Dark Moon Era

Chapter 182: The Cloud Surges (3 in 1)

Actually, there was nothing to be surprised about. The difference was huge, was it not?

A perfect nine-star Genetic Chain Talent and a poor three-star talent.

Nonetheless, the dazzling silvery-white shine looked very similar.

Both Fei Long and Yang Kong once doubted the dazzling silvery-white color, but the doubts were discarded soon enough.

Fei Long did not care because he believed the intensity of the shine did not mean anything, and only the different ranks among talents mattered.

As a scientist-to-be, Yang Kong had more experience and knowledge than Fei Long. He had thought about it before, but he realized that his guesses were unreliable. If it was really as he predicted, why would the F-rank gene tester only show a three-star talent? Why not higher?

Therefore, amidst the guesses and coincidental mistakes, Tang Ling’s special display of power was neglected.

Until Yang Kong got his hands on the piece of paper, all the doubts and questions came rushing back to him.

How could Tang Ling’s talent share the same color with the Perfect Genetic Chain Talent? Strictly speaking, it was not a dazzling silvery-white color, but it looked more like a platinum hue with a tinge of gold.

It was widely known in this era that the high-level Genetic Chain Talents were golden, but now Tang Ling’s color was golden platinum, meaning...

“How does it feel?” Yang Kong was relatively calmer than Fei Long. He was just feeling guilty for knowing too little. Before he got the paper about the talent display, he thought the color palette of the Genetic Chains, other than representing the candidate’s talent, included just silvery-white, iron black, and reddish-gold, but did not expect golden platinum.

“I don’t know. Did I just witness a miracle? Was it an impossible miracle that was made possible?” Fei Long finished two glasses of wine in one go to calm himself down.

“I’m not sure. This is just a prediction for the Perfect Genetic Chain Talent. A Perfect Genetic Chain Talent has never appeared in this era, but...do you remember the legend?” Yang Kong was serious, and his gaze was stern. When he mentioned the legend, there was a hint of respect in his eyes.

Of course, Fei Long remembered the legend. Strictly speaking, this particular legend had something to do with him and Yang Kong though it was just a little something.

“I remember.” Fei Long looked down but lifted his head up after a second. “But it’s impossible.”

“I don’t know. I can’t be sure of anything now. I can’t say that Tang Ling has the Perfect Genetic Chain. First, this is just an imaginary illustration. Second, the test result is far from what I guessed and I can’t erase my doubts.” Yang Kong showed a sense of helplessness in his eyes, but his gaze soon cleared up. He admitted to Fei Long, “I’ve altered Tang Ling’s Genetic Chain graph slightly.”

“You...” Shocked, Fei Long did not know what could have driven Yang Kong to make such a bold move. It was...an act of betrayal!

“You do know how big of a secret this is, don’t you? I have no choice but to bury it in my heart despite it still having many questionable points.” Yang Kong leaned on his chair as he looked at Fei Long.

“If I were you...I think I’d do the same. Yeah, Tang Ling is really a likable kid, but he isn’t the reason for us to go to such an extent. There are many, many other reasons.”

As for what reasons those were, none of them were solid reasons, but one thing was for sure—there was reluctance!

There was a reluctance to accept the fact that the sector would compromise in the face of the upcoming storm.

It was because of the reluctance that the urge to keep the secret and protect Tang Ling came to be. Although it was just some ambiguous thoughts and speculations, the urge was instinctive.

It was both Yang Kong and Fei Long’s choice.

The night was at its darkest. Further away on the horizon, the first light shone quietly.

Yang Kong opened the roof of the room and glanced over at the first rays of light. He said to Fei Long, “If, and I mean if, my guess turns out to be real, what do you think will happen? What kind of storm will come?”

“I don’t know, but it’s scary, so I’m walking away.” Fei Long was not afraid to show his weak side in front of Yang Kong.

Yang Kong went silent. He dared not ask the next question which was, “What is your choice?”

Sometimes, he felt like he was not the only one who noticed this. If he had not witnessed Tang Ling cultivate right in front of his eyes, he would not have been able to accept this secret either.

If there were others who realized the secret, how scary would it be? Legend had it that there was a list out there floating around, and judging from the fact that Safety Sector No. 17 had a storm coming its way, it was natural that the list would include the safety sector.

As a matter of fact, there had been signs early on. From the zombie incident in the settlement to the fact that the representative of the Agnes family had taken the lead to compromise all stated many problems.

However, there were many who were ignorant about the situation and only found out when it was too late, including himself.

