The Black Gem floating in midair suddenly lit up.
It was as if a thorn had drilled out of the gemstone—thin as a hair, radiating a crystalline glow—and stabbed straight into the pitch-black world outside. Faintly, there seemed to be a tearing sound coming from the void.
For no reason, Little Jade thought of the tale of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.
The Queen Mother of the West had drawn her hairpin across the sky, carving open a dazzling Milky Way.
Right now, she had that same powerful sense of déjà vu.
The thorn emerging from the gemstone kept poking upward, forcibly cutting a rising crack through the heavy black backdrop surrounding them.
White light shone through the crack.
It was not the pale passage through which "death" had taken her earlier, but the light she felt every day inside that goblet-shaped Brass Building beyond the Void Cavity.
It was the light of the Xuanhuang Small World.
The instant she realized this, she felt endless light flood her eyes. A massive stone gate, seemingly built from white marble, slowly took shape amid the radiance. There was no frame or pillars, only a lone door standing in the light.
Just as she looked at it,
the stone gate seemed to be pushed by her gaze and slowly opened.
This was a door leading outside. The thought flashed through Little Jade's mind, and at the same time, she realized that as long as she stepped into the crack emitting warm light and passed through the stone gate, she could return to the real world.
The Black Cat took two steps back.
It avoided that beam of light.
Only one amber-colored eye remained, gleaming in the darkness.
Little Jade hesitated and did not immediately step into the crack.
"—What are you waiting