The Dawn of the New World

"If only he didn't come when he did I wouldn't have had to rush the final reincarnation and would still have all my memories."

Jin Wang couldn't help but sigh at his misfortune. The Emperor had accounted for almost every variable across millions of years to help him reach his final objective and now that he was just a step away, the final door could not be opened simply because the information was missing from his brain.

"Heh, isn't that a little ironic? All those plans set in motion an era ago are now brought to a dead stop at the final stage. If only you could have seen this coming I wouldn't have-" Jin Wang stated jokingly but froze mid-sentence as if a bolt of lightning had struck his very soul.

His eyes swiveled left and right while his mind raced with a thousand different thoughts.

"All those years and I never saw you make a single mistake. Everything was calculated down to the last second, every variable accounted for by numerous contingency plans so it stands to reason you would have accounted for this as well...right?"

There was no one to listen to his ramblings but it helped to say things out loud to better understand them.

"Say you knew this could be a possibility. You knew my memories could get jumbled up along the way so what would you do? The same as you always did, leave a master key hidden somewhere! Something that only I could find, something that only I would think to use. But..what could it be?"

He paced back and forth on top of the bones completely lost in thought.

"It would have to be easily accessible so nothing buried anywhere deep. You never trusted the future generations not to lose their marbles and destroy or sell old relics so it wouldn't be left in anyone's care."

"You would have to be 100% sure it would never get damaged or destroyed along the way. It probably wouldn't be something material, nothing inanimate would survive this long without changing or getting lost. But I would still come to the natural conclusion if I thought about it. "

"That means...a person close to me. Someone you left behind, someone you knew would be born at this time and at this place..." Jin Wang stopped in his tracks.

"No...it can't be him...can it?" he looked back down in the direction of the room Hao Xuan was sealed in, unsure if that was actually the case but it did make a lot of sense.

Jin Wang had been waiting for Hao Xuan to come to the beast world since the moment he opened his eyes. He had created an entire life while waiting for Hao Xuan and after his arrival everything was centered around him.

All the things he had to get for Hao Xuan and all the times he had to protect him without really knowing why. In fact, it was Hao Xuan that had basically brought him here, showed him the way to this little rock that was the linchpin to their plan.

"If that's the case it can't be anyone else BUT him," he came to the natural conclusion. But whether it was right or wrong only time would tell and either way, he needed to get Hao Xuan back on his feet. The longer he was left ruminating inside his head the harder it would be to bring him back.

Jin Wang jumped down and landed next to a group of demihuman guards.

"Hey there, where can I find Princess Helena?"

After some explanation as to why he had fallen from the sky and proving he was not an enemy or a spy, Jin Wang was taken to the city center where Princess Helena was residing for the time being.

There were a host of other demihumans running about most of which were cleared out when she heard Jin Wang had come asking for her.

"I see the wound is healing well," was the first thing he said.

She smiled awkwardly, deciding not to tell him that it was harder to fix the bone because he tried to "help" without asking first.

"Yes, all thanks to you," she said from a safe distance, "What can I help you with?"

"Oh, right. I need to find someone with a very high nature affinity and enough mana to cast at least two spells at a time."

Princess Helena looked at him with a suspicious gaze as if she was unsure whether or not he was serious. Jin Wang obviously picked up on it

"What?"

"You...already have someone in your group, don't you?"

"I do? Who?"

"Ma Jiang. She has extremely high nature affinity and can draw mana from the world to cast more spells if need be. The last time I saw her she was with your lot so..."

Now it was Jin Wang's turn to be stupefied. How could it be such a coincidence?