The land where the beast race resided in, was a very special region...
It was at the bottom of a valley, a valley that stretches hundreds of kilometres, however, what made it special was a certain folklore.
Legends state that during a certain period in the long annals of history, there had been an devastating duel between two prominent cultivators whose names had been lost in the waves of time.
This altercation lasted for ten days and ten nights with neither getting even a single minute of sleep, the result of their fracas was a valley, a deep valley that was so straight it could not be considered natural!
"Master, what is this place?" Xiao Ling inquired, feeling uneasy, she felt as if a sharp object has been kept near her neck.
She then clutched onto him worriedly, frowning at his face in fear.
"There There, don't be scared now... Master is with you!" He smiled, comforting the little girl as he turned to Akagi who had been narrowing her eyes since the very moment they had arrived.
"But if you are curious, this is the Sword Gate Valley... And our lovely hosts are right below us!" He replied, walking towards the edge...
The mysterious aura emitted by this valley had his heart thumping every single time, as it deferred from person to person, a strong cultivator would feel as if they had been pricked and stabbed by several hundreds of swords, while a low level cultivator would only feel threatened!
His hand trembled in pain, Xieren has been covering Akagi with his Qi, thus resulting in him taking most of the attack...
Xieren took a deep breath and motioned Akagi towards him, then grabbed her, jumping to the bottom as he quickly floated down.
•••••
The trio had been descending for a while now, several tens of minutes, which goes to show just how deep the valley was...
The light from the sky seemed to dim down as the darkness slowly took over, until there was no more light.
Akagi fearing for their lives, clasped her husband's hand tightly, her face gathering beads of sweat as they descended...
Tik!
"We have reached the barrier..." Xieren announced as he felt a solid structure underneath his feet, gathering up his Holy Qi, Xieren had alerted the beast people below...
'Anytime now...' He thought inwardly, yet there was no response.
He turned to Akagi awkwardly and explained the situation...
"Why don't we break the barrier, Milord?" She suggested offhandedly, already in a horrible mood as her husband would be meeting his mistress...
Xiao Ling glanced at the two voicing their opinions curiously and slowly got down from her master's shoulders.
She knocked on the barrier with amusement present on her face, jumping on it as she did so, giggling to herself...
"Master, where are the cat people?" She asked with a pout as Xieren smiled wryly, she did not know that there were several other races excluding the cat clan.
"For that, we need to break this barrier down, so grab onto your big sis!" He pat her head, flaring his Qi, concentrating it towards his right hand.
Taking on a stance, Xieren brought his fist down with a roar, just as it made contact with the barrier, several rays of light escaped the said barrier.
It cracked as the light intensified, spreading spider web cracks all over the attack radius...
Xieren pushed his hand further in as the light from the barrier suddenly blinked, he felt as if he was on air and looked down.
"Holy sh-!"
"Divine Providence: Seat of the Dragon!" Xieren activated his movement technique, grabbing hold of Akagi who had floated over to his side...
There was a small white cloud under him, Xiao Ling gasped in awe, touching the solid yet gaseous wisps of Qi...
"Milord, if it were someone else, they would call you god!" Akagi spoke, staring into the cloud curiously, stepping on it to make sure it would not break apart.
Xieren chuckled, as he shook his head, bringing her close to him as they quietly enjoyed the ride down...
•••••
"What! Part of the sky turned black?!" A man with protruding dog ears hollered, he was donning beige and brown robes, and had put on a pearl necklace around his neck.
He was brought out of his musings when several guards of his were going out to gather outside, feeling curious, he too exited his manor.
Dropping his jaw at the sight Infront of his very eyes, the sky had turned black!
"Is it the end of the world?!" He overheard his soldiers gossip among comrades and frowned.
"Lord Gou!(1)" The elders had arrived, kneeling behind him as they informed of various incidents that had occurred after the unusual phenomenon...
"Get the guards, soldiers, everything! We will go and defend against a possible army of evil!" He barked out, ordering his footmen to prepare...
"And also, warn the rest of the clans..." He sighed, summoning his iron halberd, and rushing towards the broken sky, along with several of his elites that would follow him in secrecy.
•••••
"Milord, several Saint realm cultivators are approaching us... they seem to be tensed" Akagi alerted Xieren who nodded.
"Just stay with Xiao Ling, I will take care of this." He replied, walking towards the area where the vast majority of hostiles are gathered...
Akagi then glanced at Xiao Ling who ran around the area excitedly, chasing after dragon butterflies, butterflies that left a trail of colourful particles of light.
•••••
The clan leader of the Dog clan sighed, warily glancing at the empty lands until he came upon a black figure, it's face was covered in it's vile blackness, the hair flowing wildly...
"THE DEMON!" The soldiers screeched, holding onto their respective weapons with shaky hands as they trembled before the figure.
"Umm..." Xieren cleared his throat, he stared at the dog eared men awkwardly as they too stared at him weirdly.
'M@therf#cker! Me? A demon?' His eyebrow twitched.
"What are you?" A soldier, brave enough to speak to the devil itself demanded.
"Me? Kukukuku, I go by many names... the destroyer of worlds... God's archnemisis... I'm a human!" Xieren bowed extravagantly, his arms spread out as if he were in the presence of western royalty...
He decided that he would play with these people for a bit...
"Human? What is that?" He overheard the hushed voices of several soldiers that mostly relaxed, completely ignoring his infamous titles.
"You look very similar to those from the Hou Clan, but clearly you are not as hairy as those boisterous apes..." Gou Guo, the Patriarch of the Dog clan commented offhandedly, to which Xieren could only nod weakly.
"What is your purpose 'Human:, visiting this world of ours?" Gou Guo interrogated.
"Hmm... well... I'm here to meet with a certain Fox lady..." Xieren grinned, as the soldiers took a few steps back.
"Fox... Is it that wicked vixen?! The leader of those cunning devils?!" He shouted, Guo's face gaining a smile.
"Hahaha! So the devil himself comes to punish the accursed ones!" He then bowed, escorting the man towards his manor.
"Actually, I'm not alone, my wife and disciple are still aroun-" He was just about to inform when Akagi appeared before him...
"What is going on here, Milord?"
•••••
Meanwhile, a certain dark skinned lady is laughing very outlandishly, not bothering to cover her mouth as she did so.
"Oh... you are just too funny... little boy" Yao Wu bit her lip, her face flushing red as she disappeared once again...
••••••••••
(1): Gou means dog in Chinese (atleast, that's what the translator told me...) So basically, Gou Guo is the leader, as his surname "Gou" is literally "Dog". Hope this makes sense!