Shengui Changsheng: Start from Zhenwuwei and add some points to cultivate immortality

Nangong Yue stood on an unfamiliar sand dune, the soft, golden sand beneath her feet rippling in the gentle breeze. She looked up and was surprised to find the sky a strange purple, like silk dyed by the setting sun, yet deeper still. Several bright stars hung in the sky, twinkling with a light that seemed out of place at this hour.

"Where is this?" she murmured, her voice unusually clear in the silent sea of ​​sand. A dry wind brushed her cheeks, carrying the faint rustling of sand grains, but no sign of life could be heard. In the distance, a temple built of luminous white stone stood on the horizon, floating like a dream above the dunes. Its outline was faintly visible against the purple sky, radiating a soft and mysterious glow.

Nangong Yue looked down at her hands; the jade pendant still hovered above her palms, emitting a soft blue light. The light seemed alive, flowing between her fingers, echoing the enormous moonbeam embedded in the distant temple's roof. The moonbeam's light filtered through the air, casting ever-changing shadows on the sand, like ancient script being written in the air.

“This is impossible.” Nangong Yue shook her head, trying to clear her mind. An hour ago, they were fighting sand snakes in a secret chamber in the desert; now, she was standing in a completely unfamiliar sea of ​​sand, facing a temple she had never seen before. What puzzled her even more was the strange connection between the jade pendant and the moonlight pearl—as if they were originally one, only separated by some force for thousands of years.

A series of light footsteps came from behind. Nangong Yue turned around alertly and saw an old man walking slowly towards her. The old man was dressed in a simple dark robe, and his steps were incredibly light, as if each step was on air, unaffected by the wind and sand. His face bore a seven-tenths resemblance to Nangong Yue's, but his eyes were more profound, etched with the marks of time, as if he had experienced a thousand years of vicissitudes.

"The place you are standing in is a projection of the Temple of Moonlight." The old man's voice was deep and gentle, like the echo of an ancient bell, slowly spreading across the sea of ​​sand. He walked up to Nangong Yue and stopped, his gaze falling on the jade pendant that floated above her, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.

Nangong Yue took a half-step back warily: "Who are you? What's going on?"

The old man smiled slightly, a smile containing too many unspeakable emotions: "I am Moonshadow, the last guardian of this Moonlight Temple. And you are me from a thousand years in the future."

“Absurd!” Nangong Yue blurted out, but her voice trembled almost imperceptibly. She instinctively gripped the jade pendant tighter; its cool touch calmed her slightly. “My father never mentioned any of this. I didn’t even know my family was connected to any temple!”

Moonshadow sighed, his gaze fixed on the distant temple: "Your family has guarded the temple's secrets for generations, but over time, the truth has been buried. Until the Moonbeam awakened again, it sensed your presence." He raised his hand, pointing to the enormous gem atop the temple, "Look, it's calling to you."

Nangong Yue involuntarily looked towards the temple again. The light from the Moonlight Pearl suddenly intensified, a beam of light shooting straight into the sky, tracing a bright path across the purple backdrop. At the same time, the jade pendant in her hand vibrated even more violently, its blue light intertwining with the light from the Moonlight Pearl in the air, forming a bridge of light connecting the two.

"What...what is this?" Nangong Yue felt a wave of dizziness, and her vision began to blur. She saw the temple doors slowly open, and an even more intense beam of light shot out from within, illuminating the entire desert. The vibration of the jade pendant almost made it impossible for her to hold on, as if some invisible force was pulling her forward.

Moonshadow's voice rang in her ears: "Once you step into the temple, you will face not only the truth of the past, but also the choices of the future." His figure suddenly became transparent, like grains of sand scattered by the wind. "Remember, the power of the Moonlight Pearl is not for conquest, but for protection."

"Wait!" Nangong Yue reached out to grab the old man, but only grasped a handful of drifting sand. Yueying's figure had completely vanished in the wind, as if it had never existed. Nangong Yue stood there, stunned, feeling a strange sense of loss and loneliness.
-
###**Section Two: The Call of Bloodline**
The beams of light from the temple grew increasingly intense, and Nangong Yue felt the jade pendant burning hot in her palm, almost scorching her skin. Looking down at the jade pendant, she noticed the fine lines were glowing, flowing across its surface as if alive. Even more astonishing, runes similar to those on the temple walls began to appear on the pendant's surface, the symbols seeming to roam freely.

