Chapter 94 - Confrontation (1/2)

After the princess left, Hao Xuan spent an hour or so chatting with everyone. While waiting for him to get patched up, they were cultivating themselves. Almost all of them were several stages stronger and some had even broken through to the next realm.

That night they had a feast. Hash and Mady went out themselves and hunted a three-legged Jade Antelope. It was about eight meters big and was famous around these parts for its speed. But because it was so fast, there were rarely any in the market. Their meat was considered a delicacy and cultivators of one realm higher had to go out and set traps themselves to capture or kill one.

The sun finally set and the party started. They made a massive bonfire and even invited some of the spider folk like 112 who had been keeping them company.

Hao Xuan didn't sit with them all night and left after a couple of hours. He got his rings back from Kuo and tried to change into his normal clothes, but they were all several sizes smaller.

”Damn it, gotta buy new...well, everything,” he mumbled while standing butt naked in front of his bed.

Zhurong was so happy that he didn't leave Hao Xuan's side for even a second. Even now he was soundly sleeping on his shoulder.

Hao Xuan shook his head looking at the little furball who was drooling and purring in his sleep.

He wore the same kimono the princess had given him earlier that day since there was nothing else that would fit.

After that he sat on the bed in a meditative pose and tried to recall everything that had happened.

The memories came flooding back instantly. He remembered his 'previous' life and everything that happened after. He remembered Meng and what he said.

For the six weeks that he was in the cocoon, his mind didn't stop for a minute.

He spent every single second in his mind palace cultivating. The mind palace wasn't a specific place, but the area inside the body where a persons soul and consciousness would reside. The mind palace could take on any form and was usually constructed subconsciously when the cultivator became strong enough to peer into his mind at will.

Hao Xuan's Mind palace was not an actual palace but a six-sided domed structure *[Pic for reference at the end]. There was water on three sides and a forest on the other. There were three doors on the forest's side, two of which were closed. The one on the right was open whereas the one on the left and middle were both tightly shut. The left one even had some chains on it.

In the middle of the structure was a platform with three books on top. These were the techniques and manuals he had learned in the past.

He sat on the chair in front of the platform and read each of them once again. It seemed like he was waiting for something.

*Sigh*

”Might as well get this over with then,” he said after 30 minutes or so and walked up to the door in the middle. He gently put his hand on the handle and it opened on its own. There was only a bright light with nothing else visible. It looked like a portal to another dimension. He took a deep breath and walked through.

As soon as he entered, everything went white. He had to close his eyes because it was too bright and when he opened them, he was in an old room that looked like something out of an old English novel.

There was a fireplace in the middle of the room with two single sofas facing it. There was a window to the right from which snow could be seen falling but nothing else.

The fireplace had a nice little fire going on which gave the entire room an extremely comfortable feeling.

”Took you a while to visit,” suddenly came a voice from the left sofa. Hao Xuan could see the persons legs but nothing else. His heartbeat increased as he went up to the other sofa and sat down.

”I didn't know what to say. This is all very.....strange,” Hao Xuan looked at the figure on the sofa who had a book covering his face.

”Oh? So what made you change your mind?” the figure asked.

”I thought we could come up with a compromise. Otherwise, it would be chaos and that would affect all of us,” Hao Xuan said after a few seconds.

”Hmm, I'm listening,” the figure put down the book and Hao Xuan could finally see his face. It was a middle-aged British man with short black hair combed to the side. He had sun glasses on and a smoke pipe in his mouth and was wearing a four-piece suit that was completely black in color.

Hao Xuan frowned looking at his get-up. ”I thought you were supposed to look like me since you're my personality. What's with the suit and....everything?”

The man smiled at him in return, ”Isn't it nice? Just because I'm your personality doesn't mean I have to look like you. We have complete freedom to choose our own avatars,” he said calmly and emptied the pipe in the ashtray to his left.

”Strange choice,” Hao Xuan commented looking at him up and down.

”Well, that's what makes us different. Even though we are essentially the same person, but our tastes and interests are completely different.”

”I guess....”