A vast expanse of snow stretched beneath a biting wind. Glittering snowflakes rode the gusts into the distance.
A young man lay on the thick snow, as though he had melted into that silent, beautiful white world.
His long lashes trembled, scattering a few snowflakes. He opened his bright, deep-set eyes.
Coming to his senses, he stood and shook the snow from his clothes.
He looked around. White stretched as far as he could see, with only the bone-chilling wind and a picturesque, snow-white mountain in the distance for company.
His pupils contracted. He took several deep breaths to calm the shock in his heart.
Looking down, he found that his clothes had been changed at some point. He wore a warm white jacket and a pair of tall snow boots.
"Ling."
No answer.
"Ling, are you there?"
He called several more times, but still got no answer.
Ling, who had always answered within a second, remained silent this time. It was as if she had vanished into thin air.
Dread shot through Mo Xie. With a thought, he tried to connect with the Stars in his Spiritual World.
But something strange happened. The Stars, normally so obedient, would not respond at all. They seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep, and his entire dazzling Spiritual World had ground to a halt.
"The Stars won't respond? How is that possible?!"
Shock filled Mo Xie's face, but he refused to believe it. He kept trying to link a Star Orbit.
He tried the Stars of every element. He could clearly feel that each one held abundant magical energy, yet he could neither connect to them nor wake them.
Damn it. Ling isn't here, I can't cast magic, and where the hell am I?
A sense of danger unlike anything he