Saving the White Moonlight Chapter 64

“In the plot, is there really no one named Su Qian’er?”
On the way back to Fenghua Immortal Sect, Yan Zhuguang could not help asking the system.
Yun Mixue had wanted Yan Zhuguang to stay behind. Danye City was not close to Fenghua Immortal Sect, and she did not want Yan Zhuguang to wear herself out traveling back and forth.
But Yan Zhuguang had no plan to stay. She had left the sect for Yun Mixue in the first place, and she had nothing else to do. Of course she would follow Yun Mixue.
More than that, she was not at ease letting Yun Mixue travel alone with Su Qian’er.
Before the mission to save the white moonlight was fully complete, every suspicious person who appeared around Yun Mixue had to be guarded against. Even if Su Qian’er had no cultivation, Yan Zhuguang would not be careless.
Yun Mixue did not know what Yan Zhuguang was thinking. She only thought Yan Zhuguang did not want to leave her side. After trying to persuade her twice and seeing that her mind was set, Yun Mixue let her be.
Now, the three of them were riding a cloud carriage toward Fenghua Immortal Sect.
“No,” the system said. “The plot never mentioned this person.”
It added, “The Qiao family does appear in the plot, but only the main family. It never said anything about the branch family.”
“That is not strange,” Yan Zhuguang said. “This branch family has already been destroyed. How would a branch that no longer exists appear in the plot?”
“Mm.” The system also felt that made sense. “Could it be that in the original plot, Su Qian’er died when the Qiao branch family was wiped out, or even before that?”
“Impossible,” Yan Zhuguang said. “To get the Heavenly Heart Lotus Seed, the Wall-Wind Formation must be broken. To break the Wall-Wind Formation, the Heavenly Heart Lotus Seed must be given to Su Qian’er. Unless the lotus seed in Gu Chen’s hands in the plot was not the one from the hidden realm, Su Qian’er could not have died in the massacre of the Qiao branch family.”
“I broke the hidden realm and took out the Heavenly Heart Lotus Seed as fast as I could. Even so, before I handed it to Su Qian’er, the Qiao branch family had already been wiped out. If she died during that massacre, the Heavenly Heart Lotus Seed would never have fallen into Gu Chen’s hands.”
“That is true…” The system thought it over. The oath of the Wall-Wind Formation was fixed. If Su Qian’er had already died, the oath could not be completed, and the Wall-Wind Formation would never be broken.
But the system still found it strange. “But if Su Qian’er is the former sect master’s daughter, and if she is, as you guessed, the daughter of the former sect master and a demonic cultivator, then she is a key figure. How could the plot not mention her at all?”
“Mm,” Yan Zhuguang said. “That is the strange part. Su Qian’er has met Eldest Senior Sister. If she goes to Fenghua Immortal Sect, she will also meet Gu Chen. With such a special background, how could the plot pass over her completely?”
The system said, “But the plot truly did not mention her. Maybe after she went to Fenghua Immortal Sect, she disappeared or died for some reason?”
“We still do not know where the grudge between Fenghua Immortal Sect and the Dripping Blood Demon Domain came from. Could it be related to her?”
Yan Zhuguang neither agreed nor disagreed.
She was not very interested in what would happen to Su Qian’er later. After seeing Su Qian’er’s odd expression just now, she had become more interested in Su Qian’er’s “rebirth” instead.
After a short silence, Yan Zhuguang said to the system, “When Eldest Senior Sister mentioned Gu Chen, I saw Su Qian’er’s expression change. She seemed very surprised by Eldest Senior Sister’s description, and also seemed disdainful or unwilling to agree. I think she must know Gu Chen.”
“Did she?” The system only cared about its host, Eldest Senior Sister, and the possible killer who had attacked Eldest Senior Sister. It did not pay much attention to anyone else, so it had no idea what Su Qian’er had done.
“That does seem like a problem,” the system said after thinking. “Although the male lead is the eldest senior brother of Fenghua Immortal Sect, before he became sect master, his reputation was not as great as Eldest Senior Sister’s. With Su Qian’er’s identity and physical condition, she does not seem like someone who could know the male lead.”
“So she cannot simply be someone reborn with amnesia,” Yan Zhuguang said.
Su Qian’er clearly did not remember her name. She did not remember anything about “Su Qian’er.” Yet she remembered Gu Chen. On top of that, the Heavenly Dao recognized her and judged her to be Su Qian’er herself.
Even Yan Zhuguang rarely felt this puzzled.
The system was also dizzy from Yan Zhuguang’s reasoning. It tried hard to think through every possibility, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration. “Host, could Su Qian’er have gone through two rebirths? The first time, she was reborn into someone else, lost her memory, and lived for a while as that other person. Then she kept the memories from that life and was reborn back into herself.”
“If that is the case, it would explain why her soul is the same but her memories do not match.”
Yan Zhuguang had not considered that possibility. She looked at the system in a new light. “If so, every question can be solved. How did you think of that?”
“Hehe.” The system was delighted to be praised by its powerful host. “After reading enough novels, you know every trope.”
“Trope?” Yan Zhuguang caught the word. The system was about to explain, but Yan Zhuguang skipped over it without much interest. “Do you think she could have been reborn into a plot character?”
The system got stuck halfway through its explanation. After a while, it said, “That does not seem very possible. Aside from the heroine, most of the plot characters have already been born by now. Su Qian’er should not have had a chance to be reborn into them.”
“The heroine?” Yan Zhuguang pondered. “The person most tied to Gu Chen is the heroine. Based on how Su Qian’er acted toward Eldest Senior Sister and Gu Chen earlier, could she be the heroine?”
