Inheritance

(What was Link Time? And what was shield countering? Were we even playing the same game?)

The staircase leading to Hakugyokurou was long, as if it would never end.

But just as Bai Ye thought he would have to keep walking for a while longer, he suddenly realized that his feet had already stepped into Hakugyokurou's courtyard.

Hakugyokurou's courtyard was truly vast. Even with Bai Ye's eyesight, he could not see its boundaries at a glance. Countless cherry trees had been planted throughout it.

It was currently the season when the cherry blossoms bloomed.

Normally, at this time every year, countless ghosts and yokai would be drawn here, gathering beneath the cherry trees.

This sea of cherry blossoms had even become known to the living humans. Flower-viewing events that transcended the boundary between life and death were said to have become popular at Hakugyokurou.

Yet now, aside from the courtyard and the cherry blossoms, there was nothing else here.

No ghosts, no yokai, not even the master of Hakugyokurou had appeared.

"So that's how it is. This isn't the real Hakugyokurou..."

Bai Ye came to a realization. Everything around him might have been some kind of projection. It could even be said that Hakugyokurou had been reconstructed within this unknown space, but it was not truly Hakugyokurou.

He quickly followed the path, passing the unchanging cherry trees lining the roadside until he reached the center of the courtyard.

At the center of the courtyard lay a rather wide clearing, and at the heart of that clearing stood an enormous cherry tree.

It was a gigantic, eerily enchanting cherry tree.

The cherry blossoms throughout the courtyard were in full bloom, but this one cherry tree alone had not blossomed.

An old man sat beneath it.

When he saw Bai Ye approach,