Saving the White Moonlight Chapter 60

“The Qiao branch family was slaughtered overnight?”
Yan Zhuguang frowned. “Although the Qiao branch family cannot compare with the main family, it is still a branch of a major clan and is not weak. Who could destroy the entire branch so easily? Not one person escaped?”
Yun Mixue shook her head. “So far, no living person has been found in the branch family’s estate.”
“According to Junior Sister Chu, the entire Qiao branch family area was flattened, and nothing was left. The only ones still alive are Qiao clan members who happened to leave the branch family and the branch family head and others who were handling Qiuming Pill Hall’s affairs in Danye City.”
“Then it must have been done by someone at Spirit Division or above.” Only a powerhouse above Spirit Division could flatten an entire area like that.
Of course, some special formation methods could also achieve this effect. But doing so would cost a lot. Unless there was a blood feud with the branch family, it would be a losing deal.
“How is Su Qian’er?” Without waiting for Yun Mixue to answer, Yan Zhuguang said it herself. “She should still be fine. Otherwise, the elders would not have asked me to heal her.”
Yun Mixue nodded. “She stayed with the branch family head and is safe.”
Yan Zhuguang nodded.
“Then, are there any clues about the branch family’s destruction?”
Yun Mixue said, “Only traces of demonic energy were found. For now, it is judged to be the work of demonic cultivators. But as for the reason, or which demonic path force did it, there is no way to know yet.”
“Demonic cultivators again… Could it be the Dripping Blood Demon Domain?”
“No,” Yun Mixue said. “I suspected that earlier too, but it is not the Dripping Blood Demon Domain’s usual method. There were also no traces of the Dripping Blood Demon Domain left at the scene.”
Just like its name, every action of the Dripping Blood Demon Domain came with blood. They acted in bloody and cruel ways. When killing, they loved to use all kinds of methods to make people die after their blood ran dry. People from the Dripping Blood Demon Domain carried a bloody aura around them that could not be dispersed.
Also, the Dripping Blood Demon Domain acted in a high-profile way and never sneaked around. Any evil deed done by the Dripping Blood Demon Domain would usually leave behind its mark to announce itself to the world. It was extremely arrogant and made righteous path cultivators hate it through gritted teeth.
That was also why Yun Mixue could recognize the Dripping Blood Demon Domain’s emblem.
Judging by the Dripping Blood Demon Domain’s usual methods, the destruction of the Qiao branch family did not seem like its work.
The system sighed after hearing this.
What exactly had the Qiao branch family done wrong? Not only had they unknowingly raised someone else’s illegitimate daughter, but their entire family had also been destroyed. Although these two things might not have the same cause, it was still far too tragic.
Yan Zhuguang had no reaction. The Qiao branch family’s matter had nothing to do with her. As long as she confirmed that the destruction of the branch family had nothing to do with Senior Sister’s investigation into the former sect master’s death, she did not care.
“There is another piece of news,” Yun Mixue said. “The elders have already calculated the place where the sect master may have fallen.”
“Where?”
“It is outside that hidden realm, in that barren mountain.”
“So close?” Yan Zhuguang thought about it. “Earlier, I felt that the collapse at the hidden realm entrance had traces of human action. Could it be that when the former sect master fought someone, that place accidentally collapsed?”
“That is possible too.”
Yan Zhuguang said again, “That barren mountain is not large. Before we left the hidden realm, the elders had already searched that place. Why did they not discover that strange pit?”
“I also found it strange.” In Yun Mixue’s view, such a sudden deep pit was indeed suspicious. How could the elders not have discovered it?
“But when the elders searched the mountain, they truly did not find that pit. When they arrived, that place was an intact valley floor with no oddity.”
The elders had used Nascent Soul-level spiritual sense and even Spirit Division divine sense to search inch by inch, but they had not sensed anything strange. So they had temporarily left that barren mountain.
They had wanted to send Yun Mixue a message to tell her about this, but unexpectedly, Yun Mixue, who was always reliable, could not be reached. The elders stayed several more days in the small courtyard and only then waited for Yun Mixue and Yan Zhuguang to return.
That deep pit could not appear and disappear on its own, right? The elders also could not have lied to them. “Could there be someone controlling this?”
“Zhuguang means someone deliberately let us and Qiu Qiao’s group enter, while blocking the elders outside?”
