THE WHITE MOONLIGHT ONLY HAS A HAPPY ENDING - CHAPTER 50

But why would Granny Shui lie?

As the group returned to the Divine Tree Plains, they found Granny Shui leading a gathering of the clan, already waiting for them. A-Che and Ah-Yuan had already packed their belongings, along with a still-snoring, slumbering Little Eyes.

Chao Zhaoyue spoke first, "Granny, what is the meaning of this?"

"You have found your person, and you have visited your mother," Granny Shui replied. "Since your wounds allow for travel, I will not keep you any longer."

Chao Jinsui and Yan Xueyi exchanged a look: she was in a desperate hurry to see them gone.

Granny Shui let out a long, heavy sigh. "Regardless of the methods you used, whether you propped up the heavens with a sword or found some artifact to temporarily halt the collapse, it is all futile."

"Water-Cloud Realm exists because of the Divine Tree; it is a minor realm derived from it. Now that the tree is waning and gasping its last breath, the moment it ceases to be, Water-Cloud Realm will vanish along with it."

"Leave the Divine Tree Plains first. When the realm begins its final fall, our clan will open a passage to the outside world."

"And what about you, Granny?" Chao Jinsui asked.

Ah-Yuan placed their luggage at their feet. Without a word, Granny Shui led her people back toward the small village nestled within the plains. Their expressions were hauntingly calm, as if staying behind to wait for death was of no great consequence. Adults cradled children, and the youth walked hand-in-hand, chatting and laughing as they headed toward their homes and their impending destruction.

The Granny’s aged voice drifted back to them: "Our clan was born to guard the Divine Tree. Naturally, we shall vanish with it."

Their silhouettes grew blurred. Amidst the wind and snow, the scenery of the Divine Tree Plains began to fade from clarity.

Once the outsiders were sent away, the plains regained their usual quiet bustle. Granny Shui looked up at the towering tree, a profound anxiety etched in her eyes. After a long silence, she whispered, "Ah-Yuan, go follow them. See if they have left safely."

As her words fell, the sound of footsteps approached from behind.

The Great Demon’s lazy drawl rang out, "Great Priestess, it won't be that easy to send us away."

Granny Shui spun around, her gaze locking onto the long-haired demon. She understood A-Pu’s children, but she did not understand this youth who looked so difficult to contend with. Even if his attitude was decent, he radiated a presence that made her instinctively wary.

"Granny," Chao Jinsui said softly, "my mother is the Bodhi Tree, isn't she?"

Chao Zhaoyue added, "You refused to tell us more because you knew that if we realized our mother was the Divine Tree, we would never leave, right?"

"You had A-Che take us to the flowers, thinking that once we saw a grave, we would depart. But now that we know, we aren't going anywhere!"

How could they stand by and watch Water-Cloud Realm and the Divine Tree perish, knowing the tree was their mother? They simply couldn't do it.

Granny Shui struck her staff against the ground. "What use is there in staying? The Bodhi is fading, and Water-Cloud Realm will be no more!"

The Divine Tree Clan was different from others; they were willing to die with the Bodhi, but they were unwilling to let A-Pu’s children stay behind to perish. Granny Shui tapped her staff again. Suddenly, a massive force swept the three of them off their feet, bodily hurling them out of the Divine Tree Plains!

"Granny! At least let us try!" Chao Zhaoyue shouted, trying to reason with her, but there was no response from within.

"She won't let you back in," the Demon Lord said.

Chao Zhaoyue turned sharply toward him, while Chao Jinsui shook her head.

"Do you truly think Granny Shui has no guard against you?" Yan Xueyi asked. "Don't forget, you were raised by Chao Taichu. The clan puts the tree above all else. In a moment like this, how could she dare to keep you here?"

In Granny Shui's eyes, they had lived under Chao Taichu’s wing for years and were only now learning of their mother. Even if they knew he had harmed her, blood and upbringing were a gamble she wasn't willing to take. It was a cold logic, but a factual one.

Chao Zhaoyue fell silent. He used to think all demons were madmen, especially the leader of those madmen who had set his sights on his precious sister. He had been tense, remembering the anonymous gifts over the years and realizing this "lunatic" might have been plotting for a long time. But in this moment, his view of the Demon Lord shifted slightly.

Chao Jinsui looked toward the plains. "Yan-yan, you're right. But how do we prove we've severed all ties with Chao Taichu?"

She had already cut her hair once. Her gaze suddenly fell upon Chao Zhaoyue’s high, bound ponytail. He still had plenty of hair, perhaps another ritual of "severing ties by cutting hair" was in order?

