Chapter 0426: The Yang Spirit

Chapter 0426: The Yang Spirit

Qin Yun carefully scanned his surroundings but found no one.

"Looks like this palace has been abandoned!" he thought as he decided to press on. He needed to figure out where he was.

Clearly, this was not the ancient garden where the three desolations meet, but another place entirely.

Qin Yun entered the palace, which was deathly quiet and extremely cold.

"Is anyone here?" he called out loudly.

His voice carried a faint vibrational force, echoing through the palace.

After calling out, he immediately went on high alert, worried someone might ambush him.

Moments later, there was no movement at all.

Qin Yun could only proceed cautiously through the palace. It must have been stunning once, with artificial mountains and waterfalls, winding streams and ponds, gardens and pavilions, and countless elegant, classical buildings. But now, everything lay in ruins.

"The destruction doesn’t seem too old!" he thought as he picked up a withered medicinal plant in the garden, slightly startled. "Looks like it’s only been a few decades!"

"Decades ago, this place must have been bustling with life and filled with medicinal herbs!"

Qin Yun had entered the ancient garden to find herbs to detoxify Feng Honglan, but now he’d ended up in this godforsaken place.

"Could this actually be the ancient garden? Are Xiao Lu and the others stuck in this eerie place too?" Qin Yun had asked himself this question countless times but could find no answer.

This abandoned, crumbling palace was Qin Yun’s only lead, so he had no choice but to comb through every corner of the palace, searching for any clues.

After two days of searching, he finally reached the core of the palace's formation, located beneath a stone house in the southeast corner of the palace.

The formation core was the heart that powered the grand formation.

After entering the core, Qin Yun took out two glowing stones to illuminate the massive underground hall.

Once lit, he was astonished.

"These are all Moon Runes and star runes!"

Qin Yun suddenly felt that these Moon Runes and star runes were familiar, very similar to what he had obtained in the Sigil Sect.

This realization plunged him into deep thought.

The StarMoon Sigil of the Sigil Sect was clearly connected to this place.

And his Alchemy Scripture must also have some connection here.

"Could it be that Lan Xiao Wu Wang once visited this place?" Qin Yun pondered silently before leaving the formation core.

He returned to the surface and stepped out of the stone house, suddenly seeing a black shadow flash by, startling him and causing his heart to race. He immediately entered a combat-ready stance.

"Who's there?" Qin Yun shouted.

The black shadow appeared briefly and then vanished.

Qin Yun quickly ran out, leaped onto the roof of a pavilion, and frowned as he scanned the surroundings.

After searching for a while, the black shadow reappeared, this time slowly behind him.

Qin Yun also sensed something behind him and turned around to find a short, elderly woman with dark skin and a face full of wrinkles.

Startled, he backed away quickly, "Granny, who are you?"

The old woman was immensely powerful. Though her body was frail beneath the black robe, the terrifying force she exuded made Qin Yun feel utterly powerless.

"I am the Grand Master of Guanghan Palace!" the elder woman carefully examined Qin Yun and murmured, "I feel like I’ve seen you before... aren’t you that so-called Immortal Monarch?"

Qin Yun chuckled, surprised. "Granny, you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I’m no Immortal Monarch! I’m just at the Martial Stage!"

"I’m certain of it. You are that Immortal Monarch. You’d often sneak into Guanghan Palace to meet the Young Palace Master. I remember you!" the elder woman insisted with certainty.

"Ah? So, is your Young Palace Master male or female?" Qin Yun was completely baffled.

"She’s a girl, obviously!" the elder woman chuckled. "You are that Immortal Monarch, no doubt about it!"

Qin Yun sat on the roof ridge, dropping the subject. He could now see that the elder woman was a little out of it.

"Granny, when was this palace destroyed?" Qin Yun asked.

"It was destroyed over twenty years ago! Except for me, everyone else died!" The elder woman took out a portrait, and tears rolled down her cheeks. "My dear Young Palace Master, I raised her with my own hands, but in the end, she died!"

Qin Yun peered at the portrait and froze in shock.

The person in the portrait was none other than Yang Shiyue!

The idea of reincarnation hit him.

Yang Shiyue looked exactly like the woman in the portrait, and she might very well be the Young Palace Master reborn.

Qin Yun also thought of himself. The elder woman had called him an Immortal Monarch...

He didn’t dwell on it further. He couldn’t wrap his head around having a past life! He had no memory of such a thing.

"Granny, did your Young Palace Master possess a Lunar Martial Spirit?" Qin Yun asked.

"Of course! This is the Moon. Everyone born here has a Lunar Martial Spirit!" the elder woman replied.

Qin Yun was utterly shocked, and he stood up abruptly. It hit him—he was on the Moon.

Now he was even more anxious to get back to Wuhuang.

"Granny, have you heard of Wuhuang in the Nine Desolate Lands?" Qin Yun quickly asked.

"Of course, isn’t that a place for mortals? What’s it to you?" The elder woman put the portrait away.

