The Immortal’s "White Moonlight" Reborn - Chapter 22

The real Lu Qiaoyi had already died decades ago.

The disaster struck on what had started as an entirely ordinary morning.

The Golden Immortal Elder, left to guard the sect broke his usual refined composure and cursed aloud. It had all happened too fast; even now, he couldn’t grasp how the enemy had breached the mountain or how he had been placed under such a restrictive seal.

The more he thought about it, the only logical conclusion was a traitor within.

So many disciples had simply shown up for their morning lessons only to have their lives cut short within the sect walls. Looking at the bodies scattered across the grounds, Elder Yin’s heart bled.

The Sect Leader had entrusted the safety of the sect to him. He had promised her, with absolute certainty, that all would be well under his watch. Yet, only a few days after her departure, the sect had fallen on his watch.

He couldn’t face the Sect Leader, and he couldn’t face the disciples who had met such a tragic fate.

If he could, he would have chosen to self-detonate, taking this horde of demonic cultivators to the grave with him. But bound by the seal, he was powerless, forced to watch his disciples being slaughtered like sheep.

The Myriad Soul Demon Lord knew exactly how to inflict the most psychological torment, which was why he saved the “fish on the chopping block” for last.

Meanwhile, Dong Shiyue’s master had infuriated the Demon Lord by successfully sending her young disciple away. Consequently, she was the first to be dragged out to serve as a bloody warning to the others.

Already gravely injured, the female Elder had no strength left to resist the Demon Lord.

The Myriad Soul Demon Lord needed to harvest a massive number of souls. He had already refined several smaller sects, but their disciples were weak. Their souls couldn’t compare to the high-quality spirits found here in the Wenshen Sect.

“Whatever you do to our sect today, our Sect Leader will repay a hundredfold in the future!” A Wenshen disciple’s voice rang out, reaching the Demon Lord’s ears.

With a flick of his hand, the Demon Lord killed the disciple instantly. It was clear the boy’s words had struck a nerve.

Ever since Yun Heng had arrived at the border, the Demon Realm’s advantage had vanished. Although the Demon Lord had broken through to the True Immortal Realm, there was still a significant gap between him and Yun Heng. They had been forced into a constant retreat. While the other two Demon Lords said nothing to his face, he knew they were mocking him behind his back.

“Is everyone from the Wenshen Sect here?” the Demon Lord asked the figure beside him, who was entirely shrouded in a black robe.

“They are all here,” the hooded figure replied with a slight nod.

The Myriad Soul Demon Lord was paranoid. This operation was too critical; he couldn’t allow Wenshen Sect to leave any survivors to spread the word, as had happened with the Tianyu Sect. He needed time to refine the people here, and he couldn’t let Yun Heng find out before he was finished.

Even though his companion assured him there were no other living souls, he still swept his divine sense through every inch of the Wenshen Sect’s land.

Only when he was certain there wasn’t a single trace of life elsewhere did he finally relax. He glanced at the corpse on the ground, then turned his gaze toward the Golden Immortal Elder.

“True, your Sect Leader is a thorn in our side,” the Demon Lord admitted. But facing Elder Yin’s gaze of fury and contempt, he bared his teeth in a grin. “That is exactly why I came for you all.”

As the crowd looked on in confusion and dread, he continued, “When I refine all your souls into a shield and place it before her, do you think she’ll have the heart to strike?”

“Shameless!” Elder Yin’s neck turned red with fury, his veins bulging.

Demon Lords had no concept of morality; they took the insult as a compliment.

To the Demon Realm, Yun Heng was the ultimate obstacle. The Demon Lords had been plotting against her for years, but for a long time, they couldn’t find a single weakness to exploit.

That changed decades ago, when the Myriad Soul Demon Lord discovered that a stray “Demon Seed” had unexpectedly “taken root” within the Wenshen Sect. At that moment, he knew his chance had arrived.

The Demon Lord suddenly reached into the crowd and snatched someone—it was Dong Shiyue’s master. Though covered in blood and fading fast, she was still using the last of her strength to secretly send out a distress signal.

But the signal never left. It was intercepted by the Demon Lord himself.

As the Demon Lord closed his hand, a spectral claw of an evil spirit manifested in the air, seizing the female cultivator by the throat. Mortally wounded and unable to break free, she struggled briefly before going limp.

“Curious why your signal didn’t go out?” the Demon Lord sneered. “Because the barrier covering your sect right now isn’t your mountain-guarding array. It’s the legendary ancient ‘Heaven-Veiling Array.’ As long as you are in here, not even the Heavens—let alone Yun Heng—will know what is happening.”

