The wind stopped.
The air across the mountaintop seemed to empty for an instant. Then a tremendous suction surged from inside the archway, and the passage opened fully.
The light blazed.
Chen Hao withdrew his hand and turned around.
He looked at Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing.
The two girls stood before him. One was his younger sister, the other his disciple.
Chen Hao's Adam's apple bobbed.
"Go."
Yang Wanqing stepped into the passage first.
The membrane of light enveloped her, and she vanished into the darkness inside the archway.
Chen Siyao reached the archway and paused.
She glanced back at Chen Hao. For some reason, she suddenly wanted one more look.
Chen Hao stood two steps behind her, his expression calm.
He still looked just as she remembered... a face in its early twenties, clear, handsome features, and a gentle, steady gaze as he looked at her.
"Go on," he said.
Chen Siyao turned away and stepped into the passage.
The membrane of light slid past her like a curtain made of warm water. Her vision darkened as the gray-yellow daylight outside was cut off.
Inside the passage lay endless darkness.
It was not completely pitch-black. A faint current of light flowed beneath her feet, like indistinct ripples at the bottom of a river.
It provided the bare minimum of illumination for this space. But overhead, to either side, and ahead, everything was black.
Yang Wanqing waited a few steps ahead.
"Over here!" Yang Wanqing waved.
Chen Siyao walked over to her, and they continued side by side. The current of light offered a slight resistance beneath their feet, like the surface of half-set jelly.
This was not their first time traveling through a spatial passage.
The first had been to Guixu World. That passage had been short; a