6 First Encounter

After about 40 minutes the carriage suddenly came to a stop. Hao Xuan looked out and saw vast open fields all around. He could see the tree line further ahead on the left, whereas they turned right and headed to a few lonely buildings in the distance. After about a minutes or so they came to a stop once again, right in front of his new home.

It was a very homey little place. One large double story mansion, a warehouse further behind it and some smaller sheds and whatnot here and there. There was also a stable right next to the warehouse.

Everyone got off the carriage and started looking around. Yu Yan went into the mansion first and then came back out a few minutes later with a small crystal ball in her hands just like the one they had seen before in Saint City, just much smaller.

"Everyone please gather around," she yelled.

"This is the identity transfer token and also contains some information regarding the property, how to start cultivating, handle the horses, use the tools etc. But you should be familiar with most of the stuff as everything here was specifically designed according to the information sent by the Saint City to help you guys get used to it," she finished.

The Khan family gathered around and put their hands on the crystal ball one by one to receive the information. Hao Xuan watched from afar. After the last person finished Hao Xuan came up to Yu Yan.

"Are there any requirements to join the local guards? And do they offer lodgings?" he said.

Taken by surprise, Yu Yan thought for a few seconds and replied, "No there aren't any requirements for normal people to join the local guard regiment as it is one of the ways for young people to start gaining experience since they will be properly trained by the more experienced soldiers. Don't you like this place? Why do you want to move to military camps? I can assure there is more than enough space in the mansion for several dozen people."

"I was transported here alone, I don't have any family here and don't want to be a burden on the others," he replied with a small smile.

"Kid, what're you on about, don't like us anymore? It's okay if that's it, you can say it to my face, this old man can take it," said Mr. Khan trying to sound distant.

"Can you not act seriously for once?" elbowed Mrs. Khan angrily, "Hao Xuan, you don't have to worry about anything, just stay with us for a little bit and once you get used to everything here you can move out if you still want to, the more the merrier, and Emi already likes you so much, she will be sad" she continued.

Hao Xuan felt someone pulling his shirt, he looked down and saw Emilie with tears already rolling down her cheeks, "Big brother, you don't like Emi anymore? Are you mad at Emi? Please don't leave, Emi will be a good girl," she spoke through a series of hiccups.

Hao Xuan felt his heart shudder, how can someone be so cute? His cousins were like the offsprings of trolls compared to her.

He bent down and smiled, "No, of course you didn't do anything, I was just kidding. If Emi wants me to stay, I'll stay," replied in a coaxing manner, trying to calm her down.

Hao Xuan didn't really care about much in this world, but he thought if something ever happened to this innocent little child, it would be heartbreaking. How can the heavens be cruel enough to hurt her?

Everyone looked at the two of them and laughed, it was one of the most adorable sights they had ever seen.

Yu Yan handed Mr. Khan an oval stone, "This is the protection stone for the property. Right after you enter the house you will see a cavity on the wall to your left, in case of a beast attack put this stone in the crevice and a protective barrier will be created around the mansion and a signal will be sent to the nearest guard outpost. It should protect you until they arrive" she said.

"Should? What do you mean "should??" asked Maaz frowning.

"For normal beasts, the barrier will hold without any problems, but if their numbers are too many or they are too strong, they can break the barrier itself or hit it until its energy runs out. But none of the more powerful beasts or demonic beasts come out of the forest unless something is wrong. Under normal circumstances, all should be fine," replied Yu Yan getting back up on the carriage.

"Take a few days to get used to the life here, then you should start cultivating so you can take care of normal beasts yourselves", she said while hitting the squals, and disappeared within a few seconds from their view.

***

The family spent the next couple of days settling in. Their routine was quite simple and if one didn't know any better, they would think it was a normal old farmhouse on earth.

Hao Xuan would spend the days tending to the horses or the crops, during the evenings all the Khan siblings would get together and play.

Olivia, the other twin chibi also got familiar with Hao Xuan in those days. Both the twins would often come to him requesting piggyback rides. He didn't refuse and instead thought of it as training.

The house had some sort of rocks embedded in the walls which were illuminated naturally by absorbing the spiritual energy from the surroundings. They had running water and plenty of food in the storage, both new and some familiar ingredients from earth.

It was the first time Hao Xuan had ever been happy after the death of his grandfather.

