When the White Moonlight Holds the Script - Chapter 33.2

As if speaking to herself, Xiao Luan Wu said, “Coming here made it clear to me. That ‘rift’ can endlessly spawn demons. Clearing them only has a temporary effect. As long as the rift exists, they must fight every day.”

“Why do they do this? Wouldn’t it be better to move away from here?”

Zhu Zhihan knew the answer, but the more she understood, the more she sighed.

Remembering those who had died before her eyes in the earlier chaos, she closed her eyes. “Perhaps, they’re just too foolish.”

Before completely leaving the battlefield and entering the dark forest, Zhu Zhihan glanced back.

Corpses lay strewn everywhere, ravens circled overhead, and the snow fell even heavier, as if trying to bury all traces.

After returning, Zhu Zhihan fell ill.

Perhaps it was the fierce, malevolent energy of the battlefield that had struck her, or perhaps her constitution was simply too weak, and she had overexerted herself.

In any case, when Xiao Luan Wu returned from the second battle, reeking of blood, she found her disciple unconscious in the tent, feverish.

The elderly clan physician had just finished feeding Zhu Zhihan a bowl of herbal medicine. Hearing Xiao Luan Wu’s inquiry, he smiled kindly. “It’s due to excessive worry. She’ll be fine after a good sleep.”

Only then did Xiao Luan Wu feel relieved.

She muttered under her breath, “Truly a person made of snow.”

The elderly physician, hard of hearing due to his age, didn’t catch her words.

Learning that Xiao Luan Wu was the young girl’s master, the old physician chattered on, full of praise. “The medicinal formula your disciple brought is truly excellent! I’ve tested it. If it can be widely adopted, it will be of great help to our Lu Yun clan!”

Xiao Luan Wu was baffled. What medicinal formula?

She had only met her disciple yesterday!

She nodded absently in agreement and saw the old physician out.

In the days that followed, the demons remained quiet. Xiao Luan Wu stayed in the tent, keeping watch over the unconscious Zhu Zhihan.

At seventeen, Luan Wu was accustomed to keeping her distance from everyone including her own master and Tu Meng.

Caring for a patient was a novel experience for her.

The old clan physician was right; Zhu Zhihan’s fever quickly subsided, and she woke not long after.

The young girl’s consciousness was still hazy upon waking, her eyes misty and unfocused. It took a moment for her gaze to sharpen and settle on Xiao Luan Wu, who was seated nearby.

Xiao Luan Wu spoke with authority: “Don’t you have anything you want to explain to me?”

Zhu Zhihan: “…?”

“Still thinking it over?”

Zhu Zhihan gave a light cough: “I’m just deciding which matter to explain.”

Xiao Luan Wu: “…”

Zhu Zhihan smiled.

She propped herself up and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning slightly to one side, her snow-white hair cascading down with the movement.

“I think what you want to know, Master, is about the medicinal formula I offered.”

The Lu Yun clan’s remedies were truly effective. Zhu Zhihan felt a deep sense of physical relief. Perhaps influenced by this feeling, facing this version of her master and collaborator who had lost all memory of the past, she lowered her gaze and, for the first time, spoke of her past.

“Before I entered your sect, I once studied under an alchemist. Knowing a few formulas isn’t that unusual.”

Xiao Luan Wu hadn’t expected such a background and found her future self’s decisions even more perplexing: making an alchemist switch to blade cultivation?

She offered a dry comment: “Well, your experiences are quite varied.”

Zhu Zhihan nearly laughed aloud.

She pressed her lips together.

“Ahem. As for why I offered the formula, perhaps it’s because I was reflecting on things,” she said.

She had originally planned everything meticulously.

No matter what, gaining the trust and goodwill of the Lu Yun clan was the first step in exploring this illusion and completing her mission.

She had thought it through shrewdly. What better way to demonstrate sincerity and build relationships than fighting side by side?

It was a puzzle waiting to be solved, and she had already devised the solution, much like deciphering a medicinal formula or mastering a specific heat control.

But she hadn’t anticipated that she would be the one moved first.

In illusions, one must avoid emotional investment and avoid taking things seriously yet she couldn’t help but take it seriously, because the system had told her that all of this had truly happened, and the people here had once existed in reality.

During the chaotic battle, many Lu Yun clansmen were killed before her eyes.

One of them, Zhu Zhihan vaguely remembered.

He was one of the Lu Yun clansmen who had first found her and Luan Wu. She recalled him as a young man with a bright, cheerful smile. It wasn’t as if they had any deep bond they had only met once.

But, he had been a living person.

Zhu Zhihan was a girl who had been confined to a small, four-walled courtyard, a recluse who spent her days secluded on a mountain peak, obsessed with alchemy.

Neither version of her had the life experience to remain detached from it all.

So she made a decision: to follow her instincts and try to make a change in this illusion, no matter how insignificant her power might be.

Otherwise, she would never find peace of mind.

Xiao Luan Wu looked baffled: “Reflecting on what?”

Zhu Zhihan smiled faintly: “It’s nothing. Did your mission go smoothly this time, Elder?”

