5 Labyrinth of knowledge

An Bing Qing felt a powerful force swallowing her, she unconsciously closed her eyes. She felt like vomiting; when such a sensation faded, she opened her bewitching eyes. There wasn't much to see, just a three meter wide corridor with huge walls that reached as far as she can see on both sides: one was green, made of foliage; and the other, she didn't know what it was made of, but it reflected things like a mirror and emanated a cold biting air. The floor was made of white jade and the same black material of the sphere; the later formed a path of black lotuses in the middle. She followed the path but she walked and walked and saw no end. She stopped with tired legs but as stubborn as she was, she dragged her legs to inspect the walls to not leave frustrated.

She first reached to touch her reflection; just as she touched that wall, she felt a chilling cold cutting her soul. She hastily withdrew her hand that was now covered in a thin but icy layer of frost. She tried to disperse the frost with her energy but didn't work, in her stupor she reached the wall covered in foliage. She shivered as she didn't know what this wall would make. But such a thing didn't happen and as her hand touched the greenery, the frost melted; a hole appeared in the wall and she fell back, "Ouch!"

She looked around as she lied on her back, she was able to catch a glimpse of several paths before everything became blurry and she was then surrounded by four tall walls covered by foliage and a black door was in one of them; above it there were two lines of words, 'Labyrinth of knowledge' and 'First Door'.

'Labyrinth?' She sprang up with a puzzled face and walked towards the black door. She opened it and saw all black, she stepped in and all was illuminated by Luminous White Pearls as the door closed by itself. It was a square-shaped room; each side was ten meters long.

"There is nothing here. Whoever made this place seems to very much like white jade and black lotuses…" As she said that, she steeped on the black lotus engraved in the middle of the floor.

"Rumble", the ground shook and the black lotus shinned black light. She was bathed by a cold feeling and felt it invading her meridians, flesh and soul. She hastily jumped back but the sensation didn't fade away.

The rumbling sound ended before she attempted to open the door to go out. Clicking and sliding sounds were heard and three meter high bookcases appeared in front of three of the white walls.

"Huh?!"

At this moment not only her body was in pain but her soul was as well. Still, she heavily strode towards the bookcase to her right but her heart sank as soon as she reached out her hand to take a book out, "Hah! How can you put so many books in front of me and not let me read the contents!"

"Hmph! I don't believe I can't pull out even one!" She didn't give up and tried to take the books. The three long bookcases were divided in six layers; there was nothing to step on, and she only reached to take the ones from the fourth layer to the ones below.

After a long time with no fruit, she sighed, "I can't believe this. I'm getting mad! May be the ones above? Whatever, I almost finish the lowest layer". This was her fourth round between the three walls and she was now where she had begun but in the first layer of books.

A minute went by very slow as she reached for the last book.

"The last one", she said dejected.

"Ah!" Her heart almost jumped out from her chest; she was able to take it out! She didn't open it but reached for the last previous three books to check if she didn't pass them for granted. "Tsk, they are rooted to the shelf. I guess I can only be happy for being able to pull out this one".

All the books looked old and this place was known as 'Labyrinth of knowledge'; therefore, the knowledge inside must be something. She opened it and flipped the yellowish pages.

"Thousands Medicine Herbs, first volume", as she flipped the pages, she noted there were only tens of herbs described but each herb took upon dozens of pages. All kinds of information were listed, from their place of growth till the properties and uses they have; all were one-earth herbs but here were known as first rank herbs. She knew it as she had studied medicine before. She had read about all these herbs but that information was far less than this; hence, she went back to the first page and read it carefully. Time seemed to pass slowly but went by swiftly.

In the middle, she heard footsteps approaching. She took back her sight and looked around, "Where does the sound come from? Wasn't I alone?"

"Master, the fifth watch has ended and is time to get up. I will prepare water for Master's grooming".

"Was that Bing Nan? Is it coming from outside? How can I go out?" Just as An Bing Qing voiced her last question, she felt nausea and fall to her bed. "Huh? Then how do I go back?" Nausea came again and this time she fell on the hard floor, "Ouch! I get it now!" She shook her head with a resentful smile and appeared on her bed again. 'I just hope this feeling is temporal. I will come to vomit if this goes on'.