653: Comfort...

Comfort...

Hao Xuan searched through Baracus's storage space for a moment before taking out a short sword in case of an emergency. 2

Peering towards the large moving shadows within the tree line, his heart was filled with doubts and uncertainty. Taking a deep breath he vigilantly walked into the Endless Forest.

From the outside, Hao Xuan was only able to hear some distant beastly roars and howls but after just a few meters of having passed the forest's confines, those sounds were drowned out by loud whispers. They were coming in from every single direction, rushing towards Hao Xuan as if finally having found an outlet after ages of aimless wandering.

Hao Xuan who obviously was not prepared for such an event quickly fell to his knees trying to shut them out by closing his ears but they were not something that could be stopped so easily.

"NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Stop please! I won't do it again!"

"I trusted you! How could you do this to me?"

"My own brother? It was you...all this time?"

"So much blood..."

"I don't want to die in this place, please...someone.."

"It's so cold. I can't feel my legs."

"I have to get home quick, father needs his medicine. This damned forest will eat me alive!"

"Just a little more and I can buy my own house. Just one more hunt!"

"I know a path to the ruins, just trust me. We only need to get there once and we will be rich!"

"Hahaha! Look at this! Wait...no...what is that?!"

One after another thousands upon thousands of voices, shouting, begging, crying, yelling, celebrating, such intense emotions that Hao Xuan could almost visualize what was happening to them just from the sounds. The veins on his forehead and around his eyes threatened to pop as Hao Xuan grit his teeth forcefully trying to keep his sanity.

"Aaargh! Baracus!" he called out in as low a voice as he could muster.

"Yes?" Baracus's calm voice rang into his ears, a polar opposite to the many whispers trying to burrow deeper into his brain.

"The sounds! Shut it off! I don't want to hear it!"

"...."

'Done,' Baracus confirmed a moment later through spiritual sense after cutting off his auditory senses but Hao Xuan could still hear them clearly. It was at this point that he realized they were not 'real' in the conventional sense.

"Fuck sakes!" cursing, with trembling hands Hao Xuan took out a cigarette from the storage space and quickly lit it, taking several deep puffs that finished off the entire thing in seconds.

He sat down next to a tree and focused his senses, absorbing all the smoke into the bloodstream. A second later he let out a breath of clean air.

Hao Xuan repeated this process five times before the intensity of the whispers lowered enough for him to ignore them to an extent. He stood back, dusting off his clothes.

"This shit is getting out of hand..." and mumbled shakily before continuing the march through the forest.

Five meters behind Hao Xuan the double-headed pug was following in his footsteps in complete silence. If not for the occasional heaving sound that was barely audible in and of itself, one would think it was a doll. Its four unblinking black eyes stared in Hao Xuan's directions, one pair attached to his back and the other on the nearby surroundings.

Back in the barbarian camp Princess Na'im was sitting upright in her bed. Her eyelids fluttered rapidly at a steady pace. The whites of her eyes were gone leaving only a pitch-black surface in which the scenes from the pug's eyes were being replayed with stark clarity like a mirror.

From the comfort of her bed she watched patiently as Hao Xuan made his way through the forest, each and every single movement of his being observed by the pug and transmitted back to her.

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