Chapter 437 - Play Time
Hao Xuan walked to the man's side and placed his palm on his forehead, inserting a small whisp of Qi.
"Looks like the potion did its job," he said lightly seeing as most of the man's injuries had mostly healed. The three broken bones were the only ones still taking time.
Hao Xuan stood back up and walked back to the entrance of the cave. The black clouds looked like they were running in place, looking almost unreal. They blocked the majority of the rays of the sun, making it look like it was late in the evening. The few that did escape fell on the green and orange forest below, lighting up a few specific areas.
Even now he could feel the unnaturally piercing cold wind through the illusion formation. His eyes became unfocused for a second as he stared at the scenery that looked like it was taken straight out of a painting.
"Time to start the first phase of the plan I guess," Hao Xuan mumbled half-heartedly.
There were so many things he needed to take care of that it seemed almost too much. If not for the threat of death looming over him, he would have liked nothing more then having a nice long nap.
He closed his eyes and appeared in the mind palace.
To the left, he saw rows upon rows of neatly -dressed people sitting crosslegged with their eyes closed. These were all the young Orcs he had severed. All of them were wearing white pants and shirts.
There was an almost transparent white cloud above each of their heads, constantly revolving at a constant speed. On the exact opposite side sat Gavril in much of the same attire as the other orcs. It was completely white which along with his hair made him look almost ethereal.
Gavril opened his eyes on his own when he sensed Hao Xuan walk over.
"Is it time?" he asked in a slightly hoarse voice. It sounded like he hadn't talked in months.
Hao Xuan nodded, "Are you ready?"
"Yeah, it's all in order. The salamander's core was of great help to me. But I need more like it to further increase my basic cultivation," Gavril waved his hand and suddenly the surroundings changed.
Hao Xuan's brow shot up in surprise. He looked around and saw that now he was standing in front of a campfire at night. He could feel the gentle breeze brushing against his skin and the smell of the burning logs. Insects chirped and made noises all around him. Gavril was sitting in front of him, at the exact same distance as before.
"Is this an illusion?" Hao Xuan asked, astonished. He couldn't differentiate at all.
Gavril shook his head once, "A dreamscape. It's three parts dream, one part reality, and one part something illusion."
Hao Xuan bobbed his head up and down in amazement. It looked too real! And Hao Xuan was not able to leave this place at all of his own accords.
"Alright, take us out."
Gavril snapped his fingers and the surroundings changed, returning to his same old Mind Palace.
"This will be really useful," Hao Xuan said with a sigh before meeting Gavril's gaze, "You sure you're up for this?"
Gavril smiled. That was the first time Hao Xuan had seen him smile after he awakened this new power.
"Yeah, no problem. I'm already at the spirit realm so unless someone is at the profound realm, they won't be able to do anything to me," he said confidently.
"Alright then," Hao Xuan couldn't say anything else if Gavril was so adamant himself. He turned to look at the couple hundred Orcs.
"Is that ability you were talking about?" he asked pointing at the floating clouds above their heads.
Gavril stood up and nodded, "Yeah. I created specific dreamscapes for them where they can cultivate peacefully. The good thing is that time moves much slower in your dreams so they can easily increase their cultivation without wasting much time. But staying in there for too long can mess with the person's perception of reality so it can't be used too often."
Hao Xuan had put Gavril in charge of all the Orcs. He handed the numerous basic cultivation manuals that Ryfon gave him over to Gavril and told him to assign each one to the Orcs. Then using his ability Gavril created dreamscapes for all of them and let them cultivate in there. This would greatly speed up their speed and basically create entire armies of low leveled cultivators in a short amount of time.
"Impressive. How fast is the time in there?"
Hao Xuan wouldn't mind trying it out himself. Gavril counted on his digits before speaking up again.
"About 200 times faster."
"...."
'The fuck were you counting on your fingers then?!' Hao Xuan shouted inwardly.
"A-Alright, make one for me too after all this is done," he said somewhat annoyed. "Do you want to bring any of them with you?" he gestured towards the teenage Orcs. Zhurong was actually sleeping on the lap of one of the females, the smallest one. She looked like a malnourished child as compared to the others.
"No, they will only slow me down."
"Alright."
Hao Xuan waved his hand and opened his eyes in the outside world. Gavril was standing right beside him.
"Create an anchor with me so you can find me easily. Also take this," Hao Xuan threw him a customized spirit band.
"It's connected to the ship so you can still reach me if there's something you need to talk about."
"Alright," Gavril nodded plainly. He took a step towards the entrance and completely disappeared in an instant.
Hao Xuan already had a basic plan in mind before coming here.
Ensis had already joined the Hall while Monk joined the temple. And both of them showed enough promise that they managed to come to the tournament as well. Hao Xuan could already feel their souls as soon as he came down to the planet. Strangely enough, both of them had come over earlier than him.
And now he had released Gavril as well to find everything he could about the local powers. Gavril's mission was to pretend to be one of the natives and join the so-called 'resistance' they had created.
Since he was already forced into this now, Hao Xuan was planning to play every side and reap as many benefits as he possibly could.