The blazing sun hung high in the sky, and True Monarch Gu Lan emerged from an old cobblestone path in the forest. She familiarly strode into a small, fenced courtyard in front of her. Inside the courtyard, a towering Spirit Plant, reaching three or four dozen feet high, spread its branches wide, blocking off the strong sunlight.
A gray-haired old man was sitting next to a stone table under the tree, furrowing his brows as he stared intently at the arbitrarily scattered stones on the table.
It was not until True Monarch Gu Lan sat down next to him that the old man shifted his gaze. He relaxed his brows and turned to look at her.
The old man asked, surprised, "Didn't you leave a while ago? How did you return so quickly?"
True Monarch Gu Lan glanced at the scattered stones on the table. With merely one glance, the world seemed to be spinning around her, as if the whole universe was about to turn upside down.
