Ruins of the Liang Kingdom Imperial Capital.
It had been nearly a month since the fall of the imperial capital. The great blaze ignited by the countless Mountain-Breaking Thunder charges planted in the hidden tunnels had long since died out.
The entire palace city had been reduced to nothing but scattered remnants of walls and rubble, flattened nearly to the ground.
From a distance, it looked like nothing more than a vast expanse of scorched earth.
Yet at this moment, an enormous formation enveloped the entire area.
Countless mysterious and profound runes faintly shimmered in the air.
Dozens of core disciples from the Mysterious Divine Path Sect, all clad in deep black Daoist robes, stood in the eight cardinal positions surrounding the ruins of the capital.
With eyes closed and hands forming seals, they focused their full attention on maintaining the array's operation.
At the center of the ruins, the very foundations of the land had cracked wide open.
Beneath those fissures, deep in the abyssal darkness below, an immense demonic eye flickered faintly from the depths.
This eye stretched across nearly the entirety of the former capital. Its presence exuded an oppressive force so terrifying that just gazing at it made one's legs weak, it could unravel the minds of all those unprepared..
Yet this eye belonged now to nothing but an empty shell.
A husk that had clearly been sealed beneath the earth for countless eons.
Even so, if this husk stirred, if it broke free, it would still bring catastrophe to the land.
That was why the Mysterious Divine Path Sect was treating the matter with such gravity.
It was difficult to imagine: if this great demon were once whole, how mighty must its cultivation have been? Had it once shaken the heavens and stirred the earthly realm?
High above the formation, a Daoist priestess hovered in the air.
She appeared to be in her early thirties, with dark hair and snow-pale skin, her mature and striking features as beautiful as carved jade.
She carried a sword at her waist and held a whisk in one hand. Draped in fluttering feathered robes, the flowing fabric clung to her, subtly outlining the softness concealed beneath the wide sleeves.
Her face bore the delicate allure of a fox spirit in blossom, her lashes low and demure, yet her eyes gleamed like cold stars, radiating undeniable authority.
She was Lv Zhexuan, Daoist title Qingpingzi, the Earth-Spirit Lord, one of the two Saint Lords of Heaven and Earth who ruled the Mysterious Divine Path Sect.
She was also the master of Shen Xingzhu.
After discovering that a great demon had been sealed beneath the ruins, one that had left behind only a husk, Shen Xingzhu had realized that the matter was beyond her power and immediately contacted her master.
Lv Zhexuan arrived without delay and, with her disciples, swiftly established a powerful formation to reconstruct the Liang Kingdom's National Defense Array, using it to reseal the empty shell.
She had also instructed Shen Xingzhu to keep watch on those few who had escaped the capital that day, to determine which of them held the true body of the great demon.
Floating high in the air, Lv Zhexuan gazed downward..
Suddenly, a ripple passed through her heart, she sensed that the immense being beneath the ground had produced a faint fluctuation of vitality!
The empty husk... seemed, at that moment, to be reviving.
Like the tide, the luminous blue light within that colossal eye began to ripple outward from its center in concentric rings, then fold inward again.
Within the formation, where once only silence had reigned, a sudden gale now stirred. The winds howled through the ruins, swirling like a massive, rhythmic breath.
"The demon revives..."
Lv Zhexuan's eyes sharpened. With a flick of her whisk, she gave a harsh command:
"Open the array!"
Her disciples responded in unison:
"Yes!"
The seals in their hands shifted, and the faintly-glowing runes throughout the formation blazed into a dazzling golden light.
On the ground below, countless sealing marks bloomed outward like chains, encircling the vast black fissure and sealing the abyss below.
The golden light of the rune chains illuminated the depths for a brief moment and.. what lay beneath was not a hollow void...
But a writhing mass of countless amorphous limbs.
These fleshy growths were grotesquely bizarre. Their color closely resembled human skin, and their texture too mimicked human flesh, but their shapes bore none of the structure of a proper human form.
