Chapter 97 - Same Old World (1/2)

After playing with the snakes for a bit, Hao Xuan recalled them back into the Mind Palace and went to sleep. The next morning a loud knock woke him up.

”Ninth brother, are you back??” shouted a voice. Still half asleep, Hao Xuan got up and opened the door only to be met with a blinding white light.

”Ahh!” Hao Xuan almost lost his eyesight from the sudden exposure.

”Oh my bad, sorry sorry,” said the voice and the light turned off instantly. Hao Xuan slowly opened his eyes again and saw Fourth standing there with an awkward expression.

”Fourth brother, are you trying to kill me perhaps?” he asked with an annoyed expression.

”Hahaha, no way no way. I was cultivating a new technique and forgot to turn it off. Since you're awake, let's go out! It's been so long since we saw each other. Everyone else is still on missions so it's just us two,” Fourth said with a wide grin that gave Hao Xuan cold chills.

”Fine, but it's your treat. Give me a few minutes, I'll change and meet you near the gate,” with that he closed the door and went to wash up. As he was about to leave, Zhurong woke up and jumped on his shoulder with an unnatural enthusiasm. Usually he would spend the whole day sleeping but today he woke up so early that it was worrying.

”You wanna come with?” Hao Xuan asked with a frown and got a cute ”Meow” and a nod in return.

”Mhm, sure. We still have to talk about the stunt you pulled at the waterfall,” he said with a smile that slightly scared the little fluffball.

He met up with Fourth and they both departed. Fourth had also changed into normal clothes and in his pants and shirt, he looked like a normal teenager from earth.

Hao Xuan, on the other hand, was wearing an old-school Hanfu which was completely white in color. He had picked it up the day before from a shop after reaching Fortuna City.

One had to remember, after coming out from the cocoon, Hao Xuan had changed significantly. His hair were long, bone structure was that of a model, and with his current height of 8+ feet, he would be the center of attention anywhere he went, especially dressed like he was.

And with Zhurong in his embrace, he looked like a young master from some powerful clan and gave everyone an ethereal feeling.

*Whistle*

”My god, Ninth brother since when did you become so handsome?!” Fourth whistled and asked with a surprised expression.

”What are you talking about? I was always handsome. Did you not notice before?” he replied with a smile and started walking down.

”Ninth brother, if you meet any cute girls you must remember me,” he shouted from the back and followed after.

They walked for a good hour or so until a huge shopping district appeared in front of them. Obviously, this wasn't Hao Xuan's first time coming to such a place since he had passed through once before with First.

But at that time he didn't have any memory of Earth or any similar knowledge so he didn't notice a lot of things about the people and the world in general.

Like quite a lot of people seemed to be wearing a bracelet of some kind on their left hand which attracted his attention.

”Fourth brother, what is that thing everyone is wearing?” he asked pointing at a person's wrist.

”Hmm?” Fourth followed Hao Xuan's line of sight and then looked at him as if he was looking at an idiot.

”...ninth brother.....do you really not know?” he asked suspiciously.

Hao Xuan glared at him, ”Are you going to answer or not?”

”Um, I don't know if you're messing with me or not, but I'll answer anyway. That's a Spirit Band, it's used to....”

And for the next 10 minutes, he explained its functions. It had the same functions as a cell phone from earth. But unlike cell phones, it wasn't made with microchips and other components as such tech was completely outdated in this world. Instead, they used extremely complicated runes and formations to get the same functions out of it and much more.

It was connected to a network, just like the internet from Earth where you could meet and chat with all kinds of people from all over.

But one key difference was that the area it covered was limited. There were Six continents on Beast world, and each of them had its own network. So Hao Xuan would not be able to get in contact with anyone from another continent, for now.

The networks were controlled by the main cities in each continent. The continent Hao Xuan was in was simply called 'Tertium' and its city was the 'Saint City' so everything would be controlled from there.

But even though it was 'limited', the size of most Grade-2 kingdoms was larger than the entire planet earth, and with thousands of such kingdoms, even bigger Empires, Ancient Clans, Sects etc, it did not feel restricted in any way.

”Seriously? How come I didn't hear about this before then?” Hao Xuan asked with a questionable gaze.

”I should be asking YOU that. Although we aren't allowed to use our personal spirit bands during missions, everyone still has them,” Fourth was stupefied, and rightly so.

Imagine someone from earth asking what a computer was, this was the same as that.

The spirit band was, of course, a luxury item and had many different types. It wasn't the government's job to provide you one and you had to buy one with your own money.

”What the hell, how do I get one then?” he asked eagerly. Imagine how easy it would make things.

”Well since we're in the military, we can go to the R&D department and get the latest model for free,” Fourth's mood suddenly changed for the better and he led Hao Xuan into one of the many restricted areas.