Chapter 296. The Meaning of the Moonlight Tree

“Yes,” Qi Heng said, completely calm like he hadn’t just dropped the worst news ever. “It’s an endless cycle. The spiritual energy we send to support the Soul Suppression Array beneath the inner wall just ends up powering the crystal we’re trying to seal.”

Shu Mingye stared at him. “Then what if we stop? What if we just stop giving it energy?”

Qi Heng’s voice was quiet, but firm. “Then the trapped souls under the Soul Suppression Array will go mad. They’ll break loose.”

Linyue had already guessed that. It made sense now. It all made sense in the most horrible way. All this time, they had been trying to protect people. Trying to keep the tainted out. And they had done it by powering an array while unknowingly fueling the horror outside it. Every time they helped, they made the crystal stronger. Every time they poured in energy, they made the tainted harder to destroy. And the worst part? If they stopped now, the whole thing would fall apart. The array would collapse. The barrier would break. The madness that had swallowed the realm four hundred years ago would come back. This time with extra rage and probably worse teeth.

Shu Mingye’s jaw tensed. “Why couldn’t you stop Qi Meng back then?”

Qi Heng’s answer came slowly. “It was my mistake… I was too late.” His eyes darkened with regret. “I didn’t realize what he was doing until the damage was already done. So many had died. So many souls taken. And when I finally understood it… he had already used his own body as the core of the crystal.”

Linyue gasped softly. That was why the crystal never died. Qi Meng had given it a living core.

“I wanted to save them,” Qi Heng continued, “those trapped souls. I thought… maybe I could find a way to free them. Not just destroy them. I wanted to try.”

His voice cracked a little. The kind of crack that comes from carrying guilt for centuries. “I sealed him under the imperial palace. In the secret passage. The Celestial Imprisonment Array… it was the only thing strong enough to hold him.”

He looked up at the two of them, tired and old beyond words. “If he dies… the crystal will shatter. And all those souls inside, every single one, will either be destroyed completely… or break loose and tear everything apart.”

Silence followed.

Linyue clutched Shu Mingye’s sleeve, her face pale. She didn’t know what was worse, letting the souls continue suffering inside that crystal or releasing them and risking a new calamity. How could there be no good ending?

Shu Mingye’s fingers wrapped gently around hers. His voice, though low, carried strength. “But we met him before. Qi Meng.”

Qi Heng nodded. His voice sounded tired. Hollow. “Yes. That Celestial Imprisonment Array was tied to my soul. As it weakens… so does the array. I felt it break years ago. That was why I tried to force her to breakthrough.”

Linyue’s voice shook. “And if I do reach transcendence, what can I even do?”

Qi Heng looked at her directly. His voice calm, but brutal. “Call the heavenly judgment thunder. Destroy the crystal. Destroy everything.”

Linyue’s eyes widened in horror. “Completely? All of it? Those souls… they can’t be saved?”

Qi Heng shook his head. “No. They’re too far gone. Twisted. Tainted. Yun Qi knew it. That’s why she made her choice to leave. She wanted it to end.” He paused. His eyes lowered. “I was the only one who kept denying it.”

Shu Mingye’s voice turned sharp. “Then why can’t you end it? You can summon lightning too. You reached transcendence.”

Qi Heng looked up at the dark sky. “I can destroy the crystal and Qi Meng. But my soul is already linked. It’s being pulled in, piece by piece. If I destroy the crystal now, my soul might shatter with it. Or worse… become one of them.”

He looked down again, eyes meeting theirs. “And if that happens, if I disappear… who will stop the ones that break free? Who will protect the people after I’m gone?”

Shu Mingye muttered under his breath. “So that’s why you need another person. Someone to finish the job if you fall.” Someone to carry the burden when he couldn’t. Someone to stand against the end. And now, that someone was his Pie.

Linyue's voice was soft, uncertain. “But I sensed it… when I reached into the Soul Suppression Array. There was lightning spiritual energy inside.”

Qi Heng nodded once. “Moonlight Tree.”

Her brows furrowed. “The Moonlight Tree in the imperial palace?”

