The sun was descending between the trees when Jiutian started walking again.
He carried Xiao Huli in his arms, wrapped in his celestial mantle like a sleeping child. Her body was light, but her presence weighed on his mind heavier than a broken sword. The lunar mark he had seen wasn't an illusion. That aura… it was too pure, too ancient to belong to a mere spiritual beast.
—Who are you really, little one? —he murmured as he walked.
He didn't expect an answer. Only the sound of the forest accompanied his steps.
They reached a stone-paved path, half-covered in grass, that led to an intermediate cultivator village: Land of Jade Beneath the Clouds, a neutral settlement nestled between mountains, where minor sects and spiritual merchants coexisted with civilians and wandering explorers.
A perfect place to disappear for a few days.
But Jiutian knew his presence there would be like a stone dropped into a still pond.
And he was not wrong.
At the entrance, the spiritual gate guards eyed him with suspicion.
—A foreign cultivator? —one asked, noticing the celestial mantle.
Jiutian didn't reply. He simply showed a fragment of his broken celestial medallion. The guard blanched instantly.
—Go ahead… please.
Once inside the village, stares followed him. Not because of his heritage… but because of the creature he carried, wrapped as though it were a priceless treasure. Some cultivators recognized her instantly.
—A spiritual fox? No… her Qi is older.—There's a mark on her forehead… could she be of noble lineage?—Don't tell me she's a fragment of the Lunar Clan…!
Jiutian entered a discreet inn on the eastern side of the settlement. He requested an isolated room, paid with a spiritual jade without a word, and shut himself in on the second floor with Xiao Huli.
He laid her on a soft futon, reinforced with an array to suppress noise and external Qi.
She remained asleep, her breathing calm, her fur still faintly glowing.
Jiutian sat in front of her, legs crossed, beginning a cycle of meditation. But he couldn't focus.
The image of the lunar mark, her brave leap, the aura that shielded him…
—You're more than a spiritual beast —he whispered—. You're part of something… we thought extinct.
And then, someone knocked on the door.
A single knock. Precise. Calm.
Jiutian rose, one hand resting on his sword.
—Who is it?
—An old friend… who sensed the awakening of a broken moon —a serene, deep male voice replied.
He opened the door cautiously.
Standing there in gray robes, hair tied back, blind eyes hidden beneath a black bandage, was an old wandering cultivator: Bai Shou, the Sage of the Inverted Paths, an enigmatic figure who appeared only when destinies intertwined with the impossible.
—Bai Shou? What are you doing here? —Jiutian asked, surprised.
—Your destiny is noisy, Jiutian. Hers… is screaming.
The sage entered without waiting for an invitation. Kneeling beside Xiao Huli, he extended his hand, not touching her, but feeling her Qi with his soul.
—The mark of the moon. The currents of the Dao are stirring. The forgotten cycle begins to turn again.
—Is she… a Lunar Fox? —Jiutian finally asked.
—She was. She will be. Now… she is nothing. And everything.
—I don't understand.
—You don't need to understand yet. Just… protect her. Because when she awakens… those who seek her will awaken too.
Bai Shou rose.
—Sects will come. Clans. Demons in disguise. Sleeping gods. This village won't be safe for long.
—Where should I take her?
—To where her loss began: the ruins of the Silent Moon Temple.
And without another word, the old man disappeared down the corridor, as if he had never been there.
Jiutian turned toward Xiao Huli. She was still asleep. But in her dreams… a melody drifted through silver mist, and a distant voice called her by a name she had yet to remember.