Moonlight Mystique

Chapter Fifty-Nine

"Mu Mu." Under the moonlight, Bai Shuo said no more, only calling Fan Yue.

The silver chain in the youth's hand slashed down, shattering the barrier before Hua Hong with a crisp snap.

Bai Shuo pulled a medicine bottle from her Qiankun Bag and tossed it to Hua Hong. "Here, take it. The antidote for the Forbidden Spirit Plant."

Hua Hong was stunned. "You can even make an antidote for this? I thought you couldn’t refine the Forbidden Spirit Plant?"

"Not being able to refine poison doesn’t mean I can’t make an antidote. You know nothing about my skills." Bai Shuo raised an eyebrow and snorted lightly. "Alright, stop dawdling. Take the antidote quickly and come with me to save people."

Hua Hong swallowed the entire bottle of antidote in one gulp, immediately feeling clarity in her spiritual core. "Where are they?"

"In the stone hall beneath the Yiren King’s palace. I suspect the Yiren King is trying to use dark magic again to boost his spiritual power. He’s already at the Peak of the Upper Monarch realm, yet he’s still resorting to such heinous acts—no wonder you refuse to acknowledge him!"

Bai Shuo grabbed Hua Hong’s hand and pulled her along. "I also saw that monster we encountered in the city that night in the blood pool of the stone hall. The Yiren King must be insane—not only is he slaughtering the descendants of both the immortal and demon races, but he’s also consorting with evil spirits."

Hua Hong suddenly halted. "What did you say? The monster is in the blood pool?"

"Yeah." Bai Shuo stumbled from the abrupt stop, confused. "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing." Hua Hong lowered her gaze. "Let’s go."

In the distance, candlelight flickered—it had to be the Yiren King heading to activate that sinister array. Bai Shuo’s heart tightened, and she tugged Hua Hong forward.

"Go this way." Hua Hong jerked her chin toward the direction of the lights. "There’s a small path that leads directly behind the main hall."

"Alright, you lead." No one knew the Yiren King’s palace better than Hua Hong, so Bai Shuo immediately followed her as they changed course.

The palace was like a maze, but with Hua Hong guiding the way, Bai Shuo swiftly maneuvered to the back of the main hall. Seeing that the candlelight hadn’t arrived yet, Bai Shuo exhaled in relief and headed toward the hidden entrance to the stone hall.

"The entrance to the stone hall is here. Follow me."

Bai Shuo pushed open the entrance and was about to jump down when a surge of spiritual energy struck her between the brows, freezing her entire body in place.

Beside her, Fan Yue also stiffened. The youth’s eyes turned cold as his gaze locked onto someone behind Bai Shuo.

A chill ran down Bai Shuo’s spine. She gritted her teeth. "Hua Hong?!"

Hua Hong sauntered leisurely in front of the two, the wild grass she’d been chewing earlier now dangling from her lips again.

"Hey, no need to shout. It’s me."

"You’re the Yiren King’s accomplice! Everything you said earlier was a lie?!" Bai Shuo growled under her breath.

"Don’t lump me together with that bastard." Hua Hong rolled her eyes. Without hesitation, she grabbed Bai Shuo and Fan Yue by their collars and leaped into the air, carrying them away into the night.

Mid-flight, as she watched the Yiren King’s palace grow farther away, Bai Shuo glared furiously, wishing she could bite the blacksmith to death.

"Wow, I know your eyes are round, but no need to make them pop out." Truly the number one lackey under the Haoyue Palace—her sarcastic, biting tone was identical to her master’s.

"If you’re not the Yiren King’s accomplice, then why won’t you save them?" Bai Shuo fumed.

Hua Hong smirked. "If those people die, the immortal race will suffer a generational gap for a century. That’s nothing but benefits for my Haoyue Palace. Why should I save them?"

"You’re breaking your word!"

"Tsk tsk tsk, little girl, didn’t your Master teach you about the dangers of the world? How can you trust the words of a demon?"

