Shao Kanglie always opened his eyes to the luxuriously decorated ceiling of his opulent room in Thunderpeak Castle, which overlooked the mortals of Qingyun City as the morning sun bathed the grand city in a golden glow. But today he hadn't.
"Where am I?" he thought, his eyes seeing something unfamiliar this morning—a place with no land, just fog and mist. A ball of light floated in front of him, its white glow akin to the blaze of the morning sun, soft but bright.
"Where is this place?" The same question repeated itself, but no answer came. It was too strange a place, with no land to rest his feet and no person to ask where he was.
Panic seized his body, but it evaporated as swiftly as it had sprouted. His mind didn't fluctuate, the calmness of it mirroring the land he had found himself in. The place was too calm. The miniature sun suspended in the air and the fog swirling around in a strange manner. He found it too eerie—not only the land, but his own composure too.
"Is this a dream?" he thought as he continued examining the place, hoping to find some clues. None presented themselves to him. But then something moved, and he found himself in an entirely new place—same structure, just new figures.
Numerous human-like figures dotted the foggy land around Shao Kanglie, the ball of light pulsating slightly. He felt nothing as he gazed at the crowd. He tried to speak, but no sound came—not even panic that one would expect to feel when their ability to speak had been robbed.
The eerie calm continued, but with company this time. Thirty-three figures just like Shao Kanglie, illusory and white, floated in the space, mixing with the swirling fog. The silence was calming. But then the light pulsed again.
The calmness continued without a single ripple. The fog continued to swirl. The thirty-three figures moved.
Shao Kanglie was calm, but that was only because he had been forced to by whatever had brought him to this place.
"This light," he guessed.
Then it spoke to him directly in his mind. His body twitched—pressure rising in his chest as the light left with the final say:
"Where land is split, gather it whole.
Where power is sealed, break the stone.
Where the world fades, let one stand alone."