Dark Moon Era

Chapter 192: Challenge Part 1 (3 in 1)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Next!”

Tang Ling was a fighting machine under the rain. He never gave the challenger a window to react. Swiftly, all he delivered was a simple punch and kick before he moved on to the next one.

How many had he beaten? 10? 20?

The accurate number was 21. To be exact, 21 New Moon Warriors excluding the six from the Fierce Dragon Squad!

Were 21 geniuses truly defeated by a punch and a kick?!

It was until the 82nd New Moon Warrior that Tang Ling dished out an extra punch to throw him out of the ring.

The 82nd New Moon Warrior had been accepted into the First Reserved Camp last year with the result of first place. Everyone thought highly of him as a genius because he rose to the 87th place in less than a year. Some even assumed that he hid his strength, waiting for an appropriate timing to show off so that he could climb higher in the ranks.

Now? He was a complete joke in front of Tang Ling. He was indeed a genius, one who received two punches from Tang Ling instead of the usual one.

Many looked dismal as they watched the challenge. No one believed that Tang Ling had incited the challenge just for fun. Every one of his punches and kicks contained strength and speed that were so powerful that they easily overpowered his opponents.

“It’s fine. There’s actually another line that divides the New Moon Warriors in the First Reserved Camp. The first 55 and the last 55 were on two different levels,” said an onlooking elite warrior softly to the other warrior beside him.

It was rather unbelievable. How could a 15-year-old teenager be so strong? There must be a reason.

In fact, if Tang Ling could not cross the line separating the 55, even if he was stronger than others, there would be a limit to how far he could go.

“What do you mean?” The listening warrior was obviously less knowledgeable.

“In simple terms, the first 55 New Moon Warriors are qualified to become Purple Moon Warriors because they have surpassed the lowest standards of the Warriors. All they are doing in the camp is accumulating strength.

“The last 55 don’t have the qualifications and as long as they don’t qualify, there will be a line between them.” The elite warrior seemed well-informed since his answers were precise and serious.

While he was explaining, Tang Ling had called out “next” two times in a row. Subsequently, two more New Moon Warriors were defeated.

The warrior listening to the explanation was further confused. While he was astonished by Tang Ling’s performance, he asked, “Isn’t that too much of an exaggeration? I know there’s a standard to qualify as a Purple Moon Warrior, but if the standard is, let’s say 3,000 kg of force, then what is the difference between 2,999 kg and 3,000 kg?”

Although it made sense, the elite warrior sneered at him. Once upon a time, the elite warrior had shared the same thought and hoped to qualify as a Purple Moon Warrior. However, reality had slapped him in the face hard. He realized that the differences between a commoner and a Purple Moon Warrior were bigger than he could ever imagine.

“Do you know about the extreme value? As a matter of fact, in order to qualify as a Purple Moon Warrior, you have to reach the extreme value before passing the genetic locks. As for how many extreme values there are, I don’t know, but if you haven’t reached the potential of the extreme value, your strength will be forever stuck.

“Let me explain it in your case. If you say that 3,000 kg is an extreme value, assuming you don’t have the potential to reach it, your strength will never surpass 2,900 kg, but once you go over 3,000 kg, in the upcoming days, your strength will skyrocket but still be within a limit such as 500 kg or whatnot.

“Think about it. How much of a difference has it made? It’s true that after the surge, the power-up will grow slower and more difficult, but what if there are some geniuses who can break through the second extreme value? How much of a difference would it make then?

“Some extremely powerful New Moon Warriors in the First Reserved Camp have reached the third extreme value or even higher based on what I know. The last 55 are always newbies, but once they get into the first 55, every single rank is as different as heaven and earth.” said the elite warrior as he sighed.

The difference between a genius and a commoner was huge. Those who were accepted into the First Reserved Camp were all geniuses who could at least go beyond the first extreme value.

Some geniuses would never reach a bottleneck as they would only become stronger and stronger like Hank.

However, no one knew about Tang Ling or his so-called extreme value. All he did was eat, fight, and train and he would grow stronger and stronger because he had a Perfect Genetic Chain after all.

“Next.” Tang Ling continued his challenge. He was no longer counting how many men he had defeated. All he remembered was his goal.

Fatigue? It was non-existent! He liked the suffering and relished the bitterness while his heart hurt like being sliced by a thousand blades. Therefore, the pain on his body was nothing when compared to that agony.

