A New Use for Text Sense

Space twisted and light fractured. A violent sensation of weightlessness seized Xia Lun, pinprick pain spread from every pore, and a ringing echoed in his ears.

The next instant, Xia Lun's eyes flew open. Every strange sensation vanished.

Coarse, icy snow pattered against his face. Dim, leaden light spilled from behind him. Human bones left by the melted Corpse Wraiths skidded across the snow and struck a withered tree with a sharp crack.

The teleportation had worked. He was outside Dusk Snow Prison.

Well, that counted as a successful jailbreak, Xia Lun thought dryly.

He released Renee's wrist and looked back.

The sky was heavy with a dull lead-gray haze. It was neither light nor complete darkness, but something caught between the two.

A bleak wind swept across the barren snowfield. Xia Lun's gaze followed the dead grass tumbling in it to a half-collapsed stone church behind him.

The church lay in ruins. Only its stone pillars and half a wall remained, with moss and mushrooms visible in the cracked masonry. Beyond the broken wall, he could make out Corpse Wraith remains scattered across the interior.

Looking farther back, Xia Lun saw Dusk Snow Prison again.

From the outside, Dusk Snow Prison was imposing. Walls of granite and marble stood firm amid the ice and snow, while the great buildings rising within looked less like a prison than the palaces of giants from legend.

At the prison's center, the Prison Watchtower still soared into the clouds. The immense, brilliant orb atop it sent a straight beam of white light into the sky like a beacon. There, it burst into a visible ring of light.

Darkness swirled around that ring like a vortex, but the light did not yield an inch. Without a doubt, this was the result of Renee completing