Dark Moon Era

The opportunity was fading. This mysterious place gave Tang Ling the feeling that he had everything under control. He was not sure whether he could use his Precise Instinct to scan the secret behind the hand gestures anymore.

According to Murphy’s Law, anything that could go bad would go bad regardless of the odds. As long as the probability was not zero, you could not assume that it would not happen.

Therefore, Tang Ling’s worries came true.

No matter how he scanned the hand gestures with his Precise Instinct, he could no longer see the pattern of the energy flow behind the mysterious hand gestures.

Meaning, he had only truly mastered four out of the twelve hand gestures. The rest were all empty.

As for the four hand gestures that he mastered…

Tang Ling scratched his head. He had a feeling that one of the four was not exactly a hand gesture. It felt more like a means to control. How should he put it?

In simple words, from the change of energy flow, eleven out of the twelve were obviously part of a set that might be pointing towards a common and single energy flow.

The energy flow of the eleven hand gestures changed in a certain pattern. Albeit not memorizing all of them, he was able to roughly sense the pattern. Based on his deduction of the energy flow, when the energy was gathered at hand and formed a certain structure through hand gestures, it would create a strange vibration line that would resonate with another kind of energy.

However, that lone hand gesture was unlike the others. After he performed that particular hand gesture, what formed in his hand was a strange symbol. To be exact, the energy formed the symbol of a sharp sword or a key, hence the reason behind his theory about the lone gesture being apart from the other eleven.

Regardless, it was better to test it out first. Tang Ling stood up regretfully as he temporarily discarded the intention to learn the other hand gestures. He munched on the vicious beast meat as he tried to stabilize his condition.

First, he started with the three hand gestures that shared a resemblance.

With that in mind, Tang Ling slowly performed the relatively easy hand gesture. As he moved, the energy in his body started to follow and gather in his hands at a certain rate.

Here it comes! Fuelled with excitement, he was eager to find out what kind of astonishing result he could achieve with this hand gesture.

Unfortunately, he soon realized that the energy that he gathered in his hand could not break out from his body. It only gathered at his palms with no visible trembling or energy waves. He put his hands down and started to think with furrowed brows.

The feeling he was experiencing was strange. In essence, it felt similar to whenever a person got angry and the blood rushed to his head though it did not mean he would bleed even if there was a cut on his face unless the blood from inside burst out from his skin through his follicles.

However, energy was not blood. It was something conceptual, profound and vague. Tang Ling could not simply mash his hands into mincemeat and release the energy.

Besides that, after the energy gathered in his hands, how should he resonate? Energy could not resonate by itself.

With that in mind, Tang Ling’s eyes gleamed. In order to move the energy, he had to use his spiritual energy! The strange trembling at the end must be the involvement of spiritual energy! Would he need to use his spiritual energy to release the energy from his palm? If so, the energy movement behind the hand gestures was not simply about the movement of energy but should be a combination of energy and spirit.

One had to admit that Tang Ling had an outstanding understanding of the way of cultivation. It was difficult for a person to think to this extent, let alone know how to fuse energy and spirit together.

After all, in the cultivation system of the Purple Moon era, other than the excellencer, there was almost no spiritual involvement in battling as it was just used to move energy! The hand gestures in the temple seemed to be the product of another civilization.

As a persistent person, he ought to complete what he started. Again, he slowly performed the hand gesture and moved the energy in his body according to the route. At the same time, he concentrated his spirit to aid him to move his energy. He entered the visualization state and turned his spirit into smaller streams to flow along the route.

Slowly, the energy gathered in his palms again together with his spirit this time!

Tang Ling used his spirit to envelop the energy, and his face started to turn crimson as he screamed, “Out!”

It burst out! The energy really appeared in between his palms, but once again, he felt dizzy. His hands remained still as he used his spirit to adjust the vibration of the energy that came out from his palms.

Tang Ling’s palms started to feel hot. The sense of heat was strange because it felt really real though it did not burn him and he did not notice any burn marks on his palms at all.

As the energy vibrated, the heat started to fuse with intangible things in the air, achieving a resonance. A spark flashed in between in palms before he fell down on his back and his spirit was depleted once more. He had to wait for another 20 minutes to recover from the dizziness. He panted heavily and finally regained the ability to think.

Sadly, he realized that the hand gesture demanded a terrifyingly high level of spirit and his spirit was obviously inadequate. Besides lacking the spirit to unleash all the energy, he also could not maintain the resonance.

What was the resonance about? Tang Ling had a rough idea of what it was. It must be his energy triggering some kind of energy in the realm. For example, the hand gesture must have triggered the fire energy!

Tang Ling unconsciously smiled because it meant that he was able to accumulate the oxygen in the air and ignite it. As a matter of fact, it was not groundless talk. Back in the old civilization, people had developed a type of glove that could spit fire for the sake of entertainment.

Nevertheless, those items back then were purely for entertainment.

I have to use my energy and spirit to trigger the resonance? Hmm…the effect…On second thought, it might really be possible.

The human body was a profound and bizarre organism on its own, and the start of life was the singularity that consisted of countless coincidences.

Tang Ling laughed because he discovered something astounding that almost broke the shackles of his talent. If his spirit was powerful enough, even if he did not possess the fire element talent, he could wield fire at his will!

What if a person with a powerful fire element talent performed the hand gesture?

Nevertheless, the spirit was a shackle on its own that was limited by its amount, so how should Tang Ling boost his spirit?

What did it have to do with his Precise Instinct? His Precise Instinct seemed to be capable of seeing through the nature of certain talents and copying them, but with Tang Ling’s current level, he could only copy the simplest thing like a New Moon Warrior’s lousy wind blade.

