1239: Good or bad?

Good or bad?

The strand of white light was like a worm that had found its long-lost home. It burrowed into the threads of spiritual sense and shot up their length all the way to Hao Xuan's head, disappearing within. 2

Hao Xuan rose to his feet in confusion sensing the changes taking place inside of him.

"NO! Where did it go!?"

He closed his eyes in a panic and appeared within his mind palace where the strand of white light was hovering above the podium.

Everything else was still the same including the severs that were covered by a shroud of translucent energy.

Wide-eyed, Hao Xuan walked towards the podium with measured steps taking extreme care not to make any unnecessary movements whatsoever. He stopped two feet away too afraid to get any closer, his gaze locked onto the white strand that seemed to be in a state of inactivity.

He reached out slowly and carefully, placing his hand between the podium and the white strand before slowly moving it up.

'I'll get it away from the podium first and think about how to get rid of it after.'

The podium was the central point of his Mind Palace and simultaneously the most vulnerable and strongest area within his mind. For as long as the podium remained, there was a chance to rebuild the rest of the Mind Palace even if it had received significant damage.

His hand drew closer and even when it was just a couple of inches away from the white strand it did not react. Hao Xuan let out a breath of relief thinking that maybe this was it but...the second his hand came into contact with the white strand it popped like a balloon and disappeared.

That barely discernable 'pop' was like a nuclear bomb going off inside his head. It created a shockwave that shook the very foundation of his being.

In the outside world Hao Xuan's head jerked towards the sky as rays of white light shot out of his eyes.

*GAAASP*

His mouth drew in air like a vacuum as strange visions flashed before his eyes. Within Hao Xuan's Mind Palace, the podium began to shake as a pillar ejected from within, raising the slanted slab to a height of 1.8 meters and creating a lectern.

Then strange lines began to crop up within a radius of roughly two centimeters right below the resting block of the lectern. These lines intertwined to create a symbol similar to a spider's web albeit more sleek.

Hao Xuan's head felt like it was about to explode until the feeling vanished altogether and his consciousness returned to his physical body.

All of this happened in the span of 10 seconds, from him first sending out the threads of spiritual sense to the white strand exploding and the following changes to the Mind Palace.

Hao Xuan's chest heaved up and down as rubbed his eyes.

"Shit...of all the things, I didn't expect THAT to happen..." he mumbled through heavy breaths.

*Beep*

"A surge of spiritual energy has been detected," Baracus swiftly spoke up with his own concerns, "Monitoring of vital signs suggests that the user has gone through extreme trauma but sensors have not picked up any observable change."

"Trauma? Well, you're not entirely wrong," Hao Xuan joked while shaking his head.

"Elaborate, please."

"Later, my ride is here. I need to get away from this place first," Hao Xuan said while waving his hand.

He jumped over the building and landed on the other side where Wern's unconscious body was resting comfortably in a pool of blood under some rubble.

Picking him up Hao Xuan leaped over a few other buildings and landed next to the other guard who was pointing his blade at Grey.

"You're back!" the guard exclaimed while pointing at Grey, "This beast is trying to kidnap me!"

Hao Xuan walked up to Grey and placed Wern on his back before jumping on himself.

He looked down at the stupefied guard, "Yeah he was, I told him to bring you to me so we could get out of here but you ran around all over the place while pointing a sword at him. Get on if you want to live, a demon is coming here with its true body."

As Hao Xuan extended a hand towards the guard an explosion took place from the direction he had just come from.

"Scratch that, the demon is already here," Hao Xuan corrected himself, "You coming or not?"

The guard took one look at the source of the explosion and basically flew through the air to swiftly land on Grey's back while hugging Hao Xuan from behind with both arms.

"I'll leave it to you then."

Speechless at the man's shamelessness, Hao Xuan nudged Grey while pointing towards the opposite side.

"Neigh!" x2

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