Dark Moon Era

Was the seed of the thousand-vine sunflower poisonous?

No, it was not, but it contained very pure energy. The energy was purer than the Level 3 vicious beast meat, and Tang Ling had eaten it unprepared, hence the pain.

It was not a major problem anyway. As Tang Ling cursed Tang Feng for being a sinister person, he endured the pain and gobbled down the whole pot. He then used the eating method that Su Siao taught him and exercised his bowels before he entered the cultivation state.

The magnificent light had set over the mountain before the chill of the night arrived unannounced. The river murmured ceaselessly, and together with the numerous buzzes of the insects, the melody of nature welcomed the Purple Moon.

When the first moonbeam shone on Tang Ling, he finally opened his eyes. The thousand-vine sunflower seeds were really powerful. Even though it was just a pot of soup, he was able to clearly sense the growth in him.

In fact, after he froze Su Siao and left the mushroom cottage, he had been roughly estimating his strength along the road. Using bulls as a measurement unit, he had reached five and a half bulls’ strength.

The other abilities that complimented his strength were also steadily growing. When he reached this stage, even if he ate vicious beast meat coupled with four hours of cultivation every day, the growth was somehow limited and slow.

He never would have thought a pot of sunflower seed soup could provide him with such growth. His strength had reached six bulls’ worth in an instant! If he were to follow his usual pace, he would have needed at least another 15 days and had to eat Level 3 vicious beast meat at least twice to reach that level of strength.

With that in mind, Tang Ling anxiously dragged his backpack closer and rifled for the black notebook with the map. He flipped to the next page.

Next, he would have to cross the Herrockey Mountain Ridge to Mitos Valley, and after the heart of the valley, the road would slowly open up wider and lead to the Raqir Plains.

The Raqir Plains was rich with resources. Being a natural grassland, the place was inhabited by nomads who originally were Drifters. After the nomads settled down, a safety village was built, Safety Village No. 209, also known as Barbarto Safety Village.

The map of the safety village was also as detailed as the previous one. The danger spots, the territory of highly mutated beasts or vicious beasts, their movement patterns, everything was labeled perfectly. However, none of them were as important as the notes beside the map.

As he flipped the notebook, Tang Feng’s naggy side started to show and the notes that he left behind got longer and longer.

The first long note after the second map went as such: ‘A stupid fool is frequently gluttonous. Some stupid kid must have given in to temptation and eaten the seed. Am I right? Does your stomach hurt? Hahaha, it is because you’re dumb, so you have to learn some knowledge about vicious plants systematically.

‘Some vicious plants might produce rare materials, but they are also good at producing crystals, unlike vicious beasts which scatter their energy throughout their muscles and can only form one crystal at the heart.

‘Of course, crystals are precious. It is the basic material for all forging, but in terms of the best source for energy replenishment, it’s always the vicious plant!’

Pak!

Tang Ling slammed the notebook shut as veins bulged on his forehead and twitched non-stop.

Happy, aren’t you? Dragging me around at your pace! If you didn’t describe how delicious the seed was, why would I have captured a thousand-vine sunflower?!

Fine, even if that’s the case, he could’ve stated how powerful the seeds are and must be prepared before eating, but he didn’t! He wrote the outcome on the next page, which I was going to read the next day just so he could laugh at me! What kind of lousy humor is that?!

Tang Ling tossed the black notebook back into the backpack. He made up his mind to read at least two pages ahead before heading out the next time despite being reluctant since he did not want this to happen again.

But the vicious plants! 

The idea about the vicious plants had rooted itself deep into Tang Ling’s heart via the seeds of the thousand-vein sunflower.

The seeds were a really good supplement. He should have thought of it earlier. The Level 1 vicious plant was so powerful that it could capture highly mutated beasts at times. Other than its vines being suitable material to craft armor, and nothing else besides the seed were edible, where would it store its energy?

It must be the seeds! A thousand-vine sunflower had only a little more than a dozen seeds, so every seed was the essence of the plant!

