The interesting thing about the people who built the Cradle of the Daughter of the Silent Moon was that their ability to utilize Soul Energy was far inferior to our own. In the dozen Martial Arts Manuals and Cultivation Technique Manuals that we discovered there were only 5 techniques that directly used Soul Energy. That doesn’t mean that they knew less about cultivation than we did. Quite the opposite in fact. All it meant was that they weren’t that interested using Soul Energy for some reason. They were experts at manipulating Mana and creating various marvelous artifacts of the like that we still can’t compete with today.

-Excerpt from Telram’s notes on the Cradle of the Daughter of the Silent Moon.

Telram and Gerry didn’t take too long examining the construct that they had destroyed. Mostly because of Ryu pacing impatiently behind them.

After taking a few seconds to decide which of the corridors they were going to head down the group moved out once more with Ryu and Telram in the lead. Gerry pulled a small piece of paper attached to a thin piece of wood and started scribbling on it as they walked. It had been a long time since the old man had been inspired by someone else’s construct design and while he didn’t understand a lot of the Inscriptions that had been used to make it what he had managed to learn was quite impressive.

Telram was also currently processing what he had just seen and nearly missed a strange glowing glyph. Ryu leapt back with a curse as Telram’s arm shot across in front of him before looking down to see what had caused his friend to act so suddenly.

“What do you think it is?” the young Divine Beast asked curiously.

“Some sort of trap,” Telram replied as he glanced back at Ryu apologetically.

“Well yeah, I know that,” Ryu replied as he rolled his eyes in exasperation. “I meant what do you think it does?”

“I’m not sure,” Telram replied with a shrug. “Give me a minute to examine it. You have a look for any others further along the corridor.”

“Alright,” Ryu nodded as Telram knelt down in front of the strange glyph.

Telram took several minutes to figure out that the trap was a fairly simple one that projected a massive blast of wind straight upwards when it detected a sufficient source of Mana. This might not sound like a very effective trap to most people but the amount of force that this trap could produce was more than enough to break the bones of an average Ascendant Realm cultivator.

Telram also discovered that much like the construct that they had just destroyed this trap had a very obvious weakness to Soul Energy. Closing his eyes Telram concentrated for a few seconds causing grey mist to flow out of his body and over the trap which thankfully didn’t activate because his Dissonance technique was primarily comprised of Soul Energy. The roiling mist turned into a chisel shape before slamming down onto the trap with a loud cracking sound making the others jump in surprise and curse loudly. However, to their surprise the trap didn’t activate in fact when Telram withdrew his Dissonance technique they could see that the Inscriptions that the trap was made from had been broken.

“You know, this is awfully weird,” Gerry mused as they continued down the corridor until they reached the next trap that Ryu had spotted. “It’s almost like the people who created this place don’t know how to use or defend against soul energy properly.”

“So, it would seem,” Telram nodded. He didn’t bother trying to figure out what the trap did and only checked to see whether this trap was going to be more resistant to his soul energy. Sure, enough this one seemed to be similar, so he just decided to assume that all of the traps would have similar problems and sent a massive wave of soul energy rolling down the corridor.

“Right, that should’ve taken care of most of the traps,” Telram said after a few moments as he withdrew that soul energy. Normally there was no way that an Ascendant Realm cultivator would be able to use their soul energy to do something like disarm Inscribed traps but since Telram had several techniques that destroyed an enemy’s ability to control Mana he was able to combine them with his knowledge of Inscriptions to create a makeshift technique. Since he had made the technique on the fly Telram knew that it wasn’t going to be completely effective, especially considering how different these Inscriptions were from the ones that he knew.

Still the technique proved to be more effective than Telram had expected. They still had to stop several times to disarm a trap that hadn’t been disabled by his technique, but they made their way to the door at the end of the corridor. Telram took a few minutes to examine the door for any more traps and upon finding none he reached out and opened the door.

“Well, that’s impressive,” he said as he stepped through the door. “I certainly wasn’t expecting to find a library here.”

“Do you see any more traps?” Gerry asked as he hurriedly followed Telram through the door.

“No but I wouldn’t expect to find any in here,” Telram replied. “They might damage the books that they’ve already spent a lot of time and resources on protecting and I think that these books are far too useful to risk damaging.”

