The suite's living room had returned to normal, with only a half-finished cup of tea still steaming on the coffee table.
There was no wind in the Spatial Passage.
There was no temperature, either. It was hard to say what lay beneath their feet, something between solid matter and nothingness. Every step met something tangible, but no ground was visible.
Chen Siyao walked a few steps.
Light appeared ahead.
White. Brilliant.
Chen Hao's silhouette stepped into that white light and disappeared.
Chen Siyao quickened her pace and followed him out.
Underfoot... something hard.
Cold shot up through the soles of her shoes, seeping into her bones.
Chen Siyao looked down.
The ground was ice. Grayish-white ice, its surface etched with fine patterns. It wasn't smooth like a skating rink, but more like the exposed face of a glacier compressed over tens of thousands of years. Rough, massive, and stretching beyond sight.
She raised her head.
All around her... nothing but ice.
Flat, extending to the limits of her vision. No mountains, no buildings, nothing jutting above the surface.
Far in the distance, the horizon curved into an arc.
Yang Wanqing emerged behind her and stepped onto the ice with a sharp crunch.
"Huh?" Yang Wanqing crouched and ran a hand over the ground. "We're on ice?"
Chen Siyao scanned their surroundings. The arc of the horizon... no, the curvature was too obvious. This wasn't a plain.
She stamped a foot.
Thud.
A dull echo traveled far, far down beneath her feet, as though the entire expanse of ground were answering.
"This ice is probably no ordinary thickness." As she spoke, Chen Siyao took out her phone and glanced at the chat.
Signal—yes.
She relaxed a little. The Recording Crystal her brother had given her used the Psionic Band, which could