When the White Moonlight Holds the Script - Chapter 36

Luan Wu raised her blade, pointing it from afar at the envoys of the Immortal Alliance.

As if by some unspoken declaration of war, those envoys standing atop the clouds shed their veneer of immortal grace and serene elegance, their faces twisting into the visages of tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves as they lunged toward Luan Wu.

In an instant, the world seemed to shift in hue. Dark clouds churned violently, and a fierce blizzard threatened to swallow everything on the ground. A myriad of magical artifacts spears, halberds, mirrors, silk ribbons burst forth, their multicolored streams of spiritual energy converging on Luan Wu.

On the other side, Zhu Zhihan was not idle either.

Just moments before, black mist had surged from the narrow rift, giving birth to new demons.

In a very short time, she had convinced the Lu Yun tribe that “the Immortal Alliance envoys are our adversaries.” To prevent Luan Wu’s actions from being disrupted, she joined the Lu Yun tribespeople in clearing out these demons.

Swinging her blade to sever a demon’s head, Zhu Zhihan shook her numb arm and clicked her tongue in frustration. “We already cleared them out once before. Why are they reappearing so quickly? This never happened in the previous two cycles!”

The walking encyclopedia, Miss System, provided an explanation: 【Because two forces are contending within this illusion.】

【The souls of the Lu Yun tribe, on the brink of annihilation and in a state of delirium, instinctively drew you into this illusion using the anomaly of the jade stone, seeking to destroy the immortal artifact.】

【The immortal artifact, possessing its own spirit, naturally resists its own destruction and has thus intervened. Both sides have the ability to influence the illusion.】

Zhu Zhihan quickly grasped the situation. “So, these demons are actually being driven by the immortal artifact?”

【The earlier demons might have been fragments of the past, but at this moment, they are indeed the artifact’s power.】

“I understand.”

After catching her breath, Zhu Zhihan tightened her grip on the blade and charged forward once more.

These demons were indeed troublesome, but the feeling of fighting alongside everyone again wasn’t so bad.

While battling the demons, Zhu Zhihan stole a few glances at Luan Wu’s side.

Demons and monsters swarmed from the sky toward the ground, making the solitary figure standing there seem incredibly small. A wave of tension washed over Zhu Zhihan.

But then she saw Luan Wu calmly place her left hand on the hilt, her fingers closing around it as she gripped the blade with both hands.

Her strike, however, was lightning-fast.

How to describe it?

It was like a flash of lightning splitting the sky supremely simple and unadorned. Compared to the Immortal Alliance’s dazzling array of colorful lights, Luan Wu’s blade gleam was starkly plain.

Yet, after that gleam swept across, the entire gloomy sky seemed to be sliced into several parts.

In that brief instant, Luan Wu had unleashed multiple strikes!

The Immortal Alliance envoys let out agonized, unwilling cries, but could only turn to dust under the blade’s radiance.

Unnoticed, the blizzard had ceased, and light pierced through the thick clouds.

Luan Wu glanced in their direction.

Zhu Zhihan felt a powerful surge of spiritual energy ripple out from Luan Wu as the epicenter. The demons still fighting and slaughtering grew unstable, then dissipated into black mist, unwillingly fading away.

“This is truly unbelievable.” Dazed for a moment, Zhu Zhihan hurried over to Luan Wu in small, quick steps.

“Master, you!”

As she reached Luan Wu and took in the scene, Zhu Zhihan trembled with shock.

The Immortal Alliance envoys had vanished without a trace. Only Su Chaya remained, deliberately spared by Luan Wu.

Luan Wu had snatched a silk ribbon from somewhere, a magical artifact and used it to bind Su Chaya. With surprising consideration, she pulled Su Chaya down from the sky, allowing her to stand firmly on the ground.

Su Chaya’s eyes were hazy as if veiled by mist, her expression blank and unresponsive. She struggled incessantly, murmuring under her breath, “Bestow the immortal artifact bestow.”

“She hid the immortal artifact the core of this illusion,” Luan Wu explained.

Zhu Zhihan understood Luan Wu’s implication. “So, only by destroying that artifact can the illusion end?”

She then grew puzzled. “Is the young clan leader being manipulated by the illusion? Does she not wish to return to reality?”

Luan Wu elaborated, “That immortal artifact is the convergence point of reality and illusion. If we destroy it here, the real artifact will also be destroyed. In other words, the rift between the demon realm and the human world, sealed for over a century, will reopen.”