Telram walked over to one of the shelves and pulled a book out. To his surprise the book was in pristine condition and he looked back at the shelf to discover that there were Inscriptions hidden underneath the book. The Inscriptions didn’t resemble the traps that he had disarmed in the corridor behind them, so he assumed that they were safe and simply preserved the books.

The book was a manual for a cultivation technique called The Moonstalker Cultivation Technique which seemed to be a Cultivation technique that increased the cultivator’s stealth capabilities. He wasn’t sure how good the technique was but that wasn’t really important right now. What was important was that the book was written in English which meant that he was the only one that could read it.

“Well bugger,” he sighed irritably.

“What’s wrong?’ Gerry asked as he looked over Telram’s shoulder at the book. “Oh, is that the same language that was on the plinth outside the Gate?”

“It is and from the looks of things the other books are written in English too,” Telram nodded. “Which means that I’m going to have to look at all the books myself and figure out which ones will be useful to us.”

“That is unfortunate,” Gerry agreed. “Do you want to start going through them now or have a look down the other corridors?”

“Let’s take a look down the other corridor first,” Telram decided as he glanced back at Ryu who was looking around the library with an unimpressed look on his face.

“Good idea,” Gerry agreed as Telram put the book back on the shelf. “We’re heading back.”

Lelland looked disappointed but he had heard Telram tell Gerry that all the books were written in English, so he reluctantly nodded in agreement.

They made their way swiftly back to the large room where they had fought the statue and Telram sent another wave of soul energy down the opposite corridor before they headed down it. This time the technique wasn’t quite as effective. Partly because the corridor was longer than the previous one and split into two partway down and partly because Telram was trying to reserve some of his soul energy.

As such Gerry took over deactivating the traps. He wasn’t quite as fast as Telram, but they still reached the place where the corridor split pretty quickly.

“So which way are we going?” Lelland asked curiously.

“Right,” Telram decided immediately.

“Why?”

“No particular reason,” Telram shrugged as the party started making its way down the corridor on the right like he’d said. “I just didn’t want to stand around arguing about it.”

The others chuckled slightly in amusement but didn’t deny that was probably what would’ve happened if Telram hadn’t spoken up. When they reached the end of the corridor, they found yet another of the engraved doors that had been at the end of one of the other corridors that they had walked down. This time the door was engraved with images of people who seemed to be offering things to the young girl that Telram had seen on the door to the room where they had fought the statue.

Once again Telram was struck with a sense of unease that the others seemed to share with him as he examined the door. After a few seconds he spotted the source of his unease. Some of the people engraved on the door were wearing collars and chains.

“I’m starting to think that we may have made a mistake,” Telram said as he pointed out the people on the door to the others who frowned when they saw what he was pointing at.

“Are those slaves?” Gerry asked.

“That’s what it looks like to me,” Telram agreed.

Slavery wasn’t exactly unheard in Nerrus but only the least reputable nobles really bothered. Especially when one considered that it would only take one or two of them to somehow manage to learn how to cultivate for things to go really badly or for a travelling cultivator to take offense at the idea and do something about it. Neither of those things happened very often even in the places that there was slavery. Besides, it was usually just easier to hire a couple of cultivators to do the heavy lifting when you actually needed some work done. While it had been unusual for the average person to bother learning the basic cultivation technique in Palamar city since Lord Irian discouraged its use among the general population because it made them easier to control. Telram had learned that it was a different case in other cities and Gerry had told him that Irian’s father had actually encouraged his citizens to learn it while he had been alive. Almost everyone in places like Urlan learned the basic technique to some degree even if they didn’t really consider themselves to be cultivators. Most of the people who learned it never even reached the point where his students were right now but even someone who had just formed their Mana Core was stronger, faster, and more resilient than a normal human.

“Did we really have any choice?” Gerry asked and Telram sighed irritably as he ran a hand down his face.

“Not really, I guess,” he admitted. “I just don’t know if we’re going to like everything that we find here. I’m also now much more worried about the person that the statue had been waiting for than I was.”

“That’s a good point,” Jai nodded. “But it’s too late to worry about that now isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Telram agreed. “Well, I suppose that we should keep moving.”

Telram opened the door and stepped into the room beyond which was filled to the brim with various strange objects. Some of these objects were on display in what looked like glass cases. Everything also seemed to have some sort of label o them and after Telram had finished checking for traps he walked over to one of the glass cases and looked at the contents.

