Hao Xuan sighed looking at the 3.5 meters tall Scorpion King standing in front of him.

"Kill me!

" he repeated.

Hao Xuan felt a headache coming on. This conversation had been going on for over half an hour and yet they kept coming back to the same thing.

"I told you, that's not going to happen,

" Hao Xuan replied while rubbing his temples.

"Then release me!

" the Scorpion King said stubbornly.

Ever since he regained consciousness and realized he was now under Hao Xuan's control, he had been pestering him to either kill him or free him. There was no middle ground and even though Hao Xuan tried to reason with him, he would always respond with the same thing.

"'ENOUGH! Do not say that again, EVER!'

" in his anger Hao Xuan used the power of the constitution and ordered him.

Scorpion King opened his mouth to speak but his tongue wouldn't move. His body was not listening to him and no matter how hard he tried he could do nothing about it other than look at Hao Xuan with disgust and fury.

Hao Xuan simply looked away and waved his hand,

"Go away unless you want to be called back to the Mind Palace.

"

The Scorpion King hesitated and after a few seconds of contemplation, walked out of the room with lowered shoulders. This once feared King of Beasts was now at the mercy of a lowly human.

Fortis popped out of Hao Xuan's hair and looked at the Scorpion King walk away plaintively.

"Booo~

"

He stuck his tongue out and made funny faces at him while still hiding on top of Hao Xuan's head. For some reason he didn't get along with the Scorpion King and they would always end up fighting.

The only problem was that neither of them could really harm the other one since Forti's body was damn near indestructible and would heal instantly even if it was damaged, while the Scorpion King was too strong for Fortis to 'deal' with.

Fortis would come up to Hao Xuan and make sad faces and tell on the Scorpion King, several times before he did anything. Hao Xuan reached above his head and grabbed Fortis who was caught off guard and had his tongue still halfway out.

"Alright alright, that's enough. I told you to stop fighting with him,

" Hao Xuan spoke in a low voice, almost pleadingly.

Fortis freed himself from his grasp and ran halfway out the door before looking back,

"NO!

" he shouted and scurried out of Hao Xuan's sight.

A vein bulged on Hao Xuan's forehead as he mumbled with gritted teeth,

"I swear to god, one day...

"

"One day what?

"

Xu Qing's voice came from outside as she appeared on his doorstep a few seconds later with a tray in her hand.

She was dressed in a blue hanfu that accentuated her natural curves.

It wasn't very tight but had sashes placed around the waist and arms which brought the whole thing together. With her long black hair and snow-white skin, Hao Xuan almost fell into a trance as soon as he saw her.

"Day...what now?

" he mumbled while getting up and taking the tray from her hands.

He had completely forgotten what he was thinking about before.

"You were saying something about doing something one day,

" Xu Qing repeated with half a smile while looking down at her empty hands. Hao Xuan always treated her like this, like she was made of glass or something but she didn't really mind and allowed him to do as he pleased.

He gently grasped her hand,

"Let's go out for a walk.

"

She wanted to decline at first as she still had to make dinner but feeling how agitated he was right now, she simply nodded and they both walked out.

***

After the competition had ended the winner was announced and it had somehow come to a draw between the Jia and Mei.

Obviously many people were not satisfied with this result since Mei cultivators were the ones that cleared the last dungeon but the Empires overseeing the competition stated that the Jia had cleared MORE of the dungeons, while Mei basically only cleared the most 15th dungeon.

So it was a draw.

Still many powers came forward and extended their invitations to the participants of the competition from both sides.

Fan Xinya was taken in by an old clan no one had ever heard off, but when the news of it got out many older cultivators and higher ranked officials were surprised.

Arizou and several of the others also joined a few different powers. Hao Xuan was perhaps the only one that didn't receive a single invitation.

Obviously, this did bother him a little bit but he didn't think about it too much. It could be any number of reasons and he wasn't planning on joining any of them either way so it didn't matter.

As he had predicted, soon after Jia Heng announced that there will be one final battle between the armies of the two kingdoms. He would be leading the Jia army himself and would take on any and all challenges from the younger generation.

Of course, death was the only outcome for the loser.

So like many others, Hao Xuan returned back home in preparation for the final fight.

He hadn't been in contact with First ever since he met him before the competition on that strange mountain. He told him that he was aware something might happen to one of the other members but still did nothing. And because of his inaction, Fifth was killed.

Hao Xuan couldn't help but blame him as well. If he had said something she might still be alive and not buried in a grave no one other than him knew about.

Days turned into weeks. Hao Xuan continued cultivating and trained with his severs daily. One day while he was sitting next to Xu Qing under the maple tree after a long training session, his watch vibrated.

It was a message from Wu Jin. Hao Xuan shot up from his seat after reading it.

"Come quick, there might be a way to get you into the academy!

"