Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

The situation within Clear Spring Mountain was unclear and at the center of it all was Ming Yue, a lowly Human Realm Cultivator.

With Zuo Er's plan coming into fruition, all he had to do now was leave the mountain with the unconscious bodies of the various leaders. However after leaving the arena, he had found that most of forces he brought have either retreated or died a bloody mess. With fear gripping him and his group, he must traverse the mountain and escape through the main gates for the barrier had been repaired.

Those that remained at the arena such as Lan Huang, Jing Hai, and many other young talents were knocked senseless by the mysterious bell that Zuo Er used.

Away from this area, the elders that Senior Qing sent out had begun moving back towards the arena. Dong Kuai and Xuan Han had repaired the barrier to a degree, replacing the formation flags and redoing the array. Wen Jing, who discovered the countless bodies caused by Ming Yue had gone to search for her. The disciples of the mountain stood guard of these points in order to make sure, it would not be tinkered with.

With everyone converging back to the arena, timing was critical.

It did not take long for the elders to return to the arena. There they saw numerous bodies laying on the floor. However, Du Hua's students had hidden themselves earlier and were now aiding the injured. Utilizing their energy, these girls quickly went to the heavily injured first.

Lei Jiang was the first to recover on his own due to the properties of his draconic blood. Jing Hai, and Lan Huang followed after with the Emperor's children Qiu Daohen and Qiu Xiahua. One by one the younger generation awakened, suffering a rather painful headache.

"Agh, my head", Lei Jiang groaned and rubbed his temples.

"Fucking bastard, I'm going to skewer him with arrows and roast him alive when I find him", Lan Huang followed after.

"Ugh...wait, where is he? Where is my father? Where did they go? Brother, what should we do?" Qiu Xiahua looked at her royal brother panicked.

Qiu Daohen was dumbstruck, unsure of what to say or what to do.

"Do not worry, our master has an amulet that we can use to track him", off to the side, Fisherman Wang's two disciples reassured the siblings that they would find Qiu Bing and the others.

His disciples, a girl and a boy, both fished out a talisman from their simple gray robes.

"He often wanders around so he gave us this jade talisman to use to track him down", said the girl.

"The old man is one annoying teacher but he has his moments", the other added on.

Xuan Han quickly walked through the arena and went to them.

"Is it possible to use it now?" he asked.

The two nodded and crushed one of the talismans into dust. After crumbling and a small white light appeared from its remains and started floating away. Upon its appearance, Xuan Han quickly followed it with the several others, namely Lei Jiang, Lan Huang, and Jing Hai. The three of them went to support the elder although, Lan Huang really did want to skewer Zuo Er.

As for Zuo Er himself, he was moving closer towards escape.

Step by step, he led his group through the gardens of the mountain. Having passed the wooded road down the mountain, everyone had begun to relax for a bit. Now that they were out in the open, it would be much easier to detect any attackers. Night was quickly approaching.

Passing by the little huts, the elders suddenly stopped and looked towards one of them. This small and ordinary hut built atop the edge of a cliff had a strange feeling coming off of it. However, there was no one there.

"Hmm, strange", one of them said.

Looking away from the hut, everyone refocused on the path in front of them only to find an old woman standing there.

The thin man with the spear walked forward and attacked. However, he struck nothing but air as the spear went through her like nothing.

"This is an illusion!" he exclaimed, "Someone is playing tricks on us!"

"Oh no, this is not a illusion", the old woman quickly silenced him.

"It is a bit similar, I'm more of a...strand of will, watching over the mountain. I'm unable to touch you much less stop you from leaving. It is quite disheartening that my true body is elsewhere or I would've smite you this very moment. Alas, I'm in the demon continent right now so it really is useless to just complain over this matter", she droned on and on for several minutes.

Zuo Er was already unhappy with the losses he had and now he was listening to an old woman ramble.

"Speak now or I will destroy you", he said, readying his sword.

"Oh gosh, the younger generation these days, so impatient. I'm just here to tell you something", she smiled as she spoke with a wizened tone.

"What? Speak now!", the elder with the spear pointed it at her.

"Hmm, not very bright are you? Well, I'm waiting for something to happen", the old woman looked past them as she spoke, "Oh look at that, she's here."

Before any of them could turn around, the sound of flesh being cut entered their ears. Zuo Er and the others found one of the young disciples staring down at his chest where a sword pierced straight through.

The poor soul trembled with wide opened eyes as he struggled to utter some sort of sentence. The sword slowly pulled back and he collapsed on the ground.

The one holding that blade was none other than Ming Yue, blankly staring as blood flowed from her victim's body.

"It's you!" Yen Fen said incredulously.

Zuo E looked at her in confusion.

Yen Fen pointed at her, "She's the one who attacked me, Zuo Er! That's Ming Yue!"

She looked at her disdainfully, "I'd like to see what you can do now bitch!"

Ming Yue looked into her eyes, chills went down Yen Fen's spine.

"Kill her, kill her...", those two words repeated in her mind as she looked at Yen Fen, the younger sister of Yen Hua and Yen Nu.

Killing Intent began to seep out. Of everyone in this group, she needed to die first.

Yen Fen looked at Zuo Er, clutching his arm.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, "Get rid of her now!"

Despite her pleas, he did not make a move.

"Everything will be alright", he looked at her confidently, "If I'm not wrong, she was the one behind all those killings we saw."

"What?" everyone found this hard to believe.

This girl here wasn't even at the Earth Realm, how could she have killed so many?

"If this is so, we should kill her immediately!" the spear wielding elder along with the others quickly pointed their weapons at her.

"Wait!" Zuo Er called out, "Don't kill her, she may prove to be useful. Don't forget none of us were able to detect her until it was too late. Think of her potential in the future, she could become a valuable asset."

"But..." Yen Fen was about to object when he shot a menacing glare at her.

"I've already used up so many resources for this", he said, "If I have the chance to lessen them, I must take it. Don't you dare say otherwise."

"Be careful with her, she seems to be in some strange state", he added, watching Ming Yue's movements.

"Hmph, let me try her out first! I don't believe that I can't take her down in ten moves", the spear wielding man walked forth proudly.

The others stepped back and watched.

"If it doesn't end in ten moves, I'm going to tell everyone you failed to subdue a human realm cultivator", the plump elder wielding the jade cleaver teased his partner.

"Hmph, wait and see! Now come and fight me!" the man stared at Ming Yue intensely.

She slowly walked forth and swung her sword out.. Moving quick enough to leave a faint afterimage, Ming Yue made the first move but it wasn't for him.