The Dawn of the New World

"Do you think yourself to be a GOD?! You had NO right to say that shit! Now they will cling to that little thread of hope until there is nothing else. And when it finally snaps it will be that much more devastating for them. You don't do that to a person..."

Hao Xuan had never seen Jin Wang this angry before and it took him by surprise to see this usually nonchalant man be so emotional about something.

But for some reason hearing those words, specifically from Jin Wang, left him quite irritated.

"And you did?"

"What?!"

He went off on Jin Wang without holding anything back.

"What right did you have to tell them that she was going to die? Are YOU a god? Can YOU see into the future? Fuck off with that self-righteous bullshit. I had no right but neither did you. All I did was give them a little hope, is that really so bad?"

"You see her frail body and give up without trying anything but I'm at fault for looking for a solution? You can't just....break some news like that to people out of nowhere. Until a few moments ago they thought she was going to be fine. The whole city is waiting for her to wake up."

"What do you think will happen when they find out that the one person they were looking up to is gone for good?"

"The city is defenseless. There are even more mouths to feed than before and the rations keep running out. Our enemies keep increasing by the minute and we have no idea when they will strike."

"You tell them now that the Grand Priestess, the very symbol of hope for these people is taking her last breaths and what do you think will happen? There will be mass hysteria! At least they will have settled down in a few days and the princesses will have some time to accept their new reality."

"Plus I am not entirely wrong, maybe there is a chance. I can still try some things. My point is you never know. A bit of hope can go a long way...in more ways than one..."

Hao Xuan's voice trailed off at the end as he swiftly closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths to regain his composure.

Jin Wang who was silently listening let out a sigh while shaking his head.

"I didn't know you had thought that far ahead. My bad."

"It's fine..."

A spell of extremely awkward silence followed after which was finally broken by Jin Wang.

"Where did you learn to do that? That thing with the needles."

"When I was trapped in that dream state I lived many lives. In one of them I was a healer in a world where no one could cultivate so we had to learn a few tricks like that."

"What?!"

Jin Wang lunged towards Hao Xuan grabbing him by the shoulder to stare into his eyes.

"You remember what happened in there?"

"Y-Yeah, why?"

"How many?"

"Huh?"

"How many lives did you live? How many can you recall like that one?"

"...One hundred and twenty-tw-"

"?!!"

Before Hao Xuan could even finish Jin Wang's shocked expression cut him off.

"A hundred and twenty-two lifetimes??"

"Why are you asking that? Why does it matter?"

"I didn't think you'd remember them...that wasn't supposed to happen...you can't...It doesn't make any sense."

"What the hell are you mumbling about?! Speak clearly!" Hao Xuan yelled wildly.

'He knows something, I was right!'

"Is there anything else? Did something else change?"

There were a lot of firsts today. Hao Xuan had never seen him this agitated before. He was usually so calm that it felt like nothing could bother him so seeing him acting like this made Hao Xuan feel quite uneasy.

"What do you mean?"

"ANYTHING! Anything out of the ordinary that wasn't there before."

Hao Xuan's gaze shifted to the right and left, at the countless shadowy figures surrounding him which numbered in the thousands at the very least.

"No...nothing else..."

For some reason he couldn't bring himself to tell Jin Wang the whole truth.

"Good...that's good. You tell me immediately if something strange happens alright."

"Yeah, I will."

Another lie.

"Come with me, I need to check something," Jin Wang said before walking deeper into the ruins.

They entered one of the countless broken structures and began descending deeper into the ground. Jin Wang was in the lead lighting the way with a torch that had a flickering green flame. He had picked it up somewhere along the way.

The surroundings began to change until Hao Xuan realized that it was quite similar to the structure of the prison. Through the many hallways they came to an exit that opened up into a massive underground area.