"Is this...the family mark?" Nangong Yue murmured to herself. She remembered that her father never allowed her to stray too far from the jade pendant. When she was little, she dreamed that she was standing on a sand dune with a glowing castle in front of her. Now that she thought about it, the outline of the castle in that dream was exactly the same as the temple in front of her.

Nangong Yue took a deep breath and took her first step. The sand made a soft sound under her feet, each step feeling like stepping on the dust of history. As she approached the temple, the connection between the jade pendant and the moonlight pearl grew stronger, her consciousness began to blur, and the scene before her began to distort.

She saw a building remarkably similar to Moonlight Castle standing amidst the sea of ​​sand, but even more complete and magnificent. A woman dressed in ornate Western Region attire stood on the central stone platform, holding in her hand a jade pendant identical to her own. The woman raised her hands, and sand grains surged forth from all directions as if alive, forming a swirling wall of sand around her.
"Nangong!" A familiar voice pulled her back to reality. Nangong Yue suddenly awoke to find herself standing before the temple gates. Intricate runes were carved into the stone gates, gleaming with a deep blue luster under the light of the moonlight pearl. Fu Shaoping and Desert Eagle stood not far away, their faces filled with shock.

"What happened?" Fu Shaoping strode over, looking around warily. "You seem to have seen something just now."

Nangong Yue shook her head, trembling, yet unable to completely banish the image before her eyes: "That castle... was once incredibly magnificent. There was a woman who looked very much like me, performing some kind of ritual." She looked up at the runes on the stone gate, "These symbols... are exactly the same as the patterns on my jade pendant."

Desert Eagle suddenly gripped the scimitar at his waist: "Someone's coming." His voice was low and tense. "More than one."

Footsteps and the clanging of metal came from the direction of the distant sand dunes. Fu Shaoping quickly drew his short sword: "It's Alimu and his men. Looks like they've decided to follow us."

“Worse.” Desert Eagle squinted, pointing to a moving black dot on a distant dune. “Judging from the sound, there are at least seven or eight people, and they’re armed.”

Nangong Yue stood up; the jade pendant's light had dimmed but still glowed faintly. "Whatever they want, it's related to the secrets of this temple. We can't let them destroy this place."

The three quickly found defensive positions in front of the gate. The walls on either side of the stone gate were covered with runes, which seemed to come alive under the light of the moonlight bead, emitting a faint blue glow. Nangong Yue felt the temperature of the jade pendant rise again, almost burning her skin.
-
###**Section 3: Fragments of Memory**
Alimu's voice echoed across the dunes: "Come out! We know you're in there! That gem is ours!"

Nangong Yue sneered, "Greedy people are always blind to danger." She gripped the jade pendant tightly, feeling the surging power within it. "Prepare for battle."

As the caravan's guards rushed into the temple entrance, they were startled by the sight before them and stopped in their tracks—three people stood back to back in front of the stone gate, with the moonlight bead in the center and the floating jade pendant emitting a mysterious light, and the runes on the walls flickering in a certain rhythm.

"Put down that gem!" Alimu roared, his battle axe gleaming coldly in the moonlight. "That's not something you should touch!"

Fu Shaoping stepped in front of Nangong Yue: "You've already lost three companions, do you want to lose your lives too?"

Alimu sneered, "We've discovered something far more important—the runes on the walls will guide us to the treasure's location. And you... are merely stumbling blocks who stumbled upon this place." He waved for his men to advance. As the first guard rushed toward the stone gate, the ground suddenly trembled violently. Sand gushed forth from the cracks in the rocks, forming pillars of sand. Nangong Yue was horrified to see serpentine silhouettes emerging from those sand pillars—larger and more ferocious than the sand serpents she had encountered before.

"Sand serpents!" Desert Eagle roared, drawing his scimitar. The first sand serpent leaped from the ground, lunging at the nearest guard. The guard swung his axe, but the sand serpent, like a phantom, passed through the blade and bit his arm. The guard screamed in agony as his arm withered and shrank visibly.

“Their fangs…” Nangong Yue’s voice trembled, and the jade pendant suddenly emitted a blinding red light. Instinctively, she raised her hand, and a wall of sand rose out of thin air, blocking the three sand snakes that lunged at her. The sand grains spun in her palm, as if controlled by an invisible hand.