Plants performed photosynthesis, and somehow in the Purple Moon era, due to some mysterious mutation, it was able to absorb the moonbeam from the Purple Moon since absorbing energy was an instinct within all living beings.

Ever since the Purple Moon made its appearance, it defied the natural law by appearing every night without exception, even when it rained or when the sky was cloudy. Of course, such a theory was rather an absurd one since plants were supposed to only perform cellular respiration.

Regardless, he would have to think of a way to learn more about vicious plants and figure out a way to collect some vicious plant essence. He wanted to quickly reach the strength of nine bulls and break through to become a Purple Moon Warrior in that form.

Truth be told, breaking through to the next phase was not as natural as the records in Safety Sector No. 17 stated. According to Su Siao’s notes, there were some extra materials needed to break through, but getting them depended entirely on luck.

Nevertheless, Tang Ling hoped that he could be fully prepared.

The messy thoughts in his mind drove him sleepy. He finished all the meat that he prepared for himself since wasting food was a sin. He then divided the fire into four separate spots that surrounded himself.

After some more necessary setup, he slowly returned to his cultivation state. It was the most comfortable time of the day. Cultivating at night would absorb the energy from the Purple Moon, and when the energy entered his body, a breezy sensation would follow, relaxing his mind.

At the end of his cultivation, he would fall asleep soundly. Four hours later, he would wake up to a new day.

A new day meant new hope. He wanted to move forward with hope because he had the ten-year promise to fulfill and his Uncle Su Siao was waiting for him. He also vowed to find the silver-haired man. Tang Ling encouraged himself to forge on, forgetting all about the loneliness and sadness of journeying in the mountain forest.

The riverside started to get noisy. Other than the drones from the insects, the beasts started to roar and growl and with the murmurs of the river. Some weird fish would leap out while strange heads of unknown aquatic beings would pop out from the water from time to time.

Nevertheless, tonight was all about Tang Ling.

…

Valencia was riding her beloved red-maned scaly horse. Her depressed and disappointed expression brought her to the edge of the Raqir Plains alone. The grassland was near to the Mitos Valley and it was her favorite place to go to whenever she was sad.

“Hero.” Valencia stroked the mane of her horse with her red-rimmed eyes.

The red-maned scaly horse lived up to its name. It sprinted like a bolt of black lightning and its tail was crimson red in color as though a blazing fire was glowing. When it ran, its beauty was aspiring. Fearless as it was, it had trampled at least seven to eight greedy grassland wolves under its hooves. The horse had been a present from her father when she was 15 and accepted to the hunter’s school. Rumor had it that only one out of ten thousand iron-scaled horses had red manes, hence the name red-maned scaly horse. It was undoubtedly precious.

Valencia loved Hero like her own family. She treated it like her little brother and they had spent two happy years together. She watched it grow from a little pony to a mature and handsome horse. Day by day, the relationship between girl and horse became closer and closer.

The edge of Mitos Valley was also exceptionally beautiful because it was close to the Goddess Tear Lake. Mist constantly swirled around the exit of the valley. The mountains on both sides of the valley looked mighty and tall. In autumn, the valley looked like an amazing artist had swirled red and yellow paint over the scenery, making it look like an alluring oil painting.

How fascinating! Despite the beautiful scenery, the villagers of Barbarto Village rarely came by due to the lurking danger in the valley. Although some said that after going through the valley for half a month, one would reach an astonishing safety sector, the villagers would never try their luck. Not even the mightiest and bravest man of the village dared to do it.

Therefore, one could only gaze the beautiful scenery from a distance, and only Valencia, the crazy girl from the village was bold enough to get this close. Valencia was proud of it, so proud that she cherished the scenery a lot more since it belonged only to her.

However, the beautiful scenery and mysterious failed to lift Valencia’s mood today. Her heart was broken as she listened to Hero’s grunts as if it was replying to her calling. The more it grunted, the sadder she felt. She lowered her body and hugged Hero by the neck. “Hero, if I gave you to someone else, would you miss me?”

