Chapter Thirty-One: The Palace of the Lost Moon

What happened next was completely beyond Jiang Heng’s control, let alone her understanding.

She watched as if she were a savage, frenzied beast breaking free from its chains, erupting with all her might to charge against the violent air currents toward the demonic cultivator.

In that moment, she felt neither pain nor fear. The world faded away, and time slowed down a thousandfold. Even with her eyes reddened by her own blood and the sound of her own bones shattering ringing in her ears, she fought with reckless abandon. Under the shroud of black light, to the utter disbelief of everyone present, she drove her sword through the "Sixth Young Master"!!

Looking at the sword in her hand and the deep purple blood dripping from it, Jiang Heng felt dazed, unable to comprehend how it had come to this.

Han Jie was stunned, frozen by the sight.

The "Sixth Young Master" stared blankly at his own chest, his mouth agape, his face gradually twisting as he let out a sharp, inhuman shriek.

After plummeting into sudden darkness, Jiang Heng drifted through a series of fragmented dreams. Faces, both familiar and strange, flashed by. Among them was an astonishingly beautiful figure, radiant as the morning sun, possessing unparalleled brilliance. Jiang Heng seemed to recognize him, yet she did not. He said something to her, but she could not hear it clearly.

Just as she instinctively reached out to him, Han Jie’s voice suddenly echoed in her ears, dragging her back to reality.

"Junior Sister Jiang, wake up."

Jiang Heng struggled to open her eyes, finding herself still lying within the palace conjured by the demonic cultivator. Seeing her awake, Han Jie pinched her cheeks and began pouring something cold and sweet into her mouth. She swallowed with difficulty, and as some spilled from the corner of her lips, Han Jie used his finger to wipe it back into her mouth.

"A small bottle of Heavenly Dew costs one top-grade spirit stone. Don't waste it."

What?!

The price shocked Jiang Heng into full wakefulness. Even though her body throbbed as if she had been trampled by ten thousand demonic beasts, she did her best to steady herself and open her mouth, determined not to let a single drop go to waste. Perhaps it was the psychological effect of hearing such an exorbitant price, but once the bottle of Heavenly Dew was finished, Jiang Heng felt her injuries subside significantly, and her vital energy and spiritual power began to recover.

She suddenly remembered something and struggled to sit up. "What about that demonic cultivator?!"

Han Jie pressed her down. "He’s already dead. You don't really think I’d be feeding you medicine so leisurely if he were still alive, do you?"

Jiang Heng felt a chill. "Did you kill him?"

Han Jie corrected her, "We did. The sword strike you landed threw his mind into chaos and exposed a weakness, and I seized the opportunity to detonate my trump-card artifact, taking him out in one go."

At this, Han Jie looked directly at Jiang Heng. "Speaking of which, the situation was so critical back then—you risked your life to save me. Thank you."

Jiang Heng was stunned. "N-no need to be so polite."

She had wanted to say that wasn't how it happened. Her actions at the time felt as if they were controlled by another version of herself, leading her to do something so reckless for no apparent reason. But on second thought, that other self was still her. Furthermore, perhaps it was her own deep anxiety over Han Jie’s near-death state that had allowed her to unleash that unexpected power. Most importantly, the matter of the Asura Path was too difficult to explain, so she would let Senior Brother Han believe what he wanted for now.

After waiting for Jiang Heng to absorb most of the Heavenly Dew, Han Jie helped her sit up and began channeling his energy to heal her. White light flowed from his palms into her back like a gentle stream. Within the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, even the most minor scratches on her body had vanished. She felt refreshed, as if the fierce battle had been nothing more than a hallucination.

Jiang Heng asked, "Senior Brother Han, shall we return to the sect to report that a Nascent Soul demonic cultivator has entered the fray, or should we follow the trail to see if there are other hidden cultivators?"

Han Jie replied, "Let me extract his consciousness first to see if there are any clues before we decide. I was too busy saving you earlier and forgot this step."

As he spoke, he walked over to the corpse of the "Sixth Young Master" and crushed its skull. Han Jie extracted several clusters of black soul-fire, his palms weaving a dense net of white light that forced the demonic cultivator's remnant soul to shriek in agony. The soul-fire reflected off Han Jie’s calm face, the dim light in his eyes appearing even colder and more chilling than the demonic flame itself.

Although this was a common method of soul extraction, Jiang Heng felt a slight numbness in her heart as she watched Han Jie’s ruthless and efficient technique. She didn't know if it was just her imagination, but at this moment, both his temperament and his aura felt different from the amiable senior brother she had first met.

Was it because they had shared a life-or-death experience that he no longer felt the need to put on a facade, thereby revealing more of his true self?

Gradually, Han Jie furrowed his brows.

Jiang Heng realized the situation was not simple. "Could it be that there are other high-level demonic cultivators besides this one?"

Han Jie narrowed his eyes. "Yes. And what’s worse, this matter involves the Lost Moon Palace."

The Lost Moon Palace!!??

Jiang Heng had only heard this name from her master, the Immortal Lord Yunyin. It was said to be an ancient and terrifying demonic sect, so powerful that it could rival forces from the Upper Realm; they even defied the gods, intending to overthrow the heavens and change the world. The threat of the Lost Moon Palace was so great that the Upper Realm had to break the laws of the Heavenly Dao and pay a heavy price to tear through space and descend to this continent, joining forces with the cultivators of the Lower Realm to surround and eradicate them.

That great battle was apocalyptic; the sun and moon lost their light, and countless near-divine cultivators on both sides fell, turning the land into a river of blood. In the end, it was only when a great power from the Upper Realm sacrificed his life to activate a god-level artifact—the Turning Mirror—that they managed to kill the Palace Master of the Lost Moon Palace and turn the tide, wiping out all the sect’s followers in one fell swoop.

The deep-seated fear of the Lost Moon Palace was ingrained in the bones of all righteous cultivators, leading them to do everything in their power to cut out the roots, leaving no one alive—they would even crush the eggs of spirit beasts within the palace just to be sure. Later generations of demonic cultivators, nostalgic for the peak influence of the Lost Moon Palace, would often stir up trouble under its name, each claiming to be the orthodox successor. Even though everyone knew it was just a gimmick with no real connection to the true Lost Moon Palace, it still terrified the righteous cultivators enough that they would unite to destroy them, regardless of whether the claim was true or false.

The last time the Lost Moon Palace appeared in historical jade slips was tens of thousands of years ago, and by now, it had almost faded into a forgotten legend. With the name suddenly surfacing now, could it be that some demonic cultivator, stirred by the ancient records, was planning a new wave of demonic revival?

"Let us not alert the enemy. We should return quietly and report this to the Sect Master. This matter is too far-reaching for just the two of us to handle," Han Jie said.

Jiang Heng nodded solemnly.

Even if it wasn't the real Lost Moon Palace, the name carried immense rallying power for demonic cultivators, making it no different from the real thing. If someone were using this banner to recruit and gather powerful demonic cultivators, they could very well form a terrifying force quickly and plunge this realm into blood and chaos once again!