Moonlight’s Beheader

In a chamber enclosed and pervaded with darkness, a small globe of light served as the only brightness experienced within the chamber. There, reflected by the slight flickers of the light, was the dancing figure of a young girl swinging a sword.

Around her were illusionary ghosts and wraiths drooling with desire and greed, darting in to be disembodied by the slender blade. Thin chains restricted her movement, yet the cold elegance and cruelty displayed by the sweeping strikes of the sword was not diminished by even a margin.

It was now three months since Li Xiang had been thrown into the Ghost Feast by the hateful Leng Bao Yuan. Months of unspeakable agony, and now she was free, or at least temporarily. Only two weeks ago did the crushing pressure and mind-splitting pain vanish, allowing her to move.

However, her Heaven Core and accessibility to the Divine Script was still prohibited. The first thing she had done since being released from such torment was to stretch her limbs and release a cry of liberation.

Not long however, wraiths and ghosts had started rushing towards her from the walls, forcing her to defend herself. The pain she had thought to have disappeared was merely waiting for another opportunity to strike.

If her thoughts could be summarized into a sentence, it would be that she regretted having awakened her Heaven Core so quickly. With the assistance of the Heaven Core, these ghosts and wraiths would never dare near the innate aura emanating from the core's influence.

However, she had indulged in the unlimited supply of divine essence and had forgotten to first stock the reserves within her body. Currently, Li Xiang had less divine essence available than even the weakest immortal entity in the immortal realm.

Even forming the thin sword had consumed a third of the meagre divine essence she had received when she ascended as an immortal, and the sword was on the last vestiges of its pitiful durability. Combined with the odd physical tenacity of these formless apparitions of divine essence and her extremely clumsy swordsmanship, it was no wonder the sword was in a wreck even if created from divine essence.

Without giving any break, the next wave of wraiths descended towards her front while fearsome ghosts sneaked towards her back. From the two weeks of endless combat with these apparitions, Li Xiang was still unsure what they actually embodied for their construct, but was certain on one aspect.

As pure existences consisting of a sole attribute of divine essence, these apparitions should only be able to replicate a single concept. However, that was more than enough to create a physical contact with her sword, similarly made of a loose conceptual idea created from a haphazard and brainless projection in her panic.

No matter how powerful her divine essence nor usage of the Divine Script could potentially be, her sore lack of experience became her Achilles heel. The first week since the apparitions had appeared, she was on the receiving end the entire time and was unable to deal a even single hit in return.

Being wounded by the apparitions brought forth an extreme numbing sensation followed by the all-familiar pain. The first injury she had received was on the left arm, and it had been unusable for several days, nerve-wracking pain pulsing from the ghastly brand on her skin.

These odd entities wouldn't leave physical injuries, their attacks leaving marks and brands on her skin. However, for each brand on her skin, the pain unleashed from the black metallic chains restricting her movement multiplied by a fraction.

Adding to her frustration was the inability to infuse divine essence into her attacks, forcing her to exchange multiple blows with these apparitions, earning her multiple brands in the process. She simply had very little divine essence that even thinking of the sword breaking caused her heart to bleed.

Facing the apparitions rushing in from all directions, Li Xiang bitterly smiled before slightly bending her knees and gripping the battered sword in a reverse grip near her back. Grinding her left heel on the smooth metallic floor and stomping with her right foot, she swept the blade towards her left in a full circle.

As the blade sliced through the incoming apparitions, it managed to cut half way before shattering into pieces and dissipating into the air. With a light sigh, she could only sacrifice another third of her precious and limited divine essence to form another sword, fending off the remainder of the ghosts.

Thankfully, there was a very brief respite between each wave, although it lasted for merely thirty minutes to barely over an hour. During the short break, she would snuggle next to the globe of light hoping to draw some imaginary warmth from the flickering flame.

After regaining her movement, coming near the globe no longer caused pain. Actually touching it was a rather different and miserable story. Li Xiang would rather suffer a few more brands and experience grueling torture than think about her previous attempt of touching the globe with her finger.

Before she could obtain a decent amount of rest for her weary mind, the shrill howling and cries of the apparitions resounded throughout the chamber. Plucking her exhausted body off the ground and dragging her newly minted and now condemned sword, Li Xiang prepared for another round of the damnable ghosts and wraiths.

Within her eyes, the determination and indomitable will had ceased to exist, leaving only a monotone and dull blank. Gradually, her actions had become mechanical, responding automatically without conscious thought.

As she fought against the continual waves of apparitions, Li Xiang's thoughts could not help but drift towards her memories, exploring the few peaceful and serene experiences she had been graced with. Of the scenes that looped in her mind, the most common was that of the sole time she had seen the moon in the night sky.

Staring at the pale full moon in a starless sky on a warm summer night, she had been captivated by the sense of longing and desolation she had perceived from within the bright disk hovering in the air. Although her act of sneaking out had merited a devastating month of torture for the child Li Xiang, the memory of the bright moon had refused to blur under the consistent pain experienced by a mortal or immortal.