Rather, they looked like clumps of flesh-colored clay, kneaded and mashed together. And at their edges, one could vaguely discern scattered rudimentary features:
A face here.
A palm there.
A torso forming out of the mass.
These fragments constantly shifted and transformed, as if they were trying to mold themselves into human shapes.
At this moment, the golden light pierced them, causing visible pain as they began emitting a chorus of nightmarish cries.
It was as if countless voices were sobbing, desperately begging for help.
Yet in truth, there was no one beneath the earth. Only that twisted, writhing mass of limbs.
The Mysterious Divine Path Sect disciples had kept their eyes tightly shut, following Lv Zhexuan's instructions throughout the formation's preparation and activation.
But the ghastly wails were not something that could be blocked out by merely closing one's eyes. They struck directly at the soul, arousing a deep, primal fear.
Many of the disciples were now sweating profusely, their bodies trembling. Some began to shift their feet, inching backward, unable to endure it much longer.
Lv Zhexuan narrowed her eyes. Her expression grew stern.
"Focus your minds! Break through the delusion!"
Her voice was cold and severe, piercing into the minds of her faltering disciples. At once, they were jolted awake from their trance-like state, snapping out of their fear and pouring renewed Spiritual Energy into the formation.
But soon, even the formation began to tremble under the pressure of that monstrous breathing.
Boom! Boom! Boom!...
The chains made of runes, one by one, began to snap, as if slashed apart by something in the void. The broken chains dissolved into light, scattering as the ground trembled violently.
The earth cracked open. The creature beneath was moments away from breaking free!
Several disciples clenched their teeth so tightly they nearly cracked. Their eyelids twitched, they were on the verge of opening their eyes despite the taboo.
Lv Zhexuan glanced at her faltering disciples and shook her head.
With a light flick of her whisk, she murmured:
"Suppress."
BOOM.
The instant the word left her lips, the entire aura within the array abruptly plummeted as a massive invisible force crashed down on the land, pressing the abyss shut in an instant.
Silence returned..
The Law followed her words.
The disciples exhaled in relief before they resumed channeling Spiritual Energy, restoring the array, re-linking the chains, and reinforcing the seal.
What they had sealed was only the husk, but even that still contained a portion of the great demon's strength.
Previously, this demon had abandoned its shell to escape, a desperate, self-mutilating move. But now, for some reason, it was trying to reclaim that power at any cost...
"An ancient demon... born from the fractures in the evolution of the Heavenly Dao. It is part of the Dao itself..."
"That which defies all logic, is called demon. A true great demon is, by nature, of the Upper Third Rank. But lacking its body, it can now reach no higher than the Profound Realm."
Since the body was in hand, and the demon's identity as the Hengwo Moon Demon was now confirmed, Lv Zhexuan had full confidence that, with her strength, she could use this as a medium to completely suppress the demon.
But she had no intention of doing so.
"This Hengwo Moon Demon is not especially savage. So long as this husk remains here, it may one day serve my Mysterious Divine Path Sect."
"The Department of Shennong acts too extremely. They fail to understand the true nature of demons. Sooner or later, they will force the Moon Demon into a desperate corner..."
"When that time comes, it will be our turn to step in and persuade it."
Lv Zhexuan narrowed her eyes, deep in thought.
She looked downward.
Beneath the fissure, the eye was gone.
In its place... was a moon.
And the moon in the sky above...
Was no longer just a moon.
The full moon that had eerily replaced the sun in the sky... in that instant, opened its eye.
Everyone below, anyone who noticed and happened to lift their gaze skyward, fell into an immediate stupor.
And then, came uncontrollable, unreasoning terror.
Naturally, the moon could not possibly open its eye.
Which meant that whatever it was that currently hung in the sky was not the moon.
It was as if a colossal eye embedded in the celestial canopy had opened, casting down its gaze from on high.
Everyone who made eye contact with it instantly saw, within that azure glow, a figure, almost purely white, gracefully descending.
A woman descended from the moon..
