"Kreeuueeek!" two of the soldiers shouted in unison as they pointed their weapons at Hao Xuan, while the other two soldiers moved in front of the entrance and covered it with their own bodies.
Hao Xuan looked at the two in the back with a raised eyebrow. They had some kind of symbols on the palms of their hands which they moved around threateningly like it was a loaded gun.
Hao Xuan extended his left hand and a hologram was projected on top of his palm. Now that the nanotech was imbedded in basically each and every part of his body, Hao Xuan could do something simple like this with a single thought.
The projected hologram was a soundwave that started playing as soon as Hao Xuan willed. It sounded almost identical to the language the roaches were speaking, only a bit robotic. Although Hao Xuan understood their language with Baracus's help, he could not speak it for it required a type of larynx with several, separate moving parts.
"Kuree Reuak Rakaa."
The hologram's sound echoed in the now silent valley entrance. The roaches had expressions of complete shock and amazement on their weird-looking faces as they looked at Hao Xuan like a freak.
One of them came forward and spoke again, in response to which the hologram produced yet another sound. They talked back and forth for a couple of times before one of the soldiers turned around and ran straight into the hole at the other end of the valley.
By now their interaction had created quite a bit of commotion. Within seconds hundreds of roaches rushed out and surrounded Hao Xuan, but none of them attacked. They weren't even pointing weapons at him now.
The mask Hao Xuan was wearing cracked a smile. It was attached directly to his skin so it showed all his expressions in real-time.
'Looks like Poriverse was right. Extremely low intelligence, equivalent to a 5-6-year-old human child. I just randomly told them I was here to meet the trader to make a deal and they accepted it just like that, without even asking for any proof.'
Although the foot soldiers were extremely strong when compared to an average human, they were much dumber. Their brains had limited growth, which Proivserse theorized was due to an outside force. It was probably the ruling houses that kept the soldiers dumb on purpose, to keep them obedient and satisfied.
Hao Xuan stood there calmly while the roaches ogled him like a piece of meat. Many of them were even drooling but Hao Xuan only thought they were cute. He had even cannibalized other humans to a degree so seeing him being treated much the same way was not off-putting at all. It actually made him a little hungry.
'I wonder what they taste like…' Hao Xuan thought looking at their giant arms and legs. They looked almost identical to some of the crab species from earth.
'I've never tried crab…' his pupils started glowing with a strange luster as he swallowed a mouthful of saliva while looking at the 'menu' in front of him. If they wanted to make trouble, he would be more than willing to oblige.
"Hehehe…" Hao Xuan accidentally laughed out loud. He had fallen into a sort of trance where all he could see was food around him.
"Kueerureaak!"
The soldier that had gone into the hole came out a few minutes later. It was only then that Hao Xuan was awakened from his stupor. He looked at the soldier who gestured for him to follow.
Hao Xuan was still using Nidhora's power, he was in fact covered in the black shadows from head to toe. If there was any issue, he could simply jump into his shadow and escape, although that would not be his first choice.
He followed after the anxious soldier. It looked like its behavior had changed. It wasn't as aggressive or as open as before but stole glances at him every now and then in secret.
Hao Xuan walked through their 'camp' but when he reached the end where the hole was, he stopped. There was a structure that was much larger than the others just beside the hole. It wasn't its size that caught his attention but the scent coming from it, the 'scent' of human blood. The slightly metallic smell said a lot about what was in there.
"Kureee!"
Seeing him stop, the soldier turned around and spoke again. Hao Xuan sighed and stopped thinking about it. These people knew what they had come for, they wouldn't bat an eye killing them so it was only normal to expect the same.
The hole, unexpectedly, did not go straight down. Instead, it slowly inclined at an angle of 30 degrees. There were yellow light stones placed at equal intervals along the sides.
Hao Xuan carefully observed at the uneven marks around the walls.
'It doesn't seem to be made from machinery. A beast of some kind? But if it is a beast, it has to be huge.'
The tunnel was only about 10-meter wide at the start but slowly expanded the deeper they went. The temperature also started to rise the deeper they went. There wasn't even a single roach here other than the one leading him. After walking for three to four minutes, the roach came to a stop in front of a massive steel door.
It looked like the door to a really old vault. With numerous scratches and marks on the outside, it looked quite worn out. There was also some rust here and there.
In front of this door stood two more roaches, but they were different from all the others Hao Xuan had seen so far.
They had a pair of arms on each side of their body, two eyes on each side of the face, and an overall much more human-like demeanor. They wore white masks over their mouths, which looked like they were used to help them breathe. The legs seemed more beastly than like insects.
There were two swords on the back of each of them and some kind of ranged weapons on the side of their waists. They stood there with hands crossed, staring at Hao Xuan without any perceptible emotions.
They were only about 1.7 meters in height, smaller than roach leading Hao Xuan but commanded a much greater authority even just by standing there. A faint pressure fell upon Hao Xuan as soon as he met their eyes.
It was the same look he had seen in the eyes of Zeng Yu (introduced around chapter 172) who was a decorated soldier having fought in the front lines for tens of decades. These two seemingly normal guards gave the same pressure as an experienced commander from the Mei Kingdom.
The guard on the left waved his hand like he was shooing away a stray dog and the roach that had brought him here ran away as fast he possibly could.
When it was only the three of them left, the guard on the right came forward and held out a metal slab with many different characters on it. Hao Xuan recognized a few of them from memory. They belonged to many different kinds of outer tribes.
In response, Hao Xuan raised his left hand again and a hologram appeared above his palm. It was a an extremely complicated 3d character which over 200 lines connecting with one another.
A ray of light fell on the hologram from the metal slab. It scanned it a few times before displaying a row of similar character on its screen.
The guard nodded and stored away metal slab.
'Probably a way to determine my identity. Looks like it worked…'
The character Hao Xuan had shown him was designed by Poriverse himself, sort of like his own signature.
Seeing as everything was done, the guard on the left moved to the vault door and pressed his hand against it, pushing it open without exerting much force.
The vault door soundlessly opened just enough for Hao Xuan to pass through. It was more than 7-8 meters thick.
The guard gestured with his head for Hao Xuan to enter.
