Dark Moon Era

The noise was still in that strange language. Although Tang Ling could not understand it, he was somehow able to understand a bit of the meaning. It sounded like, “Sample. Take. Confirm,” or something similar.

Is this black rock a sample of something? Up until now, Tang Ling had never assumed for a second that this place was filled with inhuman powers like the temple of the Gods or whatnot.

As he delved further into his thought about the situation, the cave screamed of advanced technology. With that in mind, Tang Ling carefully enveloped his part of the black object and bagged it. Then, with a strange gaze, he lifted up the dagger which was unwilling to part with the other piece of the black object.

How should he put it? The old civilization had a legend about a sword in a stone, so what would this possibly be? Something black and hard that he drew from a battle?

Jokes aside, Tang Ling would never use this dagger in battle in his current stage. What happened just now further solidified his thoughts about this dagger: it was alive!

As a matter of fact, Tang Ling had doubts about the dagger at first glance. With its wooden hilt, the seamless connection to the blade, the natural creases and the fuller on the broken blade, it was more like a living thing than a dagger forged by man.

The current forging technology of the Purple Moon era and the research of materials had somehow surpassed the old civilization. Aside from mutation changing the Earth’s properties, this could very well be a new mineral that other basic elements formed together. The other possibility would be the intense usage of biomaterial.

Tang Ling had a new theory. What if a living being was naturally born as a weapon? He still could not forget the legendary material of the highest grade, godnium.

Although he was unclear about the traits of godnium, based on the limited description and understanding that he got from the books back in the safety sector, Tang Ling believed that this material should be something special. It was something in between a living being and a non-living being.

Who knew? The Purple Moon era had changed the whole planet to become a lot more mysterious than before.

Tang Ling’s heart was still burning with questions after he kept the dagger and black object. He knew he was able to lift the black object because of his blood, but what about the rest? The cut on his hand was still fresh, so he did not mind giving it another test.

However, the result was far from ideal and he almost cursed out loud. How useless! Nothing happened! Even if he smeared his blood all over the smaller object, there was no reaction at all.

Tang Ling was afraid that he might pass out from excessive bleeding. It seemed like he could no longer do anything to the rest of the objects on the rack.

What about the eggs? The eggs were definitely organic. After all, Wenbu had confirmed them as “unhatchable and poisonous and whatnot.”

Being the young, ambitious boy that he was, Tang Ling decided to take two eggs out of the cave and test whether he could hatch them. The more eggs he had, the more chances there were for trial and error.

Besides, he had a deep desire in his mind—he wanted to eat one! It was not a random thought. Wenbu said that the egg white was poisonous, but from another perspective, it meant that someone had broken the egg before, tried to eat it, and died from the poison.

Tang Ling’s own understanding of the poison was that the energy inside the egg must have been too intense, hence poisoning the eater. A person with a normal body would also die of an energy influx if he or she ate 100 grams of Level 3 vicious beast meat. Only a cultivator or someone with a special recipe could endure the intense energy.

The world is huge. I might be able to find a recipe for the egg like frying it with scallions or some tomatoes.

The thought starved Tang Ling who opened his backpack and wanted to take at least eight to ten eggs with him.

He wasn’t that greedy, all he wanted was eight to ten eggs.

The mysterious language was echoing in the cave, meaning surveillance was everywhere, but eight to ten eggs should be within the acceptable range, would it not?

It was just an educated guess! If it wasn’t for the mysterious noise, Tang Ling would have taken all the eggs out.

Then, he ran into another depressing problem.

He could not take the egg! The eggs were also pinned down by some mysterious power, they did not even budge.

Damn you, eggs. The purple Udy crows can steal one, but I can’t even get one? Tang Ling was unusually stubborn this time. He was thinking about disguising himself as a purple Udy crow and return.

However, it was obviously an invalid thought because he had no extra Holy Blood pill, and who knew what kind of coincidental circumstances allowed that damned crow to steal that egg? Tang Ling felt defeated by the situation.

