The Wuya Sword Sect was originally an ancient Secret Realm, with its entrance hidden behind the peaks of Red Maple Town, located in the north of the East Continent—the most barren region in the Cultivation World.
Natural poisonous barriers and dense mists isolated the area from the outside world. No one would ever imagine that this perilous place, where nine out of ten died, actually harbored a paradise.
At dawn, on Guanyun Peak.
Ever since Lord Wuling had handed the "Guiyue" to Jiang Qingyu and vanished, the heavy responsibility of teaching the new apprentice had fallen upon the eldest brother.
The weather today was clear and crisp, perfect for study.
Baixin wore a moon-white feathered robe that trailed on the floor. His long hair was tied high with a white jade crown, just as it had been the day before. He sat upright at his desk, his slender fingers gripping a purple wolf-hair brush as he circled passages in a book.
Jiang Qingyu sat on a meditation cushion opposite the desk, clutching *The Three Essential Keys to Drawing Qi into the Body* while lost in thought.
After the initiation ceremony, Baixin had spent two days taking his new junior sister around the sect to familiarize her with the surroundings. He had picked a pile of delicious spiritual fruits for her to snack on and had even personally gone down the mountain to buy her clothes and daily necessities, filling her entire wardrobe with beautiful dresses.
He said that whatever children from other families had, theirs should not be lacking.
After two days of adjustment, the old and new injuries in Jiang Qingyu’s body had healed. She felt refreshed, light, and healthy.
Regarding her spiritual root, it was only after Lord Wuling explained it that she realized she possessed the unique Moon Spiritual Root, the only one of its kind in the entire Cultivation World.
Why unique?
Because in every era, only one person with a Moon Spiritual Root appears. Only after the predecessor passes away does the next one emerge. They are revered as the Moon Lord, residing in the Moon Palace.
Throughout history, the Moon Lords had been mysterious, acting in unpredictable ways—neither fully righteous nor entirely evil.
A thousand years had passed since the last Moon Lord perished.
Seeing the blank expression on her eldest brother’s face that day, Jiang Qingyu knew that the current Cultivation World’s records of the Moon Palace were likely sparse, and the legends of the Moon Lord had long been buried in the river of time.
After browsing through *Guiyue*, Jiang Qingyu discovered that this cultivation method was completely different from the mainstream system of the Cultivation World. It did not originate from traditional paths but instead struck out on a new one.
This book was compiled by the previous Moon Lord, detailing her learning, insights, and realizations. It contained no superfluous words—every sentence was pure, practical instruction.
The mainstream cultivation system of the Cultivation World was divided into: Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Divine Transformation, and Tribulation Transcendence. Each realm had three stages: Initial, Middle, and Peak.
The *Guiyue* method, however, was divided into three realms: New Moon, Crescent Moon, and Full Moon. Each realm had six segments, with three segments corresponding to one traditional realm, and each segment representing a sub-stage. For example, New Moon Stage One was equivalent to Qi Condensation Initial, while New Moon Stage Four was Foundation Establishment Initial.
Crescent Moon was the watershed, divided into Upper Crescent (Crescent Stages One to Three) and Lower Crescent (Crescent Stages Three to Six). Upper Crescent corresponded to Golden Core, while Lower Crescent corresponded to Nascent Soul.
In this stage, practitioners of the traditional path would face the Lightning Tribulation and the Inner Demon Tribulation to solidify their core and form a nascent soul.
However, after practicing *Guiyue*, there was no core or soul. After crossing both tribulations, the power of the origin would condense into a moon wheel that settled in the Heart Lake.
...
"Xiaoyu, have you memorized the essentials for drawing Qi into the body?"
"Hmm? Ah?" Jiang Qingyu responded subconsciously. Only when she snapped to her attention did she realize she had been blatantly daydreaming during class!
Her right hand tightened on the book as she covered her face. Caught in the act—how embarrassing.
She hadn't even had time to establish her "diligent student" persona before it crumbled. *Oh, woe...*
Baixin’s lips curved slightly, a glint of realization passing through his eyes. He raised an eyebrow, smiling as he said, "In that case, let’s put it into practice. Draw Qi into your body before the day is out, or I’ll have to confiscate your fruit and snacks."
"Understood!" Jiang Qingyu patted her chest. Fortunately, she had a photographic memory and had read the entire book before she started daydreaming. Plus, with the experience from her past life, she had managed to find a loophole.
She closed her eyes, relaxed, sat cross-legged in meditation, and focused her mind on her Dantian. Her shoulders dropped naturally, and she began to regulate her breath, calming her heart and centering her spirit.
Before long, Jiang Qingyu was fully immersed.
Without her needing to actively draw it in, streams of Spiritual Qi rushed into her pores, burrowed into her meridians, traveled to every corner of her body, and were finally absorbed by her Dantian.
They coursed through her meridians over and over, tempering every part of her body until it reached a state of perfection.
Sensing that the Spiritual Qi was being drawn toward her, forming a thin mist that enveloped the young girl, Baixin was astonished. His new junior sister seemed to have an incredibly high affinity for the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth.
