Saving the White Moonlight Chapter 73

In one corner of the small courtyard was a little green pond. Beside the pond stood a weeping willow. Its branches bent down, and the tips of its leaves lightly touched the water. When the breeze blew, the branches brushed ripples across the pond, spreading in ring after ring and breaking the two slender reflections in the water.
Under the weeping willow, beside a stone table, two figures, one in red and one in white, were leaning close together, talking about something.
The bright red dress made the beautiful little girl look even more lovely. Her lively, confident expression made her whole person seem to glow. Her red lips opened and closed, easily drawing the imagination.
Reflected in her dark eyes was a cold figure as pure as frost and snow. The white-clothed figure was like a winter plum in the snow, proud by nature, yet not sharp enough to hurt others. Instead, she carried a unique gentleness.
Her gaze, like a snow orchid under a clear sky, fell softly on the red-clothed little girl before her. It seemed wrapped in endless indulgence and tolerance.
“This knife fish tastes the best.” Yan Zhuguang placed a whole fish into Yun Mixue’s bowl.
The knife fish was not large. After the head, tail, and skin were removed and it was cooked, it was only about the length of a palm.
“When I entered the hidden realm earlier, the place where I landed was a small island. I did not know where to look for Eldest Senior Sister, so I followed my memory and flew toward a place where there might have been a mark.”
“That small island was surrounded by water. I flew close to the surface on my sword and was chased by a school of these knife fish for quite a while.”
“I have also met fish like this before, with sharp mouths and very fierce natures.”
Yun Mixue gently picked up a piece of fish and placed it between her thin lips. With only a light press, it melted in her mouth.
The fish was fresh and sweet, yet also blended with countless spices. Yun Mixue did not know how Yan Zhuguang had done it. These extremely complex flavors supported one another, and when they melted in the mouth, they gave the taste of rich splendor.
“Is it good?” Yan Zhuguang rested the hand holding her chopsticks against her cheek and looked at Yun Mixue with expectation.
Yun Mixue nodded. “I have never tasted anything so delicious.”
Yan Zhuguang could not hide the smile on her face. Her eyes curved, as if she had received the best praise in the world. “If Eldest Senior Sister likes it, then eat more.”
Yun Mixue did not stop moving her chopsticks, showing her praise for Yan Zhuguang’s cooking with real action.
From time to time, Yan Zhuguang added other dishes for her, and when Yun Mixue saw this, she also added some for Yan Zhuguang. The two went back and forth like this, and soon the whole table of food was eaten clean.
Yan Zhuguang threw out a dust-cleaning talisman to clean the bowls and chopsticks. Then with a wave of her hand, she put away all the dishes on the table.
“Next time there is free time, I will cook for Eldest Senior Sister again. There are still many ingredients in that hidden realm. I could make several meals without repeating anything. When that time comes, Eldest Senior Sister must not dislike it.”
“Then Eldest Senior Sister will look forward to it.”
If Yan Zhuguang, at Foundation Establishment, still had a small but not urgent need for food, then Yun Mixue, at Nascent Soul, could already completely do without it.
For a Nascent Soul cultivator, some foods were not only useless, they might also add unnecessary impurities to the Dao body.
Cultivators at this realm did their best to keep their bodies clean. It was almost impossible for them to eat.
However, to Yan Zhuguang, those impurities were naturally less important than delicious food. Although she would need to spend some energy removing the impurities afterward, compared with the enjoyment brought by food, that little energy did not matter much.
So she was very willing to spend time improving her cooking.
Besides, she was confident that when she cooked, she could keep as much of the food’s benefits for the body as possible while removing what was harmful. Sometimes, eating could even increase one’s strength.
As for Yun Mixue, she did not care much about the pleasures of food.
She had grown up on fine spiritual liquids and jade dew. When she began cultivating, she had taken fasting pills to fill her stomach. When her strength reached the Golden Core stage, she no longer needed even fasting pills.
When she said earlier that she had never tasted such delicious food, she had not said it just to make Yan Zhuguang happy. From childhood to now, she had only tasted the original flavors of spiritual herbs. She truly had never tasted food that had been carefully cooked like this.
These foods were Yan Zhuguang’s feelings. Yun Mixue naturally would not waste them. She even looked forward to the next time.
Although cultivators had no real need to walk off a meal, the two of them still walked along the green pond.
Yan Zhuguang spoke of what they had seen earlier at the Qiao branch family’s remains. “Eldest Senior Sister, did you notice any clues in those remains?”
Yun Mixue said, “I suspect that what flattened the Qiao branch family was not some spell, but some kind of formation.”
“A formation?” Yan Zhuguang asked curiously. “Why does Eldest Senior Sister think that?”
Yun Mixue’s steps paused slightly. She pointed with two fingers, and a faint snow-white light left her fingertip in an instant, landing on the ground and making a small pit.
“If it were a powerful attack spell, then when it landed on the Qiao branch family, the result should have been like this.”
Yan Zhuguang looked at the sunken pit and nodded. “Indeed. The Qiao branch family’s remains did not look like they were struck by this kind of force. It was more like someone deliberately shaved them away, cutting the Qiao branch family out and moving the whole thing.”
Yun Mixue said, “If one wanted to wipe out the whole Qiao family, a Dividing Spirit expert could simply cast a large spell and smash it apart. Why do something so unnecessary?”
“Eldest Senior Sister, do you think this method looks like a kind of sacrifice?”
“Sacrifice?”
