The low-key prince summons trainees from the Imperial Household Department at the start of the game.

At 3:45 AM, the Empress's entourage arrived at the mountain gate.

Eight palace maids led the way with round fans, followed closely by sixteen eunuchs carrying incense burners and offerings. Guards from the Imperial Guard Battalion stood in formation on both sides of the mountain gate, their armor gleaming coldly in the morning light.

Today, the Empress wore an elegant royal blue palace dress, with a silver-gray cloak with dark patterns over it, and her hair was adorned only with a phoenix-head gold hairpin.

Her attire was much simpler than when she was in the palace, but her dignified air of someone who had long held a high position remained undiminished. On the contrary, her simple attire made her seem even more unapproachable.

The second prince, Zhou Xun, followed beside the empress. Today, he wore a dark blue brocade robe and had a short sword hanging at his waist.

Although he was dressed casually, the fierce and ruthless aura he exuded, honed on the battlefield, was impossible to conceal, making him stand out conspicuously among the group of monks.

The abbot and all the monks of the temple greeted them at the mountain gate, bowing with their palms together and chanting Buddhist mantras.

The Empress nodded slightly in return and, led by the abbot, entered the main hall to offer incense.

She knelt on the prayer mat, clasped her hands together, closed her eyes and prayed silently, her expression devout and dignified.

Zhou Xun knelt behind her and also clasped his hands in a gesture of respect, but his movements were noticeably clumsy, indicating that he rarely visited temples.

After the incense offering was completed, the Empress added five hundred taels of silver as incense oil money, and the abbot chanted Buddhist prayers repeatedly, expressing his deepest gratitude.

"I have heard that your temple's library has a rich collection of scriptures, and I would like to take a look."

The Empress, supported by a palace maid, stood up and added in a calm tone, "I have heard that your temple has a Zen Master Daoyan whose fortune-telling is extremely accurate. I have been feeling uneasy lately and would like to ask him to interpret a fortune for me."

The abbot paused for a moment, then bowed and replied, "Your Majesty is referring to Daoyan, the disciple of the Sutra Repository. He is indeed quite knowledgeable in interpreting divination slips. This humble monk will send someone to invite him over immediately."

He was secretly puzzled. Daoyan had been staying at the temple for several years and was somewhat famous for interpreting divination slips, but he was far from being able to be summoned by the Empress. How did this lady know about him?

The Empress seemed to sense his confusion and smiled faintly: "I also heard from the wife of Vice Minister Zhao of the Ministry of Rites that your temple has a young monk who is extremely learned. His interpretation of divination slips is not like that of ordinary monks who only say ambiguous auspicious words, but rather he gets to the heart of the matter. I have been unable to sleep at night lately and would like to ask him why."

The abbot asked no more questions and immediately sent someone to invite Daoyan.

Before long, Daoyan walked slowly from the direction of the Scripture Pavilion.

Today he wore a clean gray monk's robe, with his signature old black kasaya over it. He held a string of faded sandalwood prayer beads in his hand, and walked with a calm and peaceful demeanor.

He walked up to the Empress, put his palms together in a gesture of respect, and spoke in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft.

"This humble monk, Daoyan, greets Her Majesty the Empress and His Highness the Second Prince."

The empress glanced at him.

The monk was in his thirties, with a clear and bright face and a calm demeanor, quite different from the timid and subservient monks she had ever met.

His eyes were calm, not in a deliberately restrained way, but in a calmness that came from having seen the ups and downs of life.

The Empress, having seen countless people, immediately sensed that this monk was no ordinary individual.

"Master Daoyan, there's no need for such formalities. I've heard that you are quite famous for interpreting divination slips, and I would like to ask you to interpret one for me."

She took the bamboo divination tube from the palace maid, shook it gently three times, and a bamboo divination stick fell to the ground with a thud.

She bent down to pick it up, glanced at the fortune slip, her brows furrowed almost imperceptibly, and then handed the slip to Daoyan.

The slip of paper reads "Fourteenth Slip".

"The clouds part to reveal the moon."

Daoyan took the divination slip and glanced at it.

He did not consult the divination book like a typical fortune-telling monk, nor did he calculate with his fingers.

He simply held the divination slip in his palm for a moment, then looked up and calmly met the Empress's gaze.