Under such a condition, he was using the limit of his body to endure the pain from the vicious beast meat that he ate, disregarding the cost and consequences. Since fighting continuous battles would only exhaust him greatly, he should seize the moment and grow stronger. That way, he would not have to care about the digestion either.

The New Moon Warrior that ranked 62nd place stepped into the ring. “I think I should introduce myself first. I’m We...”

“Skip the chatter. Bring it on.” Tang Ling stopped the senior from introducing himself since he had no time to waste anymore. Was an introduction that important?

It seemed like Tang Ling’s impatience upset the senior, so he did not want to comply and declared loudly, “I’m just warning you that I have accumulated enough to qualify as a Purple Moon Warrior. I was planning to make an entrance to rise in the ranks, but now it seems like I have to use your challenge to show off.”

Right after his voice subsided, a heated discussion broke out beneath the ring. It was quite shocking for a New Moon Warrior in the lower 55 ranks to reach Purple Moon Warrior standards.

One had to give it to this New Moon Warrior for having the patience to accumulate his strength to this extent. Would he be able to end Tang Ling’s legend?

Tang Ling did not react differently. He just acknowledged by grunting and said while waving his hand, “Let’s just start.”

Was there any worse insult than this? Even after revealing his trump card, the New Moon Warrior was treated with this level of disdain. Infuriated, he dashed towards Tang Ling. Alas, he was too slow, but his punch was stronger than the others. What about his reflexes?

Tang Ling finally got a little serious, and his Precise Instinct finally came into play. When the senior’s punch was less than 5 mm from touching him, Tang Ling slightly moved his body sideways, dodging the punch in the nick of time. The senior missed.

In fact, Tang Ling did not even need to use his Precise Instinct to move away as he was able to react in less than a second. Even using his battle instinct alone, his speed would be enough to predict the punch and dodge it easily.

The senior’s punch was too weak because he was restrained by the modern combat techniques, so he failed to learn how to transform combat techniques into muscle memory. That was why he could not break free from the restraints of his lessons and attack based on the situation.

However, the scene was something refreshing to the spectators since they had gotten used to Tang Ling beating his opponent quickly.

“Look! Tang Ling has started to dodge, meaning that the New Moon Warrior must have surpassed him in strength. Otherwise, he could have just taken the punch head-on.”

“No, I think the New Moon Warrior is also faster than him. Tang Ling really did just dodge.”

“I think otherwise. Have you seen what Tang Ling did in the bloody cage back in the first exam? What’s his forte? He has an ability similar to prediction! He should have activated it to dodge the punch.”

“Hmm. Prediction, eh? This battle is going to be interesting. All those fights before this were too boring. Nevertheless, it clearly states that this New Moon Warrior is strong, but it also proves that Tang Ling reached the qualification to break through as a Purple Moon Warrior in a short time.”

Heated banter exploded among the crowd, but Tang Ling turned a deaf ear to all the discussion.

He had never reached the so-called limit, so he knew he was growing silently, and if one day he reached his bottleneck and broke through it, would it bring any benefit to his strength such as gaining a new ability?

Tang Ling never took the Precise Instinct as his ability. It was more of an instinct that he was born with. The so-called ability should be a talent or something similar like Anthony’s lightning and the black line that Worf manipulated.

Let’s play with this guy for a bit. Let’s push him to his limit and see whether he will reveal his ability.

Therefore, Tang Ling did not attack. He once again showed off his so-called prediction ability that he displayed during the bloody cage exam.

Miss, miss, miss, miss... 15 seconds after the battle started, the senior punched every part of Tang Ling’s body 27 times and kicked him 16 times. No one would doubt the speed of someone who was qualified as a Purple Moon Warrior. However, it was still useless because all the attacks missed as the senior wasted his strength on a series of futile attacks.

Is he insulting me? The senior was completely angry because only he knew how insulting it was to miss. Tang Ling was dodging his attacks with minimal movements, not even taking an extra step.

This bloody bastard! Rage was burning fiercely in his head. Although the senior also had a trump card, he intended to keep it because he wanted to utilize Tang Ling’s incident at its climax to carve a name for himself.

Not only had he planned to stomp on Tang Ling, but he even wanted to challenge another New Moon Warrior who was around 30th placing. He should then use his trump card, not now.

“Don’t force me!” the senior shouted. He punched even faster and each blow left a strong wind in its trail.

At the same time, someone in the crowd spotted the problem. “Is his predictive ability that powerful? Is he using another kind of ability instead?”

