Water droplets scattered, and through the diffusion of moonlight, they ford tiny rainbows.
The pure moonlight spilled in from the gap in the mountain overhead, illuminating the entire cave.
The grains of sand on the ground sparkled like gems, aglow with a clear brilliance.
Underneath this scenery lay a small shrine.
Bathed in the moonlight, sothing atop the shrine glistened with a crystal-clear luster.
"What is that..." Beichuan Si stepped forward, his feet crunching on the sandy ground as he approached the shrine.
The flashlight in his hand cast a vertical beam of light.
On the vermillion offering pad, there was a round mirror with a hazy surface.
The fra of the mirror was engraved with intricate curse inscriptions, and the deep mirror seed as if it could absorb one’s soul.
"Is this... the Moon Gazing Mirror?"
Beichuan Si’s eyes shimred.
He had not expected to find the Moon Gazing Mirror hidden within the Moon Eclipsed Cave.
Just as Four Directions Huixue had said, the Moon Gazing Mirror was always bathed in moonlight, and its hiding place was so concealed.
Beichuan Si walked up and reached out to take the Moon Gazing Mirror from the shrine.
The sparkling, crystal-clear moonlight swirled around Beichuan Si’s body in an instant.
This stream of moonlight dispelled the chill that had lingered around him, revitalizing Beichuan Si’s spirits.
At the sa ti, he also saw so sporadic mories related to spiritual tools—
It was the sa serene Moon Eclipsed Cave.
A woman arrived at this place on a small boat.
Whether it was due to mory loss or not, Beichuan Si couldn’t see her face clearly; the only visible detail was the round mirror at her chest, shimring with light.
The Moon Obscuring Mirror.
"With the Moon Gazing Mirror in hand, and now possessing the Moon Obscuring Mirror... I might be able to glimpse the secret of immortality, right?"
The woman murmured to herself as she stepped slowly towards the shrine where the Moon Gazing Mirror was offered, and then she reached out and took it from the vermilion offering pad with one grasp.
Then—
Tragedy struck.
Vast, uncontrollable moonlight burst forth from the Moon Gazing Mirror, and in a flash, the terrible moonlight overwheld the woman’s frail body.
A cry of agony rose!
In just an instant, her palms, ankles, arms, and even her head—
All exploded into plasma.
In the end, the blood-stained Moon Gazing Mirror fell heavily from the air.
...
The surrounding scene shifted, and as Beichuan Si was slightly taken aback, everything returned to its original state.
A system notification sounded.
Ding! You have discovered the new oddity ’Moon Gazing Mirror’.
’Moon Gazing Mirror: A legacy spiritual tool venerated since the ti of the Four Directions Family, containing fearso moonlight. It is one of the necessary items to activate the Four Directions Shrine. But aside from this, it seems to have another function...’
The system’s description was, as always, simple and easy to understand.
Only...
"Who exactly was that woman just now...?" Beichuan Si looked at the Moon Gazing Mirror in his hand.
The round mirror, engraved with complex spells, shimred with a mystifying brilliance.
The removed Moon Gazing Mirror... the woman exploded into plasma and... the Moon Obscuring Mirror hanging at the woman’s chest.
A bold hypothesis gradually took shape in Beichuan Si’s mind.
After the baptism of the mory fragnts just now, Beichuan Si had almost sorted out all the clues.
"Quite close to certainty."
Beichuan Si muttered to himself.
If the person in the mory just now was indeed the first Moon Witch recorded in the Four Directions Wangyue notebook... all the previous clues could be linked together.
Yes—
Everything could be linked together now.
"Mr. Temple... have you understood?" Magong Yongshi, floating on the side, looked over curiously, and poor little Kelian also grasped Beichuan Si’s ear, wanting to hear his thought process.
Under their gaze, Beichuan Si did not hide anything in this regard, and he slowly expressed his thoughts.
The first point was that the original Moon Witch, out of greed for the immortal thods handed down from Yueyou Mountain, ca alone to the Moon Eclipsed Cave hoping to retrieve the Moon Gazing Mirror, using the power of both the Moon Gazing Mirror and the Moon Obscuring Mirror to peek into the secrets of immortality. However, the final result was failure; she was eroded by the moonlight of the Moon Gazing Mirror, literally exploding into a puddle of flesh.
