Mockery from Eons Past

Su Ming paused. When he looked again, the redness of the moon seemed to have vanished, as if the previous scene had been nothing more than an illusion.

Su Ming's expression turned grave. He did not believe he could have suffered such a hallucination. He focused his gaze, staring through the small holes at the bright moon outside, and fell into deep thought.

Time slowly passed. As Su Ming watched, because he had stopped circulating the blood energy within his body, the red glow in the cave quickly dissipated, returning to normal. After a long while, Su Ming frowned.

"Could it really have been an illusion..." Su Ming sighed softly. Just as he was about to close his eyes and dismiss the matter, his pupils suddenly contracted the moment his eyelids began to shut.

"No!" He felt as if he had caught a fleeting thought, but it was elusive, as if it might vanish at any moment, making it difficult to grasp.

"Red moon... red moon... red..." Su Ming muttered. He suddenly looked down at his own body. In his mind, he recalled the moment he saw the red moon; he had been at the point where the medicinal effects had fully dispersed, his blood was circulating, and a red glow was radiating from him, illuminating the cave.

His eyes brightened as his thoughts cleared. The vague notion in his mind slowly took shape. A moment later, without hesitation, Su Ming kept his eyes open and circulated the blood within his body. Instantly, all nineteen blood lines appeared on his skin, emitting a piercing red glow that not only enveloped his body but bathed the entire cave in crimson light.

Su Ming stared at the bright moon through the small holes. Under the surrounding blood-red light, he took a deep breath, his expression growing more solemn as a realization dawned upon him.

At this moment, the moon he saw was undeniably red!

It was not that the moon itself was red, but because the area was filled with his red glow; as Su Ming looked at the moon through that crimson light, he naturally suffered the illusion that the moon had turned red.

"The path of the Barbarian's desire, exhausting the edges of the eight directions; residual fire melts the blood, thoughts manifest to burn the heavens, thoughts exhausted to ignite the firmament... If the fire moon emerges from the clouds, amidst the vast heaven and earth... then silently contemplate, blood and fire burning in layers; nine is the extreme, one is the law, perform the nine obeisances of the burning Barbarian fire, to achieve the Fire Worship Technique!" Su Ming watched the red moon, muttering to himself.

"Then silently contemplate... then silently contemplate... the meaning of this phrase must be that the moment the fire moon appears, one must silently think and imagine within... but what is it that one imagines? Blood and fire burning in layers, nine is the extreme, one is the law, perform the nine obeisances of the burning Barbarian fire, to achieve the Fire Worship Technique... No, this phrase has nothing to do with imagination; it must refer to the actions." Su Ming frowned. As he circulated his blood, the red glow in the cave grew thicker, making the redness of the moon appear even clearer to his eyes.

"Imagine..." A flash of insight struck Su Ming, as if a thunderclap had roared through his mind.

"Could it be that the phrase should be read like this... If the fire moon emerges from the clouds, amidst the vast heaven and earth, then silently contemplate! If that is the case, the meaning changes entirely. It does not speak of imagining when the fire moon appears, but rather imagining the fire moon into existence!" Su Ming's entire body trembled; he felt as if he had finally grasped the key!

He gasped, silently imagining in his heart that the moon in the sky had turned red. As time passed, Su Ming repeated this visualization in his mind over and over. Eventually, his entire consciousness became immersed in it, and he forgot to circulate his blood, failing to notice that the red glow in the cave had already dissipated and returned to normal.

He tilted his head, staring fixedly at the moon through the small holes, the fantasy in his mind overlapping more and more with reality.

"Red moon... burning moon..." Su Ming muttered. In his vision, the moon took on a red hue, and that color grew increasingly intense, slowly causing the entire moon to turn a vivid, blood-red.

In that instant, the hairs on Su Ming's body stood on end involuntarily. He vaguely felt that from the red moon in his sight, strands of red light were descending from the sky, drifting through the small holes to merge with his eyes, and then flowing into his body to blend with his blood.

A sensation of icy coldness emerged throughout his body. Once it merged with his blood, it caused his internal energy to circulate on its own. As it flowed slowly, Su Ming remained oblivious. At this moment, it felt as if everything in the world had vanished, leaving only that red moon in his sight, growing larger and clearer.

The red within the moon seemed to contain a strange power that, as the moonlight spilled down, drilled into his body.

Time drifted by. Xiao Hong had long since woken up and was staring blankly at Su Ming from not far away, its eyes filled with confusion. It even looked up through the holes at the moon outside, but to it, the moon looked no different than usual. It scratched its head, unable to fathom what Su Ming was daydreaming about.

No one noticed that at this very moment, within the five peaks of Wu Mountain, a strange change was occurring in all the places where the Moon Wings rested and slept!

Especially deep within Black Flame Peak, in the basin covered by magma, countless lines were moving across the massive red tree trunk. From time to time, the faces of Moon Wings would emerge; their expressions were not of ferocity or sorrow, but of obsession and excitement.

It was unknown what they were excited about, but their intense, rapid movements across the trunk revealed the strength of their agitation.

It was as if they were struggling to break free from the tree trunk, yet were held back by some force, unable to emerge.

It was also as if they had sensed something—perhaps a summons, perhaps... an act of worship... or perhaps... they had sensed the Barbarian whose existence had been lost to the ages...

Beneath the bubbling, rolling magma, in the remnants of the Fire Barbarian tribe from eons ago, the skeleton at the edge remained soaked in the scorching lava, seemingly unchanged. Yet, where its finger pointed, the inscriptions on the wall that Su Ming had once seen were now completely blank.

There was nothing there... It had not been erased by anyone; it was as if, throughout the vast passage of time, it had never appeared at all.

Though the skeleton nearby was nothing but bone, the trace of mockery and arrogance on its face appeared exceptionally vivid at this moment.

Perhaps what it mocked was not the scenes of its own death, but what came after...

At night, when the moon in the sky showed faint signs of fading, just as the first light of dawn was about to break, a figure shrouded in a black robe was slowly walking through the Wu Mountain forest toward the distance.

This figure was the very same person who had been present in the Black Mountain Tribe. He walked very slowly, but with every step he took, his body seemed to turn illusory, passing directly through countless withered trees.

"It is not here either... Where on earth could it be!!" The figure sighed softly, his voice raspy, as he gradually walked into the distance and vanished just as the first rays of the morning sun appeared in the sky.