Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

He whipped his head around and scanned the area. The Tao Feng elders and remaining disciples quickly put up their guard. A group of fifty or so people slowly walked through the woodland areas of the mountain.

Fear and tension coursed through their being as they saw body after body cut to pieces.

"What is this?" one of the elders asked incredulously, "Could beasts have entered the mountain in all this chaos?"

"That's not possible", Zuo Er answered, "We still have some groups outside of the mountain. They would've alerted me if something went awry."

"But...what if they didn't have the chance?"

"This..." Zuo Er was confident in his planning but this was something he did not expect.

But he had no choice except to traverse through the mountain. He had no way of sending a group this large away from the scene. Such treasures were too difficult to obtain. As if it wouldn't get even worse, that long-forgotten humming of the ground returned as the barriers slowly recovered.

"Shit, what the hell is going on?" Zuo Er's mood took a turn for the worse as his face went gloomy.

"What do we do now?" everyone behind him muttered among themselves.

"We leave though the main gates. Don't forget that I still hold the cards here, I doubt they will stop us with their precious leaders in my hands", he looked back before walking forward.

As they gradually made their way down the mountain, those that weren't within the arena started gathering together. Ming Yue was still no where to be found but the likes of Wen Jing, Xuan Han, and Dong Kuai were still active. Several of the guard patrols had managed to fight off the Tao Feng's onslaught.

While Wen Jing was looking for Ming Yue, the other two elders were busy with the barriers. More than one point of the formation had been dismantled and it was none other than Kuang Li who did it.

After destroying the first formation flag, he knew that it would not be enough delay the mending of the shields. He also knew that Ming Yue would hunt him down. The thought of this sent a small chill through his body. With that in mind, he had to get rid of her now. So he promised mission points and rare treasures to whomever defeated her.

"Hmph, let's see you survive this!" he thought to himself.

Ming Yue was a thorn in his mind and if Kuang Li wanted to improve himself, he needed to deal with her first.

Never would he had believe that he would end up in a situation like this, running for his life. Gasping for every breath of air and haggard from moving about, he no longer had that stoic appearance from before.

From behind, a shapeless shadow followed him from above, moving through the trees. He did not need to look back to know that it was her.

"Why is she still alive? How did she find me?" the thoughts raced through his mind.

After destroying another patrol with several other disciples of the Tao Feng, he got rid of the formation flag and prepared to move on. Suddenly their surroundings turned silent and each one of them felt a stare from behind. It felt piercing and the feeling drilled into their very core.

Then Ming Yue appeared. Like a ghost, she walked slowly and her aura was almost non-existent. The sword in her hand was stained with blood, some of it still fresh and dripping from the edge.

It didn't take Kuang Li even a second to think before he ran off. The rest followed suit, running for their lives.

Perhaps this was his true nature, cowardly and fragile. He ran frantically, changing directions whenever he found a clear path. He didn't know where he was anymore, he barely even had the time to think. Clear Spring Mountain was filled with trees and numerous flora, it was difficult to maneuver through when all that one saw was a sea of branches and leaves.

The group slowly dwindled and disappeared, probably dead and it wasn't long until Kuang Li was alone with her.

Avoiding her strikes as best as he could, his body was riddled in small cuts and gashes. His dark violet uniform was ripped and covered in blood and dirt.

He sent out various attacks, breaking trees and trying to impede Ming Yue. The fear had overtaken him and he could no longer think properly. His concentration was scattered and his mind in disarray. After an hour of chasing, he slipped up. He failed to notice a sharp root sticking out of the ground and stepped on it.

"Aghh!" he yelped in pain and fell to the ground, clutching his foot.

That root punctured an inch wide hole through his boot and into his foot. It bled profusely and blood covered his hands. Kuang Li grit his teeth and looked at his injured foot. He tried to get up but couldn't, he could barely even move his other foot.

This was the end for him.

The feeling of crept closer than ever and what he feared the most had come. Ming Yue stood in front of him, just looking at Kuang Li's miserable state.

"Wait, wait, please let me live!" he cried out, quickly turning on his knees and kowtowing to her.

"I'll give you anything! In fact, if you join me in the Tao Feng, I promise that you will have access to everything treasure and technique. Just let me live, I beg you", he spoke as quickly as he could hoping that she would leave him.

Kuang Li looked up at Ming Yue and stared into her eyes.

"This..this..." he thought.

Her eyes were empty and emotionless. Her face was calm and undisturbed. Nothing of what he said had gotten through to her. During that thought, Ming Yue struck, killing him quietly. In his last moments, Kuang Li's eyes seemed subdued. He had resigned to his fate.

If Ming Yue was fully conscious, she would feel nothing but disdain for him. For him to act so miserable was opposite of his character but what could she have known.

He was someone who strived for strength, obsessed with it. He was at a level higher than most of his peers, defeat was something he had long since forgotten. Yet Ming Yue changed all this, her actions sprouted fear in him. Her determination and sharpness rocked him. As much as he tried to forget her, he couldn't and suddenly his thirst for power was no longer genuine. Instead, it masked his fear of defeat. It clouded his thoughts and changed him but he disguised it, lying to himself and calling that fear "motivation" for him to push harder with his cultivation and his techniques.

He knew that unless he took care of Ming Yue once and for all, this fear would overtake him. Unfortunately, his willpower was too weak. He had a chance to kill her but squandered it running away to destroy more of the barrier's formation. Then he just offered a reward for whoever would kill her, not wanting to encounter her again. That fear was the end of him, his desire for power was nothing more than a mask.

Perhaps if he was not so narrow minded, so focused on being the best, that fear would not have taken place. He could have avoided this but he could not accept that he was afraid if a junior.

Ming Yue stared at his dead body before moving away.

"Ming Yue!"

From a distance, a voice called out for her but she did not hear it and vanished. Seconds later, Wen Jing arrived to Kuang Li's corpse with surprise and shock.

"This girl...what exactly happened to her?" she thought.

Wen Jing looked at the direction of where Ming Yue was headed. A kilometer of so away was the arena, it was strangely silent and Wen Jing could not sense the energy of Senior Qing, Vice Leader Lu, and the others.

"Something must have happened", she thought and quickly communicated with the Xuan Han and Dong Kuai through a jade talisman before moving towards the arena.