The Dawn of the New World Chapter 1571

Hao Xuan shook his head without hesitation, "No thanks. I'm sure you can find any number of other- 'more qualified' slaves to do your bidding."

'Anyone with that much money is trouble and I already have enough on my plate,' he thought.

But Ji Yan couldn't believe her ears, "WHAT?! WHAT KIND OF A SLAVE DOESN'T WANT GOLD?!"

"This one," he casually replied.

"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR SENSES?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH-" she continued screaming and found herself out on the street the next moment as a result of it.

"Be glad I don't take my clothes back. Get lost and never come back here!"

Hao Xuan slammed the proverbial door in her face before sitting back down next to the fire, waiting and listening.

Once he heard her angry little footsteps go towards the city he let out a heavy-hearted sigh of relief. Now it was just him and the fading warmth of the campfire that was quickly run out of wood to burn.

The Ying energy was so thick that it began taking the form of small rain clouds collecting on the ceiling of the beast market, ready to burst at a moment's notice.

*Sigh*

"Ryuk, are you there?"

"Yessss!" his voice came from one of the walls.

"Need some information. I brought a...'small' pet from the future along with me but something is wrong with it. It was gravely wounded before I came but now those wounds keep getting worse. Time energy, just like the one from the river keeps exploding from inside its body."

"Hmmm...."

Ryuk's incorporeal outline phased out of the wall and began pacing back and forth.

"The river is trying to kill it, you say?"

"That's what it looks like," Hao Xuan confirmed while hiding a 'minor' detail to see if he would come to the same conclusion.

And surprisingly Ryuk figured out the reason without much deliberation.

"Does the beast already exist in this line of events?"

"He does."

"That must be it. Certain creatures of special origin can only exist once in a given timeline. When a second appears it is seen as an aberration and the river tries to correct it no matter the cost."

Hao Xuan was slightly impressed that he found the answer so quickly.

"Very good. Then next question- how do I make the river focus on the other one?"

Ryuk paused to look at Hao Xuan and then shook its head in disappointment, "The other one would have already discovered the solution."

Hao Xuan's eyes narrowed, "The magician?"

"Mhm. He is much smarter than you."

"Thank you yet again for that unnecessary tidbit of information. Are you going to tell me or not?"

"Hah, why must I associate with such dullards?" Ryuk flipped his nonexistent hair like a spoiled heroine from an old movie.

Hao Xuan waved his fist, "Did you get lost in a library or something? Talk before I make you talk!"

"Such anger does not suit you, you know? It is unbecoming of a gentleman."

"What the fuck are you on about?! Just tell me how to save the stupid hound!"

"ANCHOR HIM, OKAY!? Because of the wounds he is weaker than the one that currently exists in this timeline, but apart from that they are identical. You need to anchor the beast to the present. The stronger the anchor is the better it will be."

Hao Xuan went silent for a moment murmuring to himself, "Anchor him to the timeline?"

He imagined two hounds fighting over a small rock in the middle of a raging river. The one who lost would get washed away while the other would be kept safe and out of harm's way.

The hound of this timeline already had a strong anchor tying him down while the one Hao Xuan brought back was not only injured but also without protection.

"Then I need to get him a stronger anchor...or MORE of them than the one that's here. What is this anchor and where do I get it?"

Ryuk lazily shrugged and walked back into the wall, "I don't know about that. But anything born in this timeline can be the anchor. You just have to connect them in some way."

"Huh? Like what?"

"I don't know, ask the other you- he would know!"

"Oh fuck off you invisible cunt."

Annoyed and aggravated, Hao Xuan stormed out in a random direction while lost in deep thought.

'Something born from this timeline, that can be fucking anything!'

He walked around aimlessly for a while, going down whatever street that came before him until he was in a completely new location.

Hao Xuan was awoken from his stupor by the sound of laughing and more importantly, a strange sense of kinship.

He was standing at the entrance of a small alley barely two meters wide. It went on further than he could see, filled with countless small shops and strange-looking individuals.

Some of them were human but the vast majority were quite...alien.