The Dawn of the New World

Ensis closed his eyes and started recalling all the information from the GodFiends memories.

"Its a race of sentient beings. They have extremely high intelligence but weak bodies. Their blood energies are extremely low and because of that, they are limited on the path of cultivation."

"Their lifespans are very long, ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands of years. Nobody knows where they are born or even how, they just..."appear". And because of such high intelligence, they aren't able to feel any emotions at all. They are usually loners and collectors of other species."

"The GodFiend once met a Sagax that had managed to make a new body for itself. It was something he had never seen before and even with his power he had to be careful. In the end, he had to run away because these creatures always have something up their sleeves."

"Collectors of species?!" Hao Xuan's eyes gleamed. Were all those coffins belonging to the many different species it had gathered over the years?

"I need to get on my feet start looking around this place for any clues," he made up his mind.

With a wave of his hand, several medicines appeared beside him along with some blood bags.

He looked at Ensis, "Keep an eye out while I heal," and started applying different mixtures on the injured areas while Ensis stood guard. About three hours later the bones had healed enough that he could move around without too many issues.

Cracking noises came from all over his body as he stood up. The damage wasn't limited to the left leg and torso alone, it was just those places that were the most serious.

Before applying the medicine the bones had to be moved back to their original places so they could be healed quickly.

"Hmm, feels good!" the 'pain' felt more pleasurable than painful and he couldn't help but close his eyes and enjoy the feeling as he stretched his body.

Finishing up, he took another look at his surroundings. They were extremely cold, so much so that he had to put on a sweater and a coat.

It looked like he was an in an underground cavern with rocky walls all around him. Looking up, he couldn't actually see the top and it was just pitch black. There was no light at all.

"Try climbing straight up, see how far you can reach," he said to Ensis, who happily obliged.

Using his bare hands, Ensis grabbed onto the smallest ledges and cracks and jumped up like a squirrel. Within a few minutes, he was already so high that Hao Xuan couldn't even see him anymore.

Closing his eyes he regulated his breathing and kept circulating the Qi while waiting for him to return. He was already at Origin Realm Pinnacle for a few weeks now and only needed to understand a new type of energy to breakthrough to the Spirit Realm.

As the different Qi's ran around his system, small streams of aura came off of his body, looking like hot steam.

*Wooooosh*

*Clank*

He opened his eyes and saw Ensis standing in front of him.

"How was it?"

Ensis shook his head, "After a certain point it just feels like I'm going around in circles, even while climbing straight up. I think this is a different space under the tomb, one that can be accessed from outside but not from here."

Hao Xuan nodded. It would have been too easy if he was able to just climb out of here like that.

Taking a deep breath he looked around and chose a random direction before setting off, "Let's go."

They walked around in the darkness for three days. The first direction Hao Xuan had chosen was a dead-end, as were the next fifteen or so.

Thankfully, other than the same creatures that were in the tomb, there was no more danger. Whenever he got tired they would stop and he would set up the camp. Most of the times its illusion formations were enough to fool the creatures but sometimes they did walk into them and Ensis had to take action and kill them.

On the third day, they finally heard the sounds of water crashing against the walls. There was moisture in the air and even some plants could be found growing along the sides of the walls.

They ran around until finally, a massive underground river came into view. But the liquid flowing through it wasn't water, it was a cloudy white substance that seemed to be more viscous and much much colder.

The surroundings cavern walls were filled with a layer of ice and if the liquid wasn't moving at such high speeds, it probably would have frozen over too.

"What the hell is that?" Hao Xuan mumbled.

He walked closer to the rivers edge and several drops of liquid landed on his clothes. He bent down to inspect it and as soon as his hand came into contact with it, it was frozen solid in an instant.

"AHH!" Hao Xuan shouted and quickly backed up. His right hand looked like an ice sculpture and he could feel extremely sharp waves of pain running along his arm.

"Master!" Ensis quickly came over and inspected his arm. The ice was spreading slowly and had already reached halfway to his elbow.

A look of understanding flashed past Ensis's eyes as he looked at Hao Xuan, "Master, I apologize in advance," and sliced his hand down.

A wave of sharp black Qi came out and with a squelching sound, he cut off Hao Xuan's arm clean off.

"AHHH! DUDE! For f*ck sakes, this is like my second arm in the last three months!" Hao Xuan cried out from the pain and the shock thereafter.

"Who's damn side are you on?!" he yelled at Ensis while trying to stop the bleeding.

"I'm sorry master, it was for your own good. You would have lost the entire appendage otherwise," Ensis explained.

"What? Why?" covered in a cold sweat and drenched in his own blood, he inquired with a glare.

With his head hung low Ensis quickly explained, "That is a river of Qi.. A river of pure yin Qi."