23 Where is the next door?

An Bing Qing did as An Yu Yong said, she dried her hair and put on a new set of white clothes.

She went to her bed and sat on it.

'Now I can enter into the black sphere without worrying about eldest brother. The people who bring food know how to knock and won't barge in', she stretched her back and said, "Time to go in, I already have lost plenty of time".

"Eugh, this nauseating feeling hasn't faded". She said as she maintained her equilibrium to not fall on the floor.

After a while, she shook her head and looked around, this was her first time entering into the sphere after reading all the books of the first door.

'Hmh? I didn't appear in the room; I'm still inside the labyrinth though. It's also full of pathways like before everything went blurry when I first came in'.

She made a thinking pose as she watched the nine different paths before her.

A quarter of an hour passed and she finally chose to take the first one to her right.

As she walked, more paths appeared, though they were only two or three now.

There were no dangers in the way; therefore, she was enjoying her perambulation but after a couple of hours of blocked passages and unending walking, she began to feel irritated. She halted her steps and furrowed her beautiful brows. "Ugh, this Labyrinth of Knowledge has no end or what? Where is the next door? There must be a second one if there is a first one, isn't it?"

At long last, she shook her head and continued to walk; she really wanted to find the next door if there was one.

An hour later, when her will was about to crumble and she was passing by a path to take another one, she casted a glimpse of something white moving, 'That was a person, right?', she thought with her heart tight.

She gave a few steps back and her heart was settled but also confused, she said, "A mirror?"

There was a translucent oval-shaped mirror hanging from the foliage that sealed that corridor, ten meters or so before her.

She blinked and went towards it. As she approached, the temperature began to drop; the mirror emanated an icy aura but strangely, her soul felt comfortable with such coldness.

"Achoo", but her body not at all, she sneezed.

"Wuh, my meridians are going to froze. Brrph". She channelled her elemental energy through her meridians but she was only able to disperse a little the cold sensation.

With all she had, she maintained her rhythm.

When she was nine steps in front of the mirror, black light spread out from it, blurring her reflection; and before long, some words took form.

'-Which is the principal ingredient of the Energy Restoration Pill?'

She instinctively answered, "The Seven Elements Spirit Flower".

"Huh?" She was weirded out when her words were written in the mirror; and a second later her inked answer appeared, it changed colour to green.

The words vanished and the mirror melted, opening the wall made of green foliage.

"So, this is how this place works!" She effusively nodded and walked on.

Shortly after, she was met with another mirror; this time there weren't more deviations and just one path to follow.

A question formed when she was eight steps in front of the mirror. She answered it correctly as her black-coloured reply changed to green, opening the way.

After two more questions and unsealed paths, she confirmed she will only reach the next door until she is at zero steps before the mirror as every time she passed, she needed to take another step for the question to emerge.

Time passed and she answered question after question.

'-Is it a progressive and fatal disease of the brain that leads to a condition called dementia?'

She blinked a few times with this question, thinking, 'Oh, right. Now that I think about it, inside the first door, on the upper shelves, there were many books describing weird treatments and diseases like my black leather book. I didn't think about that much as I saw them pretty normal when I read them before; but now I wonder, do my black book and this place have some kind of relationship?'

Minutes passed and she shrugged her shoulders with helplessness as she answered, "Alzheimer".

The answer was correct and she walked through the opened path. Her disheartened self was soon overcome by joy when she envisioned the next door and all the medicinal knowledge it will surely have inside.