The Dawn of the New World

While Hao Xuan sat there absorbing the spiritual energy from the spirit stones, he couldn't help but wonder what was happening outside.

He couldn't hear the sounds of the battle currently taking place several hundred meters above ground, but it wasn't hard to imagine.

Dai Zhi had a very powerful background so there was no way he would be sent out without a few live-saving measures. Unfortunately, Hao Xuan was trapped down here so there was no way for him to check out Dai Zhi's combat methods.

But that only increased his curiosity towards the little book that was given to him both as a present and a tool to kill Dai Zhi with.

Hao Xuan opened his hand and the book appeared in his grasp.

It was completely black, seemingly made out of normal materials with nothing extraordinary about it at all. There were scorch marks near the top and bottom of both the front and back covers but it wasn't easy to see them because the cover itself was too dark.

As Hao Xuan brushed his hand across the front, he felt some words engraved on the front cover.

"Hmm?" he raised ad brought the book closer up to his face but no matter how much he focused his vision, he couldn't see anything. Only be moving his fingers across the cover did he feel for the words.

"Th..e rea...chi..ng?" he tried to make out the letters, but it wasn't as easy to do. If he was looking at the words, his brain would automatically convert the words for him in a language he was fluent in but feeling for the words was too hard.

Opening the book, the first page was completely blank. So was the 2nd, the 3rd and every other proceeding one. But when he moved his hand over the page, he could faintly feel for the words.

It was truly a strange phenomenon.

"Baracus, can you scan this page and see if there's anything there?" Hao Xuan mumbled.

*Beep*

The ever so familiar beeping sounded before Baracus spoke up.

"Hold your hand over it."

Hao Xuan did so and a blue light came out of his hand and fell on the first page.

"Negative. There is nothing on the page at all," Baracus commented not a second later.

Hao Xuan's brow scrunched up slightly, "Are you sure?"

"One Hundred Percent. I have run over sixty different compilers but there is nothing. At least nothing I can pick up," he added the last line after a brief period of contemplation.

"Nevermind then."

'I guess it would have been too easy if they gave me a book to read like a normal person right?' Hao Xuan thought inwardly while grinding his teeth.

*Guuurgle*

The strange sound came again, like fast-flowing water moving through a small opening.

Hao Xuan put the book back into the storage space and got up. His wounds had closed for the most part and even though they weren't completely healed, it was enough for him to move around with spurting blood everywhere.

He took a step forward but stopped. Turning back around towards the oval-shaped black water screen, he placed his hand over it and pushed, but nothing happened. He tried punching, kicking, yelling random words and circulating Qi through it but nothing worked.

*Sigh*

"I guess I can only go forward," Hao Xuan muttered under his breath, exasperated.

If he ever got his hands on that damned trader, there would be a show to see.

With no other choice, Hao Xuan took every little object he could take from the roach guard corpses and stored it away. He couldn't identify some of the things so they might be worth a decent bit to someone out there.

The place he was standing on was a dark, empty corridor decorated only with thick stone pillars every 8 meters or so.

There were some engravings on the stone pillars but through the miracle of time, they just looked like random scribbles now.

Just these stone pillars were probably thousands of years old.

Still using Nidhora's power, he was covered from head to toe in what looked like black clothes that moved without any wind.

He walked along the empty corridor for over half an hour before it connected with a giant staircase. Each step was at least three meters wide and one meter tall. Whatever it was made for was much bigger than humans like Hao Xuan. The stairs got wider and wider the higher he went until finally, he couldn't even see the left and right sides in this darkness.

He picked up his pace but it still took him over ten minutes until he reached the final step.

A massive golden door blocked his path. It was at least 50 meters wide and so long that he couldn't even see the top. There was a giant face engraved on the door. It wasn't human, but something he had never seen before.

The face looked...strange. It obviously wasn't human with its bull-like nose, thick ugly eyes without any brows and a slightly protruding triangular mouth with sharp fangs, but it gave off an aura of sophistication.

To any normal human being who's standard of beauty was set by his fellow humans, this face would strike fear in them. But for some reason, Hao Xuan's blood boiled as he looked at the nonchalant face.

As Hao Xuan got closer he saw a line of words etched along the door's borders. He recognized them at first glance. It was a language used among the more intelligent creatures of the universe.

The words read:

"We pay homage to the 734th God of War. Here lies his majesty's 103rd Imperial Prison!"