The Desert Eagle seized the opportunity to leap up, its scimitar drawing a silver arc in the air, cleaving a sand serpent in two. But more sand serpents poured out of the crack, their sheer number a despairing sight.

"Nangong! Use your jade pendant!" Fu Shaoping shouted as he slew the approaching sand snakes. "It's connected to the Moonlight Pearl; perhaps it can control these monsters!"

Nangong Yue took a deep breath and focused all her attention on the jade pendant. She felt a warm current surge from her palm and spread throughout her body. When the next sand snake pounced, she simply waved her hand—sand grains rose from the ground as if they were alive, enveloping the sand snake layer by layer, and finally crushing it into a pile of dust.

Alimu stared in disbelief at the scene: "This is impossible! That jade pendant is..."

“It’s your family’s legacy.” A hoarse voice suddenly broke in. The three of them turned their heads at the same time and found a hunched old man standing in the shadows of the stone gate—they had not noticed his presence at all before.

The old man slowly entered the temple, his withered fingers toying with a pendant that was remarkably similar to Nangong Yue's jade pendant but clearly much older: "The last bloodline of the Moonshadow family... has finally returned."

"Who are you?" The Desert Eagle's scimitar pointed at the old man. "How do you come to have such an accessory?"

The old man gave a sinister smile: "Who I am is unimportant. What matters is..." He suddenly waved his hand, and the runes on the stone gate instantly lit up with a blinding blue light. "The Moonlight Pearl is about to awaken, and you... will all become sacrifices!"

The ground shook violently again, ten times more violently than before. The central stone platform began to sink, while the Moonlight Pearl floated even higher, emitting a light that was almost blinding. Nangong Yue felt an unprecedentedly strong connection between the jade pendant and the gemstone; her consciousness began to blur, and more strange yet familiar images flashed before her eyes—

A vast underground palace, where countless people dressed in identical attire danced around a stone platform; a moonbeam was placed into a huge recess, and the entire temple began to glow; then came destruction—a sandstorm swept everything away, and the temple sank into a sea of ​​sand.
"No!" Nangong Yue screamed, breaking free from the illusion. She found herself standing on a sunken stone platform, the Moonlight Pearl within reach. The light of the jade pendant and the gemstone had merged into one, forming a pillar of light connecting heaven and earth.

Alimu and his men retreated in terror: "It's absorbing energy! The entire temple is shaking!"

The old man laughed maniacally as he walked towards the stone platform: "Foolish! You awakened it, yet you cannot control it! The Moonshadow Clan protected it for a thousand years, but ultimately failed!"

Desert Eagle suddenly charged at the old man: "Fu Shaoping, take Nangong away from here!" His scimitar aimed straight for the old man's throat, but the old man easily dodged it. The old man swung his hand back, and a blade of sand grazed Desert Eagle's arm, leaving a deep wound.

Taking advantage of the situation, Fu Shaoping grabbed Nangong Yue's arm: "We have to get out of here! This place is going to collapse!"

Nangong Yue struggled to turn back to look at the Moonlight Pearl: "But I can feel it needs my jade pendant to guide me."

Suddenly, the gemstone burst forth with an intense light, illuminating the entire temple as if it were daytime. In the dazzling light, Nangong Yue saw—

A vortex appeared in the center of the stone platform, and at the center of the vortex stood a figure that looked exactly like her, reaching out her hand.
"Grab my hand!" the voice rang directly in her mind. "The Moon Shadow Gate is about to close!"

Nangong Yue instinctively stepped forward, completely ignoring the collapsing stone platform and the approaching swarm of sand snakes. As her fingertips touched the edge of the vortex, a powerful suction pulled her in.
Darkness. Endless darkness.

Then came the blinding light.

Nangong Yue opened her eyes and found herself standing on an unfamiliar sand dune. The sky was a strange purple, and on the distant horizon stood a building even more magnificent than the Moon Temple—it was built entirely of luminous white stone, appearing dreamlike and unreal against the purple sky.

"Welcome back, Guardian." The voice rang out again, this time clearer. Nangong Yue turned around and saw an old man dressed in ancient Western Region clothing standing behind her, holding a cane inlaid with moonlight beads.

"Who are you?" Nangong Yue asked, her voice trembling with shock.

The old man smiled: "I am Moonshadow, the last guardian of this Moonlight Temple. And you are me from a thousand years in the future." (End of Chapter)