Anyhow, the hand gestures almost toppled over the cultivation system of the Purple Moon era. It was like the discovery of new land or a totally new cultivation system! It was a huge secret and a meaningful one.

Is the Stardust Council after the hand gestures?

Tang Ling’s head was still rather dizzy, so he shoved more vicious beast meat into his mouth and pondered about it. However, without grasping more information, he could not form an answer since it would only expand the question and not narrow down the possibilities.

Another hour later, he finally recovered. He realized that whenever his spirit was depleted and recovered after a while, it would grow a little.

Unfortunately, he decided not to test the other two hand gestures first. Since he was still trying to figure out the simplest of the bunch, it was not wise of him to test the other two which obviously had higher requirements of his energy and spirit. Furthermore, the hand gestures were more complicated.

Then, Tang Ling wanted to test the last hand gesture, the one that could shape the energy into a sharp key blade.

In his sub-conscience, he had a feeling that this particular hand gesture was important, and might even be related to the existence of the temple itself.

Tang Ling had a serious expression with that thought in mind. He started to view this temple as part of a huge secret. It must be the key to unlock all of it. Mastering the hand gesture would provide an extensive advantage.

Again, he accurately performed the gestures by moving his hands in the air. When his hands were in place, the spirit and energy flowed together. This time, it was a lot easier than the fire hand gesture.

The energy burst from his palm smoothly. His spirit started to help shape the energy, and it was also simpler than maintaining the resonance. Slowly, the energy took the form of a sharp blade in his hand as his spirit started to carve edges on the blade, making it look like the teeth of a key.

Tang Ling realized that the process was not easy by any means, but to him, it somehow was not as complicated as he expected because of his Precise Instinct. Therefore, he was able to control all the details of this energy key blade and accurately represent the image in his mind.

If not for his Precise Instinct, the slightest difference in the energy key blade would have caused it to collapse and his hand gesture would then fail. Tang Ling had doubts about the process. He suspected that the Precise Instinct did all this on behalf of him.

Forty seconds later, the key blade took form.

Tang Ling clapped his hands and the energy key blade floated up. A strange picture appeared before him. It looked like a map and a voice that he could understand echoed in his ears.

‘Energy Key activated. Level 1 accessibility acquired.’

…

“Professor Smith, I want to know if we’ve located that key inheritance matter from the DNA chain of the six villages.” A man’s voice echoed in a huge underground laboratory.

Inside the underground lab was a huge supercomputer that occupied almost half of the 2,000 square meter lab.

However, this supercomputer was unlike those from the old civilization. It was modified with many small electrical circuits that connected to the mysterious patterns on the exterior, forming the shape of a chip. Every single node had a purple Universal Source Rock in it, providing the energy for it to operate.

It seemed like machines with the mysterious circuit pattern on it had become the signature of the super-advanced technology that popped up in this era.

The supercomputer was used to analyze the DNA chains of the six villages of the grasslands. The person known as Professor Smith was a white-haired elderly who looked like a mess. Although his identity was a scientist, everyone addressed him as ‘Professor’.

The man who had called the professor was wearing a deep blue uniform, which looked like the color of the night sky. Sewn on his left chest above his heart were five silver stars.

The two of them were people with high statuses.

“This comparison work is troublesome, my dear General Edward.” Smith’s face flashed with impatience as he had been interrupted while searching for some trivia answers.

Edward ignored the impatient man. Even a general of a high ranking had to respect a scientist. He cleared his throat and asked, “Can this Andromeda supercomputer hasten its process?”

“No.” Smith was very direct as he explained, “Firstly, since the Purple Moon era, the human DNA chain has changed for the worse, or should I say, it’s become more complicated. There are different varieties that are all inconsistent, meaning that the genetic data bank from the old civilization can only be used as a reference.

“Secondly, the so-called genetic data bank works better with more complete samples. It would ease the comparison process a lot, but somehow, our genetic data bank isn’t complete, so the comparison work has to go through a huge amount of analysis.

“Thirdly, we have discovered many more details revolving around the DNA chain in this era, so we have gone beyond the boundaries of the old civilization, which is the microscopic world. I’m talking about the microscopic view of the DNA chain. We are able to go deeper than that, and the deeper layer holds some important meaning for mankind, but it also implies that many other inconsistent variables have started to pop out.

“Get it? If the old civilization can only read digits like 10, then the digits 11 and 12 might not have a big difference with 10 since they are just a number or two apart. But in the Purple Moon era, they can achieve numbers with decimal points, so when comparing 11.2 and 12.3, the differences will then increase and things will start to get unstable.”

Professor Smith was extremely strict when his specialty was involved.

Edward massaged his head to ease his headache. He sighed and said, “Professor Smith, you are the expert in this. I can’t possibly provide you with any help in this particular field. I’m just saying the time the council has given us is running low. The Beginning Searcher Program has reached new heights after all that effort. Do you know how important it is…”

Smith simply nodded and said, “Believe me. I’ll still carry on the analysis of the six villages DNA chain, but if time is running low, call Young Master Long over here. His Precise Instinct will provide decisive help in the whole program.”

“But, Professor, it’s just a guess and you want Young Master Long to come all the way here based on an educated guess of yours? Isn’t that a little…” Edward was a little hesitant to accept the suggestion since Smith had provided him an answer. The DNA comparison would show no result in the meantime, but the program remained a priority and they were on the clock.

Must we call Young Master Dragon over? Will his Precise Instinct really provide decisive help in the whole program? 

Like what Professor Smith said, the result of the DNA comparison might not be out, but it must be something related to the brain like how visuals were eventually controlled by the brain.

The Precise Instinct would be able to break the shackles of the mind!