Chapter 521 - Doubt
Ryfon had obviously not expected the insults, albeit it made sense since right now Hao Xuan was unable to hide his true feelings. He meant each and every word that came out of his mouth without a shadow of a doubt.
"Hahahaha!" Ryfon broke into a fit of laughter, "Good, good!" he laughed so hard that his sides started to hurt.
Hao Xuan stared at his direction with furrowed brows before mumbling, "You're a weird guy. I thought a Royal Prince of such a great power would be more reserved so as not to lose face."
Ryfon laughed for a good 20 seconds before forcing himself to stop, "Haha, come on, this is the place I can be like this," he leaned back and took in a few deep breaths, "I know it sounds cool and all, but its a nightmare for most, being a prince or princess I mean."
"You can't trust anyone because you can never be sure if they are your real friends or just with you for power. That's why most of us have such strange personalities. I can't even remember the last time I laughed like this."
Seeing as he wasn't planning on asking him any more questions, Hao Xuan relaxed considerably. Most of his attention was focused on his inner body, circulating the energy through each of the meridians that were overrun by Chaos energy.
Ryfon's voice was like distant mumblings in the back of his head now, making him only able to respond with "Hmm" and "No way". But even if he was paying attention, the filter that is in place inside everyone that tells them what to say and what not to say in any situation had been turned off. He was like an open book, unhindered and forthright.
But Ryfon who was so lost in his own thoughts didn't even realize this and continued his monologue. After about 15 minutes he finally looked up towards Hao Xuan with a genial smile, "Do you want anything? Anything at all, just let me know."
This was a helping hand from a Royal of the highest caliber in the Beat World. But Hao Xuan shook his head without even realizing it, answering without any hesitation, "I don't like handouts. I don't want your money or anything else. Only when I need something to finish the mission will I ask for it."
Ryfon seemed a little disappointed by his response as he meekly replied, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. It's just that that's all I have to offer."
"No," Hao Xuan shook his head, "It's not. Although I don't need money, I wouldn't mind another friend. My grandfather used to say 'you can never have too many friends'."
But as soon as he finished speaking, Hao Xuan's face started turning a shade of pink, "Oh my god that was so embarrassing to say out loud. Fuck you for making me do it, 'Oh Great Elven Prince'."
"Hahahaha!"
Ryfon stayed with him for over 15 hours in total. They talked about many things including the things that were happening back on the Beast world, although at this point in time the information was highly restricted.
He only left when all the people that had gone to sleep were starting to wake up.
"Here, give this to your friend, tell him he was right," he handed Hao Xuan a three-inch wide glass strip.
Most of the information in the beast world and the outer space was transferred either online or through these crystal strips that looked like glass. They were able to hold information for extremely long periods of time without damaging it.
Hao Xuan opened finally his eyes as it was time to stop anyway.
"What is it?" he asked inspecting the strip.
Ryfon seemed surprised by his query, "Your friend asked for this, didn't he tell you? He said it was for you."
Hao Xuan looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "My friend?"
"Yeah, Ryfon nodded, "Jin Wang, was it?"
Hao Xuan was even more confused now, "Jin Wang asked for this? When?"
"During the trip over."
"What?! He's here?!!" Hao Xuan shot up to his feet.
Now it was Ryfon's turn to be confused, "Yeah, he was with the same batch as you. Didn't he tell you? I thought you guys were close..."
Hao Xuan asked for Jin Wang's badge number and the room he was allocated before bidding Ryfon farewell.
He stared at the glass strip for a few minutes as his mind raced. He had known Jin Wang for a very long time now but he didn't know much about him other than the fact that he was extremely strong and knew a lot of things that would normally be unavailable to someone in his position.
But he had also never gotten a bad feeling from Jin Wang so Hao Xuan never bothered asking about it thinking he would tell him himself when it was time.
But now, now it was different. Hao Xuan had to go above and beyond just to participate in the tournament but somehow, Jin Wang achieved the same result without even telling him?
"Baracus, can you see what's inside this?"
"Affirmative," Baracus responded instantly.
The nanomachines gathered in Hao Xuan's hand in which he was holding the strip accessed the information that was on it.
"It is a background check. Would you like to see?"
Hao Xuan's heartbeat increased, "Y-Yeah, show it to me."
A panel opened up in front of Hao Xuan's eyes, showing a lot of information.
Name: Xu Qing (Auxillary chapter 4 for more details).
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Place of Birth...
The details went on and on, mentioning everything from close relatives to her current location. Hao Xuan glanced over all of it, stopping only at her picture which was present at the very bottom.
The person in the picture was not the Xu Qing he knew. In fact, they looked nothing alike.
"What...is going on....?"