The Dawn of the New World

Hao Xuan left Fortuna with a purpose, to find a location for the new city, but after traveling for about an hour or so he stopped near a small stream, stumped.

He had no idea where to start or any knowledge as to what he was looking for other than the vague instructions that came with the mission. He was probably the last person that should've been put in charge of such an important task because of his lack of knowledge about the Mei Kingdom or this world in general.

Although he had been living here for more than a year now, it was still quite new to him. Nonetheless, he didn't shy away from the challenge and intended to see it through.

He had left from the northern gateway this time, without giving it much thought. To rescue the royals from last time he had to venture out towards the south-west which is where the Poison Quarry is located.

"That reminds me, I still haven't seen the map of the entire kingdom, have I?" he suddenly remembered and logged into the military portal from his Spirit Band.

Although he couldn't accept missions or use his points from the Spirit band, he could still access the portal for information and other things.

The map of the kingdom was available to the general public but what he wanted was the one with all the confidential information which was only meant for the eyes of the higher-ups.

Using his credentials he requested the best map available to someone of his rank and got an email with a link after about five minutes or so.

With a smile, he relaxed and sat down next to the stream with his feet dangling in the cold water. Zhurong was still asleep in his arms so he didn't bother waking him up. He opened the map and a light shot out from his spirit band and fell on his face.

"Identity Confirmed: Captain Deimos!"

"Acess Granted"

"Acess level: Alpha"

"Huh? When did they change my name to Deimos even in the military? Shouldn't it be my real name?" he frowned seeing the notifications come up one after another.

"I'll ask someone once I get back," but he didn't linger on it too much and focused on the hologram that was being projected from the spirit band.

His current location was shown as just outside Fortuna city, even though he had traveled for a good hour and was several thousand kilometers away. He zoomed out a bit more and could see some of the surrounding areas of the city. It was mostly jungle with a few small dots here and there which represented small towns. Each town had a population of tens of thousands but on the map, they were represented with such a small dot that if he wasn't paying attention they could easily be ignored.

He zoomed out once again and all the small dots disappeared, leaving only the cities which looked like walled-off areas. This was good but not what he needed. Again he clicked on the minus sign which zoomed out till all the cities disappeared as well.

Now he could see the entire kingdom.

To the south was the Azure ocean. To the West was the Jia Kingdom and to the east was another kingdom whose name wasn't showing.

He looked towards the coastal area and only saw a single name there, the "Port of Dragon's Fall". (Map link in authors notes)

All the surrounding areas had brown lines on top and as he clicked on them a popup appeared.

"The continent of Tertium is surrounded by three different oceans. The Azure ocean is located on the southern border and including Mei Kingdom, there are only two other kingdoms that provide easy access to its limitless waters."

"All the other areas have treacherous cliffs acting as a natural barrier between the ocean and the land, making it impossible to make any docks. And not only that but there is also a dense fog all year round which makes navigation impossible. Only through these three locations can one have access to the Azure ocean with the least effort, although it does have its own challenges."

"Port of Dragon's Fall is the only port within almost a billion miles, making it an extremely important and strategic location. It is also a very dangerous place as almost twice a year hordes of oceanic monsters come ashore and wreak havoc."

Hao Xuan was completely immersed in the information and before he knew it, more than two hours had passed.

He finally finished going through all the information and closed the map. He had a bad headache and couldn't keep his eyes open for some reason. The light suddenly got so bright that it felt like needles in his eyes.

"What the fuck is going on?!" he mumbled while massaging his temples.

"Meow" Zhurong who was fast asleep in his arms suddenly woke up and called out. Hao Xuan opened his eyes with some effort and looked down. Zhurong was looking at the water below and meowing.

Hao Xuan eye's constricted and he pulled out his feet instantly and along came a giant 2-feet long creature that looked like a leech.

It was stuck to the sole of his left foot but he couldn't feel it at all. Instead of panicking he took out a lighter and burned it near its mouth

*screeeeech*

A high pitched noise came from its mouth as it quickly let go of his foot and jumped back into the water.

"I knew watching all those survival shows would come in handy someday," he muttered while massaging his foot. There were several small holes from which blood was leaking. It seemed like the headache from before was caused by the creature's poison as it got much better as soon as it let go.

He activated his physique and absorbed the poison, converting it into nourishment for his body.

This was one of the many ways the Immortal Devouring Demon Physique could be used. It could devour almost anything without even coming into contact with it.

A normal person with this physique didn't actually have to drink blood or eat other creatures and could simply activate its effects and everything would get automatically absorbed in their body and turned into substance for them.

That's what he did to the boy in the Den as well. He activated the physique with full force and absorbed him completely like a black hole, leaving nothing behind. But that was made possible because the boy had let his guard down and Heavenly blare had almost knocked him unconscious.

This, eating people business, was an irregularity to the norm and should not have occurred under ordinary circumstances.

****

Authors Notes:

Rejoice, mortals, for you get to "experience" this great one's 'skillz'

My version of the Map: https://ibb.co/yRvtQjh