"Your Majesty, this fortune slip indicates a moderately auspicious outcome." His voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear and distinct, carrying a rhythm that compelled one to listen attentively.

"When the clouds part, the moon appears. Clouds represent obstruction, and the moon represents brightness. The clouds and fog have obscured the bright moon for a long time, not just overnight, but eventually the clouds and fog will dissipate, and the bright moon will reappear."

"Your Majesty asked about your unease. In my opinion, the root of Your Majesty's unease lies not in yourself, but in external affairs."

The Empress paused slightly in the teacup she was holding.

She hadn't said what she wanted before she came, but the monk immediately pointed out that the root of her unease wasn't within herself.

She didn't express her opinion, but simply said, "Please continue, Zen Master."

The divination slip says "the clouds part to reveal the moon," but it doesn't say when the clouds will part or when the moon will appear, because whether the clouds part or not depends not on the moon, but on the wind.

Dao Yan gently placed the divination slip on the table in front of the Empress, his movements extremely light, as if afraid of disturbing something. "The moon is about to shine but the clouds are not dispersing. This is not the fault of the moon, but the wind has not yet arrived. If Your Majesty wants the clouds to part and the moon to appear, you must wait for the east wind."

"East Wind?" The Empress's voice remained steady, but her fingers holding the teacup tightened slightly.

"The east wind is the energy of heaven and earth."

Dao Yan clasped his hands together, a faint, almost imperceptible smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. "The divination can only be interpreted to this extent. To say more would be to reveal heavenly secrets, which would be of no benefit to the Empress and harmful to this humble monk."

"However, this humble monk can offer Your Majesty a word of advice: Your Majesty's worries are not in the present, but in the future; Your Majesty's desires are not for those far away, but for those nearby."

It's not in the distant mountains, but in the nearby waters.

These eight words carried a completely different weight in the Empress's ears than they did in the ears of others.

She remained silent for a long time, so long that the abbot beside her nervously began to twirl his prayer beads.

The Empress glanced at Dao Yan thoughtfully, but did not ask any further questions, only nodding slightly.

"The Zen master truly lives up to his reputation. Guards, bring him a reward."

She had a palace maid bring her a gold ingot, but Daoyan declined it with his palms together, only accepting a small box of sandalwood that the Empress always carried with her.

His gaze lingered on Zhou Xun for a moment, then he suddenly spoke again: "If Your Highness is interested, there are several military books in the Sutra Repository, left by warrior monks of the previous dynasty. This humble monk can show them to Your Highness."

Zhou Xun stood behind the Empress the whole time. He was initially quite disapproving of his mother's special trip to listen to a monk interpret the divination slips, but he patiently stayed by her side out of filial piety.

But he had clearly heard Dao Yan's insightful interpretation of the divination, which suggested that the clouds had parted and the moon was about to shine.

The monk's words were loaded with hidden meaning; every sentence seemed to be addressed to the Empress Dowager, yet there was also an underlying message directed at him.

Especially the last line, "It's not in the distant mountains, but in the nearby waters," even stirred something within him, someone who had never believed in Buddhism or Taoism.

At this moment, Daoyan took the initiative to invite him to read military books, which actually piqued his interest.

"A military treatise?" Zhou Xun raised an eyebrow. "What military treatise?"

"The temple has a handwritten copy of the 'Essentials of Military Strategy' written by the Zen Master Liaofan of the previous dynasty. Although it is not complete, it contains unique insights into the coordination of infantry and cavalry and the interplay of orthodox and unorthodox tactics."

Zhou Xun's eyes lit up immediately when he heard the words "infantry and cavalry coordination".

He entered the fourth rank at the age of sixteen and had been training in the military camp for a long time. The coordination of infantry and cavalry was a problem he had recently encountered in military affairs in the northern border.

The coordination between the Tiger Guard infantry and the Feather Forest Guard cavalry was always unsatisfactory; either the infantry could not keep up with the speed of the cavalry, or the cavalry broke up the infantry's formation.

He has pondered this problem for a long time, but has yet to find a solution.

How could a monk hiding in a temple know so much about military affairs?

He glanced at Daoyan, his initial skepticism replaced by curiosity, and nodded, saying, "Alright, I will go with the Zen Master to take a look."