The moment of tilting down

The sweltering heat was like a sun rising stealthily within a dream; the warmth climbed wordlessly over her entire body, coaxing her eyes open.

“It’s so hot…” Xu Feng murmured as she sat up. She brushed aside her heavy, disheveled hair and touched her face, noticing the beads of sweat.

What’s going on? Was there a power outage?

Xu Feng looked toward the air conditioner. The vent slats were stuck in place; it seemed the Dream Protection Bureau had suffered a sudden internal power failure.

“Ugh… I can’t take it!” Xu Xiaoyu suddenly kicked her legs up and slammed them against the bed. She sat bolt upright as well, rubbing her eyes as she looked at the equally groggy Xu Feng.

“The power’s out. What terrible timing.” Xu Feng felt her eyelids weighing a ton. She had been in her deepest sleep, only to be jolted awake by the heat.

“Tch… I’m going to see what’s happening outside. Why would the Bureau suddenly lose power?” Xu Xiaoyu turned to put on her shoes, and Xu Feng followed her out of bed. An indistinct restlessness stirred in her heart; something felt wrong.

“I hope nothing big has happened.”

“Weijiu, you don’t actually have to come. If something big happens at the Bureau, our all-powerful Director will be the first one to handle it.”

Xu Xiaoyu wasn’t particularly worried. She walked to the door and gripped the handle, but just as she was about to turn it, a violent tremor erupted beneath their feet!

Rumble! Hummm!

It sounded like a pent-up volcano erupting, mingled with the screech of snapping metal and the shattering of concrete!

“Weijiu! Get over here!” Sensing imminent danger, Xu Xiaoyu reached into thin air; her magic wand materialized instantly in her palm.

“What’s happening?” Xu Feng was still a bit dazed, but Xiao Hei had already climbed up the back of her head, immediately transforming into wing-form to lift her into the air.

Boom!

The floor beneath Xu Feng and Xu Xiaoyu finally succumbed to the pressure. Terrifying fissures spread rapidly, and the moment they hit the walls, a horrific force caused the entire room to invert!

Crash! Bang!

The bed they had been sleeping in just moments ago was flipped over, plummeting toward the ceiling along with the rest of the household items under the pull of gravity!

Black and white, square and round—among the rain of falling objects, Xiao Hei guided Xu Feng through the gaps, ensuring she didn’t take a single hit.

A piercing, shrill sound erupted, like thousands of plates shattering at once, followed by a surge of smoke that rolled in like a tsunami.

Only when everything was buried below like a heap of refuse did a haunting silence echo through the capsized space.

Xu Feng stared blankly at the dust-filled room, and in her daze, she realized someone was missing.

Where’s Xu Xiaoyu?!

“Xu Xiaoyu! Xu Xiaoyu! Xiao Hei, get rid of this smoke!” Xu Feng cried out in a panic, her hands and feet trembling as she reached out blindly. she was terrified!

Xiao Hei beat its wings with force, and a beam of blue light hidden beneath the dust finally flickered into view.

It was where the door had been.

“Xiao Hei, over there!” Xu Feng pointed, her legs itching to sprint toward it!

“I’m okay! Weijiu!”

Xu Feng’s anxious longing finally received an answer. The dust was pushed back in a hemispherical wave by a surge of blue light, clearing the field of vision.

At the door’s position hung a pale blue sphere of energy. It resembled a honeycomb; inside, one could dimly see Xu Xiaoyu, who had already completed her transformation. She floated within the nest, and with a squeeze of her hands, she tapped her wand against the sphere as if popping a bubble.

Ice crystals shattered, and Xu Xiaoyu flew out. She looked at Xu Feng’s face—it was dirty, smudged with ash and debris.

“Are you hurt anywhere? I’ll take you to get treated,” Xu Xiaoyu asked worriedly. She was, after all, an A-rank member; she had the capacity to handle such emergencies. But Weijiu was different—as a B-rank, she could have been seriously injured.

“Ugh!” Xu Feng lunged forward into a hug. Xu Xiaoyu was startled by the sudden movement, but as she felt Weijiu trembling in her arms, she assumed the girl was simply traumatized by the shock.

“I’m here, I’m here. I won’t let you get hurt. I am your senior, after all.” Xu Xiaoyu reached out to cradle Xu Feng’s head, stroking her hair repeatedly to soothe her fear.

On Xu Feng’s side, she had indeed been afraid—but not for her own safety. She was terrified that her sister Xiaoyu might have been in danger.

“You can’t cry right now. I need to get you out of here; the Bureau is too dangerous at the moment.” Xu Xiaoyu looked up at the “floor.” The monstrous force that had overturned the rooms inside the Bureau surely signaled a catastrophic event.

“Mm… okay.” Xu Feng bit her lip, stemming the tears at the corners of her eyes. She slowly released her hold and stepped back. Xu Xiaoyu turned, pointing her wand toward the door like a sword.

“We have to break out together. Stay close to me; I’ll clear the path,” Xu Xiaoyu instructed. Xu Feng flew up, hovering behind her.

“If you’re afraid of falling behind, you can grab onto my clothes. This big bow is very sturdy.”

“Okay.”

Xu Feng carefully grabbed the ribbons of the bow, wrapping them a few times around her wrist. Only then did she feel a slight sense of security. She looked at Xu Xiaoyu and nodded, ready to go.

“Then let’s begin! Glacial Transit!” Xu Xiaoyu chanted a magical incantation. Snow suddenly began to drift in front of her, the flakes congealing into a shimmering crystal shield large enough to cover both of them.

Xu Feng felt a sudden pull on her hand, and her vision was dragged forward at high speed!

Bang!

The shield in front of Xu Xiaoyu smashed the door open, revealing a hallway in absolute shambles. Power lines hung in tangled webs, sparking with electricity; scattered documents clung to warped pillars, and several cleaning buckets were embedded into the cracked walls.

What was once a level path had turned into a vertical shaft, but fortunately, both Xu Feng and Xu Xiaoyu could fly.

Whoosh!

Chaos swirled around them as they flew upward. The crystalline shield was incredibly hard, battering aside anything that blocked their path.

Looking at the Bureau, which had changed so drastically overnight, Xu Feng’s heart tightened. She remembered what that “Boss” had said.

Do I really have to enter a dream again? Where will the Dream Gate open?

“Weijiu! There’s a blockage at the corner, get ready to turn!” Xu Xiaoyu suddenly slowed down to warn her. Xu Feng gripped the fabric tighter.

“I know!”

The two figures left behind trails of shimmering snowflakes as they made a sudden left turn at the very top. The path there became a horizontal corridor again, though the “ground” they could stand on was a cracked wall. Looking ahead, all they saw was darkness—piles of fallen earth!

“This is the corridor we came through? The impact reached this far?!” Xu Xiaoyu landed and stood firm, unable to believe her eyes. It was as if a portion of the Dream Protection Bureau had been flipped over. How could such a massive spatial distortion even be possible?

Xu Feng saw it too. She looked at the surrounding darkness and then up at the ceiling-wall above; the suffocating pressure of it all made it difficult to even draw breath.