Luan Wu gazed at Su Chaya, the young clan leader forced to confront an impossible choice. Her dark eyes seemed to hold a trace of pity. “That is something she cannot bear to see. Yet, she also cannot stand the thought of her ancestors trapped here. So, she chose to escape.”

If she doesn’t look, if she doesn’t restore, does that mean she won’t have to face those cruel, painful truths?

Su Chaya, the most gifted member of the Deer Cloud Clan in recent years, should not have been so easily deceived by the illusion. It was her own heart that had blinded her.

Zhu Zhihan suddenly grasped the crux of the matter.

Watching Su Chaya struggle relentlessly, a pang of sorrow stirred within her.

She still remembered that time when she fell ill from exhaustion and was brought to the Deer Cloud Clan’s settlement by Bo Mingwei for the first time. Su Chaya had gently coaxed her like a child, treating her with care. The bitter scent of medicine clinging to her had brought a sense of peace.

This young clan leader was as soft as a cloud.

She shouldn’t have ended up like this.

The entire Deer Cloud Clan, past and present, should never have come to this.

Luan Wu raised her hand, spiritual energy gathering at her fingertips. She pressed them against Su Chaya’s brow and commanded sharply, “Wake up!”

Zhu Zhihan watched as Su Chaya shuddered violently, then went limp. If not for the silk ribbon binding and supporting her, she would have collapsed to the ground.

When her eyes opened again, it was the familiar Su Chaya Zhu Zhihan knew.

It took a moment for Su Chaya’s pupils to focus.

Seeing the two of them, her expression shifted through a range of emotions, finally settling into a bitter smile. “You both know everything.”

Luan Wu lifted her hand, and the silk ribbon, no longer sustained by spiritual energy, turned into an ordinary strip of cloth and fell limply.

“Bring out the immortal artifact,” Luan Wu said.

Su Chaya’s body stiffened.

“I suppose the young clan leader wants to say that destroying the artifact would lead to catastrophe for the mortal world?”

“As the ‘Emissary of the Immortal Alliance,’ you’ve been observing everything around here, haven’t you? You’ve seen the clansmen who died because of this, and you’ve witnessed the Immortal Alliance’s indifference.”

Luan Wu stared at Su Chaya.

Her pupils were pitch-black, yet deep within, a dark crimson seemed to flicker. “For the sake of your sense of justice, are you willing to let the Deer Cloud Clan continue paying the price?”

Su Chaya: “…”

She hung her head, her light brown hair obscuring her expression. Zhu Zhihan could only see two clear trails of tears tracing down her cheeks.

Zhu Zhihan tugged at Luan Wu’s sleeve. “Hey!”

Don’t act so much like the villain! We’re here to help, after all!

Luan Wu paused slightly, the aggressive aura around her receding as she smiled. “I deeply admire someone as kind as Clan Leader Su Chaya. But I am not such a person; I was born a villain.”

She raised her hand, and a faint green light emanated from Su Chaya’s body. The immortal artifact was uncontrollably stripped away.

Su Chaya instinctively tried to grasp it but was too late. “Ah!”

Luan Wu said, “I dislike seeing good people tormented by dilemmas, sacrificing themselves, and I dislike even more seeing villains rest easy and reap the rewards.”

“If I can avoid such a situation, even at some cost whether to the world, to myself, or by disrupting the current stability, I don’t particularly mind.”

The small jade stone was clasped in Luan Wu’s palm.

As she moved, the snowy plains, the fissures, and the Luyun tribespeople standing on the snow began to distort like melting candles.

The surroundings grew dim.

“Will the young clan leader trust me?” Luan Wu looked at Su Chaya and asked softly.

Her expression became elusive, her dark eyes unfathomable, as if bewitching like a demon’s.

“I will destroy this calamity-bringing immortal artifact and allow the trapped souls to pass on. As for the world.” Luan Wu let out a light scoff, “it won’t become as bad as you imagine. I have my own methods.”

“What do you say?”

Su Chaya looked up in astonishment.

“You… why…” As she spoke, she realized how hoarse her voice was. “Is it really possible?”

Was there truly a way to have the best of both worlds?

“Young clan leader, have you forgotten the troubles caused by my mistake before? Consider this as repayment for that incident. You must keep it a secret for me.”

Luan Wu smiled. “As for the second question since things can’t get any worse, why not give it a try?”

Su Chaya knew that if what was said could truly be realized, this Dao Master was repaying far more than she owed.

In a hoarse voice, she made a promise: “If it truly can be done such a great kindness cannot be repaid with mere thanks. The Luyun Clan will always be Dao Master’s support!”