This gave the Demon Lord more than enough time to refine them. This was exactly how those other sects had vanished without a sound.

“The array…” Elder Yin’s pupils contracted. Though he wasn’t an expert in formations, he knew their sect’s protective array couldn’t just be changed overnight. To alter a formation of that scale would take years of work. How could the person responsible for the array have noticed nothing?

The Elders chosen to guard the array were masters of their craft. It was impossible for someone to tamper with it right under their noses without being caught. Unless…

Elder Yin looked around. Currently, only two Earth Immortal-level Elders remained in the sect: himself and Lu Qiaoyi.

He was here. But Lu Qiaoyi was nowhere to be found.

Was she missing, or was she the mole for the Demon Realm?

A chill ran down Elder Yin’s spine. Lu Qiaoyi was one of the Sect Leader’s most trusted confidants. No one had ever doubted her. If she truly was a traitor, and she stayed by the Sect Leader’s side after everyone else was dead, would the Sect Leader even be able to tell?

“Not going to beg for mercy? If you do, I might give you a quick end,” the Demon Lord said, looking at the blood-soaked woman with amusement.

Dong Shiyue’s master forced a cold, mocking smile. She wasn’t about to believe a word out of a demon’s mouth.

“Very well. I’ve always appreciated those with spirit.” The Demon Lord pulled a small bronze cauldron from his sleeve and gripped a scythe-like weapon in his other hand.

Black mist seeped from the blade. The captured woman closed her eyes. The others wanted to save her but were powerless, forced to watch as the scythe descended.

At that moment, the sky dimmed for a fraction of a second. The sun, already muffled by the bloody mist, seemed to lose even more of its radiance.

When the world of Cangwang was first born, its first tribulation was the falling of the sun. It was a world-ending catastrophe. As an arrow representing that “Sunset Tribulation” was fired, even the True Immortal avatar felt a pang of genuine danger.

Without hesitation, the Myriad Soul Demon Lord pulled the black-robed figure in front of him as a shield. The arrow shattered the bronze cauldron in his hand and tore the black robe away.

Boom! The top-tier demon artifact exploded, and the trapped souls within scattered in every direction.

Blood trickled down the face of the robed figure, exposing the features that had been so carefully hidden.

“Cough…” Wen Qiwu felt the blood in her chest churning after releasing that shot. She gasped for air; using a divine artifact in her current state was a massive strain on her body.

But when she saw the face of the person standing beside the Demon Lord, the blood she had been holding back surged up. Her throat tasted of iron, and she spat out a mouthful of blood.

The cauldron was a prized possession of the Demon Lord. Even for someone as wealthy as him, artifacts of that grade were rare. But he didn’t have time to mourn the loss; he was far more concerned with the person who had just made him feel mortal danger.

However, when he saw the archer, his eyes widened in surprise. It was a cultivator who looked to be in terrible health. Furthermore, her cultivation was only at the Void Refinement stage. How could a mere Void Refinement stage cultivator make him feel threatened?

“How… how can it be you?” Wen Qiwu murmured.

She stared at the person beside the Demon Lord. That face was more than familiar—it belonged to the elder who had raised her since childhood, the one who had cared for her all these years.

That face belonged to Lu Qiaoyi.

She was dressed in black, radiating the purest demonic energy. But that face no longer held its usual warmth or liveliness. She stood there like a hollow, soulless puppet.

Wen Qiwu’s first instinct was that Elder Lu must have been brainwashed or controlled by those despicable demons. Forcing down the pain in her chest, she silently began to undo the layers of seals on her divine artifact.

She knew the price she would pay for doing this, but for the survivors of the sect and to save Lu Qiaoyi, she didn’t regret it.

Furthermore, Wen Qiwu had heard it—the Demon Lord intended to use the sect members to blackmail her Senior Sister. She would not let that happen.

“Do you two know each other?” Because Wen Qiwu’s strength seemed like that of an ant to him, the Demon Lord’s initial shock faded into contempt. A mere Void Refinement cultivator thought she could kill him?

“Listen to me, asking silly questions. You’ve stayed here for decades; how could you not know the people here?” the Demon Lord said to “Lu Qiaoyi.” “Do you want to go say hello? I’ll allow it.”

Decades? But Elder Lu had been in the sect for hundreds of years!

