Chapter 24: Beneath the Shattered Moon

Moonlight draped the sleeping town in soft silver, but to Li Xuan, every glimmer was a memory. Every breeze a whisper of the past. One year had passed since he was cast out—betrayed by his kin, discarded like a worn blade. Now, cloaked in silence and strength, he walked the night once more… but not to seek vengeance.

He had come to protect.

Swift as shadow, unseen by any watchman, Li Xuan moved across tiled roofs and quiet paths until he reached the edge of the compound. There, hidden behind gnarled vines and weathered stone, stood the old manor—his family's prison, exiled within their own clan.

A rhythmic knock—twice, then once more.

The ward shimmered. A soft pulse answered.

The door creaked open, and Li Xioran stared into the night, eyes wide with disbelief. "Brother…?"

Li Xuan stepped through the threshold. "I'm home."

Tears welled in her eyes as she threw her arms around him. The years fell away in that embrace.

Inside, the lanterns flared gently as Lady Mei and Li Zheng emerged from the side chamber. Lady Mei gasped, her hand rising to her mouth. "Xuan'er…!"

Li Zheng stood rooted, his face unreadable—until he crossed the room in silence and gripped his son's shoulders.

"You survived," he said hoarsely.

"I endured," Li Xuan replied. "And I returned."

They sat together beneath the quiet lanternlight. Then Li Xuan told them everything: from the betrayal and exile to the discovery of the ancient Nine Heavens Moon Sect, the trials he'd survived, the inheritance he'd claimed, and the beacon that now shone like a flare across the continent.

"And soon," he added, "a beast tide will descend. Something is stirring in the wilds. I can't stop it—but I can shield the town."

Their faces grew grim.

But then Li Xuan stood and reached into his spatial ring. "Before that… there are some things he needs to do."

He turned to his father and placed a pill into his palm—a luminous sphere of golden-white light, pulsing with healing energy.

"This pill restores meridians, heals old wounds, and reignites broken dantians. It's yours, Father. Take it—and stand again."

Li Zheng hesitated, eyes trembling. "My cultivation was destroyed…"

"No longer," Li Xuan said, already drawing lines of glowing runes across the floor. "This formation will suppress all fluctuations. No one outside will sense your return."

Li Zheng swallowed the pill.

The result was instant.

Power surged through him, limbs trembling as his broken foundation knit together. The frozen rivers of qi erupted into motion, cracking through barriers, washing over sealed channels. Light poured from his body as his spirit core ignited.

Crack!

Qi Refinement… Peak.

Crack!

Foundation Establishment—1st, 2nd… up to the 5th stage… then 6th… and—

Boom!

Late Foundation Establishment!

Li Zheng collapsed to his knees, sweat pouring from his brow, but when he lifted his head, his eyes burned with reborn fire.

Lady Mei stared, stunned. Li Xuan turned to her and placed a delicate azure pill in her palm. "Mother. For you."

"This…?"

"A spiritual pill to strengthen your root and body. Along with this—"

He opened his hand again. A jade slip etched with glowing moonlight hovered above his palm.

"The Nine Heavens Moon Sect's cultivation technique—'Moon-Vein Lotus Method.' It matches your affinity."

She clutched it with shaking hands. "I'm not strong…"

"You've protected this family with your silence," he said softly. "Now, you will protect them with your strength."

She consumed the pill and meditated as Li Xuan activated another containment array.

Moments later, her aura surged.

From Qi Condensation, she soared to Qi Refinement, then leapt once more to Foundation Establishment. First layer. Then second. Her aura stabilized at the fifth layer, her spirit calmer and more refined than ever before.

Tears filled her eyes. "I never… thought…"

"You were never weak, Mother. They just never gave you the path to grow."

Lastly, he turned to his sister, who stood watching, breath held.

He smiled. "Xioran."

"I'm ready," she whispered.

He handed her a crystal-blue pill, faintly resonating with moon essence.

"Your talent is sharp, your root stronger than most in this clan. This will push you to the peak of Qi Refinement."

She swallowed it, crossed her legs, and channeled her breathing.

Waves of spiritual light surrounded her, condensing, rising like a cocoon of moonlight. Her cultivation shot upward—mid-stage… late… then:

Boom!

