Tang Lan walked in alone. Seeing the courtyard filled with flowers and plants, his first impression was that the owner had to be someone with refined tastes.
"You're here! I've been waiting for you for a long time!"
At that moment, a middle-aged man suddenly emerged from a flowerbed not far away.
The man wore an apron around his waist and looked to be around forty. His smile was refined and gentle, giving him an exceptionally pleasant scholarly air.
"We don't seem to know each other!"
Tang Lan frowned before speaking.
The middle-aged man walked past Tang Lan, then picked up a watering can and patiently began watering the flowerbed before him.
It felt as though Tang Lan and the other man did not exist in the same space at all. It was extremely strange.
After a long while, the middle-aged man finally smiled. "Don't doubt it. We are indeed in the same space."
"It's just that our forms of existence are incompatible. You have a physical body, while we do not."
As he spoke, the man looked toward the children playing in the distance, as well as the figures laboring diligently in the fields.
Tang Lan only half understood, his face showing a thoughtful expression.
After quite some time, he finally asked tentatively, "Are you saying that everything here doesn't truly exist?"
The middle-aged man shook his head slightly.
Still watering the flowers, he answered, "No. From a certain perspective, we do exist!"
"This is the Death Domain evolved from the Rule of Life and Death, the destination of the dead and the resting place of the departed!"
"The only one who is different here is you, not us."
The middle-aged man gave Tang Lan a faint smile.
Yet those words stirred up stormy waves in Tang Lan's heart.