Dark Moon Era

Ro Xin once again proved that she was knowledgeable. The dyeing agent that she crafted from the chameleon skin successfully covered the strange blue on Tang Ling’s body.

On the other hand, Tang Ling’s recipe was less effective since the blue still showed after he applied it.

As a matter of fact, the two different recipes were essentially the same, but Ro Xin had added three different herbs into hers.

“Do you have an original recipe? My grandfather traded this at a high price from the black market.” Ro Xin was more or less shocked when she saw Tang Ling’s recipe.

“Is that so? My uncle left it for me.” He was not exactly lying, but the real owner of the recipe was Mr. Thousand Face, and as for why the recipe ended up in the black market, it would be an interesting case to investigate another time.

“What a lucky guy,” Ro Xin commented before she added, “Thankfully, I modified the recipe. Otherwise, it would’ve been hard for me to deal with that disgusting color on your body.”

“You are really good at this.” Tang Ling covered himself with the black mantle again. After applying the dyeing agent, he had turned into a fair, somewhat pale, young boy but that was only judging from the visible parts of his body. The parts that were hidden under the mantle remained as they were since they had no time to change everything. Therefore, he still had to cover his face up.

The two of them continued forward. They crossed two little hills and reached the valley where the Ro Drifter Camp was located.

According to what Ro Xin told Tang Ling, if things went smoothly, the camp would settle down for a whole month in order to collect sufficient resources before heading out to their next destination. As for where their next destination was, it would depend on the condition of the camp.

Tang Ling, however, did not have a month to spare since he had to get to Darkness Port before December. After a quick calculation, he could only stay for half a month, tops.

Whether Ro Xin was capable of curing him completely within half a month, it remained a question. “Even if I can’t heal you in half a month, if my approach is effective, you can follow my methods and help yourself along the way since it should not be a problem,” she told Tang Ling.

Her words assured him. Later, he asked her, “Then, what if I want to look for you in the future? Should I come back to the Herrocky Mountain Ridge? You will be in the Santos Branching Ridge every autumn, won’t you?”

“If things go smoothly, yes,” Ro Xin answered calmly although her heart was feeling otherwise. Why does he want to look for me?

As a Drifter, her heart belonged to freedom and her mind was liberated from the shackles of the common world. She was used to bidding farewell and being familiar with strangers overnight, never to see each other again the next morning. Other than her own family members in the group, she had no connection with people from the outside world.

What does he mean? Is he trying to keep in contact with me? Ro Xin thought she would eventually part with Tang Ling and they would never see each other again. After all, they were nothing but strangers that had once crossed paths.

With that in mind, Ro Xin glanced over at Tang Ling next to her. Will I be in close contact with him in the future?

Then, Tang Ling suddenly cried out in shock and pointed at the bottom of the valley. He turned around to Ro Xin excitedly. “Is this your camp?!”

Startled, Ro Xin thought Tang Ling had seen through her thoughts, but when she realized that he had not, she felt sulky and decided to ignore him.

As a matter of fact, the Ro Drifter Camp was indeed great. It had been around since the early years of the Purple Moon era and things had been passed down since then. They were considered a rather famous Drifter camp even in the whole world, so it surely was different from the others.

From the little hill, the Drifter camp with 8,000 people was even bigger than Barbarto Village. The camp was set up in the valley and a layer of vicious-looking iron fence with barbs surrounded the exterior.

The iron mesh was 30 meters tall while the barb wires that knitted the fence together was as thick as a thumb, forming a 10 square meter iron fence that was a meter wide. Binders with a luster unique to alloy were used to connect the fences together.

The binders were considered luxurious even though it was just made of grade E alloy material. The sight of this almost toppled Tang Ling’s perception of a Drifter group. Were they not poor?

The barbs on the iron fence were concentrated and extremely sharp at almost 1.5 meters in length. One could imagine that if the camp was attacked by a wave of beasts, the iron barb fence would serve as a powerful defensive line.