Yan Zhuguang nodded.
It seemed she had guessed wrong earlier. The former sect master could use the Wall-Wind Formation to monitor those who touched the formation. The Dripping Blood Demon Domain might also have left behind some monitoring method, only she had not discovered it.
Perhaps, at first, they let Qiu Qiao and the others enter because Qiu Qiao was Su Qian’er’s fiance. They hoped he would return and tell Su Qian’er about the hidden realm, letting Su Qian’er come to obtain the Heavenly Heart Five-Glow Lotus.
Yan Zhuguang guessed that the cultivator surnamed Su had not appeared for a long time and might have already met with trouble. Su Qian’er’s mother could not find another trusted person to enter the hidden realm and take the medicine for the moment, so she could only let Su Qian’er’s fiance go in.
As for why Yan Zhuguang and Yun Mixue were allowed in, perhaps Senior Sister’s reputation as a good person had worked. The other side chose to trust her, as well as their identities as Fenghua Immortal Sect disciples.
In any case, whether the one who obtained the spiritual medicine was Qiu Qiao or them, once the medicine was taken out, the other side could simply kill them and take it. Everything would be settled. The only thing that person had not expected was that Qiu Qiao, despite looking proper, was a petty villain. Because of the hidden realm matter, he had instead wanted to kill Su Qian’er to silence her.
However, if the other side had such a plan, why had Yan Zhuguang and Yun Mixue returned safely to Tianyu City?
Wait. Yan Zhuguang thought of another matter. If it was as she had guessed earlier, that pit had collapsed only after the former sect master fought someone, then the method hiding that collapse should also have been set afterward.
Such a strange pit had suddenly appeared. The person who killed the former sect master should have gone to investigate. Someone capable of killing Fenghua Immortal Sect’s sect master would not be weaker than Spirit Division and would not fear a mere demonic cultivator stone gate.
But when they went, the stone gate was intact, and the demonic energy inside had not been consumed.
Then there were only three possibilities. First, she had guessed wrong, and that pit had collapsed for another reason. Second, the person who killed the sect master had not entered the pit to investigate, and the pit had only been hidden later. Third, the person who killed the sect master was from the Dripping Blood Demon Domain. After killing the former sect master, they discovered the pit had been exposed and immediately hid it.
According to her earlier guess, the person who hid the pit chose to let Qiu Qiao and them enter the hidden realm out of consideration for Su Qian’er. The third possibility was more likely. In other words, the person who killed the former sect master was Su Qian’er’s mother, or someone loyal to her mother.
“Zhuguang?”
Yun Mixue called several times. Yan Zhuguang seemed to be thinking and did not answer. After a while, she came back to herself and met Yun Mixue’s gaze.
“What were you thinking about so deeply?”
Yan Zhuguang had not yet told Yun Mixue that she believed Su Qian’er might be the daughter of the sect master and a demonic cultivator. Now that Senior Sister asked what she had been thinking, Yan Zhuguang hesitated.
She thought for a moment and still said, “Senior Sister, I suspect the one who killed the former sect master was someone from the Dripping Blood Demon Domain.”
Yun Mixue was puzzled. “Someone from the Dripping Blood Demon Domain? Why does Zhuguang think that?” Yun Mixue had not connected the Dripping Blood Demon Domain to Su Qian’er’s mother. Without knowing the secret of children born from immortal and demonic cultivators, ordinary people would not think in that direction.
It was impossible to decide that the sect master’s illegitimate daughter was connected to demonic cultivators just because the hidden realm the former sect master once visited had traces left by demonic cultivators.
Yan Zhuguang did not know whether this world called children of high-level immortal cultivators and demonic cultivators by the same name, so she could not reveal that information lightly. However…
“The former sect master entered that hidden realm at least ten years ago. Then, three years ago, he returned to this hidden realm and found a stone gate built by demonic cultivators outside it as a defense. Could he have drawn people from the Dripping Blood Demon Domain while investigating that stone gate, then been killed and silenced by them?”
Yun Mixue thought carefully. “Perhaps that is possible.”
The moment Yun Mixue’s words fell, Yan Zhuguang’s assistance investigation quest suddenly changed from part five to final. A new line of small words appeared below the quest: “Assist Yun Mixue in locking onto the killer’s exact identity.”
“Oh, Host guessed right,” the system said excitedly to Yan Zhuguang.
