The Immortal’s "White Moonlight" Reborn - Chapter 12

Though the medicinal bath had been a success, Wen Qiwu eventually had to be carried out of the water by her senior sister. Her legs had turned to jelly.

Wen Qiwu, oh Wen Qiwu, you’re truly pathetic. The person nestled in the Immortal’s arms scolded herself internally. She had been so bold in her private thoughts, yet she had crumbled into this useless state after just a bit of real stimulation.

“Qiwu, do you feel unwell anywhere?” Compared to the awkwardness of seeing her junior sister drenched, Yun Heng was far more concerned about the physical anomalies Wen Qiwu had shown tonight.

Why was she stumbling and falling so much lately?

“I specifically opened the Hall of Purity today and took some of the water for your bath. Did you feel any ‘unclean’ energy in your body?” The Hall of Purity was where the “Body Tempering Trial” took place; it was filled with a unique atomized immortal essence that was violently allergic to filth and demonic energy. It was the ultimate test for corruption.

As long as one hadn’t touched demonic arts, this essence was a rare treasure that helped purge impurities from the body. That was why Yun Heng had brought back its condensed essence for the bath.

With a mole having recently been discovered in the sect, Yun Heng thought a good soak would help clear out any lingering miasma. She never imagined her sister could be corrupted under her very nose, but Wen Qiwu’s reaction after the bath was so extreme she almost began to wonder.

“No, no! Not at all!” Wen Qiwu chirped. She didn’t dare confess the real reason her legs were weak, so she could only scramble for an excuse to brush it off.

“Those Golden and Daoist Master elders today… did their tests go smoothly?” she asked, hoping to change the subject. She truly wished no more traitors like Elder Zhu would be found.

“Smoothly. No issues were found.” As she spoke, Yun Heng conducted another thorough check of Wen Qiwu’s meridians. Only after confirming her sister was physically fine did she relax. She carried Wen Qiwu back to her room, which was pleasantly warm thanks to the fire-crystals—a temperature that made one feel naturally drowsy.

Wen Qiwu figured that after sleeping all day and experiencing the shock of the bathhouse, she would be wide awake. However, whether it was because she was relaxed or something else, her head hit the pillow and she was immediately overcome by fatigue. She had fallen into a similar sudden sleep that morning; she wondered if this was simply what the final stages of her illness looked like.

Since the only other recorded patient hadn’t survived long enough to reach this stage, she had no frame of reference. She simply attributed everything she couldn’t explain to her condition.

Yun Heng didn’t leave immediately. She sat by the bedside, talking softly to Wen Qiwu until her breathing became steady and she fell into a deep slumber.

Only then did a complex look enter Yun Heng’s eyes. She reached out to brush her sister’s hair back, her fingertips accidentally grazing those pale, bloodless lips. In that heartbeat, the image of her sister in the bathhouse flashed through her mind. She had seen it clearly: the thin inner robe clinging to Wen Qiwu’s skin, outlining every curve. It had been so thin that once wet, it was little more than a translucent veil.

Yun Heng jerked her hand back as if burned. A strange sensation traveled from her fingertips straight to her heart. Her reactions tonight were bordering on abnormal.

She hurriedly tucked the corners of the quilt around her sister as a distraction, then stood and left the room. Her pace, however, was unusually brisk, almost as if she were fleeing.

The night’s events had disturbed the peace of more than one heart.

Perhaps because Yun Heng had sat by her bed for so long, Wen Qiwu could still smell that faint, cold fragrance in her sleep. Not surprisingly, she dreamt of Yun Heng again.

Thoughts by day become dreams by night. Following the intensity of the evening, Wen Qiwu’s dream was exceptionally vivid—bolder even than the visions she’d faced during her Void Refinement breakthrough. In the dream, she and her sister didn’t stop at a kiss; they did every single thing that lovers in the mortal world would do.

When Wen Qiwu finally woke up, her mind was a complete haze. She sat up in bed, trying to calm her racing heart, but the room was too quiet. With nothing to distract her, her mind kept looping back to the details of the dream, causing her face to grow deeper and deeper shades of red.

She changed her clothes and decided to head out to the mountains to let the cold wind blow away the heat in her chest.

She didn’t forget to put on the Fire-Feather cloak her sister had given her. She knew that if Yun Heng caught her out in the cold in thin clothing, she might not be allowed to return to Wanya Mountain next time.

Lost in her own tangled thoughts, Wen Qiwu reached the foot of Mount Yunwu. She didn’t notice a stranger approaching a woman who wasn’t wearing the Wenshen Sect uniform or any identifying ornaments.

The moment Wen Qiwu entered the woman’s line of sight, the stranger’s eyes locked onto her. More specifically, they locked onto her cloak.

Hatred and hostility flared in the woman’s eyes. Wen Qiwu was a bit slow to react lately, but being stared at with such intensity made it impossible to ignore.

 Wen Qiwu was certain she had never met this woman, so why the murderous glare?

“Hmph.” The woman let out a cold snort and turned away.

