Luo Qingqing found herself standing in a gray-white wilderness.
The scene felt familiar, yet somehow different.
The sky was darker than before, with scarcely a single star left in sight; the land, too, had faded considerably, as though all life were steadily draining away. Even this wilderness seemed to be struggling just to endure. Perhaps one day, this place too would become pitch-black.
Luo Qingqing instinctively touched her eyes.
Here, her vision was incomparably clear, just as it had been before she took the Scholar Examination.
Not far from her stood a tall white door.
Was the power of Order calling to her?
Luo Qingqing started forward, walking toward the door.
Though it had seemed close at hand, she walked for a long time. What surprised her even more was that, while her sight had returned, she seemed to have lost everything that came with being a Qi Sense User. Mere walking drained all her strength. The exhaustion spreading up from her feet was something she had likely last felt before awakening.
No... even a five- or six-year-old child should not have been this weak.
Luo Qingqing suddenly realized that her vitality was ebbing away along with the earth.
Yet she felt neither fear nor resistance.
Perhaps she had been mentally prepared from the moment she became a Listener—sooner or later, she would have to pay the price for this power.
By the time she finally reached the door, Luo Qingqing was drenched in sweat.
"I... am here," she panted.
But no one answered.
Luo Qingqing saw that the white door was not fully shut. A narrow crack had been left open.
After hesitating briefly, she climbed the two steps, placed her hand against the door, and pushed gently.
The door slowly opened.
Then she saw what lay beyond it—