Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

"Some areas are still intact?" he muttered to himself     

He stood quickly up, running towards the chasm without his walking stick.      

"Wait, elder!"      

The other two scholars followed after, dropping what they were doing. Despite their young age, they couldn't quite catch up as this elderly goat practically jumped down, grabbing ahold of the rope.      

In a matter of seconds, Lao Yang reached the bottom where the dragon-kin and the others were.      

"Where is it? Where are the places?"      

His eyes were practically sparkling as he looked around, finding several hallways leading towards the untouched rooms.      

"Hah! We shouldn't waste any time then!"      

With the energy of a young goat, he hopped from one spot to another just as his proteges just arrived at the bottom. They were already out of breath by that time and they watched as he just effortlessly climbed up to the closest hallway, walking through it in glee.      

"I'll go follow him in."     

Ruishi Lei walked forward and jumped up, landing right before the same hallway. His figure melted into the shadows as he walked in. As for the others, they shared looks at each other before Ao Qin sighed, scratching the back of his head.      

"Alright, I'll bring one of you to a different room and you two can bring the other."     

They nodded, agreeing to the plan before splitting and going through the hallways.      

She Xing and the others, who were on the ground above, waited there and stood guard. Soon enough, the mouse-kin came back to this.      

"Oh, where is Lao Yang and the others?" he asked them.      

The snake-kin pointed down in the chasm where one could hear Lao Yang's echoing voice.     

"Ooh! Ooooohhhh! Oooohhh!"     

She looked at Shu Yi with a somewhat exasperated look.      

"This was all that we've been hearing since they've gone down. And it's been... close to half an hour already."     

"O-oh, I see."      

Shu Yi looked at the chasm, walking up to the edge and looking down. The mouse-kin could hear Lao Yang's excitement clearly and he turned around, sitting on the ground beside the others.      

"There doesn't seem to be any living thing around us so I guess we just wait for them then", he said.      

"Yep."     

After about ten minutes, Lao Yang emerged from the chasm with a happy face as did the other scholars. On the other hand, Ao Qin and the others came out with tired faces. Even Ruishi Lei, who barely showed any expression had a look of slight defeat on his face as well.      

"That... that felt like a long time", he muttered.      

Zhu Xie stretched out as he made it up, groaning while doing so.      

"Oh my, finally out of that dark room! It was quite cramped too!"     

With them finally coming out, She Xing and the others looked at them.      

"What did you find? Is there anything interesting?" Shu Yi asked.      

Lao Yang chuckled, looking down at the mouse-kin.      

"Of course, we found plenty of things! Although the ruins may have broken down, there was still plenty to find. Certainly, there were a few things to piece back together but nevertheless, there was plenty!"     

The goat-kin put his hand out, releasing all that he had acquired.      

They looked with interest only to find piles of documents and nothing more. The snake-kin then looked at Niu Hong and Qiang Rong who just shrugged.      

"There were no treasures", Qiang Rong explained, "And if there were, none of us saw it, this is all the three scholars found."     

She then looked at the ox-kin who nodded.      

"We didn't find anything but this."     

Lao Yang scoffed at this exchange, gathering the papers and tidying them up.      

"Bah! We don't need all of those treasures. I'm pretty sure you all got plenty of new toys since you all took down the Devouring Goose! But this... do you know what all of this is?"     

He asked aloud, looking at them all before answering his own question.      

"These are all records of their activities! Think of all the secrets that we could uncover! They may even have information about the other ruins!"     

"What about that key then? Did you find it?" Jin Nao asked.      

When she did, Lao Yang revealed a trace of disappointment as his smile slowly turned. He shook his head at her.      

"No, we didn't. We checked the rooms but there was nothing even remotely close to the description. But worry not, after all, there are supposedly four teleportation arrays on the continent. Including this one, there are four locations for the Order of the Astral Sword, surely the other ones will have one."     

After tidying the papers into a stack, he wrapped a string around them.      

"Alright, I suppose that about does it. The White Sword's Remains are officially cleared! Let's get back on the ship, I have quite a bit of reading to do", he said.      

With that, their business here was done, albeit ending without much excitement. Packing their things up and going back on the ship, Ruishi Lei looked back at the chasm and walked towards it.      

"I'm going to take one more look around to see if we missed anything", he said.      

Ao Qin looked at the lion-kin for a moment before turning away.      

"Be quick about it, I'd like to be back home as soon as possible."     

The dragon-kin watched as Ruishi Lei jumped down into the chasm. He narrowed his eyes but turned towards the ship, paying no more attention to the lion-kin. Several others also saw the exchange but didn't go any further than watching. Considering that they had already searched the place, it didn't seem likely that anything new was to be found.      

But Ruishi Lei just wanted to make sure.      

Landing at the bottom, the White Lion looked around before walking, scanning the area as he did. His eyes went from one place to another, searching for any details that may have been missed. However, it was just rubble and broken things, nothing that held any value.      

Still, Ruishi Lei was a diligent one, making sure to check every nook and cranny.      

After a while, his eyes sharpened as he stopped, looking at one particularly large boulder. On the surface was a small gash that didn't quite look right. Walking up to it, he placed a finger on the gash, feeling it.      

"This is no ordinary crack. This is from a sword!" he realized.      

The lion-kin then looked even closer at the surrounding area, trying to find more. He looked through several places, finding other bits and pieces, traces of a battle that occurred.      

"If there was a fight and we couldn't find the key, then whoever fought here must've taken it. And if they fought here, then they must've fought the Dragon of Swords", he thought.      

Certainly, his idea seemed possible but who could've done it? Ruishi Lei couldn't seem to think of anyone that was able.      

"They would have to be strong enough to defeat something that the Four Claws were helpless against. Someone who uses a sword as well... There may be one or two but it would be strange for them not to report it."     

It was a mystery for sure, something that he currently didn't have time to figure out.      

"Hey! Are you finished down there? If not, we're just going to leave you!"     

Ao Qin's voice echoed from above as the dragon-kin looked down at the chasm. Squinting a bit, he looked around for Ruishi Lei's figure.      

"It's getting quite dark, you know!" he shouted out.      

Moments later, a shadow emerged, jumping out of the chasm and landing right next to Ao Qin. The dragon-kin looked at him, moving his eys up and down.      

"Well, did you find anything?" he asked.      

Ruishi Lei looked at him, sharing a gaze before shaking his head.      

"No, I didn't."