"You’re despicable!" Bai Shuo’s eyes burned red with rage.

"Yeah, yeah, I’m despicable. But who told you to trust me?"Hua Hong laughed wildly, leaping a few times before landing at a spot closest to the city wall. She glanced up at the nearby city gate, propping the two of them like staffs in a corner. She deliberately found a piece of wood for Fan Yue to lean against—after all, he was the Boss and had to be treated with reverence—then leisurely settled onto a large rock, stretching lazily.

"Alright, this is the closest spot to the city gate. The Phoenix Martial Banquet will end in another hour. Jin Yao must have already noticed something’s wrong in the Strange City. Once the barrier opens, I’ll take you both away. Let the Strange King and those evil spirits deal with each other—that’s Jin Yao’s problem, not mine."

"You—!"

Hua Hong was as stubborn as a rock in a latrine, utterly unmovable. These great demons who had lived for centuries couldn’t be fooled by Bai Shuo’s petty tricks. Perhaps even those sorrowful century-old tales she spoke of had long crumbled to dust in her heart, only useful for deceiving herself.

A-Zhao was still waiting for her. She could die, but A-Zhao couldn’t!

Bai Shuo suddenly raised her head. "Hey, Hua Da Tie, what harm is one more dead Immortal to you?"

Hua Hong, who had been chewing on a wild grass stalk and humming, narrowed her eyes at Bai Shuo.

The young man leaning in the shadows also turned to stare blankly at Bai Shuo.

In the stone hall beneath the Strange King’s palace, the Fairy and Demon Disciples lay unconscious.

Bei Chen Chong Zhao remained silently bound, while Mu Jiu jumped up and down against the pillar. He had exhausted every last ounce of his strength but couldn’t break free from the chains formed of evil Qi. Finally, he gave up.

Glancing at the two calm figures nearby, he couldn’t help but shout at Chong Zhao, "Hey, guy from Piaomiao, you don’t actually believe that girl will come back, do you?"

Chong Zhao’s eyelids twitched, but he didn’t look up.

"The Strange King wouldn’t have captured us if he planned to let us live. The Strange City suppresses spiritual power—even if that old man Jin Yao shows up, he won’t be able to break the Strange King’s evil formation. What can she possibly do? I bet she’s already run off with that pretty-boy disciple of hers. She just said those words to comfort you, to give you some hope so you’d die in peace!"

Bai Shuo had left with bold promises, but Mu Jiu didn’t believe she could save them. In the face of absolute power, her little schemes were useless. Still, since he had nothing better to do, he loved nothing more than to taunt these Immortals.

"She said she would return," Chong Zhao finally spoke, his voice low and heavy.

"Return my ass! Only you would believe that girl’s nonsense."

Before Mu Jiu’s words had fully faded, footsteps suddenly echoed through the empty stone hall. Mu Jiu froze, then exclaimed in shock, "Holy shit, no way! Did she actually come back?!"

Chong Zhao abruptly looked up toward the stone corridor, his eyes filled with something between hope and worry.

Under the moonlight, a shadow stretched across the ground as Bei Chen’s voice rang out nearby.

"It’s not Bai Shuo."

The stone hall fell deathly silent.

Not far from the city wall, the night was deep and eerie, with a chilling wind blowing. In the distance, lanterns swayed high above like ghostly flames.

Hua Hong frowned, thinking she had misheard. "What did you say?"

"I said, you take him and go. I’m going back."

The young man stared blankly at Bai Shuo.

Hua Hong scrambled off the rock and pressed a hand to Bai Shuo’s forehead. "Are you stupid? Or insane? Do you know what’ll happen if you go back?"

"I know how to write the word ‘death,’" Bai Shuo replied coldly, her gaze steady on Hua Hong. "Either you let me go now, or I’ll bite off my tongue right in front of you, blacksmith. Your choice."Under the moonlight, the young man clenched his fist.