If anyone of the villages in the grasslands had such a protective iron barbed fence, would the wolves pose a problem?

However, it seemed like the luxurious iron barb fence was not enough for the Ro Drifter Group. Upon a closer look, a generator from the old civilization was placed behind the fence every 100 meters apart. The generators were connected to the fences and their function was self-explanatory. In short, although they were not as strong as the high walls of Safety Sector No. 17, they were sufficiently powerful.

Beyond the electric iron barb fence was the real camp. It was not as messy as expected. Instead, it was arranged neatly according to the people’s requirements and desires.

On the outer rim, there were young and strong men wearing plain uniforms patrolling the area. The outer rim was obviously where the security forces were located.

After the outer rim was the residential area which was further segmented into different sections based on functions, but that was not the most surprising thing in camp.

The most surprising thing was the residential houses. They all formed a strange rectangle, and upon a closer look, they were actually the mobile homes from the old civilization. Where did the Drifter group get their hands on so many mobile homes? They were much more convenient than tents and suited the Drifters better.

Other than that, the Drifters somehow managed to draw clean water through the camp. It seemed like they were fully prepared to settle down for a full month.

“Come on. Let’s go down.” Ro Xin was actually proud of her camp when she saw how astonished Tang Ling was. However, when she thought of the current state of the camp, her heart groaned uncontrollably.

Following her steps, Tang Ling soon arrived in the Ro Drifter Camp.

Because Tang Ling followed Ro Xin into the camp, no one asked about his identity or his intention. The duo entered without any hindrance. However, less than a minute later, an anxious old man rode an iron-scaled horse over and nervously acknowledged her return.

“Miss, you’re back! You’ve been away for a day and a night. The chief is worried. If you hadn’t gotten back by tonight, the Young Master might’ve taken some men out to find you.”

“I’m fine. I’ll go to my father later. Tell my brother not to worry,” Ro Xin simply answered the anxious man.

The elderly man nodded and his gaze landed on Tang Ling.

Tang Ling had his black mantle on and a hood covering his head. Besides that, he even had a makeshift mask that Ro Xin had made for him to cover his face, so he was almost unrecognizable. Nevertheless, the way he dressed would spark curiosity and true enough, it managed to capture the old man’s attention.

He sized up Tang Ling, but when Ro Xin shot him a rather strict gaze, he stepped back and did not probe about Tang Ling. Instead, he asked her, “Miss, do you want to take the horse there?”

“No need to do that. The camp isn’t that big, so I’ll just walk.” Ro Xin then turned around to Tang Ling and said, “Dumbo, come on.”

Dumbo? Tang Ling was stunned. What the…?

He quickly understood Ro Xin’s intention though. Since it was not suitable to use his real name, an alias was necessary, but the name Dumbo…Tang Ling had a feeling that Ro Xin had called him that on purpose. However, he could not argue, thus he feigned acceptance and nodded heavily. The old man saw his reaction and did not say anything either. He bowed to Ro Xin and left.

Looking at the retreating man, Ro Xin’s gaze flashed with resentment and frustration, but she did not say anything to Tang Ling and led him along quietly.

The whole camp occupied almost half of the valley and walking within made it feel a lot bigger than seeing it from afar.

Tang Ling kept a low profile and followed Ro Xin. He distinctly noticed that she seemed a lot gloomier after they returned to the camp. He also noticed something strange. As they shuttled along the camp, many of the Drifters warmly welcomed her back. They seemed to really love her and sincerely greeted her with their warmest words.

However, there were also some who appeared respectful but showed mixed feelings through their gaze. They even kept a distance from her and were not as welcoming as the majority.

The situation was strange but not surprising to Tang Ling. In a huge camp of 8,000 people, it would only be strange if there was no internal conflict at all.

With a name like Ro Drifter Camp, the founder of this Drifter group should be Ro Xin’s ancestors. The old man had also mentioned that the chief of the camp was Ro Xin’s father. Therefore, there must be restless folks trying to sow dissension.

