Hao Xuan visited Third later in the day without Jin Wang.
He met the person or the 'creature' impersonating as Fifth. If he hadn't buried her himself, there was no way he would have ever known that the red-haired woman sitting across from of him, laughing and giggling like a little girl was not the same person he knew.
How she looked at Third, with those loving eyes, even made Hao Xuan doubt himself.
Originally he wanted to kill or expose the thing for what it really was, but after spending a couple of hours with her and Third and listening to Jin Wang's words, he chose not to, or rather couldn't bear to.
He had never seen Third this happy before, ever. The bear-like man that exuded an aura of strict brotherly love was nothing but a lovestruck fool right now.
"Ninth brother, don't tell the others just yet. We'll announce our engagement after the war is over," Third whispered to Hao Xuan as he was leaving.
Hao Xuan glanced at him and sighed inwardly.
"Of course, it's your happy occasion, I won't tell anyone," he gave Third a big hug, catching him by surprise.
Third felt something was amiss but he didn't pry any deeper, only giving hugging him back. He then looked at Hao Xuan with the same earnest eyes Hao Xuan had seen a hundred times before.
"Brother, if you ever wanna talk about something, whatever it may be, you know you can come to me right? My door is always open."
Unconsciously, a resplendent smile bloomed on Hao Xuan's face hearing those words and out of nowhere a feeling of certainty made its way into his mind.
'It's him, it's Third brother. Not even a clone would be this concerned.'
Perhaps it was a sixth sense or just his intuition, but at that moment he knew for sure that Third had not been replaced, that it was the same brother he had known since coming into this world over two years ago.
"I know brother, thank you," Hao Xuan patted Third's shoulder and quickly walked out, leaving his flustered Third brother behind.
As he stepped out of the main gate, he saw some carriages and people moving furniture from the neighboring house.
He walked past them and nodded at the man giving everyone orders, telling them what to put where.
The man nodded back with a smile and a wave. This was one of Yangdi's men.
Hao Xuan had told him of the situation last night and Yangdi suggested sending someone to keep an eye on the residence.
The couple moving here was hand-picked and trained by Yangdi himself a long time ago. Both of them were in the Spirit Realm and were assassins working for Yangdi since they were young.
Hao Xuan was taken aback when he first heard about this from Baracus. Yangdi shared information about every asset he owned, several dozen of which were cultivators.
They weren't slaves but people with talent that found themselves in tough situations and Yandi helped them out in return for working for him for a certain time.
Hao Xuan summoned Bai and returned to the mansion just after sundown. There, Jin Wang was waiting for him with an even more haggard expression than before.
"What's wrong with you?" Hao Xuan asked while jumping down from Bai. In response, Jin Wang pointed at the maple tree behind him.
As Hao Xuan turned around to look, he saw a white object coming at him at breakneck speed.
"MINEEEE!"
*Plop*
Hao Xuan's head almost tore off from his body and he fell backwards.
"For god sakes, how many times have I told you to relax? No one is taking your 'spot'!" Hao Xuan shouted furiously at the octopus currently residing on his head.
"NO!"
"Where were you anyway?"
"PLAYING!"
"With who?"
"Friend!"
"….well, take it easy with the friend so you don't end up killing 'em."
Jin Wang walked over and extended his hand and helped Hao Xuan up.
"Did you see the news?" he asked while rubbing his forehead.
Hao Xuan shook his head, "I just got back. What do you think?"
"Well, you might wanna take a look now," Jin Wang said cooly and walked off while rubbing his temples.
Hao Xuan went to his room and turned on the TV.
In the beast world, the media was overseen by each respective kingdom. There was only one news channel that reported on all matters related to the kingdom but there were hundreds of other channels that were privately owned and operated.
He switched to the news channel which was currently being hosted a female announcer sitting in front of a desk, reading from a smaller screen in front of her.
She was basically repeating the same thing over and over again.
"Last night an explosion shook the city of Fortuna the aftermath of which has claimed more than two hundred lives. An army of ghostly creatures called "specters" came out of the ground and wreaked havoc for the entire night."
"The Spearheads and the Flying Tiger's took charge of the situation, eliminating and capturing the creatures which can now be bought at the link below."
A flashing red link appeared at the bottom of the screen.
"After further investigation, the remains of over a hundred thousand civilians were uncovered from an underground structure. Although it is not certain, we believe that a terrorist group by the name of "The Seekers" is behind all this."
"They had been kidnapping the people of Mei and other unfortunate travelers for the last two years from all over the kingdom and bringing them here to be sacrificed to an evil god."
"We believe that the mastermind behind all this is an Ex-Red Legion soldier that goes by the name of Aria Havel (Author notes). She used her position and authority to seduce many cultivators and bring them to the dark side."
"Her exact motives are unclear but authorities say that she is a human that came in at the last mass immigration. She believes that the 'earthlings' that came with her are superior to our people of Mei and as such, deserve better treatment. When her superiors reprimanded her for such behavior, she abandoned the Red Legion and starting working from the shadows."
"Thankfully, with the hard work of the Flying Tigers, she and some of her companions were captured a few hours ago and will be given a fair trial at the end of the month."
"We urge our viewers to not view all 'earthlings' as a threat, it is only a minority of them that have this ideology. But if you see anything suspicious, please report it to the nearest outpost."
Hao Xuan couldn't believe what he was seeing. The picture that was being shown at the bottom of the screen was of the same girl that he fought side by side with. The same quiet and gentle girl that never even raised her voice was now the "mastermind" behind all this?
****
Authors Notes:
Aria was first introduced around chapter 38.. She was one of Hao Xuan's guards.
