The silence in the aftermath of the annihilation was absolute and profound. The silvery twilight of the Shattered Moon Realm seemed to hold its breath, the only movement the gentle drift of the cloud sea far below. Inside the ruined temple, the surviving Asura Clan disciples stood frozen, their minds struggling to bridge the gap between their impending, violent death and their sudden, impossible salvation. They stared at Li Yu, this calm, handsome young man in righteous sect robes, and could not reconcile his appearance with the god-like judgment they had just witnessed.
Mo Ling was the first to break the spell. Her body, which had been running on pure, desperate adrenaline, finally gave out. Her legs trembled, and she leaned heavily on her longsword, its tip digging into the crystalline floor for support. She looked at the utter desolation outside—the empty space where forty-three enemies had stood a moment before—and then back at Li Yu. Her pride, her arrogance, her fiery spirit—all of it was humbled in the face of such absolute, incomprehensible power.
"Who… what are you?" she finally managed to ask, her voice a hoarse whisper, stripped of all its previous challenge.
Li Yu's gentle smile did not waver. He walked past the stunned disciples, his gaze falling upon the two most grievously wounded members of their party. They were bleeding out from deep, vicious-looking wounds, their life force fading fast.
"We can discuss that later," he said, his voice calm and reassuring. "For now, let us tend to your wounded."
He knelt beside one of the disciples, a young man with a deep gash across his chest. Li Yu placed a hand over the wound, and a soft, warm, azure-gold light emanated from his palm. It was the pure, life-affirming energy of his Koi spirit. The disciples watched in awe as the gruesome, gushing wound immediately stopped bleeding.
The chaotic, soul-grey energy of the Wraith Hand Clan's attack that clung to the wound was soothed and then expelled by the pure, vibrant life force. The disciple's ragged breathing began to even out, his life stabilized. Li Yu had not miraculously closed the wound, but he had stopped death in its tracks. He did the same for the other disciple, his touch a quiet, undeniable miracle of preservation.
He then produced a small vial of pills from his storage ring. "These are high-grade recovery pills. Distribute them. They will help restore your spiritual energy."
The disciples, finally snapping out of their shock, moved with a newfound reverence. They took the pills, their hands trembling slightly, and bowed deeply. "Thank you, Guest Elder Li! You have saved our lives!"
Li Yu simply nodded, his gaze finally settling on Mo Ling. "Are you injured, Lady Ling?"
She shook her head, though she was clearly exhausted. "Only my pride," she admitted, her voice quiet. She finally sheathed her longsword and gave him a formal, deep bow, an act of true, ungrudging respect. "On behalf of the Asura Demon Clan, and my father, I thank you for our rescue. We are forever in your debt."
"Your father is an honorable man. It was my pleasure to assist," Li Yu replied. He looked around at the ruined temple. "This place is not safe. We should retrieve what you came for and leave this realm."
Galvanized into action, the disciples moved towards the back of the temple. There, in a small, hidden chamber, growing from a crack in the crystalline floor, was a single, beautiful lotus. Its petals were a translucent, silvery-white, and it pulsed with a soft, gentle light, radiating an energy that soothed the soul. This was the Soul-Nourishing Lotus.
With great care, Mo Ling harvested the lotus, placing it in a specialized jade box that would preserve its spiritual energy. A wave of profound relief washed over the entire group. Their mission, despite the catastrophic losses, was a success.
"Now," Li Yu said, his expression turning serious, his voice dropping. "We must discuss what happened here today. And what you will say happened."
He gathered them in the center of the ruined chamber. He looked at their confused, questioning faces. "You were inside this temple. Your defensive barrier was about to collapse. The Wraith Hand Clan was preparing to attack. Is this correct?"
They all nodded, their expressions grim.
"Then the barrier shattered," Li Yu continued, his voice calm and even. "And a moment later, I was here. And your enemies were gone. That is all you know. That is all you saw."
He let the truth of that sink in. They had not witnessed his attack. They had only seen the impossible aftermath.
"Do not ask me how," he stated, his tone leaving no room for argument. "The methods are my own secret. I do not want to be bothered by others."
One of the disciples looked confused. "But... what do we tell our Clan Lord? What do we tell our clan? That our enemies simply... vanished?"
"No," Li Yu said. "You will tell them a story. A story that is better than the truth." His gaze fell on Mo Ling, his eyes sharp and clear. "The truth is that you were saved by an outsider. The story you will tell is that the Asura Demon Clan saved itself. This is not just for my protection; it is for your clan's honor."
A flicker of understanding, and then a wave of profound respect, dawned on Mo Ling's face. He was not just hiding himself; he was gifting them their pride.
