Lei Nuola's "Journey"

For a moment, the "nest" fell silent. Even the tremors among the stars, which seemed never-ending, abruptly calmed. Lei Nuola saw that the humanoid entity before her seemed to have gone still because of her words. Only after a long while did that stagnant starlight suddenly begin to swell and contract again.

"Just one lamp? Was there anything around the lantern? Roughly where was it?" Zhou Ming stared into the Frost Queen's eyes and asked rapidly.

"There was only one lantern, hanging from a broken plank. There was nothing else—they were floating in the dense fog out of nowhere," Lei Nuola said immediately. "As for the location... it was right beside your 'palace,' very, very close, almost pressed right against it..."

She suddenly stopped there, as if recalling more details. After gathering her thoughts, she continued, "That lantern wasn't actually very bright. Logically, it shouldn't have illuminated very far through the dense fog, but I saw it the moment I arrived here. I controlled my 'drifting house' and approached it, yet it took me a long time to truly reach this place. It felt as though... the lantern's light wasn't affected by distance or the fog. As long as it was lit here, its light could be seen from anywhere within this fog."

Listening to her description, Zhou Ming could not help sinking into thought. Lei Nuola then hurriedly added, "Of course, those are just my subjective guesses—you should know that many things here are... 'not quite right.' I don't think I can tell whether what I saw or felt was real."

"I understand," Zhou Ming said quietly. Then, as if remembering something, he abruptly rose and headed toward the desk nearby.

Lei Nuola remained motionless on the sofa out of caution. In her eyes, that writhing entity of starlight