Yan Zhuguang had not expected that her blind guess would actually be right. But thinking about it, if one did not circle around through Su Qian’er’s background and only looked for cause and effect through that stone gate, it was indeed possible that the former sect master had been silenced by people from the Dripping Blood Demon Domain.
She had thought too much and gone in a large circle.
Yun Mixue followed the line of thought Yan Zhuguang provided. “If someone from the Dripping Blood Demon Domain did it… among the Dripping Blood Demon Domain, there are not many demonic path experts who could easily kill the former sect master at Spirit Division. Perhaps we can lock onto a few people.”
Yan Zhuguang thought that if the one who killed the former sect master was his old lover, perhaps it would not need such powerful methods.
Yun Mixue sighed softly. “The elders have already gone to investigate that hidden realm. Perhaps they can find some clues. We should first go heal Miss Su. If that oath is not broken, I cannot feel at ease.”
Yan Zhuguang squeezed Yun Mixue’s hand. “I made Senior Sister worry. All right. Let us go now.”
Whether by coincidence or on purpose, when Yun Mixue and Yan Zhuguang left the room, they ran into Yun Changyue and Chu Ningyan again.
Yan Zhuguang’s gaze turned over the two of them. These two were always together, but they were not close. Yan Zhuguang could even see that Chu Ningyan was faintly guarded against Yun Changyue.
Could it be that Chu Ningyan also suspected Yun Changyue had impure thoughts?
“Elder Sister and Little Zhuguang are going out?”
Yun Mixue nodded. “Miss Su’s family has suffered a disaster. Since we know each other, we should go visit her.”
Yun Mixue had only told the elders that Su Qian’er was the former sect master’s daughter. They tacitly hid this matter. Naturally, they would not tell these two about the former sect master seeking medicine for his daughter.
“We should go visit as well,” Yun Changyue said. “Miss Su experienced something like that, and now her family has suffered a great disaster too. Who knows how sad she is?”
Chu Ningyan said, “You and I do not know Miss Su. Why go and add to her worries?”
Yun Mixue also said, “There should not be too many people visiting. It is enough for Zhuguang and me to go. I will bring your kind intentions to Miss Su.”
It was better for fewer people to know about her and Zhuguang delivering the medicine.
Yun Changyue pressed her lips together and could only give up.
Not knowing where Su Qian’er was now, Yun Mixue and Yan Zhuguang first went to Qiuming Pill Hall. Unexpectedly, Su Qian’er was still there.
Qiao Zhenbang had gone back to the Qiao branch family to handle family matters, but he left Su Qian’er at Qiuming Pill Hall and asked the trusted people he had brought to take care of her.
Now the Qiao family members were startled by the slightest movement. When the two first arrived, they almost received blades and swords. Only after the Qiao family members recognized them as people from Fenghua Immortal Sect who had saved Su Qian’er earlier did they quickly stop attacking. Hearing that the two had come to visit Su Qian’er, they hesitated but still led them inside.
Su Qian’er was resting in her room. Ever since Qiu Qiao’s matter, her spirit had not been very good. When she saw Yun Mixue and Yan Zhuguang, she was no longer as jumpy as before.
She looked a little pleasantly surprised. “Two benefactors, did you come to see me?”
“Yes. Are you well now?” Yun Mixue studied her.
Su Qian’er nodded. “I am much better. Only, my family…” She sighed sadly, and tears faintly shone in her eyes.
Yan Zhuguang thought for a moment and said, “Miss Su, Family Head Qiao will definitely find the truth and avenge them. Do not be too sad. The living are more important.”
The Qiao family member who had led them inside seemed unwilling to hear them mention this topic. She secretly wiped the corner of her eye. “You talk first. I will go out.”
After she left, the three spoke for a while. Only then did Yun Mixue say, “We came this time not only to see you, but also because of an old friend’s request concerning your body.”
Su Qian’er looked puzzled. “Old friend?”
Yan Zhuguang nodded. “Someone entrusted us with bringing a spiritual medicine. It can restore your body’s health.”
Under Su Qian’er’s half-doubtful, half-hopeful gaze, Yan Zhuguang took out a dark, black pill.
Yun Mixue could not help glancing at Yan Zhuguang.
Yan Zhuguang pretended not to notice and said to Su Qian’er, “Miss Su, are you willing to believe me?”