The atmosphere around them was a little awkward. The two tip toed behind the youngest of them all. After closing his book , the youngest turned around and with expressionless face he said,

"Yes. I did confess to Shuzui and he did reject me. If you want to laugh, go ahead!"

The two halted there moment with an 'AH' and the atmosphere changed into the sympathy. 

"Jin Ling." Ouyang Zizhen and Lan Jingyi finally sat with him. The  three of them were in Toshokan in front of the history aisle. 

"You're amazing Jin Ling." 

Ouyang Zizhen and Jin Ling double checked if did come from Lan Jingyi.

"I'M BEING SERIOUS HERE!" Lan Jingyi humped when he saw the other two giving him weird looks. Nobody takes him seriously except Zewu-jun or Wei Qianbei.

Jin Ling was still not sure if he should accept his compliment or maybe Jingyi invented a new way to tease him?

"Jin Ling, you are amazing, because you were able to confess your feelings." Lan Jingyi continued and left the other two in surprised again. 

"I think confronting your feelings is the hardest thing to do, especially if you know that the other  person will reject you." Lan Jingyi was serious and that's probably why the others couldn't make anything of  the situation.

"Um..Jingyi, who are you in love with?" Ouyang Zizhen asked cautiously. 

Lan Jingyi was not prepared for the question, heat rose to his face and he tried his best to calm himself down. He looked down and nervously played with the ends of his ribbon. The two observed him for some time, then Jin ling become the sophisticated one and changed the topic,

"Do you guys know  why I am here?" the other two directed their attention towards the youngest.

"Look here." Jin ling said showing them the book. It was a book on moon.

"I'm not suppose to tell this to anyone..." Jin Ling said lowering his voice and gesturing others to keep it a secret. 

"Sect Leader Nie announced that he will marry Uncle Mo on next Crescent." 

"WHAT!!!!" 

So much for telling them to keep it down. Luckily there was no one in the Toshokan except the supervisor and guards. The supervisor glared at the three and they lowered their voices,

"what!" they silently yelled.

"But what about Hanguang-Jun??" Lan  Jingyi asked with a hint of worry in his tone.

"That's why I am here." Jin  ling said once again bringing their attention to the book.

" Moon?" Ouyang Zizhen asked.

"Yes, I wonder why Sect Leader Nie wanted the wedding on the next crescent." Jin Ling asked. 

Like the thunder it hit Zizhen. Of course the souls!!

"Listen to me carefully.." Ouyang Zizhen said with visible sweat on his foreheads. 

"I think.. Hanguang-Jun might not ..wake up." his words died down at the end. They three of the gulped and thought of Shizui. 

"What are you saying!" Jin Ling asked. It was the exact reason why Jin Ling visited Toshokan, if he could find more information on Hanguang-Jun or his condition,  maybe Shizui wouldn't feel too much stressed.

"I've been studying Jiaohuan and I saw some parallels between the moon and the souls." Ouyang Zizhen said ignoring Jin Ling's shocked face on hearing Jiaohuan. 

"Jin Ling did you notice anything different when we  tried to open the Heavens Gate?" 

upon thinking for long, Jin Ling aswered,

"Ghost General was not participating in it." They all thought it was because he didn't have any blood, spiritual energy or soul. 

Ah! 

Ghost general had covered his ears when Zewu Jun played Leibing to calm everyone. But why? it was not like Zewu-jun could  control corpses?

"You start to see it?" Ouyang Zizhen asked.

"You know, all of us have different blood types, different level of cultivation and different souls. We could never be able to open the Heavens Gate even if we wanted to." Ouyang Zizhen said.

Jin Ling was shook, he had no idea what was going anymore. They silently sat there and recalled all the things  that happened that day and days after. If they never even opened the gate how  come they were severely effected afterwards? How come Hanguang-Jun was so weak? There was one more thing Lan Jingyi remembered,

"After Zewu-jun put Hanguang-Jun to sleep, few days later Jingshi lit up, before any of us could go in and check, the light already faded." 

It was a  new information

"When did that happen? Do you remember  the day." Ouyang Zizhen asked

after thinking for too long Jingyi said,

"I'm not completely sure but I think it was on Waning Gibbous." 

8 phases of moon!

Lan Jingyi remembered sitting on the mountain top with Lan Shizui as he played Inquiry for senior Wei, that day the moon was exceptionally bright. Ouyang Zizhen had lost colors to his  face. He figured out!

There were exactly 7 days till the wedding and two prominent sect leaders were away. Ouyang Zizhen gave a dry laugh, he wanted to slap himself. The other two worriedly look at him.

"Zizhen." Jin Ling asked.

"I think we've been played a fool for." Ouyang zizhen said sarcastically.

"What really is happening?" Lan Jingyi asked.

"Aside from blood, spirit and  soul, what is the one thing that sets Hanguang-Jun apart from us?" Ouyang Zizhen asked with pained expression.

"Love!" Jin Ling answered almost immediately.

"Close! you know when a person makes love, Golden core undergo changes, more like it matures." The only person who experienced that change was Hanguang Jun.

"But Jiujiu has shushu's core!" Jin Ling stated and realized something himself.

ah! 

 Jiujiu had told him that Sect Leader Lan hummed another melody just for him (JC) because the resentful energy was too strenuous for him. 

Jingyi was not liking where it was going. 

"Zewu-jun would never play us!" 

The other two looked at him raising his voice again.

"We never said that, Jingyi" Jin Ling reassured.

The more they thought about what happened the more messed up the whole situation became for them. Ouyang Zizhen stood up from his seat and begun to look for a book. He came up with a scroll instead, it was really old but it was the biggest piece of information they could have found in anywhere in the cultivation world.

"The Heavens Gate." Jingyi read.

"Let's find who bonded with it." 

The blood array. 

The spiritual array. 

The soul array. 

They all felt frustrated. it was the same old stuff. Then Jingyi said,

"Why don't we search in the music section?" 

Out of three he was the one who actually knew something about the music, although they had never seen him with any of the instruments.

After hours of searching through the books, they found two melodies which resembled what Zewu-Jun had played that day. But it didn't look any suspicious to him (LJY) at all. 

"If Shizui were here, he would have figured out already." Jin Ling said with a hint of dominance in his voice.

"Why don't we go to him and show him this?" Ouyang Zizhen suggested. 

Jin Ling and Lan Jingyi looked at each other, they didn't tell Ouyang about the things Lan Shizui had said and the fact he was mad. 

"I don't think, if we are allowed to take scripture with us." Lan Jingyi tried to find a reason to avoid confronting Lan Shizui.

"If I ask, Great Great Grandma she'll let  me have them." Jin Ling said totally forgetting about confrontation.

Young Mistress! 

"Then lets go." Ouyang zizhen said. 

They were not allowed to take the scriptures since it belonged to Toshokan but they got another copy of it which one of the female cultivator made for them. With that they bid their farewell and escaped the Harem.

Their journey back to Cloud Recesses was quieter than their taste. They had too much going in their heads and they felt frustrated for not having being considered worthy by their seniors. 

"If war had hit us, we would have been strong like them." Ouyang Zizhen spoke too soon.

War was already on them!

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Sorry for Errors!

I'll elaborate the 8 phases of moon  once the story progressed a little more. I know this chapter is confusing but that's the point.