Maiden Of The Splitting Moon - Chapter 742: Tracking Him Down

At that very moment, she realized it.

“Someone was here.”

Knowing this, Ming Yue took a closer look at everything, looking for any clues but there wasn’t much.

“Most of these things haven’t been touched but there’s still a few things to note. Several things have been taken.”

She then walked outside to the side of the house, looking at the garden. The cultivator knelt down, checking the soil.

Digging into the dirt, Ming Yue grabbed a handful of it, breaking it apart with her fingers.

“Hm, after a year, this garden should’ve been nothing but grass and weeds but it’s still here. And there are faint signs of use when I was gone, traces of medicinal energy but there is no energy resembling the Evergreen Heart. So Senior Cheng Wei did come by here though he didn’t stay. This wasn’t secluded enough for him.”

The cultivator stood back up, checking out the rest of the clearing.

Both beasts had already scouted their surroundings, returning to her with no new findings. Ming Yue wasn’t bothered by that, she already found plenty of information coming here.

She stood there, gathering her thoughts together.

“He needs a place that is isolated from everything else, cut off from the rest of the world. Where could he go that would allow him to grow the Evergreen Heart without interruption? It should be spacious and it has to be in an area full of energy.”

Her eyes suddenly lit up as a location came to mind.

“The spires.”

She thought back to the black spires that reached up to the clouds, the same ones used to absorb the remnant Calamity Energy.

“That area still has plenty of it remaining. It’s past the mountains and those plateaus, aside from the one with the spires, the rest are practically giant forests. There aren’t any beasts or monsters there anymore either.”

The more she thought about it, the more likely this conclusion was.

“Where else could fit these conditions? There shouldn’t be another place. Mm, Xiao Yin, Hei Yue, we’re going.”

Making her decision, a blade of wind formed beside her to which she stepped onto it with the two beasts. With the trio onboard, they flew off, headed further North. It took less than a day for them to arrive but once there, she was met with a new problem.

“Right, there’s more than one plateau.”

Looking ahead, Ming Yue could easily see where the spires were. However, there was more than one plateau. In fact, there were dozens of them, all of which were practically identical to one another.

Needless to say, there was quite a lot for her to search through.

“Haah, let’s start with the closest one.”

She flew forward, dropping down into the middle of the plateau. Closing her eyes, the young cultivator allowed her senses to expanded, covering the entire area in a thin veil of her energy.

Moments later, she opened her eyes, revealing a disappointed look.

“Not here.”

She then moved on to the next one, doing the same thing. And the process repeated over and over again until she reached the tenth one. Just like the rest, Ming Yue didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary.

“There should be a better method to this, this will take too much time.”

Thinking this, she gauged the current situation, looking for a quicker way to find Cheng Wei.

“If he did plant the Evergreen Heart here, it would’ve started devouring whatever Calamity Energy remained. In doing so, it would spit out a different kind of energy, one filled with vitality. But if it’s Senior Cheng Wei, he might’ve used some method to mask it or contain it. Even then, he has no way of hiding the energy being absorbed. I just have to pinpoint where Calamity Energy is moving!”

Once she figured it out, the young cultivator put it to the test. Flying off the plateau with Xiao Yin and Hei Yue, they landed at the central plateau where the spires were. The heart of it was still the same as before, cracked and blackened from the last time she was here.

“If there is one point where I can sense all of the energy, it’d be here where it had gathered.”

With both beasts standing guard, she sat down and closed her eyes, concentrating on the task.

She focused on the energy gathered deep in the ground, searching for any wisps or strange movement. The sensation of the Calamity Energy was certainly weaker but it still had the same feeling, imposing and chaotic.

Fortunately or rather, surprisingly, she didn’t have to search far for it.

Her eyes snapped open as Ming Yue looked towards the east of the area.

“It’s there.”

She got up and flew off, leaving Xiao Yin and Hei Yue behind. Ming Yue was in a rush but what did she find that made her so?

“The roots, to think that the Evergreen Heart’s roots would expand in such a way. It didn’t just reach the core of the energy, it’s even taking over the interconnected roots of the trees. I didn’t notice it before because of the Calamity Energy but… this is dangerous, far too dangerous.”

Barely a minute passed before she landed on one of the plateaus, standing in the middle of all of the giant trees. It was dead silent but Ming Yue knew that she was in the right place.

“The Evergreen Heart’s energy… He must have constructed a barrier for the entire plateau, containing the energy of the Evergreen Heart within it. But since it’s contained, I won’t be able to find it that easily.”

Hiding her own presence, she began to explore the area, searching for Cheng Wei’s hideout.

Ming Yue didn’t dare spread her energy around if she wanted to risk alerting him. She looked scanned her surroundings, searching for anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

Soon enough, she heard some rustling, instantly stopping and hiding away. She peeked out of her hiding spot, seeing a hooded figure walking through the forest.

Without making another sound, Ming Yue followed them.

She did so until they stopped before one of the giant trees, uncovering a hidden door before entering the tree trunk. Waiting for just a moment or two, Ming Yue carefully opened the door and walked in, trying her best to stay hidden.

Things were dimly lit inside and the hooded figure was nowhere to be found. Even then, Ming Yue looked around before seeing a set of stairs that went underground. It wasn’t very deep, only several feet below the base of the tree where the walls were nothing but thick roots.

And then, she noticed the familiar green glow and the beating of power from the Evergreen Heart.

As Ming Yue came closer, she found herself inside a large underground room. On one side was that very tree, it wasn’t very big, closer to a sapling but she saw all of the different plants that had been added in.

It was a pretty sight though eerie.

The colorful display was contrasted by the beating energy which almost resembled that of a heart.

On the other side of the room, Ming Yue saw a worktable covered with plant shavings, cut stems, and torn flower petals. Seated there was none other than the Senior she had been searching for all this time.

But he didn’t notice her, the old man was focused on the work before him. He whittled away at the root of some plant, shaving off the skin with a small knife. But he froze the moment she called out to him.

“Senior Cheng Wei”, she said.

The old man stopped for a moment and then looked up but he did not face her.

“I knew that you were searching for me but I didn’t think that you’d find me so quickly, Ming Yue.”