Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

Chapter 550 – Order Of The Astral Sword

"The White Sword's Remains!"

Ming Yue quickly realized when she saw this terrifying being. 

"It's just like the Four Claws described it to be, a dragon made of swords! To think I'd be here of all places!"

Realizing where she was, the young woman made herself as unnoticeable as she could. Her steps were quiet and small, her aura was practically gone, her breath was gentle. Fortunately, she hadn't stepped onto this floor yet, just a step before, hiding behind a dusty stone counter. 

And the dragon seemed to be asleep, the floating swords floated together every so slightly. There was a chime as the countless swords moved. 

"What are those swords?"

Still hidden behind, the dragon was the first thing she looked at. 

It was large, incredibly so. Even within this great hall, the coiled dragon made it look like a child's room. It was certainly not as big as the World Serpent but it was terrifying nevertheless. 

And the swords that made up its body were all quite strange, both in shape and design. They were completely white, a pure white color. Each sword seemed to be one single piece. The guard and the pommel were just an embossing, metal being pulled out by just a bit. 

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"Xue Yue, what do you think of those swords?" she asked. 

Blood Moon was completely quiet as Ming Yue's counterpart spoke softly. 

"Against one or two, I could snap those things like twigs but… that has to be over a hundred thousand swords making up its body. Against all of that, I'm not so sure."

Such a thing was right, as powerful as Blood Moon was, this was a dragon made completely of swords. 

"They said that it was faster than them… If that's the case, is it faster than me? No, perhaps there is a gimmick to it. Could it self repair? Are there other swords? A formation of some sort perhaps? Or a core piece?" 

Her eyes ran down the dragon's body, trying to find anything remotely similar but it was for naught. 

"Ah damn, maybe there's another sword just like the one that the Four Claws found", she thought. 

But then Ming Yue shook her head and went back down the stairs. 

"If it hasn't sensed me yet, I'm still safe. I'd rather not get chased and have it destroy these ruins."

While a part of her wanted to challenge it, doing so would most certainly ruin the opportunity that she now had. Other than this giant hall and the floors she had already searched, there were still sixteen floors for her to see. Some were small and straightforward while others were almost maze-like. 

"I suppose I should go through the second and eighth floors first. those are probably the least dangerous compared to the thirteenth to twentieth."

With that, she went down to the second floor, which was a smaller room than what she had just seen. But there were wooden cabinets covering the entire floor. At least several dozen of them in fact, lined up, possibly still containing something. 

"Let's have a look."

Entering this floor, Ming Yue wandered around, opening the cabinet at random. But all she had to do was open the first one to know what the rest would contain. Pulling out the first cabinet that caught her eye, she peered into it to find that it was filled to the brim with papers, all of which were kept pristine and clean. 

"What's this?" 

Gently, she took out the first few and started to read them. 

"Mission: Kill a Red-Winged Sparrow. 

Head three hundred kilometers to the south and hunt down the beast. The deadline to complete is three weeks. The reward for success is one hundred points, failure will deduct two hundred from your balance. 

Order of the Astral Sword

Result: Success – Rank 2 Member, Su Qing, completed the task in one week, two days."

"Mission: Collect a Sun-Tipped Grass

Head forty kilometers to the west to collect this herb, The deadline to complete is one week. The reward for success is twenty points, failure will deduct thirty points. 

Order of the Astral Sword

Result: Failure – Rank 1 Member, Fang Yu, died during their journey there. killed by a beast."

Looking through the entire cabinet, they were all the same thing, records of missions and their attempts. Failure or success, all of it was recorded on these papers. But there was another detail that these documents shared, something that caught her eye. 

"Order of the Astral Sword… This name… I wonder if they're related…" 

There was a feeling within her but she wasn't sure yet. There was simply too little information to go off of and the chances that those two things were connected were very low. 

But there was still a chance that she was right. 

"Are all of the cabinets like this as well?" 

Asking herself this, Ming Yue began to check the other cabinets, opening them to see more papers and skimming through a few for each one. 

"It's just all records, missions, events, supplies… So where would higher-ranked missions be? Wherever they are, the more sensitive information should be nearby too." 

Checking through, she saw missions for Rank 1, 2, 3, and 4. But there was still one more row of cabinets that she had yet to check through. And it was in this row that she found what she was looking for. 

"Rank 5 missions… So where would the corresponding information be?" 

Quickly scanning through the cabinets, the young woman came upon the last two cabinets. Both of which didn't seem to open that easily.

"it's locked… Both physically and through some sort of small array. How should I do this?" she wondered. 

The two cabinets before her were chained up and contained etchings of some kind. Although Ming Yue could touch it without any issue, something told her that opening them would be troublesome. 

"Just cut through it", Xue Yue told her, "Put a bit of power into it and Blood Moon should be able to break it down." 

"Are you sure?" she asked, "We can just do that?" 

"How long do you think these cabinets have been locked for? Do you think those arrays wouldn't deteriorate? They're still working but it's very weak. I'm certain that we can break through it." 

With Xue Yue's affirmation, Ming Yue unsheathed her sword and pointed it at the two cabinets. Each of them was about as tall as her and wider than her own body. A bit of power welled up and coursed through the blade, giving it a very soft red glow. 

She swung out in an instant before quickly sheathing her blade. 

The next moment, there was a crisp ring as the chains fall to the ground and the array was broken.

"Oh, that wasn't so difficult", she thought to herself, "I thought, it wouldn't break."

Looking at the two cabinets, Ming Yue moved to open them, taking out what was inside. But compared to the other ones, these two were not as full, amounting to a quarter of what the other cabinets had.

After opening and reading through all of the documents, it didn't take too long and by the end, she looked up with an expression of clarity, knowing now what this place was and what had happened. 

"To think that these ruins were a secret society of sorts, with missions ranging from collecting simple herbs to killing other powerful experts. Controlling the world from the shadows only to be destroyed by the Calamity. Those who could even survive had no choice but to turn insane. And this is the origin of the Lunar Executioner, but to think the origin of that name had more to it, so much more."

Those few documents had so shocking information, much more than she let on. But before Ming Yue had time to digest it all, she heard a noise and whipped her head around.

It was the clinking of sword and then, a resonant howl!