"Is there any new information?" Hao Xuan inquired with an uncertain gaze.
Over the last two weeks he had gone above and beyond to find Ryfon's niece. Even taking into account that she had changed her face and body, Hao Xuan found one way or another to get close to each female currently living in the walking city and see for himself if they were the one.
Alas, all of that was for naught seeing as it didn't bring him any closer to finding her.
But what it did give him was a reputation as a devoted womanizer, even though he tried very hard to avoid it.
Jin Wang leaned back against the tree to take shade from the scorching heat of the sun.
"You've met almost all of them. Even the ones that were out on long-term missions returned for the most part, other than one."
"So there really was another??" Hao Xuan asked excitedly, "When? When is she coming back?"
But to his dismay, Jin Wang responded with a loose shrug, "Dunno. Sometime tonight, cause of the big fight tomorrow. But she will be gone again right after so your time is limited."
Hao Xuan took off his shoe and threw it right at Jin Wang's head, who calmly leaned a little to the right and avoided it.
"Tonight when dumbass? The night is 60 hours long!"
Annoyed by Hao Xuan's actions, Jin Wang picked the shoe back up and 'returned' it post-haste.
"I don't know bitch, why you taking it out on me? Nobody knows her so they can't say when she's coming."
Hao Xuan ducked, the shoe barely missing his head with frightening speed.
"Tch, you useless bastard!" Hao Xuan grumbled before turning around to leave.
"Kiss my ass!" Jin Wang retorted.
Hao Xuan took two steps before stopping mid-stride, startling Jin Wang.
"W-What? You wanna fight?" he raised both his fists in front of his face.
Hao Xuan didn't turn around, "How did she stay outside for so long? Don't you need a protector's permission for that?"
Jin Wang let out a breath of relief and relaxed.
"Oh, yeah you do. Apparently the third protector guy gave her full permission."
"The third protector?" Hao Xuan's brow furrowed.
The third protector was the one in charge of protecting the city itself. Until now, Hao Xuan had not seen him in person, only heard rumors about him from Henrik.
Apparently he had a very special background and had come over to their continent from one of the others. All they knew about him was that he was extremely powerful and kept his distance from the others.
In fact, he had never given permission to anyone since they couldn't even find him. Hao Xuan speculated that he was in one of those pocket spaces located around the city, which is why no one could find him.
'Why did someone like him give exclusive access to just one student?' Hao Xuan pondered.
"Something isn't right…." he mumbled as an easy feeling crept into his heart.
After changing into the proper clothes, Hao Xuan left the walking the city for the location of the first battle. It was 3,000 kilometers away from the city.
After moving a kilometer or so away from the city on foot through the dense forest, Hao Xuan stopped at a clearing. He reached into his storage space and took out a round clay-like token.
This was a beast token used to store wild beasts.
By inserting a bit of Qi, Hao Xuan called out his most recent purchase.
*Neeeigh* x2
It was a grey horse-like beast native to this planet. It had two heads and tails, six sturdy legs with which it reached a height of 2.5 meters when standing straight.
Hao Xuan had named him based on the color of his hide, "Grey". He had gotten this beast from one of the local cities through Henrik. Apparently it belonged to a mortal King.
Hao Xuan happened to see it by accident and couldn't let it go after that, especially since the beast had a word of power of its own. It was hidden very well so unless one looked carefully, it wasn't easy to find it.
He had Henrik buy the beast for him through a number of unscrupulous means.
Grey was bred and fed as a suitable mount for a King so he certainly was held to a strict standard even without the word of power.
"Hey, did you miss me? Huh?" he rubbed the white mane on top of Grey's two heads, getting another loud neigh in response.
"That's a good boy, hahaha. Let's go!" Hao Xuan said while jumping on his back.
There was no need for a saddle as Grey's body was basically made for a rider.
With a kick of his hind two legs, Grey sprinted forward, nimbly moving between the thick trees decorating the labdscape.
A vague green light could occasionally be seen under each of his six hooves.
This was the word of power.
For a normal creature under the profound realm, especially one that couldn't fly, covering 3,000 kilometers could take tens of hours depending on the terrain.
But thanks to Grey's word of power, his speed kept increasing steadily until he was running on air a couple of feet above the ground.
"It's amazing every time I see it," Hao Xuan couldn't help but mumble peering down at Grey's legs.
He had named this word of power 'Venus'. It had a few different uses and applications from what Hao Xuan had seen so far.
One, it increased Grey's speed exponentially. Steadily it would keep increasing as he ran until he passed the sound barrier at which point he was just a blur. Hao Xuan hadn't measured the exact speed because it kept increasing slowly over time.
Second, Grey made no sound whatsoever while running. Hao Xuan concluded this had something to do with the word of power being a wind-type in nature.
Third, Grey had basically no weight while sprinting.
Hao Xuan lowered his head and closed his eyes, letting Grey do all the work. His consciousness appeared back into his Mind Palace. His gaze fell on the out-of-place rock in the middle of the Mind palace near the podium.
This was the other creature with a word of power that he had gotten his hands on (CH 502).
