The dark figure fell directly onto the deck, startling the pirates nearby, but they quickly calmed down. There were two officers on the ship, a reservist officer and her partner, along with Arceus here, such a lineup filled them with confidence.
A few pirates mustered their courage and walked over, and before they could shout, a beastly roar echoed, and a pair of red eyes glowed with a dangerous look in the darkness.
As the ship's spotlight shone over, a strange creature revealed itself on the deck. Its back was green, its belly white, and its overall structure resembled a Western dragon, but it was covered in long fur, with front claws merged with wings, and huge bird-like talons on its hind legs.
A thick tail lay horizontally on the deck, roughly estimated to be eight or nine meters long. However, it looked extremely weak now, with a large black arrow piercing through its wing, and similar items lodged in its body, which caused it to fall down.
Moreover, the black arrows had chains attached, which were connected to a heavy object, suggesting someone deliberately made it to capture it.
"Is this... a Thousand-Year Dragon?!"
Queen's knowledge of creatures allowed him to quickly identify this species, known as the Thousand-Year Dragon, a special creature. Despite its name, Thousand-Year Dragon, its appearance was more like a combination of an archaeopteryx and a dinosaur.
They are called Thousand-Year Dragons because they live for a long time.
"Brother Queen, what is a Thousand-Year Dragon?"
"A legendary creature, rumor has it that its bones can grant immortality, but that's false." How does he know? Because MADS researched this legend back then.
The study of Bloodline Factors involves all kinds of strange creatures. Although Thousand-Year Dragons are rare, as long as they exist in this world, the World Government can find traces of them.
The ideal burial and birthplace of a Thousand-Year Dragon is Dragon Island, hidden deep beneath the East Sea. This island surfaces once every thousand years, but not every Thousand-Year Dragon can die in peace there.
Those that die or are born outside of the island also exist, and simple research and experiments naturally reveal that the rumor is fake.
Moreover, if this were true, no one would probably ever see a Thousand-Year Dragon in the outside world, as the World Government wouldn't allow such a creature to live freely.
No matter how much manpower and resources it takes, they would hunt down this species to collect dragon bones and keep a few in captivity.
The so-called secret of immortality is nothing but a rumor; if the Thousand-Year Dragon's bones could indeed make an Elixir of Immortality, then it would be quite unreasonable for the dragons themselves to age and die.
However, facts prove that some people still believe in this legend; otherwise, they wouldn't hunt Thousand-Year Dragons.
As for how he concluded this, the wounds on the Thousand-Year Dragon already explained it all; only humans or half-humans would use such things.
Queen was educating the people around him, partly to show off his knowledge, but when he talked about certain experiments, the wounded Thousand-Year Dragon growled at him, causing more blood to gush from its already injured body.
"What is this guy doing, does it have a death wish?"
"It's saying, you bastard, how dare you harm its kin. If you have guts, go ahead, it wants to bite you to death, um, that's roughly what it means."
Elizabeth's intermittent voice reached Queen's ears. Given a little more time, Elizabeth would soon be able to communicate freely with humans.
An adult Thousand-Year Dragon can understand human speech, but they can't speak human language, and humans can't understand their roars.
However, it's well-known that all land creatures outside of humanity and demi-humans in the Pirate World speak one language. This can be observed from Chopper's translation ability; whether it be camels, birds, or even special creatures like Kung Fu Sea Cows, he can understand them.
Snubbull from Water 7, general Sea Beasts, Chopper can understand their language, but it seems he can't understand fish language. Fish and other animals probably don't use the same language.
As for Sea King Types, only the Sea Emperor of each generation and someone who can hear the voice of all things can understand them.
The language of this Thousand-Year Dragon and Elizabeth's language is similar, so Elizabeth acted as the translator.
Otherwise, only Arceus on the ship could understand its words.
"It misunderstood; what I meant was I researched materials sent by others, and it's the first live Thousand-Year Dragon I've seen."
Queen wasn't explaining to the Thousand-Year Dragon, but to Shaina. Shaina hated the World Government's so-called experiments, not only because of those conducted on her and Abel, but also those on other species.
She wouldn't go near Queen's lab, and Queen wouldn't mention such things in front of her, but this time he got carried away and broke their mutual understanding.
Recently, Shaina has been around Arceus every night, seemingly gaining even more power, and she even has plans to develop "Queen Bowling," making Queen stay wary.
"The Grand Treasure of immortality... It seems Olga didn't mistranslate, I think the direction of that Treasure Map points to this Thousand-Year Dragon's island, right?"
Queen tried to change the subject, though his method of doing so was quite awkward, and the effect was not noticeable. Just when he was having a headache, someone lent a hand as a cannonball exploded around the ship.
The splashed waves landed beside Arceus, soaking the deck next to him, and seeing all this, Queen's eyes nearly lit up.
"Lord Arceus! Someone dares to disturb your peace, unforgivable! I'll go catch them right away!"
Queen directly transformed into Tropius and soared into the sky, heading toward the approximate direction. The pirates on the ship looked at each other in dismay.
"Could that scoundrel overact any more?"
"Shaina, you'd better go with him. I don't trust him much."
"Understood, sacred beast lord, I'll deal with those who fired the cannon." She said, flapping her wings to catch up with the prematurely flying Queen, while Arceus walked over to the Thousand-Year Dragon.
Since this creature has lived so long, perhaps it knows something about past events.
The Plate could appear inside a Sea King Type's stomach, so it's possible it could appear in some Thousand-Year Dragon's nest.
The previous struggle was the last bit of strength this Thousand-Year Dragon had. Now it lay extremely weak on the deck.