Late at night, Aya Ikegami sat in her room, her fingers suddenly gripping the fabric of her dress tightly. A sudden pang of heart palpitation jolted her awake from her reverie, as if a thousand tiny needles were piercing her heart simultaneously. She looked up at the window, her gaze piercing through the buildings, pointing straight to the distant horizon.
"Someone come here." Her voice was a few decibels lower than usual.
The paper door slid open silently, and Ikegami Misaki knelt outside: "What are your orders, Master?"
"Has there been any unusual activity in the sea recently?" Aya Ikegami was still staring into the distance, the moonlight casting a cold glaze on her pale profile.
Misaki Ikegami frowned slightly: "The patrol team reports every two hours; no abnormalities have been found." She paused, then continued, "Currently, all ancient martial arts factions within R Country have submitted, and the surrounding waters are under close surveillance."
This answer, which should have been reassuring, only made Aya Ikegami frown even more. She loosened the fabric of her clothes, which had been crumpled from being gripped so tightly.
"Teacher..." Aya Ikegami suddenly used a form of address she hadn't used in a long time, "Is there really nothing unusual?"
Misaki Ikegami's body trembled almost imperceptibly. The title instantly transported her back ten years—back when Aya Ikegami was a little girl who would run into her arms and cry after training, not the stoic and emotionless young master of the Moon Demon Sect she was now.
"Xiao Ling..." The nickname she almost blurted out caught in her throat. "Master, the monitoring array is indeed not responding. Should we send more people?"
Aya Ikegami seemed to realize her lapse in composure, her expression quickly returning to its usual indifference: "No need. Continue preparing for tomorrow's awakening ceremony as planned."
"Yes." Misaki Ikegami bowed, but glanced at the head of the family as she stood up. In the moonlight, Aya Ikegami's fingernails were deeply embedded in her palms, leaving a row of crescent-shaped red marks.
After the paper door closed again, Aya Ikegami slowly got up and walked to the window. A few cherry blossoms in the courtyard had bloomed out of season, shivering in the night wind. She reached out and caught a falling petal, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in her fingertip—a thin layer of frost had formed on the edge of the petal.
Something's really not right...
This premonition was too strong, like the restless electrical charge in the air before a storm. Aya Ikegami closed her eyes, trying to connect to the unique sensory network of the Moon Spirits. Deep in her consciousness, she "saw" starlight exploding on the seabed, but the image was blurry, as if deliberately obscured by some force.
"Could something have happened that I don't know about?" Aya slowly paced around the room.
Tomorrow is the crucial moment for the Moon Demon Clan's awakening; all the arrangements are in place. Logically speaking, even Mu Xiaoxiao doesn't know the true secrets of the deep sea, and the seals within shouldn't be able to break through layers of barriers...
Could it be that Han Feng accidentally ended up in that place?
The thought struck her like lightning. Aya Ikegami whirled around, her wide sleeves knocking over a teacup on the table. The sound of shattering porcelain was particularly jarring in the quiet night.
"Master?" A guard immediately asked from outside the door.
"It's alright." Aya Ikegami steadied her breathing. "Go and fetch the High Priest."
While waiting, she went to the mirror to tidy her appearance. The woman in the mirror was dressed in white, with cascading black hair, but her brows and eyes were covered with an unyielding frost. Aya Ikegami reached out and touched the mirror, and in a daze, she saw another version of herself—the carefree self she once was.
"What are you still expecting?" she whispered to her reflection in the mirror. "Tomorrow's awakening... that's the mission you must fulfill."
The high priest's footsteps grew closer. Aya Ikegami glanced one last time at the blood-red moon outside the window, then turned back to her usual cold and aloof self as the head of the Ikegami family. Only the frosted petal on the windowsill silently bore witness to her momentary wavering.
"Prepare a second plan," she said to the high priest as he entered, her voice as cold as the polar wind. "If anything unexpected happens tomorrow... immediately activate 'Operation Lunar Eclipse'."
A flicker of surprise crossed the high priest's cloudy eyes, but he quickly bowed and accepted the order. When only Aya Ikegami remained in the room once more, she walked to the window again and gazed at the moon outside, lost in thought.
"Han Feng, I hope you won't disappoint me..." Her tone was so complex that even she couldn't quite make it out. "That way, I can break free from Mu Xiaoxiao's control..."
---This is the dividing line---
In a secret underground chamber somewhere in Country R, the only light source was the flickering candlelight on the wall. Mu Xiaoxiao sat cross-legged on a futon, a cluster of dark blue crystals floating in front of her, flashing with the rhythm of her breathing.
The silence was suddenly shattered by the shrill ring of the telephone. Mu Xiaoxiao slowly opened her eyes, a flash of displeasure in her pupils, but she still reached out and answered the old-fashioned rotary telephone.
"Say it." Her voice was languid, as if she had just woken up.
A hurried report came from the other end of the phone. Mu Xiaoxiao's initially nonchalant expression gradually changed, and a playful smile appeared on her lips.
"As expected..." She twirled the telephone cord around her fingers, "Aya's heart isn't in the same boat as ours~"
The candlelight cast flickering shadows on her face, making her smile appear enigmatic. The deep blue crystal hummed softly in response to her emotional fluctuations.
"But everyone has their own selfish motives..." Mu Xiaoxiao suddenly changed the subject, "Especially after being used as a pawn for so many years, it's normal to want to rebel, isn't it?"
After hearing what was said on the other end of the phone, Mu Xiaoxiao's expression gradually turned serious. She stood up, her bare feet stepping onto the cold stone slab, the deep blue crystals floating around her shoulders like a shadow.
"Something went wrong?" She walked to the wall, her fingertip tracing the outline of an old map. "Then let's just not let her succeed."
The map marked various secret realm nodes in R country, with the location of the Ikegami family's residence heavily circled in red. Mu Xiaoxiao drew a line on that circle with her fingernail, and blue blood seeped from the wall.
"She thinks controlling the ancient martial arts world of R country gives her leverage in negotiations?" Mu Xiaoxiao chuckled. "To us, that kind of power isn't even a toy."
More information came through the phone, and Mu Xiaoxiao frowned slightly: "The Huaguo Aristocratic Family Alliance has retreated?" She turned to look at the crystal ball on the other side of the secret room, where several blurry figures appeared hazily. "Find out the reason. That kid Han Feng has been making too many moves lately..."
After hanging up the phone, Mu Xiaoxiao paced back and forth in the secret room. The candlelight stretched and shortened her shadow, making it dance on the stone wall as if it were alive. The dark blue crystal seemed to sense its owner's agitation, and its light flickered.
"Interesting..." She suddenly stopped in the middle of the room, talking to herself, "Aya, if you knew this was all part of my plan..."
Mu Xiaoxiao reached out and touched the floating crystal, and scenes immediately flashed through her mind.
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