Chasing The Moon (Moonlight Mystique) - Chapter 2
Volume 1 (Human World): Chapter 2
Prologue
In the beginning, the universe was divided into three realms: the ancient god realm and immortal realm, the demon and ghost realm, and the human realm.
The ancient god realm was where the gods lived, with the four major True Gods—Shang Gu, Zhiyang, Bai Jue, and Tianqi—being revered.
One hundred and thirty thousand years ago,the Tribulation Chaos descended upon the three realms.
In order to prevent the Primal Chaos Goddess, Shang Gu, from sacrificing herself,.
The true god, Tianqi,caught glimpses of the heaven secret, so he laid down the world-destroying array in the swamp of Yuanling, intending to sacrifice the beings of the three realms to ensure the safety of Shang Gu.
In order to save the three realms,the goddess of stars and moons, Yue Mi, led a group of gods to stop Tianqi from setting up the world-destroying array.
However, she mistakenly entered the eye of the array, and the supreme god fell into the world-destroying array. Since then, her divine soul has remained in the swamp of the Yuanling, turning into a lonely stone statue, silently watching over.
After the tribulation of chaos descended, Shang Gu sacrificed herself for the world, and the ancient god realm was sealed. No one in the three realms remembered this past event.
Sixty thousand years later, the ancient god realm reopened, the four major true gods returned to their positions, and everything returned to its former state. However, everything about the goddess of the star and moon was scattered in the vast river of the god realm, never to return.
In the realm of the heavens, the stone statue of the goddess of stars and moon turned into the Milky Way. The last tear that fell from her eyes became the only heartache that Tianqi couldn’t overcome.
The immortals and demons battled relentlessly for sixty thousand years,and during the first few thousand years, the two realms argued with each other, harboring deep enmity like the vast sea. This unrest was like a mountain without edges; even the fusion of heaven and earth couldn’t make them cease.
But miraculously, after the True God Bai Jue turned into ashes in the swamp of the Yuanling, the troublesome matter was resolved. The Heavenly Emperor and the Demon Emperor hadn’t even issued a ceasefire order to the three realms, yet the soldiers of both realms at the boundary between them tacitly retreated without a sound.
For decades, leaving aside the Immortal Lords, the belligerent Demon Lords have also obediently shrunk in their demon caves in the Demon Realm, taking care of themselves and not daring to take even a small step beyond the realm boundary.
The True God Bai Jue sacrificed himself to save the Three Realms, and if they were still fighting fiercely in the lower realm, the three True Gods in the ancient god realm wouldn’t hesitate to strike them down first.
Following the principle of survival—better to avoid trouble than to invite it—the two races, who couldn’t survive without going mad, finally settled down. This respite lasted for fifty years.
Tianqi left the ancient god realm and spent fifty years as a bystander in his Purple Moon Mountain Palace.
Demons are creatures that evolved from heaven and earth.
Some demons may have become ugly during their evolution, but most are still quite seductive in appearance.
Over the tens of thousands of years of the ancient calendar, Tianqi stood out among all, truly exceptional.
According to the gods of the ancient god realm, his appearance was truly a masterpiece of heaven and earth, perfectly balanced.
If the female immortals who were concerned about Bai Jue in the ancient god realm could form a line outside the Peach Abyss Forest, then the rare Tianqi would be enough to circle the ancient god realm.
This scene sounds a bit like the life of a proud husband.
Of course, these were just sentiments expressed by the old gods and their descendants when chatting about ancient tales.
But there wasn’t much opposition to this statement.
At the wedding of the true god Bai Jue in the Heavenly realm, hundreds of immortals and demons witnessed the awakening of the true god Tianqi.
His appearance, the heaven-defying power of the demon god.— No one could forget it for a thousand years.
So, even with the great achievement of the True God Bai Jue sacrificing himself, the topic that sparked the most fervent discussions among the female immortals and demons in the three realms was still the True God Tianqi.
It’s not that these ladies were all malicious gossip, but it’s just that the True God Bai Jue had already settled down and had children with the one in the Temple of Pilgrimage.
That corner was too solidly built, and nobody dared to dig into it.
Therefore, in the decades after the awakening of the gods in the ancient god realm, Tianqi indisputably became the most sincere bachelor in the Nine States and Eight Wastelands of the upper and lower three realms.
But this bachelor, in these fifty years, only did two things.