“Lu Qiaoyi” looked at Wen Qiwu with no more emotion than if she were looking at a rock or a blade of grass. To be precise, her eyes were vacant, like a crafted golem.

Seeing this, a smirk played on the Demon Lord’s lips. As expected, a Demon Seed was a Demon Seed, it wouldn’t develop unnecessary feelings. This was why they were such efficient tools.

He wasn’t being kind by suggesting she “say hello”; it was merely a test.

“Elder Lu…” Wen Qiwu’s lips trembled, her expression filled with a child-like helplessness. She realized now that this entire catastrophe was possible only because Lu Qiaoyi had acted as the insider.

But why? Lu Qiaoyi had joined the sect at age five. This was her home. She had no reason to help demons slaughter her own family.

“Junior Sister Wen! Don’t let her fool you! I know now… I understand! She isn’t Elder Lu at all! She is a Demon Seed! The real Elder Lu must have died long ago, and this thing is just a parasite living in her body!” A piercing voice rang out over Mount Wendao.

“Oh? Someone in the Wenshen Sect actually recognizes a Demon Seed.” The Demon Lord turned his gaze to the speaker, sounding genuinely surprised. The existence of Demon Seeds was a secret of the Demon Realm; he hadn’t expected someone from the Immortal Path to know about them. “That’s right. She is a Demon Seed.”

“I… I…” The person who had spoken flinched under the Demon Lord’s gaze, but realizing they were showing weakness to the enemy, they straightened their neck. “We only just found out. Because we didn’t have solid proof yet, the Sect Leader told us to keep investigating.”

“The three current Demon Lords extracted seeds from the True Demon who perished alongside the Demon Emperor tens of thousands of years ago. Rumor has it these seeds enter a living host when they are on the verge of death, stealing their final breath of life. The Demon Seed then lives on in that person’s body. Ordinary methods can’t detect them!”

The words hit Wen Qiwu like a thunderbolt. Her hand holding the bow trembled. She looked at “Lu Qiaoyi” and asked, “Elder Lu… or should I call you ‘Demon Seed’?”

“Lu Qiaoyi” remained like a mindless puppet, offering no response to Wen Qiwu’s trembling interrogation.

In the end, it was the Demon Lord who answered for her: “Yes.”

The final shred of hope in Wen Qiwu’s heart shattered. Her body swayed; she nearly fell.

So Elder Lu was gone. She had been gone for decades. All these years, the person accompanying her was just a demonic entity wearing Elder Lu’s skin?

Wen Qiwu couldn’t even pinpoint when she had been replaced. In her memory, Elder Lu’s personality and behavior had never changed. Had it happened even before Wen Qiwu arrived at the sect?

The Demon Lord, enjoying her crumbling composure, decided to satisfy her curiosity.

The reason Demon Seeds were the ultimate secret weapon was that upon birth, they devoured the original host’s memories. They used those memories to mimic every movement and habit. A newly born Demon Seed was like a blank sheet of paper with no self; once that paper perfectly copied the host’s personality, even those closest to them would find it impossible to spot a flaw.

“Demon Seeds have no heart and no feelings. They are the perfect weapons; we never have to worry about them being compromised by emotion.” On the contrary, the people around the Demon Seed were the ones who would suffer because of their own misplaced emotional attachments.

The Demon Lord had seen this scene play out countless times in every sect he had destroyed. He loved the taste of their agony and despair.

“I only have one question.” There was no point in saying anything else. Wen Qiwu’s eyes were red as she drew her bow once more. The silver-white Nine Tribulations Bow glowed with flowing runic patterns. “Did my Master’s death have anything to do with you?”

Years ago, Elder Lu had risked her life to find medicine for Wen Qiwu. Her Master had gone to save her and never returned. Wen Qiwu now suspected that “Lu Qiaoyi” was behind it all.

A dark glint seemed to flicker in the Demon Seed’s eyes. Wen Qiwu was too far to be sure if there was a trace of warmth or if it was just a trick of the light.

The Demon Seed nodded, admitting her involvement.

Wen Qiwu closed her eyes in pain. She finally knew when the replacement had happened.

If it hadn’t been for her own illness, Elder Lu and her Master wouldn’t have met with misfortune, and the Demon Realm wouldn’t have found their opening.

A single tear escaped the corner of her eye. When Wen Qiwu opened them again, they were bloodshot, her vulnerability replaced by a cold, murderous resolve. The divine artifact hummed in response to her will. She would save the sect at any cost and make every enemy who spilled the blood of her family pay the ultimate price.

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