Sunlight swallowed everything.
Song Chi stood on the dais, just about to finish his speech on being "second under heaven," when the sight of ten thousand people bowing before him suddenly began to fade.
The crowd, the dais, even the white robes he wore began to dissolve.
He froze, instinctively reaching to catch hold of something, but his fingers passed through the dissolving railing.
"Huh? Wait-"
Before he could finish, the ground abruptly vanished beneath his feet.
Weightlessness swept over him.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself sprawled on the cold paving stones of the Hall of Heaven's Mandate plaza, with Zhou Yan beside him, likewise just waking.
Zhou Yan's arms were still curled around something, but Red Bean was long gone.
"...Where's my Red Bean?" Zhou Yan looked down at his empty arms, utterly bewildered.
Elsewhere, Luo Qingyin jolted awake from the weightless sensation of falling off a roof and found herself standing perfectly safely, her zither in her arms.
She looked down at herself. She still wore that same simple, elegant long dress, not a fiery-red fitted outfit.
A faint blush crept over her face.
Luckily, no one saw... right?
She secretly glanced around and found the others waking one after another, their expressions varied. No one was paying attention to her. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.
Black Mountain sat on the ground, rubbing his head. After a moment of bewilderment, he suddenly slapped his thigh. "Little Sheng's pastries! Such a huge table full of pastries!"
Red Wind, who had just woken beside him, had yet to gather his wits. Seeing Black Mountain's bear face, he remembered that punching bag in his dream.
Without another word, he landed two punches, thump, thump.
"Ow! What are you hitting me for?!"
"I don't