"You will say this," Li Yu began, his voice calm and authoritative. "You were ambushed and trapped, just as the messenger reported. Elder Borin did sacrifice himself to allow one to escape. But he also had a contingency plan. Before he died, he activated a long-dormant teleportation array hidden within the ruins, a secret passed down by your ancestors. The array summoned a second, secret rescue team that your clan had pre-positioned on a nearby island, led by another one of your upper-level Foundation Establishment elders who was not on the main expedition."
He looked at them, ensuring they were following. "You will say that this second team, a force of your own clan's warriors, launched a brilliant surprise pincer attack. They struck the Wraith Hand Clan from the rear while you launched a desperate charge from the front. Caught between two forces, the enemy was thrown into chaos and annihilated after a long, brutal, and heroic battle. It was a glorious victory for the Asura Demon Clan, a testament to your courage and your elders' brilliant strategy."
The story was perfect. It explained their rescue, it honored their fallen, and it transformed a humiliating defeat into a legendary victory.
"We understand, Guest Elder," Mo Ling said, her voice firm, her eyes shining with a new, deeper respect. She and all the other disciples bowed as one. "Your secret is safe with us. We swear it on our martial souls."
"Good," Li Yu nodded. "Now, let us get you out of this place." Li Yu wasn't too concerned even if things did leak out. They were not able to gauge his abilities, all the knew was he was able to defeat everyone, how he did it or his means unknown.
They made their way back towards the entrance of the temple ruins. The area outside was a scene of eerie emptiness, the silvery ground clean and undisturbed, giving no clue to the annihilation that had just occurred.
As they were about to step out, Mo Ling, who was at the front, suddenly stopped. Her head tilted, a frown on her face. "Wait…" she murmured.
"What is it, Lady Ling?" one of her disciples asked.
"This wall…" she said, walking towards the right-hand wall of the main chamber. "This is not on our clan's maps. I have studied them my entire life. This section of the temple should be a collapsed ruin."
She reached out and touched the wall. It was smooth, seamless, and made of a moon-white stone that was different from the surrounding crystalline rock. As her fingers traced its surface, they brushed against a small, almost invisible indentation. It was a rune, shaped like a stylized Asura horn, a symbol that resonated deeply with her own demonic bloodline.
Driven by an instinct she didn't understand, she pressed her thumb into the indentation.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, with a low, deep hum that seemed to shake the very foundations of the floating island, the entire wall began to glow with a brilliant, silver light. The light resolved into a complex, swirling pattern of ancient runes, and the solid stone wall dissolved, revealing a dark, tunnel-like pathway leading into the unknown. A faint, ancient, and incredibly powerful aura, far older than anything else in the realm, drifted out from the opening.
"An ancestral path…" one of the disciples whispered in awe. "A hidden trial ground!"
Mo Ling's eyes burned with a new, fiery light. The despair of the battle was gone, replaced by the insatiable curiosity and ambition of a true prodigy. This was an opportunity, a fated encounter. She had to know where it led.
Without a word to anyone, she took a decisive step and walked through the glowing archway.
The moment her foot crossed the threshold, she vanished.
"Lady Ling!" her disciples cried out in alarm.
Li Yu, who had been watching the proceedings with a sharp, analytical gaze, reacted instantly. He didn't know what lay on the other side, but he knew he could not let her face it alone. Without a second of hesitation, he shot forward, a blur of motion, and leaped through the glowing archway right behind her.
And he, too, vanished.
The remaining Asura disciples rushed to the archway, but as they tried to step through, they were met with an invisible, unyielding barrier. The portal, it seemed, would only allow two to enter. They looked at the glowing, silent path, then back at the empty space where their lady and their mysterious savior had just been, their hearts filled with a new and terrifying uncertainty.
Li Yu felt a brief, disorienting sensation of being pulled through space and time. A moment later, his feet touched solid ground. The world he found himself in was not a dark tunnel, but a vast, empty expanse of pure, silvery-white light that stretched to an infinite horizon. The air was still and silent, and the shattered moon from the outside world was gone, replaced by a formless, ambient luminescence.
A few dozen feet away, Mo Ling stood, looking around with a mixture of awe and apprehension.
Before either of them could speak, a voice, ancient, powerful, and utterly genderless, echoed through the infinite space, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"Two have walked the Ancestral Path. A child of the bloodline, and an outsider of unknowable depth."
The voice paused, a weight of centuries in its silence.
"The legacy of the Moon-Shattering Asura awaits its heir. But only one may claim the prize. The trials shall now begin. Prove your worth… or be consumed by the fading light of this world. Though you cannot die, you can fail."
A profound, ancient pressure, heavy with the weight of a forgotten age, descended upon them. The true test of the Shattered Moon Realm had just begun.