After Faking My Death, I Became My Rival’s "White Moonlight" - Chapter 8

“Mouths can lie, but a soul search does not.”

What a coincidence; he, too, had died without a whole corpse.

Shi Qing felt a subtle shift in his heart. He took a serious look at Xia Chan, whose cold face betrayed no emotion. However, since this involved someone the other person knew, he figured he should offer some words of comfort. He cleared his throat and said tentatively, “Then, my condolences.”

To his surprise, Xia Chan’s expression grew even colder. “Condolences? He and I were neither kin nor friends. In fact, outsiders said our relationship was terrible.”

Terrible? Shi Qing thought for a moment and changed his tune: “Then, congratulations?”

“…”

Shi Qing turned to Chen Shi. “Do you know where she is being held?”

“They never revealed it. They only sent me embroideries handmade by my sister every month to prove she was still alive.”

“Give me the sachet you just received. Are you certain it was embroidered by her? How long ago did you receive it?”

“I recognize her needlework; it is definitely her handiwork. I received it four days ago. To threaten me into planning tonight’s events, they specifically sent a new one.”

“Four days. That isn’t too long to be away from the original owner. Give it to me; I will try a tracking array.”

Shi Qing took the sachet and was about to form a hand seal when a hand reached out from behind and gripped his arm. Xia Chan said, “I will do it. Your body is still very weak.”

Shi Qing asked, “You know how to do this too?”

“Of course.” With that, Xia Chan took the sachet from Shi Qing’s hand and formed a seal with his right hand. Instantly, a flash of golden light appeared. Golden threads wound around the sachet several times before slowly extending in one direction, emitting a faint glow.

Watching Xia Chan execute the seal so skillfully, Shi Qing nodded approvingly. He had thought Xie Ciyou’s excuse about leaving Xia Chan behind to “exchange array techniques” was just a random cover story, but Xia Chan’s skills were indeed impressive.

“East?” Shi Qing looked in the direction the golden thread pointed. “Let us go.”

Releasing the Soul-Binding Array on Chen Shi, Shi Qing said, “Stay here. Go back later to report the situation to the Qingyun Sect.” He paused. “Do not play any more tricks.”

But Chen Shi replied, “Please let me go with you. If I can successfully save my sister, I will return to face my punishment. If not,” he knelt down and kowtowed heavily toward Shi Qing and Xia Chan.

Shi Qing stepped aside to avoid the gesture; he did not fall for that kind of thing. However, time was tight. They needed to strike quickly before the enemy realized what had happened here.

“Fine, just do not hold us back,” Shi Qing said, walking toward the tree. It seemed the black shadows had not done anything to Senior Brother Jiang and the others yet; they were truly just unconscious. He raised his hand to cast a protective barrier.

Behind him, Xia Chan said, “I have already sent a message for the Chaowu Pavilion disciples to come and handle the aftermath.”

Shi Qing was indeed worried that reporting to the Qingyun Sect would cause too much commotion and alert the other side. They needed to delay the enemy’s knowledge of this battle for as long as possible. With the help of the Chaowu Pavilion, they would not have to alarm the Qingyun Sect, and Senior Brother Jiang’s group would be safer.

Shi Qing decided to take back his earlier thought that Xie Ciyou and Xia Chan were unreliable.

“It seems you are quite reliable after all,” Shi Qing said with a gratified smile toward Xia Chan.

“After all?” Xia Chan walked toward the three black shadows trapped on the ground by the Soul-Binding Array and said indifferently, “It seems you thought I was unreliable before.”

“Uh,”

The bound shadows lay on the ground, unable to move. As Xia Chan approached, before they could react, he raised his index finger and tapped the forehead of one shadow from a distance.

A wisp of spiritual energy emerged from his fingertip, burrowing into the shadow’s forehead like a thread. The shadow stiffened, then began to tremble violently. Even through the black mist, one could feel the heart-wrenching pain he was enduring. Yet, the shadow could not make a sound; Xia Chan had placed a Silence Spell on all of them the moment he raised his hand.

Shi Qing had momentarily forgotten that direct soul searching might yield clues about Chen Shi’s sister.

Soul searching, as the name implies, is the extraction of information from within the soul. However, the soul is a very private entity and is extremely repulsed by external divine sense. Forcing a search through a soul is like taking a knife and stirring it around inside someone’s brain.

It was cruel; it was usually something only demons or evil cultivators did.

Truly worthy of the Chaowu Pavilion; they only care about being fast, accurate, and ruthless, Chen Shi thought, a chill running down his spine as he watched Xia Chan’s cold, composed face.

