The Moon Sets, and None Waits (Zhang Leyuan, Part One)

Douluo Continent once had two moons.

One was the bright moon in the sky. The other was Zhang Leyuan.

The Inner Court's senior sister, with the top-tier Moon Martial Soul and extraordinary talent.

Yet even someone like her had a past she could not bear to look back on.

That year, the girl was twelve.

Heaven Dou Empire.

An old enemy had struck, unleashing sudden chaos and slaughtering her clan. Not one of her closest kin survived. They all perished, their blood staining the steps.

When her entire clan had been wiped out, only one girl remained, alone and on the brink of death. Fortunately, Mu En saved her, pulling her back from the jaws of death and allowing her to cling to life.

From then on, she cast aside all pride, bowed her head, and begged for help, asking only to borrow a powerful person's strength to wipe out every last enemy and avenge the blood debt of her family's massacre, bringing peace to her dead kin below.

In the end, Mu En did help her destroy her enemies. But the price was that Zhang Leyuan's life no longer belonged to her. Half of it belonged to Shrek, and the other half to the promise that she would become a child bride.

Did she regret it?

Not at all. No price was too high to pay for her family's blood debt.

Her life should have been held hostage by gratitude and betrothal, leading her toward a tragedy that had already been written. But when she was thirteen, she met the boy who would change her life.

"Hello, Sister Lexuan. My name is Lin Xun. I'm an exchange student from the Soul Planning Hall."

It was the first autumn after Zhang Leyuan came to Shrek.

The ginkgo trees in Shrek City had turned yellow, and when the wind blew, their leaves carpeted the ground in brilliant gold.

The girl stood on the stone steps at the entrance to the Inner Court, holding a stack of cultivation theory notes she'd just borrowed from the library. The autumn wind slipped into her sleeves, making her shiver slightly.

She wore a Shrek uniform, her hair simply tied back with an old ribbon.

She had been at Shrek for nearly a year, yet still wasn't used to anything here.

Mu En had saved her and helped her destroy her enemies. The price was her marriage. Everyone in Shrek's Inner Court knew, but no one ever mentioned it to her face.

They only spoke in hushed, careful tones behind her back, saying, "Zhang Leyuan is the person chosen by the Sea God Pavilion Master." Yet whenever she passed by, they would suddenly fall silent.

She didn't hate Mu En, nor did she resent anyone.

It was just that sometimes, when she woke in the night and stared at the Soul Guidance Lamp flickering on the ceiling, she felt like a bird locked in an exquisite cage.

The cage was golden, but a cage was still a cage.

She never started conversations with anyone, and no one ever approached her either. She had been in the Inner Court for nearly a year, yet couldn't even remember all the names of the senior sisters in the dorm next door.

Every day was the classroom, the library, the training field, and the dormitory—a four-point routine. She lived like an old blade, ground down until every edge was gone.

But that afternoon, someone tapped her on the shoulder from behind.

"Hello, Sister Lexuan. My name is Lin Xun. I'm an exchange student from the Soul Planning Hall."

A young man stood beneath the ginkgo tree, with golden hair and purple eyes. When he smiled, his eyes curved, as if he'd gathered all the sunshine of autumn and scattered it across his face.

He wore a white uniform she'd never seen before. His posture was loose and relaxed, and he seemed lazy from head to toe.

That was their first meeting.

Perhaps because of the young man's unusual background, he hadn't been placed in the Outer Court. He was studying in the Inner Court as well.

Only after Lin Xun had settled into the Inner Court did Zhang Leyuan realize this junior was unlike anyone she'd ever met.

He was a year younger than she was, but when she spoke with him, she often forgot that. He knew so much, yet it wasn't the sort of knowledge one gained from books. It was more like the insight one gathered after living for many years.

In that way, he reminded her of Mu En.

But he was so young.

Others revered her and kept their distance. Lin Xun alone was different.

