Chapter 62
Chapter 62: True and False Ming Yue
The cultivator revealed himself—tight black clothes, tall and thin, eyes fixed on her with a sinister gleam.
His cultivation was a level above hers: late-stage First Realm.
He hadn’t thought much of the 36 Jade Bee Needles. But he clearly hadn’t expected the hidden mechanisms within the artifact. The needles pierced his protective spiritual power with unsettling ease.
The man’s expression tightened. He summoned an artifact saber, and with a sharp flip of the blade, knocked every needle aside.
By the time Shao Heng guided the Jade Bee Needles back into her sleeve, she’d already put away the Spirit Lotus Root. She didn’t trade another blow. With Three-Thousand-Li Moon, she vanished into the lakebed’s murk, leaving not even a ripple behind.
The man in black fumed—but only for a moment.
He’d acted on greed, relying on superior cultivation to snatch a prize. There was no blood feud between them. Chasing her would waste time. Better to search elsewhere; perhaps he’d find more Spirit Lotus Root, or even Shattered Moon.
Shao Heng felt the same. When she reappeared on the other side of the lakebed, she didn’t bother looking over her shoulder.
She pushed onward—only to realize her luck had turned foul.
The currents around her surged without warning. The protective spiritual power wrapped around her body shuddered under repeated impacts, slammed again and again as if something kept striking it.
She’d seen that long snake earlier. This time, she recognized the signs immediately.
Shapes swarmed through the silt.
At least 60 or 70 long snakes rushed toward her, moving like a living net.
“Split the waters, churn the river; seize the cold, pin the soul!”
Tai Yin cold surged through her seals. The Ice-Sealing Art burst outward, and in the span of a breath, the water around her froze into a thick block, trapping the snakes inside.
They thrashed wildly. Cracks spiderwebbed through the ice.
“Did I poke a whole nest?” Shao Heng muttered.
Ao Chuan’s voice flickered in her mind. “Should I use True Dragon pressure?”
“No,” Shao Heng answered immediately. “They’re formed from yin qi, like ghost-things. Even if they wear snake bodies, your bloodline pressure won’t do much.”
“And if you expose dragon might, you’ll draw danger far greater than these snakes.”
The snakes’ aura was only around mid-stage First Realm. Under normal circumstances, Shao Heng could have handled them. But there were too many. Fighting the many with the few was stupidity, not courage.
She triggered an escape art and slipped free of the massive ice block.
She would have left entirely—until a thought struck her.
In the maze of the Soaring Moon Mirror, hadn’t Shattered Moon appeared most often where ghost-things gathered?
Panic cooled into clarity. Her eyes brightened.
Shao Heng formed seals with both hands and cast Ice-Sealing Art again, reinforcing the thick ice around the snakes to keep them pinned a little longer. Then she searched carefully, methodical now, while Ao Chuan used Dragon Pupil Art to watch for movement and guard against ambush.
Her fingers dug into a clump of sludge.
She felt something hard—smooth and cold.
Shao Heng pulled it free.
A piece of Shattered Moon rested in her palm, pale and luminous even underwater. Delight flashed across her face as she slid it into her storage ring.
The snakes thrashed harder. The ice around them cracked deeper and deeper.
Shao Heng looked at the struggling shapes and, absurdly, her gaze softened.
“What yin snakes?” she thought. “You’re practically my lucky stars.”
The idea rose again—use them somehow to find more Shattered Moon—and she crushed it just as quickly.
Yin snakes had too little intelligence. Like ghosts, they only knew killing and feeding. There was no reliable method to control them.
And she couldn’t be sure they were all mid-stage First Realm. If she provoked something stronger, she’d be inviting disaster.
When the ice finally shattered, Shao Heng used an escape art to move away. She changed to another stretch of lakebed and continued searching, gathering Spirit Lotus Root when she found it, snatching Shattered Moon when luck allowed.
After nearly two hours, she’d collected four more sections of Spirit Lotus Root and another piece of Shattered Moon.
