The Dawn of the New World

Hao Xuan summoned Bai and charged in the direction of the fallen chariot.

"You should be careful. Whatever beast that was is not something you can go up against right now," Baracus reminded Hao Xuan as he was getting ready to jump as soon as something came into view.

"Ah, you're right. I forgot about that. Bai, keep a low profile, stay in the trees!" he patted Bai on the shoulder, who grunted back in response. He leaped from one tree branch to another, making his way over.

In a minute or so Hao Xuan reached the crash site.

There was a giant broken tree a few dozen meters in front of him behind which he could see and hear different flashes of lights and explosions.

"Slowly now," he whispered into Bai's ears.

Sharp claws, almost a foot in length, came out of his paws and pierced into the tree they were on. Bai's body then shook three times, every time becoming smaller and smaller in size.

By the third shake, he had already shrunk to half his original size.

"Woah, where did this come from?" Hao Xuan mumbled in amazement but only got a cold glare back in response.

Bai climbed the tree trunk vertically, his razor-sharp claws going in and out of the wood without making a single sound. He reached the tree canopy that was almost a 100 meters up in the air and perched atop a leafy branch.

Hao Xuan leaned forward and could finally see the scenes from the other side of the broken tree.

Half of the chariot was slowly sinking into the muddy water while the other broken half was embedded inside the tree.

Two of the horses were still stuck to the front piece while the other two were nowhere in sight.

The Wu kid was dodging left and right while being surrounded by a blue light. It illuminated his surroundings making him look like a giant firefly.

In front of him was a mossy figure of about 12 meters in height. It was covered in dirt and mud along with grass, some fungi, and a few smaller dead creatures. It literally looked like a giant mass of sludge that had come to life. It had no face, arms or even legs.

Every now and then a tentacle would shoot out of its main body, attacking the kid once before returning to the main mass.

"You ignorant creature! Do you know who I am?" the boy shouted furiously but the creature in front of him acted like it couldn't even hear him.

The boy waved his hand and four ethereal paper slips materialized out of thin air in front of him. He tapped one of them lightly and it turned into a white light and entered his body. He took the other three and threw them towards the mud creature.

All three of them turned into rays light, each with a different color, and went inside the creature's body.

The creature's movements slowed down significantly and it looked it had lost its sight. It was attacking everything around it but the boy.

Hao Xuan watched on with interest.

"What the h*ll did he just do?!" he mumbled thoughtfully.

"Talismans. Those are talismans," Baracus replied.

"Talismans? But those things looked like they were holograms," Hao Xuan asked with a frown.

"That's what they look like in the hands of someone that knows how to use them. The boy probably made them himself."

"Explain. What are they?"

"Talismans are created from different materials including the flesh, blood, and bones of other living beings as well as inorganic materials. They are then inscribed with different things depending on their intended use."

"The ones the boy just used were to slow down the opponent and either show them an illusion or just mess with their senses. They can have any number of uses like increasing speed, power, Qi, energy, setting up illusions, straight up attacking opponents, etc."

"There is no limit to what a talisman can do, it all depends on the inscriptionist. If his or her knowledge, understanding and cultivation is enough, anything can be inscribed."

"Damn! So all Wu clan members are inscriptionists?"

"Probably not all. Talismans require a lot of resources to create and it doesn't have a very high rate of success. Only the most talented should be allowed to train an inscriptionist."

Hao Xuan looked down at the boy that was trying to catch his breath with glittering eyes. It was quite obvious that the boy wasn't physically fit, that he was pushing himself too hard.

"The blue light around him, do you think that's also a talisman?"

"Probably. There is no way to tell without examining his body but it would be a good guess. From the looks of it he used a defensive type talisman that added something like a shield around his body."

Hao Xuan's lips arched up into an evil grin.

"Looks like I found a good sheep. What are the requirements for becoming an 'inscriptionist'? Can I do it too?"

"You do fulfill the basic requirement that is to have a strong soul, but I don't think you will like it very much."

"Why not?"

"An inscriptionist spends half of his life buried in books. They have to learn, remember, and create inscriptions that fit their style. It would be how you humans say, pretty f*cking boring. Not to mention it takes years to even get started and the guidance of a great teacher is paramount to achieving success. As impatient as you are, you would probably rip your own hair out in a few week's worth of time."

Baracus poured a bucket of cold water atop Hao Xuan's head, bringing him out of his delusions.

Hao Xuan's smile froze and his right eye twitched several times in exasperation. He wanted to object but it was the truth. Just hearing about it almost put him to sleep so actually going through with it would be a whole another issue.

"Tch, fine. I'll just keep the kid. He looks a lot like a human so I didn't want to do this..."

"He is not a human. And what difference would that make? There are videos of you ripping humans apart to feast on their circulatory fluids, but you won't let one live under your control?"

Hao Xuan shook his head helplessly, "Many humans would rather die than live as a slave. If possible, I don't want to force anyone into such a situation either."

"Alright."

Baracus went quiet and didn't speak up after that. Hao Xuan got down from Bai and called him back. He then waved his hand once again and Ensis appeared next to him.

"Master," he bowed respectively.

"Mhm," Hao Xuan pointed at the boy below them, "Fight him, wear him out as much as possible but don't kill him. I need him alive."

Ensis looked down and nodded once, expressionlessly.

"Of course."

He bent his knees and leaped forward, a black sword appeared in his grasp as he silently fell down through the night sky.