Yun Mixue’s expression changed slightly. “Zhuguang means the people of the Qiao branch family were used as offerings by demonic cultivators?”
Yan Zhuguang nodded. “With such a ritual-like method, I cannot think of any other possibility besides sacrifice.”
“Does Eldest Senior Sister remember the crack I thought was very strange? The demonic energy left on it was not ordinary.”
Yun Mixue nodded and said, “That demonic energy was left after demonic cultivators attacked the formation. Also, they must have failed to break the formation, or this kind of demonic energy would not have remained.”
“Eldest Senior Sister thought the same as me,” Yan Zhuguang said. “Whether the Qiao branch family was destroyed by a great demonic cultivator’s spell or erased by a sacrificial formation, the mastermind’s method could not have failed to break the Qiao branch family’s formation.”
The strength needed to sacrifice the whole branch family would not be much weaker than the killer they had first imagined.
The attacks that the Qiao branch family’s formation could endure would definitely not surpass the late Nascent Soul stage. To that killer, it should have shattered with a light touch. How could demonic energy remain?
“Second Young Master Qiao said the demonic cultivator deliberately struck the formation to frighten the Qiao family members and create panic. I do not think he was guessing wildly.”
Yun Mixue said, “Frighten the Qiao family members?”
Yan Zhuguang nodded. “Eldest Senior Sister, think about it. Demonic cultivators are cruel by nature. They use killing, blood, or people’s fear to cultivate. Most demonic cultivators like to torment people to death in order to absorb those evil thoughts.”
“If the demonic cultivators attacked the formation but did not break it, would that not make people afraid? The demonic cultivators could use their fear as offerings. If the branch family members were sacrificed by demonic cultivators, then before they died, they must have suffered a great deal of torment. These demonic cultivators’ methods…”
It was not only the mental torment of attacking the formation…
Thinking of those demonic cultivators’ methods, Yun Mixue’s eyes revealed a trace of pity.
“Why did the Qiao branch family provoke such cruel demonic cultivators?”
Demonic cultivators often slaughtered cities and destroyed families for cultivation. But most of those things happened in mortal lands near the demonic path’s territory. Before the Qiao branch family, an extermination case like this deep in the immortal path’s territory was almost unheard of.
That was why the destruction of the branch family had caused such a stir.
Yan Zhuguang pressed her lips together. After hesitating for a while, she said to Yun Mixue, “Eldest Senior Sister, have you ever thought about why Su You Demon Lord sent Su Qian’er to the Qiao family?”
“The son of that cultivator surnamed Su married a daughter of the Qiao family,” Yun Mixue said. “The cultivator surnamed Su was from the demonic path. To hide her daughter’s identity, Su You Demon Lord naturally handed her to that cultivator surnamed Su.”
“It is not easy for cultivators to have children. A child of an immortal cultivator and a demonic cultivator would stay in the womb even longer. The former sect master and Su You Demon Lord must have made preparations early. The son of the cultivator surnamed Su and the daughter of the Qiao family had only just married, yet they ‘gave birth’ to Su Qian’er…”
Yan Zhuguang looked at Yun Mixue.
Yun Mixue said, “…The son of the cultivator surnamed Su married the Qiao family’s daughter to hide Su Qian’er’s identity?”
“I think so.”
“There may be some other connection between the Qiao family and the Dripping Blood Demon Domain. That may be why Su You Demon Lord fixed her eyes on them and fostered Su Qian’er in their family.”
“And now, they have provoked demonic cultivators into wiping them out. There must be another cause inside this that we do not know.”
Yan Zhuguang shook her head. “Forget it. We will not figure anything out by wildly guessing here. Eldest Senior Sister, let us tidy up and stop getting tangled in this matter.”
Yun Mixue did not mention that Yan Zhuguang had been the one to bring up the matter first. “All right.”
After that, Yan Zhuguang was no longer in a hurry to investigate Su Qian’er’s matter.
Su Qian’er was someone who had come back from rebirth. The background of this body itself had already been found out. If they wanted to understand more of the mysteries on her, relying on the clues that originally existed in this world was naturally impossible. They would have to test and infer from future contact with Su Qian’er, or judge through future developments.
In any case, there was no use rushing.
Yun Mixue and Yan Zhuguang rested for a while in the small courtyard. Still, no one returned to the courtyard. Yun Mixue contacted the elders and Chu Ningyan, asking where they were.
The elders were still near that hidden realm, investigating the traces left by the Dripping Blood Demon Domain. They were doing their best to gather the remaining auras in the barren mountain, wanting to deduce the cause of the former sect master’s death.
At present, they had already gained a small result.
As for Yun Changyue and Chu Ningyan, they were still aimlessly searching for traces related to demonic cultivators.
Since they had found that demonic cultivators had appeared at the place where the former sect master fell, they naturally had to keep following that line to gain more clues.
After contacting both sides, Yun Mixue and Yan Zhuguang also decided to join the team “searching for traces of demonic cultivators.”
However, their method of searching was different from Chu Ningyan and the others.
They did not know whether Su You Demon Lord’s side would attack Yan Zhuguang, who held the Heaven’s Heart Lotus Seed, so the two of them were very guarded against the people of the Dripping Blood Demon Domain.
If Su You Demon Lord truly wanted to attack them, perhaps if the two of them showed their faces outside, they could catch “traces of demonic cultivators” by catching those demonic cultivators who intended to attack Yan Zhuguang.
So the two of them were not going to look for traces of demonic cultivators. They were preparing to let any demonic cultivators who might wish Yan Zhuguang harm come to them on their own.