The Dawn of the New World

Hao Xuan was keeping a close eye on each one of them and realized he had been found out the moment she was about to speak up.

He moved faster than any of them could react and they only heard the words after it was already too late.

"Fifth step to sweep the Eight Directions!"

"!!!"

"Huh?"

She blinked and found Hao Xuan standing a stone throws away from her, in front of each one of them. There was a copy of Hao Xuan across each of the figures hovering in the sky.

"STOP HIM-"

Both the female and male figures shouted simultaneously while attacking the Hao Xuan that was in front of them, managing to 'kill' it just in time.

But many of the others weren't nearly as fast as them.

The moment his blade left the sheath more than three hundred heads were silently separated from their respective bodies while the remaining hundred or so managed to defend against it in the nick of time.

Explosions rang out from all directions as numerous skills and abilities were called forth. Bodies rained from the sky dying the sea below in every shade of red.

When it was all over only a little over seventy people had managed to come out unscathed while over twenty received life-threatening injuries that inevitably took their lives moments later.

With 'one step' he had managed to eliminate over eighty percent of their forces.

His images flickered before returning to the original position in front of them. It was unknown if he had even moved from the spot.

The eight leading figures all managed to survive and after a quick look around they all came to the same irrevocable conclusion.

He could not be left alive!

Now all of their attention was on him. The danger he presented had surpassed all other objectives. and since he was quite obviously wasn't going to join their side he needed to be eliminated at all costs.

And it was exactly what he wanted.

The laws holding the seashell in place were all broken allowing it to dive deeper into the depths of the ocean.

The images that were being shown to everyone inside also began to flicker in and out once they reached the darkness. There was no sound and every second and third image was cut off.

It all happened so quickly that it took them a moment to come back to their senses. The merman pulled himself back up and took control of the beast.

"We can make...it, there is still time!"

Multiple people were bleeding from various places and were still a little out of it.

"What...happened?"

Princess Ceni rubbed the back of her head, "Where is Hao Xuan?"

She tried to stand up but her legs were still shaking terribly making her fall back. Lin Wang appeared out of nowhere and held her up.

"Are you okay, miss?"

"LET GO OF ME!" she pushed him away and lunged towards the merman, "LET ME OUT NOW!" clawing at his face that only served as a minor annoyance.

"Someone hold her down, she's lost her mind. She will get us all killed!"

The old man yelled from the back making a couple of girls come forward and pull her off the merman.

"Thank you, please keep her restrained for a few minutes, we will be out of harm's way soon enough!" he informed everyone.

"Did you hear that, miss? Everything will be okay, please calm down," Lin Wang tried to butt in and received a quick boot to the face as a reward.

"I WILL KILL YOU ALL IF YOU DON'T LET ME OUT!"

Princess Ceni threatened and screamed but to no avail. Eventually, she got tired and could only watch the images on the screen as they became slower and longer to change.

Hao Xuan was fighting them all at once and it didn't look like he was coming out on top. Most of his armor was destroyed and even his blade had cracks in it.

Blood poured from his wounds like lava from a volcano.

And then finally the images stopped completely.

"We're about to go through, everyone please hold onto something!" the merman gave a quick warning as the creature picked up speed.

There was a swirling mass of golden light somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. It was approximately 20 meters in width and height and two-dimensional in nature.

"There it is, we're here..." the merman narrated as the images switched to the swirling light.

The creature itself was many times larger than it but as it got closer its body began to shrink.

There were no changes inside the shell other than the constant shaking but from the outside it was no larger than 10 meters by the time it came into contact with the light.

At that point its body was simply absorbed by the light and disappeared within.

The shaking stopped immediately.

They finally let Princess Ceni go. Completely dismayed and demoralized she slowly took out the treasure medallion and checked the third dial.

It was pointing to the left.

"I can still find him!" her expression brightened for a moment-

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