Su Ming froze. When he looked again, the moon's redness seemed to have vanished, as though what he had just seen had been nothing but an illusion.
Su Ming's expression turned solemn. He did not believe he could have imagined such an illusion. He fixed his gaze on the full moon outside, staring through the small holes as he pondered.
Time passed slowly. As Su Ming continued to look, he stopped circulating the blood and qi in his body, and the red glow in the cave soon faded, returning everything to normal. After a long while, Su Ming furrowed his brow.
"Could it really have been an illusion..." Su Ming sighed softly and was about to close his eyes and put the matter aside, but the instant his eyelids began to fall, his pupils suddenly contracted.
"Something's wrong!" He felt as if he had caught hold of a thread of thought, but it flickered in and out of view, as if it might vanish at any moment. It was difficult to make sense of.
"The red moon... the red moon... red..." Su Ming murmured, then abruptly looked down at his body. His mind returned to the moment he had seen the red moon. It seemed that the medicinal effects had just worn off, his blood had begun to circulate, and a red glow had spilled out, illuminating the cave.
As his thoughts came together, his gaze gradually brightened. The vague idea in his mind slowly grew clear. A moment later, without a moment's hesitation, Su Ming opened his eyes and circulated the blood in his body. All nineteen bloodlines appeared at once, shining with a dazzling red glow. It enveloped his body and bathed the entire cave in crimson.
Su Ming stared at the full moon beyond the small holes. Beneath the surrounding blood-red light, he drew a deep breath. His expression grew more solemn, and understanding dawned on him.
At that moment, the moon he saw had indeed turned red!
But the moon itself was not red. This place was filled with crimson light, and Su Ming was looking at the moon through that red glow. Naturally, it seemed to have changed color.
"The desire of the Barbarian Dao reaches the edges of all eight directions. The remaining fire melts into blood; a thought rises and burns the heavens, a thought ends and ignites the firmament... When the fire moon emerges from the clouds, amid the boundless world... At that moment, contemplate in silence. Blood Fire Stacking: nine is the utmost, one is the method. Ignite the Barbarian fire and bow nine times, and the Fire Worship Technique is achieved!" Su Ming gazed at the red moon and murmured.
"'At that moment, contemplate in silence'... 'At that moment, contemplate in silence'... The meaning of this line is that when I see the fire moon, I should silently contemplate and imagine... But what am I supposed to imagine? 'Blood Fire Stacking: nine is the utmost, one is the method. Ignite the Barbarian fire and bow nine times, and the Fire Worship Technique is achieved'... No, that line has nothing to do with imagining. It's about an action." Su Ming furrowed his brow. The blood in his body continued to circulate, making the crimson glow grow stronger and the moon's redness clearer in his eyes.
"Imagine..." Su Ming's gaze suddenly flickered. Thunder seemed to roar through his mind.
"Could the line be read this way instead? 'When the fire moon emerges from the clouds, amid the boundless world, contemplate in silence!' If so, its meaning is entirely different. It doesn't say to imagine when the fire moon appears—it says to imagine the fire moon appearing!" Su Ming's whole body trembled. He felt that he had grasped the key!
He drew in a sharp breath and silently imagined the moon in the sky turning red. As time passed, he repeated the image over and over in his mind. In the end, his entire consciousness sank into it. He forgot that the blood in his body had been circulating and failed to notice that the red light in the cave had completely faded, returning everything to normal.
He tilted his head back, staring fixedly at the moon beyond the small holes. The image in his mind grew more and more vivid.
"A red moon... a burning moon..." Su Ming murmured. In his eyes, the moon was tinged with red. The color grew richer and richer until the entire moon became a brilliant scarlet.
At that instant, the hairs all over Su Ming's body stood on end. He faintly sensed red threads falling from the red moon in his eyes. They drifted through the small holes, merged with his eyes, and seemed to flow into his body, mingling with his blood.
A chill spread through his entire body. Once it merged with his blood, the blood and qi in his body began circulating on their own. As it flowed slowly, Su Ming remained oblivious. It seemed to him that everything in the world had disappeared, leaving only that red moon in his eyes, growing larger and clearer.
The redness within the moon seemed to contain a strange power. As the moonlight spilled down, it burrowed into his body.
Time passed. Xiao Hong had long since woken up and was staring blankly at Su Ming from nearby, confusion in its eyes. It also looked up through the small holes at the moon, but to it, the moon looked no different than usual. It scratched its head, unable to figure out what Su Ming was staring at.
No one noticed that, at that very moment, a strange change was taking place in all five peaks of Wu Mountain, wherever the Moon Wings nestled and slept!
Especially deep within Black Flame Peak, in the basin covered by molten lava. Lines moved across the enormous red tree trunk, and now and then the faces of the Moon Wings appeared. Their expressions were neither ferocious nor sorrowful, but filled with rapture and excitement.
No one knew what excited them, but the way they darted rapidly through the trunk made the intensity of their excitement plain.
It was as if they were struggling to burst out of the trunk, only to be held back by some force, unable to emerge.
Or perhaps they had sensed something—perhaps a summons, perhaps... worship... or perhaps they had sensed the Barbarian people they had lost to the passage of ten thousand ages...
Beneath the roiling lava, bubbles rose to the surface. Among the remnants of the Fire Barbarians from ten thousand ages ago, the bones at the edge lay submerged in the scorching magma. They seemed unchanged, yet the writing that Su Ming had once seen—etched by the skeleton's pointing finger into the wall—was now blank.
There was nothing there... It had not been erased by anyone. It was as if, over the ten thousand ages, it had never existed at all.
Though the skeleton beside it was only bones, at that moment, the trace of mockery and pride on its face stood out with startling clarity.
Perhaps what it mocked was not the scene of its own death, but what came after...
Night was fading. The moon in the sky seemed on the verge of vanishing, as if dawn were breaking and the first rays of the sun were about to rise. In the forest of Wu Mountain, a figure shrouded from head to toe in a black robe was slowly walking into the distance.
This was the one who had been in the Black Mountain Tribe that day. He walked slowly, yet with each step his body seemed to turn into an illusion, passing straight through countless dead trees.
"Still nothing here... Where in the world is it!!" The figure seemed to sigh, his voice hoarse. He continued toward the distance and disappeared as the first rays of the sun appeared in the sky.
In the name of Xu Liguo, who was probably off somewhere enjoying himself right now, I hope today's recommendation votes double~~~
Before you continue