So, is this the unstoppable force in this world? Yang Kong chuckled as he sneered at himself for being as weak as Fei Long. In the end, he really wanted to know who Su Yao really was. What identity did he possess?

However, due to his weakness, Yang Kong chose to run away. Being able to keep the secret together with Fei Long was already his biggest act of courage.

******

Peace lasted for a whole month after the cultivation.

Summer was at its end, and the chilly autumn was just around the corner.

Tang Ling squatting down in the left forest, carefully boiling a pot of soup. With an air of arrogance, after he built the fire, he allowed the smoke to rise to the sky and the steam to fill the area. It did not matter because he had become the conqueror of the left forest. Who would dare to snatch his food? Going up against him in his territory would be suicidal!

“Tang Ling, I’m never coming out with you again!” Orston complained.

Why did I follow him? The conqueror of the forest? What about the insects and beasts? Do they even recognize him?!

Arrogance attracted problems wherever one went. If you could win, you should fight especially if you could not run. After all, where was the glory in running? If you fled too many times, would it not be shameful?

While Tang Ling was cooking brazenly in the left forest, he was actually surrounded by four king beasts and three mutated insects.

Can’t I have a meal in peace? Orston was thinking of stealing a few sips of Tang Ling’s soup.

Tang Ling did not even look at him. He scooped the soup with a ladle and tasted it before he added some salt and said, “The soup is almost done. Orston, can you get rid of those bastards? We can have some roast meat with the soup.”

“You piece of shit! Why don’t you go by yourself?!” Orston was upset because he really wanted to have a meal in peace.

Tang Ling glanced over at Orston and then at those anxious but coward beasts and insects that wanted to rob him but had not moved an inch. He raised two fingers at Tang Ling.

“First, you can’t beat me in a brawl. Second, do you still want to have soup?”

Orston was rendered speechless. Tang Ling looked asquint at Orston. “If these bastards run away, we will lose our Hope credits. If we lose Hope credits, I will be sad. If I am sad, I’ll want to beat you up.”

Orston swallowed his grievance as he stood up and walked to the beasts and insects with a cruel smile before he roared and jumped onto them. He advanced fiercely as if he was venting his emotions towards Tang Ling onto the beasts and insects.

Tang Ling shook his head as he watched. “Can you be a little more careful? Don’t ruin the meat, please. Do you want to end up eating meat paste?”

“Motherf*cker! Fine!” Orston’s vein on his forehead was twitching and he held back a little.

In less than five minutes, a little hill of dead king beasts and Level 1 mutated insects were piled up beside Tang Ling’s fire.

Tang Ling’s eyes gleamed when he jumped up and started to collect the valuables from the dead bodies.

Orston pouted in disdain. Is that really necessary? How much Hope credits can they possibly be worth?

Nonetheless, Tang Ling was never tired of this. After he quickly gathered all the valuables, he picked the beast meat out of the bunch, cleaned it, and started roasting it.

He was mumbling and complaining that Orston had never enjoyed anything good before.

In ancient Huaxia, the people were delicate when it came to eating. For example, with fish, there were techniques to grill the fish head. The fish’s jelly-like brain was tasty when mixed with soup and swallowed in a single gulp. The fish belly was the softest part. The best way to eat the belly was to steam it. After the bones were picked out, it would be the smoothest sliver of meat one could enjoy.

“Have you eaten those before? Did you bloody go back in time?” Orston was starving as he listened to Tang Ling. The problem was that all he could do was listen and not taste any of that. What was that meant to be? Torture?

Tang Ling filled a bowl of soup for Orston. It was not a lot as it only filled two-thirds of the lunchbox he brought. Orston could not digest any more than that anyway. Tang Ling said in a laidback tone, “Yes, I bloody traveled through time and ate what I described! What are you going to do about it? You must thank me for being so devoted to food. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be having such an indulgent meal today!”

Orston had the urge to beat him up when Tang Ling mentioned it.

Tang Ling was getting better at cooking, but his skills were built upon the blood and tears of the Fierce Dragon Squad.

He would taste all kinds of strange plants and spices for cooking. He even cooked meat with Sournia Tartar leaves and the taste was challenging to one’s soul. He would beat Orston up if he could not finish the food because wasting food was an unforgivable sin!

Other than that, he fried vegetables with the oil extracted from mudfish. The fishy smell was so dense that it would make one tear up easily, yet Orston was not allowed to throw it away.

Orston did not want to recall the pitiful memories. He accepted the bowl of soup from Tang Ling and this time, he felt a lot more comforted.

The soup was beneficial. Orston knew the soup had precious vicious beast meat plus a little something extra. After Tang Ling completed his first cultivation session, he would always cook this soup.

