Jack is stuck within the darkness tightly bound unable to move, the lights are flashing in the distance while the progress bar ticks up slowly, it's almost at 25% causing him to be confused about what it means.

A crystal appears before him and flies into his mind, he isn't able to resist this as it integrates into his mind and causes the darkness to fluctuate with multiple colours before returning to normal, Jack is utterly confused about what's going on and tries using his divine sense again.

This time it's different as he's still able to sense that small clump of dirt clearly but he's able to sense his body in the game world without obstruction anymore, he uses that new thread of divine sense to navigate back to his game body mind and finds that he can open his eyes, he can't move or do anything except open his eyes and look around the room staring at the tent roof.

He isn't sure what benefit this has but he can feel that some part of himself is able to travel freely between these two locations, as though this clump of dirt is him and the game world body is also him, he tries to circulate his cultivation technique within the game world and the clump of dirt starts to throb, it absorbs his qi greedily and expands slightly, Jack can feel a new type of power enter his body as though the clump of dirt is rewarding him for giving it some of his own qi.

This keeps going for several moments before a string of purple lightning threads through the sky lighting up the darkness with purple causing Jack some pain as though his mind is being attacked by something.

The progress bar before Jacks eyes disappears and he's thrown back to the game world, but his vision is able to freely look over the clump of dirt, the blockage that was previously stopping him no longer exists.

Looking back at his cultivation technique he has acquired, he isn't sure what that black space is, it technically should be his divine sea but most people aren't able to open that up until they develop a Nascent Soul and step onto the Divine transformation pathway.

Nascent Soul is typically developed at Stage 8, currently Jack is at Stage 2 and divine transformation starts above the Saint realm so he’s honestly confused at how he can be developing a divine sea already but feels that it’s related to those colourful lights.

He consults with the cultivation technique for a few moments but it doesn’t contain much information about the realms beyond Saint, he wants to speak to that man again but has no idea how to get in contact with him.

Frustrated Jack stops thinking about all of this, it’s not causing him any harm and being able to develop these things so early should be beneficial even if he hasn’t found a single use for them yet, letting out a sigh he sits up from the bed.

Jack feels tired still, as though all his energy has been sapped from him by the little clump of dirt, he really wants to just log off while his body submerges in another bath of wild fire spirit grass as that'll give him a massive amount of qi suddenly but he has needs to consider some of his responsibilities.

Taking a look around the room, Jessica and Mai are not within it, Jack walks out of the room the blood-red moon is high in the sky giving it a very eerie feeling with the willow hanging over the tent.

He looks for Jessica and Mai but he can't see anyone except for the guards that are posted outside the tent, he musters up some energy and puts on commanding airs as he asks the guards.

"Do you know where Drakon is?"

"Lord, General Laoshe is currently within the city hall building, he has instructed us to tell you that he has made a report and provided it to Minister Nailong”

Jack thanks the guard while thinking to himself, ‘Who the hell is Minister Nailong?’ as he walks over to the city hall building.

Nearly all the important people of the village are there currently, all the ministers and generals including the non-human village leaders, they're all speaking with each other around a table, the non-humans aren't talking much but they are being included in the conversation.

"LORD" they all announce, cupping their hands in respectful manner.

Jack looks around the room nodding as he looks over each person before going to seat on a slightly raised chair, "Ok let's get this started, what does everyone have to report?"

They all exchange eye contact before Drakon steps forward, "Lord, we have sent out scouts to investigate the surroundings and have found a few questionable things. All the villages that are a certain distance away are mostly empty, we recovered several people but they're mostly children and are unable to speak about what happened, they just talk about rabbits consuming everyone"

Drakon then speaks for several minutes about his experiences out in the field, the strange quietness of everything while coming across the occasional demonic creature, as though it's the quiet before the storm.

Jack sits in silence upon hearing that, a frown creeps onto his face.

"What can we do to about that?"

"We have been speeding up the recovery process while trying to acquire the population of several villages under the guise of protection, a few of the surviving villages expressed interest but we're not willing to force them at this stage"

"Good, if they're not willing to join then we shouldn't force them as it'll only lead to disgruntlement between the population, keep people posted to watch them but do not save them, let them suffer slightly” Jack responds, a few of the people in the room nod while some frown but don’t say anything.

