Dawn Of A New Day

~The Saint Realm~

  From afar, the young man saw both of them and yelled.

‘You guys run, quickly,’

By the time the words completely came out of his mouth, he was beside Huno. He used his free hand to pull Huno’s shirt. 

Huno, who didn’t know what was going, started running while pulling Luna along. He was shocked by the man’s speed, but now wasn’t the time to think about it. 

‘What’s going on?’ Huno asked the young man ahead of him.

‘Beasts, a pack of five,’ the young man replied.

Before Huno could ask his next question, he heard roars from behind. He turned to look and saw three, four-legged creatures rushing towards them. They had orange-colored fur, and they each had a horn on their head.

  Seeing this, Huno bent down, placed Luna on his shoulder and kept running. The man and his companions were giving him some distance.

‘Should we separate from them?’ Huno thought. ‘No, let’s keep going and see what happens,’ he said to himself, and kept running. 

‘Huno, they are getting closer,’ Luna said. 

‘I’m running as fast as I can, ah!’ Huno said and growled from pain.

He kept running, trying to keep his distance from the beast.

  The five of them rushed out of the forest and came to a cliff. 

‘No way, dead-end,’ the young man yelled and put the boy down. ‘All of you get behind,’ 

He brought two daggers out and took a step forward. Everyone stood behind him. Luna stared at Huno but he pretend not to see and held her hand tight.

  The pack of beasts rushed out from the forest and to everyone’s surprise, there were eight, not five. 

‘Shit,’ the young man said and bit his lower lip.

  ‘Not good, Luna. Can you carry everyone?’ Huno asked. 

‘Maybe,’

‘That platform may not carry all our weight. Luna get the iceman, come in,’ Huno yelled, and immediately Luna disappeared.

The young man felt something and turned around, only to see the little girl was gone. But before he could ask, he heard the stranger shout.

‘Come Out,’

Immediately she appeared with a big ice creature. He hadn’t comprehended what happened when the stranger shouted ‘Come In’ the girl disappeared again. Some seconds later he shouted, ‘Come Out,’ and the girl appeared again.

   ‘Attack with one turn the other to a platform,’ the stranger said. 

Immediately, one ice creature rushed to the incoming beast while the other scattered to pieces. He was extremely shocked, but it wasn’t over. The pieces gathered together, and similar pieces came from the little girl’s body and joined with other. Soon it became a thick square platform with small walls on three sides. 

‘Everyone get in,’ the stranger said, snapping him back to reality.

Quickly, he led his companions on to it and immediately the platform rose and flew away. The platform flew for a while, and Huno, who was looking back, finally breathed. 

‘Brother, thank you for saving us. We will not forget this life-saving grace,’ the young man said and bowed his head.

‘Thank you very much, brother,’ the young lady said with her hand clasped. 

‘It’s alright, let’s count it as being even. You thought of me and even tried to pull me. I’ll thank you for that first,’ Huno said. 

‘You don’t have to brother, allow me to introduce myself and my companions,’ the young man said and continued, ‘I am Lee Wei, this is my junior sister Su San and my junior brother Ma Lei.’ 

‘Nice to meet you,’ Huno said. 

‘How may I address the brother?’ Lee asked.

‘I’m Huno and this is Luna,’ Huno replied. 

‘Nice to meet you brother Huno, thank you for saving us once again,’ Lee said.

  ‘Brother Lee, permit me to ask, where are we?’ Huno asked. 

‘Oh, this is the northwest part of the Saint Realm,’ Lee Wei replied and asked. ‘What sect do brother come from?’

‘Sorry, what’s a sect?’ Huno asked. 

Shocked, Lee Wei stared at him before replying, ‘It’s a place people gather to learn and cultivate,’

‘Cultivate?’ Huno frowned.

‘Well, I don’t quite know how to explain. You can say it’s absorbing of Qi from nature to increase oneself and power,’ Lee Wei explained. 

‘Brother, are you not from this realm?’ Lee Wei asked. 

‘There was an accident and ended up in a snow place with my sister,’ Huno replied. 

‘You mean the cold region?’ Lee Wei asked. 

‘Is that what it is called? Lots of snow everywhere,’ 

‘Yes, that’s the cold region, so what brother is trying to say is you came from a lower world?’ 

‘I can not confirm that, but I think so,’ Huno said.

  Lee Wei turned to look at his companions and said. ‘Junior sister, junior brother, both of you heard nothing. Is that understood?’

‘Yes, senior brother,’ Su San replied.

‘All you know is they are from a remote village and we have a life-saving grace with them. How they saved us is by hiding us in a cave from a beast pack,’ Lee Wei said, and the two nodded.

  ‘Something is wrong?’ Huno asked.

‘Brother Huno, please never mention your world to anyone. If someone asks, you are from a remote village just around the cold region,’ 

‘Okay, but please explain further,’ Huno said. 

‘In the Saint realm there are two forces, one is the cruel Jia empire, and the other is the five great families that rose against them, if either of the force finds out the existence of your world, they will go there and take as many people as they can,’ Lee Wei explained. 

He stared at Luna and continue. ‘If it is the Jia empire, they will be slaves and if it is the five great families who go over, then they will collect people from your realm to cultivate, but a large amount will be slaves here.’

  ‘Oh, thank you for explaining, brother Lee,’ Huno said. ‘I will have to be very careful,’

‘It is alright, I guess this is her ability. Please do well to hide it,’ Lee Wei said.

‘I understand, brother Lee,’ Huno said.

  ‘Please brother Lee, explain a thing or two about the Saint realm so I can understand how things how here,’ 

‘Sure, but I suggest we find where to camp first. It is getting dark,’ 

‘Alright Luna, find somewhere to land us,’ Huno said, brushing her hair. Luna nodded and found an opening before going down.

