Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

Chapter 538 – Blades That Cannot Be Seen

She gazed all around, finding that the walls were covered by hundreds if not thousands of sword slashes. In fact, it was probably much more than that. 

"This room must've been smaller than before, it just expanded by the constant training, Whoever used this place, practiced so much that they shaved away at the walls to the point where they don't even exist anymore!" she realized. 

But that wasn't all that Ming Yue found. 

There was a certain energy permeating the walls, sharp and swift, resembling that of the Sword Dao. 

Although she was excited, she quickly realized something else. 

"Whoever trained here was weaker than me but their understanding of the Sword Dao is greater than mine. I could gain from practicing here", she thought to herself. 

Ming Yue continued to look at the room, studying all of the strikes until she was satisfied. There were thousands of them to study from, some she understood while others she found interesting or unfathomable even. Some were connected to each other, others were just singular strikes. 

She needed more than just a single night to see it all. 

Walking out of the room, she closed it up and turned her attention back to the stacked stones. Gazing at it, she looked back at the hidden room. 

"Maybe, this is a smaller teleportation array. This… maybe all of this is someone's secret hideout. It would explain the pulling feeling, wouldn't it? Pulling two places together…" she thought. 

Xue Yue the spoke. 

"If that's the case, where would the array take us? Would it even teleport us somewhere else?"

Ming Yue slowly stepped towards the stacked stone. 

"It must lead to one of the ruins. It shouldn't be any that are too far away but one relatively close to us."

Stopping right in front of it, she knelt down and moved her hand to touch the stone formation. Her other hand held onto Blood Moon tightly as her fingers moved closer. And then, they touched, Ming Yue grazed the stones with her finger tips and the stones suddenly hummed with power. 

Her surroundings began to shimmer away as light enveloped her, covering her sight. Moments later, it darkened and Ming Yue uncovered them, taking a good look at where she was. 

And it was nothing but darkness and silence. 

"Where am I now?" she thought quietly. 

Slowly but surely, her eyes adjusted to the darkness, seeing the outlines of a room. Under Xue Yue's control, Blood Moon released a gentle red glow to help. As it illuminated the room, it faintly revealed the outlines of blades hanging on the walls. All of them were of a black sheen, reflecting the red glow back at Ming Yue. 

It wasn't just one or two blades but over a hundred of them, each one had a different shape. Long, short, wide, thin, some were sabers, others were knives, there were even blades of strange designs. 

"So the Stone Formation took me here, why did it not transport the others? Was it because they did not have the Sword Dao?"

Her eyes slowly panned around the room, examining all of the blades as she waved her own. 

It was quiet, extremely silent at this moment. 

As she got a good look at the room, Ming Yue noticed something strange about it all. 

"There's no door… Why is there no door here?" she muttered. 

What she noticed was true, there was no exit from this room. There was nothing but weapons covering all four walls, hanging from pegs. 

"Could this be a tr-"

As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she felt each and every weapon in this room tremble as if waking from their sleep. A shiver went down her spine as the feeling of danger grew from within.

There was a ring and a howl as something came for her!

"Shit!"

The young cultivator moved swiftly, bringing her sword up to deflect this invisible strike. But then another came, flying towards her from another direction and she spun to deflect it as well. And then more and more followed until there was a constant stream of attacks coming from every direction. 

"So this was a trap!" 

Ming Yue moved quickly, blocking the strikes that she could and avoiding the ones that she could not. After all, not all of them were the same, some were slower and heavier while others were quick and light. It also didn't help that these attacks were invisible. 

She thought quickly as she continued to persevere in her predicament, having activated her armor as well. And just when the situation couldn't get worse, the attacks went up a notch, No longer were they normal strikes but techniques involving other daos. Lightning strikes, blazing fires, rushing water, it was like she was getting attacked by dozens of experts, each one specializing in a different weapon, a different style.

"There's more to this, isn't there? This can't just be a simple trap!"

Her eyes darted from one direction to another, searching for a way out of this mess. 

"Damn, if there's no way out of this, I'll make one."

Gritting her teeth, she swung out Blood Moon releasing a wave of energy, pushing everything back for just a moment. And then a ghostly blue aura emerged from her body, her eyes even glowed with that very color. Compared to before, it had become more white than blue. 

"Pale Moon."

Having created an opening for herself, she took another swing, striking at one of the walls and carving through it. Blood Moon even shattered some of the weapons, turning them into shards. The attacks stopped but that wasn't all of it. 

Blood Moon released a howl that drowned out all of these weapons as if establishing its dominance of this room. 

Ming Yue's aura vanished as she looked into the crack in the wall. However, she furrowed her brows at what she saw. 

"It's just more stone, was this really just a trap? Is there a way out of this?" 

Turning around, Ming Yue carefully studied the room, going as far as to examine the weapons that haven't been destroyed. 

"Every trap can be disarmed, I just have to find it."

Looking through the corners and the cracks, it didn't take her long to find it. Near the top of the room above the ceiling was a dagger just slightly different from the other weapons. Rather than hanging on pegs, it was tied with a thin black string, quite thin but also durable. 

Pulling on it, she felt something click as the room trembled. 

Dropping down, Ming Yue saw one of the stone walls crack open, revealing another room. She walked through, deactivating her armor but holding Blood Moon tightly. For all she knew, she might be going from one trap to the next but thankfully, it wasn't so. 

Rather it was a bedroom, one with a table and a desk as well as a very familiar stone formation. 

Looking at it, the young woman couldn't help but feel a bit of annoyance as her eyes turned into a glare. 

"Ah, this damn thing, what if Hongyu was taken in?" she muttered to herself. 

Walking up to it, Ming Yue knelt down and continued glaring at it before standing back up. Moving her attention elsewhere, she began to examine this room, looking through the drawers and whatnot. 

Unfortunately, there was nothing to really find. It was completely empty as if no one lived here or rather, they left this place. 

"Nothing here…" she muttered. 

Her eyes then moved to the door leading outside of the room but she looked away, going back to the stone formation. 

"I'm pretty sure this will take me back, right?" 

Looking at it, Ming Yue knelt down to activate the formation until something caught her eye, A small glint of light, coming from under the bed. 

"What's that?"

Putting her hand forward, she gestured for it, pulling it towards her with a gentle breeze. 

"A small box? What could be inside?"