The Two-Faced Moonlight Clan

Wuma Xiu found it novel to see the Moonlight Clan's Clan Leader trembling like a quail.

From the moment Yuexi had entered the Moon God Palace, Wuma Xiu had sensed a disturbance in the moonlight.

It seemed he was a child deeply favored by moonlight.

Wuma Xiu felt like teasing him again. "Are you afraid of me?"

Yuexi jerked his head up.

Then he froze, utterly motionless, like a stone statue held in place by a spell.

He really was stunned.

He had traced the face before him countless times in his dreams, imagined it countless times before those stone pillars, and pursued it in words in his notebooks countless times... Yet all those imaginings, those renderings, and those words put together could not compare to even a ten-thousandth of the reality before him.

He was so stunned that he forgot to breathe.

Then someone gently poked his cheek.

Yuexi abruptly came to his senses and realized that, at some point, the god had walked up to him. That finger still lingered beside his cheek, its tip slightly cool.

The god... touched him?

Touched him?

His face, which had been so pale as to be almost transparent, turned scarlet in an instant. The color spread from his cheeks to his ears, then from his ears to his neck, like a patch of moonlight suddenly dyed in the colors of sunset.

He was red all over.

"No. I was only worried I wasn't worthy of meeting you."

When Yuexi said this, his thoughts were in a jumble. He had even taken all the responsibility for the Star-Moon Bow and Star-Moon Arrow coming to challenge him upon himself.

He wondered:

Could it be that, after the god awakened, he saw the Moonlight Clan as it was now, saw how weak the Moonlight Clan had become under Yuexi's leadership, no longer possessing its supreme glory from the Age of the Gods?

Was that why he personally created the Star-Moon Bow and Star-Moon Arrow, so they could replace him?

Replace him, this unfit Clan Leader.

The thought pricked Yuexi's heart like a fine needle. It was not fatal, but it hurt terribly.

If the others across the Sea of Stars had heard this thought, they probably would all have sighed up at the heavens, covered their faces with their sleeves, and wept bitterly.

What? You say the Moonlight Clan is too weak now?

Then what did that make us, who they've been pinning to the ground and pummeling for so long?

Trash?

Or worse than trash?

Zerg: Even though we're already gone, I still want to say: weak, my ass.

"What's your name?"

Wuma Xiu's voice interrupted Yuexi's increasingly wild thoughts.

Seeing that he was about to lower his head again.

Wuma Xiu simply reached out with both hands, cupped his cheeks, and firmly turned his head back up.

He was not allowed to lower it.

Forced to look up, Yuexi felt something welling up in his eyes.

"Yuexi. The xi in hope."

That name carried the hopes of the entire Moonlight Clan.

The hope of seeing their god again.

The hope that the wait stretching across countless days and nights.

Would finally receive an answer.

"I'll remember it." Wuma Xiu released his cheeks, let his hand settle on top of Yuexi's head, and gently ruffled his hair. "And next time you speak to me, don't lower your head."

He paused briefly, then added another sentence.

"You've already done very well. There's no need to blame yourself."

The moment Wuma Xiu's palm touched the top of his head, Yuexi could no longer hold back what had been welling in his eyes for so long.

A tear slipped from the corner of his eye and ran down his cheek, warm and burning, as though all the waiting and longing accumulated over an unknown number of years had melted into that single tear at this moment.

However, as the Clan Leader of the Moonlight Clan, although he was standing before his god now, there were still so many clan members beside them, watching the show.

They might all have been standing there primly.

But their ears were pricked up higher than a Star Rabbit's.

Their eyes shone brighter than Star Lamps.

He still had to maintain his dignity as Clan Leader.

So before the tear reached his jaw, it quietly evaporated, leaving no trace behind.

Unfortunately.

The dignity Yuexi wanted was already gone for good.

[Moonlight Clan internal group chat: "Everyone except the patriarch"]

[Mooncake]: Everyone, I have firsthand news.

[Mooncake]: The Clan Leader cried when he saw the god.

[Moonwater]: I can testify. Pictures attached below.

[Moonwater]: Clan Leader lowering his head.jpg

[Moonwater]: Clan Leader on the verge of tears.jpg

[Moonfire]: What the hell is "on the verge of tiers"? It's "on the verge of tears."

[Moonwater]: Whatever. The point is, he cried.

[Moonwater]: Here's another.

[Moonwater]: Clan Leader stubbornly claiming he wasn't worthy of seeing the god.jpg

[Moon Earth]: Pass it on: the Clan Leader cried.

[Moon Metal]: Pass it on: the Clan Leader cried in the god's arms.

[Moon Wood]: Pass it on: the Clan Leader bawled his eyes out in the god's arms.

[Moonwind]: Pass it on: the Clan Leader cried himself unconscious in the god's arms.

[Mooncake]: You all need to stop! It's only been a few messages!

What Yuexi did not know was that his dignity as Clan Leader was crumbling at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Before long, messages flooded the group chat.

Not just that group, either. Every Moonlight Clan group chat was flooded with messages, and even their work groups were full of praise for the god.

The screen was filled with words about the god, one message piling over another, one overtaking the next, dense and lively.

If they had not lacked the god's permission.

The group chat would no longer have contained only text. Pictures of Wuma Xiu from every angle would probably have flooded it already, high-definition shots and close-ups where you could count every eyelash.

Unfortunately, they did not dare.

They only dared roll around madly in text.

And Wuma Xiu saw all of it perfectly clearly.

Ha, they had not expected that, had they?

As the Moon God, as long as he wanted to,

Nothing about the Moonlight Clan could hide from him.

He could even see the group chat that had specifically excluded the Clan Leader, Yuexi.

So Wuma Xiu divided his attention, rubbing Yuexi's head while skimming through the group's messages from beginning to end.

From "the Clan Leader on the verge of tears" to "the Clan Leader cried himself unconscious in the god's arms," the thread went further off course with every message, growing more and more outrageous.

Wuma Xiu raised his eyes, looking past Yuexi at the Moonlight Clan members standing ramrod straight in the distance, their expressions serene.

Every one of them looked as cold as frost and carried themselves like the moon, aloof, ethereal, and untouchable.

Well, well.

How impressive.

He had not expected the Moonlight Clan he had personally created to have such a personality.

Those faces were a little too misleading.

If Wuma Xiu had not been able to see that internal chat, and had only seen how they carried themselves like flowers on a lofty peak.

He really would never have noticed.

But I believe you wise readers in front of your screens must have noticed: when the upper beam is crooked, the lower beams will be crooked too.