Within his sight, other than the eggs and the rack with the objects, there was the temple that Wenbu mentioned. Rather than describing it as a temple, it was more like a large altar with two yellow cloths over it. The shape of the altar was also strange.

It took on an octagon that resembled an abstract bagua. It was made from wood that was rather unusual because it had the luster of iron and consisted of three colors.

Could it be hand-painted? Tang Ling treated the place as a super-advanced storeroom, so he was not really afraid of anything. He reached out and touched the altar.

It was its natural color! Were there any wood on this planet that has three colors? Obviously not!

Tang Ling had never read about anything similar in the Purple Moon Species Record back in the safety sector, but it might also be because the records stored in Safety Sector No. 17 were limited.

Other than that, the tri-colored tree’s vitality seemed to be overflowing. On the bark, there were still sprouts that had black and white leaves. Yes, they were black and white leaves! The black and white intertwined, producing an indescribable sense of holiness while it screamed of vitality.

Tang Ling suddenly remembered the notes about vicious plants in the black notebook with the map. His hand started to itch as he wanted to pluck a leaf for a taste. Right after the thought popped into his mind, he placed his hand on the leaf but was immediately electrocuted.

Bzzzzt!

He did not even have the time to respond when smoke rose from his abrupt afro hairstyle and fumes gushed out from his nose.

“F*ck!” Tang Ling cursed. He let go of the leaf and retreated seven to eight meters away. He was fried! There were seven to eight burn marks on his body that started to blister. Fortunately, he was powerful enough. A normal man would have been electrocuted to death or at least, heavily injured.

On second thought, the altar might possess enough current to electrocute Tang Ling to death, but as a warning, he was lightly punished instead.

Tang Ling really wanted to curse out loud. Who the hell set up this lousy joke? Fine, if you don’t want me to take the leaf, but you could’ve at least told me first! Why the sudden shock?!

However, he dared not voice his mind. Standing up, he put his hands together and simply mumbled some prayers along the lines of “O blessed God, I am here to worship you.”

He even mentioned names like the Jade Emperor and Buddha to give himself confidence. In the end, just for the sake of insurance, he made the gestured of a cross in front of him and called out to Lord Jesus.

Is this okay now?

It was not Tang Ling’s fault for simply muttering the names of gods from the old civilization. The customs and traditions of religion had been lost together with the change of era, thus it was considered amazing that he was able to utter the names correctly.

After calling all the old gods his boss, his brother, and whatnot, Tang Ling finally got a sense of comfort. He cowardly snuck up to the altar and swiftly unveiled the yellow cloth on the altar to see what god the villages worshipped.

Then, Tang Ling saw the contents of the altar.

It was neither a human or a humanoid figure, nor was it any known God from the old civilization. It was a bird!

A purple Udy crow? You must be kidding me! There’s no way they are worshipping the disgusting birds!

The bird inside the altar was half of Tang Ling’s size. Its posture was as elegant as the crane from the old civilization while its feathers were green mixed with stripes of red and its beak was white.

At first glance, there was nothing strange but upon a closer look, the red stripes were like living fire, and it seemed like they could ignite a fire at any moment. Despite just being a wooden sculpture, it was very lively and somewhat real.

Is this the bird that the six villages worship?

Tang Ling scratched his afro hair in confusion because he had no idea where this bird came from. Was it a vicious beast? What level was it? Was it powerful?

The whole altar had been built only for the bird and nothing else.

Is there any secret lying around? Tang Ling scanned the whole altar carefully, hoping to find a clue. This time, his efforts returned fruitful because he noticed some symbols at the back of the altar.

The symbols consisted of two parts. The first part was words, yet the words did not belong to any type of written language on the planet. Armed with vigilance and sensitivity, he grabbed his notebook and copied all the symbols.

The other part was all sorts of hand gestures that were strangely represented as well. Some were distorted beyond the human body’s capabilities.

Unknowingly, Tang Ling was deeply attracted to the hand gestures. He tried to mimic the simplest one, but after he did it, nothing happened.

