The Dawn of the New World

"Why did you stop?" the hooded man shouted while pushing his way through the crowd.

The vanguards moved aside and showed him the hole that was shrouded in complete darkness.

"Sir, they.....they went into the forbidden zone.." one of them pointed at the darkness that seemed to be undulating incessantly.

The hooded man faltered looking at the hole before forcing himself to move closer. He took out a stone that was embossed with three symbols. He transferred some Qi into it, making it light up. He used that light to inspect the hole's edges carefully before scoffing.

"Old superstitions. There is nothing here, go in now!" he said waving his hand at the vanguards, but not a single person made any moves.

The man's expression turned cold under the hood as he slightly raised his head, exposing the left side of his face which had Ra's curse mark on it.

"Are you disobeying Lord Ra's will?" he enunciated each word, speaking in a somber tone.

"O-Of course not sir!" all of the vanguards got down on one knee without any hesitation as soon as Ra's name came up.

"But it is also Lord Ra's orders to never step into the darkness, under any circumstances!" one of them quickly explained, silencing the hooded man who was ready to burst.

He surveyed the crowd before letting out a deep sigh.

"Fine, I'll go in first, you bunch of cowards," he mumbled the last line under his breath but everyone still heard him loud and clear, and he was right. They had been fed horror stories of this area ever since they could speak. It was ingrained into their very psyche and there was no way around it.

His raised foot hovered in the air for a few seconds before finally going through the hole. His heart was beating like a drum while he held his breath. He passed through the curtain of darkness and landed in the second area without any problems.

"Hah, see? Nothing but old superstitions!" he yelled. Everyone was looking at him with squinted eyes, observing every little detail.

He looked around but could only see a couple of meters in even with the light. He bent down and found two sets of footprints going straight inwards.

"This way, come!" he shouted before running off in a direction. The rest of the Orcs looked at each other with questioning gazes.

'Should we?' was the question on everyone's mind, but no one was brave enough to make the first move. The sound of the hooded man's footsteps went further and further away when another person finally made a move.

"Screw it, it is all for Lord Ra!" he yelled trying to pump himself up before following after him. With him at the lead, more than a hundred people also went in after but the remaining thousands choose to stay behind.

***

Hao Xuan and Jin Wang ran without even looking back for more than ten minutes before coming to a halt. There was no one behind them, not even a shadow, and Jin Wang couldn't run anymore so they chose to wait.

He was clutching his left arm which had a piece of flesh missing. This was the doing of the Orc Vanguards that didn't let them rest for even a second. They had these special weapons that looked like swords but had small hooks on one side.

And even with a much higher cultivation, defending against their attacks was no small feat. Their attacks had no useless movements, every single strike was meant to either disable or slay their opponents. It was a good thing only so many of them could fight them at once otherwise they would have never lasted this long.

"Here, eat this," Hao Xuan took out a random healing potion and passed it to Jin Wang who gulped it down in one sip. He then took out some bandages and a bright green powder. He covered the insides of the bandages with it and placed it over JIn Wang's wounds who winced from the pain.

"Careful! Calm your fat hands!" he said through gritted teeth, trying not to scream. Hao Xuan smiled before 'accidentally' slipping and punching him on the open wound.

"Anyways, looks like we lost them," Hao Xuan quickly distanced himself when saw Jin Wang clenching his fists. With a sheepish smile, he took a few more steps just in case before clicking on his watch.

"Baracus, where are we?"

*Beep*

"I have no idea. But this place is actually different from the other one."

Hao Xuan and Jin Wang exchanged glances and listened in closely, "How so?"

"The atmosphere to start with. There are extremely low levels of oxygen here. Not to mention the several unidentified particles I detect. And in case you haven't noticed, the ground is moving."

With a raised eyebrow Hao Xuan looked around. He then bent down and placed his hand on the rocky surface with closed eyes, focusing all his senses. If the ground actually was moving he would be able to tell.

"It's not. What are you talking about?"

"It is. I have several gyro sensors within my system and all of them say the same thing. We are moving even while completely stationary. That means the ground is movin-"

*Tremble*

Before Baracus could finish the sentence the tunnel started shaking, a few small pieces of rock falling from above.

*Roaar~*

A muffled roar came from the front with a faint pressure descending on everyone present.

"Well.....that can't be good," Jin Wang mumbled while getting up.