Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

The moment her body exploded, Ming Yue found herself back inside the large hall, seated in front of the statue.

Staring at the beautiful sculpture, she found some words carved at the bottom of it. Slender strokes that had the same grace as the figure in the statue

"Yong Zi Zai, Sect Leader and Founder of the San Guang Sect, Fairy of the Radiant Moon. In her greatest battle, she fought her sister, Yong Zi You, the Lord General of the Xia, popularly known as the General of the Storm. After defeating her sister, Yong Zi Zai led her sect in a successful rebellion against the Xia Empire, forming her own alliance made from small kingdoms and other secular powers. It is said that her only regret in life was never being able to reconcile with her sister. She died within the grounds of her sect as the Warlord Age was nearing its end. Her famed Four Nights Swordplay was taught to future sect leaders but never executed at the level that she showed. Both sisters had reached the Immortal Rank before perishing."

"The Immortal Rank!" Ming Yue read, "That is a battle between Immortal Rank experts!"

It was nothing short of amazing!

To think that she had witnessed a battle between the strongest was an opportunity unlike any other.

She did not squander anymore time, taking out and eating her last Three Thought Pill. She sat down and began cultivating. If there was any good time to do so it would be now. Witnessing such a grand battle had given her much to think about not to mention, her body was beginning to show signs of breaking through. With all of these factors in play, she was almost certain that she could charge past the seventh level and into the eighth.

The Three Thought Pill boosted her mental capabilities by a large margin.

As her inner force cycled through her body, there were numerous minuscule cracks in her meridians and it dispersed into them. Breaking down and healing over and over again, her body experienced large amounts of pain as it began a new rebirth.

While her body continued to cultivate, her mind was busy tinkering away. She lacked understanding of the world, how it works, all of the little differences. What is thunder and lightning? Why do we have so many types of wind? How does fire work? Why does a sword cut the way it does? What do all of these things represent? In the end, what was the Dao?

All of these little intricacies, these mysteries of the world that she needed to understand, she calmly meditated on. She replayed the battle of the Yong Sisters over and over again, studying the way they moved. Experiencing something firsthand was over hundred times better than reading the words off of a book or listening to a lecture. The others were in a similar state, comprehending and cultivating. As time went by, they woke up one by one, returning to the entrance with the Six Pillars and the others. Only Ming Yue remained and the Violet Revenant watched her closely.

Her body exuded a red mist that circled around her. Her breath was slow and calm.

This was a sign of the eighth level!

The Human Realm was where cultivators refined their own bodies, ridding it of impurities and tempering it. As they progress from the first to the ninth level, the process becomes much more precise. From refining the skin and bones to each and every single fiber of her being, the seventh level refined her meridians while the eighth refined her blood.

The ninth level would refine the only thing that has yet to be touched, your own energy. By condensing it and filling the twelve meridians of the body, it would slowly condense into a more physical form. From its gaseous form, it would slowly become drops, filling those meridians like a bottle.

Right now, Ming Yue had just entered the eighth level and had considerable slowed down. With each breath, the bloody mist would return to her body, nourishing it.

Her eyes slowly opened, the aura in her body had rescinded. She was like a hidden blade, quiet yet ready. She had cultivated for a whole month, managing to achieve what would've been a year's worth.

She stood up and looked back at the statue before bowing in front of it and then bowing in front of the revenant. As she left the halls, the revenant smiled and relaxed itself.

"Finally, I have completed my duty" it said, before turning to dust.

She met up with the Six Pillars and Xuan Yin, who waited for her to finish. Lei Jiang and the others had already left, that haughty young master from before followed the Clear Spring Mountain disciples back to Rong Lu City.

According to them, that revenant was indeed the guardian of these halls and had a responsibility to find some good seedlings before resting. Clear Spring Mountain had known many secrets of the Bloody Plains and therefore sent their best disciples off to gain the revenant's approval. In order to do so, they used a bit of trickery giving the disciples a set of lanterns that would convert the bloody aura into power, luring the revenant to them. In the revenant's eyes, these lanterns were a part of the disciples and so they had sufficient power to enter.

However, the weakest disciple had fallen victim to the bloody mist, becoming violent and killing the young master's guards in a rampage. They tried to stop her but found it quite hard as she was one of their own. However the Revenant had come and knocked her out, judging her to be unfit and took everyone else. The Young Master had grabbed ahold of the lantern and was judged to be strong enough to come.

Everything after that, they had already known about.

That being said, this was truly a wonderful fortune that Xuan Yin and Ming Yue had walked upon.

Everyone packed up and left, judging from how long they've spent in the Bloody Plains. The phenomena should've ended and it would once again become the Bai Yan Plains.

Walking down that long hallway, the Six Pillars couldn't help but ask questions of what the two experienced. None of them were very envious of the two as martial arts was not their interest, they were all crafters at heart. But, it was always interesting to know what these experiences were like.

"It was amazing!" Xuan Yin explained excitedly, "It was as if I was in another realm, watching this great battle between a hunter and his prey. They fought in this giant forest and nearly destroyed half of it! Thanks to that, I think my strength has increased by a quarter. That hunter's skill was on another level. Even with such a opponent, he took control of the fight but that beast was no pushover, it was unfazed despite having hundreds of arrows pierced through its body. They fought for nine days before the hunter let out this extraordinary arrow. It transformed into a silver dragon that knocked away the beast and blew its neck out! What kind of power would someone need to replicate something like that?!"

All of them were greatly interested by her experience with one of the statues. According to Xuan Yin, this was nothing but a battle between legends. A level of skill and strength that has yet to be seen in the Sovereign Age.

After telling her story, she looked at Ming Yue, gesturing her to tell the everyone what she had seen.

"Yeah, what did you see? You were the last to find one and you were in a much deeper region too" said Mei Yuan.

"Really?" Xuan Yin looked at her with curiosity.

Everyone else was just as curious. As Ming Yue was about to tell them, they reached the exit and left the hidden realm.. Outside, the so called "Bloody Plains" had lost its crimson glow, becoming a verdant field of grass.