“Princess Huaiqing, please wait! You’re going the wrong way! That’s Mount Yunwu, not Wendao Mountain!” A young disciple in Wenshen robes came running after her.

Seeing Wen Qiwu, the disciple stopped and bowed hurriedly. “Greetings, Elder Wen.”

Wen Qiwu nodded in acknowledgment, and the disciple rushed off again to chase after the Princess.

So that was the Blue Phoenix Princess. Hearing the name Huaiqing, Wen Qiwu immediately knew her identity.

The Cangwang Realm had six domains. Shiling Domain was the territory of the Great Spirits (the Yokai/Beast clans), once ruled by the Spirit Emperor. But after the Emperor fell without an heir and the Ancestral Phoenix lineage was cut off, the throne had remained vacant.

The remaining tribes refused to submit to one another. No beast was strong enough to hold the throne, so a civil war had broken out, carving the Shiling Domain into various territories.

The Blue Phoenix tribe had been the personal retinue of the old Emperor. High-level spirit beasts rarely had children, so the Blue Phoenix King had only been blessed with this one daughter after tens of thousands of years.

This princess had nearly died in the Solar Eclipse Realm. Fortunately, Yun Heng had been passing by and saved her along with the daughter of the Qianyue Sword Sect. Without that intervention, the King’s only heir would have been lost.

Guided by the disciple, Princess Huaiqing found the right path and soon spotted her mother waiting for her at the sect gate.

The Blue Phoenix King thanked the disciple and looked at her daughter with a smile. “And who upset my little princess this time?”

“No one.” Huaiqing wore a dark expression that suggested exactly the opposite.

The King knew her daughter too well. Unable to resist her mother’s prodding, Huaiqing finally spilled the truth: “I just saw someone wearing a cloak made from Fire-Feather Bird feathers. The Fire-Feathers are a proud race; they never give their plumage to outsiders. Who knows how much blood of our kin was spilled to make that garment?”

“I see.” The King patted her daughter’s head with affection. The Blue Phoenixes and the Fire-Feathers were both descendants of the Phoenix Lord and had always been on good terms. She hadn’t expected to see such a thing at the Wenshen Sect.

“Not only that, she also…” Huaiqing’s face was dark, but there was a strange awkwardness in her tone.

“Also what?” the King asked.

“…” Even though that human is a butcher of our kind, Huaiqing thought, I felt a bizarre, uncontrollable sense of closeness to her. I must have hit my head in the secret realm, the Princess decided. It was too embarrassing to say out loud, so she kept it to herself.

“It’s nothing.”

The King saw her daughter had a little secret, but she didn’t push. However, the mention of the Fire-Feathers brought up an old memory.

“Actually, the Fire-Feathers do give their feathers to outsiders,” the King said, a trace of old resentment crossing her eyes.

“Really?” Huaiqing remembered how she once accidentally took one of their feathers as a child and was chased and beaten for it.

“When the Phoenix Lord was still with us, those brown-nosing Fire-Feathers offered up their most beautiful plumes to His Majesty. The Lord used them to weave a sachet that he wore every single day…”

“Those pests bragged about it to me for thousands of years! What’s so great about short red feathers anyway? Our Blue Phoenix feathers are much more elegant and better suited for His Majesty! But those annoying birds beat us to it!” The Phoenix Lord had been gone for eons, but the King still hadn’t let that grudge go.

Huaiqing stayed quiet. Her mother’s aura of bitterness was so heavy it lasted the entire walk to the summit.

By the time they met Yun Heng, the Blue Phoenix King had regained her graceful, dignified poise. She had come to deliver gifts of gratitude. Remembering her daughter’s ordeal, she was still filled with terror; had Yun Heng not acted, she would have lost everything.

The King was generous, bringing treasures that would make a commoner faint.

Yun Heng, however, remained indifferent. She never lacked for worldly goods.

The King then pulled out a jar of wine. This was a last-minute addition she had made after running into Lu Qiaoyi at the foot of the mountain.

“I met Elder Lu earlier. She mentioned your junior sister’s birthday is in a few days. This wine is the ‘Drunken Phoenix’ brew of our tribe. We only get one jar every hundred years. It has a miraculous effect on nourishing the primordial spirit, and it isn’t too strong—it’s very hard to get drunk on. It’s perfect for a celebration. Consider it my personal gift.”

Hearing the King’s description, Yun Heng’s expression finally shifted. If the King wasn’t mistaken, the Immortal’s face had grown significantly more tender.

Yun Heng offered her thanks and tucked the jar into her storage pouch.

The King mused privately that Elder Lu was right: giving the Immortal a thousand treasures wasn’t nearly as effective as giving her one thing that benefited her sister.

Before leaving, the King added a final warning: “One thing, Immortal—do not let any of the winged tribes drink this. It won’t intoxicate any other race, but we birds only need a drop to be completely wasted. Even the old Spirit Emperor was no exception, which is why it’s called ‘Drunken Phoenix.’ If a low-level bird drinks it, I’m afraid they wouldn’t wake up for several years.”

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