“What of the city creation stones from the now empty villages?" Jack asks.

"We have acquired them and are awaiting your decision on if we should use them, Hilda can tell you more"

Jack looks to Hilda causing her to step forward, "Yes Lord, we have acquired 9 city creation stones, they are only white grade and none of them have a guardian beast thus we didn't place big importance on them and wanted to receive your guidance on what to use them for"

Jack taps his fingers against the chair arm, thinking for a moment.

"I believe that we should create these villages, we have a lack of human villages and our military professions are primarily human professions, what of the items I gave you earlier?"

"Yes Lord, the items have been distributed and securely stored, each soldier has been provided with one Holy element short sword or dagger. Tyson can give you further reports on that front"

Hilda steps back while Jack looks towards Tyson, the newest general rubs his neck and steps forward not used to the village yet.

"I have distributed the items provided by Minister Nailong and I have nothing really to report, I'm still trying to drill all the existing soldiers in defensive battles, we really need those walls to come up"

Tyson then speaks for several moments explaining the different types of training that he will need to undertake and what resources he'll need to undertake them, Jack is listening quietly trying to understand the thought process going into each decision Tyson has made, Jack strangely feels that his mind is able to retain this information much easier.

"So, while we are in a good position overall, I believe that we will need to step up our production of the city walls otherwise we'll be overrun quickly"

The entire room goes quiet upon hearing this last line, all eyes are on Jack who is slowly tapping on the chair arm.

"How long will it take to produce the city walls?"

Maurice speaks up, "I have been handling the projections and at our current rate the first layer will be done within a week but further layers will be done within three months"

"What if we were able to acquire a massive population of people?"

"If we can acquire another 3000 labourers, we should be able to finish the second layer within a week as Ms Mai has provided us with massive amounts of wood today”

Jack has a surprised expression on his face upon learning that Mai has been doing that but returns to normal quickly, "I have an idea about that, I will investigate it tomorrow"

"We have also conducted several tests and discovered that, Black Iron Wool is able to better resist demonic infestation than the armours provided by the merchant at Sacred City"

"Good job, are you able to create more demonic sheep?"

"That's one of the strange things, the first demonic sheep we have acquired is somehow converting the newly acquired sheep yet we can't work out how it's doing that"

"Are we going to lose control of the situation?"

Maurice has an awkward expression on his face, "We are controlling it to the best of our abilities" he speaks as demonic sheep bleating can be heard in the distance as soldiers can be heard yelling.

"Those damn sheep escaped again, quick get the restraining rope and capture them before they get into the warehouse again"

Everyone in the room has an awkward expression while Hilda and Drakon both place their hand on their forehead, Maurice lightly coughs "I would like to have permission to investigate that teleportation crystal you acquired"

"Granted" Jack trusts him and can sense that Maurice doesn't wish to continue speak lest he be embarrassed again, "Bane, how goes your end?"

"We have investigated the body you requested us to, we have discovered a few pieces of information yet the only important piece of information is that the cultivation technique of the person is very similar to those shadow crystals that have been sitting in the warehouse"

"So, it's likely they're affiliated to those Shadow Sect people… how goes your force formation?"

"It shall be ready to be deployed by tomorrow"

"Good, we shall start to transfer some of our population into the system cities starting tomorrow, does anyone have anything else to report?" Jack looks over the rest of the room, no one steps forward.

"Ok dismissed for tonight, Good job everyone I am glad to have capable people to handle all these tasks" Jack stands up while everyone relaxes and splits into groups, DeeYo quietly walks up to Jack.

"Dragon Lord Sir, I didn't want to interrupt the meeting but I would like to return to United Goblin Town to check their situation"

Jack looks at the goblin with a pensive expression on his green face, "I am concerned about their situation too and will involve you once it's determined safe but until then continue your tasks as you are valued as part of this village"

DeeYo nods his head and salutes Jack before walking back to the group of non-humans, no one else steps forward to speak to Jack in private.

Jack leaves the city hall building feeling slightly free from responsibilities, looking up at the blood-red moon he lets out a sigh, 'if only the Easter event continued...' he thinks back to how just last night he spent the whole night trying to capture a rainbow coloured rabbit and now he's having to prepare defences against some sort of demonic invasion.

