Hao Xuan closed his eyes and appeared in his mind palace. He looked around for a few seconds until his eyes fell on a snoring silhouette nearby. He went up to it and landed a light kick on its shin which promptly woke it up.

"Huh? Who-"

"If you're gonna sleep, do it outside..."

Upon returning to the outer world Hao Xuan went up to the bed grabbed the sheets. He took a short moment to mentally prepare himself for what was to come and with a deep breath, pulled the sheets over him before falling onto the soft embrace of the matters rolled up like a burrito.

Dai Zhi who was still keeping a passive eye on the room only saw Hao Xuan cozily snuggle onto the bed before the loud snoring replaced the empty silence.

Meanwhile, Hao Xuan exited out of a spatial crack through the webway, landing heavily on frosted ground.

Beneath his feet was solid ice, or at least that's what it looked like in the darkness. The extremely loud and never-ending tempestuous waves of snow and ice shards the size of golf balls pounded against the structure Hao Xuan had landed in.

The sudden drop in temperature froze the tips of Hao Xuan's eyelids almost immediately before spreading to the rest of his body. Even though he was mentally prepared for it, the physical duress it caused was too vigorous and too sudden for his body to easily manage.

It went from 26 degrees centigrade to -88 in the blink of an eye, literally. He had just connected with the webway, activated the prime letters within his body in the required order, and initiated the gateway by closing the loop.

He thought it would be like other times and an actual doorway would be opened to the other world which would allow him to safely pass through but that was not the case. Since the letters were engraved on his very bones, he BECAME the gate itself and simply warped out of existence.

It was a good thing he managed to summon Bo (the kappa) just before initiating the letters so he could replace Hao Xuan on the bed because otherwise, his absence would not go unnoticed.

Hao Xuan blinked and when he opened his eyes he was already back on this wretched world. The same world he was stranded in for more than 10 months with the barbarians.

The howling winds were loud enough to deafen him for a moment and it was only after he started circulating the Chaos Qi that he regained control of his senses.

The darkness was pushed away little by little until he could see relatively clearly for 15 meters around him.

"Ha!"

With a powerful stomp the thin layer of ice forming on his body was shattered, freeing him to adjust to the new environments. Hao Xuan observed the surroundings and found out that he had landed in the same place if not the same exact spot as the first time, amidst the ruins of the rotting city.

He strode forward without paying attention and stepped on the part of the floor that was barely hanging by a thread. It immediately collapsed under his weight and as unprepared as he was, he fell through one floor after another as none of them managed to hold him and the falling debris.

Hao Xuan reached out and tried to grab onto a few protruding objects but only managed to drag them down with him. When he finally stopped he had fallen through more than seven floors, leaving a gaping hole in the already unstable structure.

It moaned and creaked, moving back and forth several inches under the raging winds, teetering on the edge of destruction and threatening to completely collapse on him but Hao Xuan's attention was focused elsewhere in this dire situation.

The last time he came here Hao Xuan found out after a day or two that they weren't alone. That this abandoned metropolis was not as abandoned as it seemed to be.

Unfortunately, this time, it wasn't going to take that long for them to show up. All the noise he had just made was enough to wake every single one of them up for miles.

But Hao Xuan didn't move and instead, opted to listen and observe. He closed his eyes to focus on the hearing.

It was possible they would think it happened naturally and they might not even venture out in this turbulent weather but, Hao Xuan got an unwanted answer within 20 seconds or so.

The extremely faint sound of bodies moving against the wind, the soft patting of naked feet against the cold hard surface and finally, an empty hunger as they surrounded Hao Xuan from every direction.

Hao Xuan slowly opened his eyes and saw numerous slender silhouettes in almost every shadow.

Not only that building but the ones around it were filled as well. Their white wretched skin somehow melded both within the darkness and the white snow simultaneously.

Hundreds of subhuman faces lined the windows, doors, and broken walls, peering at him with unveiled animosity.

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