"Master," he murmured, but the anxious Bai Shuo didn't hear him at all.

"Even if you knock me out now and force me out of the city, the moment I wake up, I'll find a way to die on my own. I still have at least a hundred years to live—you can't possibly watch over me for a century, can you?"

Bai Shuo's face remained expressionless. Hua Hong was almost amused by her anger—she wasn't new to Bai Shuo's ways. After spending months as neighbors in Nanhai City, she had seen through this shabby half-immortal's temperament completely. Bai Shuo was greedy, gluttonous, and afraid of death, embodying every petty flaw a mortal could have. Never had Hua Hong imagined that one day Bai Shuo would threaten her with her own life—just to go and throw it away?

The pig had said Bai Shuo couldn't die. As for why, the pig hadn't explained, and she hadn't asked. Though that lazy, chatty creature had its quirks, if it gave an order, there was always a reason. To this day, Hua Hong still didn't understand why the Temple Master had lost his memories and Divine Power to stay by a half-immortal's side. But until Fan Yue's true form returned, she didn't dare take the risk.

Hua Hong's eyes darkened, but she remained silent.

Beside them, the young man who had been silent all this while suddenly spoke up, gazing at the stubborn Bai Shuo.

"Master, give up. She's repaying a debt of gratitude. Your life can't compare to the person she wants to save."

The young man's words struck like a thunderbolt. Bai Shuo froze, while Hua Hong narrowed her eyes and turned to Fan Yue without a word.

"Save someone? You're saying she disregarded hundreds of lives just to save someone? Who?" Bai Shuo couldn't believe it. The blacksmith, who treated lives like weeds—in this lonely city filled with her resentment, who could there possibly be that she wanted to save?

The young man looked at Hua Hong. "The Soul-Locking Array was laid by Mu Guang. For anyone below the level of a god, entering its core is certain death. Since you entered the array's core, your intent to destroy it would have been detected. How did you survive?"

Bai Shuo was stunned. Right—how had she overlooked such a crucial detail?

Back then, Hua Hong hadn't even been able to withstand the backlash of the Yiwang Sword—there was no way she could have entered a divine array unscathed. Someone must have saved her. Given the array's immense power, rescuing her from its backlash would have come at a tremendous cost. The Yiren King had remained at the Peak of the Upper Monarchs for the past century without suffering any injuries. So who had saved Hua Hong?

Bai Shuo's eyes widened abruptly as the answer came to her. "Hua Yong saved you!"

Hua Hong's playful expression vanished.

"Hua Yong... Hua Yong..." Bai Shuo muttered to herself, then suddenly had an epiphany. "That night, the evil spirit we encountered—that was the Yiwang Prince?!"

The aura on Hua Yong was identical to that of the evil spirit.

Seeing Hua Hong's silence, Bai Shuo knew she hadn't guessed wrong.

So that was it!

Everything that had felt off to Bai Shuo suddenly made sense.

Hua Yong's spiritual bones a century ago had been far stronger than Hua Hong's—so why was he now just a brawny fool? Back then, Hua Yong's existence had indirectly caused the death of the Yiwang Consort, earning him Hua Hong's bitter hatred. Yet yesterday in the Yiwang Palace, though she had struck him ruthlessly, she hadn't killed him. And just now, Hua Hong had agreed to help save people, only to change her mind upon hearing about the monster sleeping in the blood pool.

Perhaps the Yiren King hadn't restarted the evil array for himself—but for his son.

"You refused to save people because of Hua Yong. The evil array in the stone hall—was it set up by the Yiren King for him?" Bai Shuo looked at Hua Hong, voicing her speculation.A sigh escaped Hua Hong as she shot Fan Yue a helpless glance. "I really owe you one, ancestor."

The young man remained completely unfazed by Hua Hong's exasperation. All he wanted was to quietly take Bai Shuo away, but since his Master couldn't let go of Chong Zhao, he had no choice but to expose Hua Hong's true intentions.

