Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

Suddenly, Ming Yue felt slight pressure on her body but paid no attention to this.

"You must endure for as long as you can", said the registrations elder, "Your result will dictate whether or not you qualify."

As time passed, the pressure slowly increased. At one minute, Ming Yue was beginning to sweat. At the third minute, she could barely stand. The weight on her body was enormous but she still held on. It felt like she had two boulders on her shoulders pushing her down. However, she refused to collapse, she was determined to get the best possible result.

Even the elder was impressed with her performance. Not many could hold out as long as her, although this pressure tested their physical capabilities, it also tested their mental power as well. Soon, five minutes passed and the weight had become a mountain. At this point, she could no longer hold on and fell to her knees, signalling the end of the test. She hoped that she did not do bad and that she would be able to join the pavilion.

The Elder got up from his seat and helped her stand up. He set her down onto another seat and gave her some time to rest. After Ming Yue caught her breath, he told the receptionist to come in.

"She passed. Furthermore, put her in the Jade Fox rank", he said.

She was surprised, she didn't think that the girl would make it. Her previous assessment of Ming Yue changed and she brought her back to the counter to give her some paperwork.

"I didn't think that you could make it", she said, "and you even got into Jade Fox too, you must be really strong!"

Ming Yue didn't understand these terms as she filled out her form, which asked for her name, birthday, and current age.

Then the receptionist continued to explain the process of the Pavilion.

"Requests and our members are classified in the same ranking system: White Sparrow>Jade Fox>Bronze Bull>Black Turtle>White Tiger>Nine-Headed Phoenix >Azure Dragon> Royal Qilin.

Members are able to take missions of the same rank as well as one rank above and one below. In order to rank up, there is a yearly examination in order to reassess your strength and change your rank. All missions have rewards whether it is in the form of money or items. Furthermore, you will be awarded contribution points that you may use to exchange for skills, items, etc. If you fail however, you will lose twice the points and be forced to only take missions below your rank for a certain amount of time."

Ming Yue listened to all this and committed it to her memory as she gave in her paper. Minutes later, the receptionist came back with a jade token with her name etched on it and gave it to her.

"If you need any help please come ask but if you are looking for a mission, then check the walls for anything that fits."

Ming Yue took her token and looked at it before tying it to her robes and going to the wall. There was an enormous number of papers, detailing the missions. Each had a stamp on the top to designate its rank. She stopped at the jade fox section and began looking through. A fair amount of people were surprised to see her there but that was it. After all, The Jade Dragon Pavilion is never wrong with their rankings, furthermore there are numerous experts, she was just one of them.

After several minutes of deciding, she picked out 2 missions, one for herb collecting and another monster extermination. She brought the two to the counter and asked for these missions.

"Two Jade Fox Missions. You must travel the the base of Death Wind Mountain to find a rank 1, 100 year, Jade Dew Flower. Furthermore you are to find a village in that area that is being attacked by a rank 2 Snow Ape. The reward for these two missions combined is 150 gold coins, and 400 contribution points" said the receptionist.

Ming Yue had chosen these missions because they were in the same area, furthermore she is quite adept in medicinal plants and knew what a Jade Dew Flower was. As for the Snow Ape mission, she wanted to gain some experience killing different beasts, considering that she only killed wolves and the one snake. Immediately, she left and prepared to complete her missions.

After grabbing her things from the brothel, she said goodbye to the women at the brothel and left for Death Wind Mountain. But before reaching there, she would first go to the village to slay the Snow Ape. After several days, she finally reached her first destination. It was a small little village named, "Lotus Village." It was somewhat destitute and signs of damage were everywhere. There was a solemn look on her face when she saw this. As she entered, the villagers looked at her in fear and curiosity.

As she continued walking, an old man approached her.

"Are you here to kill the Snow Ape?" He asked.

She nodded, to his surprise and showed him her Jade Fox Token as proof of her identity. The man was skeptical but he had no other way out of this situation.

"I am the village chief, Tian Kun, our village has been attacked by the snow ape multiple times in the last several months. Although we tried to chase it away, the beast would always come back to steal our crops and kill us. Everyone has been living in fear and some have even left. If this continues any longer, we will no longer exist. We believe that the Snow Ape will come back in several days", he said.

After hearing all of this information, Ming Yue thought for a bit before asking the village chief where the ape resides.

"You want to kill it at it's own dwelling!?" he said incredulously.

She nodded and asked again, waiting for his reply.

"It...lives in a cave west of here. We had followed it the second time we were attacked but by the time we followed it to its home, the snow ape attacked us. It knew that we were following it and killed some of us as we tried to escape. Out of 20 men that followed, only 5 survived", said the village chief.

Ming Yue understood that the Snow Ape was somewhat intelligent, considering the circumstances, the best way to defeat it would be to ambush the beast. After Ming Yue had her directions she went for the cave and waited nearby. Hours later, she saw the snow ape leave its abode. It was 2 meters tall and had white fur. There was a ferocious look on its face as it looked around before leaving its home.

She started following it and realized that the it was heading for the village!