The First Pavilion

Leaving Ming Yue and the others, the group of six continued onward towards the next zone.

"Brother Baojun, are you going to let them off like that? That girl embarrassed you!" Hun Zao looked at him, a scornful tone could be heard from his words.

As for Baojun, his tyrannic eyes turned cold.

"It doesn't matter. I was going to use them as bait anyhow. It doesn't matter, this time we will gain entry to the Third Pavilion. However, a cursed girl and a lonely idiot, it doesn't matter if they have one more or ten more people, I'll teach them a lesson soon enough."

His smile curved upward into a chilling grin. He wasn't going to forget this meeting. As they ventured further into the garden, Ming Yue and the others pushed onward until night broke.

Gathered over a small campfire, Ming Yue looked over the map, examining the five pavilions.

"Is there anything more to these structures or are they just markers?" looking at Xukun, she wanted to see if there were any secrets.

"Those pavilions were former facilities used to refine medicines, so there are quite a fair bit of equipment in each one. However, such items resulted from old knowledge and using them would require an intense amount of research. Thus, they are untouched. Apart from that, you could find rare pills and the like though the first two pavilions are most likely empty. Coming here is an annual event and has been for the past hundred years or so. Real treasures could only be found in the final three pavilions."

As Xukun explained, Ming Yue looked back at her map, thinking about her objectives.

She definitely wanted to have a look at the tools used for refining medicine.

Throughout the night, Ming Yue took watch, swiftly moving onto the higher branches of a nearby tree. Time passed by quietly and day returned.

As predicted, they reached the first pavilion by the third day having encountered Vine Scaled Beetles and Iron Bite Ants. Sharing similar characteristics to the hornets, they were somewhat tough to cut through but their movements were simple. It wasn't extremely difficult to fight them.

Though after the encounter with the hornets, Ming Yue used her dagger quite a bit as well as the same tactics. Letting them charge at her while she stabbed it from behind and pulverized their insides with a violent sphere of wind. A technique which she had named, "Torrential Wind".

It wasn't necessary to use Drifting Sky yet, it would be saved for stronger beasts.

Upon their arrival to the pavilion, the trio were met with several groups who spent their time resting outside. Of course, there were those who entered the pavilion, either hoping for some forgotten treasure or studying the contents within.

"This is...quite beautiful", Anqing said.

While they had seen what each pavilion looked from the map, looking in person was much different. Built with stone and accented with green tiling on the roof, it was simply designed but gave a serene feeling. With no walls, it was supported by six pillars, positioned in a way that it formed a hexagon. With its age, there were vines wrapped around the pavilions, snaking its way to the roof. Moss grew at the base of each column, some even grew four feet up. Flowers of many colors surrounded it.

Large and spacious, over seventy people gathered here with plenty of room to spare. At the center was where no one laid for a trapdoor resided there. Most likely where the medicinal refining took place.

Still, this area seemed like a wonderful place to relax and gaze at the garden.

This was exactly what Anqing and Xukun did.

Finding some empty space, they sat and began planning the route to the third zone. Meanwhile, Ming Yue went towards the trapdoor. Made from wood and bolstered by iron plates, it was a small opening that revealed a ladder leading downwards. Climbing down, she entered a room much larger than the space above.

Several other people wandered around examining the equipment, none of them noticed her arrival.

Ming Yue followed suit, walking through the room slowly, looking at everything.

From cauldrons to strange metal structures, glass bottles laid scattered everywhere and faint wisps sweetness drifted about. Despite learning much about medicine, she could only guess what each contraption did.

"These little tubes... were they used to extract the pure essence of medical ingredients?" she wondered.

As she looked around, her eyes wandered towards a mortar and pestle, which seemed to have been dropped on the ground and forgotten. Perhaps, in the final moments, the garden had been evacuated.

Small in size, she could grasp it in her hands and she did just that. Holding it up to her eyes, she inspected the items.

Made of steel and stone, she could tell that it wasn't any ordinary item. The pestle was made with white colored stone, she could see the faint engravings on it. Rubbing her fingers through each groove, there was a faint energy within it. It was almost impossible to sense but she felt it for a moment.

There was something special about it.

"A treasure perhaps?" she thought to herself.

"Just take it. It's not like anyone else has use for it."

Xue Yue's flat tone had resolved Ming Yue to silently place it into her spatial ring. She went through the rest of the room before leaving.

As she returned to the surface, she saw Xukun shielding Anqing from who seemed to be Hun Zao. Hei Yue bared his fangs while Xiao Yin revealed her talons.

While she was pre-occupied, Li Baojun's group of Saber Hall disciples had arrived. Having seen Anqing and Xukun by themselves, Hun Zao saw fit to go and harass them. Though, it seemed that no one stopped him, not even Baojun himself.

Perhaps this lesson would begin now, maybe Baojun had changed his line of thinking.

Were these these really worth his time? It was probably better if one of his junior brothers dealt with it instead.

How embarrassing would that be?

To be defeated by an underling.

As these thoughts rolled through his head, Baojun couldn't help but smirk as he watched Hun Zao reach for his saber.

Unfortunately, these thoughts were just thoughts, none of this came to be true.

He could only watch with surprise as Hun Zao casually grabbed for his saber, only for someone's blade to meet his neck. No one could see it, they only saw a girl suddenly appear with her sword just barely scratching the neck.

Exactly who was she? How did she move so quickly?

"We are all on the same side. Is there a need to attack one another? Is there a need to target my people?"

Ming Yue's words cut into Hun Zao. Her emotionless voice seemed to bring nothing but fear within him.

If he wasn't careful, he would die. He didn't see her coming, not even the faintest clue of her existence. Yet, here she was, her sword ready to reap life.

"I-I-I was just playing around. After all, we're all on the same side right? Certainly, some humor is needed between comrades", he stuttered as he spoke, visibly quaking to his knees.

He was not ready to die just yet.

Seconds passed before the sword relaxed and disappeared. Ming Yue no longer stood behind him, instead standing with by Xukun.

"Should we get going?" she asked.

The two looked at her, surprised to see her right next to them.

"Oh, uh, yes we should."

They were slightly dumbfounded and Xukun led the way. Exiting the pavilion, they disappeared into the second zone.

Hun Zao returned to his group shaken. Baojun looked at him with dismay.

"Trash."

With that one word, Hun Zao mental fortitude took another hit as he looked up at Baojun, whose eyes were filled with nothing but disgust. He looked back down and moved himself to the back of the group.

"That girl...her cultivation is only at the first level, not even at the peak. How did she move like that?" Baojun thought.

Although Li Baojun was at the third stage of the Earth Realm, Sight, his eyes could barely track her.

Defeating Ming Yue would take quite the effort.

Who would've known that she practiced every day for hours to hone her skills. Not to mention, passing into the Earth Realm had greatly improved her ability. After hearing of what she did in Clear Spring Mountain, she practiced hard and even conversed with Xue Yue about how to improve her movement. She was simply of a different league compared to when she was at the Human Realm.