Yan Zhuguang still remembered how fiercely Su Qian’er had reacted after learning Eldest Senior Sister’s identity. There was also that strange expression when she heard the words “sect master.”
When Su Qian’er had just woken, she had only been wary of Yun Mixue as a stranger. Later, after hearing Eldest Senior Sister’s name, she had torn her own clothes.
Although the heroine had never met Eldest Senior Sister, the male lead and all sorts of supporting characters had tormented her again and again in Eldest Senior Sister’s name. Eldest Senior Sister was probably the shadow of her whole life.
Yan Zhuguang imagined how the heroine would react upon seeing Eldest Senior Sister. It would probably look about like that.
“Host,” the system said helplessly, interrupting her. “Su Qian’er cannot be the heroine. I am quite familiar with the heroine’s soul aura, and it is different from Su Qian’er’s.”
“Also, the heroine arrived in her own body. She did not possess someone by soul. Su Qian’er cannot have first been reborn into another world, then crossed over with her body, then died and returned to her original body, right?”
“The book’s ending has the heroine and male lead living happily together, and in the end they ascended as immortals together. She would not have had a chance to come back.”
“Is that so?”
Yan Zhuguang felt that if Su Qian’er really was the heroine, the mission to save the white moonlight might be finished already.
Think about it. If the heroine came back and found that Eldest Senior Sister, the shadow that had once hung over her head, would also become her love rival in the future, would she not strike first while nothing had happened yet?
She could use Su Qian’er’s identity to get close to Eldest Senior Sister. Behind the scenes, she might even rely on the Dripping Blood Demon Domain. Would that not let her get Fragrant Snow Sleep? Would that not let her poison Eldest Senior Sister without anyone knowing?
The more Yan Zhuguang thought about it, the more possible it seemed.
“That cannot be,” the system said. “If the mission to save the white moonlight were that simple, I would not have needed to find twenty-one hosts…”
Yan Zhuguang asked, “Did the previous hosts ever meet Su Qian’er?”
The system shook its head. “I do not remember…” The memories of the other hosts had all been blurred. How could it remember?
“Fine.”
Yan Zhuguang regretfully pressed this possibility down for now, but she did not give up on it entirely. She would find evidence to support the guess, or evidence to rule it out completely.
Yun Mixue’s cloud carriage was not slow. The three of them returned to Fenghua Immortal Sect after nearly a day.
Because Su Qian’er was with them, Yun Mixue and Yan Zhuguang barely spoke along the way.
As for Su Qian’er, although she did not again say that she was unwilling to go to Fenghua Immortal Sect, the closer they came to the sect, the more uneasy she became. Not only Yan Zhuguang, who had been watching her the whole time, noticed it. Even Yun Mixue saw the emotion showing on her face.
Yun Mixue asked, “Miss Su, what are you worried about?”
Su Qian’er jumped. She came back to herself, glanced at Yun Mixue, and pinched her palm to calm down. “I… I have never gone so far from home before.”
“Do you miss home, Miss Su?” Yan Zhuguang cut in. “Then treat this as a trip to clear your mind. I remember you once said that if your body recovered one day, you would travel everywhere under heaven. Every sight in the immortal sect is beautiful. It can be counted as a fine place to admire the scenery. Miss Su, why not take a good look?”
Su Qian’er smiled and nodded. “All right.”
The system hung a face full of dark lines. “Host, you are bullying Su Qian’er again because she has no memory. You are digging a pit for her.”
“Digging a pit?” Yan Zhuguang said. “She said it with her own mouth. What did I say wrong?”
“Su Qian’er only said she envied how you could be free and travel the cultivation world with a sword…” She had never said she wanted to travel all over the world.
“Is that not the same thing?” Yan Zhuguang ignored the system.
Perhaps to show that she truly longed for the “outside world,” after listening to Yan Zhuguang, Su Qian’er very seriously began to “learn about” Fenghua Immortal Sect under Yan Zhuguang’s guidance and admire the scenery below.
Yun Mixue saw this and nodded with relief.
Perhaps Gu Chen had already given orders. Although Yun Mixue had brought a stranger back with her, the elders and disciples guarding the sect defenses did not stop them. The three traveled smoothly all the way to the inner sect council hall.
Gu Chen and the managing elders who had stayed behind in the sect were already there, waiting for Su Qian’er, the daughter of the former sect master, to arrive.
By the time they reached the council hall, Su Qian’er’s face was calm. But when she stepped down from the cloud and onto solid ground, her legs seemed to go weak.
Yun Mixue kindly reached out to support her, but Su Qian’er quickly dodged away.
Seeing this, Yan Zhuguang smoothed things over for Eldest Senior Sister. “Miss Su is riding a cloud for the first time and is not used to it yet, right? Standing here for a moment should help.”
Su Qian’er realized that her reaction had been too strong. She forced a smile. “I made too much of it. Forgive my rudeness.”
Yun Mixue said, “It is no matter. The sect master is inside the hall. Zhuguang and I will go in with Miss Su.”
“…Mm.”
Yun Mixue walked at the front. Su Qian’er deliberately fell a step behind, and when Yan Zhuguang saw this, she also fell back to walk beside her. Su Qian’er looked at her twice. Yan Zhuguang gave her a seemingly kind smile.
The three stepped into the great hall. Several managing elders sat inside, all the elders who had remained in the sect and were not in seclusion. At the center of the hall sat the current sect master of Fenghua Immortal Sect, Gu Chen.
Several gazes fell on the three of them, most of them landing on Su Qian’er.
Because Yan Zhuguang was paying attention, she noticed that the instant Su Qian’er met Gu Chen’s eyes, her nails almost dug through her palm.