Clad in pure white, her long dress fluttered like the robes of an immortal while snow-white hair fanned out behind her,her face was so dreamlike and transcendent that it defied description, like something conjured out of fantasy.
Her skin gleamed like translucent jade, untainted by even the slightest blemish, flawlessly perfect.
The so-called "Immortal Lady of Mount Gushe" might be no more than this.
Only her eyes revealed something different, deep, bluish pupils with crimson blood-red irises. They alone betrayed something utterly alien and demonic.
The Wind Master stared dumbfounded as this pure white woman alighted before him. She wore a faint, half-smiling expression, and reached out her hand toward him.
Almost immediately, he was lost in those eyes.
The fan he had gripped tightly slipped from his grasp.
The fear in his heart evaporated, replaced by a strange and tranquil peace.
As though this moment... could last forever.
"Careful!!!"
An old man's voice suddenly roared in his ear.
Wind Master snapped back to awareness, and then felt a strange itch in his throat.
He tried to cough, but it felt like something was lodged in his windpipe. He couldn't move.. and then came a shredding pain, growing ever sharper by the second!
A sweet, metallic taste flooded his mouth as blood surged from the rupture.
"Cough, cough, ghurgh..."
Wind Master looked down, his eyes bulging with horror.
A pair of pure white, unblemished, delicate hands had already slid seamlessly into his throat.
The white-haired woman's gaze remained cold. Her fingers closed into a knife-hand and, with a soft slicing sound, she withdrew them and stepped back.
Wind Master clutched his own neck, but it could not halt the tide of life pouring out.
Even in death, his eyes remained locked on the woman's, filled with mad, obsessive longing.
A Master-level cultivator, slain in an instant with not the slightest chance to resist.
Rain Master watched this unfold and felt ice rush through his veins., then came anger.
Demons are demons after all.
Such wicked techniques!
This ancient great demon must be destroyed!
Rain Master shouted a warning to Grain Master and Shen Xingzhu:
"Do not meet its gaze!"
At once, he closed his own eyes and began silently forming seals. He raised a dark-colored treasure pearl into the air.
This was the Floating Water Pearl, which could call forth rain.
"Rain, fall!"
He lifted the pearl overhead, and at once, black water churned within it. From the heavens, a light, drizzling rain began to fall, quickly blanketing the entire area.
Meanwhile, Grain Master scattered a handful of rice seeds.
Instantly, tens of thousands of seeds took root and began to grow, spurred to unnatural speed by the rainfall. They grew wildly, entwining with nearby flora, surging toward the snowy figure like a tidal wave of green.
Rain Master's strategy was simple: don't look, just attack indiscriminately.
With the rain's assistance, he could still sense the demon's location, he had no need for eyes.
"Hehehe..."
A sound like bells on ice echoed across the field, airy, ethereal and sinister.
The voice of the white-haired woman was indistinguishable from Chu Wenruo, save for a cold, crystalline edge like jade striking jade.
She spoke:
"Have you ever seen the moon? A big, round moon?"
Rain Master and Grain Master both froze.
The moment they heard the question, their minds instinctively answered:
Of course we've seen it.
Who hasn't seen the moon?
So big, so round...
An image of the full moon surfaced in their minds.
At that exact moment, Rain Master's face changed dramatically.
Not good!
But it was already too late.
In their minds, the moon they had envisioned suddenly opened its eye!
It locked eyes with their spiritual awareness.
In their consciousness, that full moon expanded rapidly, devouring their minds.
...
Two rigid corpses remained standing, still holding their defensive stances with eyes shut tight.
Only the contorted muscles frozen on their faces betrayed the terror of their final moments.
The white-clad woman lightly rested one hand on one of their shoulders and gently pushed.
"Plop. Plop."
The two bodies collapsed to the ground.
She stepped over them, her bare, snow-white feet untainted by the filth of the earth.
Her deep-blue eyes lifted slightly, settling on Shen Xingzhu, who alone had not yet made a move.
"You're strange... a little like me."
Shen Xingzhu said nothing. Instead, she replied calmly:
"You've already offended the Department of Shennong. Very soon, they'll send more after you. Shouldn't you run while you still can?"
