Dark Moon Era

The Hope credits from the garage mission had been distributed.

The Fierce Dragon Squad participated in the mission as a group, so plus the mission reward, they got a total of 478 Hope credits. It was a lot more than expected, and it was considered a great sum of money in the First Reserved Camp.

Had it been before the mission, the seniors would have come over like wolves that picked up the scent of blood to pressure the squad for offerings.

However, this time, no one came over.

The news about how Fei Long saved Tang Ling in the mission and the latter earning Fei Long’s admiration was widely spread in the camp.

On top of that, the great castellan was very lenient with Tang Ling during their meeting, so could the castellan admire him as well? Even though many did not want to believe that the castellan would pay attention to him, none of them dared to test the water either.

All they could do was grumble in their hearts. They comforted themselves by saying that both Fei Long and the castellan admired Tang Ling out of sympathy.

It was no secret that Tang Ling’s Genetic Chain Talent was inferior.

As the last in the ranking of the First Reserved Camp, everyone knew his strength and some people in the camp spread the news, so eventually the whole Hope Barrier knew about it.

Despite being the last on the ranking, his appetite was huge and he was a rascal. It was probably how the weak survived, so it was natural for people to show sympathy. The majority of the seniors in the First Reserved Camp thought as such about Tang Ling’s encounter. It was a common thought for everyone to think, ‘I’m better than him, but why can’t I get more attention or admiration?’

Nevertheless, they decided to stop squeezing and pressuring the Fierce Dragon Squad.

“What a peaceful day. Even the missions feel a lot duller. Fighting with the seniors was fun.” Tang Ling stretched his body and strutted across the lobby of the First Reserved Camp, appearing utterly arrogant.

Many other New Moon Warriors heard him, but they twitched and turned a deaf ear to his teasing.

Orston was beside Tang Ling, enjoying the arrogance, but Yu was a little embarrassed.

“I guess this is it. After I come out from the Tower, we will apply to officially start the cultivation course.” That was what Tang Ling said after he came back to the cave of the Fierce Dragon Squad.

It had been three days since the cave mission from which he got some extra Hope credits. Tang Ling quickly applied to go into the Tower since he had to book a time slot to cultivate inside. It was necessary for Orston and Yu as descendants of noble families to accompany him in the application.

The Tower was the most important place in Safety Sector No. 17, and it was only open for Purple Moon Warriors and warriors with meritorious deeds. New Moon Warriors were not allowed inside, but only theoretically.

As a matter of fact, many New Moon Warriors went inside to cultivate and train, as long as they had a guarantor of noble descend by their side during application.

If nobles were not given special privileges, they were not nobles at all.

Tang Ling’s application was successful. He booked the 8 p.m. time slot on the second day. He could stay in the training room of the lowest floor inside the Tower for an hour. An hour of training in the Tower gave Tang Ling an excuse to become stronger, and he would be able to start the cultivation class because of it.

Of course, everyone in Fierce Dragon Squad knew that Tang Ling did not actually needed the cover as he was more powerful than everyone in the squad. However, everyone agreed to help him to keep it a secret, hence they had to play along with his show.

“Yeah, I look forward to the cultivation training. We can then become stronger faster and participate in regular battles on the battlefield.” Andy was happy. He heard from the instructor that someone with speed talent like himself had to go through cultivation training to fully bring out his potential.

Then, I won’t be a burden that drags everyone down anymore, will I?

As a matter of fact, everyone’s talent was on display during the second exam back then, but both Fei Long and Yang Kong did not provide in-depth explanation about it.

The talents on display were actually the reflection of color and luster of their Genetic Chain Talent. For example, a normal Genetic Chain Talent was a silvery-white in color.

As for Yu, his Genetic Chain Talent showed an obvious golden ring, meaning the golden element in him was pronounced. The obvious ring around the display stated that he was outstanding in his element talent.

