The Dawn of the New World

Hao Xuan covered his face with his sleeve to stop himself from inhaling any more of that glittering particle that was being released from the blue flower at the bottom of the 'mouth'.

It was either some kind of a hallucinogenic agent or something more spiritual that prevented others from seeing its true nature. If not for the whispers trying to warn him of what was going to happen, he would most probably already be dead, especially in his current state.

He looked up towards the source of the white light. It looked just like an ordinary sky from his point of view, even filled with a few twinkling stars and two bright 'moons' high above on either side of the volcano, slowly revolving around it.

But Hao Xuan knew for a fact that there weren't any moons in this place. It was an enclosed space and its ceiling was not that far either. There wasn't any space for them to exist.

"Unless...the space in here is larger than it appears from outside? The landmass really didn't look this big from above. Or...did I shrink?" Hao Xuan couldn't make sense of it but the fact was that the light from those moons 'undid' whatever this creature had done to Hao Xuan.

"Baracus did you notice any foreign objects within my bloodstream?"

*Beep*

"Scanning....."

"Negative. No new foreign bodies detected."

Hao Xuan's left eyebrow rose in confusion, "Why did you have to scan right now? Aren't the nanites always keeping everything in check?"

"Negative. The Chaos Qi within your body renders them ineffective. Upon coming into contact with the Qi, the nanites are either damaged and dismantled before being absorbed by it, or simply shut down forcefully."

"The Chaotic Qi does not allow me to regulate your body the same as before. A significant upgrade to the nanites exoskeleton is required to regain the former state of functionality."

Hao Xuan shook his head wryly and waved his hand, "Yeah yeah, add it to the list."

That was one more thing he had to be worried about but for some reason, looking at this creature Hao Xuan could not help but make a few connections.

He was quite far out in the Endless forest so it was probably no accident that so many people died here. The contents of the whispers made that quite clear. They were most probably led to this place by force and killed here on purpose.

But by whom? And for what purpose?

Hao Xuan sat down on the same branch he was standing on and looked below on the ground below for any small critters. His sharp gaze found a few targets in a matter of seconds and he quickly jumped, landing beside an insect.

A grey colored beetle that was attached to the side of a tree. It was a little over 10 centimeters in length, sleeping soundly. It only woke up when Hao Xuan had already pulled it away.

Hao Xuan examined it carefully as it tried its best to wriggle free and fly away. It seemed completely ordinary, other than the fact that it was a little larger than normal in size.

Hao Xuan grabbed its outer carapace that housed two relatively large wings inside before ripping them off in one smooth motion. Its entire body jerked back and forth in obvious pain, creating a high-pitched buzzing sound.

Hao Xuan suddenly realized what he had done. He couldn't help but frown at his own savage actions. But then he recalled the things he had done to other people and in a rare state of penitence apologized to the insect.

"I-I'm sorry," he said to the beetle that could not understand him at all and proceeded to break of each of its legs in succession.

Without wasting any more time Hao Xuan went up to the creature's wriggling worm-like mouth and aimed for the flower at the bottom, throwing the beetle with full force.

Since its wings and legs had been broken the beetle could not do anything. It flew towards the flower narrowly missing it and landed on the carpet made of thousands of black and purple tentacles surrounding it.

The tentacles that were lethargic a moment ago suddenly jumped into action. Some of them extended to 3-4 times their original size and latched onto the struggling beetle that landed amidst them.

In less than a second, the beetle was completely engulfed by the black and blue ropes and dragged under the sea of tentacles that had started waving back and forth in merriment.