Chapter 20 - Explore
After talking to some of the other villagers Hao Xuan knew it was still going to be a few hours until they come down to the valley so he decided to practice Infernal Rapture.
He stood beside a little stream next to the fields. It was about 8 p.m and the sun had already set but because the moon was out he could still see for quite a distance.
In the last two weeks of practicing with First, Hao Xuan had finally gotten used to his new strength. Now with just raw strength he could jump several meters high, break normal trees in half and sprint really quickly for short distances.
Hao Xuan took out his Zanbato and channeled Qi into it. The blade's color changed from a dark red to a slightly brighter shade and it seemed like it was moving in the night, looking really strange.
He closed his eyes to concentrate and Infernal Raptures manual appeared. He opened the second page and started practicing. It said for the Qi to gain thunder elemental characteristics he either needed an innate talent for it, some thunder pills or other external stimuli.
After trying for about 40mins he still couldn't get the hang of it. There were little sparks every now and then on the blade but they weren't black in color or harmful to anyone. It seemed more like a static charge.
Hao Xuan thought about conserving Qi for the fight up ahead and sat on a large boulder near him.
It was about 10 p.m by now and the moon looked absolutely beautiful in the night sky. He took a deep breath and looked around, the view was mesmerizing.
He could hear the sound of water flowing from the streams and feel the air brushing up against his white tangzhuang. It was really peaceful.
Without even realizing it he started cultivating and absorbing the spiritual energy from the surroundings. And since this was a valley for growing medicinal herbs, there was a LOT of spiritual energy to spare.
Bubbling sounds came from his body because of the speed in absorbing the spiritual energy. The Qi thrummed inside him moving towards the left hand this time and started attacking meridians one after another.
Hao Xuan wasn't aware but whenever he cultivated like that, it was extremely loud. The noises went far, especially in the quiet night.
After about an hour, he was still in a deep meditative state but the noises had never stopped, instead getting even louder. He had no idea what was going on in his surroundings and if someone attacked him right now, he wouldn't even know how he died.
A few hundred meters away in the treeline, a white humanoid figure was standing there looking at Hao Xuan. It was extremely small, less than half the size of Hao Xuan and dressed in a hanfu. But the most peculiar thing was that the figure seemed to be appearing and disappearing, like a ghost in the night. Its bright eyes staring right at Hao Xuan with a slight frown.
Another hour passed like this, with neither Hao Xuan or the figure moving even a muscle. Hao Xuan had already opened several dozen meridians. For normal people, each stage took a lot of time and opening meridians especially was very difficult. Not everyone could easily convert spiritual energy into Qi but Hao Xuan seemed to have a knack for it. It was as easy as breathing for him.
He felt very peaceful and loved the feeling of Qi coursing through his body.
Suddenly the crops in the distance started moving strangely. There was no sound but clearly, something was in there. And then another and another, several different areas started moving strangely.
The figure looked at crops and then Hao Xuan, who was still immersed in his meditative state and shook its head. It then bent down and picked up a small pebble and flicked it towards Hao Xuan.
The pebble hit the boulder Hao Xuan was sitting on and woke him up. He looked around and from his position, he could see the hyenas clearly.
They were twice as big as the ones from earth but it looked like they were starving. The skin was sticking to their bones and they basically looked like walking bags of bones.
Hao Xuan frowned even more looking at them. The surrounding areas were filled with wildlife and there was absolutely no way for any animal to starve like this. What was going on?
But either way, the fact was they were coming down to the village every other day and it wasn't safe for the villagers.
Hao Xuan slowly got up and stood on the boulder while taking out his Zanbato, waiting.
The hyenas knew they were found out so they stopped crawling around and stood up as well, coming up to Hao Xuan waist.
Normally anyone would be nervous when coming face to face with beasts for the first time, but Hao Xuan was strangely calm.
His eyes started to glow even brighter and he could see the hyenas clear as day.
Every time they breathed, every muscle movement, all was laid bare in front of him. Hao Xuan knew about his "ability" ever since he started training with First but he never used it too much. Even now it kicked in on its own, like a biological impulse.