The moment she had ascended, the first action taken by Li Xiang after coming to her senses as a newfound immortal was to search for the moon she had captured within her memories. Learning that the moon she had passionately admired as a child was merely a toy of amusement employed by immortals when constructing their mortal domain, the disappointment she felt was quite crushing. It would have been much better to have been ignorant of the truth.

As she entranced herself perusing her memories, the sword grasped within her hand released a pitched whine as it suddenly trembled. Without even noticing, her strikes had become more complex and graceful as she spun around in the limited range of movement granted by the chains attached to her limbs.

The blade swept towards the apparitions with ever increasing ferocity as the gale engendered formed the outline of a lotus at her at the base, rending any ghost or wraith that dared to approach. Within her memories, Li Xiang stood alongside her child counterpart as they gazed towards the cold moon, nursing their sorrows in silence.

In the chamber, moonlight suddenly shined from the ceiling, forcing a massive hole to appear. When the moonlight came into contact with the indistinct lotus formed from the gale, the moonlight gradually merged with the lotus until it reached the slender sword.

As the moonlight poured into the blade, the miniscule accumulated wear and chips in the blade began to repair itself, and inscriptions of the Divine Script formed onto the blade. They depicted a lonely peak, an isolated snowflake, and the cry of death.

Musing within her memories, Li Xiang had fully detached her consciousness from her fiercely combating physical form, relishing the moment of tranquility to ponder and reflect. She reflected on her actions ever since she had become immortal, and even before then.

When she had returned to the scene of the moon, she suddenly felt that the moon reflected a concept that was discordant. The common hashing of night and day as two polar opposites, the acceptance of Yin and Yang by mortals as the two poles of spiritual attributes, everything suddenly seemed so imperfect.

So incorrect to the point that the mere thought of her mortal self adhering to the flimsy and whimsical principle of balance aroused disgust within her soul. Just why must balance exist in the world? If a state of equilibrium must exist at all times, why were immortals granted the ability to wield divine essence, and mortals spiritual qi?

Conjecture by conjecture, Li Xiang began to construct her own "moon", one possessing of the desire to consume, to eliminate. However, it was also contradictory as in the exact concept it sought to eliminate, it reflected in a distorted format. Both the sun and moon were mere physical objects without any innate spiritual quality or characteristic.

The individual assigned attributes to these objects to satiate their personal soul's desire. Hence, Li Xiang had decided to discard her past's beliefs and desires, forming anew under the trial of fire named the Ghost Feast.

With each swing, the sword gouged out deep chasms into the previously indestructible chamber. Gradually, the walls and ceiling began to decay and disintegrate, the apparitions having disappeared long ago. Unconsciously, Li Xiang had destroyed everything within the chamber that imprisoned her, including the precious globe of light she had treasured at the beginning.

Though the chains remained attached to her limbs, the brands and pain had ceased to exist. Slowly but surely, Li Xiang could feel a heat surge within her chest, indicating that the Heaven Core was finally accessible once more. The beam of moonlight continued to wreak havoc to the ceiling as it shrouded Li Xiang, forcing her butterfly wings to manifest once more.

The red dots on the pristine and extremely thin wings had ceased to exist, having been replaced by a swirling vortex. The vortexes were created to consume all; if presented nothing, it would consume nothing, otherwise, all creation would be devoured by its existence.

Once the moonlight began to become absorbed by the vortexes on her wings, the Divine Script inscriptions flashed with a brilliant light as shockwaves emanated from the blade, reducing the final vestiges of the chamber into dust.

Finally breaking from her reverie, Li Xiang could see herself dancing with the transformed sword as it released brilliant and dazzling pulses of light. The light was both alluring and deadly, reminding her of the full moon archived within the deep recesses of her memory.

Although she would never return to such sentiment when gazing at the moon, the dreams and infatuation the child Li Xiang possessed back then were a nice fantasy. Surveying her surroundings, she gaped at the lack of the black metallic and restrictive walls encasing her in a chamber of torture, and the lack of pain brought disbelief.

What lay before her was a vast barren land stretching to an indeterminable length. There were no mounds, no hills or ridges, not even a single incline nor sediment was visible. Everything was a monochrome flatness, as if only two visual dimensions were permitted.

A clear concept of lamination wasn't even present, with patches of light and dark mottling the region. Suddenly, with a howl, an indistinct figure rushed towards Li Xiang's unguarded back. Without having time to assess the situation, her body instinctively shot forwards before harshly pivoting. As the clarity of the figure increased, the sword had already been swung, the sharp blade glowing with the gleam of moonlight.

Without even contacting the blade, the head of the figure slowly detached from the body, the figure dissipating into nothing, not even leaving behind a trace of divine essence. Just then, a soft voice rang out as a figure approached from ahead, causing Li Xiang to stiffen in shock, vigilance and fear within her eyes.

"That's a pretty nice concept of moonlight, don't you think? An invisible beheader whose illusions can even temporarily blind the immortal constructs and the Divine Script…Moonlight's Beheader sounds like an acceptable title, no?"