Half White Moonlight Script - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

“And then? What happened next?” Xu Luo asked, the sound of her cracking melon seeds echoing in the room. She kept the shells neatly gathered in a pile.

I poured her a cup of water and handed her some peeled lotus seeds.

Xu Luo was a young girl who excelled at being spoiled. Seeing someone take care of her, she naturally opened her mouth, insisting on being hand-fed.

Since I didn’t need my hands to tell a story, I was happy to indulge her whim.

I sighed with nostalgia. “Back then, Zhu Tao was just like you-extraordinarily lazy.”

Xu Luo gave me a sideways glance. “No ‘stand-in’ tropes allowed!”

“Don’t just assume you’re a replacement because I said you’re similar. You are you, and she was she; it’s just that you’re both equally dear to me.” I flicked her forehead lightly.

Xu Luo sat up abruptly, her eyes sparkling. “Good sister, say more things like that! I love hearing it!”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Xu Luo really was like Zhu Tao in many ways-soft, delicate, fond of talking and laughing, and even fonder of being loved.

But that Ah Tao, the one who loved beauty so much, ended up forcibly gouging out her own Immortal Bone. She drew her final breath in my arms, drenched in blood.

Years ago, once the Demon Lord had recovered from his injuries, the great war was on the verge of erupting.

The Demon Lord was arrogant, claiming that since Du Canying was dead, no one in the world could stand against him.

When I stood before him, his expression was full of contempt.

I’d call it the universal look of a villain about to be slapped in the face right before they die.

No one knew that forty years prior, the great masters had left a fallback plan. They had secretly summoned several juniors among the Immortal Cultivators who were born with an Immortal Bone, teaching us how to use the world’s spiritual veins as a foundation to set up the Demon-Slaying Formation.

I had asked them why they bothered risking their lives at the Demon Palace if they could just set up the formation directly.

My master rushed over and gave me a swift kick. “The old fogies aren’t all dead yet. Why should a kid like you try to steal the spotlight?”

In truth, it was because this formation required the casters to use their Immortal Bones as the core and their own bodies as a sacrifice to activate it.

A natural-born Immortal Bone is a rarity that appears perhaps once in ten thousand years, yet our generation had produced five at once.

Fate had already been decided in the shadows. Sacrificing us to exchange for world peace was the simplest solution.

But as mentors, my master and the others chose to stand in front of us, shielding us from the burden.

Before they departed, my master spoke to us with a rare, solemn expression. “No one is born meant to be sacrificed. Only those present today know of this formation. If we old-timers fail, you can just pretend you know nothing about it.”

He smiled and patted my shoulder. “As elders, we just want you to live well.”

He even sent me a secret telepathic message, telling me not to feel any moral pressure.

He said, “No matter what you choose, Zhizhi, you will always be my pride.”

“Disciples! We’re off!”

The masters laughed and joked as they walked out the door, just like every time they had gone to stand up for us when we were children.

This journey was for the sake of the world, and for the students they had nurtured.

If they did not return, then so be it!

Now, the protected youths have grown up. It is our turn to turn around and protect those even younger, just as our masters did for us.

This body and this bone were taken from the world; now, they shall be returned to it.