“Aaaarggghh!” The scream of a young man rang out from further away. At the same time, Hero shuffled forward to munch on some sweet grass. Due to the sudden movement and the unexpected scream, Valencia almost fell off her horse because she thought Hero had suddenly replied to her.

However, the scream came from another direction. In shock, Valencia turned around to see someone dashing out of Mitos Valley.

The scream came from that person who was being chased by a bunch of purple Udy crows. The crows were flocking towards him like a huge purple cloud as they angrily cawed and were determined to peck the fleeing person in front of them.

Valencia’s mouth was wide in shock. What was she looking at? Was it a dream? Who would provoke a bunch of purple Udy crows? What did the person do that made the crows this angry?

One thing worth noting was that while the purple Udy crows might not be powerful, they were known for harassing a person to death. Udy, in the language of Barbato Village, meant noisy. Never doubt how strange the crows sounded because all types of their weird caws sounded like the onomatopoeia of the sounds of humans.

The crows had a strange habit. They loved to mimic the rude noises of humans like the sound of munching food, the sound of diarrhea, the snores during sleeping and even farting. They loved all those socially unacceptable noises.

If they were angered, they would caw relentlessly for the entire day and night in front of the target, the target’s house, or even wherever the target could hear them.

Just think about how disturbing it was to listen to the munching, farting, and the noise of diarrhea. It would drive one crazy!

On top of that, the crows perfectly inherited their ancestor’s habit of stealing. While disturbing the target, they would steal or even rob anything they laid eyes on unlike the crows from the old civilizations which would only go after shiny things.

One purple Udy crow might only be a nuisance since its attack was really nothing, but if there was a flock of them…

Valencia had no idea how the running man was able to provoke a whole flock at once.

The purple Udy crows were cawing like they were farting, and the rude noises sounded like it could cover the heavens. That person was reaching the side of the Goddess Tear Lake and wanted to jump in.

“Don’t jump in! The lake has Arto red armored fish! It’s dangerous!” Valencia was a kind girl who could not watch a person die, even when the person miraculously provoked a flock of purple Udy crows.

It seemed like the person heard Valencia’s warning, so he made a hard brake and did not jump into the lake. He glanced over at Valencia and started running to her madly. His explosive speed was so unbelievable that it was difficult to believe that he was a man.

What the hell is he doing? Is he trying to lure the flock of purple Udy crows to me? Valencia gripped the reins and was about to gallop away.

With Hero’s speed, shaking off the flock of crows was not a problem, but…she hesitated and did not gallop away immediately. Although a single purple Udy crow’s attack was nothing, a flock of crows could peck one to death easily.

I’ll wait for 20 seconds. 20 seconds tops! Otherwise, the crows will surround me too! 

She did not simply come up with that time, but the person was running really fast. He must have used some herbs to increase his speed. In short, she expected him to reach her in 20 seconds, but…she was shocked again. In less than ten seconds, he arrived in front of her like a gale.

It was then that Valencia had a clear look at the person’s face. He was of average height though a little thin and was in his young teens.

He had brown hair and brows, delicate facial features, and slightly dark skin, but his puffy cheeks ruined his delicate features, making him look a little cute instead of handsome. His dark eyes were clear and deep, leaving an impression at first glance.

However, one should not judge a book by its cover. Why would this boy carry a huge backpack and hold a nest in his hand while running away?

That nest was…

Is he a greedy brat? Valencia started to regret showing goodwill to such a person, but the boy did not feel anything. He leaped up on Hero’s back and said, “Hey, Ms. Black, giddy up! The farting crows are coming! You have no idea how disgusting they are!”

Valencia almost exploded on the spot. Ms. Black?! Am I as dark as you? You are as dark as coal!

Alas, she did not have a choice since the flock of purple Udy crows was on their tail! Valencia squeezed her thighs and flicked the rein.

Hyak! Hero then galloped away.

“Thank you, Ms. Black, you are really kind-hearted. I will repay you, I promise.”

“Shut up!”

This was the first meeting between Valencia and Tang Ling.