The shout came from an elite warrior and his words attracted suspicion from the others. Prediction should be a type of instinct that would depend on the user’s capability, yet Tang Ling was able to use it repeatedly in such a short period of time to an accurate extent.

This kind of ability...

“This is definitely not predictive ability. Prediction requires a great amount of spirit to utilize. It’s something like the sixth sense, but Tang Ling’s eyes and expression clearly show that he’s not using his spirit at all.” Finally, the Purple Moon Warriors paid closer attention to the fight.

It was a little different from what Tang Ling displayed back in the bloody cage exam. More precisely, back then, it seemed like he reacted more with prediction, but now it was more like calculation. Tang Ling calculated the angle, power, and speed of the punches and dodged them perfectly. It might also be a kind of instinct that he cultivated through long hours of battle.

The Purple Moon Warriors were a lot more knowledgeable than common warriors when it came to judging the situation.

However, no one knew that back in the bloody cage, Tang Ling had been holding his Precise Instinct back, and later in that battle, he purposely made mistakes to deceive everyone so that no one would relate it to a type of battle simulation ability.

This time around, Tang Ling did not bother to hide his ability anymore. He decided to send Vian off in a grand way, so he no longer kept his emotions under control. A man in this world either lived a dull life or a grand, amazing life.

His growth was exponential because he loved to torture himself and dance along the fine life of line and death.

The Purple Moon Warrior was right. Tang Ling did not use any predictive ability. All he relied on was his battle instinct that he had tempered through many battles.

“Everyone knows Tang Ling has a secret. This ability of his...I don’t think it’s prediction either. Prediction relies on spirit and feeling, so it has a chance of missing, but Tang Ling never missed,” another Purple Moon Warrior, whose eyes had been half-closed, analyzed when he was awoken by the battle.

In fact, the battle underground should also be a show, so the Purple Moon Warrior believed and this ‘show’ exhausted him a lot.

The battle between New Moon Warriors never interested him, but when Tang Ling showed off his predictive ability, it piqued his interest. Even though all he wanted was to spot the difference between a normal New Moon Warrior and a New Moon Warrior that was qualified to break through to become a Purple Moon Warrior, Tang Ling once again stole the limelight from his opponent.

His goal was met when the angry senior finally showed something different.

Wind? Is that wind?

The breeze that Tang Ling felt was unlike Andy’s, whose speed of movement was naturally faster than normal people, like a Horan Mountain goat that was skilled at running.

The senior did not possess the advantage of speed in any part of his body except for his punches, from which the wind originated. As his punches got quicker and reached a certain speed, his blows were able to gather the wind and got stronger with each strike.

Slowly but surely, when the punches grazed Tang Ling’s skin, it started to hurt and the wind somehow started to materialize.

“Is that it?” A tinge of seriousness flashed over Tang Ling’s eyes as he also felt like the wind had reached a certain limit. His Precise Instinct came into play instinctively and formed a series of images in his head.

The speed of the senior’s punches subtly increased with each strike. Before the wind from the punches could dissipate, the next punch added more wind to the previous, hence enhancing it all together.

Eventually, when the wind accumulated, it would be as destructive as a high-speed projectile that could leave a storm in its trail and damage its targets.

So, is this his talent? The wind element? If he isn’t sensitive about the wind, he couldn’t have felt the subtle increase of accumulation in the air.

Can I do it as well? A crazy thought appeared in his mind next. He tried to mimic the senior’s move even though he did not possess any sensitivity towards the air. Instead, he relied solely on his Precise Instinct to calculate.

Was the Precise Instinct only useful at providing precision? No, it was an ability that could see through one’s true nature!

Tang Ling was used to multi-tasking with his brain. While he was thinking about the matter, his Precise Instinct calculated that the damaging wind would take form in the senior’s punch in the next 1.8 seconds and that the punch was going for his abdomen.

He had at least 37 ways to dodge the punch and the easiest would be stepping aside, but he did not plan to move at all as another crazy thought popped up in his head. He wanted to feel the damage from the accumulated wind of the punch!

Would it be like the winter wind which would hurt and bite by simply blowing at one’s face? The damage from the wind must be closely related to speed, but the other important reason would be the continuous accumulation in a short period of time.

The senior used the change in the speed of his punches to accumulate air, toying with the air between his fists. What kind of damage could he inflict on Tang Ling?

His Precise Instinct was unable to calculate the damage yet, so Tang Ling wanted to feel it for himself. Was his abdomen a weak point? No, Tang Ling would never leave any part of his body unguarded. He coiled his abdomen and clenched his fists.