Luan Wu gave her a deep look.

Zhu Zhihan saw Luan Wu exert force in her hand, and the seemingly indestructible jade stone began to show cracks on its surface.

Simultaneously, the illusion trembled violently.

Crack!

The jade and the illusion shattered at the same time.

In that instant, Zhu Zhihan vaguely saw many people.

These were the Luyun Clan ancestors’ souls she had seen in the previous cycle transformed into monstrous, deer-headed humanoid creatures due to prolonged torment and corruption, the same kind of monsters she had encountered by chance on the icy plains of the secret realm, their eyes blood-red and filled with veins.

Luan Wu brushed her fingers over the string of Buddhist prayer beads on her right wrist, murmuring something. To Zhu Zhihan, it sounded somewhat like the mantra Miss System had taught her.

As she chanted, golden Sanskrit characters rose from the surface of the prayer beads, encircling the corrupted remnant souls that had turned into monsters.

Zhu Zhihan saw black mist peeling away from them.

Gradually, they returned to their human forms.

Among them were Clan Leader Wu Beiya, Dai Yang, and many other familiar faces, as well as cultivators who had been drawn into the immortal artifact after dying unjustly in the secret realm.

These souls smiled at them, bowed, and then their forms grew faint as their spirits returned to heaven and earth.

Darkness fell.

When Zhu Zhihan opened her eyes again, she found herself, Luan Wu, and Su Chaya back in the cave.

It felt like a lifetime had passed.

She was somewhat dazed: “What will happen to them in the future?”

Luan Wu replied, “They were trapped in an immortal artifact, suppressing the rift for hundreds of years, and have accumulated great merit. Although their souls are damaged, after years of recuperation in the underworld, there may still be a chance for reincarnation.”

Su Chaya’s eyes reddened: “As long as they can reincarnate, as long as they can reincarnate.”

Zhu Zhihan also felt relieved for them.

These heroic souls who had sacrificed so much had finally received their long-overdue justice after all these years.

At that moment, Luan Wu suddenly swayed slightly, steadying her forehead with her hand.

Zhu Zhihan’s heart skipped a beat: “Master, are you alright?”

Could it be that she had expended too much energy.

But then she realized she had overthought it.

“It’s nothing.”

Luan Wu shook her head. Her pupils had darkened to a deep red as she gazed at the spot where the massive jade stone had once been.

With the immortal artifact no longer blocking it, a narrow, pitch-black rift stretched across the space.

Traces of demonic energy seeped from the rift, though not much for now.

Zhu Zhihan knew that Luan Wu was affected by demonic energy for reasons unknown.

And this rift was the root cause of the Lu Yun tribe’s long-standing tragedy and Su Chaya’s impossible dilemma.

She knew Luan Wu must have a solution, but she had no idea what it would entail.

She tugged at Luan Wu’s sleeve: “Master, should we leave this place first? You seem…”

“No need. Let’s resolve this quickly.”

Luan Wu formed a series of intricate hand seals, and strange, crimson patterns began to materialize around the rift, stroke by stroke.

Though Zhu Zhihan had read extensively in her previous life, she had never encountered such patterns in any book. She could only surmise they belonged to some obscure array formation.

After deploying this technique, Zhu Zhihan noticed Luan Wu’s face had paled slightly, as if the exertion had been significant enough to drain even Luan Wu, who had remained unfazed after unleashing her power in the secret realm, indicating the difficulty of using this method.

Once the final stroke of the array was completed, Luan Wu withdrew her hand and closed her eyes, seemingly regulating her inner energy.

The leaking demonic energy was blocked.

Su Chaya was astonished: “It’stopped? Just like that?”

“It’s not that simple,” Luan Wu explained, opening her eyes after a moment.

“That immortal artifact required soul nourishment to suppress the demonic energy for so many years. If I claimed this array alone could solve the problem permanently, wouldn’t that be too heaven-defying?”

Su Chaya asked, “Then…”

“Thirty days,” Luan Wu said. “This array can hold for thirty days.”

Su Chaya still looked puzzled.

Zhu Zhihan understood Luan Wu’s meaning: “Exactly! With these thirty days, many things can be accomplished. What the Lu Yun tribe lacked back then was precisely this time. Even three days would suffice.”

Luan Wu smiled faintly: “Given how long it takes the Immortal Alliance to reach a decision, three days won’t be enough.”

Why should the virtuous sacrifice while the wicked stand by and watch?

It was time for them to experience what the Lu Yun tribe had endured all those years ago.

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