Chao Zhaoyue felt a chill run down his spine as his sister stared at his head.

Suddenly, a violent tremor shook the realm!

In the sky above Water-Cloud Realm, numerous black dots appeared like falling birds, plummeting toward every corner of the world. They were not birds, of course; more people had entered the realm.

Inside the plains, the clan members looked up in alarm. "Granny, why are there so many people!"

Then, a deep, resonant male voice boomed across the sky, echoing through the entire realm like a Great Bell:

"The Water-Cloud Realm Trial begins! Each sect shall send thirty disciples! The duration is ten days! Seek your own fortune; life and death are a matter of fate!"

It was Chao Taichu’s voice.

"Within Water-Cloud Realm lies the traitor of the human race, Chao Jinsui. Kill her on sight! Whoever brings her head shall receive the highest reward of this trial!"

The Great Demon narrowed his beautiful phoenix eyes and sneered, "What arrogance."

Chao Zhaoyue’s face went dark with rage.

Just then, a paper crane fluttered into Chao Jinsui’s hand. it was from Little Junior Sister Xiangsi of the Jade Sword Alliance. Her handwriting was hurried, as if she had sent the message the moment she heard the news. She wrote that she had contacted her sect and would try to persuade her seniors not to hunt Jinsui.

However, the news from the Alliance was grim. The Kunlun Sword Sect, Lanruo Temple, Jade Sword Alliance, Five Poisons Valley, Leiyin Tower... the elite disciples under two hundred years old from every major sect had descended!

Chao Jinsui realized that Chao Taichu was "catching a turtle in a jar." He saw that she had entered the realm with the Demon Lord and realized he could no longer hide the truth. He had decided to go all in. He didn't dare enter the dying realm himself, so he hid the fact of its imminent destruction to lure the sects in for treasure, and to organize a hunt for her.

Chao Zhaoyue fumed. "Borrowing a knife to kill... he certainly dreams big!"

Xiangsi also mentioned that many natives knew of the Divine Tree Plains. If the sects found nothing elsewhere, they would soon converge here and likely lay siege to the village.

Instead of despairing, Chao Jinsui smiled. She looked up and said, "Isn't this our opportunity?"

Indeed, they had been struggling to convince Granny Shui. Chao Zhaoyue’s eyes lit up, and he immediately shouted toward the plains, "Granny, save us! Chao Taichu wants to kill us! Granny, help!"

A second later, the restriction opened. Granny Shui appeared, her expression complicated. "Was he... truly that unkind to you two?"

In the Divine Tree Plains, Little Eyes woke up to find it was already dark. It crawled onto its master’s wrist, blissfully unaware it had almost been left behind. Its usually silent master suddenly asked, "What does it feel like to have a mother?"

Yan Xueyi had no father or mother; he was born from a mass of demonic energy. He lacked many standard emotions and couldn't comprehend the yearning for parental bonds. He couldn't understand why Jinsui's emotions had fluctuated so wildly since arriving here.

"I am somewhat jealous," the demon confessed to the small creature.

Little Eyes tried to comfort him. "Master, you don't need to be jealous. Having a mother isn't all that great." Its own mother used to flick it into the sky with her tail. Once, it was flicked so far it couldn't find her again, which was how it met the young demon. Master was better, at least when he swatted it away, he remembered to pick it back up.

The Demon Lord gave it a strange look. "Why would I be jealous of her having a mother?"

In his eyes, having a mother meant you'd likely lose arguments. He, on the other hand, had no mother, so when people insulted him as a "motherless wretch," he could simply look down on them and say: I am indeed motherless! It was an invincible position of moral righteousness.

"I am jealous of her mother," he clarified.

Little Eyes: ??

The demon was also a bit jealous of Chao Zhaoyue. He realized that because she had a brother and now a mother, she was naturally concerned for them, accepting and loving them unconditionally. This demon was very jealous indeed.

He went to find the human girl. Ever since her talk with Granny Shui, she had seemed low. He found her sitting on the lowest branch of the Divine Bodhi Tree, leaning against the massive trunk.

Chao Jinsui was replaying Granny Shui’s words:

"Do not blame A-Pu. It wasn't that she didn't care for you. The Divine Tree's vitality has dissipated; she has fallen into a deep slumber."

A century ago, the Bodhi Tree had entered its eight-thousand-year life-and-death tribulation. If a divine tree did not survive this, it would slowly wither. Human cultivators faced lightning tribulations to break their longevity limits; the Bodhi was no different.