Shi Qing, on the other hand, did not feel sorry for them at all. He was kind-hearted, but he was not a pushover; these shadows had intended to soul-search him just moments ago.

The shadow finally stopped trembling and breathed his last under Xia Chan’s hand. The other shadows nearby shivered, unable to speak but struggling to make any sound they could.

“They seem to have something to say,” Chen Shi said weakly.

“It is unnecessary,” Xia Chan replied. He did not look at Chen Shi but instead lifted his gaze to glance at Shi Qing, saying coldly, “Mouths can lie, but a soul search does not.”

Suddenly met with such a frigid glance, Shi Qing felt an unprovoked sense of dread. He remembered Xie Ciyou’s sour expression in the Qingyun Hall. Perhaps Xie Ciyou really had instructed Xia Chan to find an opportunity to soul-search him. Thinking this, Shi Qing shivered slightly.

As the third shadow collapsed, Xia Chan stood up.

Chen Shi asked, “How is it?”

In the eastern Linhai City, the moon hung high in the sky, and the bustling city was sinking into a sweet slumber.

The City Lord of Linhai had fallen into demonic possession, and the City Lord’s manor was under lockdown, causing temporary panic. The Chaowu Pavilion had left the city’s internal affairs to the immortal sects to handle; they were only responsible for exorcising demons and defending the Way, not participating in sect management.

The one who had taken over Linhai City was the Feng Clan of the Tianji Sect, one of the five great families among the “Three Pillars and Five Sects.”

The Tianji Sect specialized in mechanical arrays. They possessed a mechanical array tower they were very proud of, called the Xuanji Tower, also known as the Ninety-Nine Story Tower.

The Ninety-Nine Story Tower was created by the ancestor of the Tianji Sect. It gathered the arrays developed through generations of the sect’s hard work and served as a cultivation site for disciples. The new Sect Master was said to be a rare array genius, reaching the ninety-ninth floor in just ten years.

Back then, the sixteen-year-old Shi Qing had left the Chaowu Pavilion and was obsessed with the path of arrays. Passing by the Tianji Sect, he decided on a whim to pay a visit. At that time, the old Sect Master had never heard of Immortal Shuangyu practicing arrays and was terrified that he might be accidentally injured by the mechanisms inside the tower.

Two months later, when Shi Qing emerged after breaking through the ninety-ninth floor, the old Sect Master stood outside the tower in total shock.

After clearing the tower, Shi Qing felt that the Tianji Sect’s arrays were indeed profound and had gained much. He happily expressed his desire to stay for a while to exchange techniques with the disciples. Naturally, the old Sect Master had no reason to refuse.

However, a month later, Shi Qing was “escorted” out by a Tianji Sect whose collective “Dao heart” had been shattered by his brilliance.

Avoiding the Tianji Sect disciples patrolling the city, the three stopped in front of an unremarkable embroidery shop in Linhai City’s South Market. The glow from the sachet in Shi Qing’s hand turned into countless strands, all drifting toward the shop named “Jinxiu Embroidery Workshop.”

Shi Qing’s body was still weak. Without using his eye techniques, he could not see anything unusual about this ordinary shop. Since Chen Shi and Xia Chan were there, he decided to preserve his meager spiritual power.

Xia Chan stood a short distance away, pressing two fingers together in front of him. A message jade butterfly from the Chaowu Pavilion glowed, fluttering around his long, elegant fingers. The moment the light dissipated, he looked up and met Shi Qing’s expectant gaze.

“Did you get information from your fellow disciples in Linhai City?” Shi Qing asked.

“Yes. This embroidery shop is under the name of a distant relative of the Linhai City housekeeper. They have not had time to investigate this place yet.”

“Makes sense. As the City Lord, Dongfang Yuqing has many properties. It has only been a few days; it is hard to find this place so quickly,” Shi Qing said. “Can you see anything strange from the outside?”

“I cannot see anything,” Chen Shi shook his head.

Xia Chan said, “Let us just go in.”

At the very least, it looked normal on the outside; it was truly a case of “hiding in plain sight.” No one would expect such a small embroidery shop to hold another world within.

Unfortunately, after searching the shop, they found no sign of Chen Shi’s sister; they did not find even a single person.

The three gathered in the backyard, all shaking their heads in failure. Yet, the sachet continued to emit a faint glow toward the surroundings. While they hesitated, the sensation of demonic energy in Shi Qing’s body surfaced again, though it was much fainter than before. If he had not stopped moving, he might not have noticed it at all.

Following his intuition, he led the group to a water well in a corner of the backyard. Peering inside, the moon-filled water reflected the three figures.

