"": 200,
"": "",
"": "Luo Bin already had a way to determine his bearings. But there were Blackblood Vines on the trees and vicious Moss Eaters in their crowns, so he had wanted to find somewhere safer. Then He Shen and the other two had appeared and interrupted him.
According to the Five Elements, wood corresponded to east. The eastern side of a tree generally had more moss and thicker bark. Wood also grew toward the sun, so tender branches would sprout toward the east.
Luo Bin climbed the tree. Sure enough, the side with thicker bark and more moss also had plenty of new buds, while the other side had noticeably fewer.
By now, east was not the only direction Luo Bin had identified. After climbing down, he drew an × on the ground.
West lay opposite east, while the side of the trunk with crystallized sap faced south. North lay opposite south, making all four directions clear!
The direction He Shen had pointed out earlier was not east at all. It was west.
That raised a question: was the summit to the east or west? Or had He Shen known how difficult it was to get his bearings here and casually pointed him in the wrong direction? Had he even deliberately pointed him the opposite way?
Had he merely reversed the directions, while the summit really was to the east?
Or were both directions wrong?
Luo Bin hesitated, unable to decide. After a moment, he calmed himself and began to Rewind.
This time, he revisited his memory of chasing Li Yunyi along the road when he first arrived at Floating Tortoise Mountain.
Sure enough, the direction Li Yunyi had fled vaguely aligned with the mountain's silhouette.
Luo Bin paid no attention to that silhouette. Instead, he studied