Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

"Agh, my head..."

After some time, Ming Yue woke up from her unconscious state. She rested her head on her hands, taking a bit of time to gain her bearings. Her body was bruised and sore as she sat up and looked around.

She looked down and found herself on top of the Crescent Cloud Wolf's body, who was still alive but barely. Meters away from them was Hei Yue's little body lying on the stone floor. Xiao Yin seemed to be caring for the two, watching for any unwanted guests.

Ming Yue jumped off of the wolf body and approached Hei Yue. She knelt down and examined the little fox's condition. Outwardly, the his body was limp on the floor but his chest bobbed up and down, proof that he was still alive though unconscious. His black fur was still damp from the rain and quite messy.

"A few cracked bones but nothing else, that's good."

Ming Yue took out medicine from her spatial ring along with a few of her medicinal soaked bandages. Quickly she began bandaging and nursing the little fox before focusing on her own recovery.

Hei Yue had gotten off pretty lucky as that last fall was too dangerous. Even as Ming Yue was cushioned by the Crescent Cloud Wolf, her body was shaken and quite injured as the impact of such a fall ruptured some of her internal organs. With the help of the Eternal Heart Ring and her own ability, she managed to mend those wounds in a hour or so.

She opened her eyes upon finishing and looked back at the Crescent Cloud Wolf, who still breathed but weakly. It had taken the brunt of the fall and so, sustained some major injuries. Broken bones, ruptured organs, internal bleeding, even with the wolf's natural healing ability, it was not quite enough to tackle all of this damage.

A single strike was all it took for her to kill the beast and grab the materials: the fur pelt, claws, teeth, etc. Anything that wasn't damaged, she took.

The sound of her knife cutting through flesh and bone echoed about her. It grabbed her attention and she looked around. Feeling much more awake, she had come to realize strange things.

"This is... a cave and the walls... they glow!" she was taken aback by her surroundings.

Halfway through the job she stepped off and began looking around, studying the area.It was a stone cave that somehow glowed with a white, ghostly light. She looked up and saw a narrow crack in the ceiling, most likely where she and the others entered from.

From the where she saw the crack, she determined that this cave was an enormous one and there were many peculiarities with it as well.

"The Dao of Light is present within these walls, it's-it's incredible."

Looking closely, she sense a vast yet calm mass of Light energy, the source of these glowing walls. Was there some ancient figure that used this place to cultivate? How strong would someone have to be to produce all of this power? She had many more questions upon the answer of the first one. However, none of that explained one other strange detail.

"Hmm, it is so quiet."

It was certainly strange. How was it that in such a place like this where even the sounds of her sword echoed about, she heard no thunder nor rain?

She quickly returned and finished butchering the Crescent Cloud Wolf before carrying Hei Yue's body in her arms. She wandered the cave, calling for Xiao Yin to scout out parts of it. This cave only had one way to go, a tunnel that went downwards.

The Star Owl flew about excitedly, it even began to chirp loudly and start urging Ming Yue to move faster.

"Xiao Yin? Is there something special here?"

She had never seen her so energetic before. Perhaps, there was something here that would be beneficial to her. With these brightly lit walls and Xiao Yin's connection to Star Energy, what they had in common was the element of Light.

Light is present everywhere, the brightness of the sun, the stars, the light of the moon. It is an ethereal force that is difficult to cultivate as it is mysterious in its own right. Fire and water could be easily deduced and described, but light...that is another level of intricacy and understanding needed. Light could be nothing more than a gentle caress such as sunlight but strenghten it and it will burn, focus light and it will pierce, condense and it will cut. It can heal and destroy anything it touched an example would be Yan Hui Zhu, the Fury of the Light, a famed healer who governed his own city and killed those who encroached in his territory.

Ming Yue thought that perhaps Xiao Yin may gain a lot from this venture.

She quickened her pace, making sure that Hei Yue was not uncomfortable. The medicines she administered had begun to show results as the Mistral Fox slept soundly.

Minutes down this path, the group arrived to a similar room with its ghostly lit walls but there was one glaring difference, an enormous white statue that had been engraved into the wall.

It was the statue of a swordsman with his blade out. He was in some sort of stance, strange and hard to describe. His knees were straight, one foot before before the other and both hands on the hilt of his sword. There was an expression of calmness on his face but she could see that behind that calm exterior was a focused mind.

It was as of this one strike determined everything, the result of victory or defeat, life or death, heroism or villainy, one choice against the other.

It was an entrancing stance. The more Ming Yu looked, the more she came to understand her own way of fighting. Whoever created, this, whoever this swordsman was, they were at a level beyond grandmasters. This type of enlightment was hard to come by.

She had no words and merely looked away, studying the rest of the cave which carried little more than glowing stone. She approached the foot of the statue and found a small gem that shined and glittered.

"Wait a minute, that isn't a gem. That's a fruit!"

Upon close inspection, she found this glittering fruit growing from a small tree, whose roots dug deep into the stone floor absorbing the Light Energy within them.

"A Flicker Starfruit, another part of the Thunderous Fairy Pill! With this, all I need left is a thousand-year Lightning Dao Root!" Ming Yue thought to herself.

With this, the pill's creation was only one step away!

She really did have luck to encounter all she needed to find in the Merciless Storm Peak. However, there was a slight issue. Another coveted this fruit and it was none other than Xiao Yin. The owl stared at the fruit, wanting to devour it. Within her eyes, Xiao Yin saw that this fruit would be greatly beneficial for her.

It seemed that they both needed it but Xiao Yin was waiting for Ming Yue to decide.

She began to think, sitting down and staring at the Flicker Starfruit.

"Either way, one of us will benefit greatly. Do I need the Thunderous Fairy Pill?" she thought.

The purpose of that pill was to bolster her accumulations in the Dao of Lightning and better prepare her for the tournament at Heaven's Gate. But how much did it matter to her?

After a bit of thinking she made her decision, plucking the Flicker Starfruit and giving it to Xiao Yin, who gobbled it up and flew to a quiet spot to digest ot all. When it came to what she attained in these past several months, the pill wasn't very important. She gained the abilities of Mental Force as well as the two gems from Xiu Luo Yang. That was two incredible trumpcards that she obtained and the Thunderous Fairy Pill did not seem to great.

In any case, there would always be another chance to come back and search for those materials.. The Ficker Starfruit would be much more useful if it went to Xiao Yin.