Another nod. “I created it. A thousand years ago.”

Linyue stared, stunned.

Qi Heng’s voice was calm and low, but there was something heavy beneath it. “Lightning cultivators are hard to find. Cultivating lightning is even harder. So I condensed my spiritual energy and shaped it into a tree. I fed it with spiritual energy regularly, let it grow, store the lightning deep in its core… so that one day, if another lightning cultivator appeared, they could meditate under the tree and absorb the energy from the tree to cultivate.”

Linyue’s chest ached. Her master did a lot of things, but no one ever knew it.

Qi Heng went on. “Yun Qi named it the Moonlight Tree. It glows at night… brighter than anything else under the moonlight.”

A long pause.

“I also used the tree’s condensed spiritual energy to create… Fluffy.”

At that, Fluffy, who had been curled up in silence, let out a sneeze and wagged its tail as if proud to be mentioned.

Linyue blinked, then smiled faintly despite the ache in her chest.

Qi Heng’s voice softened. “But I never thought it would be used to feed that array. When the spiritual energy inside the tree was drained, it withered.”

Shu Mingye muttered. “So… there really were no other lightning cultivators.”

“No,” Qi Heng shook his head. “Only her.”

Linyue was quiet for a long time before finally asking, “Master, why didn’t anyone know that you were the emperor?”

Qi Heng looked toward the dark wasteland. His voice turned distant. “After my soul was trapped, I knew I couldn’t rule anymore. So I called Yun Qi’s brother from Shulin. I asked him to take my place.”

Shu Mingye’s eyes narrowed. “Right. She said Shulin was her hometown.”

Qi Heng gave a faint nod. “He refused at first. He hated me. Hated that I couldn’t protect his sister. That her soul was lost forever because of my failure.”

Linyue felt her chest tighten again. Her hands curled into fists on her lap.

“But he knew someone had to lead. The realm was collapsing. I was no longer whole, no longer human. And the one who caused it all… was the emperor’s twin brother and my foolishness. So he erased me. Erased all records of me and Qi Meng.”

“To bury the past. Or maybe just out of spite,” Qi Heng added quietly. “I never blamed him.”

For a while, none of them spoke. Only the soft sound of Fluffy’s tail brushing the ground reminded them that time was still moving.

Linyue broke the silence. “Master, you know Qi Meng has been trying to sacrifice more people. What is he trying to do? Is he trying to make the crystal stronger? Gain more power?”

Qi Heng didn’t answer right away. His gaze was distant, heavy with years. “I thought I knew him,” he said quietly. “I thought I understood him. My own twin brother. But I was wrong.”

Linyue held her breath.

“He’s not like me. He never was.” Qi Heng’s voice was steady, but it carried a weight that pressed into the ground. “He was filled with greed and jealousy. He wanted what I had. My cultivation. My position. My power. He wanted to surpass me. To become emperor. And…” His voice faltered. “He wanted Yun Qi.”

Shu Mingye’s arm around Linyue tightened. She felt the subtle tremor in his hand, anger curling beneath his skin.

Qi Heng continued. “So he tried everything. Blood sacrifices. Forbidden techniques. Crystal refinement. Even the Soul Devouring Array. He still failed. But now… he’s desperate. And I believe he placed a self-sealing array inside you. To control you. Or use you against me. The last lightning cultivator. My only disciple.”

Linyue’s eyes widened. “Self-sealing array? Inside me?”

Qi Heng didn’t look at her. Instead, his gaze slid toward Shu Mingye. “So… he didn’t tell you.”

Linyue turned slowly. Shu Mingye’s jaw was locked, his eyes fixed stubbornly on the ground, refusing to meet hers.

Her voice came out low, trembling between hurt and disbelief. “Is that what you’ve been hiding from me?”

Shu Mingye said nothing.

“That scroll you kept from me…” Her throat tightened. “It was about that array, wasn’t it?”

Still nothing. No denial. No explanation. Just his hand gripping hers too tightly, as if holding on could erase the silence.

Linyue waited, but he still didn’t speak. And the longer the silence stretched, the heavier it pressed against her chest. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered.