"Do not go outside no matter what. If anyone approaches you, run to the nearest military installation."

Hao Xuan looked at the message and then at the mushroom cloud in the distance that kept getting bigger and bigger by the second.

"What's going on?" Xu Qing's worried voice grabbed his attention.

At some point, she had run out of her room still in her nightwear with a white robe. Her unkempt hair showed just how much a hurry she was in.

Hao Xuan looked at her with a forced smile.

"Everything is okay. They're just doing some drills and experimenting with a few things. First brother just sent me the message. Go back to sleep," he said while walking up to her and fixing her robe.

Hao Xuan knew with she might not believe him but he didn't want to worry her needlessly, especially since she couldn't even see the mushroom cloud in the background.

To her whatever he said would be the truth, or a version of it.

"Are you okay? You seem...different, somehow," she leaned in and asked in a low voice.

He didn't know whether she was talking about his physical appearance or something else entirely,

but he couldn't help but chuckle and give her a light hug looking at her worried expression. The hug took her by surprise as he had never really been this forward before but she didn't avoid it.

Her ear pressed up against his chest and she heard his two heartbeats

"Mhm, better than ever. Go back to sleep. I'll be out for a bit."

She looked up at him with her glass-like eyes, Hao Xuan's handsome profile reflecting in them. He felt bad about lying but telling her the truth would be pointless.

Sometimes, ignorance really was bliss.

She released her tightened grasp on his shirt and looked away.

"Be careful, please. Don't be out too late," she said in her usual gentle tone and walked back to her room.

*Beep*

As soon as her back disappeared from his view, Baracus's voice rang in his ears.

"Something big is happening."

"What?"

"Not sure. There is too much chatter to make sense of. Calls are coming in about a group of hooded individuals that have 'attacked' a top-secret military compound near the outer edge of the city."

Hao Xuan frowned, "What's not to make sense of here?"

"You don't understand, as long as it has been connected to the net or anyone has ever mentioned of it, ever, I know of its existence, if not have a direct link to it. But I have no record of this place in my database. If it really exists, barely anyone other than the top brass knows about it and everything related to it has been kept off the books. This can mean a lot of things, but mainly that..."

"What? Just say it!"

"...that whatever is going on in there, it's not really 'legal'. There is no other explanation for it. Every other top-secret facility has to go online at least once, but not this one."

"!!!"

Hao Xuan's smile froze as he turned around and looked at all his severs standing in a straight line in front of him.

Each of them had broken through to the Spirit realm and some had even jumped several stages.

Bo, for example, was already at the top of the Spirit Realm when Hao Xuan first got him, and now his cultivation had returned to its original state.

After breaking through Hao Xuan understood a lot more about his ability and its limitations. For example, his ability could be used in two main ways.

One, that he gathers as many severs as possible and create an army of his own. In this scenario, THEY would be his actual strength and not his own cultivation.

Or second, he gets 'severs' to extract abilities and skills from them. This would boost his own power but tether them to his cultivation level directly. Meaning that whichever 'sever' he extracts an ability/skill from, can never have a higher cultivation than his own.

But if he does not extract their abilities, they can have the cultivation of at most 1 realm higher.

Taking Ensis for example. If Hao Xuan doesn't take an ability from him, then even if he himself stays in the Spirit Realm Ensis can still breakthrough to the Profound realm without any problems.

So he would have to thoroughly consider if the ability he was getting was worth sacrificing a potential soldier of an entire realm higher than his own.

The current cultivation for everyone under him was as follows:

o Ensis - Spirit Realm Stage 2

o Black and White - Demonic Beast Realm Mid Grade (Equivalent to Spirit Realm Stage 4)

o Green and Red - Demonic Beast Realm High Grade (Equivalent to Spirit Realm Stage 6)

o Yangdi - Spirit Realm Stage 7

o Bo - Top of the Demonic Beast Realm Top Grade (Equivalent to Spirit Realm Pinnacle Stage)

o Monk - Spirit Realm Stage 3

o Wu Jin - Demonic Beast Realm Mid Grade (Equivalent to Spirit Realm Stage 4)

With Hao Xuan himself bringing up the rear at Spirit Realm Stage 1.

He looked at Green, Red, Bo, and Monk.

"You guys stay here. I will go out with the rest and see what's going on. Wake Jin up if there's a problem, he is in charge."

Soon as he had finished talking, Green moved forward.

"Master, shouldn't we at least go with you? There's no point in so many of us staying her-."

Hao Xuan raised his hand, stopping him mid-sentence.

"What I have here is more important to me than my immediate 'safety', not that I will be in danger at all. Understand?"

Green obviously had a lot more to say but looking at Hao Xuan's resolute eyes he let out a deep sigh. He looked at Xu Qing's room where her light was still on and nodded silently.

Hao Xuan was leaving the bulk of his forces here just to protect her and Yun Wentian.

"This is not a good decision. Just leave the swamp creature behind. If it can't stop any would-be intruders then the others wouldn't be able to either," Baracus who usually stayed out of such matters gave his opinion.

"It is my decision to make. Don't worry about it," was Hao Xuan's response, which only made Baracus look down on humans even more.

He recalled Ensis, Black, and White to the Mind Palace before summing Bai.

Bai glanced at him with a strange glint in his eyes before looking away. Hao Xuan smiled and patted his head.

"This is the last time I ride you as a contracted beast. Tomorrow I will release you from the life bond and you will be free to venture out into the world on your own. You always followed every order I gave you, so this is your reward."

Bai's gigantic body froze upon hearing that. He couldn't believe it, and who could blame him? He was sure that his life under Hao Xuan would be the same. He had never really expected him to do anything more in return.

Still a bit out of it, Bai moved his head up and down and jumped, disappearing into the cold night along with Hao Xuan.

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