Muscles were the best line of defense of the body from external attacks. If his tightened abdomen muscles failed to withstand the wind blade, his punch could simply break it. The wind could be dissipated by enough strength from the opposite direction.

The senior’s face turned red. It seemed like accumulating the wind was his limit as he revealed his trump card. He dished out another punch at Tang Ling’s face as a cover and kicked Tang Ling’s chest. The other punch went for Tang Ling’s right arm in a perfect arch.

The attacks came from three directions at the same time. Although they could be avoided, the accumulated wind from the punches flew towards Tang Ling’s abdomen as expected.

“A wind blade?” said a Purple Moon Warrior calmly. Wind talent was very common, and controlling the airflow to unleash a wind blade was just a branching ability of it.

It was obvious that the senior’s control of wind was still at an early stage because he had to dish out a total of 76 punches to barely create a wind blade.

However, given his age and since he was not yet a Purple Moon Warrior, before he could unlock the first genetic lock to become more sensitive toward the air, being able to achieve this level of control was considered good enough.

“Hmm, a wind blade eh? But the tactic was put into good use,” said another Purple Moon Warrior calmly.

The wind blade that was accumulated in 76 punches could not be considered a killer move. If Tang Ling could see through it, he would have a lot of ways to disrupt and negate the wind blade.

The key to facing a person with abnormal abilities or a very powerful battle instinct like Tang Ling would be to use the formless wind blade as the fourth attack, locking down all possible retreat options. It would be the best way to catch Tang Ling off guard.

Which one should he dodge? It seemed a little too difficult even though Tang Ling’s performance up until now was astounding. However, in the Purple Moon Warrior’s view, dodging all four of the attacks was not something even Tang Ling could do.

Could he? Of course, he could. He came up with many ways with his calculation, including facing the attacks with counterattacks of his own, but he wanted to feel the wind blade.

He dodged the left punch, the right kick, and then the right punch!

Tang Ling’s body bent over and twisted. The perfect control of his body attracted cheers from the crowd who had their eyes fixed on him.

“Did he dodge it?” asked a Purple Moon Warrior.

“You...” The senior felt defeated because everyone saw Tang Ling simply bend backward to dodge all three of the attacks together and he could have easily broken the fourth. Was it that hard to bend his upper body backward? It might be impossible for a normal person, but with Tang Ling’s control over his body, it was a piece of cake.

However, another astonishing scene caught everyone off guard: Tang Ling twisted his body back and withstood the wind blade with his abdomen!

Anyone with experience in battle would not do such an absurd thing, yet Tang Ling...

Swash!

The wind blade flew towards Tang Ling’s abdomen at lightning speed and Tang Ling’s abdomen was contracted to its limit. His solid abs showed off his perfect body line and gave him a sense of power.

A cut appeared on his abs before his punch hammered the air. While his skin was cut, his muscles were not affected. If he had not dissipated the wind blade with his punch, his abs could have suffered a cut that was 1 cm deep.

Given that his defense was nothing stellar, he would have easily fallen in front of a king beast’s attack, let alone a mutated beast.

It was a natural disadvantage of humans since their power and defense were not on the same level as beasts. Nevertheless, the power that he felt from the wind blade was decent.

“I did it!” The senior was exhilarated for a moment. He had forgotten the ambition that he had before stepping in the ring. Being able to land a cut on Tang Ling had become his biggest comfort.

“He did it on purpose,” said the Purple Moon Warrior. Although it was difficult to accept this, he had to accept what he saw. Why though? Why did Tang Ling want to test the strength of the wind blade with his own body?

However, Tang Ling would never provide the answer to the question. He looked up calmly at the senior and declared, “This ends now.”

As he spoke, Tang Ling attacked for the first time in this match. It was a very simple and straightforward punch, but the speed was so fast that the senior could barely react.

The senior was able to raise his punch to meet Tang Ling’s right fist before he took the hit.

Bang!

Fists met and flew apart. The senior faltered backward after the quick clash.

“He is quicker than before!” The senior looked pale, but on the other hand, Tang Ling said without a change of expression, “Again.”

Shuah!

The wind whistled with Tang Ling’s punch which was faster than the one before. The senior wanted to block it, but he realized that his hand that had smashed into Tang Ling’s earlier on was in pain and he could no longer curl it.

As he faltered backward nervously, he could not dodge it. The punch landed on his shoulder, and he felt like he had been hammered. Still, he held back and remained in the ring. A bigger wave of insult rose in his heart as he shouted, “You obviously can...”

