First Encounter

After about 40 minutes the carriage suddenly came to a halt. Hao Xuan looked out and saw vast open fields in every direction. 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 minute or so they came to a stop once again, right in front of his new abode.

It was a homey little place...considering the scope of things in this world.

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 which 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 placed their hands on the crystal ball one by one to receive the information while Hao Xuan watched from a distance.

Once the last person was done he hesitantly went up to Yu Yan.

"A-Are there any requirements to join the local guards? Do they offer lodgings?" he asked in a low voice.

Taken by surprise, Yu Yan thought for a second before replying, "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 later on. Don't you like this place? Why do you want to move to the military camps? I can assure you there is more than enough space in the mansion for several dozen people."

Hao Xuan shook his head, "I was transported here alone. I don't have any family here and don't want to be a burden on the others," he explained with a small smile.

Yu Yan's brow immediately furrowed, "Alone? That's not possible. All blood relations are kept in mind no matter how far so you should have been with your family," she reached into her shirt to pull out a glass tablet and started tapping away while mumbling to herself, "Did they make a mistake? But how..."

Meanwhile, Mister and Misses Khan overheard what Hao Xuan had said which prompted a response from both.

"Son, 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 cool.

"Can you not act seriously for once?" Mrs. Khan elbowed him angrily before meeting Hao Xuan's gaze.

"Child, you don't have to worry about anything, just stay with us for a little bit and once you get used to everything you can move out if you still want to. In the meantime the more the merrier, and Emi already likes you so much, she will be sad" she said pointing to the side.

Just then Hao Xuan felt something tugging on 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 play with you more!" she spoke through a series of hiccups.

Hao Xuan felt his heart shudder, 'How can a human be so precious?' he thought.

Having grown up as an only child in a family where everyone else had brothers and sisters having their backs, he had always wanted siblings. And it didn't help that his cousins were like the offsprings of trolls who tormented him to no end.

Hao Xuan bent down and flashed his kindest smile while wiping the tears from her eyes, "No, of course you didn't do anything, I was just kidding. If Emi wants me to stay, I'll stay," he replied coaxingly trying to placate her.

He didn't have much to care about in this world, but he thought if something ever happened to this pure child it would be heartbreaking. How could the heavens be cruel enough to hurt someone so innocent?

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

Yu Yan was unable to find anything else so she gave up for the time being. She handed an oval stone to Mr. Khan before explaining.

"This stone has the protection rune for the property. Just as 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."

"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 is depleted. But none of the more powerful beasts and creatures come out of the forest unless something big happens. Under normal circumstances, all should be fine," replied Yu Yan while getting back up into the carriage.

She threw them one last look, "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 disappearing within a few seconds from their view.

***

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

After the extraordinary events of the first day everyone was still very much in shock even if they tried their best to hide it. Having arrived in such a foreign place out of nowhere and one that was so different from theirs, it would naturally take some time to get acclimated to this new reality.

So instead of jumping feet first into this new life and embracing it wholeheartedly, they retreated into simpler- more familiar routines while busying themselves with the mundane.

But Hao Xuan was a little different.

For the first time in a long time he had tasted freedom and could not hold himself back from spending the majority of his days enjoying the little things this place had to offer.

The days were spent tending to the horses and the crops while in the evenings all the Khan siblings would get together to play games and talk about their day.

Olivia, the other mini twin also got used to Hao Xuan in those days. Both of them would often come to him requesting piggyback rides. He didn't refuse and instead thought of it as some sort of self-imposed training.

The house had a kind of rock 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.

The technology in this world was both more and less advanced at the same time, or would it be better to say that it depended on the place and the people?

The tools and equipment that relied on the worldly energy were more efficient, longer-lasting, and easier to find and use which left the majority of the technology from earth impractical and even ineffective to a point since high spiritual energy could actually interfere with old tools.

This meant there were no modern conveniences but even then Hao Xuan enjoyed every single minute of it.

From the tiring farm life to the seemingly boring errands and chores, they were all blissfully simple and easy. It was the first time he had been happy since before the death of his grandfather.

The more he interacted with these kind people the more blessed he felt- realizing only now what a normal household should be like.

