The Immortal’s "White Moonlight" Reborn - Chapter 56

“If she were still alive, she would never have entrusted her daughter to you so easily.”

At the sound of Wen Qiwu calling out “Mother,” the Luan Queen, who was just about to land, accidentally tumbled into a nearby pile of skeletal remains.

The shock in Yun Heng’s eyes was no less than that of the birds. The Phoenix Sovereign A-Que’s mother?

It made sense; their phoenix forms were remarkably similar.

Wait!

Yun Heng suddenly realized that the one who had flown into the gravestone earlier was Qing Tuan. So… she was the Phoenix Sovereign?!

Realizing this, Yun Heng froze on the spot, her expression a mix of hesitation and intense nerves. Setting aside the various times she had locked Qing Tuan up on Cloud Mist Mountain, she had even threatened the Sovereign decades ago when she nearly tore this place apart…

Had she known the Phoenix Sovereign was A-Que’s mother, she would never have been so reckless. Now, the Sovereign’s impression of her was likely far from favorable.

Disbelief was written all over the birds’ faces, especially the Luan Queen, the most senior among the sovereigns. She had always insisted that the Empress had no heirs; now, the younger generation was casting skeptical glances her way.

“You… Your Majesty… when was the Little Highness born? We didn’t know… we failed to care for her all these years…” The Luan Queen had served the Empress the longest, and her guilt was the deepest.

[She was born during a time of great upheaval,] the Phoenix Sovereign’s voice sounded ethereal. Her wing brushed gently over Wen Qiwu’s head. As a remnant soul, she could only manifest a faint sense of touch, making Wen Qiwu feel as though a warm breeze was stroking her hair. [She met with an accident only days after birth that nearly took her life. By then, my physical body had perished, leaving only this remnant soul. I had no choice but to raise her here in secret, so I had no time to tell you. You need not blame yourself.]

“An accident? It must have been those despicable villains from the Demon Realm!” The Luan Queen’s fury shattered the surrounding bones. The only period the Empress would call “the most turbulent” was the Great Immortal-Demon War ten thousand years ago.

Back then, the Empress often traveled alone to the most dangerous battlefields for years at a time. For demons of their level, a few years was but a blink of an eye; no one had imagined she had given birth to a daughter during those absences.

Had the Feather Clan known an unhatched Phoenix egg remained, they would have scoured every inch of the world! But the Luan Queen quickly realized that wouldn’t have been safe either. While birds were instinctively drawn to a Phoenix, other demon tribes might not have wanted a successor to the vacant throne.

Poor Little Highness, to have suffered so much.

[The Demon Realm intended to ambush me, but their plan went awry and injured my daughter instead,] the Phoenix Sovereign said, looking down at the tearful Wen Qiwu. [Qiwu, do you remember those times?]

A Phoenix can perceive the outside world even while in its egg, but Wen Qiwu’s memories were a chaotic blur. She couldn’t recall specific details, only a deep-seated terror engraved into her soul. She trembled slightly against her mother’s feathers and shook her head.

[Then do not think of it. It is no great matter, anyway, the Empress patted her head. It was all in the past; if her daughter forgot the trauma, all the better.

“But… Mother, why did I wake up in a human body?” As Wen Qiwu processed her ancestral memories, she realized her situation was more complex than a simple reincarnation. She was tethered to this Phoenix body by a thousand threads, whereas the human body had always felt slightly “mismatched.”

[The accident caused your soul to shatter. I did everything I could to gather the fragments back into the egg, but the most important primary soul went missing. Much later, I discovered it had entered the cycle of reincarnation. I couldn’t leave this place, so I had to wait for your primary soul to be born and find a way to summon the rest of your spirit back.]

The Endless Sea of Trees was too dangerous for a fragment, so the Empress used her own feathers and blood to create an avatar, Qing Tuan, to search for her daughter’s reincarnated soul.

Qing Tuan possessed the Empress’s power but limited intelligence, and her personality was more like the Empress’s younger, more temperamental self. It was only after Wen Qiwu’s soul returned and she hatched that the Empress, no longer needing to guard the egg, could occasionally descend fully into the avatar.

The process had taken much longer than the Empress expected. She hadn’t anticipated her daughter would meet a Senior Sister like Yun Heng, who would use countless treasures to raise her with such care. Had the Myriad Soul Demon Lord not attacked the sect, Wen Qiwu’s return to her true body might have been delayed even further.