Everyone in Shrek's Inner Court always looked at Zhang Leyuan with courtesy and admiration, along with a trace of regret buried deep inside.

They all revered her as a once-in-ten-thousand-years genius with the Moon Martial Soul, the Inner Court's most dazzling senior sister. They also knew she was bound by the chains imposed by the Sea God Pavilion. No one dared approach her lightly; no one dared grow too close.

Lin Xun alone had never been the least bit reserved with her, from the moment they met.

He would call her Sister Lexuan without a trace of hesitation.

Autumn afternoons were the most peaceful. The evening breeze carried the fragrance of grass and trees across the training field. The other students didn't dare approach Zhang Leyuan when she trained alone. Only Lin Xun would stroll over at an unhurried pace and lean against the trunk of an ancient ginkgo tree nearby, quietly watching her cultivate her Moon Martial Soul.

Silver moonlight flowed around the girl, bright and clear, cold and sacred, yet carrying a piercing loneliness.

In the past, whenever anyone saw her Martial Soul appear, they could only marvel at her extraordinary talent. Lin Xun alone would speak softly, his tone languid. "Sister Lexuan, your moonlight is too heavy. There's always a chill pressed deep in your heart. Training so relentlessly could damage your Soul Power channels."

With just one sentence, he'd touched on something no one else had ever seen through.

Zhang Leyuan's movements paused. Her cool eyes flickered slightly as she lowered her gaze and drew in the moonlight flowing around her. "I'm used to it," she said quietly.

After the massacre of her family when she was twelve, years spent living under another's roof, and days bound by chains, she'd long since forgotten how to relax or do as she pleased. Staying alive, growing stronger, repaying her debt, and keeping her promise were the only meanings her life held.

Her life had never known gentleness or favor, only endless restraint and helplessness.

Lin Xun didn't press her. He simply took a warm, heart-clearing fruit from his Soul Tool pouch and offered it to her. Its skin was clean, and it carried a faint, sweet fragrance.

"Take a break. Cultivation isn't about grinding your life away."

The young man's fingers were clean and slender. His purple eyes rested on her, open and gentle, without the complicated scrutiny others used when contemplating her fate.

He simply wanted her to rest for a while.

Zhang Leyuan stared at the fruit in a daze. The stagnant water in her heart, still for years, rippled ever so slightly for the first time.

In all her years at Shrek, no one had asked whether she was tired. No one had ever urged her to slow down.

Everyone assumed that Zhang Leyuan was meant to be resilient, cold, and invincible, meant to bear her debt and betrothal and calmly live out the life already arranged for her.

Yet this boy, a year younger than she was, had easily seen through the hard shell she used to hide herself.

After a moment's hesitation, she reached out and took it. But that brief touch made her heart skip a beat for no reason.

She quickly withdrew her hand and let it fall to her side, secretly clenching it to suppress that sudden flutter.

She couldn't.

Zhang Leyuan warned herself over and over in her heart.

She was someone burdened by a blood feud, forced to offer herself as payment for a debt, someone tightly bound by Shrek's kindness. Her life had already been priced and no longer belonged to her. She didn't deserve to feel her heart stir, nor to share in the ordinary love, hate, and tenderness of others.

She was like a solitary moon hanging high in the night sky, cold and lonely. Her fate was already decided, and she had never been worthy of being cherished in someone's hands.

But after that, the two of them gradually began to spend more time together.

Her dull four-point routine remained the same, but at some point, a leisurely figure began accompanying her on her solitary path.

When she went to the library to pore over obscure texts, Lin Xun would sit at the desk beside hers, quiet and unobtrusive as he read. Sometimes, he'd retrieve an ancient book from a high shelf that she couldn't reach. When she grew tired from reading, he'd quietly push a cup of warm flower tea toward her.

When she polished her Soul Skills late into the night on the training field, with moonlight filling the sky and her lonely shadow standing all alone, Lin Xun would stay with her until the moon was high overhead. He never disturbed her cultivation, simply waiting in silence.