Spiritual Qi was abundant in the Cultivation World, and it was normal for cultivators to cause phenomena while training, but to condense the mist so solidly just by drawing in Qi for the first time? That was simply monstrous.
This amount of Spiritual Qi was a drop in the bucket for Baixin, but he enjoyed being surrounded by it; it felt like soaking in a hot spring, making every pore on his body relax.
In a moment of distraction, two fuzzy ears popped out from the top of his head.
Yes, he was not human. He was just a plain, unremarkable... fox demon.
The process of drawing Qi into her body went smoothly, taking less than half an hour.
Once Jiang Qingyu finished her meditation, she realized that she had skipped a level, entering the New Moon Stage Two directly. Furthermore, her foundation was stable, unlike in her previous life where her cultivation had been hollow due to the scarcity of Spiritual Qi.
Just as she was about to share her joy with her senior brother, she looked up and froze in place—her handsome, ethereal senior brother was actually sporting a pair of furry ears, with eight large, fluffy white tails trailing behind him, spread out on the meditation cushion like petals, occasionally twitching one.
Baixin’s chest tightened, his heart pounding like thunder.
Before Jiang Qingyu, he had kept his identity hidden for a hundred years, yet he had been careless today.
Seeing the dazed look on his junior sister’s face, Baixin steadied his mind, remaining outwardly composed.
He pretended to be calm, twitching his ears before whisking the fur away. The red mole at the corner of his eye seemed even redder as he smiled and explained to Jiang Qingyu, "Ah, the Spiritual Qi was too dense just now, and I couldn't hold it back. Xiaoyu, you don't mind that your senior brother is a demon, do you?"
To be honest, she suddenly understood the joy King Zhou of Shang must have felt. Who could look at this and not be mesmerized?
"So Senior Brother is a Celestial Fox. No wonder you carry such an otherworldly aura. Your appearance is top-tier in this world, and so are your tails."
Especially those fox eyes, which she had mistaken for puppy eyes; they were incredibly enchanting.
Jiang Qingyu rested her chin in her hands, praising him without hesitation. After thinking it over in her mind to ensure she wouldn't be offensive, she added, "Looking at this face, I might be able to eat an extra bowl of rice for lunch!"
"Hahaha, Xiaoyu, no wonder Master said you were a glutton for beauty. You certainly live up to that reputation. If your eyes weren't so clear, I would have thought I had spent a hundred years in cultivation only to finally master the Fox Charm Technique on my own."
Baixin couldn't see a trace of deception in those eyes—no disgust, no fear.
His heart eased slightly.
"Hmm? Isn't that ability a natural talent?"
"That’s right. The Fox Charm Technique is innate to pure-blooded Celestial Foxes, but Senior Brother is a half-demon."
Jiang Qingyu’s mouth hung slightly open, her throat feeling dry. It took her a long time to react.
Half-demon, as the name implied, meant half-demon clan blood and half-human blood.
The demon clan valued lineage, and the human clan did the same.
As offspring born from the union of a human and a demon, there was no place in the vast Cultivation World specifically established to shelter them.
Those who were abandoned at birth had to discard their dignity to survive, living humbly and cautiously at the bottom of the food chain.
Even though there were clear bans against intermarriage between the two races, there were still many who broke the law. Irresponsible parents treated such unions as forbidden love, greedily taking only the momentary pleasure.
Half-demon children had no choice; they were sentenced from birth, shackled, with their lives left to fate and fortune.
So, what exactly did they do wrong?
... "Senior Brother, I, I'm sorry—" her tone was heavy and strained.
"Hmm? You owe me nothing. A background is just a background; why is it worth an apology from my junior sister?" Baixin said, feigning ease.
In Jiang Qingyu’s eyes, her eldest brother sounded as if he were just describing what he had for lunch—stir-fried tomatoes and eggs. She didn't know why, but this nonchalance made her heart ache.
A person as gentle as jade, as ethereal as an immortal, shouldn't have such an origin.
At least, that was what Jiang Qingyu believed.
She thought that her master and her brothers and sisters whom she hadn't met must think the same.
"Senior Brother, you don't need to specifically learn the Fox Charm Technique. In Xiaoyu's eyes, you only need one look to leave people mesmerized!" Jiang Qingyu chirped, changing the subject.
"Smooth talker."
The smile in Baixin’s eyes swirled like ink. He chuckled, momentarily lost in thought. The little one’s intentions were truly simple and easy to understand.
Taking advantage of the remaining spiritual mist, Jiang Qingyu soon settled her mind and began to meditate, silently reciting the first layer of the *Guiyue* mental method.
She sat like that for the entire morning.
Regarding the two lessons about the Eldest Brother:
First: The Eldest Brother is very noble, even if he is a half-demon. (Spoiler: His mother was a Celestial Fox and his father was a medical cultivator. They loved each other deeply and loved the Eldest Brother, but both were killed shortly after Baixin was born.)
Second: The Eldest Brother is a fox! The Eldest Brother is a fox! The Eldest Brother is a fox! It is important to say this three times. Do not be fooled by his appearance; his true colors will be revealed soon. The change in his personality is not a breakdown of his character, because that is his true nature.