Fu Zhaojie continued,
"Then that black hole started sucking things in." Fu Zhaojie began speaking faster. "Wind poured out of the hole... no, it was rushing into the black hole from outside. Sand and loose stones all flew toward it."
He grew increasingly agitated as he spoke. "None of the five of us could even keep our footing... one of my roommates got sucked straight in. Then a second one. I grabbed a rock on the cave wall... but my hand slipped."
He spread his palms. Two healed scars ran across them, from the webbing between his thumbs and forefingers to the bases of his little fingers.
"I got sucked in."
"When I woke up, I was here." He tipped his chin toward the cave entrance behind him. "By the sea. Right beneath that rock face."
"What about your roommates?" Chen Siyao asked.
Fu Zhaojie shook his head.
"I didn't see them. It was just me. I don't know where they got sucked off to... or whether I was the only one who ended up here."
He lowered his head.
"I searched for a long time. Walked along the coast for days. There was nothing. No people. No animals. Just this sea... empty."
The live chat scrolled at a frantic pace.
"So the inheritance triggered spatial teleportation?"
"A white head, like a fox or a dog... a Tiangou?"
"A Tiangou! The Tiangou from the Classic of Mountains and Seas! It can swallow the sun and moon!"
A message appeared from a blue-check account verified as "Distinguished Professor, Classic of Mountains and Seas Research Institute":
"The white-headed, dog-shaped creature Fu Zhaojie described was very likely the Tiangou recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. The Western Mountains Classic states: 'Another three hundred li west lies Mount Yin, where there is