"He saved me three times. I owe him my life." Hua Hong spat out the chewed-up wild grass in her mouth and stretched lazily.

"Three times? There was only the Sword of the Yiren King and the backlash from the Soul-Locking Array. How could it be three?"

"I was injured by the Divine Power of the Soul-Locking Array. Though I survived, my spirit bones were completely shattered. Hua Yong gave me his spirit bones."

Hua Hong spoke as if it were nothing, but Bai Shuo's pupils constricted in shock.

Yiren couldn't cultivate spiritual power—the only way for them to grow stronger was by refining their spirit bones.

"Don't look at me like that. If I'd been conscious at the time, I'd rather have died than taken his broken spirit bones. When I woke up, I was already outside Yiren City. I had nothing—no family, no identity, nothing except Hua Yong's spirit bones inside me. Without spirit bones, one can't live long. If not for this twist of fate bringing me back to Yiren City, I would've thought Hua Yong had died long ago. The Yiren King must have used some dark art to turn Hua Yong into that ghastly state just to keep him alive."

"If Hua Yong survived, why would the Yiren King still need to sacrifice disciples from both clans? Even if he reforged Hua Yong's spirit bones, so many have died—do you think the Fairy and Demon clans would ever let the Yiren go?"

Hua Hong glanced at Bai Shuo. "Girl, you're so clever, yet so naive. Do you think the Yiren have any hope left when no one in Yiren City can draw the Sword of the Yiren King anymore?"

"But there's still the Soul-Locking Array. As long as the divine array stands, no one can breach Yiren City. The Yiren can still protect themselves."

"That's just clinging to life—what's the point?"

Hua Hong's calm gaze made Bai Shuo pause, recalling the Yiren King's words in the grand hall.

The Yiren had been abandoned by the Three Realms, trapped in this isolated city for a thousand years.

"Hua Lin is already old. I betrayed the Yiren, and Hua Yong is their only hope. How could he let his only son live as half-human, half-ghost? Even if Hua Lin traded his life, he couldn't save Hua Yong's injuries. Only by sacrificing the inner cores of a hundred Fairy and Demon Disciples and the Phoenix Heart Flame could Hua Yong truly have his spirit bones reforged."

"It's not just about reforging the spirit bones." Fan Yue suddenly spoke up, his gaze icy as he looked at Hua Hong. "The Yiren King wants to create a god."

"What?" Bai Shuo's pupils shrank. "Mu Mu, what—what did you say the Yiren King wants to do?"

"Slaughtering disciples from both clans means the Yiren will declare war on the Three Realms. Even if Hua Yong reforges his spirit bones, a new Yiren King can't protect the entire Yiren race. Only a god could do that. Making Hua Yong a god—that's the Yiren King's plan."

Bai Shuo whirled around to face Hua Hong, meeting her composed eyes with a chill in her heart. Only then did she understand the true meaning behind Fan Yue's words: "It's useless."

Hua Hong had abandoned her identity as a Yiren, but she had never forsaken the responsibility of a Yiren princess toward her people.

After a thousand years of isolation, it was also her wish for the Yiren to walk openly in the Three Realms—without scorn, without contempt, without being slaughtered at will.

She wouldn't help the Yiren King, but she wouldn't stop him either."No, this is wrong. Even if Hua Yong becomes a god, he'll only be an evil one..." Bai Shuo spoke urgently.

"What's the difference between a righteous god and an evil one? Little girl, you immortals keep preaching about the Righteous Path, Evil Path, Heavenly Dao, and Demonic Path. When the different races were slaughtered a thousand years ago, were they demons? They were simply born different."

Hua Hong's eyes held mockery, leaving Bai Shuo speechless. After a long silence, she lowered her head and spoke.

"Blacksmith, you have your convictions, and I have what I want to protect. I only ask that you let me return. Even if I can't stop the Different Races King, I can't abandon A-Zhao."

