Maiden Of The Splitting Moon - Chapter 720: Led Astray

With the four bodies on the ground, Ming Yue breathed out, relaxing for a few moments.

“That makes five”, she muttered.

Looking up, she checked her surrounding before doing the same thing that she did to the first.

Having tied them up, their bodies were tossed to the side of a nearby road and she moved on.

Heading in the direction of the ring, she took out the talisman, making sure that nothing had changed. And then it spun around, pointing in another direction before shaking in multiple directions.

“The talisman… we must’ve come close to the ring but for it to act like this. They must’ve used something to hide where it’s being hidden.”

Realizing this, she put the paper talisman away and searched with the two beasts.

Moving in the same location, the trio kept an eye out for anything strange. Whether it was a plant that seemed out of place or an empty space within a dense forest, anything that didn’t quite seem right, she investigated.

This went on for several hours up until the sun started to peek out of the horizon.

And then something caught her attention.

A branch snapped, causing her to spin around to chase after the noise. The sound didn’t quite seem right so she went to look.

“Could they be taking it away?” she wondered.

When the young cultivator reached the course of the sound, she saw a strange rock formation that seemed to have been dug out just recently. She quickly glanced around before checking for tracks.

“Xiao Yin, Hei Yue, can you find them?”

The two beasts cane to her side and started sniffing around before the Mistral Fox barked, pointing his nose towards the east.

“Good boy.”

She moved to scratch Hei Yue’s chin before running in that direction. Going at her top speed, she sped through the forest, the landscape blurred as she ignored everything else. And as she came closer, the noise grew louder.

Rustling leaves, broken twigs, crushed grass, these sounds had become noticeable and erratic.

“Where are they?”

Her eyes darted around, looking for the slightest hint of a body.

And then something small came her way, she heard a sizzling sound as several bombs came into sight.

“Shit!”

Her blade moved as she lunged forward, cutting the ones directly in front of her before going past it. The other ones erupted into fiery explosions behind her, the force of which pushed her forward. But that was just the first of many obstacles as waves of varying traps came her way.

From smoke bombs to throwing knives, trip wires, flag formations, even the trees themselves were used, falling down just as she passed them. If that weren’t enough, spikes of ice came out from under her feet, threatening to impale her. Even walls rose up, blocking her path but she shattered them with a Wind Lance.

“The Dao of Ice, a master at it as well.”

Ming Yue did her best, avoiding everything as best she could but the sheer number of traps was troublesome. However, she knew she was going in the right direction.

“That’s them, isn’t it?”

She narrowed her eyes, focusing on a small silhouette running ahead of her. Their arm suddenly whipped out behind them and blades of clear ice shot toward her. She swung Blood Moon, shattering them to pieces.

Getting closer and closer, the cultivator took a better look, seeing a masked figure ahead of her. They seemed to be carrying something under on of their arms, a small wooden box.

“That must be where the ring is!”

Seeing it, her excitement grew as an electric blue light flashed in her eyes. Pale Moon came into play and her power surged. In a matter of seconds, their distance shortened until she was just a few meters away.

Ming Yue didn’t hesitate to make a move, attacking the Muhou Troupe Member with her sword. They barely avoided it, stepping off a nearby tree to get out of the way. But the Black Blade was thrust forward, piercing one of their calves!

The masked figure practically tripped and fell, rolling forward until they slammed into a tree trunk. There was a loud crack before they cried out in pain, struggling on the ground. She stopped before them, releasing Pale Moon.

She knelt down and grabbed the box, opening it to check its contents.

“Hm? It’s empty!”

To her surprise, the ring was nowhere to be found. She looked at the masked figure, crushing the little box to pieces.

“Where is it? Where are you taking the ring?!” she asked.

But there was no response. Instead, she heard something snap under the mask and the Muhou Troupe Member began to convulse. Foam trickled out of their mouth as they killed themselves with poison.

“Damn.”

She knelt down, checking their body but there was nothing on them aside from weapons. Ming Yue took an exasperated breath, standing back up. Taking a moment to think, she looked behind her before looking back at the dead corpse.

“So they were just luring me away from the real location. And since the talisman wasn’t working, they must’ve found out about it.”

The young woman clicked her tongue a few times, looking back in the direction she came from before turning back to the corpse.

“They were bringing me east, towards the city. Then that means that… it’s in the west.”

As the only conclusion she could come to, she turned back and went west. Meanwhile, two things were happening at once in two very different places.

“The Muhou Troupe? So it was them that did this to me. They cost quite a bit of money to hire so whoever did this is definitely not some ordinary bastard. But there aren’t too many people that have that sort of wealth. But the girl, since this information came from the group of experts, is she ahead of them?”

Back in the vast city of the Golden Treasure Kingdom, Steward Qu had his head down in front of the Splendid Goose who was sitting upright from his resting bed. Having told him about the Muhou Troupe, the poor steward waited for a response from him in silence.

And with his head down, he was able the sweat on his forehead and the anxious look on his face.

“Ah damn it! Why did they have to make me in charge of this case?! What kind of luck do I have?!” he asked himself.

And just when the silence felt like an eternity, he heard a chuckle coming from the Splendid Goose. Taking a peek, he saw the Splendid Goose taking a short stretch and cracking his wrists.

“Well then, time to find out who exactly is responsible for this.”

For the person in question, there was a carriage in the meadows west of the kingdom. It was large and imposing, blue in appearance with white accents. And next to the carriage was a chest, most likely full of money.

There was no one to carry the carriage or a horse to lead it but it was surrounded by uniformed guards, all of them carrying a sword at their waist. Each of them was an Earth Realm Cultivator who was close to the Sky Realm.

One could hear gentle tapping from within, it was quick, showing at least some impatience.

“Hmph, it’s almost time. Where is the Muhou Troupe? I did not prepare all of this money for them to be late. They better have that ring or I’ll have someone get rid of them.”

The voice was that of a young man, full of impatience and haughtiness. Was it a young master? Or someone with much more power than that? Whoever it was, they were confident enough in taking from the Splendid Goose.

Rather, they cared less about him and more about his treasure.