He was truly grateful to the Khan family for taking him in and treating him like their own when he had nowhere to go but it was even more foreign to him than this alien world. And albeit slowly, his well of emotions that should have long dried up was starting to revitalize bit by bit.

Initially, he truly did want to get stronger to protect himself and maybe even those around him but...the human mind is a fickle thing.

Since there was no immediate danger in their small bubble of repetitive and ordinary lives, there was no pressure and nothing to push him forward. No other phrase could define the human psyche better than 'out of sight, out of mind'.

About a month and a half passed by in the blink of an eye which is when they had some guests for the first time- the new neighbors. It was a small family of five.

A married couple in their mid-30s and their three kids- two girls and a boy, all between the ages of 6-9 years. They were one of the families that got a place allotted nearby. They were from Europe, Norway to be exact with some real experience working on a farm back on earth.

Their kids would often come over to play with everyone, even Hao Xuan who was quite awkward at first but grew fond of them in the handful of interactions he had with them. They were well-mannered and quite adorable.

Another week went by in this manner. It was almost midnight and Hao Xuan was sitting on his bed with his eyes closed trying to read and understand the complex terms and expressions within the Glaive Cultivation Manual when a bright light flashed by his window.

His eyes scanned the room and saw what appeared to be a meteor falling deep into the forest in the distance. It went down with a loud boom and the shockwave from the impact could be seen coming towards the house.

Hao Xuan's pupils constricted upon noticing the clouds disperse from the sky above. He jumped away from the window and ran towards the door trying to warn everyone when the shockwave hit.

*BOOOM*

It felt like a magnitude 8.0 earthquake hit the area. The entire mansion shook for a good few seconds before coming to a gradual stop.

Hao Xuan got up from the floor and looked back, the window was broken and his whole room was a mess. He opened the door and stumbled into the hallway, coming face to face with an out-of-breath Maaz.

"Brother, can you take a look at the twins and see if they're all right? I'll go see how everyone else is doing," he threw out the words and quickly 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 under the covers, shaking. Olivia heard the door open and lifted the covers to peek out.

"Bi-Big brother, what's going on?" she asked with wet eyes, obviously 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 down the hallway.

He didn't see the others so Hao Xuan kept running and made his way downstairs to the main living area. Everyone was in there. Sam had a cut on his forehead and was bleeding a fair bit. 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 embarrassingly trying to push her away upon noticing Hao Xuan arrive.

"Shut up and let me stitch it up first, you're getting blood all over the carpet," replied Mrs. Khan sternly, slapping him on the back of his head.

Hao Xuan was at a loss for words listening to her, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry for him.

He put down the twins beside her and went up to Maaz and Mr. Khan who were both standing near the window, talking in a low voice.

"All the upper windows are broken, and some of the walls have cracks in them as well but nothing major," Maaz reported like a soldier.

"Was it an earthquake? I heard a loud noise just before the quake hit, did any of you see anything?" Mr. Khan questioned, looking at them for answers.

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

"And that caused the explosion? Holy crap! It should have been pretty far as well, judging from the interval between the explosion and the earthquake and...the fact that there was nothing else. If it was close we would have been vaporized," Maaz added unnecessarily, receiving a glare from his father.

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

Hao Xuan and Maaz followed after him.

The sky had been cleared so under one of the full moons they could still see pretty far away. Mr. Khan scanned the surroundings before breaking into a light jog.

After a few steps he turned around and shouted towards Maaz and Hao Xuan, "You two check 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 over but the rest seemed to be fine 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- like in those weird web novels. Maybe it will choose me as its master, those kinds of things always happened there so why not now huh?'

While Hao Xuan was immersed in his delusions of grandeur, a loud cracking sound came from somewhere in the distance. Like a tree breaking and falling somewhere out of sight.

But looking at the forest he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Only the trees moving in the wind.

'Huh?'

But after staring at the tree line for a few seconds Hao Xuan held his breath while extending his hand outwards to feel the air when his pupils constricted.

"Where is..the wind-"

There was absolutely no wind blowing. It was so eerily still and quiet that he could hear his own heartbeat echoing in his ears while his gaze was fixated on the tree line.

*Thump*Thump*

*Thump*Thump*

*Thump*Thump*

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeeech*

*THUMP*THUMP*

Hundreds of creatures rushed 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 as if their very lives depended on it.

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