Maiden Of The Splitting Moon - Chapter 730: Revisiting The Ruins

Stepping out of his dwelling, Senior Cheng Wei checked his surroundings before looking behind him. He quickly moved, covering up any traces before leaving.

Wherever he was, there were massive trees everywhere. His own home was at the base of one too. And it seemed that he was the only one here.

Wearing a cloak over himself, he walked away, heading for the Den, the same destination as Ming Yue.

But of course, she had to make a stop on the way with Elder Shen and Hongyu, the ruins where she found the little girl.

“This is where I found her, it is called the ‘Ruins of a Broken Banner’.”

From the outside, it looked exactly like what a fortress abandoned for thousands of years would look like. The walls were crumbling, but the snaking vines and thick moss covered much of the damage. For the most part, it wasn’t damaged from battle but time. The stone was worn down, the gates had rusted, and there were cobwebs in many nooks and crannies.

Hanging from the top of the walls were banners but all of them had been ripped apart, leaving barely anything recognizable. Strangely enough, it wasn’t as damaged as Ming Yue thought it’d be.

“Hmm, did the fight with the Amaranthine Lion end in a draw? I had assumed that this place would be completely destroyed”, she thought to herself.

Indeed, it was an experience she could not forget. While escaping the fortress with Hongyu, it had transformed into a giant golem that fought fiercely against a Savage Beast.

“Thankfully, it was only the levels above ground that were part of the golem. The underground floors should be untouched.”

While the Elder carefully looked at it, Hongyu clung to Ming Yue’s side. The woman looked down, seeing the little girl staring at the ruins nervously. She wrapped her arm around the child’s shoulders, comforting her before entering.

And the four beasts all spread out, looking around the fortress and scouting it out.*

“I had come here under a promise, this fortress used to house an army. There were several storerooms that had all sorts of equipment but it had all been abandoned”, she told the elder.

His eyes darted around as he stroked his beard.

“Is that so? I can sense traces of a few formations though they’ve been broken. Where exactly did you find Hongyu then?” he asked.

Ming Yue took them to the entrance that lead underground.

“It was said that shadowing figures would appear, attacking those that tried to descend. But… when I went down, nothing happened”, she said.

Elder Shen stepped forward, studying the entranceway closely. Furrowing his brows, he looked at every crack and crevice of the stone frame. And then he walked down a few steps, looking all around him.

“This is…peculiar. I find traces of a formation here but from the looks of it, this was meant to allow only a select few to enter. However, with the fortress abandoned and the very foundations fading, it had been compromised. It must not have been able to tell who you were, just what you are”, he deduced.

“Right, because I’m a human.”

Although Ming Yue had figured this out the first time, Elder Shen had confirmed it for her.

“But it’s strange, you see, aside from this formation, there also seems to be contraptions in place. As for what it’s for, I cannot be sure, we’d have to descend to investigate”, he said.

The young woman nodded and walked forward before stopping, turning her attention to the little girl.

“Hongyu, you don’t have to come down if you don’t want to. You can stay here with Xiao Yin and the others”, she told her.

Hongyu looked up at her with concern, holding the woman’s clothes a little more tightly.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be gone for long. It’ll only be for a few minutes, I promise.”

The little girl continued to look at her before looking away.

“Okay.”

She spoke very softly, letting go of Ming Yue and walking over to Liang Wei’s side, The Twin-Tailed Mao purred before wrapping itself around the little girl, comforting her.

The young cultivator gave one more look to Hongyu before descending the stairs.

As they went down the stairs, the duo entered a massive room filled with empty wooden boxes. Furthermore, the broken floor had been carved into one large formation.

“Hm, a teleportation array and by the look of it, it looks like one of the Continent Teleportation Arrays. Albeit a little bit smaller, they must’ve used this to… escape? Or was this just a means of transporting supplies? Interesting, how interesting.”

Elder Shen moved around with a somewhat excited bounce to his step.

He suddenly stopped, looking at one particular spot before moving to a few other points.

“Thus really is quite peculiar, the way everything is constructed, it’s very… secretive.”

“Secretive? In what way?”

Hearing him say this, Ming Yue grew curious, wondering what he meant by those words.

Elder Shen looked up at her before pointing at the formation.

“If you look over there and at these other points, this array functions in two ways. One way is at full power, transporting massive amounts of supplies or a lot of people. But the second is a lower power level for transporting less. The fact that it has this function means that it wasn’t just used to transfer supplies. It must’ve been used for other things as well. On top of that, since it’s underground, I doubt even regular soldiers residing in the castle would notice the array being used.”

Ming Yue followed where his finger pointed at. But as someone who didn’t study formations, she had no idea what she was looking for.

“I see.”

She only nodded and listened.

“I wonder what they were transporting in secret?” Elder Shen muttered.

He continued to look around, even double-checking the emptied boxes out of curiosity.

After a while, he seemed satisfied enough from studying it and proceeded to go down once more. From here, the stairs continued to brighten as they went down, going through an endless number of sites before finally stopping at the end.

And instead of the giant room from the previous floor, it was a narrow hallway with a door that had been sliced in half.

The Elder stopped at the bottom of the steps, looking forward and the door before turning around to face Ming Yue.

“Is that it?” he asked, “Is that where you found Hongyu?”

She nodded and answered, pointing at it.

“Right behind that door.”

He turned back around, looked at the door, and then walked forward. Approaching the door, Elder Shen moved it out of the way before walking in and Ming Yue followed in after. While the room was dark, Ming Yue was prepared, holding a torch up to illuminate it.

It was a room that had nothing except for the stone bed that she found Hongyu lying on.

“This is it, she was right here, laying there asleep.”

The Elder walked forward, putting a hand on the surface and letting his fingers run through. Lifting them up, he looked at his fingertips before checking out the rest of the room.

“Hm, a room with no light and only a stone bed. It’s cold to the touch, must’ve meant to keep her preserved. But that alone isn’t enough to keep her the way she is.”

His eyes narrowed as he looked at the walls more closely and then back at the stone bed.

“For a girl as young as her to stay that way for thousands of years asleep. Something else must be at play here. Did you very check this room?” he asked her.

Ming Yue shook her head.

“No, I saw her and decided to take her away as quickly as possible. I couldn’t imagine leaving her here to sleep.”

“Mm, this room must’ve been used to store her but if she was in a state like that then… this room isn’t just her storeroom.”