"Can you tell me how to get there? It’s a matter of life and death!" Qin Yun asked anxiously, eager to leave this eerie place.

"There are a few teleportation circles around here. One of them can take you there, but it’s damaged!" the elder woman said.

"That’s fine, I’ll repair it!" Qin Yun’s heart leapt, and he answered eagerly.

The elder woman immediately stood up and flew in a certain direction at an incredible speed.

Qin Yun hurriedly chased after her, shouting, "Granny, wait for me!"

The elder woman snorted lightly, "You’re supposed to be some big-shot Immortal Monarch—why so slow!"

Qin Yun inwardly laughed bitterly because he was no Immortal Monarch, just a mere mortal.

"Granny, ever heard of reincarnation or being reborn?" he asked after catching up with the old lady who had slowed down.

"Of course, it's quite common! But not many pull it off," the old lady sighed.

"What makes a reincarnation successful?" Qin Yun asked curiously.

"You’re the Immortal King? How come you don’t know this?" the old lady frowned. "A successful reincarnation means keeping your memories from your past life!"

Qin Yun suddenly thought of Xie Qirou, who had mentioned that she was reincarnated and had brought out the Burial Immortal Map and the Nine Sun Divine Soul.

"Did I fail at reincarnating?" he thought to himself.

The old lady pointed to the hills ahead and said, "Those low hills have teleportation arrays inside!"

Qin Yun nodded and asked again, "Granny, I saw a woman in Wuhuang who’s a dead ringer for the Young Palace Master, but she’s got no memory and a Purple Moon Martial Spirit!"

Upon hearing this, the old lady suddenly stopped, grabbed Qin Yun's shoulders, and shook him excitedly, shouting with joy, "That’s definitely the Young Palace Master, no doubt about it... In a place like Wuhuang, mortals rarely awaken a Lunar Martial Spirit!"

"But she didn’t make it through reincarnation!" Qin Yun muttered.

He’d seen folks with awakened Yang Martial Spirits too. Records show many awakened Yang Martial Spirits, but Lunar ones are rare, which was indeed quite strange.

"It didn’t fail; her Lunar Martial Spirit’s still there!" the old lady said excitedly. "Maybe her memories just haven’t kicked in yet!"

Qin Yun’s head was spinning. He never expected Yang Shiyue had such a wild past life.

"So, Granny, got anything for her? I’ll drop it off in Wuhuang when I head there," Qin Yun asked, also curious about how the old lady had survived since everyone in the Moon Palace had died.

The old lady quickly took out a large black pearl and handed it to Qin Yun, saying, "Here, give this to her. Our Palace Master kept it safe before she passed."

"What’s this?" Qin Yun asked, feeling a chill as he took it.

"The Black Moon Martial Spirit! The ultimate Lunar Martial Spirit!" The old lady's words left Qin Yun stunned.

Qin Yun saw the black pearl wasn’t a Soul-Sealing Pearl but a Martial Spirit bead.

"Granny, truth is, I stumbled here from Wuhuang, and I’m no Immortal King," Qin Yun sighed. "You still trust me?"

The old lady finally realized and frowned, "Did you flunk reincarnation too? So how’d you end up here?"

Qin Yun took out his Ancient Gardens Pass and said, "I got in through a bridge using this pass!"

"This token... it’s hers!" the old lady exclaimed in shock. "The Demoness, a close friend of our Palace Master, had this token to come and go as she pleased."

Qin Yun realized the Demoness probably stashed those items in the Nine Sun Divine Soul.

"But why’d she lock them up? And the items inside were pretty ordinary for someone like the Demoness."

The Demoness was Xie Qirou's mother, and the Demoness had a good relationship with the Moon Palace's Palace Master, so Xie Qirou must have known Yang Shiyue's past life!

Following this line of thought, Qin Yun suddenly felt that Xie Qirou must also know the Immortal King, who was likely his past life!

"Elder sister, who was a Grand Tutor, has hidden many things about me," Qin Yun had felt this before.

The old lady sighed, "Even you died, which shows how catastrophic that disaster was!"

"Granny, I'm still alive!" Qin Yun pouted and then asked, "What disaster was it?"

The old lady looked at the sun in the sky and said, "The Nine Suns went out of control... Yang Spirits began to separate from the Nine Suns, and one of them fell on the moon, causing many powerful beings from the Immortal Realm to come and fight over it, turning this beautiful ancient garden into ruins!"

Qin Yun remembered the incident at the Ten Thousand Stars Lake when he encountered the Dragon Ox at the bottom of the lake. The Dragon Ox had mentioned that the nine Yang Spirits within the Nine Suns had completely separated from them.

In other words, when the Ten Thousand Stars Lake surged, it was when the last Yang Spirit separated!

"Those bastards turned this place into a mess but didn't find the Yang Spirit, truly making us suffer!" the old lady said angrily.

"Is the Yang Spirit still here?" Qin Yun quickly asked.