Chapter 296 The Appearance of the Divination Master
Perhaps due to the limited time of the battle, Gu Yue Shen didn't have time to unleash many truly new skills. Most of the moves she used in the battle were the same ones that Yin Yue had used on me before. And being able to directly counter all the moves that had worked on me before gave me a sense of accomplishment akin to revenge.
Her body vanished in the firelight, but one object remained: the stone necklace that hung around her neck.
As the stone necklace fell downwards due to gravity, I reached out and caught it in time, then examined it closely.
I don't know what material it's made of, but even the Ancient Moon Goddess herself couldn't withstand my flames, yet this stone collar seems largely undamaged, with only some charred black marks on the outer layer. Judging from her attitude and words before her death, this thing is the true form of the seal that Silver Moon placed on her. I didn't expect it to be so sturdy; no wonder she couldn't break this seal no matter what she did in her life.
It's a rare item, so I plan to recycle it first; maybe it will come in handy later.
However, this thing is, after all, an enemy relic, and there's no guarantee it won't have a hidden feature. Perhaps even if I wanted to retrieve it, I should first find a place to hide it and wait until I'm sure there are no problems before considering anything else.
I observed the surroundings again, trying to sense things more carefully. The aura of the Ancient Moon God didn't reappear; he was probably truly dead. Actually, I wasn't entirely sure, after all, my opponent was essentially the embodiment of the Silver Moon. Last time, I thought I had defeated the Silver Moon, but in reality, the opponent had escaped in the chaos. This time, I might also be mistakenly believing I had killed the Ancient Moon God, when in fact the opponent had simply hidden himself.
Or, like Silver Moon, did the Ancient Moon God also leave himself some kind of "resurrection" foreshadowing? The ability to turn fantasy into reality is such a versatile power, and it seems that you can come up with a lot of ideas about using this power to revive and return.
The more I thought about it, the more certain I became of her death. Faced with overwhelming power, the more seemingly omnipotent a power is, the less capable it actually is. She must have truly been helpless, her soul scattered to the winds.
The surrounding fog is getting thinner and thinner.
I landed on the ground in Guyue Village and looked around. Perhaps due to the death of the Guyue God, the white mist in the vicinity was gradually dissipating. Not all the mist was disappearing; only the mist in a certain area centered on Guyue Village was visibly fading.
Perhaps while the Ancient Moon Goddess was trapped in the mist, part of the mist was also under her control, which is why it was affected by her death. But the changes didn't stop there; all the houses in Ancient Moon Village were disappearing, turning into countless dust particles from the edges, as if weathering away.
The villagers lingering around grew increasingly dazed; their figures, once solid, now became more and more transparent, vanishing into nothingness like the weathered houses. I even saw the young passenger the winter train had rescued in the crowd; he too, like the villagers, disappeared.
The Ancient Moon Goddess claimed that these villagers were summoned by the Silver Moon to monitor her, but it seems she lied about this as well. These villagers were clearly summoned by her own motives and will therefore perish upon her death.
So, what about the winter carriage?
Like the villagers, he is a phantom of death. What is his current state?
Just as that thought crossed my mind, I heard the boy's voice behind me: "—Senior Zhuang Cheng?"
I immediately turned around and saw that the handsome young man with white hair, dressed in a white ancient-style robe, was standing a dozen steps behind me.
"Winter Cart?" I called out to him.
He didn't react at all, just staring at me blankly. I vaguely understood what state he was in. He was practically sleepwalking; when he called my name from behind, it was just an instinctive reaction after seeing me.
The reason it turned out this way is probably due to the influence of the death of the Ancient Moon God. In other words, Winter Chariot was also killed in the future under the power of the Ancient Moon God, and transformed into something similar to a "Changgui" in the present and past. It's truly shameless that the Ancient Moon God could shamelessly shift all the blame to Silver Moon in front of me. Now that the Ancient Moon God is dead, Winter Chariot naturally must also disappear.
However, there was one thing that Gu Yue Shen might have been telling the truth about: Dong Che, being a fully-fledged demon hunter, disappeared much more slowly than the villagers. I vaguely saw a fuzzy, transparent glow appear around the edges of Dong Che's body, which was evidence that he was indeed slowly dissipating.
We must find the Diviner before he disappears. But has the Diviner really come to Moonshadow Mountain? This information also came from the Ancient Moon Goddess, and everything she provides is highly suspicious. Perhaps the information about the Diviner is just fabricated nonsense to urge me to join her side.