Just as the pack leader was about to attack, its leg muscles ever so slightly contracted and its paws expanded a little bit as they dug deeper into the ground. Hao Xuan saw it all like it was happening in slow motion. It was a wonderful feeling of control.
And then the pack leader jumped right at Hao Xuan with another two coming from the sides. Even though Hao Xuan could see everything clearly when he tried to get out of the way, he was dumbfounded. It was like moving in quicksand, extremely slow and heavy.
So instead of moving, he just held the sword completely straight and the pack leader literally impaled itself. The sword went through the front and came out of the back of its body, killing it instantly.
But there was nothing he could do about the other two as they hit him directly, biting down on his right arm and left leg.
Hao Xuan could feel the pain like it was amplified a few times over. He pulled back the sword and swung it from his left to the right, in a ∞ motion, cutting the heads off of the two that were bitting him.
All of this happened in a matter of seconds and by the time the hyena's bodies fell, he was already jumping down from the boulder towards the remaining few.
They didn't even know what had happened. Even at their full strength, they wouldn't be a match for Hao Xuan let alone now.
He then finished off the rest in less than 10 seconds, just slashing as hard as possible.
He stood there with a bloodied sword, breathing heavily. His blood was pumping and he wanted to fight more, but there was nothing else.
Taking out a small bottle from his ring and emptying the contents over the shallow wounds, the wounds healed up within a few minutes.
These were the weakest Brute beasts that couldn't even use Qi so there wasn't much to be afraid of.
The figure in the distance looked at Hao Xuan with a pondering gaze and then just vanished with a gust of wind.
Hao Xuan examined the beasts' bodies and all of them were like their leader, just skin and bones.
"I need to check this out. If there is something powerful enough out there that could scare off these brute's then I need to find it and report to the camp," he thought. The village was quite a distance away from the city so in case of a beast attack it would take several hours for reinforcements to arrive.
Hao Xuan moved all the bodies to one side and lit them on fire. After it was done, he followed their tracks and entered the forest.
It was about 1 A.M by the time Hao Xuan had entered the forest. He walked for several minutes and could only hear the bugs and wind. While keeping an eye on his surroundings, he walked slowly for about an hour and a half.
The moon was in the middle of the sky illuminating everything in surroundings, but it was still quite dark due to the canopy.
Hao Xuan was starting to feel really anxious because the darkness seemed to be alive. He tried to convince himself that it was just his imagination but then he suddenly stopped and realized what was making him so uneasy, there was no sound of any animals at all.
No birds, rodents, nothing. The forest was supposed to come alive at night but the only the sound that he could hear was of the cicadas and as soon as he stopped walking, even that stopped.
Complete and utter silence. So silent in fact that his own heartbeat sounded like a drum.
*Thump*Thump*
For the first time in his life, Hao Xuan wondered why his heartbeat was so damn loud. He put his left hand over his chest, trying to muffle the sound when suddenly he noticed a couple of lights in the distance.
He looked towards them but couldn't see much because of the darkness. So he took a step and slowly moved forward, and just as he was about to take another step, his eyes narrowed.
The lights weren't far away, but they were right in front of him. And they weren't lights, but eyes. Huge yellow eyes, shinning in the darkness, looking right at him.
Hao Xuan stood there without moving a muscle. If something could get this close without making any sound then he probably wasn't a match for it.
As he was thinking about all this, a rustling noise woke him from his stupor. He turned around to look but could see nothing in the darkness.
Just then a gust of wind blew away some of the leaves letting some moonlight fall on his surroundings and he finally saw what was around him.
His surroundings lit up like a Christmas tree. He was inside a massive sparkling ring which confused him even more. And then the rings moved. Hao Xuan jerked his back towards the eyes and saw a huge snake-like head just a few meters away. It was shinning like a disco ball when the moonlight hit its skin. It had 4 nostrils and some protrusions from below the face.
*Hisssssssssssssss*
It opened its humongous jaw which was bigger than Hao Xuan himself and lunged at him full force.