Chapter 177 - Camp continued. (1/2)

The party traveled for over fifteen hours and covered tens of thousands of miles before reaching the end of the sandy ocean.

They had been in this world for over seventeen hours, and the sun had yet to come up. It seemed to be eternally twilight in this world, or perhaps the sun only came out for a limited time every year.

But whatever the case, the world was cold and extremely dry. They had to stop several times to let the mounts rest and rehydrate, even Bai was having a tough time.

The cold winds started picking up soon after they left the desert. Thankfully the new area was full of massive gullies that allowed them to travel with relative ease.

They finally choose an open space where three different gullies met. The middle of the intersection was about two kilometers wide and was more than big enough to accommodate everyone.

After scrutinizing every single part, Hao Xuan finally gave them permission to settle down for the night.

There was one main camp, with three smaller clusters of tents inside. The Shi Clan and Ma Clan each had one, whereas everyone else was banded together.

The boundaries of the camps were made by reinforced wooden planks that they brought, and were to be patrolled by people from all three sides, taking turns. They set up several formations including some light defensive ones and many warning formations. All of them had to be set up individually and took more than an hour to set everything up.

Hao Xuan was sitting on the side of one of the gulley's, staring down at everyone working together. He couldn't help but praise himself for coming up with the idea of the portable camp. How much time and more importantly, effort, it would take if he did all this alone every single time he wanted to rest?

*Crunch*

There was movement from his right. He turned towards the sound and saw Ma Yu cleaning her hands on her pants. She had just climbed up and was smiling at him, ”From what I heard from older sister, I thought you would be down there helping them,” she looked at camp below.

”From what you heard?” he raised an eyebrow, ”You probably heard wrong then. Unless I feel like it, I don't go out of my way to help random people. Not to mention those guys need to do this a lot more, so its better if they get used to it now,” he shook his head.

Ma Yu let out a giggle, ”You really are just like sister said,” she said cheekily.

Hao Xuan stared at her and couldn't help but compare her to Sin. She really was too different. He remembered the last time he saw her, she looked quite sad going back to the Ma clan.

”Is she okay?” he looked back at the camp and asked gently.

Ma Yu was taken aback for a few seconds by the sudden change in Hao Xuan's tone but then the smile on her face got even wider.

”Mhm. Older sister is older sister. She never tells me anything.”

She looked at Shi Chun who was feeding his already fat Imperial Rhino while having a full on conversation with it and continued, ”When she found out about my marriage with Prince Chun, she said she would kill all the descendants of the Shi clan if they forced me to marry him. That's why they set this up, to appease her. Even great grandfather had to give in to her demands.”

”Great grandfather? The Old King Ma?!” Hao Xuan's eyes widened from shock. This person who was thousands of years old, the one everyone feared, had to give in to Sin? A girl barely as old as him?

”Yes. Outsiders may call him ruthless, but he does it for a good reason. ”It's better they die free than be toyed with by other people,” he says. Older sister always fights with him about everything and he usually gives in, unless it affects the entire clan.”

”Wow...” Hao Xuan couldn't help but re-evaluate his image of the man. In his mind, it was a wretched old man that desired blood and sacrifices from his own kin, but to others, he was the exact opposite.

Shi Chun felt their gaze and waved at them for afar.

”He doesn't look like a bad kid,” Hao Xuan mumbled.

”Mhm. He is a good person. Sister used the full power of the clan to find out everything about him. She even kidnapped and tortured a few people close to him, but they all said the same thing. ”He is a kind person”. But she didn't believe them and said I had to meet him myself,” she waved back.