(Yesterday's note was meant to say that I spent ages looking for suitable questions for the Turing test and couldn't find any, so I had to skip the process, but then I forgot to say so. Spreads hands.)
Starting over.
Cultivating amid sparse Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy.
Being an imperial prince.
Jing Jiu had experience with all these things.
So he had no difficulty adapting to the illusion inside the Azure Sky Mirror.
Still, he noticed a few things that were not quite right.
One day, while staring into space in the imperial gardens, he saw two palace maids playing a board game and placed a piece for them.
This was neither the excitement of seeing a familiar pursuit nor an attempt to display his intelligence, but an entirely instinctive gesture.
He was an ordinary person now, an experience he had not had for a very, very long time. It seemed to take him back to Chaoge City long, long ago, running all over the Imperial Palace for fear his elder brother would catch him and make him study, then coming upon two palace maids playing finger-guessing games and sneaking wine in the imperial gardens.
Only after placing that piece did he remember that this was not Chaoge City.
This imperial palace was not that imperial palace.
His elder brother had passed into nirvana at Fruitful Accomplishment Temple many years ago.
Was this the influence of the Cloud-Dream Illusion?
Jing Jiu understood a few things.
From that day on, he never played again.
Not until that winter many years later, when the Heir of Prince Jing braved the wind and snow to come to the capital.
The Heir of Prince Jing was brilliantly intelligent, born with wisdom from a previous life, but he was only