The first thing was to revisit the Star-Picking Pavilion to see his old friend, Shang Gu.
The second thing was to search heaven and earth for the soul of Yue Mi.
As for the first matter, who knows on which sunny day, When Tianqi looked at Shang Gu lazily basking in the sun with one leg dangling, waiting for Bai Jue, he suddenly gave up.
They exchanged a knowing smile, the camaraderie of tens of thousands of years evident between them.
He plucked a peach blossom in Yue Mi’s old residence in the Peach Abyss Forest, scooped up a gourd of water from the stream under the peach blossom tree, and left in his ancient robe, carefree.
Watching his departing figure from the Star-Picking Pavilion, Shang Gu suddenly remembered Yue Mi leaning against the corridor, smiling and raising her cup to her, many years ago.
She closed her eyes, sighing softly.
Those three carts of wine, sealed in Tianqi Palace, had been gathering dust for sixty thousand years.
From that day on, Tianqi never returned to the ancient god realm.
In the upper and lower three realms, Tianqi never found Yue Mi’s soul, but he didn’t give up. Before tearing through the space into the cracks between dimensions to search for Yue Mi’s remnants, he went to Daze Mountain to see Ah Qi.
At that time, the most noble and unlucky little god in the world had been raised by the immortals in Daze Mountain to be a little fat man. He lived carefree in the forbidden valley of Daze Mountain, ruling with ease, thinking only about lifting the seal and finding Little Phoenix to kick the three realms and trample the eight wastes again, unaware of what fate awaited him.
After sizing him up, Tianqi had nothing much to miss. After entrusting Purple Moon Mountain and the Nine Purgatory to Sanhuo to manage, he stepped into the cracks of time and space.
From then on, there was no trace of Tianqi, the true god, in the three realms.
Many years passed—a hundred years? A thousand years? Perhaps it was an indescribable passage of time.
When Tianqi returned to Purple Moon Mountain with exhaustion and loneliness, the story of Yuanqi turning into ashes to resist the demons and save the three realms had long passed.
The three realms had changed completely, except for some long-lived old immortals and demons. There were more people and events that he had never heard of.
He was a true god of the ancient god realm, and despite the changes in the lower realms, ultimately, it had nothing to do with him.
Only the ashes of Yuanqi made him furrow his brows, but eventually, even that settled into silence in his weathered eyes.
(T/N: male lead from the last immortal yuanqi/gujin is the son of ML and Fl of ancient love poetry.)
Everyone has their own destiny.
Yuanqi was born a god, so how could his calamity be any less than that of Shang Gu and Bai Jue?
Tianqi glanced at the lonely Purple Moon Mountain and eventually returned to the ancient god realm.
The person waiting for him in the Star-Picking Pavilion had gone from one to four.
Shang Gu, Bai Jue, Zhiyang, and Xuan Yi, who would rather die in the Nine Purgatory than return to the ancient god realm.
In the eyes of Shang Gu and Bai Jue, there was a deeper silence, while Zhiyang remained as steady as ever.
Xuan Yi leaned against the corridor of the Star-Picking Pavilion with a wine jug, suddenly throwing a passionate glance towards Tianqi from afar.
Tianqi shuddered all over, did not enter the Star-Picking Pavilion, and then headed to the Star Moon mansion.
Facing the reproachful gazes of the other three gods, Xuan Yi shrugged, showing a hint of humanity.
“After all, it’s his territory. I just wanted to inform him in advance so that my affairs could proceed smoothly.”
Even if the three realms have been destroyed several times, is there anything you can’t handle?
The other three gods thought so but didn’t say it out loud.
Whatever Xuan Yi was planning this time, it was not necessarily a bad thing. Right or wrong, it would take a few more years to find out.
Before long, Tianqi’s figure appeared in the Peach Abyss Forest behind the Star Moon mansion.
He stood by the stream under the tree for a long time, then suddenly sat down against a half-cut ancient tree. Apart from the gourd hanging from his waist, which contained water from the Peach Abyss Forest, there was nothing left by his side for thousands of years.
Shang Gu caught a glimpse of this scene from afar, feeling somewhat bitter, unsure if it was for him or for Yue Mi, who had once leaned against the Star-Picking Pavilion and entrusted her wine to her.
She looked towards Bai Jue suddenly and spoke, “Do you remember the year of your birthday when I sent you three carts of wine? Do you remember?”