The ginkgo leaves in the Inner Court fell, again and again, carpeting the ground in gold year after year.

Everyone could see that something between them had changed.

No one had expected that Zhang Leyuan, who kept everyone at a distance and was cold and taciturn, would allow a young man to come so close to her life.

Zhang Leyuan's heart, too, began to soften little by little amid their gentle days together.

Lin Xun was perceptive, gentle, and carefree. He lived boldly, doing whatever he pleased—a way of life she could never attain. He was like a brilliant, blazing sun, forcing his way into the golden cage that had been sealed for years, cold and desolate.

He told her strange tales from the Soul Planning Hall, amusing facts about Soul Beasts from different regions, and stories of faraway places where people lived free and carefree.

He remembered that she disliked sweets but loved fresh, delicate fruit. He remembered that she preferred to cultivate alone, so he never deliberately disturbed her, only keeping her quiet company. While everyone else gazed up at the brilliance of her Moon Martial Soul, he felt for the loneliness and hardship she'd endured along the way.

Late at night, when all was quiet, Zhang Leyuan would sometimes look at the young man sitting peacefully beside her and feel a luxurious, unreal longing.

She couldn't help wondering.

If her family hadn't been wiped out, if she didn't bear a blood feud, if she hadn't incurred a debt of gratitude and a betrothal that would stake her entire life—

Could she have been like an ordinary girl, letting her heart stir without fear, boldly reaching for love, and safely accepting this pure, untainted tenderness?

But the moment the thought arose, she would ruthlessly snuff it out.

An icy clarity swept through her in an instant.

No.

Absolutely not.

Mu En had saved her life. Her future was the price paid for the destruction of her family's enemies. From the moment she'd knelt at twelve, casting aside her dignity to beg for help, she'd buried every possibility of her own with her own hands.

Her life had already been promised to gratitude and fate. She could never promise herself to anyone, much less the boy before her.

He was bright and free, with a clear road ahead. He should be heading toward his own vast horizons. He shouldn't be held back by her caged, waning moon, nor touched by the gloom and debt of her fate.

So she began to fight it, to retreat, to freeze the love quietly taking root in her heart.

She began deliberately distancing herself from Lin Xun.

The gentle closeness they'd shared was slowly torn apart by her own hands.

The smile in the young man's eyes gradually faded. He remained gentle, but now a hint of confusion had entered his gaze.

He couldn't understand why someone who'd been warm with him just days ago had suddenly returned to that cold, aloof, unapproachable self.

Zhang Leyuan saw the confusion and loneliness in his eyes, and her heart felt as if needles were stabbing it again and again, leaving countless tiny pains.

But she could only harden her heart and pretend not to see.

At night, she lay alone in bed, staring at the flickering glow of the Soul Guidance Lamp, the tip of her nose growing faintly sore.

No one knew that every time she pushed him away, it felt like being tortured on the executioner's block.

How she wanted to approach him without fear, to keep the one light that illuminated her dark life, cast off every chain, and return his pure tenderness wholeheartedly.

But she couldn't.

When others loved, it was a happy union of two hearts, a tenderness shared year after year.

But from the very beginning, her love was a sin, a longing doomed to have no ending.

She was the moon trapped in fate's cage, destined to give half her life to Shrek and the other half to an old promise.

In this life, she could repay a debt, cultivate, and make something of herself. The one thing she could not do was love.

The wind blew past the window lattice again, carrying in a few scattered, withered ginkgo leaves.

Zhang Leyuan slowly closed her eyes, sealing away the surging feelings in her heart.

The moon could follow the wind wherever it went, but she no longer had the right to pursue tenderness for the rest of her life.

The wind at eighteen was colder than in years past.

The night on Sea God Island was so still that she could hear the waves repeatedly slapping the reefs, rustling like old dreams whimpering softly.

