The Dawn of the New World

Marking the location of the camp on the virtual map Baracus had created for him, Hao Xuan set off to explore the abandoned city in a little more detail. There were still almost 45 hours left until he would be done with the rune sequence so Hao Xuan wanted to make use of this opportunity.

He lept from one building to another, going further into the city towards the few standing skyscrapers in the distance.

After about 10 minutes of travel, Hao Xuan came to a stop in front of a circular building with a raised dome. He had crossed more than 3 kilometers in this time but the skyscrapers didn't look like they were any closer.

"How fucking big is this city," he mumbled under his breath, scowling at the thought. The full length of the city must exceed hundreds of kilometers at least, and those skyscrapers would be stupendously tall if they could be seen from all the way here.

His plans thwarted, Hao Xuan sat down dejectedly on the ledge and stared at the wide street below him. The bottom half of the entire city seemed to be flooded so moving through the roof was the only option, unless one wanted to swim with whatever was down there.

The water was crystal clear at least on this street which allowed Hao Xuan to see the hundreds of small and large schools of various unique creatures that swam up and down leisurely. It was a scenic view which Hao Xuan did enjoy to some extent, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

There was very little ambient spiritual energy in the air which kept him from cultivating normally. The only option he had was to use the golden crystals but those were far too few in numbers and quite precious to boot.

*snap*

Hao Xuan's ears twitched as the soft sound of a broken branch carried over on the wind.

'He's still following huh,' Hao Xuan mused without turning around.

His sense of hearing was much more developed than others which allowed him to easily pick up any out-of-ordinary noises as long as he paid a little attention to them so he had already known of the barbarian that had been following him from a distance since he left the camp.

But there was nothing for him to hide and the barbarian didn't have any malicious intentions to Hao Xuan let him do his job, connecting him to Burak since he was the only one that could order someone to do that.

But now that his plans for the good part of the day were spoiled, Hao Xuan suddenly had a fair bit of time on his hand which he should have used for cultivating but a little procrastination never hurt anyone...or so he believed.

Hao Xuan looked over his shoulder, 'Heh, let's see how fast you can move then,' and grinned mischievously.

His body straightened and casually slipped over the edge. Tasgall who was watching from the shadows some 60 meters away with quite an indifferent attitude suddenly froze.

"Wha-" it took him a second to wake up and realize what had happened.

'Did he kill himself?!' he sprinted over with that thought, as quickly as he possibly could.

Tasgall craned his neck and peered down, catching a glimpse of a shadow entering one of the lower levels of a neighboring building.

'Damn humans, always making my job harder,' he cursed before jumping down as well.

Hao Xuan didn't try to be silent and made an unreasonable amount of ruckus as he jumped from one room to another, breaking windows, doors, and even a few weak walls that were in his way.

Left, right, up and down, he went wherever the way opened up to before coming to an abrupt stop to swiftly hide in a small room near one of the lowest floors.

Almost no light reached all the way down here, making it pitch black in some of the areas even though it was midday.

Hao Xuan covered his mouth to make as little noise as possible. His chest heaved up and down for a few seconds before calming down. His heartbeats slowed as he focused on the sound of footsteps.

*Pat*Pat*Pat*Pat*

Soft but fast-moving. Just on the other side of the wall.

Hao Xuan raised an eyebrow, a little surprised.

'That was quite fast,' he thought. Hao Xuan expected him to lag behind a little and follow the path of destruction he had left in his wake but he had already caught up to him.

The footsteps got closer and closer. Hao Xuan listened intently until they were opposite to him on the other side of the wall, which is when they suddenly paused.

Hao Xuan gave a wicked smile before jumping out, "GOTCHA BITC-" he yelled trying to scare him but...there was nobody there.

"What...where did he go? I could have sworn-"

"AAAAAAAAH!" a gut-wrenching scream came from behind, cutting him off.

"Wh...at...how...?" although still confused Hao Xuan ran back, retracing his steps until he came out on the same spot where he had initially jumped from.

The scream was from somewhere around here.

"Oi! You okay!" he shouted in their native language and waited for a response.