After an indeterminate amount of time, he vaguely saw something blue drifting slowly overhead. When his vision cleared, he froze in place—there before him was a lithe, blue-skinned woman gliding through the air, her slender waist and legs as weightless as thought itself. She laughed at his stunned expression.

Luzong stared at these small angels, their pale translucent skin testing his willpower. Soon they vanished into the ether. He tried to move and found himself light as a feather, feeling an inexplicable euphoria. When he glanced around, no one else was present. *This must be a dream,* he thought. Please don't wake me yet.

The women returned shortly after, each carrying woven baskets of unknown contents. Luzong's mouth watered at their sultry figures and scanty attire. The girls tittered among themselves as they hovered over him, scattering blue petals from the baskets—roses, peonies, and white bloomed around his suspended form.

They disappeared again before he could beg for more services, leaving him drifting alone in the void. A sudden sensation of tiny hands massaging his entire body made him shudder violently. When he finally managed to stand, a nude woman was pressed against his back performing the massage. His breath caught in his throat—he tried to ask what was happening but found himself unable to speak.

The smooth skin sliding across his flesh became unbearable torture as his limbs remained paralyzed like a corpse's. *Corpse?* The thought sent panic through him—had he been possessed by a ghost? But the sensation felt too pleasurable, and he surrendered to drifting consciousness until awakened by distant noise.

The blue mist had vanished when he stirred again, finding himself floating in their original pit. His limbs now moved freely as he kicked toward solid ground like swimming through water. "Wang'er! Maxiong! Han Chong Lüsha! Wake up!" he shouted at the others still dreaming.

"Mm... was just relaxing," Wang muttered groggily, blinking awake with a dazed expression.

"How did you sleep so well?" Luzong asked suspiciously.

"Dreamed of beautiful women giving me baths and massages—until *you* woke me up," Wang grumbled.

Maxiong stared blankly at Wang. "You actually dreamed about those blue-skinned women?"

"Hey, don't think I had similar fantasies too," Luzong said warily, then pointed to floating blue petals around them. "Our bath party is real!"

Han Chong frowned suddenly. "Luzong did anything... inappropriate?"

"Not a thing!" Luzong insisted immediately.

"Then you tried to move?" Han pressed.

"Well..." Luzong trailed off, "...the corpse *tried* to move me." Maxiong and Wang shared knowing glances at the domesticated tone in his voice.

"We should swim toward shore," Luzong urged. "This air feels just as dense as water."

They propelled themselves forward through the ruins until they emerged from the vast crater. "Good grief, this drop would break our bones!" Han gasped. Maxiong noticed a blue butterfly circling them and called out excitedly—"Luzong! Look at that life sign!"

"This doesn't necessarily mean we're in another dimension," Luzong countered as Maxiong spat dismissively.

Hours passed with no end to the endless ruins. Just when despair threatened, Luzong tried boosting morale: "We must be close to finding the Queen's chamber now. Those bath attendants would never mislead us!"

Maxiong scoffed at this optimism. Their arguments faded into silence as daylight brought nothing but blue butterflies flickering like phantom sparks.

"These silk robes must mean we've passed some test," Luzong insisted when they found the floating garments. Maxiong claimed credit for collecting them, walking ahead with arrogant swagger until Wang suddenly collapsed screaming from an invisible slap to his face.