As for the explanation about the golden element talent, no one in the Fierce Dragon Squad knew, except for Yu himself. He seemed to know a great deal about his talent.

Andy once asked Yu before, “With a golden element talent, does it mean you can locate metal like gold?”

He was obviously joking, so Yu rolled his eyes at him. Yu did provide an explanation though, but his explanation was always brief and short as he did not elaborate on the details much.

“It is one of the Five Element Talents like yours, Andy. Technically speaking, your talent isn’t speed. It should be the Wind element talent. Every single talent has countless branches. The Wind element talent doesn’t only represent speed although your speed talent is pronounced. Besides, what do you mean by locating gold? Am I a metal detector now?” That was what Yu said.

The only difference between Andy and Yu was whose talent was more obvious because there was no difference in level of talent between them.

Nevertheless, Amir had it! During the test, he did not just display five-star talent, but he even displayed a very faint black line on his Genetic Chain Talent.

The black line represented the highest class of talent—the Space element talent. Despite being very faint, it was still considered the Space element talent.

Talent-wise, even one without any corresponding talent could learn related techniques or skills, but those who showed talent in their Genetic Chain would gain a bigger advantage in learning the said skills and techniques.

Just think about it: if Amir were to learn and understand everything about space, how powerful would he become?

That explained why Instructor Yang Kong was so surprised when Amir’s test results came out.

Everyone in the Hope Barrier knew about the castellan and his amazing battle. No one could forget the black spots that circled around the tip of the castellan’s lance. It was actually the power of the Space element talent.

Unfortunately, talent was extremely rare, and the Space element talent was even rarer than someone with Genetic Chain Talent of three or more stars.

Other than Yu, Andy, and Amir, no one else in the Fierce Dragon Squad displayed any talent in their test results.

What about Tang Ling? His Genetic Chain Talent was poor and there was no talent in display either. The only special thing about his test results was the silver that was brighter than everyone else’s.

What would that be? The talent of being a rascal? Orston once thought about it without any ill intentions.

Even Tang Ling himself neglected this particular detail and did not mention it to Su Yao either.

Andy was very excited to start the cultivation class whereas the others were very calm. Orston even felt dispirited as he grumbled, “Is it that exciting to go into battle?”

He was traumatized because the scene of him closing the door and the negative thoughts that came along still lingered in his mind.

Tang Ling saw everything, so he said to Orston, “Think about your fifth brother.”

In order to encourage a dispirited person, one must poke him in his weak spot, and Tang Ling did not mind at all doing it.

“Fifth brother!” Orston’s eyes widened all of a sudden. After a few seconds of silence, he was filled with spirit again, “I’m also looking forward to the cultivation class!”

Stupid . Yu looked askance at Orston.

Tang Ling then voiced his reminder, “Try not to use your Hope credits for now. We don’t know what will happen after we start the cultivation class. It might even cost us more. Didn’t you guys notice how hungry the seniors are for resources?”

Right after his words subsided, Orston’s patience wore thin, so he said, “Stop being a sissy. You are not officially the captain of the squad yet. How…”

Before he could finish, Tang Ling’s expression changed and somehow frightened Orston, causing him to shut up.

What? Is Tang Ling that narrow-minded? Is he angry because of my complaint?

However, Tang Ling quickly recovered. It was not necessary to explain much to Orston who was a boorish fella. A single punch would suffice.

The discussion in the cave carried on with Tang Ling and Orston messing around before they soon quiet down.

After the battle in the garage, despite being rewarded with scrumptious Hope credits, they did not get assigned a lot of missions in the next few days. They were able to slot in some free time at night for some decent sleep recently, including tonight.

However, not everyone was sleeping soundly. Tang Ling was one of such people. He was sitting in his own little cave with his top bare and was looking at his arm blankly. His arm had a mark that looked like a tattoo. It was the mark of a Dream Seed, and only he himself could see it.

