Chapter 42: Star Lily

Nox looked at him with baffled eyes. "What’s there?"

"Hmm... interesting," Moon muttered.

"Stay close," Moon said as he channeled his last bit of energy into the rock.

With a crackling and rumbling, the rock started to move from the place.

Nox stood there with wide eyes, shocked and bewildered. His weary face lit up with a thin shred of expectation.

He looked at the person beside him, channeling blue and golden energy sparks from who knows where, whose entire demeanor looked like some deity from another world. And whose thin lips were now curving up after all these past days of a pathetic journey.

Somewhere deep inside his heart, something moved—moved with a thin, trickling feeling he had never felt before.

The rock grumbled twice in protest, then at last bowed down to the divine energy.

There was a narrow entrance. The silvery-white moonlight was seeping out from inside, illuminating the cave.

As they stepped inside, the rock that opened the path closed on its own. And Nox felt like he was reborn from his deathbed.

In front of them was a vast land of greenery.

A bluish-green lake stretched far to the skyline. As far as their eyes could see, all around were emerald-green exotic plants dancing in the moonlight, some with shimmering buds and flowers scattering like stars fallen from the sky.

It was breathtakingly beautiful and pure.

"Stardust Cinder Lily!" Nox’s voice trembled. "That’s a full Stardust Cinder Lily garden... unbelievable! It was lost long ago. Even the elders didn’t find one in their lifetimes."

Moon’s eyes were sparkling, yet there was a melancholy in his gaze. His eyes were stuck on the lake for a while.

He was not worried it was a trap, because he heard the Goddess’s voice as soon as he entered this sanctuary:

[Mooney, my dear, you have worked hard. Let your Goddess give you a reward. This sanctuary is all yours.]

Moon’s heart was warm, but his eyes were wet.

He remembered his mother was very fond of this star lily.

There was a pond in his backyard. His mother would sit by the pond every night, telling him stories and humming a melody in his ear. The moonlight would always dance in the pond.

Every full moon, there was a pair of lilies that would shed a seed.

His mother would whisper in his ear, "Mooney, this is the star lily. They are love and destiny. They will bring the dead back to life and fill a corrupted heart with love. One day, the heart will move. Love will fade the demon inside and change the destiny for the ones who truly want it."

Moon didn’t pay any heed back then. He was too young to care. His mother would always ramble those vague words and plant many exotic herbs. The courtyard he and his mother lived in was far from the main courtyard.

In his early years, he only saw his father a few times, when he came to either scold them or take back the herbs to the main house.

Moon had thought his life would go on like this, peaceful like the star lily.

But fate was cruel.

Destiny was false.

And the star lily didn’t even see its prime; all were burned to their last breath.

Moon inhaled the familiar scent and exhaled sharply.

His closed eyes fluttered a little, and his chest rose and fell.

When he looked up again, the melancholy was long gone, replaced by firm determination.

He would fulfill his mother’s last wish—become a grandmaster alchemist, become an immortal, and maybe someday he could go back and take his revenge.

Nox didn’t move or make a sound.

He was not looking at the beautiful stardust lilies, either.

He just stood behind Moon and looked at the figure who stood motionless.

He could feel the intense fluctuation in his own heart that was not his. Like something was gnawing, but yet he didn’t want it to stop gnawing.

Nox didn’t expose these feelings to Moon. He let the man be alone for a while.

Moon turned and looked at Nox.

He asked softly, "So, it’s the Stardust Cinder-Lily?" He moved his gaze to Ugo. "Can it cure the corrosion of this black poison?"

Nox nodded. "Um, it can. It was long lost. If the elders knew there was a full lake of them here, the entire Monalis Continent would go crazy. They wouldn’t care about the corrosion."

Moon hummed softly. ’I see. Let’s stay here and treat Ugo first.’ As he spoke, he looked around and found a patch of grassland.

They placed Ugo gently on the grass.

The black blood seeped from the wound, but it became a vapor and slowly disappeared in the fresh air.

"It’s working even without consuming the herb," Moon observed for a while. He took Ugo’s pulse and let him lie there.

Nox’s breathing was also coming to a relaxed pace, inhaling the lily’s scent.

"Mooney, do you know how to make elixirs? All witches seem to learn it early," he asked.

Moon smiled at him.

He shook his head. "You already know I am not a witch, don’t you? Why ask in a roundabout way? We have to live together for a while. Let’s be honest to each other."

"For a while..." Nox muttered.

A little redness flickered in his eyes. He was hurt, but still chose to ignore the question he wanted to ask: ’Why just for a while? Why not a lifetime?’

He gulped down his bitterness and nodded.

"I know, in fact, we know. Our witches never had this kind of power—like the one you showed on the seal. It seems to come from inside you. But our witches always need a medium. You don’t have a medium. Your inside is different."

At this point, Nox’s ears blushed a little. He remembered how desperately they had mated. He didn’t have time to savor it, but the pleasing ecstasy still was there.

"Oh? You can feel that?" Moon asked as he walked toward the lake.

"What? Inside?" Nox followed him.

"Yes, you felt different too, right?" Moon crouched down and dipped his hand in the water.

"Oh yes, there seemed to be something there, um... couldn’t tell what it was. But there was something..." Nox turned his gaze to the other side, rubbed his neck until it was red, then added, "Something that felt good to touch."

Moon’s hand paused.

"What?" he blurted out.

He expected they would surely feel his physique was different and that he had magic cores and meridians.

He also knew they could reach his core, but he never thought this dumbass brother was actually wrapping his core because it purely felt like bliss?

He didn’t know how he should react to this, so he just started to pick up some lily leaves. He also plucked out a little lily.

They went back to Ugo.

Moon hesitated.

Direct consumption of an exotic herb can also cure poison and heal, but it’s a total waste. If it was made into an elixir or pill, he could get ten times the benefits.

Looking at the black blood, Moon hardened his heart and plucked two lily leaves from the flower, putting them into Ugo’s mouth.