After cleaning up the blood and changing into a new set of clothes, Hao Xuan was led outside where a long hallway like that of a train awaited him. There was a row of similar rooms just like the one he was on the left and a row of windows to the right where the dark sky could be seen in all its glory.
Hao Xuan's legs felt weak when he saw the thunderclouds so closeby. Even in this weather, there were hundreds of vicious-looking winged beasts on all sides. A few of them saw Hao Xuan staring at them and they let out high-pitched screeching noises while showing off their toothy maws.
There was a barrier surrounding the entire ship which was the only thing keeping them from lunging at him right now.
The hallway went on for about 500 meters before a staircase came into view. They walked up and entered a new hallway, this one much darker and without any windows. There were a lot of people moving about here, going in and out of the many rooms.
All of them were dressed in dark green jumpsuits, which was the official uniform of the ship's crew. A lot of people stopped and greeted Alte and the others while they made their way through more than 17 such hallways, going higher up by each one.
About 20 minutes later they came out in a large hanger which was filled to the brim with all kinds of things. There were beasts chained and caged on one side, while on the other were large crates. Hao Xuan obviously didn't know what was in them or why they weren't stored in storage rings, but he didn't inquire.
On the other end of the warehouse was a massive door at least 200 meters in size. It was shut tight with hundreds of glowing runes blinking on its surface. They passed through a small door on the left of it and exited.
*Wooosh*
A gust of cold wind impacted Hao Xuan's face before he could even open his eyes.
"He should be around here somewhere, let me go look for him. You guys stay here," Alte said before quickly walking off.
Hao Xuan slowly opened his eyes, adjusting his vision and circulating some Qi through them to protect against the wind. He was currently standing on a wooden deck. There were several hundred people here but it wasn't crowded at all because of its immense size.
"Wow…" Hao Xuan mumbled while walking towards the left side. There was a metal bar projecting another, smaller barrier there. It was about 1.5 meters tall and after that people could even reach out and touch the clouds that were able to pass through the outer barrier.
"Yoo, you finally up! I thought it would be a few more days still!"
As Hao Xuan was enjoying the cold tingling sensation of the water vapor in the clouds, he heard a much too familiar voice behind him. He turned around and saw Jin Wang standing behind him, looking him up and down.
"What the hell happened? Where are we?" were Hao Xuan's first words to Jin Wang, which made him chuckle. But rather than answering he turned around and faced Alte and the rest of the group with a smile.
"I just finished my duty. Since it's my time off, would you mind if I and my friend chatted for a bit?"
Alte looked at him with a hesitant gaze but still nodded in the end.
"Sure. But you know the rules, don't go towards the back."
"I know, thanks!" Jin Wang grabbed Hao Xuan by the arm and dragged him further along the deck. About a couple of hundred meters Hao Xuan had finally had enough and he pulled his arm back.
"Dude, that's enough. What're you running from? What's going on?"
Jin Wang looked around and shook his head, "A bit further out. Come," and he started walking again, only coming to a stop when he end of the deck was just a few dozen meters away. There was absolutely nobody in sight and air here was much colder with thick water droplets just floating in the air like butterflies.
Even Hao Xuan was starting to feel a chill.
"Can we talk now?" Hao Xuan asked annoyingly. Jin Wang looked around and nodded seeing as they were alone.
"We're on a ship heading to the Academy of Sollertia."
"I can see its a ship. Why are we here?"
Jin Wang let out a sigh and took in a deep breath before continuing.
"After….whatever….happened, happened, I woke up in a slave auction house, along with you. This was just a day after the fight with that thing. Apparently, we were picked up by some unknown cultivator and dropped off at a nearby kingdom. Unfortunately, the kingdom is quite unique in the sense that slaves are its main exports."
"Without any ID or anything, they thought we were runaway slaves so were captured and 'resold'. Anyways, long story short, I had to start a mutiny and a civil war to get us out of there. After tha-"
But Hao Xuan quickly cut him off with a question of his own.
"Woah woah, wait a god damn second, what do you mean you had to start a "civil war"? How long was I asleep for?"
Jin Wang counted the days on his fingers while mumbling, "Well you woke up today and we set off 3 weeks ago so…about 2 months? yeah, about that long."
Hao Xuan's heart skipped a beat.
"What the actual f*ck!"
The first thing he did was check his hands and then clothes for the Spirit band, for Baracus, but he wasn't there. His left wrist which always had Baracus on it was now empty without even a mark.
"Oh god, where's Baracus?!"
Everything he owned was inside Baracus's storage space so if he was gone, so was everything else. He quickly closed his eyes and felt for the connection.
*Beep*
"You're there??" he opened his eyes in relief and a bit of confusion. Baracus was inside his mind palace right now.
He let out a sigh of relief and looked at Jin Wang again.
"And? How did we get here?"
Seeing as he had calmed down, Jin Wang continued.
"After the war I dragged your ass through several kingdoms and finally reached one where they had a ship. It was a Grade-1 Kingdom."
"I had to make a few deals and got us seats on this ship right here.. We were lucky enough to find one at the time we did, otherwise, it would have been a pain to walk all the way back since I had no money for anything else."
