The Sun God and Star God's Home Turf Was Invaded

Wuma Xiu had just been about to get up when, before his legs could move,

he suddenly sensed something and looked down.

At some point, another black blanket had appeared over his lower body.

The blanket was thin and as light as a cloud formed from the night, resting on his knees with almost no weight. There was no pattern on the black fabric, nor a trace of any other color.

Wuma Xiu didn't need to think to know who the blanket had come from.

Originally, whenever he found a place to nap in the Moon God Palace, whether on the jade steps beside the Moonlight Pool or by the windowsill at the end of a corridor, the moment he closed his eyes, those specks of light would gather and weave themselves into a thin blanket of moonlight over him.

When he woke, they would scatter again.

But ever since he met the Night God, most of the time it was night that fell over the Moon God.

When the Moon God woke up, he would find a black blanket on him. Sometimes it lay across his knees, sometimes it was draped over his shoulders, and sometimes it covered him from chest to ankles, wrapping him up so tightly that only half his face showed...

The blankets were different every time, but they were always the same color and texture.

"Night, that room of mine in the Moon God Palace is almost too full to hold any more of your blankets."

Wuma Xiu's voice held a trace of amused resignation.

He wasn't exaggerating in the slightest.

Others probably couldn't imagine that, deep within this cold, magnificent palace, an entire room had been set aside for this very purpose.

That room was filled with stacks of black blankets.

New ones lay atop old ones, thick ones atop thin ones.

Some had been stacked there for who knew how many years.

Wuma Xiu picked up the blanket on his knees and handed it back to its owner.

The Night God reached out to take it, folded the whole blanket, and held it in his arms.

"I could move my Night God Palace over..."

The Night God stopped there.

He lowered his eyes, rubbed his fingers over the blanket, and made a silent note.

This was the nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-fourth time he had covered Moon with a blanket.

It was also the nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-fourth time he had tried to move the Night God Palace over.

In fact, the Night God had wanted to move for a long time.

When had he first had the idea?

Probably the first time he saw Moon at the Moon God Palace, he had stopped wanting to go back.

Afterward, the Night God had wanted to move the Night God Palace next to the Moon God Palace, or simply into it.

His palace was pitch-black anyway and took up no space. He could tuck it into any corner.

But the Sun God and Star God had stopped him all nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-three times.

He had never succeeded once.

Their reason was that there was no reason.

It wasn't as though the Night God had never considered forcing his way in.

In terms of strength, he feared neither the Sun God nor the Star God.

He was night.

A consciousness formed from eternal darkness.

No matter how fiercely the sun shone, it would always set. No matter how vast the domain of the stars, there would always be corners their light couldn't reach.

But he held back because the two gods were Moon's brothers.

As Moon's only close friend, he didn't want to put him in a difficult position.

The Night God could accept that the Sun God and Star God disliked him, could accept that his Night God Palace hung alone in the darkness, and could accept that all nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-four proposals had ended in failure...

But he couldn't accept leaving the Moon God caught in the middle.

His brothers on one side, his close friend on the other.

Caught between them, unable to find a solution that would satisfy everyone.

The boldest thing the Night God could manage now was to secretly leave the blanket in the Moon God Palace before he left, after his close friend Moon had handed it back to him.

When Moon saw the blanket, he would probably put it away in that room again, stacking it with the nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-three the Night God had given him before.

Still, that was fine.

His blankets would watch over Moon in his place, and they occupied a room for him in the Moon God Palace too.

Round it up, and it was the same as living in the Moon God Palace.

The Night God deceived himself this way.

Wuma Xiu saw the Night God's expression suddenly grow dejected.

He stood up, and the specks of light resting on his robes drifted down with the movement, like a swarm of startled fireflies.

Wuma Xiu stepped through the moonlight and stopped before the Night God, tilting his face up to look at him.

The Night God was half a head taller than him, so Wuma Xiu had to look up slightly whenever they spoke.

"Night, give me your blanket. Also, this time I'd like to visit your Night God Palace."

As Wuma Xiu spoke, he reached out and took the blanket back from the Night God's hands.

He knew about the grievances between the Sun God, the Star God, and the Night God.

The Night God had been stopped every time he proposed moving, and had never succeeded once.

Although the Sun God and Star God were his brothers,

Night was his close friend, after all.

Since they could stop the Night God from moving the Night God Palace over, couldn't he just go there instead?

The Sun God and Star God could stop the Night God, but they couldn't stop him.

When the Night God heard those words,

a flash of excitement appeared for an instant on his usually impassive, almost expressionless face.

But before that ripple could spread, he forcibly suppressed it himself.

The Night God's brows knitted, and his lips moved. Only after a long while did he quietly refuse.

"Moon, you'd better not go."

His Night God Palace was too dark.

There was no light there, nor anything his close friend Moon knew and loved.

In his heart, Moon was the clearest, gentlest glimmer of light in the universe. He couldn't bear to let such bright moonlight shine into his darkness.

"But I want to go. Night, can't I?"

A few tiny specks of light shimmered in Wuma Xiu's silver-white eyes. He knew perfectly well that the Night God wouldn't refuse him, but still patiently asked.

That tone and that gaze made the Night God feel as though a furry paw had given his heart a hard scratch.

The Night God met the eyes looking up at him, and the reasons he had painstakingly arranged in his head

suddenly turned to mush.

This was his close friend, his moonlight, looking at him with an almost pleading gaze for the first time.

The Night God pulled his hood back over his head.

The black fabric fell, and shadow covered his entire face.

Beneath the hood, his face was crimson.

Fortunately, the hood was large enough and the shadows deep enough that Moon couldn't see clearly.

"...All right."

Wuma Xiu's lips curved. With a wave of his hand, the blanket arrived at the place where its brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, parents, grandparents... lived.

It joined that enormous family.

Having gotten his way, Wuma Xiu grasped the Night God's wrist, his fingertips closing around the pale, cold skin. The chill traveled up through the pads of his fingers.

"Let's go."

Wuma Xiu pulled the Night God two steps forward, and the Night God even stumbled.

Not long after the two figures vanished from the Moon God Palace, two beams of light drifted down outside the palace doors.

The Sun God and Star God had come to see the Moon God yet again...