So, A-Pu had left Water-Cloud Realm to face her trial. On her journey, she had saved Chao Taichu’s life and given him a Bodhi seed. In the beginning, he had truly loved her, after all, A-Pu was a being that even a passing ant would find endearing. A-Pu was made of wood, but Chao Taichu was not. That a man so driven by profit was willing to marry a mortal woman with no utility proved there was once genuine affection.

But some people's love is profoundly selfish.

Gradually, he became dissatisfied with her status as an orphan, feeling it shamed him. He registered her under the Xu family to marry her off. Then, he began to feel she was "merely a mortal." He never took her back to the Kunlun Sword Sect, keeping her in the Xu household even when she birthed their first child. Eventually, realizing the marriage offered him no political leverage, he began his affair with Chao Xiaotu’s mother, a noble lady from the Taixuan Wuji Sect.

He loved her, but his love was shallow and self-serving. He would often look at her and say, "If only you were a lady from a great cultivation clan." Then, he would have brought her home to be the Sect Leader’s wife with all his heart.

A-Pu was, at her core, a tree. She did not understand human social nuances, much less the complexity of a corrupted heart. Granny Shui had stopped there, reluctant to say more, but her eyes were full of tenderness.

"A-Pu did not have human desires or emotions. In the end, what gave her a heart wasn't Chao Taichu. It was her little Zhaoyue and her little Jinsui."

Sitting on the branch, Jinsui gently hugged the tree. A strange sense of blood-connection washed over her. The leaves rustled in the wind, a soft, whispering response.

She felt the demon's presence beside her.

"Yan-yan," she whispered, "when I was a child, I always thought I was the reason my mother died. I thought she couldn't possibly love me."

Until she heard Granny's words: You were born with a Natural Sword Bone. You have a Natural Daoist Heart. Because A-Pu is the purest Divine Bodhi in existence.

They were her children, and she would always, always protect them. That was why the siblings possessed talents Chao Taichu never could. The genius he spent his life dreaming of was held by the children he despised, not because of the Chao ancestors, but because of the Divine Tree’s blessing.

The tree had been protecting them, but as it waned and entered its collapse last year, it lost the strength to maintain that blessing. Jinsui remembered then: though her early life was full of hardship and danger, things had generally gone smoothly. She always managed to turn danger into safety. Chao Zhaoyue was the same.

It was only last year, when she took Su Liuyun’s pill, that her fate took a sharp turn. And Granny said that was exactly when the tree could no longer offer its protection.

The realization hit her, A-Pu had been trying so hard to keep them safe. That little girl who stared into the dark with wide eyes wasn't unloved.

She leaned against the Great Demon, the two of them huddling together on the branch. Truthfully, Yan Xueyi didn't really understand the emotions she spoke of. What did she mean, "no one wanted her" as a child? He was quite disgruntled: this Little Demon had wanted her for a very long time! He wanted her even in his dreams!

But he had enough sense to read the room and didn't say anything to spoil the moment. After a while, he said, "A being like a Bodhi Tree... they do not enter the cycle of reincarnation."

He could promise to snatch Chao Zhaoyue’s soul back if he died, but the Bodhi was different. Even if the Demon God returned to his throne, he could do nothing for such a creature. When they faded, they truly vanished into the world.

"It won't happen," she said with absolute certainty. "I won't let the Divine Tree perish."

Chao Zhaoyue stood beneath the tree, catching a fallen leaf. He had come to see his mother, and to find his sister. He thought she would be devastated by the truth. But looking up, he saw the silhouette of the Demon Lord.

His eyes narrowed. A moment later, a voice drifted down from above: "Yan-yan, stop pinching the leaves. This one really is my mother."

Chao Zhaoyue, who had been reflexively twirling a leaf between his fingers, guiltily yanked his hand back. The downside of having a mother who was a tree was that you were constantly stepping on her leaves or accidentally kicking her roots.

The next morning, as he looked at the Bodhi seed Granny Shui gave him for breakfast, he fell into deep thought: Does this count as eating my own sibling?

The realm was becoming increasingly lively. Rich in spiritual energy and secluded for years, it was a paradise of rare herbs and beasts. The disciples of the great sects were like fish in water, quickly spreading out to scavenge. Even in the plains, the distant noise could be felt.

