As Xu Lai's figure flickered, he arrived on the Moon.

「Time rewinds to one hour earlier.」

About three hundred miles from Chang'an City lay a vast pit, temporarily situated on the dark side of the Moon, which cast the area into dimness. The pit was riddled with countless tunnels, crisscrossing like an anthill.

This was the depths of the Foreign Clans' territory.

To the Martial Artists of Chang'an City, this place was an undisputed forbidden zone! For it was inhabited by the Lower Crescent III Clan.

The people of Earth referred to these indigenous lunar inhabitants as Otherworlders, but they called themselves the Moon Clan, descendants of the Moon. Their society consisted of hundreds of clans, large and small, among which nine stood high above all others.

The Lower Crescent I to IV Clans.

The Upper Crescent I to IV Clans.

These eight clans were the nobility among the Moon Clan, akin to the feudal kings or border-guarding generals of ancient dynasties on Earth.

And the Royal Clan that represented absolute power and status, controlling the entire Moon, was the Watchers-of-the-Moon Clan!

This was the depths of the Foreign Clans' territory. However, compared to the deeper-dwelling Royal Clan and the other seven noble clans, the Tangshan territory of the Lower Crescent III was merely the outskirts.

Even so, four Watchmen had perished here.

Additionally, two other Watchmen had sustained injuries to their very source, barely managing to escape with their lives and return to Chang'an City only after paying a great price. Those two were the parents of Zhang Suzi. In the final moments of their lives, they passed their legacy on to their daughter, the one most compatible by blood, and in doing so, provided a new "seed" for the Watchmen.

This incident had occurred five years ago.

Since then, approach to this vast meteorite crater known as Tangshan had been forbidden by Chang'an City.

At the edge of the crater, a figure flickered into view—it was Luo Chu.

Luo Chu had been wearing a skirt when she left Chang'an City, but now she was clad in a blood-stained man's long robe, her face smeared with blood. Clearly, she had fought several fierce battles to get here.

Injured, Luo Chu coughed softly.

She gazed into the pit, a sliver of sorrow reflected in her eyes. Her husband, Qian Song, had last been seen here.

If you hadn't covered my escape, you would never have fled into the territory of the Lower Crescent III Clan...

Luo Chu bit her lip, her face etched with deep self-reproach.

Unlike the Human Race on Earth, most of the Moon Clan lived underground rather than on the lunar surface. There were many reasons for this. One reason was the existence of food and a complete ecosystem beneath the surface. The second was due to Spiritual Energy and oxygen!

The lunar surface lacked oxygen, let alone the Spiritual Energy required for Cultivation. Thus, aside from the few exiles and those tasked with observing Chang'an City, the lunar surface was desolate, marked only by meteorite craters. Even if a spacecraft captured imagery of humans running about, there was no need to worry; a special team would be contacted to have it deleted.

As an early-stage Ninth Grade Martial Artist, Luo Chu could go without breathing for four to five hours or use her Spiritual Energy to create an internal cycle. To avoid revealing her position, she spent most of her time traveling on the lunar surface, only occasionally ducking underground to replenish her Spiritual Energy. Despite this, she still encountered three waves of Moon Clan members who had been exiled from their tribes!

Fortunately, the enemies she met were not of a high Boundary, and she managed to eliminate them all.

"Qian Song, I've come to bring you home."

With a resolute expression, Luo Chu leaped into the crater. Faced with a dense network of tunnels, she followed her instincts and plunged into one. Her only option was to venture underground and search for her husband, though she knew the chances were akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

Furthermore, it was highly likely she would never walk out of these tunnels alive. The Moon Clan residing here was the Lower Crescent III, one of the strongest clans on the entire celestial body. Even the Watchmen had been unable to investigate this place thoroughly. For a mere early-stage Ninth Grade like her, making it this far alive was already a stroke of luck.

Just as Luo Chu's figure vanished, two elderly figures—a man and a woman—appeared in the spot where she had stood. Both appeared to be over seventy years old, with white hair and slightly hunched backs.

Both looked perplexed as they released their Divine Sense to scan the area. In the end, they frowned in unison.

"Was it really just her?" the white-haired old woman hissed, taking a deep breath. Her face was filled with indignation. "Chang'an City just let a mere early-stage Ninth Grade sneak into Tangshan? For fuck's sake..."

She was Elder Zheng Yu of the Lower Crescent III Clan. She had noticed Luo Chu not long after she left Chang'an and had followed her with her husband, Zheng Ding. They didn't even dare to release their Divine Sense along the way, fearing detection by any hidden Watchmen.

But now, just outside their clan's territory... they realized they had been completely played by this human Martial Artist! A mere early-stage Ninth Grade... Daring to come to the depths of the Moon alone and even infiltrate their clan's territory—it was simply a death wish!

"Zheng Yu, I told you before. Humans are even crueler than we Moon Clan members; they don't care about the lives of their own kind," Zheng Ding said, his hands clasped behind his back, his expression indifferent.

If not for Zheng Yu's insistence on using human Martial Artists as bait to lure others from Chang'an City to their deaths, the ones imprisoned in their dungeon would have been eaten long ago. How could they have waited until today? After waiting for half a month, not a single big fish had taken the bait. Now, a small fry had just walked right into their net.

Zheng Yu remained silent. She knew it wasn't that the Human Race was cruel, but that they had learned from bitter experience.

After all, four Watchmen had died here in Tangshan, and two more had dragged their broken bodies back to Chang'an City, barely escaping with their lives. In that battle, they had exploited the human weakness of being unable to abandon their comrades. They surrounded one Watchman, successfully luring the others into a trap.

Because of that brilliant victory, the Royal Clan had issued an edict promoting their clan from Lower Crescent IV to Lower Crescent III. It was worth noting that the positions of the Upper and Lower Crescent Clans had been fixed for hundreds of years. A clan could not hope to advance its rank unless one of its top experts achieved a major breakthrough.

Having tasted success, the Lower Crescent III Clan had hoped to repeat the tactic, but unexpectedly, the humans were no longer willing to venture more than fifty kilometers from Chang'an City. They had finally managed to capture a few human Martial Artists, but they never anticipated that... the Watchmen wouldn't come at all.

The only one to show up was a mere early-stage Ninth Grade!

"Come on. Let's grab her. We'll feast on fresh meat tonight." Zheng Yu licked her lips. She hadn't eaten a human Martial Artist in nearly a month and had a feeling this one would be delicious.

"Hmph." Zheng Ding grunted in agreement and nodded.

The pair set off in the direction Luo Chu had gone. In a mere twenty breaths' time, they caught sight of Luo Chu huddled in a dark passage, inching forward with extreme caution.

TAP.

TAP.

TAP.

The sound of unconcealed footsteps echoed from behind her.

Luo Chu tensed, not daring to breathe too loudly for fear of being discovered. She prayed desperately that they would quickly pass by. She had not yet reached the true underground world; she was still in the passages leading down. In the maze-like, dark passageways, there was a chance she wouldn't be discovered, but...

The owners of the footsteps, however, were Zheng Ding and Zheng Yu—the Moon Clan couple whose cultivation Boundary was equivalent to a human's Divine Gate Realm

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