Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

As they walked into this floor, it began to illuminate itself, revealing a gentle glow. With this light, everyone took note of their surroundings, finding themselves standing within an enormous room. 

"This floor... what was the purpose of this place?" Ming Yue wondered. 

There were giant boxes stacked upon one another and there were piles of them everywhere. At least over a hundred of them within this floor, each one large enough to hold a house. 

The group spread out to look around. 

"The other squads say that these ruins were originally a fortress with the sole purpose of survival", said Niu Hong. 

"That sounds about right. Some of the papers I skimmed through were about preparing for the calamity." 

Yu Tu confirmed it to which Niu Hong continued on. 

"We should check these boxes and see what's inside. More than likely, these might be supplies like food and other resources", he said. 

Everyone nodded and split apart, hopping onto the top-most boxes. Taking her sword out, Ming Yue sliced through the top of the wooden box and peered into its contents. 

"These are... stones?" 

She looked in surprise as she saw dozens of differently sized and shaped boulders. Each one had strange engravings on the surface of the stone, like a formation of some sort. Moving on to another box, she cut it open only to find the same thing, strange boulders with engravings on them. 

Ming Yue looked at the Four Claws who showed confused looks on their faces. 

"These are just stones but they can't be any ordinary stones, can they?"

She Xing muttered as she stared at the contents of her box. Although she wanted to investigate, she restrained herself, knowing that it could fully activate whatever these stones were. 

"Huh, how strange!

Qiang Rong exclaimed as he studied the stones with his glowing eyes. He then hopped down and grabbed one of the smaller boulders, looking at it even more closely. 

"You! What are you doing? Are you trying to get us killed?" 

The snake woman glared at him as her words lashed out but he smirked at her while holding the stone up high for her to see. 

"Do you see it glowing? No. Because these are just pieces, broken pieces of a single formation. In fact, even if we were to put this all back together, it wouldn't activate because of how much power it would need to do so, and whatever this is... it needs a lot."

He told her before letting the piece drop back into the box, splitting it into a few more pieces. 

Qiang Rong then hopped down, surveying the entire floor with his glowing eyes. 

"It's all the same, broken pieces of stone that are all part of one thing. Although I don't even know what it could be. A statue perhaps? Who knows?" 

Landing back on the floor, everyone gathered together to discuss this new development. 

"Whatever these stones could be, we cannot bring all of it out, even with all of our spatial rings. What do you all think we should do?" asked Niu Hong, looking to them for ideas. 

"We could bring some of it back for the scholars to study. Maybe there's something in the archives?"

"That would be good, I'd love to get a closer look at some of these stones."

"Just grab as much as we can and leave the rest here! Or make multiple round trips!"

"You do know there is a reason why those stairs didn't react to us right?" 

"We could just abandon it and write up a report. After all, what happens if we waste our resources on this only for it to not work. Or worse, it activates and summons something that kills us instead."

One by one the rest of the Four Claws began voicing their opinions, talking and discussing.

Ming Yue quietly thought by the sidelines, glancing at the massive boxes every now and then. Not long after, Xiao Yin came back, chirping at the young woman. 

"Hm? what is it? Was there something else?" she asked. 

The owl continued to chirp out and Hei Yue showed a confused look. 

Xiao Yin then flew up, chirping loudly, loud enough for the others to hear as well. They all looked up to see the Snow Owl trying to tell Ming Yue something. Unfortunately, none of the Four Claws were even related to birds, not know what she was saying at all. 

Ming Yue furrowed her brows before looking down at the ground and noticing grooves on the stone floor. 

"I see!"

Finally understanding, she flew up, reaching the same height as Xiao Yin, looking at the ground in its entirety. It was then that she saw and understood. 

"This... this is one of the teleportation formations, isn't it?" she thought to herself. 

Despite the piles of boxes covering up parts of it, she saw a large formation carved into the ground that resembled the one used to send her to the Demon Continent. 

As she floated down, landing gently on the others, looked at her curiously. 

"What is it? What did you find?" Niu Hong asked. 

Ming Yue pointed at the ground, revealing the grooves on the floor. 

"It seems like this entire floor was carved with the formation as those stones. But I don't know why or for what this is for:", she told them. 

Rather than tell them straight away, she withheld the fact that she knew what it was. Although they were working together, she didn't fully trust them yet. Not to mention, there was still much to know about the Beast Continent. 

What would happen if someone knew? What if the wrong people knew? What then?

The scenarios that could happen ranged from minor to catastrophic. After all, if the connection between the Human and Beast Continent was rebuilt, could there be another war? Would it be the same as the Demon Continent? 

Maybe it wouldn't end up like that but she didn't know for sure. And what about the Savage Lands? Would that extend into her home as well? 

With those thoughts, she sought to keep this information hidden for as long as possible. At least not until she had better knowledge of the denizens of this land. 

The Four Claws looked down, looking closely at the ground before seeing the same grooves that she pointed out. 

Qiang Rong immediately knelt down, running his finger through it before looking at it. 

"To think none of us noticed it earlier, with the poor lighting, we were all too focused on the boxes to look at the ground. But still, for them to carve this in..."

Standing up, he looked around before turning towards everyone with a smile on his face. 

"Since it's come to this, I think that we should all get to work! Me and Niu Hong will get started on one side and the rest of you guys can do the other side", he spoke very bluntly and clearly for them to hear. 

And in response, She Xing looked at him in disbelief and annoyance. 

"What? Why?" she asked. 

Unlike her, Yu Tu sighed and walked off to move the massive boxes. And Qiang Rong just looked at her. 

"We all know how this is going to go. You might complain but you're still going to do it. I mean, rather than take the stones we can just move everything to the sides and just draw the formation on the ground for the scholars to see. It's certainly better than giving them broken stones, isn't it?" he explained. 

"Wel- I mean.... agh, fine, I'll do it."

Begrudgingly, she rolled up her sleeves to push the boxes away. Joining Yu Tu who struggled to move one of the boxes, both of them mustered their strength, moving it bit by bit. 

However, Ming Yue put a hand on both of their shoulders, pulling them back. 

They looked at her strangely before taking a few steps back.