Out of the Forest

On the other side of the dense forest, more than a dozen tall horses carried over a dozen brawny middle-aged men whose temples bulged high. They circled about in an open space some twenty zhang before the forest.

Several stood slightly farther forward, staring from afar at the increasingly dim path of light within the forest. The vigilance in their eyes faded along with it. Still, each of them held his fine horse's reins tight, resolutely refusing to draw even a step closer to the dense forest.

One person laughed. "Senior Brother Ma, let's head back. This path of light is clearly collapsing; no one will be coming out today. And judging by the white mist in the forest and the state of this path, it probably won't appear tomorrow either, will it?"

Senior Brother Ma nodded. "Junior Brother Qin's words are quite reasonable. In my experience, today should be the final day of the You Lan Mu Lian restriction. We won't need to come keep watch tomorrow."

Another person said, "Senior Brother Ma has patrolled the You Lan Grand Canyon day in and day out for decades. Wasn't it Senior Brother Ma who noticed that this You Lan Mu Lian had opened early? And Wuming Hall even rewarded Senior Brother Ma for it. Since you think there will be no path of light tomorrow, then that must be so."

"Alas, this year's You Lan Mu Lian has truly been strange. It opened early and closed early. Counting on one's fingers, it has only been a little over twenty days; there is still a long way to go before the one-month term."

"Yes, but compared to the tragedy inside the canyon, that amounts to nothing."

"Actually, leaving aside the tragedy inside the canyon, even without the 'Yellow Wind' and the