Shi Qing opened his palm over the well, and a faint golden light drifted into it. Ripples spread across the surface of the ancient well, and slowly, a phantom of a bright moon appeared.

Only the moon was visible; nothing else.

Chen Shi cried out in surprise, “Our reflections are gone!”

“The Mirror Flower, Water Moon Illusion,” Shi Qing answered. “What we see now is the sky inside the illusion. Since we are not inside it yet, our reflections do not appear.”

Xia Chan reached out toward the water’s surface, his knuckles well-defined under his porcelain-white skin. The rippling water instantly turned into a smooth mirror.

Xia Chan jumped straight in, disappearing into the mirror, and Shi Qing followed immediately. Watching their hesitation-free actions, Chen Shi gritted his teeth and leapt in after them.

The water surface returned to its original state, showing a bright moon and, eventually, three figures appearing one after another.

Shi Qing climbed toward the edge of the well. As he reached out, a hand gripped his; it felt like cool jade.

Pulled up from the well, Shi Qing held onto Xia Chan’s hand as the latter tried to withdraw it and asked seriously, “Tell me honestly, how high is your cultivation level?” He had wanted to ask for a while.

Xia Chan glanced at his captured hand. “Is it important?”

“Of course! I was worried you could not handle those black shadows, but you came out completely unscathed.” Shi Qing said with a hint of dissatisfaction, “Hiding your cultivation, do you not consider me a friend?”

Xia Chan remained unmoved. “Friend?”

Shi Qing: “Yeah. Or do you look down on me and do not want to be my friend?”

Xia Chan paused, his expression looking somewhat solemn. “No, I do not ‘not want to’.”

Shi Qing had not even reacted before Chen Shi climbed up as well, so Shi Qing dropped the subject.

Looking around, the embroidery shop looked exactly like the one outside the illusion. There was the scent of people.

The shop was not large, containing twelve rooms. Nine of them were occupied. They split up to search, and finally, Xia Chan carried someone out. Chen Shi looked and cried out excitedly, “It is my sister!” He took her and checked her over. “She seems to be in a deep sleep; I cannot see any immediate problem.”

“Let us get everyone out of here first. They might all be trapped in the illusion.” After Shi Qing spoke, the three moved into action. Xia Chan handled the carrying, while Chen Shi went back and forth at the well to bring people out.

Shi Qing, however, sat by the well, lost in thought. He occasionally looked toward the shop’s exterior. Chen Shi and Xia Chan did not seem to notice, but he knew there was a faint, intermittent demonic energy coming from outside the shop.

It was a strange feeling; it was like an intuition, an instinct. He had realized since the first danger in the forest that his sensitivity to demonic energy was exceptionally strong, and it was a primal reaction. That familiar demonic energy seemed to specifically attract him.

If I open the door to the shop, what will be outside? An illusion of the entire Linhai City? What would be inside the City Lord’s manor, thinking this, Shi Qing unconsciously walked to the door. He raised his hand, and just as he was about to lift the latch, a hand suddenly appeared beside him, gripping his wrist.

“Do not open it,” Xia Chan said.

Shi Qing snapped back to reality. “Can you feel what is outside the door?”

“What is it? Demonic energy?” Xia Chan asked.

“Yeah, I think so. I am not sure,” Shi Qing said vaguely. He did not know if he could tell Xia Chan, or how to explain how someone with low cultivation could sense demonic energy that even they could not.

If Xia Chan told Xie Ciyou, would he be dragged off for a soul search?

Xia Chan said calmly, “I understand. Go back with Chen Shi first. Once you are out of the illusion, release this. The Chaowu Pavilion people will meet you.”

A white jade piece, thin as a cicada’s wing, was placed in Shi Qing’s palm. It was crystal clear, shaped like a butterfly, and pulsed with a dark golden light. This was a message jade butterfly from the Chaowu Pavilion, and the one in his hand was of a very high grade. He had only ever seen Xie Ciyou use one like it.

Inside the illusion, the moonlight was hazy. Shi Qing looked at the golden jade butterfly in his hand, a layer of coldness settling over his face from the moon’s glow. He looked at Xia Chan seriously and said, “I know who you are now.”

At those words, a flash of stiffness appeared on Xia Chan’s face. He glanced at the jade butterfly and said, “This is,”

“You are Xie Ciyou’s personal disciple, are you not?”

Shi Qing looked entirely serious, carrying a hint of pride at having “unmasked” the other. “No wonder your cultivation is so high at such a young age, and your personality is carved from the same mold as your master.”

“…”

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