596: What the Future May Hold

What the Future May Hold

0Ao Qin and the Four Claws stepped aside for the others to come forward. One of them brought their hand forward, pointing their spatial ring out towards the workbench. It began to glow for a few moments before a massive slab of stone came out, firmly planted onto the workbench with a thud. 

It was a loud thud, enough to grab the attention of the other scholars. There was a moment of silence before Lao Yang practically jumped for joy. 

"Ahahahah! Here it is! A key to one of the Teleportation Arrays!" he exclaimed, "Let's see here! How does it work? What sort of hidden mechanisms might it have?!" 

It took him no more than five minutes to start going around the circular stone slab, studying it closely while jotting notes and sketching it out.

"Let's see here, the design on top is quite unique, resembles the formation on the Teleportation array. Interesting, interesting..." he muttered to himself, staring at it almost obsessively. 

His hands were quick, and the scritching and scratching of his pen were loud and incessant. There was no stopping him. 

The others watched for a few more minutes before two of the scholars turned around, facing them. These two were none other than, Feng Zhua and Yi Chao, the other two scholars of the Zodiacs that came with the Lao Yang. 

"Apologies to you all, when he heard that one of the keys was found, he had dropped everything else to focus on that." 

They lowered their heads before gesturing towards the door. 

"Now that he has it, it will take around a day for him to lose a bit of that excitement", said Feng Zhua, the rooster-kin. 

"Aye, when Lao Yang gets like that, he'll ignore everything else." 

The horse-kin, Yi Chao, sighed as he glanced over at the old goat. 

But Ao Qin merely chuckled. 

"If that's the case, we'll be going now. Among all of us, these guys need the rest the most."

The dragon-kin responded while pointing at the group who obtained the slab. 

If their haggard appearance wasn't enough, they nodded just a bit, too tired to even speak. Whatever had happened in the South was certainly something that pushed them to their limits. And these were members of Reclamation who had consumed the flesh of both the Devouring Goost and the Earthbound Tortoise. They were far stronger but they still had their fair share of trouble. 

"Alright, you lot, let's go. I'm sure someone will let us know when he's finished." 

Leading them out, Ao Qin made his way through the corridors and out of the hall, where everyone went their separate ways. 

That is, the two groups had separated but Ao Qin moved with the Four Claws. 

And as they began to walk down the quiet streets, the dragon-kin quietly spoke to them. 

"So then, was there any message from the girl?" he asked them. 

The faces of the Four Claws changed for just a moment before Niu Hong nodded. 

"Yes. Ming Yue wrote that she'll be keeping watch of it for now", said the ox-kin. 

"Is that so? She might be taking this as a chance to leave and go back home. After all, the elders have decided to put off finding her or even going up North. There will be plenty of time for her to prepare. Even then, she's strong enough to force her way back anyways."

Ao Qin looked forward, checking the road for any passerby. No one needed to hear this conversation of theirs. 

"That is true. Do you think she'll go when the array is activated?" She Xing asked. 

"I wouldn't think otherwise. Don't tell me that she's just going to wait there and watch?" 

Qiang Rong looked at them while saying this, revealing an incredulous look. 

"It doesn't seem likely but who knows what she's thinking", Niu Hong just shrugged as he answered. 

She Xing followed up with her own thoughts. 

"Well, I don't think there's anything that we need to tell her about anymore. We can just send back a message giving her well wishes from now on", she said. 

"What?" Qiang Rong looked at her confused, "You don't think we're not going to see her when we go into the Human Continent?"

The monkey-kin asked around but they all didn't have answers for him.

"Really? I mean, we barely even know who she is? Considering how strong she is, there's no way that she isn't some important figure, right?" he asked. 

The others were quiet. After all, what he said was correct. There was no way that such a powerful figure didn't have an incredible background. However, Ming Yue had revealed very little about herself. 

"It really does make you wonder how she got here", She Xing responded. 

Ao Qin was quiet, his eyes seemed to move as the cogs of his mind moved along. 

"Wait a minute, I think I know someone that could tell us more about her", he suddenly blurted out, looking up at everyone. 

The Four Claws all had the same question. 

"Who?" 

The dragon-kin then pointed in a certain direction. 

"We should sneak in there and ask them", he said. 

The others looked in the direction that Ao Qin pointed at. For a moment, they were a bit confused but then they remembered. 

"The daughter of the Byakko Clan's elder!"

The thought came to them all at once. 

Of course, it would be Bai Sheng that would know the most about her. She and her son were to ones that found her and nursed her back to health. In all that time that they had spent together, there was no possibility that they didn't learn more about her. 

"Right, let's go sneak in and ask her!"

He quickly ran off, vanishing into the night just as the Four Claws followed him. And as they had gone off another figure emerged from the shadows, looking in the direction they left in. 

"Hmm, where could they be heading off to?" 

Muttering under their breath, He watched from a distance before heading in the same direction.

This mysterious figure followed them to the Byakko Tribe's territory. 

The Byakko Tribe is one of the strongest tribes around, characterized by their white fur and ferocious eyes. Much like the Ruishi Tribe, their territory was large and contained multiple structures including a manor at the center of it all. But if one was to move past the manor, towards the back of the tribe grounds, There was a much smaller house, just one floor compared to the multi-leveled manor. 

But unlike the manor, this little house carried a warm aura as the residents within were happily having dinner. 

"Mom, what should we do tomorrow? Should we go out into the market?!"

The voice of a happy little boy talked from within, eating at a small dinner table. 

"Xiao Bai, don't eat with your mouth open, that isn't good manners." 

Opposite of Xiao Bai was his mother, Bai Sheng, who scolded him gently. 

"O- yes, mom."

Her son quickly lowered his head, reprimanding himself. 

"We'll be going into the market though. Let's have some rabbit stew, how about that?" she said to him. 

Xiao Bai's face completely changed into a smile as he nodded to her. Bai Sheng looked at her son for a moment, smiling before taking another bit of her meal. But her hands suddenly stopped midway as she looked towards the doors. 

"Whose there?" she suddenly called out, watching them closely. 

But there was a knock as Ao Qin's voice came through. 

"We just want to talk. we know about her", he said. 

Both Bai Sheng and Xiao Bai shared a look, it was one of concern and fear. How did they know? But it seemed that Ao Qin realized the situation and quickly spoke. 

"We've met her before. We just want to know what you know", he said. 

There was silence before Bai Shen replied. 

"Come in."

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