At that moment, another figure appeared not far away.
It was Asaho; she had moved herself here. Perhaps because of the dissipation of some of the mist, the distortion of time and space in this area had ceased, allowing Asaho to sense the disappearance of the battle commotion inside and to arrive at my side in time.
"Zhuang Cheng, are you alright?" she asked worriedly.
What could possibly be wrong with me?
Even if Asa hadn't left the mist beforehand, it might not matter; I could still quickly kill the Ancient Moon God—no, it's better not to be so overconfident. If Asa stayed, the Ancient Moon God might change tactics and take Asa hostage to fight me. Afterwards, it's best to continue with the policy of having Asa retreat first when danger arises.
"If I can help more..." Asaha seemed to still care.
“You’ve already contributed enough. If you want to help in combat, at least wait until you’ve recovered all your strength,” I comforted you.
“…I understand.” She nodded, still somewhat uneasy. “So, what’s the next step?”
As she spoke, she glanced at the winter car.
"Let's get out of the fog first," I said.
The Silver Moon lies deep within the mist, and although I know this, I cannot find it now. Even with Asahi by my side, it's probably impossible for the time being.
If reaching the Silver Moon is a problem that can be solved by luck, even if the success rate is only one in ten thousand, Asahi's jinxed nature means she can probably solve it. Imagine this problem as a door; to open it, you need to enter a four-digit password on an electronic lock. We might be able to enter the correct numbers with a casual try.
However, based on the current clues, we cannot get close to Silvermoon without the right method. The door is not equipped with an electronic lock, but a mechanical lock, leaving us no room to try passwords; to open the door, we must first find the correct key.
Perhaps, thanks to Mazao's bad luck, I might unexpectedly encounter the "right key" somewhere. Statistically speaking, the chances of finding it elsewhere are probably higher than staying under Silvermoon's nose, so I want to go outside first.
After sharing his thoughts with Ma Zao, she seemed to agree and nodded, leading the way.
I turned around and called out to Dongche. He looked at me blankly. Then I pretended to leave, and he followed me obediently like a lamb.
We left the gradually disappearing Guyue Village.
The mist's structure is probably like a donut; to leave through the central hole, we must first re-enter the mist and then traverse to the outer edge. With Ma leading the way, traversing it was effortless, and the Silver Moon, lurking deep within the mist, didn't seem to intend to hinder us. We'll soon reach the area outside the mist.
As we walked, Ma Zao turned to me and said, "Zhuang Cheng, I just went to the outside of the mist, and something seems off..."
"Did something happen?" I asked.
“How… should I put this?” she frowned. “The fog looks like it’s spreading…”
Not long after, I saw the scene she described.
After leaving the mist, we arrived at a cliff in Moonshadow Mountain. From this vantage point, we should be able to see Moonshadow Mountain City at the foot of the mountain. It's daytime now, but I can't see the town's scenery very clearly.
The area around Mount Tsukikage had become like a heavily polluted city, with towns at the foot of the mountain appearing only indistinct shadows. Compared to the previous foggy area, the visibility wasn't actually that bad. In the former, one could only see scenes tens of meters away, while now one could see scenes at least a kilometer away. But before I went up the mountain, I should have been able to clearly see the other side of the horizon.
I can observe that the pollutant is none other than the fog we passed through earlier. Fog with the same composition as the fog is spreading at extremely low density over the Moonshadow Mountain area… and even further afield. A rough estimate suggests that at least Moonshadow Mountain and the surrounding towns are covered by this smog.
Because the fog concentration is extremely low, it doesn't exhibit the temporal and spatial distortions seen in foggy areas. However, this extremely faint fog is unlikely to be confined to the vicinity. Perhaps some strange phenomena are already occurring.
I took out my phone and connected to the internet, hoping to get some information. However, my phone couldn't receive a network signal. Not only that, but there was no call signal either.
Next, I tried to sense the "fireflies". The "fireflies" located in Moonshadow Mountain City could still be connected normally, but the "fireflies" located in Saltwater City had a rather blurry signal. I could only confirm their existence, but I could not transmit information or transfer them.
Was this also Yin Yue's doing? What exactly is she trying to do?
"—This is the celestial and terrestrial manifestation of the Silver Moon."
Without warning, an unfamiliar sound came from the distant mountains and forests.
I immediately looked in the direction of the sound and saw a strange figure walking leisurely out of the woods.
Dongche's expression, which had been as if in a daze, changed. He looked in that direction and muttered to himself, "Master?"
(End of this chapter)
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