The Dawn of the New World

"We never use this place unless it's an emergency..."

Hao Xuan needn't hear anymore. It meant there were other people that had managed to find this place so it was a safe bet that they weren't alone down here anymore.

"Come along, let's not dawdle around any longer," Princess Helana urged.

Hao Xuan focused all of his senses and made sure they were in full gear as they slowly descended deeper into the miasma.

The staircase they were on looked like it was sculpted from the grey rocks that were lining the sides of the valley. Each footstep was louder than it should have been but the sound didn't carry on for too long.

The moment any sound came into contact with the wall of miasma that had a gelatinous-like quality to it, it would disperse and along the sides.

But the deeper they went, the louder the silence got until all Hao Xuan could hear was whatever was within five meters of Princess Helena.

After crossing a total of seven flights of stairs they came out in front of a wide-open space. The miasma thinned in quantity but Hao Xuan could feel it was a lot more potent. The hair on his arms rolled back when he attempted to observe it more clearly.

There was gravel underneath his feet and although the miasma blocked much of his vision, he was still able to see make out some rough shapes in the near distance. There were old manmade stone structures less than 20 meters away.

He leaned in closer towards Princess Helena and whispered, "This place was occupied at some point? There are buildings nearby."

She was a little surprised that Hao Xuan was able to see the structures through the miasma from so far away but didn't let it show.

"Yes. Grandmother said our ancestors used to live here a long time ago. Before we got separated into different tribes there was only one group that lived in this valley."

"What happened to them? Why did they go their separate ways?"

"No one knows for sure. All grandmother told me was that something big happened, an accident of some kind that fractured our world and scattered our people all over the place. I think before that all of used to live on the surface."

"Hmm."

Hao Xuan listened intently but after a little while it became pretty clear that Helena wasn't in the know-how herself and was making more than a few speculations and assumptions to fill in the blanks.

It had been thousands of years since this 'accident' and there were no actual records of anything.

But the presence of several different laws that Hao Xuan was sensing was proof enough that whatever caused this accident was no small matter.

From a handful of spatial laws to a dozen others that he had no way to recognize were all present in this valley to some extent.

Hao Xuan couldn't see or hear them, only feel their ethereal presence within the surroundings. He reached out and touched the curtain of miasma.

A swirl of green smoke slithered out as if it was alive to entwine around his middle finger. The smoke covered the entire digit and a second later he felt something entering his body.

Hao Xuan's pupils suddenly dilated and both his hearts thumped forcefully to push out a new stream of blood into the body while bringing the one from his finger straight to the right heart. He closed his eyes while feeling the changes in his body.

Princess Helena noticed him standing idly on the side so she probed, "Are you okay?"

Hao Xuan gave a stiff nod in return without meeting her gaze, "Y-Yes, please go on."

When she looked away Hao Xuan let out a breath of turbid air. It looked like he was blowing smoke from his mouth. Meanwhile, inside his body the poison was directly absorbed by the right heart and converted into pure spiritual energy.

One 'unit' of poison produced three units of energy.

*Beep*

'Radioactive Isotopes Detected.'

'Activating Countermeasures....'

'.....'

'No Countermeasures Required.'

'Threat Neutralized.'

Baracus's notifications spammed one after another in his vision, proving what Hao Xuan already knew. His body was able to absorb radiation and turn it into spiritual energy.

And this 'miasma' was less poisonous and much more radioactive. Although there were more than a few poisonous elements mixed in there as well.

That's what he breathed out. Due to his physique, most of the normal poisons found in nature were rendered useless and would be automatically filtered out of his bloodstream, stripped of any useful properties, and excreted out one way or another.

But there was a limit to how much he could absorb at once without any side effects.

And that wasn't all either. While touching the miasma Hao Xuan was somehow able to sense several living beings in the near vicinity, hiding within the structures nearby.

With a light flick of Hao Xuan's hand the miasma erupted with frenzy, seething and boiling.

"What's happening?!"

"Stay close to me!"

The others all huddled up around Princess Helena upon noticing the sudden disturbance.

"Master..."

A rolling hiss reached Hao Xuan's ears. He looked to the side and saw a familiar silhouette.. The Scorpion King's hunched figure sat in the distance awaiting orders.