Chao Jinsui had spent the night in her sea of consciousness, training in the "Ancestor's Classroom." After being beheaded and cut in half countless times, she had finally mastered the use of the Ice Blade. She realized the move was similar to the Kunlun Sword Sect’s guardian array. Every time she prepared an Ice Blade, it drained half the spiritual energy in her dantian. This meant she could only use it once in a short period.

But it was enough. Her wounds hadn't fully healed, but they no longer hindered her. She gathered her cards and strapped on the Kunlun Sword. She believed Granny Shui had a way to save the tree. Even if it meant walking through fire, she had to try.

She found the Granny. "I want to try."

Granny Shui had refused before because she didn't trust them with the final resort. Now, knowing their history with Chao Taichu, she had no reason left to decline. She led the three of them to the base of the tree.

"If you truly wish to try, you must climb the Divine Tree and see if you can awaken her from her slumber."

As A-Pu’s children, their chances were higher. But Granny Shui’s voice was stern: "Though you are her daughter, the Divine Bodhi is not easily climbed."

One flower, one world; one leaf, one Bodhi.

Within the tree were three thousand minor worlds, and the flow of time was entirely different from the outside. One could easily lose themselves in the shifts of time and space, forgetting their own identity and origin.

She looked at the Demon Lord. "I know your origins are extraordinary. But no matter how powerful you are, if you lose yourself in the three thousand worlds, you will never come out. Before you go up, you must remember: you cannot forget who you are."

Her stern gaze finally landed on Chao Zhaoyue. "You cannot go. Your sister’s injuries are superficial, but your internal wounds are too severe. Going up would be a death sentence."

Chao Jinsui spoke before her brother could object. "Chao Zhaoyue, have you forgotten? Chao Taichu has turned this into a trial. They will eventually surround the plains and demand I be handed over. Granny will struggle to lead her people alone. Stay and help her."

As she spoke, the sounds of commotion reached them from outside the plains. Chao Zhaoyue didn't force the issue; his face was still pale. "Fine. I’ll wait for you to come back. I’d like to see just how much skill they have to surround this place!"

The Demon Lord left Little Eyes behind as well. He and Chao Jinsui began their ascent, one after the other.

"Remember!" Granny Shui shouted from below. "Do not forget who you are!"

Jinsui leaped upward. Very quickly, Yan Xueyi’s back disappeared from view. She didn't know how long she had been flying; the tree seemed to have no end. She asked her system how much time had passed, but for the first time, it didn't respond.

Suddenly, the scenery shifted. The tree vanished, and she was plunged into a minor world.

In this world, nothing had happened to A-Pu. She had taken Jinsui and Zhaoyue away from the Chao residence, leaving Chao Taichu behind to live in the mortal world. A-Pu raised them alone. Every day, she would kiss Jinsui’s cheek. The three of them would huddle under the covers while the snow fell outside, listening to their mother tell stories to coax them to sleep.

A-Pu lived for many years and had endless stories. She was witty and lovely, often teasing Zhaoyue for being too mischievous and Jinsui for being too much of a "little adult," lifting Jinsui up just to pepper her face with kisses.

"Mother! I'm already grown!" Jinsui would say.

"Your brother is even bigger, and I kiss him too!" A-Pu would laugh.

Gradually, Jinsui began to believe she truly was the little "Sui-sui" living with her mother and brother. Until one day, she met a "little bully."

The bully had a pair of demon horns. He leaned his head toward her, trying to scare her into crying. But Jinsui froze.

"Yan-yan," she whispered.

She remembered who she was.

She went home and looked at A-Pu’s back for a long time before saying softly, "Mother, I have to go."

"I just started the stew," A-Pu complained. "Must you go now?"

Jinsui nodded. A-Pu walked over and kissed her cheek. "Go then. I’ll be waiting at home."

Jinsui ran into the heavy snow, her feet sinking deep with every step. She was terrified that if she turned back once, she would never want to leave. She crashed straight into the "little bully," knocking him onto his backside in the snow.

The boy was about to get angry when she suddenly pulled him into a hug. He didn't understand why she was the one crying, how could the one who did the bumping be the one acting aggrieved?

But he couldn't push her away, so he let her hold him as she sobbed and called him "Yan-yan." He thought to himself: This 'Yan-yan' must be a real piece of work to make her cry like this.

"Stop wanting that Yan-yan," the boy said, leaning his head closer. "How about me instead?"

The ache in her heart eased. "Okay," she whispered.

At least she still had her Yan-yan. She held him tight, drawing strength from him. She had to remember. She was Chao Jinsui. She had to keep moving forward.

She could not look back.

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