The ground caved in with nothing more than a weak murmur. If Hao Xuan wasn't keeping an eye on what was happening behind him he wouldn't even know.
Tons of dirt and rubble shifted like water, making way for something terribly large to swim through all the rubble while gunning for Hao Xuan.
He increased his speed but so did the creature that was following them. Thankfully, Hao Xuan was fast enough to put some more distance between them albeit only slightly.
But it was enough for Ceni to break free from the beast's aura that was keeping her frozen in place. She craned her neck and looked behind them, seeing the rows of bone spurs protruding out of the ground every time the creature rolled towards the surface.
"It's an earth dragon, a real one!" she blurted out loud and but quickly covered her mouth upon realizing what that entailed. She tugged on Hao Xuan's shirt and spoke through spiritual sense.
'Noise! It can't see but will pick up on all nearby sounds. Don't make too much noise!" she hastily warned.
Hao Xuan swiftly implemented her advice and rather than increasing the speed he focused more on making more controlled and less abrasive movements that made less noise. And just to add a little something extra, he broke a few branches and threw them in different directions to confuse it even more.
As expected the beast slowed down considerably while Hao Xuan continued moving at a much slower pace.
Ceni also ordered Haeti to make some extra noise in another direction to distract it even more, which worked like a charm.
Hao Xuan ran for over two minutes covering almost 600 meters before coming to stop. He put Princess Ceni down who quickly distanced herself from him, which he opted to ignore.
"What the hell…was that thing?" he asked through labored breaths.
With a soft whooshing sound Haeti landed right beside them and ran over to Princess Ceni to lend her a helping hand seeing as she was having trouble standing upright.
But he still managed to hatefully glare towards Hao Xuan, "I told you it was a dragon! Why weren't you more careful?!"
But Princess Ceni swiftly corrected him.
"It was not a dragon, only a beast with a small hint of a draconic bloodline. We would have never managed to escape if it was even a half-dragon."
Haeti's eyes widened as he almost kowtowed right then and there.
"Waaah! As expected of my lady! Nothing is beyond your great vision. No vermin can stay hidden under your sight!"
"Shh! Will you stop with this pointless nonsense?!"
"Sincerest apologies, my lady. Please punish me however you like! This one's sin is great and-"
"What did I JUST say?!"
Hao Xuan ignored the duo's comedic banter and focused his senses towards the surroundings. He had felt several other presences nearby while they were running away.
The canopy covered every inch of the sky so he had to climb up the biggest tree nearby and see what was happening around them.
At first Hao Xuan couldn't see anything particularly eye-catching but when he focused his vision various details that would normally be too far off in the distance to be seen became a lot more visible.
There were tens of thousands of small dots floating around the giant vortex. Whenever each bolt of lightning struck the ground, a small tear would be opened within the space and more dots would come flying out.
Hao Xuan rubbed his temples in a circular pattern and directed even more blood flow towards the eyes. His hearts thumped thrice in quick succession and a surge of pure lycan blood was pumped throughout his body.
His pupils enlarged and then shrink to the size of pinholes. It felt like someone had pricked his retinas with hot needles because as if by magic, the spot he was focusing on probably hundreds of kilometers away enlarged several times, and images of the area surrounding the lightning bolts just popped up into his mind.
Even the areas that weren't in his direct line of sight could be seen, albeit only for a very brief moment.
The small dots surrounding the vortex were flying beasts. Hundreds of thousands of them all flying around it. But something didn't seem right with them. They weren't natural and many of them had various sections of their bodies torn off and replaced by glowing blue flesh as they circled the vortex in a maddened fury.
The impact site of the lighting bolts was the source of these numerous winged creatures. Whenever a spatial crack was created from the bolts, several more creatures would come flying out.
The majority of them joined the others in circling the vortex while a scant few fled outwards.
Hao Xuan didn't need to be there to know how unstable that section of space was. Copious amounts of energy flooded every inch of it and sent all weaker creatures into a trance.