He walks through the village and returns to the tent where nothing has changed, Jessica and Mai aren't there yet but, on the table, there is a red fruit and several pieces of grass placed within a bowl.

Jack looks at these, it's the wild fire spirit fruit and grass that he has previously consumed, looking around the room he can't see any notes or anything to indicate these are there for a reason so he consumes them before sitting down on the bed and circulating his cultivation technique.

An explosion of fire qi can be felt within his body but with nowhere to go it’s slowly brought under control as it’s forced to flow according to the cultivation technique, flowing through his body in a particular way.

His cultivation feels different to before, it's flowing freely around his body but part of it isn't settling within his body but entering through the thread of divine sense and absorbed into the clump of dirt, he can actually feel that part of it is siphoned off.

Jack isn’t sure what this is about but he can feel that the little clump of dirt greatly likes the qi being absorbed but it’s greedy and not getting enough, Jack tries to bring it under control to stop it from siphoning off more of his qi and a mental battle rages within his body as he attempts to control it.

Time ticks by as he sits on the bed, Jessica and Mai return eventually but Jack doesn't notice as he's cultivating.

They quietly get into bed; Mai instantly falls asleep while Jessica just watches Jack quietly from the side of the bed before she too drifts off to sleep.

At some point during the night Jack is drawn out of his cultivation as the energy from the fruits settle, he integrates them into his forehead star causing a slight quality upgrade to the existing qi within the star.

Jack looks down at the bed and can see that he was drawn out of his cultivation because Mai has been kicking him, he looks down at the two girls sleeping on the bed before laying down himself and letting them position themselves in their usual sleeping position, covering Jack with their body.

"We have to.... get the peaches" Jessica mumbles in her sleep as she starts to drool over Jack's arm, he smiles and brushes her hair out of her face, the white flower still sitting on her ear he leans in and gives her a kiss on the forehead and falls asleep himself.

The night is almost uneventful, Leah truly got rid of the first wave around Dragon – Phoenix Village but just outside the plains area, red-eyed rabbits are quietly and slowly congregating around larger towns, towns with walls that don’t allow them to enter but they still quietly gather.

“What do you think those rabbits are doing?” a person standing guard upon a city wall asks another person standing beside him.

“I don’t know but we have to be on the look out for demonic creatures” the other man yawns while he responds.

“What do demonic creatures look like?”

“They look disgusting, malformed by the corrupted qi and nearly always evil, they can’t help but consume flesh and blood” the yawning man responds with what he has heard from church previously.

“So, these rabbits aren’t demonic creatures?”

“Do they look disgusting?”

The first man looks out at the rabbits gathering in the distance, they don’t look any different to normal rabbits except for their red eyes, “No they look normal”

“That’s your answer then, the blood-moon indicates demonic infestation in this region so keep your eyes out and ignore the rabbits then”

“I don’t know, the rabbits look strange” the man looks at the rabbit’s red eyes, he just feels something off about them.

The second man starts laughing, “Hey Isaac, can you shoo those rabbits away, Jacob here is getting scared of them” he yells out to a person on the ground by a gate.

“Jacob is scared of rabbits now?” the man called Isaac can be heard laughing from the ground as he opens up the village gate and walks out, leaving the gate open.

“Shoo, shoo” Isaac starts to use his foot to push the rabbits away but they don’t respond, just looking at the man while some quietly creep into the town via the now opened village gate.

“Something isn’t right with those rabbits” the first man, Jacob high on the wall says, “Did you close the gate?” he yells out asking Isaac.

“What danger is there in leaving the gate open around these rabbits they don’t even move?” Isaac turns around and responds by yelling, he is only a few steps away from the gate and takes a step but is tripped up causing the men on the wall to laugh.

Isaac can feel some nibbling on his leg, he looks down and can see a rabbit is biting him and as if signalled by the smell of blood all the other rabbits start crowding around the man on the ground, he’s screaming as his flesh is ripped apart by the rabbits causing all the men on the wall to stop laughing.

“CLOSE THE GATE!” Jacob yells but it’s too late, the rabbits are in a frenzy as they start to attack the other guards on the ground causing panic.

“What…. What’s going on…” Jacob can be heard asking as screams start resounding from the town, the screams last all through while the rest of the region is restless wondering where all the demonic creatures are.