When the White Moonlight Holds the Script - Chapter 4

Hearing the Dao Sovereign relent, everyone was stunned.

Did that young girl actually manage to do it?

That was the Dao Sovereign, the one who had never taken a disciple!

What an honor it would be to learn the blade under the Dao Sovereign! Even better than studying under Elder Dan Qi, right?

But as for the last things the girl said they couldn’t quite understand.

What did it mean?

Were the girl and the Dao Sovereign old acquaintances?

[Ding! Congratulations on successfully selecting your path.]

[Your current affiliation is the antagonist faction.]

[Your identity: The chief disciple (and perhaps the only disciple) of the story’s greatest antagonist, Luan Wu.]

[Newbie mission module activated.]

As soon as she woke up, Zhu Zhihan heard a series of mechanical chimes.

The room was filled with the scent of medicinal incense, slightly bitter and astringent.

Memories from before she lost consciousness flooded her mind, and she relaxed slightly.

Her gamble had paid off.

Yes, she had been gambling.

While in the standby point, the system had shown her the entire script.

So, as soon as she arrived at the apprenticeship scene, she carefully recalled every scene where Luan Wu had appeared, searching for a breakthrough.

She eventually focused on a confrontation between the female lead and Luan Wu.

At that time, Luan Wu had already fallen into demonic ways. To defeat her, the female lead went to Luan Wu’s former residence before her fall and found some clues.

Later, when encountering Luan Wu, the female lead said, “Do you remember the Little Sandalwood Room, the goldfish, and that vine whip? You were born with original sin. The people around you.”

Luan Wu was enraged, her mind thrown into chaos.

Ultimately, the female lead wounded Luan Wu, setting the stage for victory in the final battle.

Zhu Zhihan didn’t actually understand the meaning of those words, but she could guess they were Luan Wu’s emotional wounds and vulnerabilities.

She didn’t need to know their meaning, she only needed Luan Wu to think she knew and to spark curiosity in her. To figure out how she knew such secrets, Luan Wu would surely take her in as a disciple, keeping her close for observation or interrogation.

Her goal was achieved.

She had gambled that Luan Wu truly cared about these things and wouldn’t actually kill her in front of everyone.

Judging by the fact that she had woken up, her gamble had succeeded.

As for what to do next, she would adapt as the situation unfolded.

After all, by then, she would have already drunk the apprenticeship tea and dripped her blood into the jade token. It wouldn’t be easy for Luan Wu to get rid of her as a disciple.

Zhu Zhihan rubbed her still-drowsy temples, sat up, and checked her body.

The external injuries she had sustained during the trial had been properly treated, as had the internal injuries caused by the final pressure. It seemed she had already been given medicine and was almost fully recovered.

Overall, aside from the weakness caused by her Xuan Yin constitution, there was nothing particularly wrong.

A flicker of doubt crossed her mind.

Given Luan Wu’s fury at the time, she shouldn’t have treated her injuries, right?

Just then, a gentle voice came from outside the gauze curtain: “You’re awake?”

Zhu Zhihan responded, her pale, delicate fingers parting the curtain.

She looked around. It was a very ordinary room, likely still within the venue of the grand assembly hosted by the Immortal Alliance.

“What happened after I passed out?”

The attendant answered in detail.

After listening, Zhu Zhihan’s expression grew somewhat complicated.

The first one to help her after she fainted was actually Dan Qi Zhenren.

According to the attendant, Dan Qi Zhenren immediately rushed down to catch her, preventing her from hitting the ground, and even attempted to channel spiritual energy into her.

But she was “very restless” in her unconscious state, slapping away Danqi Zhenren’s hand and struggling fiercely. Danqi Zhenren had no choice but to hand her over to other skilled medical practitioners.

Of course, she struggled. She was all too familiar with Danqi Zhenren’s scent, and even in her dreams, she didn’t want to be tainted by it in the slightest.

