595: Preparing to Go

Preparing to Go

She had made her choice right then and there.0

It's been over a year since Ming Yue had landed on the Beast Continent and she truly didn't expect to be able to return so soon. But the cultivator didn't realize that her presence had accelerated the process. If not for her, the beast-kin would've needed decades to achieve what they currently had. 

They would have never been pushed if the Devouring Goose had not come. Even more so with the beast hordes that accompanied it. 

Not to mention, she had been cut the root of the Savage Land's power at its source, getting rid of the remnant Calamity Energy. The Savage Lands had grown weaker because of her. It wasn't surprising that the beast-kin had grown stronger. 

Ming Yue turned towards the stone slab that had been used as a place to eat. 

"I should bring this along with me as well. In case something happens."

She then looked back at the written message, checking the back to see if she had missed something else. 

"Hm, nothing. I should write back that I'll be keeping watch of this."

Thinking this, she quickly wrote down a message before handing it off to Xiao Yin. 

"That should be enough for them to know or allow them to guess at least." 

As the Star Owl left, Ming Yue stood up and stretched a bit, raising her hands up high. 

"Hnng, hah, what to do now?" she muttered to herself. 

Gazing around her current home, the young woman thought carefully about her next steps. If they were going to leave this place, some things had to be brought back. 

"Definitely the garden and the orchard, maybe not the house but what's inside them should be taken too. I'm sure those at Heaven's Gate would want the prayer mats and chairs. What else?" 

Making a few decisions here and there, she thought about the preparations that had to be made, mainly scouting. After all, she didn't know the exact location of any of the teleportation arrays.

"More than likely the arrays connecting the Beast Continent to the Human Continent is in the East, I just have to find out where."

A sigh left her mouth as she thought about the amount of work to be done. And after taking a closer look at this home of her, there was a slight tugging at her heart. She almost didn't want to go. 

In fact, she took another look at Hongyu, who was nearly done harvesting from the garden. There was a certain lightness in her step and energy coming from her movement, the child was happy. 

"Would she want to leave?"

Ming Yue asked herself this but she had no answer. The only way to find that out was to ask Hongyu, herself, and she did exactly that. Walking up to the girl as she was nearly done, Ming Yue knelt down, looking at her eye-to-eye. Hongyu looked at her with a pair of puzzled eyes. 

"Do you want to go to my home? Where I- where we're both from?" she asked. 

Hongyu only looked confused, pointing at the house beside them. 

"No, not this one, I mean leaving this continent, being with other humans?" she said to her. 

It took a moment for Hongyu to realize what Ming Yue meant, but there was a strange look on her face when she did. It was one of curiosity but also conflicted feelings. 

The child looked around their home before looking at Ming Yue, she pointed at everything. 

"I'll be bringing everything except for the house itself."

Hearing her answer, Hongyu was very still, holding a blank expression on her face. At that moment, the young woman felt as if something was wrong, her eyes were filled with worry. 

"Is something wrong? Do you not want to go?" she asked. 

The little girl's head shook as she looked down at the ground. Kneeling, she began to write on the dirt for Ming Yue. Looking closely, the young woman read the message word by word. 

"Wherever you go, I will follow. I will also miss our home." 

Reading it gave her mixed feelings, there was warmth but sadness at the same time. 

Hongyu looked up, there was a sad look on her face. No tears had yet to form in her eyes but Ming Yue could see the faintest trace of it. And she responded with a smile.

"I know, Hongyu. We'll both miss this place but I promise you that where we're going, you will like it just as much", she said to her. 

The child looked down once more but nodded. The tears slowly dried as she put out a smile on her face. 

"Alright, come on, let's go clean everything up and get ready."

Elsewhere a haggard group of beast-kin arrived at the city, they trudged forward and entered one of the main halls at the center of the city. Among them were several members of the Zodiac, namely, the Four Claws and Ao Qin were with them.

They did not go to where the Elders would gather but took a different path, entering a place that seemed much greater than where the Elders convened. As they walked in, they heard the sound of hurried steps as several individuals quickly walked toward them. 

"Ah! Finally, you all made it back! Where is it? Where is the key?! Where is the key that you obtained in the south?!"

Leading this group was none other than Lao Yang, whose voice was both loud and filled with excitement. 

"Relax, you old goat. We just got here, at least give everyone some time to breathe", Ao Qin retorted, gesturing towards the group. 

But the goat-kin merely ignored it. 

"Bah, you were just there to bring them back safely. It wasn't as if you were the one that cleared those ruins", he retorted. 

"Yo- at least give us a place to sit!"

The dragon-kin glared at him, even leaking out a bit of his power to try and scare the goat-kin. However, Lao Yang was unfazed, he barely even blinked before turning around. 

"Alright, alright, let's go into the archives. There's plenty of places for you to sit and we can get started on examining that key!" he said. 

He then walked off as a group of his peers followed closely. 

And the ragged group of beast-kin followed along. Together, they walked through a corridor that lead them into a massive room. Those who had never been there were simply awestruck by it. 

There were several workbenches with artifacts on them and piles of books surrounding each one. And many Scholars were scattered around, each of them doing their own little project. Some were deciphering pages, others pieced remnants together. However, the most eye-catching part was the walls which weren't walls at all but shelves filled with various scrolls, each one detailing their findings from the ruins. 

Lao Yang glanced back to see their widened eyes.

"What? Never been to the Archives?" he chuckled. 

"This entire room is where we process, record, and store all of the things that the Expedition Division finds. Of course, anything that Preservation or Reclamation finds comes to us as well. It doesn't matter what the item is, we have to have a look at it before anything else", the goat-kin explained. 

Leading them through the room, the group stopped in front of an incredibly messy workbench, one topped with piles of documents and random trinkets still covered in dust or broken in some way. 

Looking at it, Lao Yang hopped onto the table and began pushing things aside, making space in middle for the Teleportation Array key. 

Standing there, he turned around and looked at them with a grin. 

"Now then, show me the key!"

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