Chapter 252: The First Lunar Shattering War (Mist)

This night was destined to be extraordinary.

Whether those who happened to look up and saw the moon's anomaly, or the powerful whose hearts stirred with inexplicable premonitions, all endured countless upheavals.

First came the red moon anomaly visible to all, then the orbital shift and altered rotation of the entire moon, detectable only by yaojing's dynamic vision, followed by a vast, phantom-like crimson "Manjushage" resembling the lunar seas and lands—suddenly appearing, then vanishing within minutes.

That night, countless gods, immortals, and yaojing across Earth stayed awake, eyes bloodshot, staring at the moon—unchanged since ancient times, now suddenly going mad—with utter horror.

What happened?!

The moon's orbital shift was, of course, Hecatia's doing; having gained the Moon's Authority, she treated it like a new toy, used it slightly—and triggered this consequence.

Gravitational fluctuations, massive changes in tidal amplitude and frequency, disrupted ocean currents, altered global climate, drastically increased the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, and even heightened volcanic and seismic activity.

Countless species suffered disrupted circadian rhythms; human calendars, once based on lunar phases, were rewritten—from thirty days per month to twenty-eight—among countless other changes.

But it didn't matter: souls of those who died accidentally during this period would return to Hell, and round it off, they were back under Hecatia's control.

That was the principle of return.

And why did the killing flower, released by the Pure Fox to drain Chang'e's life, vanish within mere minutes? Shouldn't it have endured for at least thousands of years?

Time rewound to the end of the peace talks.

Before the Pure Fox and Hecatia left the Moon Capital and returned to Hell.

Pale-faced Jia Ji proposed to the Pure Fox: "This constant drain of power to suppress Chang'e is troublesome. I have a way to settle it once and for all."

"Oh?"

If anyone else had spoken, the Pure Fox would have ignored them—but now that Jia Ji had spoken, she would not refuse.

"Cough, cough—it's the Udan Hua!"

The half-asleep, nearly unconscious figure forgot to tease, shouting outright: "Go get Fengjian Youxiang—have her use the Udan Hua to suppress Chang'e!"

Of course—Fengjian Youxiang!

Yun Zi finally realized: they had forgotten one yaojing entirely—the "Tyrant of Flowers," Fengjian Youxiang!

Minutes later, Weng Yue Fengji finally found the flower yaojing, who was tearing apart the Moon Capital with the intent to turn it upside down.

"Stop! Jia Ji has sent me to fetch you for the Udan Hua!"

Before a magic cannon could fire, Weng Yue Fengji sighed, pressing her palm to her forehead.

Completely ignoring the raging battlefield, acting solely for her own goal—this creature was among the most capricious of all yaojing.

"The Udan Hua is a tree existing only in the Moon Capital. Though sharing the same name as the legendary phantom flower said to bloom once every three thousand years on Earth, if you speak of 'Penglai Jade Branch,' it can only be this."

"Silver branches, golden stems, fruits of jade… said to possess unparalleled beauty."

But unlike legend, when Fengji led her to the spot, what appeared before her was an unremarkable potted plant.

Its coral-like branches bore no leaves or fruit; at a glance, it seemed dead.

This potted plant could bloom and bear fruit—but only as recorded; no Moon dweller, not even the Weng Yue sisters, had ever witnessed it.

To them, the Udan Hua was a dull plant that never grew leaves, never bloomed, never bore fruit.

Though plain in appearance, it exuded the "Ji" of "Wabi-Sabi"—neither withering nor growing, merely rooted there.

It simply existed, placed there, never having grown at all.

"'Beautiful Udan flowers are the privilege of Earth dwellers,' Huiye once said something like that."

Correct—unless a certain condition is met, the flower will not bloom.

And that condition is—impurity.

A plant nourished by impurity growing in the pure Moon Capital was, indeed, peculiar.

Once its branches were brought to Earth, Earth's impurity caused it to transform drastically—it began growing by consuming impurity, bearing beautiful seven-colored jade fruits.

Aside from Moon Rabbits serving as Moon envoys and exiled criminals sent to Earth, only Earth dwellers had ever seen the Udan flower.