How could she dare? She had promised him she would never leave him behind!

Was that Chong Zhao more important to her than her own life and her promise to him?

The young man's furious gaze fell on Bai Shuo, making her heart tremble. She couldn't bring herself to meet her disciple's eyes.

An eerie, soundless silence fell beneath the city walls. Suddenly, a hand landed on Bai Shuo's shoulder.

Bai Shuo kept her head down, her voice muffled.

"Mu Mu, Master can't take you with me anymore. From now on, stay close to Hua Da Tie—she won't harm you. Your master is poor, so remember to burn some paper offerings for me and your Senior Martial Uncle during festivals. I'll be thinking of you down below..."

What kind of nonsense was this?!

Fan Yue, who had been frowning deeply, suddenly tensed and looked behind Bai Shuo.

Bai Shuo's head drooped lower as she spoke. A cold wind swept by, carrying a foul stench into her nostrils. She sighed and turned her head. "I told you to wash properly. When Master's no longer with you, you must—"

The moment she saw what stood behind her, Bai Shuo's eyes widened, her pupils contracting violently.

Under the clear night sky, a dozen streaks of spiritual light streaked across the heavens like meteors, landing outside the Different Races City. It was Jin Yao and the others. Aside from Daze Mountain, all the Sect Leaders of the Two Mountains and Six Sects were present. Zhen Yu and the fox clan's Elder Chang Huo had also rushed over upon receiving the news.

Beneath the vast starry sky, only the desolate solitary city was shrouded in darkness.

"Immortal Jin Yao, what exactly has happened in the Different Races City?" Chang Huo demanded angrily.

Mu Jiu was the fox clan's Young Lord and, aside from their Clan Chief, their only Nine-tailed Fox. His life was tied to the future of their entire race.

"An evil entity has infiltrated the city disguised as a disciple of Yunxiao."

"An evil entity? Where is the Different Races King? The city has the Spirit-Sealing Array left by Mu Guang. How could he not know if an evil entity entered? Why didn't he report it?!"

"I can no longer sense the Different Races King's spiritual presence," Jin Yao said gravely. The others' expressions changed.

What? Even Jin Yao couldn't sense the Different Races King? What was happening inside that city?

"Immortal, please open the Spirit-Sealing Array at once!" the Kunlun Sect Leader urged.

The key to the array was in Jin Yao's hands. They had only allowed their disciples to enter the spirit-sealed city because the Different Races King had granted Jin Yao permission to activate the divine array.

Jin Yao moved his palm, summoning a dragon scale shimmering with golden divine light. He tossed it toward the sky above the city.

"Go!"

A surge of spiritual energy followed his palm, landing on the scale.

"Open!"

With Jin Yao's command, the scale radiated divine light, descending straight onto the city gates. A small golden dragon array appeared on the gates, and the scale flew into its center, transforming into the phantom of a golden dragon. The dragon's shadow soared and roared within the array as the city gates slowly creaked open.

The Different Races City was open!The crowd's expressions relaxed, but suddenly, the Dragon Formation on the city gates began to reverse. At its center, a strange vortex appeared, from which a Sword flew out, pinning the dragon's shadow firmly in the middle of the formation.

"Not good!" Jin Yao's expression changed drastically as he leaped toward the city gates, but it was too late. The golden dragon let out a pained howl before exploding instantly.

A majestic surge of Divine Power spread across the sky above the foreign city. Jin Yao, who was closest, was forced back several steps by the force.

Feng Xian soared into the air, appearing beside Jin Yao in an instant, and together they braced against the Divine Power.

Under the night sky, an enormous golden Formation enveloped the entire foreign city, while the solemn roar of a Dragon echoed across the wilderness.

"Is this the Soul-Locking Formation left by His Majesty Mu Guang?" the Head of Yunxiao murmured as he gazed at the golden Dragon Formation before him.

"No," Jin Yao replied, his face pale. "This is the God-Slaying Formation."