By the ti the Four Directions Family discovered the tragedy, it was already too late. The very mont the Moon Witch died, the Four Directions Family on Yueyou Mountain could no longer use the power of the Four Directions Shrine to safely get through the upcoming Waning Moon Ti.
It was at this mont that the higher-ups of the Four Directions Family barely thought of a makeshift solution. That was to select another Moon Witch, having this substitute Moon Witch preside over the ceremony at the Four Directions Shrine.
And the chosen one was the previous Four Directions Wangyue.
Her engagent to Four Directions Wenji was annulled in order for her to beco the Moon Witch, and Four Directions Wenji was thus sentenced to the wooden cage prison for breaking taboo.
However—
"I rember the Moon Witch needs to be raised from a young age, right...? This is just like our Shenzhu Village, where to suppress disasters, we must enhance and strengthen our spiritual bodies through various blessings or sacrificial rituals... A roughly chosen Moon Witch would not be up to the task."
Magong Yongshi promptly spotted the doubt and asked the question.
Indeed, as she said, the Moon Witch has to be trained from a young age, which was also recorded in Four Directions Wangyue’s notebook.
"But you are missing one point."
Beichuan Si raised his finger, calmly saying, "That is the fact that the Moon Eclipsed Cave itself is closely associated with the Yellow Springs."
Magong Yongshi finally understood, her mouth agape:
"Do you an, Mr. Temple... A departed Spiritual Body possessing a living person?"
Exactly.
Beichuan Si nodded.
The Moon Eclipsed Cave was naturally close to the Yellow Springs, but to be able to see the prior witches in the Moon Eclipsed Cave... to understand their experiences... that was undoubtedly a deception.
The only thing the higher-ups of the Four Directions Family wanted to do was to have the Spiritual Body of the first departed Moon Witch take possession of Four Directions Wangyue’s body!
But it had already been ntioned earlier, there is a rejection reaction between different Spiritual Bodies and different flesh bodies.
It was like trying to install a bus engine into a small car... This is simply incompatible.
Thus, the idea of forcibly taking another person’s body is fundantally impossible.
Until now, Beichuan Si hadn’t thought about body possession because of this precondition.
If it’s not your own body, there would be a rejection reaction; one fundantally could not take another’s body.
However—
"In an environnt like Moon Eclipsed Cave, which is close to the Yellow Springs, close to the hidden world, such a thing can be achieved," Beichuan Si took a breath.
After being infiltrated by the aura of the Yellow Springs for a long ti, the living body would change, becoming more like that of the hidden world.
After such a long period of alteration by the aura of the Yellow Springs, Four Directions Wangyue’s body lost its rejection towards other Spiritual Bodies.
And the one controlling the body of Four Directions Wangyue was—
"Four Directions Huixue," Beichuan Si snapped his fingers.
Once Four Directions Wangyue, as an ordinary mber of the Four Directions Family, lost that singular protection of Spirit Body rejection, naturally, she could not resist the takeover from Four Directions Huixue who had been enhanced and purified by various rituals from a young age.
This was why she wrote such a long string of ’I am not Four Directions Huixue’ on the last page of her notebook.
She wanted to use this thod to drive the other away.
But contrary to her wishes, what had happened could not be reversed, and this feeble resistance was not at all enough to withstand the other taking her body.
Then Four Directions Wangyue changed her na to Four Directions Huixue, which is why the annotator added a note to Wangyue’s na behind the scenes.
Because at that ti, Four Directions Wangyue was no longer Four Directions Wangyue but purely Four Directions Huixue.
Everything proceeded exactly as the Four Directions Family’s higher-ups had envisaged; Four Directions Huixue was brought back to life, and Four Directions Wangyue was left behind, her Spiritual Body seemingly completely dissipated.
However, in the end, for so unknown reason, the ceremony to fend off the Waning Moon Ti still failed.
Thus, the Four Directions Shrine fell into ruin, and everything returned to square one.
So now the most important question cos.
Beichuan Si clenched the Moon Gazing Mirror in his hand, his gaze turning to the clear moon in the sky.
The current Four Directions Huixue...
Who is she?
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