Tang Ling was very familiar with the mark. They were the deviation of two Huaxianese characters, Kun Ya.

At that moment, a row of numbers appeared above the mark and the numbers seemed to be decreasing as if it was a countdown.

21:34.

How should he read this? Tang Ling did not need to know how to read. When Orston was teasing him earlier, he suddenly felt the numbers ticking above the mark.

At that very moment, his head received a blurry notification and a clear thought arose in his mind—he was going into the dream. Because he could not reveal this in front of everyone, he messed around with Orston and covered it up.

After everyone went to bed, he finally had the opportunity to check what happened to the mark and he noticed the numbers ticking on his arm—the Dream Entry Countdown.

A very clear concept of the numbers appeared in his mind.

He could not help but smile bitterly as he blankly looked at the decreasing numbers.

Was it a joke? It was 10 at night at the moment, and according to the countdown, the time of his entry to the dream would overlap with his training in the Tower.

“Nothing will go wrong, will it?” Tang Ling had a bad premonition in his heart, but then he asked what could go wrong?

People would only think he fell asleep in the Tower during training. The training room in the tower was sealed, so there would not be any surveillance under normal circumstances. Even if there was, it would not affect him besides giving him a longer title—the Harsheen boar that sleeps in the Tower.

“What the hell?” Tang Ling pouted. He really disliked the title, but he managed to calm his anxiety about entering the dream.

It would be best for him not to overthink. He had just discussed the matter with Su Yao earlier in the day and now it was happening…How ironic!

He wore his shirt and leaned on the cushion. Be it the dream or the Tower, the best thing for him to do would be to get a night of good sleep, rest up, and be energetic to face tomorrow.

******

“Did he pass the Tower application?” Aber Agnes was sitting on a sofa from the 19th century of the old civilization. It was a piece of furniture from the Guangming Continent. His hand was twirling a crystal glass with amber liquid and ice inside.

The amber liquid reflected the light from the crystal chandelier as Aber twirled it around, appearing very dazzling and enchanting. The ice was knocking against the glass, producing a melodious clank as if it was music.

It was intoxicating. Aber enjoyed the quality whiskey from the old civilization a lot. He also loved how it looked before he poured it into his mouth. He shut his eyes.

In front of him was a giant screen, no taller than 3 meters and resembled an LCD television from the old civilization.

The screen was playing the footage captured on the day of the garage battle. It was not exactly clear and the camera was some distance away from the battlefield. The cameraman might also be an amateur because the footage was shaky at times.

Despite the poor quality, it did not stop Aber from watching it over and over again. This was his 11th time.

“He passed, but we have a lot of reasons to reject him.” Another voice sounded in the room.

It was Andrew.

He should be at the First Reserved Camp, but a special situation drove him back to the mansion of the Agnes family and meet with the master of the family, Clyne Agnes.

To his surprise, Clyne was not around and no one told Andrew where he had gone. After all, it was not necessary for the master of the family to tell others where he was going.

Therefore, Andrew met his cousin, the best of the Agnes family, the most outstanding member and the cut and dried heir of the family, Aber Agnes.

According to the family rules, Aber had the rights to know some important information. If Andrew could not meet with the master, reporting it to Aber would also be fine.

It raised complications in Andrew’s heart, and he felt strange about it. Though he would not display his emotions on his face, he respectfully followed his cousin to this room. He then sat on the sofa beside his cousin with his best manners and reported the important information that he gathered. It was everything about Tang Ling.

Perhaps Tang Ling was not an important piece in the whole game of chess since he was only on a certain list, but the information Andrew gathered would elevate Tang Ling’s importance. It might change something, and as the one who provided the information, Andrew would be deemed to have done something meritorious.

Would Aber neglect him and seize all the credits for himself instead? Andrew dared not think about it.

As for keeping it a secret? It was not possible! He was still part of the Agnes family. Even if he was not the most important one in the family, being in the family would provide him with great benefits, would it not?