The Phoenix Sovereign glanced at the visibly nervous Yun Heng. Despite her grievances, she couldn’t deny the human’s impeccable devotion to her daughter.

“Soul summoning… so I didn’t have ‘Soul-Dissipating Syndrome’?” Wen Qiwu finally understood. She used to wonder why a soul-bound disease would vanish just by switching bodies. It turns out she was never “dissipating”; she was just incomplete.

[Of course not. It’s just that the process of your soul fragments returning to your true body looked similar to that illness.] The Empress lowered her head to tidy Wen Qiwu’s messy hair, much like a mother bird preening a chick. It was her first time doing so, and likely her last, so she was exceptionally meticulous.

Once her daughter was neat and tidy, the Empress opened her mouth and spat out a bead radiating a shimmering, holy flame.

[This is the Nether-Flame Bead you were looking for. Keep it safe.]

The moment the bead touched Wen Qiwu’s hand, the surrounding filth was instantly purified.

“Thank you, Mother!” Wen Qiwu beamed, clutching the bead.

The Empress’s eyes curved. Her daughter was sweet and well-behaved, nothing like her own bratty childhood self. If not for that war… why would she ever have to entrust her precious little fluff-ball to an outsider?

This time, the Sovereign looked directly at Yun Heng without concealment. Yun Heng instinctively clenched her fists; though her face remained stoic, her racing heart betrayed her.

“Sovereign,” Yun Heng said respectfully, desperate to make a good impression on A-Que’s mother.

[You must heal your body quickly. Do not make her worry any longer.]

Yun Heng complied immediately, the Sovereign’s relatively gentle tone allowing her to relax slightly.

The Empress narrowed her eyes. [I am well aware of everything that has happened between you two over the years. If I were still alive, I would never entrust my daughter to you so easily.]

But she was dead. She knew how much a growing Phoenix would be coveted by the world. Having looked around, she realized Yun Heng was the most suitable person to protect a Phoenix.

Even if it was currently unclear who was “raising” whom, given the human child seemed much more fragile, A-Que would be safest by Yun Heng’s side. She believed the woman would give her life to protect her daughter.

Having seen their history through Qing Tuan’s eyes, Yun Heng didn’t dare hope the Empress was unaware of how she had hurt A-Que in the past. She wasn’t good at flowery words; the only thing she could think of was to swear an oath to the Heavenly Dao to prove her sincerity.

For an Immortal, a vow to the Heavenly Dao that would destroy one’s path upon violation was the weightiest of promises.

She also wondered if the Empress understood her feelings weren’t just those of a “Senior Sister,” but that she… wanted to marry her. Yun Heng didn’t dare be too explicit—not for her own sake, but because she feared the Sovereign’s remnant soul couldn’t handle the shock.

The Empress found Yun Heng’s anxious state quite amusing. She wasn’t blind to the romantic entanglement between the two, but demons didn’t have the same rigid moral hang-ups as humans. As long as her daughter liked her and the woman wouldn’t betray her, it was enough.

A moment later, Yun Heng’s cold eyes widened slightly. She realized the subtext of the Empress’s words!

The Empress said that if she were alive, she wouldn’t entrust A-Que to her. But… the Empress was a remnant soul that would eventually vanish. Therefore, she was entrusting A-Que to her.

A spark of light suddenly lit up her tense expression, like the first thaw of snow on Cloud Mist Mountain. The sight made the peeking Wen Qiwu momentarily dazed.

“Rest assured. I will take good care of A-Que,” Yun Heng replied, her dead-serious tone making her incredibly convincing. The Empress felt a bit more at ease.

Wen Qiwu gave a soft huff, mumbling into her mother’s feathers, “I don’t need taking care of. Senior Sister should focus on taking care of herself.”

The Empress laughed, pulling her wing around her daughter to shield her completely. [She is right. If you cannot even care for yourself, how can I trust your other promises?]

Yun Heng repeatedly admitted her fault, promising to heal properly and listen to Wen Qiwu upon their return. The Empress was merely teasing her, but she hadn’t expected Yun Heng to get so flustered the moment she blocked her view of her daughter.

No wonder her daughter liked her. This human was a bit wooden, but quite fun to tease, and exceptionally beautiful to boot.

After receiving many more promises, the Empress’s gaze softened. In the past, her daughter had been too passive with her Senior Sister, making it easy to get hurt. Now, the tables had turned, and her daughter was showing some spirit. She was her mother’s child, after all; she wouldn’t be on the losing end of this relationship for long.

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