The Dawn of the New World



Seeing as it was only the two of them left Dai Zhi decided to dismiss their little meeting.

"I shan't keep you from your duties, brother Ensis," Dai Zhi gave him a knowing nod.

Ensis returned the gesture but just as he was about to leave Dai Zhi spoke up again.

"I am glad that you decided to stay behind. I know both Tian Zheng and senior brother Xue Meng valued you greatly but you still chose me over them. You will not regret this, I know and understand that a sword cultivator like yourself has to stay true to their hearts and I will never ask you to do anything you would not want to."

Ensis accidentally let out a little smile at the comment, which was extremely rare for him.

"Everything I do is for my master. He is my savior."

Dai Zhi nodded in agreement, moved by his words, "There is nothing more valuable than loyalty in our line of work. I would love to meet your master, to see firsthand what kind of a person he is to garner such respect from a warrior of your caliber."

His smile began to fade and the glint in his eyes was once again replaced by a deep, dark cold, "When the time is right, I will take you to him...and then I will be redeemed," he whispered the last sentence to himself before walking out.

Dai Zhi watched his figure disappear behind the doors and chuckled to himself, "What an interesting fellow. I can't wait for it!"

***

Around the same time Hao Xuan came to a stop near an old tree, leaning against its majestic trunk while peering back in the direction of the mountain city.

"How far...did I come? Is the city...there?" he muttered through heavy breaths.

*Beep*

"Approximately 61.7 kilometers. The settlement is no longer within sight."

Hao Xuan walked around until he found a small sheltered space near the girthy roots of the tree. He placed Princess Ceni's unconscious body inside and then sat down outside to catch his breath, listening to the sounds of the forest all around him.

"Running with two...people was tougher than I expected. I used up too much energy, the fatigue is catching up to me...among other things."

He waved his hand in front of his face while mumbling, "I can barely see anything. My eyesight is...almost gone."

"An expected side-effect of overusing the ability."

"It was worth it. They deserved what they got, all of them!" he hissed.

"The host must remember that their body is not strong enough to appropriately utilize the 'Third Gaze' to the full extent."

Hao Xuan shook his head with a self-deprecating smile, "That seems to be the theme for my whole life. All these powers that I can barely use, it would be better to not have them at all."

"...."

"The host should continue moving. It would only be a matter of time before their forces catch up."

"I know, but I really don't have much strength left. I'll rest for a little while...just enough to be able to see again."

And with that Hao Xuan closed his eyes while sitting with crossed legs and began to meditate.

He had exhausted his mental energy which was much harder to recover than spiritual energy. Without sleep, he would need to meditate and completely clear his mind in hopes of a small miracle.

Time slowly trickled by and soon another half an hour had gone by in the blink of an eye. But no matter how hard he tried to focus it seemed next to impossible to tune out everything around him.

In fact, the sounds of the forests were somehow getting even louder. Finally unable to take it Hao Xuan opened his eyes and jumped to his feet with gritted teeth, only to be shocked by what he was seeing...or rather that he was seeing at all.

His vision was much better than before but there was a dense white fog surrounding him from all sides.

'When did this roll in?' he immediately noticed the peculiarity.

He could still hear the sounds of the insects and trees moving slowly with the wind but nothing else was visible.

'An illusion?' he thought at first but swiftly dismissed the idea, 'No, I would have still noticed it.'

He tried to take a step forward and noticed the difference in his body, it felt much lighter than before.

Hao Xuan raised his head to look at the sky and noticed three blue moons peeking through the fog. They reminded him of the Kingdom of Mei for some reason.

'This is a dream...I fell asleep.'

'Yes, you did. It was much easier than I thought it would be, you must have been tired,' two overlapping voices came in from the front, one more familiar than the other.