The warm yellow light faded, and Su Miao's feet touched solid ground.
The sky overhead was gray-blue. Traffic was jammed on the overpass, horns sounding in intermittent bursts.
An old street lay beneath her feet, six-story residential buildings lining both sides, their walls crawling with rust-streaked air-conditioning units.
Across the street, someone was walking a Teddy. The little dog was overflowing with curiosity, sniffing here and nosing there. Its owner tugged it forward by the leash, and it reluctantly took a few steps before stopping to sniff somewhere else.
Convenience stores crowded the old street. Snack shops, supermarkets, and real estate agencies were the most common. Customers coming and going made the glass doors sway back and forth, while the old Wind Chimes hanging outside tinkled along with them.
It looked like only a few years had passed on this Blue Star since the year she had left.
Before Su Miao could begin reminiscing, Blue Star gave her a meeting gift she would never forget for all eternity.
The familiar yet unfamiliar scents in the air—car exhaust, greasy cooking fumes, the sour stench fermented from roadside trash bins, and dozens of other odors—all churned together.
They rushed into her nostrils, making the caught-off-guard Su Miao cough several times.
She had no choice but to spread an invisible barrier around herself and Heavenly Dao, shutting out Blue Star's pollution.
After breathing Pure Spiritual Qi in the Prehistoric World for so many years, suddenly switching to air mixed with particulate matter and chemical odors left her deeply uncomfortable.
On top of that, Blue Star was in an age where Spiritual Qi had run dry. Unable to absorb any Spiritual Qi, Su Miao felt as though she had been forcibly dragged out of her comfort zone and left gasping for breath.
Her body