Moon Festival mountain top.

Compared with the brightly lit and bustling area on the east cliff, the vicinity of the Temple of Heaven is a little deserted.

Just after someone suddenly gave a friendly reminder, the air suddenly fell silent, and then...

With her back to Zhao Rong, the chubby little Li Nu once again tensed her face, looking around very seriously. Her long and slender eyes kept twisting from time to time, as if she was paying close attention to the things around her. If there was any movement, she would glare at them...

She looks like an excellent young lady who is dedicated to her duties.

Everything seemed to be back to normal, as if nothing had happened.

What? You said you just saw me slacking off and dying?

Who was that just now? Sorry, I don't know him.

Why do you want to defame someone's innocence?

The chubby little girl turned her back to the young scholar, standing guard with a very serious look, trying to get away with it.

However, the awkward and weird atmosphere on the field remained.

Zhao Rong, who was sitting on the steps, felt extremely embarrassed for her.

"I think the moon is already very busy, so we should not make things difficult for it. Everything depends on human efforts."

He laughed.

Under the moonlight, the young scholar smiled as if in the breeze, and with his hands resting on his knees, he pointed at the bright moon above his head.

It’s a pity that the chubby little girl didn’t answer either.

Still with her back to him.

He pretended not to hear anything and pretended to be concentrating on standing guard.

Even if Zhao Rong was beaten to death, she would not turn back.

Zhao Rong blinked and looked at the slender back of this interesting little girl.

Although I couldn't see her expression at the moment, the skin on the back of her slender neck was covered with a blush, extending from the base of her ears all the way up...

He really guessed that the little girl must be gritting her teeth and spitting at him in her heart.

A bad scholar who eavesdrops on other girls' private conversations?

Zhao Rong smiled silently, shook his head, and stopped teasing the shy little girl.

However, after a while.

When the atmosphere was no longer as awkward as before, Zhao Rong thought for a moment, turned to the young girl closest to him and whispered:

"By the way, can I ask you a small question about your Music Bureau? Well, I'm just curious."

The air was quiet for a moment.

The chubby little girl's back didn't move at all, but under Zhao Rong's focused gaze, at a certain moment, her little head seemed to nod slightly.

The little girl seemed to be aware of the important identity of the young Confucian scholar behind her. He was one of the most important people in the court of Dali and a guest of honor of her Queen Mother.

"Thank you, young lady." Zhao Rong nodded without thinking too much:

"During the days I've been in Dali, I've often seen you, the string music girls, performing a strange string music ritual, and often muttering a sentence..."

He paused and said softly, "The moon is split into two, and I leave and return... This should be the correct sentence. May I ask what the meaning of this is?"

Looking from behind, the chubby little girl seemed to tilt her head slightly after hearing this.

After a while, a small voice came:

"I... I don't really understand... The Crescent Moon Ceremony seems to have been popular among our ancestors long, long ago. It was originally used to worship the bright moon. Only some high-ranking female priests could perform this holy ceremony, which symbolized that one's body and mind were as pure as the moonlight, a pure white virgin, and would serve the bright moon for life."

"But later on, this ritual was gradually lost, and the Queen Mother established the Music Bureau and re-promoted this ritual within the bureau. She also set rules, and from the Grand Master of Music onwards, all of us string music girls must remember the string music ritual."

She paused, as if thinking about it, and added:

"Legend has it that the string music ceremony performed on earth can be sensed and observed by the goddesses in the Nine Heavens Cold Palace, especially on clear moonlit nights... And being able to perform this ceremony is a symbol of noble status and purity among the ancestors of the Li tribe. Ordinary Li women can perform this ceremony without permission, otherwise they will be considered defiled... This is exclusive to certain special Li women among the ancestors."

Zhao Rong listened and seemed to be thinking about something.

At this moment, the chubby little girl seemed to be in a better mood, and said in a cheerful tone:

"So our Music Bureau has inherited this ritual from our ancestors and followed the ancient tradition. In addition to requiring the string music girls to be pure in body and mind, our Music Bureau is very strict in selecting string music girls."

