Chapter 43: The Bright Moon Spring Part 1

The person in the tree had been hit with an acupoint strike and was now sleeping so deeply they likely couldn’t even hear the wind.

Even if the two women spoke now, they wouldn’t wake him.

Feng Yun’ai was truly speechless. Who used stones for acupoint strikes? If the force had been just a bit heavier, it could have taken his life. However, she only gave Sang Chencao a sideways glance before bypassing the woman to head toward the mountain peak.

Sang Chencao followed with a smile, brushing off the dust that had clung to her hands from picking up the stones. “We aren’t out here committing arson and murder, Xiuxiu. Why the rush? Besides, these outsiders have pillaged your Listening Goose Peak. Even if I did kill him, you should be happy.”

She spoke the word “kill” with such terrifying ease.

Feng Yun’ai reached the end of her patience. Her gaze flickered toward the tree as she lowered her voice. “What then? Do you expect me to be grateful?”

“There’s no need for that. It makes us seem like strangers.” Sang Chencao stepped through the wind with her hands behind her back. Perhaps because her disguise concealed the two beauty marks beneath her eyes, she looked more like an ethereal immortal than she had before. She smiled and said, “I only hope you won’t keep looking for ways to leave me behind.”

The woman’s voice was low, and the slight vibration of it felt like a resonance coming straight from her heart. In this moment, her tenderness and deep affection felt strangely real.

Fortunately, this wasn’t the first time Feng Yun’ai had heard such things. She wouldn’t be easily deceived by this woman’s charms. “Whether I leave you or not is none of your business,” she said coldly.

“It’s not my business, I just wanted to say that by going up the mountain together right now, I’m basically going through life and death with you, Xiuxiu,” Sang Chencao quipped.

Faced with more of her nonsense, Feng Yun’ai stopped responding.

Even though she knew the mountain’s defensive formations had long since been dismantled, allowing them an unobstructed path, Feng Yun’ai couldn’t help but feel a pang of sorrow.

Sang Chencao was also somewhat surprised. She reached out to touch the bark of a nearby tree, feeling the uneven carvings of talismans. She raised an eyebrow. “Feng Rong wanted to hide you away completely. It wasn’t enough for you to just live on the mountain; to ensure no one else could climb up, she must have set up a formation, right?”

Feng Yun’ai had never had to break through the formation herself, but she had heard of it since she was a child.

Back then, Feng Rong had been afraid that her childhood curiosity would drive her down the mountain, so she told her there was a formation in place. She claimed that anyone who entered would encounter ghost-wall illusions, eventually starving to death within the formation because they couldn’t find an exit.

Feng Yun’ai had been an obedient child and didn’t have much yearning for the world below. In truth, even if Feng Rong hadn’t set a formation, she wouldn’t have left the mountain on her own.

It was only later that she vaguely realized Feng Rong hadn’t set the formation just to keep her from leaving, but to prevent others from trespassing—simply because there were things on the mountain that others were not meant to see.

Indeed, that silk scroll containing the secret mechanisms must have been something Zhou Gui unearthed on Listening Goose Peak.

“What a pity. The formation was destroyed, otherwise I would have liked to see its power for myself,” Sang Chencao said, shaking her head with regret.

Many trees had been cut down and boulders smashed to pieces; the mountain-sealing formation had been completely obliterated.

Sang Chencao kicked a piece of rubble by her foot and let out a soft huff. “It seems that when Zhou Gui climbed the mountain back then, she knew the method to break it.”

Feng Yun’ai was slightly stunned. Previously, she had simply thought that because Zhou Gui and Feng Rong were close and Zhou Gui was an elder of the Hantian Alliance, it wasn’t strange for her to know the method.

But for Zhou Gui to suddenly break the formation and suddenly storm the mountain…

The whole thing was incredibly suspicious.

“She didn’t break it before, but she chose that specific day to do it. Who taught her the method?” Sang Chencao turned toward another area, bending down to pick up a shard of stone and rubbing it between her fingers.

There were carvings on the stone as well, but because the damage was severe, the original patterns were no longer recognizable.

“Do you know what kind of formation it was?” Sang Chencao asked.

Feng Yun’ai pursed her lips. She had never heard Feng Rong mention it. As long as Feng Rong didn’t initiate a conversation, she would never ask.

However, Feng Rong had basically laid everything out in front of her. She had placed it all in the Library, except for…

Except for the Moonlight Sect.

“You really don’t know?” Sang Chencao chuckled. She began piecing the shards of stone together, attempting to reconstruct the general shape.

Feng Yun’ai stood still, searching through her memories for everything she knew about formations. She felt that Feng Rong must have written down the answer for her long ago, even if she had never said it explicitly.

She had read every book in the Library at least ten times. When she wasn’t practicing her swordplay, she spent her time there; it was one of her few pastimes.

The Great Luo Formless Formation, the Spring Breeze Rain-Bath Formation, the Heart-Confusing Shadow-Weave Formation, the Ten-Step Soul-Piercing Formation…

What others were there?

As she watched Sang Chencao nearly finish piecing the stones together—missing only a few gaps where the stone had turned to dust—Feng Yun’ai caught sight of a partial rune on a fragment. Instantly, a page from a book she had read flashed through her mind, and her heart jolted.

There were countless formations that caused trespassers to walk in circles, but only one was so flawless, blending perfectly with the forest, covering such a vast range, and remaining non-lethal.

“Bright Moon Spring,” Feng Yun’ai whispered.

Sang Chencao stood up and smiled, suddenly leaning close to Feng Yun’ai’s face. “Feng Rong told you about the Bright Moon Spring, yet she never mentioned the Moonlight Sect?”

Before she knew about the Moonlight Sect, Feng Yun’ai had merely thought the name was unusual. She had never made the connection.

The woman in white lowered her eyes and remained silent. Under the moonlight, her gaze became even more obscured behind her silk veil.

“This Bright Moon Spring is a unique technique of the Moonlight Sect. The reason the sect was able to hide within the martial world without ever exposing their tracks was thanks to this very formation,” Sang Chencao said cryptically.

Feng Yun’ai’s mind was in a state of chaos. After a long pause, she said, “I saw it in the books on Listening Goose Peak. Master… she never mentioned it herself.”

“I’m almost envious. Feng Rong treated you so well,” Sang Chencao teased. “I suppose I should take back what I said about her not raising you properly.”