It had been minutes since he entered the camp, and Tang Ling already managed to grasp the overall situation of the camp, but he did not want to be part of this conflict. Still, he also decided that as long as he was in camp, he would stand up to help Ro Xin if she needed it. He was indebted to her anyway.

They continued forward in silence, and soon, Tang Ling followed Ro Xin into the heart of the camp here where there were several larger mobile homes.

Ro Xin stopped and turned around, wanting to say something, but before she could, a rough voice entered their ears.

“Ro’er, where have you been? Do you know Father is worried about you?” Tracing the voice, Tang Ling spotted a tall, young man.

He shared a resemblance to Ro Xin. He was rather handsome and had a face full of a beard while his muscular body made him look older than his actual age. If not for Tang Ling’s Precise Instinct which allowed him to easily hide some trivial details, he would have perceived this young man with thick brows as a man in his prime.

“Brother.” Ro Xin smiled as her eyes twinkled. It was the first time she had smiled since she returned. She did not care whether the muscular young man would scold her or not as she ran forward and held his hand, acting like a spoiled child. “Something held me back. Are you gonna scold me for that?”

The young man was stunned when Ro Xin spoke in a cute voice. In response, he widened his eyes at her dully.

Tang Ling found it funny but painful to watch at the same time because it reminded him of San San.

The young man could not scold Ro Xin, so he shifted his attention to Tang Ling. “Who is he?”

“He is my friend, Dumbo,” Ro Xin said casually.

“Dumbo? Where is he from? How do you know each other? Why did you bring him back to camp? Don’t you know the situation in camp?” The young man fired a barrage of questions at her.

Ro Xin furrowed her brows and let go of the young man’s hand. “Ro Li, don’t be so rude! Can’t I bring a friend back? Are you suspecting me? Do you not trust your only sister?”

Ro Li? Loli? Tang Ling started to sweat. He really had no idea why would such a buff hunk have a name so similar to loli, a term for describing young girls.

“I…” Ro Li stammered because Ro Xin had snatched all the words away from his mouth and silenced him.

Without caring about his dull reaction, she grabbed Tang Ling by the hand and headed to one of the mobile homes.

“Ro Xin! Look at you! Why are you holding a man’s hand? You are a girl. Do you even realize that? Hey! Where are you bringing him?! Are you bringing him to your room?! No, you stand where you are, young lady! Ro Xin!” Ro Li jumped forward like a grumpy hopping rabbit as he nagged madly and had no intention of stopping.

Ro Xin turned a deaf ear to him and marched faster with Tang Ling.

When they reached a light green mobile home that looked a lot like a girl’s, Ro Xin stopped, opened the door, and pushed Tang Ling inside. She walked in and slammed the door in Ro Li’s face. Meanwhile, he continued nagging outside the door relentlessly.

Tang Ling removed his hood and looked at her innocently.

Ro Xin stuck her tongue out cutely and complained awkwardly, “My brother is such a nag!”

Then, a lightbulb lit up in her head. She ran closer to Tang Ling nervously and pulled him to the mirror. “My brother is a snitch. He’ll surely bring my father around and I won’t be able to hold him back. I must change your appearance before he arrives.”

Tang Ling was not concerned at first until he felt something in his hand and his face started to blush. Is this how a girl’s hand feels like? It’s so soft though not as soft as San San’s but…it’s so tender. It’s so different from Yu and Orston’s! While he had not held hands with Yu and Orston, he always arm-wrestled them.

“Sit down. Why are you standing there?” Ro Xin did not notice his awkwardness, but when she saw him standing there with a strange look, she urged him to sit.

It was then that she reacted to holding hands with him. She started to blush and retracted her hands quickly as she feigned calmness. “It’s fine for friends to hold hands. Sit down.”

“Oh.” So, it’s fine? 

Ro Xin then pulled the drawer in front of the mirror out and rifled through it for something. “I must give you a makeover before Dad arrives.”