A few minutes later.

*BOOOOOOOM*

It seemed like the entire world had turned upside down in an instant. The majority of the water rose straight up into the sky followed by an intense earthquake that sent Hao Xuan and Bo rolling away.

The earthquake lasted for a little over 15 seconds. And by the time it came to a stop, a wall purely made of water came crashing down.

Hao Xuan who was already on the ground had no foothold to speak off and got swept away along the waves. Thankfully, Bo was still nearby.

As a creature of water, he was completely at ease in this tumulous situation.

While Hao Xuan was being tossed around and smashed against every surface that came along his way, Bo was expertly avoiding everything.

He made his way towards Hao Xuan who had already lost consciousness at this point and grabbed hold of him before dragging him to the safety of an old tree that had managed to stay rooted.

The water waves reached a height of more than 60 meters, easily towering over almost everything else in the vicinity.

Thankfully, because of the nearby forest that hampered its march inland, it didn't advance more than 7 to 8 eight kilometers before slowly dying down.

The proceeding waves were all smaller than the first one so they didn't cause too much damage.

Bo carried Hao Xuan down to the ground and waited for him to wake up.

**

"Is anyone there? Do you need help, friend?"

The voice came, bringing Hao Xuan back to reality.

"Get down," he ordered Bo in a low voice and stood up.

He took out a new set of clothes since the old ones had been washed away and quickly changed into them before walking out of the thistle.

There was a party of four men walking around with torches and swords.

Upon seeing Hao Xuan walk out, three of the men jumped back swiftly and pointed their swords and spears at him, while the fourth one with the torch smiled at him.

He was also startled but kept his cool nonetheless. Hao Xuan was more than a head taller than all of them and his muscled body made him look quite intimidating in the dark.

"H...Hello friend," the man with the torch smiled and took a small step forward, shedding light onto Hao Xuan's face.

The man was in his late forties by the look of it but still had quite a sturdy build, a hunter perhaps.

Hao Xuan examined each of them carefully, finding nothing out of the ordinary. They all looked quite normal and exuded no killing intent, only fear.

"[What are you doing here?]" he asked in an emotionless voice. He spoke in the local language.

The other three men raised their weapons higher. Hao Xuan could see their knuckles turning white from holding onto them with too much force. The tip of the blades started shaking every so lightly.

It looked like they had no training whatsoever and were complete rookies.

A devious grin slowly formed on the edge of Hao Xuan's lips and his eyes narrowed to a slit.

The man with the torch who was closest to Hao Xuan caught these changes and spun around to berate the youngsters behind him.

"[What are you doing?! Put your weapons down at once! Don't you see this lord means us no harm?!]" he shouted angrily before turning to face Hao Xuan with a servile smile.

"This one's name is Jax, my lord. Please forgive these youngins, they do not know the immensity of heaven and earth!" he spoke in the Beast World's language and bowed from the waist.

His mannerisms quite closely resembled those on the Beast world as well. Suffice to say Hao Xuan was quite taken aback by him.

"You are a native?" he asked staring Jax right in the eyes.

"Yes, my Lord," Jax replied in the same manner and lowered his gaze.

"How did you know of that idiom? Heaven and earth? And that language?"

"I had heard other lords use it before. Forgive me if I overstepped," he bowed again and this time stayed there.

Hao Xuan understood now. These people probably came from one of the towns or villages already under the control of one of the powers and had received some sort of 're-education'.

"Why are you here then, Jax? And stand up, I don't like this shit. I was just kidding before, you can relax," Hao Xuan waved his hand.

He wasn't going to kill these mortals for no reason, like some dumbass from a corny novel. Although they might have probably seen something similar happening already.

Jax slowly straightened his back but made sure to keep a respectful tone.

"Thank you, my lord. We came from a nearby town after hearing all the commotion. Other lords are here too somewhere."

'Damnit,' Hao Xuan cursed inwardly.

What he was most afraid of already happened. And how could it not? That explosion was loud enough to be heard and felt tens of miles away.

'Fuck, fuck!'

"Baracus! Did you find the location?" he asked out loud by accident, not realizing he had company.

"Ah, that wasn't meant for you," Hao Xuan gestured towards Jax who had a confused look on his face.

*Beep*

"Affirmative. But a large section of the tunnel has collapsed due to the 'extreme methods' employed to find its location. You will have to do some digging."

"That's just perfect..." he mumbled with gritted teeth before looking at the four confused men, "You four, come with me, quickly!"

Since they had seen his face, he couldn't just let them go. If worse came to worst, he would have to keep them tied up for a little while so they don't run around and tell whoever was in charge of their town.

Almost dragging the men in every way but physically back to the lakeside, he arrived in 30 or so minutes.

He had just stepped out of the forest when a cacophony of angry and confused voices reached his ears. He looked around and saw tens of men and women standing by the lake.

Several of them were already in their underwear and walking into the lake.

"Hey, it's first come first serve! The Academy got here before the Hall!" someone shouted.

Hao Xuan placed his hand over his face and called out the mask. He turned around to face the four natives behind him that were gasping for air after running at full speed.

"[You never saw my face, understand?]" he warned in the native language, getting understanding nods from all of them.

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