"Only a handful of the most outstanding and beautiful women in the world are qualified to join. There is a detailed and perfect set of procedures for etiquette and clothing. It is noble and mysterious. Well, for example... for example, someone like me."

At this point, the little girl couldn't help but lean back, almost putting her hands on her hips.

Her little chin was raised a little proudly, and she mustered up some courage. She turned her head and glanced quickly at Zhao Rong.

However, after hearing this, the latter did not pay too much attention to her.

Zhao Rong lowered his head and thought for a while, then suddenly raised his head and said:

"Are the Li women of the String Music Department of your music hall following the traditions of the Li Ji of the ancient Li Clan? Are they your benchmark? Are all these ancient rituals, including the String Music Ceremony, inherited from us?"

"Li Ji?"

The chubby Li Ji was slightly startled, turned around and looked at Zhao Rong curiously and said, "What is this? Sir, are you saying that those special Li women among the ancestors I just mentioned are called Li Ji?"

Zhao Rong frowned in thought.

Gui had mentioned to him before that the Li Emperor of the ancient Li Clan was also the first female Sword Emperor. She was originally born as a Li Ji, with no name or surname. She was sent to the Jiutian Cold Palace with the same batch of Li Ji to be a goddess slave...

"Yeah." Zhao Rong nodded in response, "I guess, it might be."

"Li Ji..." The chubby little Li girl frowned and muttered again in a low voice.

She couldn't help but admire him and said, "I seem to have heard of it in the stories my grandmother told me before bedtime. I don't know if it's what you're talking about. Sir, where did you see this word? Is it true? I grew up in Lidi, but I don't have any impression of it. Sir, you are really knowledgeable..."

Zhao Rong shook his head and said, "I just read some miscellaneous books, but I'm not sure. I'm just guessing, so I'm asking you."

The chubby little girl shook her head at this time, "I don't know either... I heard it from my sisters, and my sisters heard it from the queen. It was the music studio founded by the queen who established these ancient rules."

"Dugu clan?"

The young scholar muttered softly, then touched his chin and nodded as if talking to himself: "Interesting, where did she learn all this from... You all say that Dugu is the reincarnation of a goddess, so could it be that she was born knowing this?"

At this point, he couldn't help but mutter in his heart:

"But... the reincarnation of the Nine Heavens Goddess turns out she also feels lonely sometimes. Then wouldn't she have been even more lonely and unbearable in her previous life above the Nine Heavens? Ahem... Zhao Ziyu, don't think about it."

Zhao Rong just couldn't help but think of the little things that accidentally fell out of the beauty couch under a beautiful widow in the pavilion next to the bathing pool in Guanghan Palace in the imperial city not long ago...

It really makes people think a lot.

What? Didn’t Dugu Chanyi explain it to him at the time?... Zhao Rong still felt that it was debatable when he thought about it, mainly because the timing was too coincidental.

Moreover, this queen mother is not an ordinary beautiful woman. She is very good at acting stupid. A soft-hearted man will be fooled by her innocent appearance if he is not careful...

But even if he still had doubts and didn't believe it, he would never have another chance to ask her and get the answer... He still remembered the scene of his failure in achieving enlightenment that day.

At this moment, in the sight of the chubby little girl, the young Confucian scholar sitting on the steps was silent for a while, and then suddenly stood up.

He clenched one fist in front of his abdomen, held up the hem of his robe with the other hand, turned around, and climbed up the stairs.

Climb to the top of the Temple of Heaven.

The chubby little Li Nu was a little confused. Could it be that it was like what was written in the books that her sisters liked to read, that this Confucian scholar suddenly felt inspired to write poetry and his poetry came out like a spring?

So the little girl tilted her head and asked, "I don't understand."

"Sir, are you seriously ill?"

The child's voice is tender and full of concern.

Zhao Rong said nothing.

Standing alone at the highest point of the Temple of Heaven, which is also the highest point of Dali at this moment.

The clothes fluttered.

Shrouded in moonlight.

He looked into the distance.

Above my head, there is a bright moon that has been hanging for eternity.

There are mountains under your feet.