Even until today, Orston could never forget how Tang Ling looked after the first cultivation as he curled up in the cave with his blanket. After the cultivation, he was thinner. Now, he was boiling the soup in front of the fire.

Is he suffering from kidney failure? The question had popped up in Orston’s head when he saw how gaunt Tang Ling had been back then. Even though he did not really understand the term, he always heard the elder men in the family teasing each other about it.

Regardless, everyone else was improving after the first cultivation except for this rascal. Not only did he not become stronger, but he also became weaker and thinner, so what could have happened? It remained an unsolved mystery in the Fierce Dragon Squad that had not been solved after a month.

On the other hand, ever since Tang Ling started to cook the soup, he would share it with his friends in the squad frequently.

The soup left an impression on everyone. A single mouth of the soup felt like swallowing blades that cut the throat and stomach. It felt like drinking fire and the pain was unbearable.

Orston, Yu, and even Christina knew more than the others. They were aware that it was the natural reaction after eating vicious beast meat.

Given their age, their family dared not nourish them with vicious beast meat, but Tang Ling was always on the edge with his crazy thoughts. Thankfully, everyone had started cultivation, so they could negate the pain from the soup if they could cultivate in time, and after that, great benefits would ensue.

However, regardless of that, everyone else was unlike Tang Ling. The pain was endless despite a small sip of soup and strip of meat, and not even cultivating could negate the pain for them.

Everyone was in awe of Tang Ling’s digestive system. They were also feeling sympathetic about his poor Genetic Chain Talent since they thought a lot of the energy must be wasted in the process. He ate a lot more than the others, yet his growth in strength was not really stellar and was only on par with everyone else.

With that thought in mind, Orston lost the mood to drink the soup. Yeah, I know he isn’t any stronger than he was before, but it’s a solid fact that he can still beat me up.

Orston’s sympathy was to blame.

After the first cultivation, Tang Ling was in a weakened state so much so that Orston, Yu, and even Amir and Andy did not have the heart to beat him up. Tang Ling remained weak for two days, but after he drank the soup twice, he recovered and was livelier than ever.

Maybe he wasn’t as strong that time...

What about after the second cultivation session? Since Tang Ling had to save Hope credits, he did not enter the gene tester anymore and Instructor Yang Kong strangely allowed him to go his way.

However, after that, Tang Ling obviously got stronger. Since that day onwards, he fought everything. He fought himself, Yu, Andy, and beasts and insects in the forest and on the battlefield, causing trouble wherever he went and even bringing a massacre to everyone or making them run for their lives.

The only few who escaped his punches were Amir and the two girls. Because Amir might be too quiet and introverted, it was not easy for Tang Ling to start a fight with Amir. As for the two girls, he was not that shameless to beat a girl up.

“What are you thinking about? Drink it and cultivate. After the cultivation, let’s roast some meat.” Orston was carried away by his thoughts but was pulled back by Tang Ling’s nagging.

Orston felt moved when he heard that. Although Tang Ling was a rascal, he was a generous one who would share the precious soup with everyone in the Fierce Dragon Squad. He was also very considerate as well. After every cultivation session, he would roast some meat for everyone. His cooking was not as lousy as he used to be, and he was getting better.

Orston shot Tang Ling a grateful gaze.

Tang Ling had goosebumps all over as he glared back at Orston. “Stop looking at me with that strange gaze, or I’ll beat you up!”

Orston gripped his bowl tightly. I will put up with you this time!

After he finished the soup, Orston entered the silent state and then the visualization. Tang Ling gobbled down everything in the pot including the soup and the meat. After licking everything clean, he digested the food using the eating method Su Yao taught him before starting his cultivation.

However, prior to the cultivation, he warned himself fiercely, “You, be careful with what you absorb! Check before you do anything. Don’t be so fierce and absorb all kinds of lousy impurities.”

It was strange for him to talk to himself but somehow he got a reply in his mind. The reply was somewhat of a blur flicker. It was unclear what it was trying to express, but Tang Ling understood the message. It could be translated as “Little Seed is careful. Impurities. Daddy, bathe.”

Who are you calling Daddy?! Tang Ling reacted strangely to the reply because he was not even married. He started to regret forming a spiritual link with the seed in his heart.

After his first cultivation, he clearly felt that his spirit had improved because he could feel this world a lot better, and it felt a lot more genuine. He associated his spirit with the seed and recognized how it required his spirit to kickstart the transformation every time. Therefore, he started an experiment as he wanted to know whether he could communicate with the seed.

It was very important for him to do this. If he could succeed, he could grasp the initiative every time he transformed.

