Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

"Pah, they were not perfect, I could just make better ones. Although, the effort and treasures I used might have been wasted now."

Dai Mian brushed them off like dust off his shoulder. All that pride that he had shown earlier was gone, as if the Immortal Army's value was lost the moment they failed. 

"Even if they lost, what can your comrades possibly do? Even if they storm the fortress, they will not be able to leave with their lives."

The Grand Elder sharpened his eyes and glanced towards the two elders with him, motioning them to back off. 

They nodded and descended down, back to the others and left the Grand Elder alone with Dai Mian. 

The Grand Elder looked at him. His eyes sharpened as he moved silently, forming a sphere of light in his hand.

"I did not want to do this. I had hoped that I could have brought you back tot he High Council but it seems that such a thing would not happen. It is a good thing that the Elders have brought me enough time."

The Grand Elder's face was stone cold as he began his attack. 

The sky darkened all around the Merciless Storm Peak as the domains of Dai Mian and the Grand Elder stopped clashing. Rather, the Grand Elder's phenomena of a star-lit sky suddenly vanished, leaving only darkness that seemed to meld into Dai Mian's Death Energy. Rather, it had absorbed his domain. 

If the chaotic energy of the mountains could barely intrude, now it could not enter at all. This was truly a world of its own. 

At this moment, the world seemed to have stopped for a moment. It seemed to have lost all of its color, devoured by the eminent darkness of the Grand Elder's. It was pure, like the bottom of an endless abyss, untainted by something like blood and war. 

"What? What are you planning?"

Dai Mian tried to move but found that he could not do so. Under the presense of this ever-expanding darkness, he was nothing but flicker of light. He could not move and this frightened him. He did not expect something like this, the aura his student exuded and the path that was taken to reach this stage. 

"That which has become dark, makes the light ever so bright. The Northern Star leads the way through the nightly sea, upon which the path is shown, life is brought forth."

The sphere of light suddenly condensed until it was the size of a pea, rather it condensed into a single point. It was infinitely smaller and just as bright. 

In this world of darkness, the only source of light, of color was that small light floating on the palm of the Grand Elder. As he spoke those words, he blew a small breath at the tiny piece light that intensified in brightness as it flew out. 

"Beginning of Life, the Cycle Restarts."

That pea sized light slowly moved towards Dai Mian, glowing brighter and brighter as it slowly lit this deathly world with light. 

It stopped just inches away in front of him. 

"This..." 

He looked towards the Grand Elder, noticing that he was not there. It was just him, alone in this darkness. Fear began to rise up, different from the fear he exuded. It was slow, almost torturous even. Even for someone like him, Dai Mian felt it and he knew that death came for him. 

There was only this speck of blinding light right in front of him. 

It slowly made its way to him and entered through his chest. 

"What.. is this feeling? It's calming. What did you do? Where are you?! What did you do to me?!"

There was no pain as the energy moved to his heart and stopped. Slowly, it began to melt away, flowing through his veins and meridians. It was a warm feeling, one that encompassed his entire body. To some degree, it comforted him in this moment. Then, in an instant, the energy grew wild and to condensed power could no longer be contained and it burst out.

"Aghhhhh!" 

All he could do was scream in pain as he felt his body being ripped apart. 

"You think you've killed me with this? You are mistaken! I prepared for decades to destroy the calamity! This is nothing! Nothing!"

As Dai Mian shouted, light shone through his body. The shadowy armor he was so proud of began to crack and fragments of light appeared. Then all at once, it disintegrated and his entire being was engulfed in light as it spread to the edges of the Grand Elder's Domain. 

The Grand Elder left the battle and joined the others. Above them was a massive black sphere, his domain that now kept Dai Mian contained. He turned around and glanced at where his former master was before moving towards the fortress. 

As for the black sphere, it shattered to pieces, leaving a decimated body to fall. Black ooze seeped from the wounds as Dai Mian's broken body laid on the ground. He no longer moved and no longer lived.

"Quickly, let's go!"

The Grand Elder did not spare another glance at his former master. In his eyes, Dai Mian was only another dead body. He looked at everyone before noticing Ming Yue and Hua Xiong with everyone.

Elder Xiang stood in front of them with a surprised look on his face. 

"What are you doing here? Don't tell me you came on a whim with your little friend here and don't even think about lying to me!"

He spoke with an incredulous and scolding tone, as if a parent was reprimanding their child. 

The others looked at him befroe looking back at Ming Yue's group. 

"You know them?" they asked. 

Elder Xiang turned around, looking at all of the curious experts.

"Introduce yourself to them and then explain to me why you're here", he said. 

The Grand Elder then placed his hand out and stopped the conversation. 

"We will have plenty of time to ask these two after this. She is a member of Heaven's Gate and she is her comrade. Let us enter the fortress and see the situation. If I am correct, Elder Kan's Team is in grave danger."

The others looked towards him and nodded, but not before giving another look at the two young cultivators. 

Together, they entered the black castle, rushing into the main hall. 

"Stop! Do not come any closer!"

The clear and resounding voice of a women echoed out, warning them not to walk even further. From where they stood, they saw the situation within and it was just as chaotic if not more so. 

With her giant spike club, Elder Kan batted away numerous shadowy figures as the hundred or so varying disciples took on a defensive position. All of them took a single corner of the hall next to the throne, protecting the formation masters and other artificers as they tried to dispel all of this. 

There were chains wrapped around their wrists and ankles, shadowy apparitions that kept rising form the ground, armed with swords and sabers. On the floor was a glowing formation, an intricate one that seemed all too strange to decipher. But it was glowing a silvery color as pressure was exerted on everyone within it. 

"They're trapped in several formations, getting in is difficult but escaping is much more difficult. If they want to do so, they must dispel the master formation which must be why they're in that corner over there."

The Grand Elder explained as he scanned the hall and looked at their positioning. 

As for Elder Kan, she could only give a quick nod before focusing on the fight. As of now, her strength was beginning to falter as the chains continued to siphon her energy. 

Then the four beasts of Master Qi's Heavenly Beasts Mirror roared out as they continued to decipher the Immortal Severing Formation. All of the masters worked as quickly as they could, thye faces haggard as each piece they unlocked took their energy. 

But the one who sacrificed the most was undoubtedly Master Qi. His manic energy from before was replaced with weak feebleness. His appearance took on a drastic change, much more wrinkles and a thinner body. It looked as if he aged a decade in only an hour and that was exactly what happened. 

'Damn it, hurry it up! I don't have many years left!" he shouted out.