The more he interacted with the family, the more blessed he felt. And he wanted to get stronger to protect the life he had now. He was truly grateful to the Khan family for taking him in and treating him like their own when he had nowhere to go.

About a month and a half later they had some guests, their new neighbors.A family of five.

A married couple of about 35 years of age and their three kids, two girls and a boy, all-around 7-9 years old.

They would come over often to play with everyone here and Hao Xuan quite liked them as well. They were well mannered and very cute.

A couple of days after that, at about 12 a.m in the morning Hao Xuan was sitting on his bed with his eyes closed, reading the Glaive Cultivation Manual when suddenly a bright light flashed by his window.

He opened his eyes and saw what seemed like a meteor falling deep into the forest. It went down with a loud boom and the shockwave from the impact could be seen coming towards the house.

Hao Xuan's eyes constricted as soon as he noticed that, he ran away from the window towards the door trying to warn everyone when the shockwave hit.

*BOOOM*

It felt like a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the area. The entire mansion shook for a good few seconds until it all stopped.

Hao Xuan got up from the floor and looked back, the window had broken and his whole room was a mess. He opened the door and went out into the hallway and saw Maaz coming out in a hurry as well.

"Brother, can you take a look at the twins and see if they're alright? I'll go see how is everyone else doing," he said quickly and ran down the hallway without even waiting for a reply.

Hao Xuan went the other way towards the twin's room. He opened the door and saw them both huddled together on one bed shivering.

"Big brother, what's going on?" asked Olivia scared out of her wits.

"It's okay, come with me, let's go see everyone else," Hao Xuan said moving towards them. He picked both of them up with one arm each and ran back outside.

He didn't see the others so he kept running and went downstairs to the main living area. Everyone was in there. Sam had a cut on his forehead and was bleeding, Mrs. Khan was standing next to him with a towel trying to stop the bleeding.

"Ma it's fine, it's just a little cut," Sam said pleadingly.

"Shut up and let me stitch it up first, you're getting blood all over the floor," replied Mrs. Khan sternly.

Hao Xuan was a bit speechless, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He put down the twins and went to Maaz and Mr. Khan who were both standing near the window talking.

"All the upper windows are broken, some of the walls have cracks in them as well, but nothing big," said Maaz.

"Was it an earthquake? I heard a loud noise just before the earthquake hit, did any of you see anything?" Mr. Khan asked looking at Maaz and Hao Xuan.

Hao Xuan moved closer and spoke in a hushed voice, "Yes, I think it was a meteor or something. I saw a large fireball crash deep in the forest. It was bright blue and was burning very brightly."

"And that caused the explosion? Holy crap, and it seems it was pretty far as well, judging from the interval between the explosion and the earthquake," Maaz followed.

"Hmm, that seems bad, really bad. Could spell a lot of trouble for us," Mr. Khan said while going outside.

Hao Xuan and Maaz followed behind. The moon was out so they could still see pretty far away.

Mr. Khan broke into a light jog. After a few steps he turned around and shouted at Maaz and Hao Xuan, "You two check up on the horses and make sure the warehouse and the stables are okay, I'll check the sheds."

"Alright, I'll take warehouse, you take the stable," Hao Xuan said to Maaz while sprinting towards it.

The warehouse was at the back of the property so it was much further away than the stable. Hao Xuan got to the warehouse in a couple of minutes and started looking around. A few things had fallen down but everything seemed okay for the most part.

He went up the stairs and looked out of the window. It was pretty high up and gave a nice vantage point to the forest in the distance. He looked towards the place where he saw the meteor go down and thought about what it could be. Maybe it was an egg of a powerful creature or a treasure. In those novels, those kinds of things always happened so why not now.

While immersed in his delusions of grandeur, he heard a loud cracking sound from outside. Like a tree breaking and falling down.

Looking towards the forest he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Only the tree's moving in the wind. After staring at the tree line for a few more seconds, he suddenly held his breath and stretched his hand outwards.

His pupils constricted.

There was absolutely no wind blowing. It was deathly silent. It was so quiet that he could hear his own heartbeat.

*Thump* Thump*

*Thump* Thump*

*Thump* Thump*

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeeech*

*THUMP* THUMP*

Hundreds of creatures coming out of the forest like an ocean tide, some small rodents, and some bigger than the carriage that brought them here. All running out of the forest like they were on fire.

Hao Xuan suddenly turned around and screamed at the top of his lungs, "MONSTERS!!! MONSTERS ARE COMING!"