The Realm

Everyone turned and followed Hao Xuan's line of sight and they finally saw the towering 'Figure' draped in darkness. It was a veil had been lifted off of their eyes and they could finally see the true form of the 'little girl'.

"What the hell is that!!"

"ALERT! Formation Three!" shouted Kuo at the top of his lungs and everyone jumped into action. They surrounded Hao Xuan and formed three formations around him, with him being the dead center.

There were 101 fully armed people on one side and a single 'figure' on the other, staring at each other.

"You.....can...see...me..." a raspy voice came out of the creature's hideous mouth as it looked towards Hao Xuan and spoke extremely slowly as if each word cost a great deal of energy.

Hao Xuan frowned in response. The voice came from the figure but there was no way it could have come out of its mouth.

"Did you guys hear that?" he asked quietly to the saints closest to him, while still maintaining eye contact with the figure, or where its eye should have been.

"Yes Captain!" replied Luke and Aria at the same time. The four newbies were the closest ones to him. He nodded back in response, confirming that he wasn't just hearing things again.

"Who are you? WHAT are you?" he said looking at the figure who was still standing still. For the next 15 seconds, there was no response.

"Why.....can....you.....see....us...child?" the figure spoke again, this time asking a question.

"Answer my question first. Are you a beast? Are you responsible for the missing townspeople?" he answered with another question.

"A...child...of...the.....heavens...?" it spoke again, this time much quieter but everyone still heard it.

"No.....something.....else....." it mumbled.

Lt. Kuo was at stage four of the Spirit Realm, meaning he was refining his very soul with the Qi of his meridians making, it even stronger and more sensitive to the world around him. At his level, he was easily able to feel the realms of everyone at the Profound realm and below, even if they tried to hide. But he couldn't sense anything from this figure. It was like a black hole. There was no spiritual energy anywhere near him, only empty void.

That was why he didn't spring into action. The level of the enemy was completely unknown and it would be extremely stupid if he picked a fight without knowing anything about his opponent.

"Answer me! What did you do with the people of the town?" Hao Xuan was getting angry now. This 'thing' was basically ignoring him completely. Not even registering as a threat.

He released the power of the Emperor's Domain from the first meridian and a faint pressure fell down on everyone. When the figure felt the pressure it suddenly looked towards Hao Xuan again.

"It...is...not...time...yet...I.....will.....tell.....the...elders...of.....your...existence," it said taking a step forward and like a smoke bomb exploding into darkness, vanished from the original position and appeared right before Hao Xuan in the middle of the formation.

"Wha-" before anyone could react, it was already half a foot away from Hao Xuan, towering over him.

It stretched out its hand towards his face and the massive nails retracted back into its hand, making it look normal again.

*Fwoosh*

But before it could actually come into contact with him, four figures suddenly appeared out of nowhere, surrounding it from all sides. It was the four newbies!

Mason had pushed Hao Xuan away and stood in his place, with Aria attacking from the right, Luke from the left, and Mia from behind it.

Without a single word they jumped into action and attacked with everything they had.

*BOOOOOOM*

As soon as they saw the creature reappear before Hao Xuan, every single one of the soldiers released the entirety of their Qi reserves and turned towards it.

Keep in mind that these 100 were the absolute elite of the elite, all of them stronger than Hao Xuan, with several people being at the Spirit Realm, although at lower stages than Kuo himself.

Within half a second three soldiers appeared around Hao Xuan, encircling him. These three were the other Spirit Realm experts in Mad Saints.

One of them was a man with short blond hair holding onto two scimitars, he was at the front.

The second was a girl with blue hair coming down to her shoulders and a bronze Staff in hand, she was on the right of him.

The third was a tall man with long black hair and a single silver shortsword in his left hand, and bandages covering his right one. He was to the left of Hao Xuan.

Their Qi formed a barrier and surrounded Hao Xuan inside, almost like an eggshell.

The attacks of the newbies connected with the creature and just like hitting smoke, went right through it.

All of this happened within a single second and by the time Hao Xuan came to his senses, he was surrounded by the three Spirit Realm experts.

He was overtaken by shame as soon as he got hold of the situation. He was their captain yet he was being protected like a powerless little child. As he thought about this, something erupted inside him.

The full power of both his meridians came gushing out like a broken dam, catching everyone by surprise.

Hao Xuan had used the absolute purest form of energy to cultivate so the 'density' of his Qi was much higher than other people. He had also used the blood of the Ice Dragon to cultivate Wrath of Deimos which affected his 'presence' and gave others a dreadful and bloodthirsty feeling.

The Glaive cultivation manual kicked in at full force as well and as a God of weapons, it was overbearing on its own but when Hao Xuan used it, it became even more stupendous, as if ordering even the heavens above to bow before it.

His glaive appeared in hand and the faint pressure that was already present got 10 times stronger in a heartbeat, making the hearts of the Mad Saints beast faster for no reason.

These soldiers that were trained to have absolute control of their bodies couldn't control their own heartbeats at this time. Their blood felt like it was on fire and they could feel their powers increasing. Although on experts like Kuo and the others that were already at a much higher realm than him, the effect was minuscule but still present, which shocked them.

"You motherf*cker, I will skin you alive," Hao Xuan spoke through gritted teeth and tried to move forward but was stopped by the energy field around him.

"Let me out!" he ordered still looking straight at the creature. The three spirit realm soldiers frowned and look towards Kuo.

Just as Kuo was about to say something, the creature looked around and then back at Hao Xuan and spoke.

"The.....realm.....seal.....shall....weaken....soon....very....soon....I...shall....see...you...then...oh...strange...one," and once again turned into 'fumes' and disappeared from the encirclement.