The immortal attendant emphasized, “That immortal was truly gentle. They only left after making sure your injuries were properly treated.”

Zhu Zhihan inwardly scoffed: What a hypocrite.

But as the attendant spoke, fragmented memories surfaced in Zhu Zhihan’s mind, the words “why,” the comfort after she was rejected by Luan Wu and the special care she received after fainting.

She suddenly felt something was odd.

Was it necessary for Danqi Zhenren to go to such lengths? Or, to put it another way, at this point, was she really that important to Danqi Zhenren?

Su Siyue hadn’t appeared yet. Could Danqi Zhenren possibly have foreseen the future and decided to win her favor in advance?

Zhu Zhihan’s first thought was that Danqi Zhenren had also been reborn.

But she quickly dismissed this idea.

If Danqi Zhenren had been reborn, facing such a drastically different turn of events from the previous life, her reaction would not have been like this.

Then why?

This level of concern was truly excessive for Danqi Zhenren. Could it be that she genuinely cared? Zhu Zhihan wasn’t so delusional.

She couldn’t figure it out.

The immortal attendant cleared their throat and added, “Another immortal, your master, also left a message for you.”

This “master” referred to Luan Wu.

Of course, she had to listen to the words of her mission target.

Zhu Zhihan pulled herself out of her thoughts, steadied her mind, and asked, “What did she say?”

The young attendant lowered their voice, imitating Luan Wu’s tone perfectly and it sounded fierce.

“The immortal said, ‘I have matters to attend to. I will come for you after the Spirit Cleansing is over. Then we will discuss, the matter between us.'”

Zhu Zhihan curled her lips.

“Alright, I understand.”

Only then did the attendant return to their normal voice. “Then, shall I explain to you what Spirit Cleansing is?”

Zhu Zhihan nodded.

Spirit Cleansing was the process by which ordinary mortals like them, about to enter the immortal sect, would cleanse their meridians, refine their marrow, and shed impurities.

Generally, children born into immortal sects didn’t need this, but those like them, born and raised in the mortal world and nourished by the five grains, did.

To ensure a smooth path in future cultivation, this step was essential.

For convenience, the Immortal Alliance would uniformly prepare spiritual liquid after the grand selection ended.

In her previous life, Zhu Zhihan had never experienced this.

After becoming Danqi Zhenren’s disciple, she had been taken away by her, the Medicine Sect had too many treasures, so there was no need to rely on the Spirit Cleansing Pool here.

Zhu Zhihan thought, doing it together with many others wasn’t so bad.

She wanted to try everything she hadn’t experienced before.

“When does the Spirit Cleansing begin?”

Du Peiran was a very ordinary person.

He was born into a farming family, the second son, with no outstanding qualities except for being somewhat clever.

If there was one extraordinary event in his life, it was when his parents sent him to the Immortal Alliance to try his luck at the age of sixteen and he actually passed.

Now, he stood with the others in the pocket dimension opened by the Immortal Alliance, waiting for the Spirit Cleansing to begin.

Even now, his head still felt dizzy, as if he had been struck by an unusually extraordinary stroke of luck.

“Hey, what are you spacing out for?” His shoulder was slapped heavily.

Turning around, he saw the companion he had met during the trial.

The pain in his shoulder spread, and he hissed, pleading, “Auntie! Xiao Chuling! Easy, easy, your hand is too strong.”

The girl dressed as a warrior Xiao Chuling raised her hand and shrugged. “Alright.”

She moved her fingers to Du Peiran’s face, applying a little force to turn his head slightly to the right. “Do you see that person over there?”

Du Peiran’s gaze froze.

It was a very beautiful young girl.

Dressed in a plain white robe as cool as moonlight, her snow-white hair was tied up, revealing a slender neck. Her delicate features gave off a sense of distance.

She was serene and aloof, her complexion slightly pale, with a kind of fragile, sickly beauty.

