Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

Ming Yue looked out finding that the first layer of armor had been let go and left behind. Dozens of spirits that still clung to them were crushed under the weight.

With the ship speeding towards this strange barrier, Ming Yue braced for impact, clinging closely to the control desk of the cabin. If it blocked all of these spirits, chances were, it would block them as well. If that was the case, the ship might have to fight its way back out of the gravesite.

Much to her surprise, the ship passed with little effort. It was as if the barrier wasn't there but it truly did exist. As they passed through, all of the spirits that continued to ascend the ship found themselves repelled and thrown back to the sea.

Everyone saw it happen and looked past the ship to find thousands of these mutated spirits, trying to claw their way through the barrier. Some threw themselves into it but ended up smashing their bodies into an immovable wall. They piled onto each other, forming a small wall of flesh and claw.

Breathing hard, Senior Bei looked over as she wiped the sweat from her chin.

"What is this? In all of my years, this has never happened before."

Letting go of their cannon, one of the research members had a look of relief, though their arms shook from controlling the cannon's massive frame.

"Who knows, maybe a dragon came back. I just hope we get out of here alive."

"That's what we all want. But perhaps there is something to find when we explore the other parts of the gravesite. Though, if a dragon did come back, that would certainly be something", said Tian Zhui, his tone ridiculed the idea of real dragon returning but his eyes showed a different emotion.

Everyone was quiet as they looked back at this barrier. What was important was that they were still alive.

The grating sounds of metal broke the quiet atmosphere as the armor shifted back to their original positions. With the lose of one layer, the ship's hull was a bit thinner than before, the ship itself was quite beat up.

Long Wang left the captain's cabin and looked around, quickly examining everyone.

"Obviously, something has happened that's affected the entire gravesite. First that wave of dragon energy and the mutation of those spirits. Now, there's that barrier blocking them. As strange as it is, we will be moving forward. If that barrier was just erected, perhaps there may be an opportunity that we cannot miss. The fact that it did not reject us should mean something."

She looked at their faces, some were still shaken by what had happened others looked at her with anticipation.

With such danger, there would surely be rewards of the same proportion.

No one objected to this, rather they couldn't object. Going back meant having to go through that mounting wall of spirits and the first time was already dangerous enough, turning away could mean death.

"Good, we should reach the main grounds soon enough" Long Wang returned to the captain's cabin as the others began to murmur amongst each other.

Some were curious, even excited as to what awaited them. Others quietly prayed that they would return with their lives. But everyone went back to work, repairing the ship and rearming the Roaring Thunder Cannons.

Ming Yue did what she could to help, hammering at the armored hull and replacing the wood planks of the interior.

From here on, the ride was peaceful though Ming Yue began to feel faint traces of dragon pressure. It wasn't enough to bother her but if she were to remove her bangles and leave the barriers, it would be much greater.

This was a sign that they had reached the main grounds. The gravesite was seperated into two layers. The outer, which they had passed, was the gravesite of champion where all those that fought or sought to fight a dragon had failed. The inner layer was the true gravesite where dragon corpses lied.

Though Ming Yue didn't quit understand how it all worked, from what the Grand Researcher and Zhi Qing say, replicating dragon energy required multiple refinements and many other steps. But the higher quality samples that they brought back would produce better results.

Every expedition had the purpose of studying these corpses, taking samples so as to not defile or show disrespect to them. Though descendant races could give them what they needed, actual dragon corpses was the best to study from. Taking a scale or collecting some of its energy was worth more than that Electric Dragon Eel.

She was curious about it all, asking questions here and there about all of the things she was unclear on. Though the true secrets were not given, the research group taught her a lot, explaining that replicating dragon energy required a variety of samples to do fully recreate it. Each corpse had their own unique dragon energy and the department aimed to create the perfect dragon energy, not just replicating it. The latest rendition was certainly powerful but it was a farcry to what one would feel when they stood in front of a dragon.

Days past before the ship looked completely new and everyone began searching for dragon corpses. They had telescopes and maps out, searching around. There were markings on the map, showing that they had already been there or taken samples from previous expeditions.

"Over there!"

Someone called out from above as Ming Yue worked below. Everyone stopped to look as the source of that voice, a short haired young woman who pointed to the right with a telescope in her hand. There was something several kilometers away and the ship had begun to turn towards it.

Ming Yue squinted her eyes but could not make out what was ahead. As they came closer and closer, this mound grew larger and larger. So much so that as the ship came right next to it, it was small compared to this object.

Her eyes widened in amazement as she recognized what it was.

A massive dragon corpse that laid partially submerged under the sea. From the looks of it, It must have died in peace, curled up as if it were sleeping. It's expression was serene but there was no life in the body. There were long beautiful whiskers above the mouth, two pairs of white horns and a platinum silver mane. The white scales were beautiful and sort of sparkled under the sun, eyecatching but not blinding to look at.

As amazed as she was, Ming Yue felt small compared to this legendary creature. Even with it being dead, it still exuded a massive amount of pressure. Even with all of the protection she had, it felt as if she was an ant about to crushed.

"This is...beautiful!" the Long Siblings cam to look.

Both of them were awestruck as they admired the corpse for several minutes. However, their expressions changed as did the others.

"This corpse was not here before" said Senior Bei.

"Indeed, our last expedition was to this specific area but we never encountered this corpse before" said the Long siblings.

"Perhaps... it had died between then and now", Xin Kuo reasoned as she looked at this white dragon corpse.

Tian Zhui looked at it as well as he walked forward and studied it.

"What if...what it if died just several days ago, you know, when those dead spirits mutated. When that wave of dragon energy passed and a barrier was erected."

Everyone's mind clicked.

What if that was the case?

If it was so, then this was closest thing they had to a living dragon and so the sample they'd take would be of the highest quality, second to that of a living dragon.

But there were far too many questions to ask.. The situation seemed too strange. Was this really the corpse of an ordinary dragon?