The Dawn of the New World



His mind wandered, from the far reaches of the known space to the depths of his own mind. Everything was laid bare in front of him as the truth of the past and the future came to light.

Hao Xuan was looking so far ahead that he could read the next ten moves of his enemies. The only problem was-

'There are too many of them, too many variables colliding with one another at every instance, I need to deal with them one at a time.'

With a wave of his hand Grey was summoned back.

*Neigh* x2

He was far from being at his best but his condition had greatly improved in the little time he had off.

"Good boy," Hao Xuan whispered, running his hands through Grey's mane, "These next 12 hours are going to be the most difficult. And I will need your help okay?"

*Neigh* x2

Hao Xuan went into the house to pick up the sleeping princess, wrapping her in some extra clothes laying in the storage space before bringing her out. He jumped on and pointed Grey towards the stone pillars.

"Follow my directions exactly, one mistake and we will be lost in there for weeks."

With Hao Xuan's guidance, they were back on the harsh surface of the planet in just a few minutes. And as they exited the Stone forest several notifications popped up in the top left side of his vision.

[Connection Re-established]

[Recieving Input Signals]

[Receiving Primogenitor Location Marker]

[Time Passed: 8 hours]

The first three notifications were in red while the last one was normal.

'Were these supposed to be hidden from me? Or they still are and I can only see them because of [Regis Officium]. I guess he was trying to misdirect me somehow and that triggered its effects.'

"Is everything good, Baracus? Anything to report?"

*Beep*

"Affirmative. Approximately eight standard hours have passed since the host first entered the stone forest."

"Hmm, okay."

His 'affirmative' was in a completely different tone than the rest of the sentence.

'So that's what a lie sounds like? The ability also allows me to see through them I guess. Maybe because they too are a form of misdirection? So anything misleading will qualify as a lie...interesting. This alone was enough to warrant all the risks I have taken by getting the ability, not to mention everything else.'

How much would an average person be willing to give to be able to tell whenever someone was lying? But for someone in Hao Xuan's position it was a hundred times more important because there was no way for him to tell who could be trusted and who meant him harm and only wanted to use him.

All of a sudden everything seemed so much simpler and easier.

Hao Xuan was brought back to reality when another meteor shower interrupted his thought process.

"To the left, let's go back to the ruins!"

The sky was still red. It was raining blood and demons but Hao Xuan was much less bothered by it now. His attention was focused on the surroundings.

His eyes swiveled left and right constantly as the trees buckled under the pressure of the heavy rain and all the extra weight of the blood that froze upon touching a solid surface.

With a simple thought a barrier was erected around them, shielding all three of them from blood rain.

Hao Xuan could see the movement of the wind, feel the tremors in the ground through Grey's hoofs and smell the foul odor of all the nearby demons.

"Right here," he whispered, making Grey make an awkward turn behind a boulder but just a few seconds later the ground broke and dozens of skeletons crawled out.

If they had kept going in that direction they would have been caught in the middle of them.

*Beep*

"How did the host know of the demon trap?" Baracus immediately inquired.

"Wasn't it obvious? Could you not tell it was there? Frankly, I'm quite disappointed in you Baracus.," Hao Xuan replied in a monotonous tone.

"There is not enough data available to make such an accurate prediction."

"Then how did I know?"

Hao Xuan refused to explain anything to him. He might not be able to feel much happiness or pleasure from it right now but it still felt good to finally be on the other side of the fence.

"Keep going straight for now. In about two kilometers turn left into the valley."

*Neigh*

Just as Hao Xuan had said there was a not-so-hidden path leading to the left side. But rather than a valley, it was more like a ravine and the path down was littered with corpses and all kinds of demonic manifestations.

If someone had said this was the entrance to hell no one would be able to deny it just by looking at it.

*Beep*

"Warning! Multiple sources of foreign energy detected ahead!"