Void Moon Wheel
"When I first met my beloved, our hearts were as one. But as I unraveled the threads on the broken loom, I realized they could not be made into a pair. Who can think of me without singing? Who can go hungry without eating? As the sun sets, I lean against the door, filled with sorrow, how can I not remember him?" — "Midnight Song"
When Chu Yuanyi asked, A Qiu truthfully replied that she was currently a dancer in the dance troupe. She had come to Qiwu Palace to search for records related to the dances of the previous dynasty, as the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet in half a month would require the performance of the "Midnight Song" and the "White Silk Dance" from the previous dynasty. Thinking that Chu Yuanyi was also a former official of the previous dynasty, she couldn't help but ask, "Aunt, have you ever seen the movements of the 'White Silk Dance'?"
Unexpectedly, Chu Yuanyi listened to her with his single eye wide open, his expression turning displeased. He said unhappily, "Why revive that decadent dance!" He added impatiently, "Don't you have anywhere else to go? Why do you have to get involved with those vixens! Who do you think you are—"
He cut off the conversation at this point, his face showing obvious dissatisfaction.
Ah Qiu had never heard of the court discussions, so naturally he didn't know why, besides the former officials, even the aunts in the deep palace had so many complaints about the White Silk Dance. Besides, the girls in the dance troupe were by no means associated with the word "vixen."
But she knew that Chu Yuanyi would never be interested in or care about the current situation of the dance troupe, so she just smiled and said, "I've never been afraid of officials, but I'm afraid of those who manage me. A-Qiu is currently being managed and has no choice but to devise a plan. Aunt, could you allow me to enter Qiwu Palace and look through all the scrolls and records there?"
Chu Yuan walked to the side and frowned, saying, "If you want to see, then so be it. What in this palace is there that you, A-Qiu, can't see?"
She sat on the broken stone next to the gate, looking up at the sky, ignoring A Qiu, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.
A-Qiu silently apologized, knowing that Chu Yuanyi had likely suffered some kind of trauma, which made her act differently from normal people. She then presented the rose wine and food basket she had brought to Chu Yuanyi, saying, "Aunt, please have some. A-Qiu will go in and check on things before returning." She then got up and went inside.
Chu Yuanyi did not stop her, but stood guard at the entrance of Qiwu Palace as if he were guarding the door for her, staring blankly at the moon in the sky.
Seeing that A Qiu had gone inside, Gu Yi moved and wanted to follow her in to see what was going on.
Zhongli Wuyan stepped aside, barely stopping him, and said with a smile, "Qiwu Forbidden Land, please stop here, Young Master."
Gu Yi pointed his gaze at A Qiu's retreating figure as she disappeared through the gate, his meaning clear: If she can go in, why can't I?
Zhongli Wuyan smiled and said, "Young Master, you just heard what Sister Yuan Yi said. There should be no place in this palace that Miss A Qiu cannot go. As for Young Master, although you have great power, there is still a distinction between ruler and subject according to etiquette."
Gu Yi was at a loss, and after a moment said, "Even to protect her, it's not allowed?"
Zhongli Wuyan laughed and said, "With Miss Aqiu's martial arts skills, and with no one else in the Qiwu Palace, why would she need your protection?"
Gu Yi said, "Qiwu Palace has been sealed off for a long time, and the person who built it earlier hated this place to the extreme. I wonder if he will use forbidden techniques, secret arts, or mechanisms to build it like he did with an imperial mausoleum."
Zhongli Wuyan's smile finally vanished, and she said coldly, "It seems that no matter what I say, Young Master is determined to enter today?"
Her purple silk sleeves swayed slightly, already gathering powerful killing intent, and her eyes became extremely sharp.
Gu Yi sighed inwardly. If he were to fight Zhongli Wuyan here, it would inevitably alert Chu Yuanyi. If the two of them joined forces to fight him, he wouldn't be afraid, but the commotion would be considerable.
Even so, he still said, "I'm going in." At the same time, he pulled the jade pendant from his waist and prepared to move.
Unexpectedly, Zhongli Wuyan stared intently at him for a long time, and the "Heavenly Fiend Purple Luo" true energy she had gathered in her hand disappeared completely after a short while.
She spread her hands and said with a smile, "Then this old woman will not disturb you any longer, young master. Please, young master."
Gu Yicai realized that Zhongli Wuyan had deliberately wanted to see him get anxious. He found it both funny and exasperating. He put the jade pendant back into his waistband, leaped up, and flew towards the distant Qiwu Palace.
His figure blended seamlessly into the night, leaving no trace. Even Chu Yuanyi, who was sitting by the door looking up at the sky, seemed completely unaware of him.
A Qiu was stunned the moment she stepped into the main hall of Qiwu Palace.
This place is less a palace and more a library, with countless scrolls on the walls and numerous bookshelves. At least ten thousand volumes of books are displayed on the shelves, but now they are covered in dust, giving the feeling that time has been sealed within them.
Besides books, there were all sorts of writing brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, and antique treasures displayed on the shelves. A Qiu picked up a picture album at random and looked at it in the moonlight. It was a painting of horses drinking in the mountains and streams by a famous artist from the previous dynasty. With just a few strokes, it perfectly captured the serene and clear feeling of autumn.
In Master's Songxue Hall, there were many famous paintings and calligraphy works, so Aqiu didn't pay much attention to them. He put the painting back and picked up a paperweight from the shelf to examine it closely.
