Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

"Just give me time!" he shouted, "As much as possible!"

Revealing this mirror, he began to chant and activate this special mirror which began to glow, shining a resplendent light onto the Immortal Severing Formation. 

"That's the Heavenly Beast's Mirror! To think that you would reveal it now!"

The others pointed and looked in shock. 

"Shut it and help me out! The faster we deal with this formation, the less years I'm going to have to sacrifice!" Master Qi barked out. 

As the Heavenly Beasts Mirror shined, Master Qi could feel his life force slowly drain as four beasts manifested. The Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise appeared. Known the Four Guardians, the Four Auspicious Beasts, they came with a regal and god-like aura. 

"Follow each beast! Wherever they go, you go and attack the points they stop at! Now hurry, I cannot use this cursed thing for very long!"

The four beasts split off and slowly revealed the intricacies of the formation. The other formation masters quickly followed after with their own tools and worked to quickly break the formation. Elder Kan noticed the commotion and immediately made orders to the others.

"Stay close together, stick to the defensive!"

 Everyone did as she said, especially those from Heaven's Gate, who knew and understood the authority she held. Everyone stuck close and grouped up, taking up an even smaller corner of the formation. It became easier to defend but the pressure did not disappear. 

"These fucking chains!" Tang Zhan yelled out, "At this rate, I'm going to die!"

She waved her lances wildly, trying the break the chains to no avail.

"Leave it, you're only going to waste your energy. You have to destroy the formation to get rid of the chains."

Zha Tian Yun looked at her seriously as he waved his sword around, light flashed as he fought off the shadowy demons. 

"Look at you, acting all humble now that you lost to that random girl, pathetic."

Tang Zhan spat out a few words but no longer bothered with the chains. Yu Hua only looked at them quietly while moving swiftly with her cleaver sword, hacking at the shadows. 

Zha Tian Yun looked at them before focusing on the task at hand. Indeed, he had changed after the tournament. Rather than focus on his cultivation, he instead worked on his mental state which had led him to Elder Shen, the same one that healed Ming Yue. 

Even without improving his cultivation, his mental state and greatly improved leading to smaller imrpovements on his comprehension and what not. Now he saw things in a clearer way and here, he knew just how grave the situation was. 

Indeed, the formation that exerted pressure on them and the one creating these shadowy demons were dangerous but the true danger was the one that created these chains. The Shackled Soul Formation created chains that which wrapped around one's wrists and ankles, siphoning thier energy from it. 

That energy would then go to empower the formation and make it stronger. Once no more energy could be taken, the life force would then be targeted. Even if one were to fall to the shadowy apparitions, 

With these three formations, a quick death was not going to happen. Rather, they would suffer a long one. At the beginning, one would feel hope that they could escape but the longer they struggle, the weaker that hope becomes. At their final moments, they would feel despair as they lose their strength. This was a slow and insidious death, a trap only a malevolent mind could think of. 

"Whoever created this...is not a sane man..." he thought. 

But Zha Tian Yun focused himself and worked together with the others to fend off the shadows. 

With battles raging inside and outside of the mountain, the commotion was massive. If one were to be careful, they could feel the tremors emanating from this fight but they would not be able to find the source of all this noise. 

That is, except for a blue ship soaring through the skies. In the few days that the Grand Elder set up this attack, the Blue Skies Ship flew through the clouds at their highest speed, carrying only two passengers. 

In the cracking thunder and rushing winds, the crew of the ship were at their highest guard, watching the storm and steering the ship carefully. Seated on the captain's chair was Captain Hai, who watched the Black Peak Mountains closely. His eyes furrowed as the ship neared closer.

"Something's not right, the storm is much more ferocious than it usually is. Something is restraining it..."

In the deak of the ship, Ming Yue and Hua Xiong readied themselves to leave at any moment. The former held Xiao Yin and Hei Yue tightly as she looked at the churning black skies. Her Changing Clouds Armor had already changed into its battle state. 

Her eyes narrowed at the sight of the Merciless Storm Peak just as Hua Xiong's eyes began to glow. 

"There's somehting happening at the top of the Merciless Storm Peak. There... seems to be a fight happening!"

"Yes..."

Ming Yue glanced at Hua Xiong before turning towards the peak. Examining it even closer, she could feel the clashing of energies. For the crew, they might have believed it to be from the heaven's itself but Ming Yue and Hua Xiong could discern it. The battling energies and the sense dread coming from this. 

"Do you think you can see whose fighting?" Ming Yue asked.

With Hua Xiong's abiity to see life forces, she should be able to see through the storms. She looked towards the battle only for her eyes to widen and for her to step back in shock. 

"There are two sides but one outnumbers the other by a large margin. But that side, they have the same time of life force as the remnants of Zuo Er. But more importantly are the two figures flying in the skies, at the center of the churning clouds. Do you see it? How it darkens suddenly, thats because of those two. The storm is restless because of their battle."

She spoke, pointing at the general direction of the Grand Elder and Dai Mian as well as the other points of battle on the mountain. 

"Then... that means someone is already attacking the Tao Feng! We should help!"

Ming Yue went into the cabin where Captain Hai and his crew were. 

"You can stop here, the rest of the way can be traveled on our own", she said. 

"Are you sure, young girl? We're nearly there", Captain Hai asked with a very serious experession.

The others looked surprised, they were already quite close to the base of the Merciless Storm Peak. Why would they stop now?

"The storm is different from the last time I came here. The cause of that is a battle at the very top of the Merciless Storm Peak, right under those spiraling black clouds."

Ming Yue moved to the front and pointed towards it. The churning sky that seemed almost alive was full of fury, sending down bolts of lightning constantly. 

"Really?! What sort of experts could have caused this to happen?!"

They crew was shocked, there was actually a battle under this great storm, fighting in a place where people came to die. Indeed, should they come even closer, they could become collateral. 

"If that is the case, farewell girl."

Captain Hai gave her a solemn salute as he knew that she was aiming for wherever that battle was. He could say nothing but send her off and pray that this group would live.

Ming Yue cupped her fists and left the cabin. She looked towards Hua Xiong who understood tha it was time to go. 

"Flying there is too dangerous but this might work."

Ming Yue opened her hands and conjured up a sword of wind, one dense and solid enough to hold her and the others. 

She jumped on to test it out, finding that it was stable enough to hold her. But to create such a thing, a tenth of her energy was used. Still, this way, they would be able to reach the Merciless Storm Peak in minutes. She looked back and shouted through the cracking thunder. 

"Let's go!"