He and the seed coexisted in a symbiotic relationship, but Tang Ling, being the rascal that he already was, wanted to tell the seed who was the boss around here!

Therefore, when he first made contact with the seed, he scolded the seed, “It’s all your fault! You increase my appetite and make me eat a whole load of food every day. That’s why I have so many impurities in my body and I almost died after the first cultivation!

“It’s because of you! Being gluttonous as you already are and devouring everything that you see, you aren’t prestigious at all. That’s why I can’t achieve an esteemed body easily like other people!”

Tang Ling never thought about his own appetite. Even if he did not have the seed within him, his appetite was huge. He had the urge to taste everything that he saw, and back in the garage, he even tasted zombie meat!

However, the little seed was pure and it accepted Tang Ling’s blame. It somehow grew a conscience. Not only did it take the blame, but it even accepted the rascal as its father during the first contact.

No matter how Tang Ling scolded it or went crazy, it still perceived him as its father.

Tang Ling surrendered in the end. Father? So be it. It was better than him being the seed’s son. He no longer wanted to argue about titles with the seed.

He entered his cultivation mode quickly. According to the addendum, every time before he started cultivating, he had to use his energy to wash his body first so that he could maintain the purity of the esteemed body state. As for the benefits of achieving an esteemed body state, Tang Ling had deeply experienced them. No one knew how powerful he was now except for himself.

Time flew by as he concentrated on his cultivation. He was as bold as he was arrogant. He was brazen enough to start cultivating in the forest while cooking a meal beside him. It was not really a problem since Orston would take care of anything that was bold enough to attack him.

If he could keep it up, he could break through and become a Purple Moon Warrior with perfect form in six months.

“Right, the perfect form.” It was a new thing that Tang Ling learned recently. Su Yao purposely had emphasized on the perfect form during the last meeting.

It was not the perfect form by Safety Sector No. 17’s standards, but the perfect form by the world’s standard!

So, what exactly was a world-standard perfect form?

It was when one reached the maximum limit of the human body before breaking through the first genetic lock. Breaking through to become a Purple Moon Warrior would involve unlocking the first genetic lock with the energy gathered in the body.

According to the theory, if a man achieved the strength of 5 bulls, the speed of 3 seconds per hundred meters and the dodging rate of 70% under a certain number of intensity of the light particles, which was the measurement for the reflex test, he would have the basics to break through the first genetic lock and ascend as a Purple Moon Warrior.

The majority would choose to break through when they achieved the numbers but not the New Moon Warriors in the First Reserved Camp. That was the reason why there were so many old New Moon Warriors in the camp. They had reached the threshold a long time ago but did not want to breakthrough yet.

It was all because they wanted to achieve the so-called ‘perfect form’.

In the First Reserved Camp, everyone assumed that the best point to break through the first genetic lock was with the strength of 7 bulls, the speed of 2 seconds per hundred meters, and a dodging rate of at least 90%.

The accumulation was nearing its limit, but once an individual broke through the first genetic lock and ascended to become a Purple Moon Warrior, every step in the path of growth would be a lot more effective than those who did not achieve the perfect form.

For example, the rank 1 warrior, who had achieved the maximum limit, could easily best the other warriors who had not. According to the situation, the same rank 1 warrior could even rival two or more warriors who had not reached the limit.

Accumulation was the key. Even though the closer one was to the limit, the slower the accumulation, the more difficult every step to breakthrough from thereon would be. Nevertheless, it was because of the difficulty that it became the goal everyone in the First Reserved Camp pursued.

Unless one’s age was nearing the optimal age to break through, no one would prematurely break through. However, throughout the years, no one was able to accumulate the energy to that limit.

Was it hard? Tang Ling thought of what Su Yao told him.

“All garbage! What kind of accumulation of the limits is this? The real accumulation limit is the strength of 9 bulls and 1.5 seconds per hundred meters. As for the reflexes, the intensity of the light particles must be a level higher and the dodging rate must reach 90%. Safety Sector No. 17 is too small. What I just told you are the real standards to achieve.

“Kid, you better work hard for it. Don’t let this tiny place blind your vision. In this era, teenagers in the bigger cities will feel embarrassed if they don’t break through with perfect form.”

Were the teenagers in the bigger cities that powerful? Tang Ling felt like a frog inside a well. He never thought of Su Yao swelling the numbers!

It was at that moment that a long siren with a special vibration rang from the Hope Barrier.

Tang Ling and Orston’s eyes flew open together.

What had happened?

It was the siren for everyone to get ready for a Class 1 defense situation!