Their figures soon vanished into the wilderness whilst Ao Qin stood there patiently waiting. And from then on, there was no trace of Ming Yue''s existence, not of Hongyu or even the two beasts. They roamed through the Beast Continent, leaving the Halcyon Meadows for the Savage Lands instead.


    It was far easier to avoid the tribes this way.


    But where did they go?


    In the far west of the continentid a massive stone tform, weathered and broken from centuries of neglect. Trees and other florae hade right up to the edge of it, roots and vines had slithered and snaked into the cracks, digging in.


    It was quiet but it was not abandoned. There was arge boulder in the middle of the tform, gently moving as if quietly breathing.


    The grass shook as several figures emerged from the grass and looked at the tform from the side.


    "It''s here! It''s really here! The schrs were right!"


    "With this, things will change! We just have to repair it and find a way to power it! Imagine connecting with the othernds again!"


    They tried to keep the excitement contained but it was hard to do so. Not when they''ve finally found this.


    "The teleportation circle to the other continents. We finally found it."


    "With this, everything will change."


    These four figures emerged from hiding and stepped upon the tform. None other than the Four ws, they each unsheathed their weapons and stared at the boulder warily.


    Niu Hong quietly turned to the others, sharing a look before nodding. Slowly, they approached this strange boulder. It continued to rise and drop before suddenly shaking, sensing the intruders.


    There was a single crack that splintered off into hundreds of smaller cracks and the boulder transformed into a monkey, one made of rock.


    "Stone Monkey, we found something good for you, Qiang Rong", said She Xing.


    The snake-kin looked at him to which he revealed a smile of greater excitement.


    "This is good, very good actually! Maybe I''ll mutate from using it, gain a new ability even.", he said.


    "Let''s just deal with this first!"


    Stomping his feet down, Niu Hong charged forward, followed by the rest of his team. Seeing theme, the stone monkey sucked in a deep breath and opened its mouth to howl out.


    "Don''t even! Extend!"


    Just as its jaws widened, Qiang Rong waved his staff and pointed at the beast''s bottom jaw. At a word of hismand, the staff lengthened and shot out, smashing into the bottom jaw and shutting the beast up.


    From there, the other three ran up and started attacking the beast, striking from three different directions.


    "Retract! Expand!"


    With anothermand, Qiang Rong''s staff returned to its original length before widening until it was as thick as a pir. Holding it with both hands, the monkey-kin leaped forward and raised his staff over his head.


    "Hah!"


    He shouted out, swinging his pir of a staff down and smashing it right on top of the Stone Monkey''s head. There was an audible crack as the Stone Monkey''s head mmed into the tform, embedded into the ground.


    "Don''t let it recover, kill it now! Before it has a chance to transform!"


    Niu Hong yelled out as everyone chipped away at the beast''s skin while it was still stunned by that strike.


    "Damn its skin! Our weapons are going to break first at this rate, only Qiang Rong can do any real damage!" said She Xing.


    She continued to strike at the beast but could see small fractures on her two swords.


    "As long as we can keep it down for him to do enough damage, that''s all that matters!" Niu Hong answered.


    The sound of metal grinding against stone shrieked with each attack as none of them took even a second to rx. Yu Tu then jumped back and hopped into the air, retrieving four giant stakes from her spatial ring.


    "Get out of the way!"


    Hearing her warning, the others retreated just as each stake was thrown down, pinning the Stone Monkey down by each of its limbs. And then Qiang Rong stepped back in giving the beast''s head one final smash.


    There was a thundering crack as the beast''s head broke apart, resulting in bits of rock and flesh. The beast was dead. From beginning to end the battle took just a bit over a minute, a testament to the strength and teamwork of the Four ws.


    Pulling his giant staff away, it shrunk back to its original size as Qiang Rong knelt down a looked at the smashed head. His hands moved over the remains as he looked for the Stone Monkey''s core.


    "Where is it?"


    He muttered to himself but found it soon enough.


    "Ah, there it is!"


    Swiftly, he snatched up a gray bead that glowed slightly with power, looking at it happily before carefully putting it into a small pouch tied to his waist.


    "Your hands are as fast as always."


    She Xingmented as she looked at the monkey-kin with a smirk. The others had a smile as well, happy for theirrade''s gains.


    "Alright, let''s clean this up and survey the area. We''ll camp here for tonight."


    Niu Hong spoke out as he approached the dead beast, taking Yu Tu''s stakes out.


    Everyone nodded and carried out hismands. The Stone Monkey''s corpse was put into one of the spatial rings and everyone split up to search the surroundings of the massive teleportation circle.


    Night soon fell and everyone had set up camp at the edge of the tform, eating rations together.


    "We''ve marked it on the map, right?" Niu Hong asked.


    "Yeah, path and location."


    Yu Tu nodded, cing a map on the floor for them to see. It was a detailed one of the entire continent with dozens of markings, one of which marked their location and the path they took.


    "Alright, okay, then tomorrow at dawn we return home. Is everyone okay with that?"


    They all nodded and returned to eating their dinner. It was quiet for a bit until Qiang Rong raised his head and looked at them before staring at that tform. Niu Hong took notice, taking a brief look at the tform before facing Qiang Rong.


    "What''s wrong?" he asked.


    The monkey-kin scratched the back of his head as he turned to his leader.


    "Ah, just thinking about Ming Yue and that little human girl. I wonder what they''d think if they found out that we discovered this, a way for them to return home", he responded.


    "...Well, it''s been months since west met them. Don''t forget the Byakko Tribe had returned to Bai Sheng''s old home and they found none other than the Crown Hunter there. They nearly came to blows with each other."


    She Xing spoke as she looked at them both.


    "Who knows what happened in that ce but it would be hard toe across them again, not in this vast of a ce. They may have even perished by now."


    Qiang Rong clicked his tongue and looked at her.


    "Ah, don''t say that! She did help us in those ruins. And besides, I doubt that she''ll die so easily. If she could best the four of us, I''m sure she can take on most of the beasts in the Savage Lands", he said.


    "Ahem, whatever the case, I''m sure news of this will enter their ears one way or another. Once we return this will surely reach each and every one of the tribes. Even if we don''t look for her, she will probably find us. I''ll start with the night watch so all of you can sleep first."


    Having finished his food, Niu Hong stayed in the middle of their tents whilst everyone else finished and retreated to their beds.


    He gazed at the night sky, watching it in a rare moment of peace.


    "Where could you be?"