She had initially thought the object was only the size of a sparrow's egg, small and cute. But after dusting it off and holding it up to the moonlight, she discovered it was a reclining agate dog, crystal clear, with a rich, lustrous sheen, and simple, unadorned carving. She had no idea which dynasty or era it came from.
Gold, silver, pearls, and jade are not difficult to collect; as long as you have money, you can acquire them instantly. However, antiques are extremely difficult to acquire because they are no longer from that era, and can no longer be produced in any quantity as desired.
From this, it is clear that the former owner of the Qiwu Palace was not only incredibly noble in the past, but even though she is no longer here, the successive emperors and even the rebel army that stormed the palace still treated her with great respect. Not only was the place imprisoned, but the tens of thousands of paintings, calligraphy, and other precious artifacts within remained completely untouched.
A-Qiu strolled slowly through the hall, looking around the bookshelves.
After passing several towering wooden structures that reached the dome, Ah Qiu suddenly sensed something and abruptly stopped.
She sensed that there was another "person" in the hall besides herself!
As the chief assassin of Lanling, A Qiu's sensitivity to any anomalies in her surroundings far surpasses that of ordinary people. And at this moment, she was filled with an even stranger feeling.
Although the hall was filled with books and antiques, with bookshelves standing in rows, these were all inanimate objects. Because no one had read or cleaned them for many years, it was like an ancient temple in a desolate mountain with its four walls bare. The wind rustled all around, and the moonlight pierced through the walls, creating a unique sense of desolation and bleakness.
She was a living person, with a heartbeat, breath, and body temperature. When she wasn't deliberately restraining or suppressing herself, she walked slowly through the hall, like a swimming fish stirring up a long-silent pool of still water, creating ripples and waves, her vitality breaking the silence, making it all the more obvious.
But the "person" in the main hall had been there quietly before she arrived, as if it had existed for hundreds or thousands of years. The aura of this "person" blended perfectly with the ruined palace, without any sense of incongruity, seamlessly.
This "person" had no breath, no heartbeat, and no body temperature.
This is also why A Qiu didn't notice it when he entered the hall.
The assassins of Lanling are all bold and meticulous, and their chief, A Qiu, is no exception. She would not panic unless she were about to encounter a ghost or spirit face to face. The last time she panicked when she saw the ghostly courtesan, it was because the ghostly courtesan was walking almost face to face with her on the desolate water corridor.
Her master taught her that no matter what happens, she should remain calm and not panic if she has not seen it with her own eyes.
Therefore, even though she suddenly discovered an extra "person" in the hall, A Qiu forced herself to calm down and slowly walked in the direction of the fluctuations coming from that "person".
The moonlight, like a light veil, hazily enveloped the room. A-Qiu moved with extreme care, so as not to disturb the bats and rodents. Her footprints, barely visible in the dust, were the very traces of her footsteps.
As she turned past a row of bookshelves, a vast expanse of light gauze, like smoke and a waterfall, cascaded down from the domed ceiling, blocking her view.
Strangely, all the furniture and belongings here were covered in dust, bearing the thick marks of time. But the light gauze that separated the inner and outer halls was pure white and soft, as if newly made, cascading loosely to the ground like moonlight, without a trace of decay or yellowing.
If A Qiu had heard Zhao Lingying explain the silk fabrics of Wu like Gu Yi had, she would have recognized that the curtains were made of the same white raw silk used in the Baizhu dance, which naturally possesses properties such as being resistant to decay, dust, and insects, and is durable.
Ah Qiu could also clearly sense that the "person" was hidden behind the curtain, remaining silent.
It seems as if it has been quietly waiting here for decades.
Ah Qiu was always bold, but when she reached out her delicate hand to lift the veil, she couldn't help but hold her breath, as if afraid of disturbing something behind the veil.
After the flowing veil was parted, a breathtakingly beautiful and otherworldly scene appeared out of thin air before A Qiu's eyes.
Under the moonlight, a woman dressed in simple white robes with wide sleeves danced, her figure light and graceful, like the butterfly dreamed of by Zhuangzi a thousand years ago. The white silk gauze wrapped around her arms and fingers and flowing slowly behind her added to her ethereal beauty and charm.
Her expression was serene and ethereal, seemingly drifting back and forth, her gaze sparkling with brilliance, her spirit as still as the moon in the void.
In just a glance, A Qiu felt as if she had been captivated by the divine, as if she had entered another illusory world.
The woman in the painting holds up her hem with one hand and presses her palm with the other, as if walking on empty air, with lotus flowers blooming with each step, and her precious sash fluttering gently.
A-Qiu couldn't help but mimic the same pose as the portrait.
The woman's posture changed again, her palms rising and falling like a distant wild goose, her expression serene and peaceful as she looked down from behind a curtain. There was a sense of extreme stillness in the movement, and her precious belt rolled up with her movements, like auspicious clouds supporting the moon, flowing and swaying in the void.
Ah Qiu then mimicked the pose. Her expression, too, was one of focused attention and quietude, yet full of lively interest.
The woman's posture changed to a flower-picking gesture, her eyes lowered and her hands slowly extended, standing alone like a crane.
Ah Qiu remained calm and composed, mimicking the "drying wings" dance pose once more.
For some reason, she always felt that she couldn't clearly see the woman's face in the painting. She could clearly feel that the other person was extremely beautiful, but her face seemed to be covered by a thin veil of mist, making it impossible to recognize her.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