At the foot of the mountain is an endless wasteland.

The nine-day cold palace flowers are in full bloom.

It is said that this flower came from the Tianchi Lake in the ancient Moon Palace and can verify a girl's virginity.

Below, the chubby little girl was looking at him curiously.

The young scholar's eyes turned and he once again looked at the clothes of the young girl.

There should be different kinds of red flower-shaped hairpins on her fringe, between her eyebrows, on her invisible right shoulder, and on her left waist, and she is wearing a light gauze skirt as white as snow...

"Crescent Moon Lady...Crescent Moon Ancient Ceremony...Ancient Lady Li..."

His eyes were dazed.

After a moment, take a deep breath.

If the guess is correct.

The Moon-Worshipping Mountain, which is the highest in Dali and closest to the bright moon, was once the sacred place of the ancient Li tribe. It was where they worshipped the bright moon, offered sacrifices... and where the ancient Li princesses ascended to the ninth heaven!

And the legendary Emperor Li was originally brought into the Nine Heavens Cold Palace from the top of this mountain...

At this moment, the young scholar pursed his lips and said nothing, looking around in a daze at this desolate and empty mountain top.

And in the unknown era so distant that it is hard to know, the Emperor Li at that time should have been as young and innocent as the chubby little girl Li in front of him.

She stood here, in the grand ancient ceremony that was comparable to or even better than the Fengshan ceremony tomorrow, experiencing countless unknown mysterious ceremonies, and using the dancing flowers of the Nine Heavens Cold Palace to verify the purest and sacred virgin blood. Finally, she stepped on the bright silver light and rushed to the Moon Palace above the Nine Heavens to serve the Moon Palace goddesses she believed in.

Together with other Li Ji, she bears this predetermined tragic fate.

I will not return from this trip.

Until the end.

When her tribesmen got to know her again, she had become a Ninth Heaven God whom her tribesmen looked up to and worshipped and whom countless monks of her time admired.

The first female sword emperor in the history.

Under her protection, the Taikooli Clan, one of the descendants of the Moon Palace, became the masters of Guwangquezhou and ruled for countless years until the Xuanhuang Clan reached the top...

At that time and moment, right now.

At the top of the Temple of Heaven, the young Confucian scholar had a calm expression, but in his heart was surged a suffocating sense of the weight of history.

Vast and desolate.

That time and this time seem vague as if they were two days ago, and gradually they overlapped, making it difficult to distinguish between the past and the present.

"I have seen the ancients before, and I am the one who is coming. Thinking of the vastness of the universe, I am not crying but feeling sad..."

His sleeves fluttered in the mountain breeze and moonlight. He nodded and muttered something softly, remaining silent for a long time.

At some point, Zhao Rong reached out and touched something in his sleeve.

Then, he turned his head and looked at the lonely lightning-struck tree not far away.

He came with a sword ball containing "her" Tao, just as a certain sword spirit exclaimed.

It seems like a reincarnation, or a mysterious attraction.

Is it a coincidence or destiny?

After a moment.

Zhao Rong walked alone down the Temple of Heaven and returned to his original place.

"Do you believe in fate?"

He suddenly looked up.

The chubby little girl, who had been waiting curiously, was stunned when she heard this, "Fate, what fate? The fate of getting a serious illness?" She looked puzzled.

Zhao Rong shook his head and said no more.

At this moment, for some reason, he felt an extremely strong premonition in his heart.

This premonition, as if someone had stuffed something into his brain, began a long time ago, like a vague and ethereal vapor.

At this moment, on the top of the Moon Festival Mountain, it was as if it had suddenly encountered cold air, and the former was about to condense into ice. A precise sentence emerged in my mind:

Once he used the Heavenly Thunder Furnace on the top of the mountain, he would be able to refine the complete Li Ji Sword Pill.

Then a mysterious vision will appear!

Zhao Rong didn't know why, but he was very sure of this at this moment.

He sat down again, sat down on the last step, rubbed his face, and murmured softly:

"There must be some kind of influence left. It must still exist in a corner of this Moon Festival Mountain, waiting for... this sword pill."