“A set of defensive charms gifted to the Daughter of the Silent moon,” Telram translated as he read the label which much like the books was written in English. Inside the case was a small box. Telram couldn’t see what was inside the box but he assumed that the label on the case was accurate. He could also see that the case itself was inscribed. The Inscriptions didn’t seem to be harmful and resembled both those that increased the structural integrity of the statues and the ones that had preserved the books in the library.

“Are these the gifts that the girl on the door were being given?” Lelland asked as he walked over to a larger case that contained some sort of spear.

“That’s certainly a possibility,” Telram agreed. The room reminded him of something that he might find in the tomb of some ancient ruler. Perhaps he was wrong and that’s what this place was, but he still doubted it. It just didn’t make sense that this place was as well protected and the things in it were so well preserved if there wasn’t a good reason for it. More importantly he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong about this place. Like someone had come along after it was completed and

“Is there anything else that looks interesting in here? Ryu asked. For the first time since they had destroyed the statue Ryu actually looked excited. Ryu still didn’t know much about the various special tools that human cultivators used to enhance their strength, but he could sense the mana in the room which was just about overwhelming.

“Absolutely,” Telram nodded. “In fact, I think that we should spend some time going through this room since it’s far more likely that we can use the things in this room than the books that we found in the library. “The trick will be working out what things will be useful. Also, I’m pretty sure that these cases are trapped somehow.”

The others all froze and turned towards Telram who was bent over the case that the talismans were in examining the Inscriptions on the inside of the case.

“Yeah, this is definitely trapped,” Telram nodded before looking up to see the others glaring at him angrily. “Sorry, because the traps are inside the cases I couldn’t see them from the entrance to the room. They also seem to be better protected against soul energy so I won’t be able to just deactivate them the same way that I deactivated the other ones and if we trip them, they will probably destroy whatever’s inside.”

“So, this is going to take a while then,” Gerry nodded. “Why don’t you go and look around and figure out what we want to take with us, and I’ll get started on decoding the Inscriptions so that we can deactivate them safely.”

“Alright,” Telram nodded. “It’s possible that there’s a better way of deactivating the Inscriptions down the other branch of the corridor so let’s grab the most useful looking things and keep moving.”

The others nodded and spread out looking for anything that looked like it could be useful. Since they couldn’t read the labels, they had to go with their gut instinct on what would actually be useful to them. Even so Telram was quite impressed with some of the items that they found.

Lelland had insisted that Telram take a look at the spear that he had noticed earlier and from what Telram could tell he was right to do so. This Inscriptions on the weapon were different from the ones that they had been finding in this place so far. In fact, they were only slightly different from the ones that he and Gerry used. The label was still written in English but Lelland knew enough about Inscriptions that he had a vague idea of what this spear could do.

“Stormblood spear,” Telram read. “As the blood of you enemies flows over it the spear increases in strength causing it to whip up ever more violent winds as the fight progresses. As a final attack you can release all the energy that the spear has absorbed to conjure a storm cloud that strikes down any remaining enemies with lightning. Requires a cultivator with High Air Affinity to wield it. Holy shit.”

On the surface of it the spear was far more powerful than Telram’s kanabo. Telram was pretty sure that he would eventually be able to force his weapon up to this level, but he was also sure that doing so would destroy it completely. And that was without even mentioning Lelland’s current spear which wasn’t a bad weapon by any means but nowhere near coming close to this one.

Ryu also found something that looked like it would be useful. It was a bracer that could project a powerful energy barrier. The bracer was nowhere near as impressive as the spear that Lelland had found but it was still a useful upgrade for Ryu. The barrier could be projected a short distance away allowing the person wearing the bracer to protect either themselves or their friends. It did use up more mana the further it was being projected but it should still be useful.

However, it was actually Jai who found the most interesting item at all and as soon as he read the label Telram called Gerry over immediately. The item in question was a simple looking thing that resembled nothing more than an ordinary medicinal pill. However, the label told a very different story. Apparently, the pill was known as a Beast Blood Pill and was made from the refined blood of a Sage Beast. The label stated that it could be used to provide a massive amount of Mana to a Mana Beast increasing their cultivation rank. There was also a small chance that the Beast that ate it would obtain the bloodline of the Sage Beast which could allow them to become a completely new species of they were lucky.