Those like them, who had come from the mortal world, standing in this ethereal, fairy-like garden surrounded by extraordinary and unfamiliar decorations, couldn’t help but feel a sense of inadequacy and discomfort.

But this young girl showed no such feeling, appearing completely at ease.

What kind of background could nurture such a person?

Du Peiran murmured in a daze, “Isn’t that the one from yesterday, the one who…”

Xiao Chuling released her hand and nodded. “The one who rejected the Medicine Sect elder’s offer to take her as a disciple and then successfully convinced the Dao Lord to accept her as his disciple.”

No matter how many times she recalled it, it felt incredibly astonishing.

Du Peiran had already sensed the vast difference between himself and such a prodigy. Coming back to his senses, he scratched the back of his head. “Why did you want me to look at her?”

Seeing Xiao Chuling’s wide grin, Du Peiran felt a sense of foreboding. “You don’t mean to…”

Xiao Chuling: “Yes, let’s go strike up a conversation!”

Under Xiao Chuling’s strong (and forceful) insistence, Du Peiran followed along to “get to know” this legendary figure.

As he expected, their enthusiastic self-introductions only earned them a faint glance from the young girl: “Zhu Zhihan.”

When they tried to say more, she ignored them.

Xiao Chuling walked away dejectedly, muttering, “Now I understand why no one is around her. But she’s so beautiful, and what she said was so cool. I really want to get to know her.”

Du Peiran felt that the warrior girl he knew was a bit naively idealistic.

“Someone like her is already in a different world from us.”

If one paid attention, it wasn’t hard to notice that the candidates selected in this grand trial had already been clearly divided into two groups those chosen by the major sects and the rest accepted by the minor sects.

He and Xiao Chuling belonged to the latter.

They had the talent for cultivation, but it wasn’t exceptional enough to catch the attention of the major sects, so they could only join minor ones.

According to the guards, the treatment of disciples in major and minor sects was like heaven and earth. It could be said that from this point on, their fates had already diverged completely.

Earlier, someone from a minor sect had tried to cozy up to a major sect disciple and was met with sarcastic remarks.

Du Peiran couldn’t help but think that if one could become a disciple of the Dao Lord, it was only natural to be proud.

Xiao Chuling crouched to the side, muttering gloomily, “I don’t know how to argue back, but I just feel she’s not like that.”

Du Peiran thought, that’s just ‘what you think.’

Thump! A drum sounded.

Those chatting and making connections all fell silent.

The surroundings grew quiet.

The youthful-looking immortal master stepped to the front, smiling as he addressed the crowd, “The spirit cleansing is about to begin, please follow me inside.”

The Immortal Alliance had chosen to hold the spirit cleansing in small, open courtyards. Due to her connection with the Dao Lord, Zhu Zhihan was assigned a private courtyard.

The process of spirit cleansing was largely the same as what she had experienced in her previous life.

She soaked in the spiritual liquid, enduring the intense pain as the medicinal effects took hold, expelling impurities from her pores.

But there was one thing different from her past experience.

That was—

After she finished the spirit cleansing, stepped out of the pool, and changed into clean clothes.

A mass of black mist drifted over from the direction of the mountain rocks.

A sense of danger.

Zhu Zhihan dodged to the right.

Bang!

In the next moment, a black, scythe-like blade struck the jade tiles where she had been standing, leaving a deep gash and emitting dark energy.

The jade of this spirit cleansing pool was specially made and extremely hard.

If she hadn’t dodged, she might have been killed on the spot.

[Ding! Congratulations, you have triggered a beginner’s task.]

[Please survive the onslaught of the demons. Countdown: 4:23:11.]

[Task reward: Massive growth points, random increase in health value limit.]

Zhu Zhihan coldly lifted her gaze. In the spot where she had been standing, she saw a tall, grotesque monster.

She felt she needed to correct her earlier thoughts.

Although she wanted to try everything she hadn’t done before.

Being ambushed by demons was something she could do without.

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