Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

She was right.

Ming Yue watched as the spires pulled wisps of that power, bringing it down into the ground. With her cultivation, she saw it all happen, and once she did, things began to click into place.

The young woman flew back down, gracefully landing on the ground.

However, she did not stop watching the spires, following the traces of energy as it vanished into the round below. Her eyes were full of invigorated interest as she came to her own conclusions. 

"This must have been created before the Calamity happened. It is not a creation of Human, Demon, or Beast origin but all three worked on this together. They must've wanted to find a way to contain it or overcome it", she thought. 

But knowing what Ming Yue knew, there was a stony expression on her face. 

"Unfortunately, they must have been too late to create something like this on the other continents. Or perhaps, they weren't expecting there to be two other instances. Maybe they thought that the Calamity would begin on the Beast Continent."

Her eyes looked over the formation, examining it some more. 

"Or maybe they were right about where it would begin but underestimated the power of the Heavens. The formation works though, It definitely fulfilled its purpose of absorbing the energy but they must not have expected what came after", she muttered. 

Indeed there was one more part to this that Ming Yue had yet to address. 

"The energy the formation pulled was sent into the land, they must've thought it was enough but none of them would've thought that it would end up poisoning the continent. Because of that, the Savage Lands came to be. The energy invaded the plants which were eaten by the beasts and so, they ended up mutated."

The young cultivator walked out of the formation and then stared out into the lands. 

"The energy itself had also changed so I wouldn't have noticed it either."

At this moment, she had discovered the reason as to why the Beast Continent had become the way it was. Her mind continued to move, racing even as she went from one thought to the next. 

"That would make sense. They couldn't foresee it and even if they found out, the other continents were suffering from the Calamity so they would have abandoned it, even forgotten about this too. That would explain why this had been active the entire time."

Ming Yue looked back at the formation, her eyes rose up towards the clouds where the remaining energy was obscured from sight. 

Of course, this also meant one more thing. 

"They knew the Calamity would come and they tried to avoid it. But they couldn't, it just came slower and differently. It didn't outright destroy the land but instead spread like poison. Would this mean that the next one could not be avoided?" she wondered. 

After all, it had been a few thousand years since the last one, chances were the next one would come soon. 

And then her mind then went back to Dai Mian, the Sect Leader of the Tao Feng, and what he had tried to do.

"That man was searching for a way to defend against the next Calamity, to absorb the remaining energy and use that to go against the Heavens. He nearly forced it to happen early in an attempt to bend it to his will. But rather than do that, he ended up causing destruction everywhere. But this formation... perhaps this is the key", she thought. 

A discovery like this was more than incredible, it was world-changing. After all, it represented many things. That fact that the Heaven's energy would be harnessed like this. The fact that this was a creation that required the minds of all three continents. And the fact that maybe the Calamity could not be avoided but it could be influenced by mortal hands. 

If it couldn't be stopped, then perhaps it could be weakened. 

Ming Yue continued to ponder until the sun was starting to set. Even as she left with Xiao Yin, returning to their abode, her mind was still engrossed with what she had discovered.

And while many of her conclusions were perhaps mere guesses, it was not without reason. 

Furthermore, she wasn't even sure if she had figured out the master plan. 

"There must be more to this! Perhaps it might even be connected to Hongyu as well", she thought. 

But of course, there was much that Ming Yue had yet to uncover, especially with the three continents. 

For now, she had other things to worry about, one of them being dinner. 

She soon returned to their home where Hongyu was awake, roaming about. Both Hei Yue and Liang Wei were by the hut, lazing about on the grass. All three of them puckered up when they noticed Ming Yue's flying back, coming to meet her when she landed with Xiao Yin.

"Time to unload everything."

Holding her hand out, all of the things that Ming Yue had gathered from this little day trip flew out of her spatial ring, piling up in front of everyone.

From wild vegetables and medicinal plants, there was quite a sizable amount. She then moved on to organizing it all before having the others move them elsewhere. Some were to be placed in the garden, others readied for drying racks.

Once finished she moved on to the next matter. 

"Alright, dinner then. I think we can use this one?"

Fiddling with her ring, the body of a beast flew out of it, landing on the ground with a heavy thud. 

It was a cow... or at least it resembled a bull of some sort. Apart from the two curved horns and its black body, there was a rather unusual aspect to this beast that certainly separated it from a normal cow. 

Apart from its large size was its extraordinarily thick body. When fighting it, she found that it could easily smash through dozens of trees like nothing. And knowing this, Ming Yue wasn't even sure if this beast would make a good meal. With such a tough body, she wouldn't be surprised if its meat was equally as tough. 

But then she noticed Liang Wei's eyes, the giant cat beast stared at the black cow with interest. So much so that there was a bit of drool dribbling down its mouth. 

"I guess, it must taste good then", she thought. 

And so, Ming Yue unsheathed Blood Moon, holding it with one hand as she motioned towards butchering the cow. Soon enough, the pelt was cut off and all of the meat had been separated from the bone, a process that surprised her. 

"That was... surprisingly easy."

Maybe it was because of Blood Moon, but the butchering was much quicker and easier than she thought. The flesh easily gave way to her blade. 

And more interesting than that, the beast's meat wasn't tough but soft and even appetizing. 

Cutting them into slabs, she picked a few and cooked them, grilling over the fire with a few herbs and spices. Once finished, she placed it on a tree stump that she had taken from the edge of their home, flattening it and smoothing it out, turning it into a table of sorts. 

By then, everyone was hungry, digging into their portion and savoring what truly was a good meal. Even Ming Yue couldn't help but widen her eyes a bit at the meat. After having wolf meat and dried rations for days on end, a proper meal like this truly couldn't be beaten. 

And the bull meat was incredible, soft and tender but also containing the strong flavor of beef. Coupled with the herbs and spices, it was a very good meal, one that was missing one key thing. 

"Ah, we have meat and vegetables but no rice.... if only."