expressions were twisted to the extreme and frozen there, reflecting different emotions on each one. In their hands were small sharp weapons that looked like old gardening tools.

They were making ear-piercingly loud screeching noises that would send shivers down the spine of any poor 'souls' unfortunate enough to hear them.

Hao Xuan tried to get back up but his legs wobbled and gave way beneath him. Seeing as the mushroom creatures were almost on him, Hao Xuan closed his eyes and covered his ears as much as he could to block out their screeches.

"Not real, not real!" he mumbled drunkenly over and over again, his voice getting louder and louder until he was screaming it.

"YOU'RE NOT REAL!" he screamed for the last time as loudly as he possibly could and suddenly, the world became quiet, or rather, quieter.

Hao Xuan slowly opened his eyes and looked around warily. His vision was back to normal and the small creatures were also gone but he could still hear voices. They were disjointed, garbled, and more often than not incomprehensible, but they were there.

Half spoken secrets and hushed whispers filled in by guttural screams were constantly sounding in the background.

Hao Xuan tried to cover his ears to shut them out but it was all in vain. The only good thing was that if he didn't focus on them too much, he could ignore them to an extent. But that alone was easier said than done.

"Can you hear me?" Baracus spoke up seeing as Hao Xuan had settled down somewhat.

Hao Xuan nodded feebly as the after-effects of overexerting in such a weakened state caught up with him. He felt like someone was pushing down on him with such force that it took every iota of strength in his body to just sit upright. He felt empty inside, like a hollow doll.

Hao Xuan dragged himself to a nearby tree and rested against its mossy trunk before answering.

"Yeah....I can..."

"I have prepared some items to replenish your internal energy levels, please take them out," Baracus informed Hao Xuan who took a couple of seconds to understand it.

"Why can't you....just send it out yourself...like before...?"

Since the storage was controlled by Baracus, he could store and take things out at will without Hao Xuan's consent.

"Not possible anymore. The changes within your cultivation system do not allow me to do so."

Hao Xuan frowned, "Explain."

"I will, but it is recommended that you eat first. Blood energy levels are dangerously low," Baracus reminded him.

Hao Xuan waved his hand slightly and rows of energy bars and other dried supplementary foods appeared in front of him.

It felt like his hand had weights tied to it when Hao Xuan tried to eat but after some effort and time, he managed to eat a few. Closing his eyes Hao Xuan focused his mind and examined his internal body.

And what he saw left him stupefied and speechless.