The Dawn of the New World Chapter 1556

"It turned out that way. I was hired to perform at some party in the upper district in exchange for food and boarding..." he embarrassingly explained, "I know it is not the best time with how things are down here but-"

"Why does that matter?" Hao Xuan slapped him on the back, almost making Liet tip over.

"Just because everyone else is needlessly suffering doesn't mean you have to stick with them in some twisted sense of solidarity. What will that change? Just wait till you get up there, you'll forget this place even exists."

Liet was quite surprised to hear that.

"You have been up there??"

He smiled, "Well, it turned out that way," which Liet reciprocated.

"Touché, my friend."

"But before you go can you answer a few questions about the Umbral Planes?"

Liet's eyes lit up upon the mention of his favorite subject making him immediately plop down all his luggage.

"Of course, ask me anything!"

"Do you know how to move physical items between the realms? Something like a sword or maybe even a spirit stone?"

"Hmmm," Liet rubbed his chin thoughtfully trying to come up with a proper explanation.

"From my personal experience, I have not been able to figure out how to do that just yet BUT I know for a fact that it is definitely possible!"

Hao Xuan sat down across from him and leaned in with a newfound interest, "How do you know its possible?"

"Because they do it all the time, the unseen!'

"The unseen? You mean the Djinn?!"

Liet gave a half nod, "Yes. They are one of the rare few races that are able to travel between realms without any problems and even affect the physical realm while still existing in one of the Umbral Planes."

Hao Xuan quickly thought back to the recent interaction he had with the Djinn and remembered something.

'The sword! One of them left behind a sword that I held. I could have sworn it was made of normal metals found in the material realm. Looks like there is some truth to it.'

He met Liet's curious gaze, "Do you know how to get in touch with the Djinn?"

"Unfortunately not. Many of them live in small nomadic settlements that sprout up now and then but despite the difficulty of locating them, they do not take kindly to strangers. Unless you have something they want there is little chance they will be willing to communicate with you."

"Hmmm."

'I still remember the feeling I got when I held that sword. It was definitely imprinted with a spiritual mark and if I can track that, with some luck I could maybe follow it back to where they live and hammer out a deal.'

Hao Xuan was getting excited by the idea of interacting with their kind and all the things they could teach him about the veil and the Umbral Planes.

"Thank you, that was helpful. Aside from that I wanted to ask about the..."

Their question-and-answer session went on for nearly twenty more minutes until Hao Xuan was satisfied enough to let him go on his way.

Now that he knew what to ask for, Liet's wealth of knowledge proved to be nothing short of a treasure for Hao Xuan.

A minute or so after he left Ryuk came crawling through one of the walls.

"What will you do now?"

"I have to go to the other side again to check on a few things and then visit the secluded space once I am done but it shouldn't take long since time usually passes much faster there. Keep an eye out and wake me up if someone or something comes around."

Hao Xuan rested against one of the walls that was still more or less intact and closed his eyes to focus on the image of the sword and the feeling he got when he held it. He imagined holding it again and feeling the cold metal weighing down his hand.

By gently brushing his thumb over the mediation scar Hao Xuan quickly fell into a trance and soon found himself standing in front of the veil.

Its water-like surface rippled as the white light exuding from his hand pointed Hao Xuan in the right direction.

He looked down at his hand and found the source of the light held tightly in his grasp. It was an ethereal image of the sword that belonged to one of the Djinn.

He brought the 'sword' closer to the veil and allowed it to guide him through to the other side. With just one step Hao Xuan was now standing within a completely different place within the Umbral Planes.

The sky was curving upward like the bottom of a glass bottle and in the middle of it was a bright white light surrounded by a churning sea of chaos.

The chaos did a good job of hiding the source of that light but every now and then a ray or two would break loose and illuminate the land underneath that was otherwise shrouded in darkness.