When Earth's rulers received the Penglai Jade Branch from Moon envoys, their own impurity immediately caused it to bear seven-colored fruits. The greater their power, the more beautiful the fruit—making it a symbol of their authority.

But anything existing on Earth must perish. The prosperous must decline; power inevitably fades.

At that time, the Udan Hua branch became an object of struggle, shattering Earth's peace and plunging it into chaos.

The "Penglai Jade Branch" referred to the Udan Hua's blooming, fruit-bearing branch—something Fujiwara no Fuhito, no matter how hard he tried, could never obtain.

No wonder the Weng Yue sisters despised Huiye; she merely toyed with the world, never intending to fulfill her promise.

As Yi Ji angrily put it: "The Moon people's reputation was ruined by her!" "How can she still be called a Moon Princess?!"

Udan Hua won't bloom? Perfect—someone perfectly suited has arrived—

The Lord of Four-Season Flowers used her ability: "To Cause Flowers to Bloom."

Then, she grasped the wilted, listless Udan Hua and plunged it straight into Chang'e's corpse, absorbing the endless impurity generated by the Penglai Immortal's undying body.

Until now, the Udan Hua had only ever had a single branch taken to Earth; even the most powerful rulers could only turn dead branches into jade branches, and those who made it bloom and bear fruit were exceedingly rare.

But how far could the impurity of a Penglai being make this Udan Hua bloom?

"Boom!"

Countless Moon Rabbits shuddered, halting their rubble-clearing duties, looking up at the sky.

The sky suddenly brightened.

Was that… lightning and thunder?

The Moon Capital's perpetually dark sky was suddenly split into fragmented zones by shimmering silver streaks—shaped like… branches?

A golden tree rose upon the lunar surface, as if tearing free from its cage and shattering the heavens—its trunk and roots breached all limits, bursting through palaces, occupying the western side of the Guanghan Palace, with nebula-like swirls of light particles diffusing among its branches.

The vision of both yaojing and Moon dwellers was entirely filled with dazzling radiance.

And Chang'e was now fully "embraced" by seas of gold and silver—its branches, alive, clung to her recovering corpse, tightening, constricting, as if to swallow her whole, turning her into its nourishment.

The Udan Hua, since its birth three million years ago, had never touched a single speck of impurity.

It had been perpetually starved, perpetually on the brink of death, waiting for this moment—too long, too long!

It sought to drown, to devour the half-Penglai woman, greedily drinking in her seemingly endless impurity.

"To call that the Udan Hua… it's far too large."

The Pure Fox looked up—but could not see its full form; its towering canopy had already exceeded her vision, growing to an absurd scale.

Was that even a tree?

It resembled a skyscraper, a palace.

The Udan Hua had bloomed.

On Earth, the Udan required a thousand years to sprout, a thousand years to bud, a thousand years to bloom—and then, in the blink of an eye, it withered, its fleeting beauty gone.

But the Moon's Udan Hua took only three seconds to go from nothing to full bloom.

Petals, smooth as stone, jade-like, drifted gently down onto the Moon Capital's streets, onto Moon Rabbit ears, into the open palms of maidens.

Like sunset's glow dissolving into the sea, the Moon dwellers—who had never set foot on Earth—saw seven-colored jade fruits hanging from its branches.

This was a wonder beyond compare, a sight unmatched in all the world.

The umbrella-like canopy blocked the stars' light, yet cast a sky of rainbow hues.

Within the shadow of the "Udan Hua," the maidens' eyes glazed, gazing at the crystal-clear, seven-colored Liuli petals and golden branches—as the final curtain of this war.

Fengjian Youxiang smiled, satisfied; the Pure Fox retracted her Killing Intent Lily, allowing the Udan Hua to bloom forever—until Chang'e was utterly dead.

Perhaps in a thousand years, perhaps until the end of eternity—but now, the Pure Fox had the patience to wait.

"Wait, what the hell—this is the Golden Tree?!"

These were Jia Ji's last words before passing out.

Killing Intent Lily, Golden Tree, Moon Princess (Weng Yue Fengji), and Moon Night's Blade (Weng Yue Yi Ji)?! Is this Moon surface… a war…?

After study, later yaojing historians decided to name this yaojing-Moon dweller conflict: "The First Lunar Shattering War!"

(End of Chapter)