The Immortal’s "White Moonlight" Reborn - Chapter 32

Wrapped in the scent of blood, Wen Qiwu felt her head spin.

“Chirp.” When Wen Qiwu woke up, the sky outside was already dark. A night-luminescent pearl sat on the table beside her, its soft glow illuminating her tiny surroundings.

She was momentarily dazed, unable to tell if she was in a dream or reality.

It had been a long time since she’d seen light at night. These days, her Senior Sister rarely returned; even when she did, she would only sit stoically by the bed for half the night before vanishing before dawn.

But today, Yun Heng had not only brought out the pearl but was even sitting at the table, reading a book.

Wen Qiwu tilted her small head, unable to believe her eyes. The scene was so peaceful and serene that she almost thought she was dreaming. Then, she nipped her own wing. It hurt. It wasn’t a dream!

“Chirp!” Wen Qiwu had expected her sister to be in a worse state after waking from that nightmare, but surprisingly, she looked better than she had in days.

What is she reading?

Wen Qiwu craned her neck to see the text. Yun Heng noticed her; the soft light of the pearl seemed to soften the gloom in her eyes, making her look as she did many years ago. Yun Heng closed the book, set it aside, and added some fresh spiritual fruit to the cage.

Influenced by the calm atmosphere, Wen Qiwu relaxed slightly. Since her sister had taken the care to slice the fruit into small pieces this time, she ate every single bit.

So the little thing likes her fruit sliced? Yun Heng watched the empty plate, wondering where Dong Shiyue had found such a high-maintenance bird.

“Chirp!”

Yun Heng looked down at the cage. Having finished its meal, the little creature rubbed its head against her finger. The gesture was poignantly similar to how her junior sister acted when she was young.

Wen Qiwu desperately wanted to ask if something good had happened. She had slept until now and didn’t know what had transpired during the day or the fate of the demon cultivators. However, her sister never communicated with her while lucid, only when her mind was clouded, and she mistook her for “Qing Tuan”  would she mutter incoherent words.

Forget it, Wen Qiwu thought. She would rather have silence than see Yun Heng in that broken state again.

Speaking of which… where was Qing Tuan?

She looked around, but there was no sign of another bird. From what her sister had said, Qing Tuan had left long ago and hadn’t returned in over a century. If it were nearby, Yun Heng would have sensed it.

Strange, where did it come from?

Wen Qiwu wanted to find it. Qing Tuan knew her situation; perhaps it could help her, even just opening the cage door would be enough. She sighed internally until her sister moved.

Yun Heng stood up and took off her outer robe. From this distance, Wen Qiwu could see even more clearly how much weight she had lost. A century of grief had nearly withered a cultivator of the True Immortal Realm. Wen Qiwu’s eyes grew hot with unshed tears.

Yun Heng lay down on the bed. Aside from her fainting spells, it had been a long time since she had voluntarily rested. The bed had become little more than a decoration in the room.

Inside the cage, the little white fluff-ball blinked. Seeing her sister finally treating her own body with a modicum of care made Wen Qiwu happier than anything else.

She assumed something good must have happened while she was out. In reality, after the elders had left, Yun Heng had simply patched the rift in the mountains and then paid a visit to the Lord of Ten Thousand Souls to share the “good news” of his subordinates’ deaths.

The Demon Lord’s weakened soul had nearly shattered on the spot, but Yun Heng stabilized him. His last shred of value hadn’t been wrung dry yet; she wouldn’t let him die.

The only thing Yun Heng had encountered was a nightmare. The reason she had visited the Demon Lord was precisely because of that dream.

She had heard her sister’s cries; how could she let the culprit rest easy? While the life-tablet recorded fragments of her sister’s final moments, it couldn’t capture her thoughts. Was she scared? Did she blame me for not saving her? Yun Heng’s guilt and remorse had birthed an Inner Demon, which distorted Wen Qiwu’s memory into the horrific specter in her nightmares.

But today, the voice she heard in her dream lacked that resentment. She vaguely remembered that A-Que’s voice was gentle with a hint of playfulness, the kind that made one compromise over and over again without even realizing it.

When Yun Heng woke from that nightmare, aside from the pain, a deep longing had surged within her. She wanted to hear that voice again. If the Inner Demon brought only despair, that voice was a faint light in the dark, allowing a drowning person to take a breath.

Yun Heng lay in bed, unable to sleep. She took a calming medicinal pill, forcing herself into unconsciousness.

