The Dawn of the New World

"Relax, no one attacked us. Go back to whatever you were doing," Hao Xuan waved his hand, shooing away Jin Wang.

Jin Wang looked at him up and down with narrowed eyes, "You freak. At least don't destroy the house," he spat out before walking back down. Hao Xuan was confused for a few seconds when he realized he was buck naked.

"Eh, whatever."

It was still an hour or so left of sunlight so Hao Xuan decided to take a quick shower to wash off the dried blood that was sticking to him. By the time he was done and went down, there was a guest waiting for him.

Henrik was sitting in the living room looking down at his spirit band and Jin Wang was sitting across from him, staring with a questionable gaze. Hao Xuan slapped the back of Jin Wang's head as he passed by, "He's a dude."

"Ah!" Jin Wang nodded. He didn't want to ask because it would be pretty rude if it turned that he was a she instead.

Henrik looked up from his Spirit Band with a deep scowl.

"Finally, how long were you planning to make me wait after calling me here yourself?"

Hao Xuan waved his hand dismissively, "Shut it. Did they send it over?"

"Hmph, here," Henrik reached out into his shirt and pulled out a metallic cylinder. It was about three inches wide and seven inches in length. Hao Xuan picked it up and shook it lightly. It was full to the brim.

"Ho, is this going to be enough?" he murmured under his breath.

His spirit band vibrated and a definite yes appeared on its screen. Hao Xuan nodded contently and stored it away. Henrik's scowl turned into a suspicious frown when he saw that. He looked at Hao Xuan's storage ring with interest.

"How did you do that? I couldn't put this thing in the storage ring no matter what I did. What did you do? Is yours different somehow?"

Hao Xuan couldn't help but chuckle at his question. Everything of importance he had was stored inside the spirit band, which was where Baracus's 'brain' was held. And although it was able to store things, that was just an extra feature and not its main use. The spirit ring on his hand was just for show. It only held a few normal weapons, some consumables, and whatnot.

The alloy that the spirit band was made from was excavated from the core of a dwarf sun in deep space. It was the core of Baracus's body and immeasurably valuable to the right person.

Not many people on the Beast World would be able to say they had something similar to it.

"It's a secret," winked Hao Xuan towards Henrik and stood back up.

"Send some people to repair the second floor, I had an accident during training and broke a few things. And ask Ryfon to hurry up with the stuff I asked for, I need it as soon as possible," he gave Henrik a few more tasks to be completed and walked away. But when he reached the back door he suddenly froze and abruptly closed his eyes. Henrik who was about to leave also paused and looked at him with interest.

"Does he do that often? Just stop moving out of nowhere?" he whispered to Jin Wang who was picking his nose some distance away.

Jin Wang shrugged like it was none of his business, "Dunno," and went back to focusing on the nose at hand.

"Hmm," Henrik nodded absentmindedly. Ryfon had told him to keep an eye on Hao Xuan and tell him if he started acting weird. Would this count as weird?

He was about to leave when Hao Xuan called out for him yet again.

"Ey, do you know where I can get the core of a Somnium Triton?"

"The core of what?"

"Somniu- write this down!"

Henrik looked at the name on his spirit band with a pondering expression. He had never heard of this creature before.

"What is it?"

"It's a rare beast. It looks like a salamander but has rainbow-like skin that keeps changing color. It's not strange that you haven't heard about it," Hao Xuan explained before patting Henrik on the shoulder.

"Go to the academy or wherever you can read about any recent strange things happening. Find any reports of non-cultivator cities or villages nearby having issues with people randomly falling asleep. There should be a few cases that would end in death."

Henrik was truly and thoroughly confused but he didn't question him and left to take care of everything Hao Xuan had asked for.

Hao Xuan walked into the back garden and sat down under a tree, closing his eyes once again. He appeared in the mind palace and walked up to Gavril.

"Are you sure it will be here?"

Gavril nodded, "I can feel it, it's relatively close by. It feeds on dreams and the misfortune caused by them. If you can get me its core, I can reach Spirit realm within a week. But it won't be easy. It rarely shows itself in the real world. It will find a weak, vulnerable person and attach itself to them.. Slowly feeding on their dreams, vitality and bringing them misfortune."