Are all these some meaningless worshipping gestures? Tang Ling sat with his legs crossed in front of the hand gestures. One of his hands supported his cheek as he pondered upon the gestures. He strongly believed there must be a reason for him to be attracted to them right away.

Why not analyze them with my Precise Instinct? Tang Ling concentrated as he activated his Precise Instinct and scanned the hand gestures. Then, he noticed something different. All the gestures had hidden lines in them like the markings of energy flow.

Is this the key?!

In the next moment, Tang Ling realized that his spirit moved like water and gathered at his brain, supporting the operation of his Precise Instinct as if having a clearer look at the pattern of the energy flow required tremendous spiritual energy.

Determined, he quickly memorized the hand gestures, and at the same time, he drew lines on the notebook to mark the direction of the energy flow.

He must hurry! Even with his rich spiritual energy, he realized he could last no longer than 20 seconds.

Soon enough, his nose started to bleed and a drop of blood plopped on the notebook. Using his Precise Instinct with spiritual energy was much more exhausting than using it to his limit in battle. Tang Ling’s head started to swell, yet he did not want to stop. It was now or never because the opportunity to enter the cave might never come by again.

However, regardless of how strong his will was, he could not alter the outcome.

He made it to 23 seconds before his head buzzed strongly. He blacked out for a few moments and fell to the ground on his face.

Being in a weakened state from extreme battling was nothing new for he had been through it several times. However, he suddenly realized that the exhaustion from depleting his spirit was much more distressful than the former.

His head was extremely dizzy and he could not even form the simplest thought. Any thought that tried to form in his mind would make his head hurt.

Although his body might be fine, his brain could not control his movements. He lay down on the quiet ground, feeling like he was drifting on raging waves.

The urge to throw up was strong, but he managed to hold it back. He remained weak for almost 40 minutes in the temple and several strange things happened in that duration. A sense of reverence rose in his heart. Throwing up in front of someone’s holy altar was a little embarrassing.

Tang Ling remained still for another half an hour, but he was able to recover slightly. He strenuously pulled his backpack over, fished out a strip of vicious beast meat and stuffed it into his mouth.

With the help of the vicious beast meat, Tang Ling’s swollen head felt better. In ten minutes, he was able to sit up and think.

What are the hand gestures for? Judging from the hidden energy flow behind it, he believed the hand gestures were a set of combat techniques. Were they techniques that could fire energy at opponents?

Tang Ling was not very sure about his assumption, but he saw how high tier battles were carried out. Be it Su Siao or Qi Jun, whenever any one of them used their talents, they would grip their fists in a specific way.

The gestures were delicate and very swift. If not for his sharp eyes and outstanding memory, plus his running Precise Instinct, he would never have noticed the hand gestures. Therefore, the hand gestures he found behind the altar reminded him of how Su Siao gripped his fist.

Were they somehow related? Or could firing energy via these specific hand gestures develop a certain talent?

Tang Ling was eager to try, but with the current condition of his spirit, he had to wait because he was not sure if the energy flow behind the hand gestures was normal energy or spiritual energy.

Seconds turned into minutes as he waited for his recovery to be maximized, but he did not waste time either. He learned the hand gestures one by one. Surprisingly, even with his outstanding control over his body, learning the hand gestures proved to be a strenuous task.

Another hour had passed and Tang Ling barely managed to learn four hand gestures.

He had to perform the hand gesture exactly the way it was shown, and whenever he got it right, the aura from the hand gesture would look a little…stronger?

If it was just a shape, such a strong aura would never appear. They might look the same in other people’s view, yet the slightest difference in angle would stop him from mastering the hand gestures. If his Precise Instinct did not help him to adjust the hand gestures, he would have to spend at least three days mastering a single gesture.

It was an hour and a half since he depleted his spiritual energy. Having been mostly recovered, he decided to put his learning to test.

Before that, he still had a thought in his mind that he wished to verify. Could he use his Precise Instinct to check the back of the altar again and memorize all the hidden energy flow in the hand gestures that he had not mastered?