Xiao Luan Wu replied with restraint: “It was acceptable.”

Zhu Zhihan could tell at a glance that this meant she had played a significant role in the endeavor.

Naturally, Zhu Zhihan subtly praised Xiao Luan Wu, who felt quite pleased by the compliments and forgot all about demanding an explanation. Zhu Zhihan breathed a sigh of relief.

The days that followed were monotonous and ordinary relatively ordinary.

Every time the demons attacked, Little Luan Wu would join the Deer Cloud tribe’s warriors in battle. While the tribe’s warriors usually took turns resting, participating in only two or three battles at a time, Little Luan Wu was different she went to every single fight.

Before long, her terrifying stamina became known throughout the Deer Cloud tribe, earning her the nickname “Battle Maniac.” Some children even came secretly to catch a glimpse of her out of admiration.

Meanwhile, Zhu Zhihan slowly recuperated from her illness. In her spare time during recovery, she and the old tribal physician busied themselves with something unknown, eventually producing some supplies that significantly reduced casualties among the Deer Cloud warriors.

As a result, both of them gradually grew closer to the people of the Deer Cloud tribe.

Compared to the often-worried Zhu Zhihan, the Deer Cloud tribespeople were more carefree. When they weren’t on the battlefield and had rested well, they would drink and play cards thin wooden chips carved into playing cards.

Zhu Zhihan even learned a few tricks from them.

Once, when Little Luan Wu returned from the battlefield, she found her apprentice sitting in the snow, engrossed in a card game despite the harsh weather.

Her face darkened as she pulled the girl up. “You’re sitting in the wind right after recovering from a serious illness?”

Zhu Zhihan guiltily lowered her eyes. “I only played for a little while.”

She then shoved the cards into Little Luan Wu’s hands, employing the most effective topic-changing tactic: “Do you know how to play? I can teach you.”

Little Luan Wu: “…”

In the end, she sat down.

Zhu Zhihan wrapped herself in an extra hooded cloak and watched from the side, directing Little Luan Wu’s moves.

Little Luan Wu’s luck with cards was terrible, and so were her skills. Even when Zhu Zhihan explained how to play, she ignored the advice and stubbornly did things her own way. Soon, she lost all the small stones they used as chips.

Some girls nearby teased, “So even our great warrior has something she’s not good at?”

“Yeah, how come she’s not as good as Little Zhu?”

Zhu Zhihan, trembling as she looked at Luan Wu’s darkened face, pleaded, “Please say less! Our harmonious master-disciple relationship is hanging by a thread!”

The girls burst into laughter.

Later, when someone dropped out, Zhu Zhihan took their place.

By the end, with no chips left, Little Luan Wu started sticking leaves on her face until her face was completely covered.

When there was no more space to stick leaves, she swept her sleeve in frustration. “I’m done playing!”

Zhu Zhihan hurriedly tried to stop her. “Don’t go!”

Time flew by.

Zhu Zhihan’s elixirs had some effect, slowing the progression of events, but they couldn’t prevent the inevitable outcome.

As long as the rift remained unsealed, the demonic energy would continue to pour through endlessly, and the demons would be infinite.

It was a dead end.

Chief Wubeiya and Daiyang grew quieter with each passing day. Eventually, the atmosphere in the camp became increasingly somber. Even the youngest children seemed to sense the unusual tension and stopped their playful activities.

Before the final decisive battle, as if sensing something, Chief Wubeiya summoned Zhu Zhihan and Little Luan Wu.

“Leave this place tomorrow,” the chief commanded, her tone leaving no room for argument. She had grown even thinner since their first meeting.

By now, Zhu Zhihan and Little Luan Wu had developed deep feelings for the Deer Cloud tribe. Hearing these words, Zhu Zhihan felt her eyes grow hot with tears.

But she knew that the chief, who had spoken those words, was feeling even more complex and pained inside.

“Thank you for everything these days,” Chief Wubeiya said.

Before leaving the tent, Zhu Zhihan only heard the chief’s faint, almost imperceptible sigh.

With a tone that seemed both pained and relieved, he said, “As the clan leader, I had to remain at the heart of our tribe before. But now, at last, I can fight as a warrior.”

In the end, Zhu Zhihan and Xiao Luan Wu were mere spectators to that decisive battle.

They watched as the last remaining fighters of the Luyun Clan battled the demonic forces to their deaths. Among them were those who had fought alongside them and those with whom they had played leaf cards.

In the end, they all became corpses, all for the sake of a stubborn, almost foolish persistence.

Just as Zhu Zhihan had known from history, at the final moment, several envoys from the Immortal Alliance descended from the sky, holding immortal artifacts, with ethereal music drifting around them.

These figures appeared like true immortals untouched by the dust and mud, a stark contrast to the disheveled Luyun tribespeople. Hovering mid-air, they indifferently declared the end of these sacrifices in their serene, detached voices.

Zhu Zhihan clenched her fists tightly as she watched.

But upon closer inspection, something felt off.

Why was the central envoy played by Su Chaya?

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