Because of the earthquake, the entire District guard regiment was deployed. No one else knew what had caused the earthquake, but they knew its epicenter was deep within the forest.
But as there were no tectonic plates or fault lines anywhere near Fortuna city, the higher up's were under the assumption that a fight between some powerful cultivators or beasts had occurred, and the earthquakes and the shocks were a result of that. This would also explain why the lesser beasts fled the forest, for them, it was the same as Armageddon.
The districts 11, 12 and the 1st were hit the hardest, but the protective formation for the inner city was activated on time and prevented any damage to its residents.
As soon as the beast horde was seen, all of the outer guard regiments were dispatched. They handled the situation well and killed every single beast that had entered the districts, but there were still many casualties, especially in the newly allocated human areas.
Several hundred families were wiped out entirely, especially from district 12, which was hit first and took the brunt of the beast horde. The Khan family was the only survivor within a 1000 km radius, which attracted a lot of attention from the higher-ups.
General Ouki was returning from his expedition when the earthquake hit. Although he had command over 300,000 of the strongest warriors of Fortuna City, he only took his private guard with him, numbering just over 200.
Soon as he was made aware of the situation, he left everything under his subordinate, Lt. General Tou's command and went out himself.
Having lived through countless battles, General Ouki had served the Mei kingdom for over 700 years, never losing a single fight against the Jia kingdom, he was the very embodiment of what the Mei Kingdom stood for. Soldiers would (and some had) kill for an opportunity just to see him in-person.
No one knew what his cultivation level was anymore, but all Generals had to be at least Profound Realm experts.
Without even taking his mount with him, General Ouki ran towards the beast horde on foot, but he was even faster than the elite cavalry that was following him. Not a single beast within a radius of several hundred miles survived when he swung his glaive.
As he was moving towards the last remaining protective barrier in district 12, he saw a young man running away from an Alces, and on a horse to boot. Normally he wouldn't pay any attention to it and just send one of his underlings to remedy the situation, but he was slightly taken aback when he heard the boy speak, "We can't stop Joey, the mansion is still in our view, it could go back. No matter what, we can't stop".
Even though he was a few miles away from him, everything could easily be heard like he was standing right next to the boy. This was normal when considering his cultivation level. Powerful cultivators could tear the very heavens apart, so something like this was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Hmm, interesting. And how is that horse so fast, normally an Alces would've caught up to it in a few seconds," General Ouki wondered as he saw the situation unfold. If he so desired, General Ouki could've killed the Alces just by lifting a finger from a hundred miles away, but he wanted to see what would happen next.
The horse's heart exploded and the boy fell. He thought that would be the end of it but the boy got back up again, and even more surprising, he wanted to fight the Alces in his condition.
Even for an Elementary realm expert it would be a challenge, let alone someone who didn't have a single ounce of Qi in his body.
For the first time in a long time, General Ouki felt his warrior spirit move.
To stand firm and not give up in the face of adversity, that's what it meant to be a warrior. Never surrender no matter how bad things got.
He missed those days. "Back when the world was simpler, and the only enemy was the one in front. Back when we fought our way out of impossible situations with our brothers in arms. Those were the days," he reminisced.
"To make this old man's heart beat after such a long time, it seems fate has brought us together young one. I'm looking forward to what you will achieve," he mumbled with a childish grin on his face, which would send cold shivers down the spine of anyone unfortunate enough to witness it.
So he took a step, and appeared behind the boy, slaying the Alces and saving him. He picked him up and with another step, appeared outside the Khan family residence a hundred miles away. As he saw the destruction that had been caused by the beasts and the panic-stricken faces of the family, he got a little angry and tapped his foot lightly on the ground, and then everything went silent.
Every single beast in district twelve died at that moment. Normally he wouldn't use his power needlessly, but something had come over him.
Just as the Khan family was preparing for the worst, listening to the howls and roars of the beasts outside, everything stopped. Mr. Khan peered outside to see what was going on, only to see a giant standing there with a bloodied up Hao Xuan on his shoulder.
"W-who are you?" he asked cautiously, looking around. All the beasts were dead, nothing else outside the barrier was moving.
"Oh Hello there, my name is Ouki. I'm a soldier of the Kingdom, you don't have to worry about anything anymore," the General replied, smiling.
He snapped his fingers and the barrier burst like a bubble. "Does this belong to you?" he asked pointing at Hao Xuan.
Mr. Khan completely astonished by the sudden turn of events, nodded his head blankly and opened the main door.
"Please, come in," he said.
"Thank you," General Ouki replied and bent down to enter the mansion. Mr. Khan didn't realize before how tall their savior actually was until he entered the house, his head almost hitting the ceiling.
Everyone else also came out to the hallway to meet their new guest and got the shock of their lives. The man was about 10 feet tall, Maaz who usually dwarfed everyone else in front of him looked like a child standing in front of this guy.
"Where should I put this guy down," Ouki asked referring to Hao Xuan.
Everyone was so engrossed looking at this giant in front of them that they forgot about the bleeding Hao Xuan on his shoulder.
"Right here," Mrs. Khan replied pointing at the dining room table on the right.
As he put Hao Xuan down, everyone got a better look at his condition and they were horrified.
His left arm's bone was popping out of the skin, there was a huge dent on his chest and his head and legs were bleeding profusely.
Emilie saw him and started bawling a baby, with snot and all. "Is big brother going to die? So much blood is coming out, mama, please help big brother," she said through all the tears.
General Ouki smiled at the scene and moved his hand over Hao Xuan's body as a bright white light illuminated his palm. As soon as the light hit his body, all the bleeding stopped. Ouki put his left arm's bone back inside his body and made a grabbing motion with his hand above Hao Xuan's chest, and the dent disappeared.
Then he took out a small bottle from his side pocket and poured the liquid into Hao Xuan's mouth. A few seconds later, they could hear crackling noises coming from Hao Xuan's entire body, and every single wound closed and healed itself like it was never there.
"Holy shit," Sam accidentally said out loud, amazed by the scene unfolding in front of him.
The rest of the family was just as shocked. Everything happened so quickly that even though they saw it, they thought it was a dream.
Just as everyone was immersed in the situation at hand, someone knocked on the front door.