Peak of Qi Refinement. Ninth layer.

A gentle hum settled around her. Her eyes opened, gleaming with new clarity.

Then Li Xuan opened his storage ring wide.

"To each of you," he said, "I give protective talismans, divine-grade weapons, and cultivation resources from the Vaults. If anything happens while I'm away, use them without hesitation."

Three sacred talismans fell into their palms, each engraved with the Moon Sect's legacy script. Lady Mei received a protective mirror infused with repelling light. Li Zheng a reforged blade of starlit steel. Li Xioran a crescent-shaped dagger bound to her qi signature.

"Keep these hidden. Tell no one."

Then, silently, he left the house and ascended to the sky.

Above the town, beneath the moon, Li Xuan moved like a phantom—laying down defensive arrays, spiritual formations, flame barriers, reflection domes, and blade-warding glyphs. His hands moved like an artist at work, carving a masterpiece of invisible protection.

When he finished, he summoned the moonlight.

It poured into the arrays and wove into a single crystalline dome that shimmered above the town—beautiful, impenetrable, unseen by mortal eyes.

No beast would enter.

No enemy would succeed.

When the beast tide came, the Li Clan would survive… even if they never knew who saved them.

After setting the protective, defensive and offensive dome over the town, Li Xuan landed silently upon the central courtyard of the Li Clan estate.

His gaze swept over the familiar rooftops. Though distant from the main compound, his family's house was still bound to the ancestral grounds. And the spiritual pulse of this land… felt wrong.

Subtly twisted. Off-rhythm.

He narrowed his eyes.

Without hesitation, he moved to the heart of the Li Clan grounds—the ancestral shrine. Its worn statues and incense trays stood in silence, but to Li Xuan's senses, a dark undercurrent flowed beneath it like a poisoned river.

He extended his hand and murmured a command.

Dozens of runes flared beneath his feet, ancient glyphs of the Moon Sect spinning to life. They sank into the soil, drilling deep into the foundations.

Beneath the earth, something stirred.

A pulse. Like a heartbeat. But corrupted.

He focused, and his spiritual perception surged downward—through layers of stone and forgotten tunnels—until he saw it:

A broken crypt. Sealed in rusted chains. And at its center… a skeletal figure seated upon a shattered throne, miasma swirling from its bones. One hollow eye socket gleamed with malevolent crimson.

"A fragment of demonic will," Li Xuan whispered. "So this is what's been corrupting the land."

He immediately acted.

With both hands, he began casting formations: layer upon layer of sealing, slumber, and spirit-lock arrays. Glyphs of light and moonfire carved themselves into the very rock beneath the Li Clan.

Then came the offensive sets—Heaven-Scorching Flames, Nine-Needle Spirit Spears, and Frostlight Chains. They formed a spectral cage around the skeleton, pulsing with deadly force.

One wrong move, and the entity would be annihilated before it could rise.

Finally, he laid the illusion array above it all—Veil of Tranquil Earth—masking the presence of the seal entirely. No sect elder or ancient beast would detect it.

Li Xuan stood, breath calm.

"It won't threaten them," he said. "Not now. Not ever."

He extended the same triple-layer design above the Li Clan itself—defensive, offensive, and illusion arrays working in harmony. A second dome shimmered to life, invisible to the naked eye, but strong enough to withstand an assault from a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Now the Li Clan stood beneath twin protections: the outer town's crystal moonlight dome, and the inner tri-fold seal of the Moon Sect.

He knelt before the sealed crypt one last time.

"This land now falls under the protection of the Nine Heavens Moon Sect," he whispered. "Your darkness will not rise again."

As he walked away beneath the starlit sky, not even the skeleton stirred.

Its single eye dimmed.

And in the quiet that followed, the earth slept once more.

By the time the first crimson dawn touched the treetops, Li Xuan stood once more at the threshold of his family home. His disciple Yuan Fei waited quietly beside him, face filled with wonder.

"We're heading out again?" the boy asked.

Li Xuan nodded. "For now. There's still more to prepare."

The boy smiled. "Then I'll follow."

They stepped inside quietly.

And far above the town, the moonlight shimmered—bearing silent witness to the return of the forgotten heir, the rising of a new legacy… and the storm yet to come.