She’d also burned through close to 80 percent of her spiritual power.
No more hesitation. Shao Heng swam upward.
She burst through the surface and landed steadily on the shore. Water streamed from her hair and sleeves. She used a Dust-Cleansing Technique and the damp vanished like it had never been.
“How was it, Junior Sister Shao Heng?” a familiar voice asked. “Were you hurt? What did you get?”
Shao Heng turned, surprised to see Ji Xuan Yin still here—standing beside the man in white, the two of them unmistakably related.
“Thank you for your concern, Senior Sister Ji,” Shao Heng said. “I wasn’t hurt.”
Her gaze shifted to the man. “And this is…?”
He inclined his head. “My name is Ji Fei Guang.”
Ji Xuan Yin burst into laughter. “See, Brother? I told you Junior Sister Shao Heng definitely wouldn’t know you, but you wouldn’t believe me.”
Ji Fei Guang smiled at her, helpless.
He was one of the most outstanding disciples of this generation in the One Yuan Sect, taken as a personal disciple by a Sixth Realm elder. His name carried weight. Yet this junior sister had looked at him like he was simply another cultivator.
When Ji Fei Guang studied Shao Heng now, there was more scrutiny in his gaze—thought turning quietly behind ink-black eyes.
Shao Heng kept her expression calm and asked Ji Xuan Yin, “From what I can tell, both Senior Sister Ji and Senior Brother Ji have already been into the lake. Are you resting now, planning to dive again?”
When she’d met Ji Xuan Yin earlier, she’d assumed the girl was about to leave. She hadn’t expected to find her still here after more than two hours.
Ji Xuan Yin didn’t answer at once. She glanced at Ji Fei Guang. Only after he gave a small nod did she turn back, smiling.
“No,” she said. “We’re not here for Spirit Lotus Root or Shattered Moon.”
Ji Xuan Yin stepped closer. Shao Heng instinctively drew on the moonlight essence within her, ready to flee at the slightest wrong move.
But Ji Xuan Yin didn’t attack. Instead, she cast a Soundproof Charm around the three of them and said quietly, “Junior Sister Shao Heng, since you entered this secret realm, have you noticed anything strange?”
Shao Heng considered, then answered honestly. “The moon in the sky.”
“It’s been nearly a month since we entered. I’ve watched the phases change.” She glanced upward, brows faintly drawn. “I don’t know whether that moon is a real projection of the Tai Yin Star, but by the texts I’ve read, it shouldn’t be possible.”
Ji Xuan Yin’s eyes sparkled. She tugged at Ji Fei Guang’s sleeve with a look that plainly said: See?
Then she said, “Yes. The changing moon phases.”
“A small world like the Mystic Moon Secret Realm is different from the vast world we live in. A secret realm doesn’t have enough standing to receive the reflected projection of the sun and Tai Yin Star.”
“In normal secret realms, what we see should be a fake sun and fake moon—constructed by the realm’s rules with spiritual qi. They wouldn’t show such subtle changes.”
“Over the hundreds of times the Mystic Moon Secret Realm has opened, both our sect and the Star-Inquiry Sect have gradually noticed something off. This moon changes phases like a real moon.”
Shao Heng listened without interrupting. Centuries of openings, countless explorations—and now they were telling her this in a secret realm session she’d entered by chance?
She didn’t believe in coincidences that kind.
Ji Fei Guang took over, voice calm. “The sect already has a guess.”
“The Mystic Moon Secret Realm originated with the cultivator Ling Jiang from back then. It’s said she was a great expert beyond the Third Realm. Somehow, she seized a fragment of Tai Yin and tried to refine it into her natal treasure. In the end, a twist of fate created this secret realm instead.”
“And though she didn’t succeed in refining it into a natal treasure, the refinement succeeded halfway.”
Ji Fei Guang looked up at the thin crescent.
“The moon in the sky now should be the Tai Yin fragment itself,” he said, “and it must still hold the inheritance of that great expert beyond the Third Realm—Ling Jiang.”