But tonight, the sister she longed for did not appear. There was only a Wenshen Sect soaked in blood and an Inner Demon steeped in hopelessness.

How could the Inner Demon allow her to escape its control? Its very purpose was to tear away her comforts and drag her into the abyss.

Yun Heng woke again, her face as white as paper.

Wen Qiwu had been practicing her newly learned spells. Sensing movement, she opened her eyes and hopped to the edge of the cage. Why does her expression look so wrong? She was fine before she went to sleep.

The reason, of course, was that it wasn’t Wen Qiwu who had come to her in the dream, but an Inner Demon eager for her total collapse. It knew exactly how to destroy a person’s hope. It wanted her so consumed by guilt that she wouldn’t dare seek comfort. Yun Heng had nearly broken in the dream; even now, awake, she felt as though her hands were stained with her sister’s blood. Everything she saw was a terrifying shade of crimson.

“A-Que, I didn’t” I didn’t want to run away. I never thought of giving up on you.

“Then come and stay with me.”

The Inner Demon gripped her hand, guiding her fingers to the hilt of her sword.

“Chirp? Chirp!” Wen Qiwu saw her sister weeping silently and panicked, not knowing what to do.

Suddenly, her eyes widened in horror. Her sister had drawn the sword and pressed it against her own pale throat.

The artifact was incredibly sharp. It sliced easily into her immortal body, and warm blood began to flow. Yun Heng’s eyes were hollow, as if she could no longer feel physical pain.

Wen Qiwu threw herself against the bars of the cage with all her might. The cage fell off the table with a loud crash, the impact finally snapping Yun Heng out of her trance.

The spiteful gaze of the Inner Demon faded, and the distorted world returned to normal.

But even as she looked at the blood-stained sword, she didn’t drop it immediately.

“Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!” It wasn’t until she heard the frantic, shrill cries from the floor that the sword slipped from her hand. She felt no relief at surviving—only a gnawing, empty ache in the depths of her soul.

She forced herself to look at the fallen cage. The little creature inside was staring at her with such urgency that the look in its eyes mirrored the sister in her memories.

Yun Heng picked up the cage. After ensuring the bird was unharmed, she placed it back on the table, pushing it further back this time to prevent another fall. She stroked the shivering white fluff-ball, her blood accidentally staining its feathers.

The smell of blood made Wen Qiwu dizzy. She nipped her sister’s fingertip and refused to let go.

After a long silence, she heard her sister murmur, “I’ll send you to Shangqing Mountain.”

Wen Qiwu’s feathers puffed out instantly. She doubled in size, expressing her absolute refusal to go. Do they even keep caged birds at Shangqing Mountain? Would they let me out? It might be an opportunity to escape, but she couldn’t leave her sister now. She couldn’t bear to think what would have happened if she hadn’t been there just now.

Because the wound on Yun Heng’s neck was caused by a divine artifact, it healed slowly. Before long, her left collar was soaked red.

Yun Heng let the bird nip her finger, using her other hand to gently stroke its feathers. She used a Cleansing Spell to wipe the blood from the bird. The creature’s body temperature was slightly higher than a human’s—just like her sister’s hands used to be.

She saw so many similarities to her sister in this little bird. The void in her heart was momentarily filled by the soft down feathers.

Eventually, the bird stopped trembling. The tiny pink beak let go of her finger, and the little head burrowed into her palm, nuzzling her until it tickled.

Rumble!

Suddenly, the ground beneath them shook.

Yun Heng’s brow furrowed. In the next heartbeat, she vanished from the room. Wen Qiwu stumbled, nearly falling over in the cage. She stared at the empty room, her usual good temper vanishing as she chirped indignantly at the perpetrator. Whoever caused that had better watch out!

The tremor was widespread, but its epicenter was not at the Wenshen Sect.

Soon, a distress signal arrived from a sect at the heart of the disturbance. It turned out that the Lord of Ten Thousand Souls’ “pet” a Soul Demon, had gone on a rampage in the East Zhao Realm after devouring a cultivator of the Half-Step Golden Immortal Realm. Its berserk power was causing those with weak wills to fall into demonic possession, including those in the Earth Immortal Realm. The region was in total chaos and needed immediate reinforcement.

The fastest way to resolve the crisis was to ask an Immortal Venerable to step in. However, the Medical Immortal, upon hearing the news, rushed to stop Yun Heng. But by the time she reached Wendo Mountain, the patient who never followed the doctor’s orders had already left to deal with the matter.

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