Although a great sun blazed overhead, there wasn’t a burning feeling at all. Warm sunlight sprinkled down along a mountainside courtyard. Solitary Westgate reclined back in a chair, gently looking at a beautiful middle-aged woman as she wiped the sweat from a little child.

Although his expression seemed comfortable, there was always a light, unconscious uneasiness in his features. Yun Niang and Anning’s conditions were worsening. The rejection of the world was intensifying; there wasn’t much time left for him.

Suddenly, Solitary Westgate furrowed his eyebrows. He lifted his hand and the phantom of a jade slip appeared. He probed it with a finger and his eyes brightened. When he stood up, winds and clouds began to surge and the skies started to darken.

But the beautiful woman and child in the courtyard didn’t seem to sense this. The child saw his father standing up and ran over, shouting, “Daddy, come play with me!”

Solitary Westgate instantly paled. He hugged the child to his chest and said, “Anning, be good and play with your mother. Daddy needs to go out for a moment.”

Anning bit his lips. He said in a quiet voice, “I want to go together with ...