Awake

Zhi Luan's eyes abruptly flashed open with a mixture of amazement as well as confusion. He slowly sat upright while taking in the scene before him. 

"It's just as I remember…"

He mused.

Zhi Luan looked around again, this time, he made sure to analyze every detail that came into sight carefully.

It was a room, a little room with a seemingly comfy king-sized bed with no windows and a door directly facing the bed. This happened to be an underground room. However, the air here was in no way humid or suffocating, and the walls and the floor weren't layered with dust and aerosol particles; everywhere was spotless.

Zhi Luan slowly got down from the bed and looked around a bit with his hands behind his back. He was a young man with a slender build, slightly above six foot in height, with a fair and delicate skin tone. He was dressed in a white robe with golden patterns sewn at the hem of its sleeves, and a light blue knee-length outer robe, which flawlessly complemented his appearance, as if a radiant young master of a wealthy aristocratic family.

 However, just as he was about to take a step forward, Zhi Luan noticed something awry. He placed his hands on his belly as his eyes widened with shock. Then, they moved to his shoulders, then his neck, and finally his face. As Zhi Luan groped his face, the look of shock got more intense as his mouth gaped open with no words coming out.

"W-What… What is the meaning of this?"

Zhi Luan barely made a meaningful sentence. He quickly sought out a shiny metallic surface in the room, and his fear became reality. Zhi Luan stopped freaking out and took a deep breath to calm down and held his belly once again. This time around, he closed his eyes and focused his attention on feeling his belly. But the more he did that, the sooner his fear was realized.

Zhi Luan sat back down on the bed as he let out a helpless sigh.

"This…"

Zhi Luan fell into deep thoughts, trying to contemplate his current situation.

"There are some slight changes in the room which means quite some time has passed,"

Zhi Luan analyzed as he looked around.

"But my energy… why has it become dormant? It could be why I reverse-aged, and look so young..."

Zhi Luan theorized, but even he had doubts about his theory.

"How am I awake, to begin with? It's too soon, and I made no preparations for a case like this. That must be why my energy is dormant."

Zhi Luan analyzed.

If his memory served him well, a case like this shouldn't have occurred. This made him deficient in a plan to tackle it, making him approach the situation passively alongside random analysis. Zhi Luan tried to not get frustrated with this development. Instead, he walked around the room again. This time, he placed his hands on the wall, feeling every bit of it. This cleared his doubt that some time had indeed passed, but he just didn't know how long.

As he felt the walls, tiny motes of light emitted from them. As if brought to life, strange patterns suddenly appeared on the walls, flowing like a gentle river as the light became intense momentarily before returning to its usual stillness.

"The barrier still works, but it's weakened over time. It'd still be a headache to deal with without my energy."

Zhi Luan gently massaged his temple; the situation turned out to be quite complicated. 

Facing the door, Zhi Luan had a resolute expression.

"Even if I try to think of more possibilities, there's nothing much I can do in here… I'll have to leave and see things for myself."

Zhi Luan finally made up his mind and walked toward the door. He drew close to the door and placed his hands on it. The same patterns that appeared on walls coalesced on the door, becoming visible. However, Zhi Luan was met with resistance when he tried to open the door. The barrier covering the door was the same that covered the walls. Given that Zhi Luan couldn't use his energy, he had to think of an alternative measure to this current dilemma.

Zhi Luan gave up on forcing his way out and decided to feel the door the same way he did to the walls. He was the creator of this barrier, and as much as he'd love to brag about its durability, it had significantly lost its luster over the years. Even if he couldn't brute-force his way out, he could simply look for the barrier's weak spot. Fortunately, Zhi Luan found a few places where the barrier's power was weak, four areas to be accurate. He tactfully struck these places in a peculiar rhythm, which caused cracks to appear on the door moments later, and burst open afterward.

A wave of cool air rushed into the room almost instantaneously. Zhi Luan closed his eyes, feeling the cool air on his skin. He wasn't sure how long he had been down here, and he was dying to find out. Beyond the door was a straight dark passageway. Zhi Luan lit a fire using what he could find in the room, and with no hesitation, he walked out of the room.