  They all got down from the platform and Lee Wei said. ‘Junior sister, please set a fire. I’ll set the tent after scouting the surrounding,’

‘Okay, senior brother,’ Su San replied.

‘Brother Huno, please let’s go, I’ll explain as we check around,’ Lee Wei said to Huno.

‘Okay let’s go,’ Huno replied and followed. 

Luna held his hand and walked with both of them. They walked around the place with where they landed at the center.

  ‘The Saint realm is divided into two, the west and the east. To the west is the land of the great families and to the east is the land of Ruins or the Jia empire. The five great families are as followed according to their strength: the Han family comes out the strongest, followed by the Chani, the Qu, the Feng, and the Jui family. While the Jia empire has the Jia emperor and nine divine generals of which every one of them is in the highest realm of cultivation, the Legendary Realm. While the great families have nine in that realm, the Jia empire has ten,’ Lee Wei explained. 

‘So they are stronger at the high level,’ Huno said. 

‘Not really. The realm has a subdivision and in that subdivision; we have more in a higher realm than them,’

‘The Jia empire once ruled the Saint realm and under their reign, people died a lot because there was no law and order. Five people rose against them and that was how the five great families started. To fight the Jia empire, the five families each created a sect, to recruit and cultivate talents strong enough to fight. No one except the five great families may have a sect,’ Lee Wei said.

‘Why is that?’ 

‘Some hundred years ago, a force wanting power rose and caused confusion in the west region going against the five families. While it had an internal conflict, the Jia empire used the opportunity to attack the west. The west land barely resisted at the cost of three legendary realm experts. The force who rose lost it legendary expert and so the great families neutralized it. Ever since the Great families rejected other powers, either you dissolve and join one of them or you go seek refuge in the Jia empire,’ Lee Wei said. 

‘I see,’ Huno replied as they return to the others.

  Lee Wei started setting the tent as he explained. ‘The path of cultivation there are sixth stages. These are the Qi refinement stage, the Yi realm, the Er realm, the Foundation realm, the True Realm, and the Legendary realm. The first three are easy and to cultivator they are not considered realms. Starting from the foundation realm, the higher you go, the harder it is to increase one's realm. This is mainly due to lack of resources and the fact that the higher you go, the more Qi energy you require,’ Lee Wei said, and added.

‘I’ll have to stop here because going further may cause you to cultivate unintentionally and if that happens while you are not under a sect, you become an enemy from the Jia empire.’

‘I understand,’ Huno said.

‘If you want to cultivate, you can follow us back and I’ll help you join my sect,’ Lee Wei said. 

‘Then I’ll thank you first,’ Huno said happily. 

‘It will take us two days to return on foot,’ Lee Wei said. 

‘I think Luna can get us there faster. What realm are you in?’ 

‘I’m at the peak of the foundation realm,’ Lee Wei replied. 

‘Those beasts previously I felt energy emitting from them. Why?’ Luna asked. 

‘You can feel energies?’ Lee Wei asked, and Luna nodded. 

‘I feel the energy coming from you, your brother and sister, and the environment right now. The energy from you is higher than from both the two of them. The energy in the environment is sparse and the one I felt from the beast is higher than yours,’ Luna explained. 

‘Well, those creatures cultivate but their cultivation method differs from we humans,’ the shocked Lee Wei stared at Luna and explained.

‘Those beasts are level two beasts. They are equivalent to low-rank True realm. They are stronger than me, so the energy from them will be stronger than mine,’.

  ‘Animals cultivate too? that’s shocking,’ Huno said. 

‘Not animals, well beasts are special animals that can cultivate. There are only four types of beasts, according to ancient records. The Horned leopard, Spirit tortoise, the seven-colored eagle, and the four-legged snake,’ Lee Wei said.

‘So the level above two is three, right? Equivalent to what?’ Luna asked. 

‘Level one equals high rank to peak foundation realm, level two equals low rank to the mid-True realm, three equals high to peak True realm, four is low to the mid legendary realm and five is high to peak legendary realm,’ Lee Wei said. 

‘I see,’ Huno said.

‘Let us eat,’ Lee Wei said, and puts his hand into a small bag. 

The bag was as small as his palm, but when he brought his hand out, Lee Wei brought out two long loaves of bread that were as long as the distance from one’s wrist to the elbow. 

Luna and Huno stared at him blankly. ‘How?’ Luna yelled. 

Lee Wei laughed and explained. 'It's a storage bag. The space inside is as big as three buckets, enough to carry lots of food.’

He hand the loaves to them and brought one more out for himself. Luna turned to look at the other two and saw them holding similar bags.

  ‘You have something similar, right? You brought out two ice giants back there,’ Lee Wei said. 

‘Is it possible for us to leave it at something similar? That thing isn’t something we can talk about freely,’ Huno said. 

‘No, no, it’s okay, everyone has their secret and I even suggest you say less about yourself. Your case is special,’ 

‘Thank you,’ 

‘Alright let’s eat and then rest,’ Lee Wei said. ‘Brother Huno, please you and I will have to sleep outside while the three of them take the tent. We lost one while running away,’ 

‘It’s alright brother Lee, but I don’t think she’ll want to sleep in the tent,’ Huno said and looked at Luna.

‘I’ll sleep with Huno wherever he sleeps,’ Luna shouted and held his dress. 

She looked down and kept eating the bread and avoiding their gazes. Lee Wei and his two companions laughed. 

‘She reminds me of Sister Xue and you brother Lee,’ Su San said while laughing. 

‘Yeah,’ Lee Wei said. ‘Alright, the two of you have the tent to yourself,’ he added to Su San.