Bai Jue nodded slightly and said, “Of course.”
“I spent ten years searching for three carts of rare wines for you in the three realms. Why did you leave the god realm the day after I delivered them?”
Zhiyang and Xuan Yi perked up their ears, their faces full of gossip, as they looked at Shang Gu and Bai Jue.
When did this trivial matter happen?
Embarrassment flashed across Bai Jue’s usually steady face. He turned away, speaking softly but clearly enough for the three people in the Star-Picking Pavilion to hear clearly.
“On that day, three carts of rare wines were also delivered to Tianqi Palace.”
This sentence, when heard sixty thousand years later, carried a hint of jealousy.
“Oh~” Xuan Yi dragged out his tone, looking towards the Peach Abyss and gloating, “While I wasn’t in the god realm, you guys really had a good time.”
Zhiyang gave Xuan Yi a warning glance, telling him not to add fuel to the fire. The Demon Lord snorted lightly, wishing he could shout about the scandalous affairs of the Four True Gods throughout the god realm.
“It wasn’t from me.”
Shang Gu showed a helpless expression, as if saying, “As expected,” “The rare wines in Tianqi Palace weren’t from me.”
Bai Jue was stunned for a moment. He seemed to suddenly understand something and looked towards the Peach Abyss, but this time he wasn’t looking at Tianqi but towards the Moon Star Mansion behind the Peach Abyss.
He turned his head to look at Shang Gu.
Shang Gu nodded. “I didn’t know back then that Yue Mi had sent three carts of rare wines into Tianqi Palace on your birthday.”
“Tianqi…” Seeing Bai Jue’s silence, even Zhiyang, who usually didn’t gossip about the private affairs of the gods, couldn’t help but ask, “Doesn’t he know?”
Shang Gu shook her head slowly. “As far as I know, he doesn’t.”
Shang Gu lowered her eyes. “After that came the tribulation of chaos.”
Upon hearing this, there was a moment of silence in the Star-Picking Pavilion.
More than sixty thousand years had passed, and the most tragic part of the tribulation of chaos back then was undoubtedly the death of Yue Mi.
Otherwise, Tianqi wouldn’t have been so persistent in searching for Yue Mi’s soul for so many years.
The four gods lost their interest in enjoying the scenery and tasting wine. Shang Gu accompanied Bai Jue back to the Temple of Pilgrimage.
Xuan Yi dragged Zhiyang away, still muttering about his “affairs,” showing no trace of the cold and indifferent demeanor he had in the Nine Purgatory.
After a long time, Tianqi, leaning against the ancient tree in the Peach Abyss Forest, finally opened his eyes.
He gazed at the gently flowing stream for a while, and the Star Moon Mansion reflected in the stream seemed particularly desolate.
He suddenly let out a long laugh. “So, that’s how it is.”
But there was indiscernible bitterness and guilt in his smile.
He had thought he owed his dear friend only a debt of life, but it turned out he also owed her a love affair from sixty thousand years ago.
Perhaps even more than sixty thousand years. With Yue Mi gone, no one knew what she had done, loved, or sacrificed.
Just like the three carts of rare wines sealed in his palace for so many years, he hadn’t touched a single sip.
Tianqi got up, no longer glancing at the Star Moon Mansion reflected in the stream, and walked out of the Peach Abyss Forest.
A dazzling star streaked across the sky above the god realm, shaking the heavens with divine power.
The gods scattered throughout the god realm looked up in surprise, only to see a half-yard-wide fissure tearing through the god realm’s barrier, a vast surge of the demon god power appearing briefly.
Was the most sincere Diamond King of the ancient god realm back? Before the goddesses could rejoice, the demon god power had disappeared into the horizon, leaving no trace of divine power.
(T/N: the most sought-after and precious bachelor in the ancient god realm)
Gone again? How many years this time? Amidst their sighs, the goddesses dared not hope to marry the wanderer in the Tianqi palace.
On the Star-Picking Pavilion, Shang Gu and Bai Jue watched as Tianqi disappeared at the edge of the god realm.
Bai Jue looked at Shang Gu.
“It’s been sixty thousand years. Why did you suddenly tell him?”
“If there ever comes a day when Yue Mi can return to this world.” Shang Gu’s voice was distant, filled with reminiscence.
“She would surely hope that the one who finds her is Tianqi.”
