The Dawn of the New World

"So I gotta ask, how serious are you about her?" Jin Wang asked from under the hood.

Hao Xuan pretended not to hear him and kept looking forward. He patted the lizard, making it increase its speed yet again.

It had been about 16 hours since they had left the city of Fortuna on the 'Walking Lizards'.

These were mounts bred by the beast hall for the exclusive use of cultivators. They were relatively expensive and could only be bought with Spirit Stones.

Hao Xuan had to fork out about 80 Mid-Grade spirit stones for both the mounts for him and Jin Wang. They didn't have to make soul contracts with them and instead, they were stored in Beast Tokens.

These tokens were similar to Storage rings with the only difference being that they could store Spiritual, living creatures.

The Walking Lizards looked like super-sized versions of Geckos. They were extremely cute with big eyes and were passive by nature. They would never fight and always chose to run away instead of choosing confrontation.

They were about two times bigger than the horses back on earth and their normal speed could reach up to several hundred kilometers per hour.

Since their chosen response in any dangerous situation was flight over fighting, through evolution their bodies adapted to it and they developed several abilities related to..."making a hasty retreat".

Right now they were passing through a burnt-out forest. There were massive tree trunks on the ground and every few feet a body of a beast would be seen burnt to a crisp.

There were dark red embers everywhere which were still giving off copious amount of heat. Now and then a bubbling purple puddle could be found next to the beast corpses. It was giving off a mist of the same color which was slowly diffusing into the surroundings.

This is why Hao Xuan and Jin Wang had been wearing hoods and covered their faces as much as possible. The smoke from some of these beasts and plants was poisonous and very toxic.

Thankfully the Lizards didn't need anything to help them breathe. They had very thin skin and could breathe through it, naturally cleaning the air before taking it in.

The Lizard's feet were covered with a slimy liquid that was almost the same consistency as wet clay. It covered the bottom and acted as natural shoes for them. They kept them silent, helped them run faster and protected them from any harmful materials on the ground.

"Oi~, I'm talking to your bitch ass here!" Jin Wang shouted even louder upon being ignored. Hao Xuan turned his head halfway around and barked back.

"Dude shut the hell up for god sakes! We don't know where we are or what's around us, just keep quiet and talk through the spiritual band!"

The short-range communication capabilities of the Spirit band were put to full use as Jin Wang immediately called Hao Xuan.

*Crackle*

"So? How serious is it?"

"Why the hell do you care?"

"Because we're friends, why wouldn't I?" Jin Wang replied a matter-of-factly.

*Sigh*

Hao Xuan shook his head helplessly and replied in a low voice.

"It's as serious as it gets."

"But how much though? Like on a scale of 1 to 10?"

"......"

Hao Xuan turned around and looked into Jin Wang's eyes before mouthing the words, "I'll ask her to marry me when I get back. That serious. Happy?"

Jin Wang's mouth fell wide open under the hood.

"This guy..."

'I have to tell him whenever the opportunity presents itself. This dumbass will actually go through with it at this rate,' he thought to inwardly.

Since the first time Jin Wang saw Xu Qing he got the feeling that there was more to her. And after living at the mansion and observing her for a while, he finally understood a bit more.

If Hao Xuan actually married her, it would be a tragedy in the making for both of them.

"Alright, well, invite me to the wedding as well yeah?" he followed up in his usual joking tone.

"I'll think about it," Hao Xuan replied nonchalantly.

After another hour of travel later the due finally exited the forested area, or rather, it would be more appropriate to say they walked out of the aftermath of the battle that caused all that damage.

The leftover Qi, the fire that wouldn't go out, the puddles of poison everywhere, it was pretty easy to guess a fight between two high leveled beasts had broken out some time ago.

The sun had already risen and set once again while they were on the road. They had walked out of the boundary of the Mei kingdom some time ago so this was completely uncharted territory for both of them.

"Here should be good," Jin Wang said looking at a small empty space on the side of a cliff. It was just a few meters in radius, barely enough for Hao Xuan to set up the portable camp.

"Alright," he nodded and got off. The lizards were tired from running at full speed for almost 20 hours straight so as soon as they were led to a safe spot they both coiled up and fell asleep.

Hao Xuan was going to feed them first but it seemed like sleep was a higher priority at the moment. They summoned them back into the Beast Tokens.

Hao Xuan's legs were aching from sitting on the Lizard all day so he stood near the edge of the cliff and peered outwards while Jin Wang prepared the food.

Fortis propped up his head from Hao Xuan's head and looked out as well.

"So big!" he shouted while extending his tentacles like little hands.

The cliff was about 40,000 meters above the ground level. It was overlooking a stupendous amount of land underneath it which was visible clearly since there was not a single cloud in sight.

"Yeah, so big," Hao Xuan repeated in amazement. The view was absolutely breathtaking. With his eyesight, he could see a few beasts roaming around at night.

Actually, it wasn't that his eyesight was THAT good, but the beasts were that big.

There was one with two tusks arched inwards like blades. It was almost exactly like a termite but only a bit bigger at about 7,000 meters in length.

"God damn, I wonder how strong that thing is," Hao Xuan mumbled.