"Without your body, every bit of strength you spend is gone for good. Wait too long, and it won't be so easy next time."
The white-clad woman paused.
"You're not going to fight?"
Shen Xingzhu replied, "There's no need."
"And you have no need to be my enemy. Right now, there's something else you want to do, isn't there?"
The woman was silent for a moment.
"You want to kill him too.
That's why you deserve to die."
She flung her hand, slinging off the blood, and turned away.
"But right now... I do have something more pressing."
She looked back at Su Huaiying, still frozen in place, and mouthed some words, then smiled, gently..
In that moment, she looked a little more like Chu Wenruo again.
But before the stunned Su Huaiying could move, the woman turned and vanished into the moonlight.
Gone without a trace, like dust in the wind.
Shen Xingzhu murmured:
"A little like me... huh?"
She shook her head and glanced sideways at the tense Qingcuo and Wen Si, then turned and left.
...
Back on the river, the winds and waves had finally stilled.
Mu Zhao stood atop the surface, exhaling a long breath. This body he had borrowed had reached its limit and was about to collapse.
Yet as he looked down at the vague silhouette of the corpse at the river's bottom, he still felt... uneasy.
Mu Zhao never left loose ends.
He clenched his fist and raised it for one last blow.
Then suddenly, his pupils shrank.
A rare alertness, a true sense of danger, pierced his mind.
He leapt up as the river beneath him exploded into a towering spray.
A white figure streaked past him, fingers formed into a knife hand, cold gaze locked ahead.
Blood flicked from her fingertips.
"Demon?!"
Mu Zhao clutched his neck, his hand came away slick with blood.
When he looked up, the figure had already emerged from the water, carrying Chen Kuang's mangled, barely-human corpse in her arms.
The white-clad woman studied his ruined face with gentle eyes, then soared into the sky, fusing into the full moon.
She disappeared with the moonlight.
Her whereabouts unknown.
...
"Clack."
Lin Eryou placed the final black stone.
Zhang Zhizhou sat silent for a long while, then sighed:
"You've grown, little brother."
The game had reached a deadlock, but somehow, Lin Eryou had turned the tide and taken a single point of victory.
Lin Eryou looked at him.
"Senior brother... you threw the match, didn't you? You already knew, didn't you?"
Zhang Zhizhou feigned innocence. "Knew what?"
Lin Eryou sighed and turned his head. "I wonder how long it'll take... to meet my new-old friend again."
...
Beneath the river, the currents churned, mud, sand, fish and shrimp, all were dragged along.
The Jade Wave River, rushing east into the Yang Kingdom, became too wild for boats to pass, but upon reaching Zangfeng Prefecture, where the terrain leveled, it calmed and formed a wide lake.
Since Liberty Mountain stood in the Yang Kingdom, known for its flourishing culture and poets, many scholars and nobles came to visit.
Zangfeng Prefecture was famed for its wealth and merchants, but even more so for its brothels and music houses.
On both banks, sweet incense drifted, red sleeves fluttered in the balconies. Even the air seemed soaked in perfume.
That morning, Lian Mi carried her mistress's laundry down the stone steps to the riverbank, preparing for her daily chore.
Panting slightly, she set down her basin yet as she was about to place her washboard, she suddenly spotted something floating in the water far away..
A person?!
Lian Mi blinked and her body froze.
The figure drifted closer and closer...
Bit by bit, Lian Mi's neck turned stiffly, her head tilting downward.
"I didn't see anything... I didn't see anything..."
She shut her eyes tight and mumbled to herself.
But a moment later, she felt a cold, wet hand land on the back of her own!
"SPLAT!"
Wet and icy, clamping down on her hand, and even gave it a squeeze?!
Huh?!
Lian Mi froze.
She opened her eyes and came face to face with a pale, refined and handsome face still dripping with water.
"WAAHHH! WATER GHOST!!!"
She grabbed her washboard and smashed it straight down on his head!
Wam!