While the other two items would still be incredibly useful to them Telram wanted to give this pill to Jai as soon as possible. It might seem selfish, but he didn’t even bother entertaining the idea of giving the pill to Ryu since it would be less effective on him anyway. Ryu did seem interested in the pill, but he also agreed that giving the pill to Jai was the best idea. Jai’s cultivation rank had been growing faster than was normal ever since he had helped Telram transform into the more bestial form that he had used while fighting Ryu in the tournament and he was currently at the Mana Beast equivalent of the 8th Layer of the Human Realm. This growth rate was incredibly fast for a Mana Beast. Willa had taken nearly 30 years to become an Elemental Mana Beast and Jai wasn’t even half that. Much like with human cultivators that stronger a Mana Beast’s soul was the faster they would grow and Jai’s soul was very powerful. Both because he was a Blood Tiger which had naturally strong souls but also because of his Soul Bond with Telram. Telram was hoping that this pill would be enough for Jai to evolve into an Elemental Mana Beast.

“Are you sure that you want to give it to him right away?” Gerry asked. “It will take him several hours to evolve into an Elemental Mana Beast and several more to recover from that.”

“Well, we need to rest at some point,” Telram pointed out. “I’m not sure what time it is right now but I’m getting tired.”

“That’s a good point,” Gerry admitted with a sigh. “And it will give us time to see if there are any other artifacts that we want to take with us. Alright, let’s see if we can get this case open then.”

“Have you worked out how to open it?” Telram asked curiously. He had only left the old man alone for five maybe ten minutes tops. Gerry was a gifted Inscriber and scholar but Telram doubted that he had managed to decode how the Inscriptions set into the bottom of the glass cases worked yet.

“Not quite,” Gerry replied with a sigh. “Let’s go over everything that I’ve already figured out though. You never know. One of us might be able to figure something out.”

Gerry had managed to confirm that the traps would activate the moment someone attempted to open or break one of the glass cases. From what he could tell the cases required some sort of special key to open. He wasn’t sure what the key was or even if it was a physical key or something else entirely. From what he could tell the Inscriptions had the same lack of protection against soul energy that the other ones did, but things were complicated slightly because they were inside the case.

“Do you think that you can force your soul energy into one without tripping the Inscription?” Gerry asked once he had finished explaining what he had learned.

“I can give it a try but not with this one,” Telram said as he looked around for something that they didn’t want to take with them. Spotting a case containing a whip with some rather unpleasant Inscriptions on it he walked over near it and concentrated. Since they weren’t sure what the range on these traps were Gerry formed a shield around Telram as the young man’s soul energy attempted to enter the case. This turned out to be a good thing because despite things seeming to go smoothly at first the trap activated about ten seconds later in a fireball that would’ve enveloped Telram if it wasn’t for the shield that Gerry had created.

“Well, that didn’t work,” Telram coughed as he looked at the spot where the case had once been. “I nearly had it too.”

“What happened?’ Gerry asked.

“I think I forced too much soul energy into the case,” Telram replied. “The Inscription might not be able to protect itself from soul energy but that doesn’t mean that it can’t detect when the atmosphere inside the case changes.”

“Do you think that you can deactivate the next one?” Gerry asked cautiously as Telram walked over to another case.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I think so.”

As it turned out Telram was mistaken, and it took two more tries to deactivate one of the Inscriptions and even then, he wasn’t entirely happy with the results because he had managed it by accident, so he tried again. This time he managed to open the next case safely.

“Alright,” Telram nodded. “I’ve got the technique down now.”

Gerry still set up a shield around Telram as he sent his soul energy into the glass case containing the Beast Blood Pill but as it turned out Telram had been correct this time and he had managed to get the technique down. Telram excitedly opened the case and gave the pill to Jai who swallowed it before Ryu could change his mind.

As soon as he did the tiger started glowing with a blazing red light as the pill started to take effect. A series of popping sounds came from the tiger as he grew several inches. Then there was an earsplitting crack as Jai’s Beast Core grew by two sizes. Jai gasped in surprise as his Beast Core flared and a cocoon of Mana flowed over his body while the others watched on in awe.

“Good luck brother,” Telram said as he placed a hand on the uncomfortably hot cocoon. “I’ll see you when you wake up.”