Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

The fourth zone was a place they knew very little about. Outside of the dangers, it was also home to many intriguing treasures and creatures. But there was one aspect of it that everyone knew, it was large, everything was large, giant beasts, trees, even grass grew several feet. To some, it was as if they had shrunk compared to the sights they saw.

Two weeks had past since they've entered the garden and everyone took shelter in the third pavilion. There seemed to be no one else but them. The third pavilion was a great castle, rectangular in shape with a tower on each corner. If one were to climb up the walls and explore, they would find cannons on each tower. Each one was a hulking chunk of metal, carefully forged and made to last. What made these interesting were the empty holes along the sides of the barrel, linked together by a long groove. Most likely, elemental cores are entered to power the cannons and with the number of slots on them, the power was more than terrifying.

Past the fortified walls were several buildings, none of which was used to make medicine. Instead, they were all for battle. Two had racks of weapons in them, another carried food that had already rotted away. Behind those three was a warehouse that carried resources for the walls. In fact, there were more siege weapons, large nets to capture beasts, catapults, shields, and more.

Ming Yue looked around the equipment in the pavilion, admiring the work done. There wasn't anything that really interested her. Nothing here was good enough to match Drifting Sky nor was there any armor that suited her.

She left the area and rejoined the others.

There Xukun pulled off a sword and looked at it, examining the blade. It was pure white and thin, much thinner than his sword. Still, when he compared his beige colored blade to the one next to it, the white blade seemed much more impressive.

It was pristine, straight and sharp. There was no guard. The handle was inlaid with obsidian jewels and wrapped delicately in white silk. It was a beautiful sword and Xukun marveled at the work.

"This sword..."

He waved it around in his hands before inserting his energy into it. With both swords under his control, he made them attack each other.

"Find something you like, Brother Xukun?"

Anqing noticed the scene and walked up to him with curiosity. Ming Yue also joined in and watched.

"Oh yeah, this sword is great. It's beautifully made, durable, and flexible as well. Not to mention, it isn't very heavy. I could definitely use this. It is on par with my Scattering Light Sword if not better even!"

"Really?"

"Mhm, I think I might use both actually. It is unfortunate that I could not find the scabbard for it but I could have one made at Heaven's Gate."

Xukun placed the sword in his spatial ring and looked at the others.

"Did you guys find anything you liked?" he asked.

Anqing and Ming Yue shook their heads.

"Let's rest for the night and plan everything out for tomorrow. Now that we have reached this point, it is going to be much more dangerous", said Anqing.

Everyone agreed and made a small campfire outside of the buildings, eating dried rations and whatever supplies they could salvage from the pavilion.

During this meal, Anqing took out a drawing showing some purple plants.

"So tomorrow when we enter the fourth zone, we have to find the Violet Cassia Tree. It isn't too hard to locate as the trunk is dark purple in color and the leaves are a more lighter shade. The Purple Adder Moss grows on the trunk of the tree as well as the surroundings. I just need to collect several kilograms of it. But we have to be careful when handling it. If you manage to crush it in your hands, it will cause irreparable damage to your body."

"So, it's for poison?" asked Ming Yue.

"Not exactly...it's...a cure of sorts."

Anqing hesitated to speak even Xukun looked concerned for her.

"I think you can tell her", he said, "She is someone we can trust is she not?"

Anqing's eyes glanced at him, feeling relief from his confident face.

"It...is a cure for my body. Since, well, I have a poison body."

On that first line, she poured out her entire story.

"You see, this body of mine is quite rare and because of that I was hunted for experiments. Having such a body was harmful to myself and there were times that I would lose control. My body would release a poisonous aura that killed anything within ten meters of me. That aura would use up my energy and once expended, it would use my own life force. If I did not have it under control, I would have died a long time ago. That was until I was saved, saved by an elder from Heaven's Gate. She was the Poison Elder Mi Gui, and she had great interest in my body."

"You mean, she experimented on you?"

Ming Yue was surprised, she knew that such a body would bring attention but she didn't think it would bring such consequences.

"You could call it that, but all she did was take a vial of my blood to study. Outside of them she helped me control my poison aura and even strengthen my body. Thus my attacks became less frequent and I had also become much more deadlier. However, it was not perfect and I had to cultivate my poison body even further. That is why I need the moss, an extremely deadly plant. With it, I will be able to fully control my attacks."

"Then if you do have these attacks, why has it not happened in the time we spent together?"

"That is because of these vials."

She then pulled out ten or so vials, each one was a reddish color.

"Drawing my blood would weaken the poison aura. This combined with certain herbs would make a number of poisons. Hence, that gas one or that corrosive one. The first had strong alcohol that I personally made and the other had acid from a Pink Spotted Scorpion."

"Then that pellet?"

"That...was a new creation made the elder. I have yet to use it but she has told me that it is deadly enough to kill anything under rank 5."

"I see. Then how does Xukun know?"

"That-"

Xukun stopped her from speaking and answered in her stead.

"I found her collapsed on one of the training fields late at night. She stopped me before I entered the poison aura. I went to get the elder for her and since then, we slowly got to know each other. I was worried for her and visited often. Seeing as we were both outcasts of sorts, me with history with people and her with the poison, we found solace in each other."

"Xukun's story of being the son of a fallen noble family made him a target for bullying. Because of that, he had always spoke to others in a haughty manner, calling people trash and other things. Even I was hesitant to receive him until I leaned more."

"I see."

Hearing such a story, Ming Yue felt apologetic towards Xukun as she had ignored him the first time he spoke.

"Now it's your turn!"

"What?"

"Yeah, tell us a bit more about yourself! It's not very fair that the both of us had to spill everything out."

"Since, we're pretty much done once we obtain the moss, we should talk some more."

"Like that sword where did you get such a thing? Can we see it?"

Seeing their excitement, she brought out Drifting Sky and let them hold it.

"Oh! It has weight to it!"

"The length! It's taller than me! Xukun look!"

She watched the two and thought about their behavior. They didn't seem to bothered from the predicaments that they were in, or even the history. It showed in the way they spoke, how quickly they moved from a somber tone to a happier one. With each other, it seemed that the pain wasn't so horrible and she had become a part of it.

She had more people she could call a friend.