You obviously can attack me and match my attacks, so why did you dodge all of them? Are you toying with me? Are you putting on a show?

Before he could finish speaking his mind, Tang Ling turned and a perfect roundhouse kick landed on the senior’s back, sending him flying from the ring.

As a matter of fact, the senior could have lasted a little longer in the ring, but he got carried away by the messy thoughts in his mind. He did not even react to Tang Ling’s final kick. Until he felt the ground beneath him, he was still drowned in the insult. The sense of defeat was obvious and felt unbearable.

So, was this the difference in strength? Was there also an uncrossable line between geniuses?

“Next.” Tang Ling stood where he was and started the next challenge. He was waiting for the next opponent that could match his strength so that he could test the power of the wind blade.

He was not confident about learning it instantly, so he wanted to test it out no matter how many times he might take. A man would never mind getting stronger. At least, not Tang Ling for he desired power greatly.

The warrior, who had just received the lesson about extreme values, asked the elite warrior beside him again, “What do you think, bro?”

“I...don’t know. He is really powerful.” The elite warrior gulped nervously. Regardless of whether they were the first or the last 55, they were not a problem for Tang Ling anymore.

He was a monster! How long had he been in the First Reserved Camp? Three months? Yet, he was able to grow so fast and reach the first limit!

It should not have just been a mere accumulation. At least, he should have gone through the first surge of power!

Judging from the speed, the power, and the reflexes Tang Ling displayed, he was far stronger than the senior who tried to control the wind. In the face of absolute power, talent without reaching a certain level was a farce.

“But I feel like reaching the top 20 is his limit,” the elite warrior provided a very conservative number as a confirmation after a quick thought.

The geniuses in the First Reserved Camp were not just divided by their gifts, but time was also a factor! How long had they been accumulating their strength? Even if Tang Ling was amazingly outstanding, he could not beat time. In such a short period of time, he could not slip through time and attain such an explosive power surge.

“Hmmm, yeah, top 20 should be the limit,” the elite warrior repeated again.

This time, the warrior beside him did not say anything. He had a feeling that Tang Ling might just create a miracle again.

It was only less than 5 minutes and Tang Ling had beaten the man in 62nd place.

No one expected No. 62 to be a Purple Moon Warrior qualifier, but it would also mean that all the upcoming battles were pretty much in the bag for Tang Ling.

“Next.”

Tang Ling started to beat his opponent in a flash once more without any delay at all. If one punch could not seal the deal, two punches would do, or at most, three to five punches.

One after another, the geniuses of the First Reserved Camp fell from the ring.

******

The rain got lighter with the breeze.

Su Yao and the man beside him fixed their gazes on the small screen of the communication device in delight.

“Old Su, you grew up with the leader. Was he that powerful at his age?” the man who had tossed the butterfly knife earlier asked in curiosity.

On the screen, Tang Ling had beaten the man in 57th place, and it was only 8 minutes and 46 seconds in.

“Him? No, he was still playing with dirt at that kid’s age.” Su Yao laughed disdainfully. That person was not a match for Tang Ling as the latter was far more superior.

“No way. Is it that much of a difference?” The man dared not believe it. In his eyes, his leader was a man who made the impossible possible, a miracle worker, so achieving the impossible was no surprise for him.

Still, a man like him...How did he fail? Why would he have failed in such a miserable way?

The man quietened down. He quit smoking a long time ago since the hobby was costly. Having gone undercover for many years, he was now poor.

Su Yao did not care about the man’s emotions as he looked further away at the Hope Barrier under the rain. He said in a heavy tone, “The difference is because of the resources. Back then, that guy couldn’t even afford vegetables. No food was on the plate and the lousiest quality of meat made him constipated. What else?” He smiled.

The past was nostalgic. Who would have thought the godlike man would have cried so miserably when taking a shit?

“Constipated?” The man’s face twitched as he thought that he really should not imagine the scene. It would ruin the image of the leader in his mind, so he shifted the topic. “So what? Does Tang Ling enjoy a lot more resources than the leader?”

“A lot? Not really. It’s no match for his growth either, yet it almost made me bankrupt. He’s just 15 years old, the age at which he can start training, yet he uses vicious beast meat as snacks. It’s not that much actually...”

“Yeah, not that ‘much’.” The man looked sour, but when he thought of something else, it was really not much for Tang Ling. The boy was considered pitiful from a certain perspective.

Would the resources that Tang Ling consumed be enough to support him to fight his way from the last place to the first?