*Ding dong. Ding dong.*

Melodious music was playing, resounding in my ears and rousing me from my sleep.

I opened my eyes and saw the beautiful city Kro.

The music was so melodious that it gladdened my heart.

It was as if the melodious music brought you to a beautiful sky city. There were flowers blooming and butterflies fluttering, a dreamy sight. Sunlight showered on your body and warmed you up. A rainbow stretched across the busy city, just within your reach. Elves were dancing on the rainbow.

It was once a music city.

I stood below a towering building as I watched the graceful city standing in the sky like a goddess.

The view from above on my way here had shown the towering buildings standing like trees in the forest, but my view from below now was an entirely different sight. I realized that the towers weren’t that close to one another.

Transparent trails in the sky encircled the buildings elegantly while flying vehicles went to and fro. It was nothing like the overpasses in our world that looked complicated and cramped. These were far away and built with a beautiful arc. The flying vehicles lined up neatly like cells in blood vessels.

I looked around and saw a huge square. Beautiful musical fountains stood on both sides, where water shrugged off the chains of gravity and floated in the air. Streams of water entangled, parted and leaped to the melody. The graceful sight was like a woman’s long hair swaying in the air.

The magical sight captured my attention.

By the side of the musical fountains, there were many people practicing their musical instruments. They wore simple yet elegant white shirts lined in gold or silver, which matched well with the divine and graceful music.

A lady in a light gold dress was teaching a little girl how to play a beautiful crystal violin. The little girl wore a white dress, looking just like a princess from the sky.

The lady was poised and beautiful. She was patient and gentle as she taught the little girl. Her beautiful silver long hair looked like moonlight draped over her body. Both sides of her hair were braided, the braids embellished with simple white pearls. A tuft of hair skirted around her forehead while two strands of fine crystals hung on both sides of her face.

She wore no gorgeous gemstones nor elaborate pendants, only subtle pearls and crystals. Yet she still looked like a goddess.

She nodded and smiled at the little girl. Then, she turned around and looked directly at me.

Yes, she was gazing directly at me. The moment she met my eyes, everyone stopped and looked at me from where they stood. It was just like the first time I had dreamed about Kro. Everyone stopped and looked at me.

However, I didn’t find it eerie or terrifying. I felt at ease, and faced her calmly. Somehow, I found her similar to the female spirit that I had come across in Kro.

She slowly approached me, everyone’s gaze following her. An elegant lady, she was dignified in both appearance and manner.

Walking up to me, she held my hand. “Follow me,” she said, her voice melodious like a singer’s.

I followed next to her as she brought me to the elevator in the tallest building. The observatory elevator went up at an extremely fast speed but I didn’t feel any discomfort at all.

The towering buildings thinned in front of me until we reached above the clouds. The white clouds billowed under the sunlight, the tips of the towering buildings looking like they were floating among the clouds. The sight looked just like a paradise.

“Isn’t this beautiful?” she asked with a smile.

I nodded as I gazed at the view in awe. I hoped that my own world would have such towering buildings one day. It would be a magical and romantic life to wake up among the clouds every day.

“It’s a pity that it became like this now,” she said in sorrow. With a look, the clouds gradually dispersed like white curtains opening. Then, the rundown Kro came into view.

I glanced at her. Her sorrowful gaze looked so similar to the female spirit’s.

“What do you want from me?” I looked at her in distress. “I’ll definitely help you if I can.”

“Not me but us.” She gave me a melancholic look. In the clouds outside the observatory elevator behind her, one person appeared after another. It was just like when the spirits had appeared next to her back in Kro.

“They are my people. I don’t want to see them suffer.” Her tears flowed down her cheeks like shattered pearls. Her face started tearing apart and blue light spots emerged from her face, her eyes, her lips, her necks and her skin.

Her skin started melting from the inside out. As if a ball of blue flame was burning in the spirits’ bodies and had slowly burned away their skin, features and bodies, swallowing them up in the end.

The woman turned into a spirit entirely and floated in front of me. She gazed at me sorrowfully. “What we want, you definitely can provide. But you will bear great agony.”

“What is it?”

She fixed her eyes upon me in silence for a while and said, “Relief.”

“Relief?” I watched her suspiciously.

She gently nodded her head. “Relief, my child. You are a kind person. I... we…” She found it hard to speak out, and lowered her head sadly. “Sorry, we are selfish…” She turned around and flew out from the observatory elevator.

“Don’t leave!” I shouted hastily. The elevator abruptly fell and I woke up with a start, “Ah!”

My heart was pounding hard in my chest. The fright of falling from the high sky had yet to subside.

“Luo Bing! Are you okay?” Raffles shouted.

I came back to reality and looked to the side. I got another shock. Raffles’s image was next to me but only half his body was visible, as his eyes were at the same height as mine. The overly realistic image made him look even scarier.

“I-I’m okay. I had a nightmare.” He watched me in worry while I looked back at him anxiously.

He relaxed and smiled. “That’s okay, then.” He seemed to be at a loss for words and lowered his head bashfully, too embarrassed to look at me.

“Raffles, do you believe in souls?” I asked him.

He lifted his head and something shifted in his grayish-blue eyes. He was only at ease when he was exploring science, like a fish swimming in the galaxy. At those times, he wouldn’t be shy to speak out anymore.

“As a scientist, I have to be careful but I have to give the benefit of doubt as well,” Raffles answered seriously. “I have always wanted to study if a human has a soul. But if there was, it would be a substance or a cloud of energy. If it could be transferred or if it really exists and could reincarnate…” Raffles wouldn’t be able to stop talking once he started.