Today was her birthday—and the sixth anniversary of the massacre of the Zhang family.

Six years was neither a long time nor a short one.

It was enough for the twelve-year-old girl who'd knelt to beg for help, covered in blood, to grow into a top student respected by everyone at Shrek.

It was also enough for her blood feud to be settled completely, while the chains she could never cast off remained wrapped tightly around her for all six years.

Zhang Leyuan sat on the bluestone by Sea God Lake.

The evening breeze blew her hair against her cool cheek in a tangled mess. The cold, sharp edge she usually wore while cultivating was gone, leaving only the grief she could not conceal.

A jar of fruit wine, sealed away for years, sat before her. She had gone to great lengths to find it. It tasted exactly like the kind her father had loved.

There was no cup, so she simply lifted the jar.

She raised her eyes to the Full Moon hanging in the deep night sky.

Its light was bright and pure, spilling across the world and gently enveloping the mountains, seas, and all things.

But the moonlight filling the sky had never once treated her gently.

"Father, Mother."

"I'm eighteen now."

"Every last enemy is dead. I've avenged you."

Six years of painstaking cultivation, of gritting her teeth with every step, of casting aside all pride and sense of self, had finally bought her vengeance.

But she felt no relief at all.

Her heart felt hollow, as if a huge piece had been carved out of it, with cold wind blowing through the empty space and leaving it chilly all year round.

She lifted the jar and poured most of the wine out.

The clear liquor trickled along the grain of the bluestone and seeped into the soil, carrying a faint fruit fragrance as an offering to her kin, slaughtered six years ago.

"On my birthday, I offer you a cup with the moon of this world."

"May there be no disaster, no hatred, and no debts in the world below. May you know peace year after year."

When she finished speaking, she wiped away the fleeting moisture at the corner of her eye.

She had lived too clearheadedly and held herself back too much.

Joy and sorrow, love and hate, every yearning and desire—she pressed them deep into her heart and never let them show.

In front of others, she was Zhang Leyuan, the extraordinarily gifted and composed senior sister of the Inner Court, the genius blessed with the Moon Martial Soul, invincible and without a weakness.

In private, she was only an orphan with no home, burdened by a debt and a promise, denied freedom for the rest of her life.

She didn't pour out the remaining half of the wine. Instead, she tilted her head back and slowly drank it beneath the moonlight.

The liquor's spicy warmth mixed with its sweetness and slid down her throat, burning her chest. It drove away the chill of the night and, for a moment, broke through the layers of hard armor wrapped around her.

In the past, no matter where she was or what time it was, she always kept her Soul Power moving, protecting her heart and steadying her mind. She never dared let her guard down.

But today, she didn't want to hold herself together.

She didn't use even a trace of Soul Power. She let the alcohol spread through her limbs, numbing the nerves she'd kept taut for six years.

It was all right to get drunk.

The days of clearheaded restraint were too bitter, and the life of bondage too exhausting. She rarely let herself go. Tonight, she wanted to steal a little time to be lazy.

One cup after another went down her throat, and at last the churning bitterness overwhelmed the cold she'd carried for years.

The moonlight remained bright and clear, illuminating the girl's thin, lonely figure standing by the lake, like a waning moon abandoned by the world.

As the alcohol took hold, her mind grew heavy. The thoughts she'd ruthlessly suppressed every day came rushing into her heart like a rising tide.

She thought of Mu En's life-saving kindness, of the betrothal that had bound her for life, of her golden-cage existence—and, most of all, of the gentle-eyed boy beneath the ginkgo tree that autumn.

She remembered the heart-clearing fruit Lin Xun had offered her, his gentle reminders, and his silent companionship day after day.

But her life had been priced and sold back when she was twelve. It had never been hers to control.

The lake wind carried the smell of wine and made her feel a little dizzy. Her eyes quietly reddened.

In the still moonlight, a gentle set of footsteps sounded behind her.