Dark Moon Era

On Wangxi Mountain located near Tang Manor.

Even without reading Grandfather Han’s monthly journal, Tang Ling knew that he must go to the mountain for the final answer because it was the only mountain ridge in Wanghe County.

Tang Ling headed out without looking back, but he also did something for the innocent souls that had died under Grandfather Han’s cruelty. He left a letter saying that there were a dozen bodies under the pond in front of Tang Manor and expressed his hope that they could be dug out and be given a proper burial.

The exact location was not stated in Grandfather Han’s monthly journal though, so Tang Ling made a deduction based on all sorts of clues and evidence.

In short, it would be troublesome to deal with that many bodies, so the best way to deal with them would be the pond in front of the manor.

As for why Tang Ling wrote the letter? He did not have an answer either. It was just a dream, a mission, but the longer he lingered in the Dream Domain, the lines started to get blurry, and he felt like he was living a part of history.

Tang Ling hastened his steps to his destination. He started from the foot of the mountain beside Tang Manor and traveled a few miles in less than 2 hours. Soon, he reached the peak of a hill on the Wangxi Mountain Ridge.

He turned around and the whole Qingxi town was within his sight, looking like a miniature cluster.

His dark swordsman outfit started to change and reverted into his usual battle uniform.

That indicated that he no longer needed to stay undercover for the Qingxi town mission. What came next would be the core of the whole mission.

Alas, the clues were limited!

Grandfather Han’s monthly journal mentioned the charred land and a hidden cave. Other than that, there was nothing else that provided details about the terrain.

Wangxi Mountain was not small by all means. It was a long mountain ridge. If he were to comb the mountain ridge from top to bottom, it would take him two to three days with his speed. However, the assigned duration of this mission was three days.

Based on the rules in the Dream Domain, the countdown timer for the last 24 hours had started. Tang Ling had 24 hours left in the Dream Domain, and it was impossible for him to search the whole mountain ridge.

The charred land that the journal mentioned had gone through 20 years, thus it should be covered with newly grown plants and grass. Therefore, he would also have to discard the thought of spotting it from a high vantage point.

Tang Ling was on the clock. Time was not only tight, but it was also life-threatening.

The Dream Domain had finally bared its fangs at the last moment.

Completion Rate: 80%, Grade E. Able to withdraw from the Dream Domain. No reward.

Completion Rate: 90%, Grade D. Able to withdraw from the Dream Domain. Will be rewarded with compensation in the form of an item related to the dream world.

Completion Rate: 100%, Grade C. Able to withdraw from the Dream Domain. Will be rewarded with 1 Dream Coin and granted the right to enter the Mysterious Store.

A Dream Seed that is Grade E and below or has a completion rate below 80% will be disqualified.

These were the pieces of information Tang Ling got.

It was truly life-threatening. A 100% completion rate would only grand him a Grade C rating plus 1 Dream Coin.

Kun was really a liar! He misled Tang Ling to think that entry to the Mysterious Store was guaranteed after every dream, and he gave the impression that things in the Mysterious Store were cheap.

That guy was really sick despite looking nothing like a grumpy old man with ill habits.

Tang Ling had been really naive. He was not in a hurry though. He carefully analyzed the message, especially the so-called compensation of a dream-related item since this particular phrase was interesting.

What did it mean? Every dream had its own unique item and could probably affect reality, meaning it was possible for him to locate it in the dream.

Whether he could locate the said item or not depended on luck, but if he could not find it within the given duration, the dream would compensate him with a dream-related item.

For example, for Qingxi town’s mission, Tang Ling had reasons to believe the compensation would be something related to martial art scriptures.

Great! It raised his anticipation of the next dream despite the fact that he was still in one.

Other than that, he picked up the scent of protection because at the end of the information about the dream, it stated that a Dream Seed Grade E and below or a completion rate below 80% would be disqualified.

It was a form of protection. The information did not say anything about finishing the dream with a completion rate of 60% or lower. Or would there be any severe punishment for getting a completion rate of 40% or lower?

It was possible judging from the looks of things. Otherwise, if a Dream Seed got tired of the dangerous Dream Domain, he could exploit the loopholes to remove his Dream Seed qualification.

Would the Dream Domain leave such a big loophole around? No, it was impossible.

Judging from the fact that any injuries suffered in the dream would be reflected back in reality, the Dream Domain could easily kill off Dream Seeds, so…

It clearly seemed like there were some given advantages of the first entry, and the next dream might be even more dangerous than this. Even if a Dream Seed made it through all the danger in the dream, the Dream Domain might directly eliminate him.

Although it was just a vague theory, it somehow decreased his anticipation of the next dream.

As he pondered upon the questions, Tang Ling leisurely walked along the mountain path. While he wandered, he collected some sticky wet mud along the path and put it into his bag. The bag bulged as he collected more mud and he did not seem averse to it at all. He was like a playful child fiddling around with mud.

“Almost.” Tang Ling tapped his bulging bag. He used the sun to determine the direction and soon came up with a decision. Then, he selected a certain direction and started sprinting forward.

He was like the nimblest monkey in the mountain forest. The mountain forest of ancient Huaxia was a lot kinder than the tropical thick forest of the Purple Moon Warriors. There were no dangerous beasts, mutated insects or mutated plants that would devour people. For Tang Ling who had made his living in the forest since he was young, this forest was considered peaceful.

Tang Ling was fast. He moved like a gray shadow whose trail one could barely catch a glimpse of.

Would 20 hours be enough for searching in the mountain forest? It was. Even though clues were limited, there were still some lying around.

The Imperial officers had searched the area three days ago and got nothing, but they did find the charred land on the first day. How fast were they then?

Grandfather Han’s journal clearly stated that he discovered the cave on the first night.

Even if Grandfather Han was familiar with Wangxi Mountain and was a martial art practitioner who could move a lot faster than the Imperial officers, how fast could he be compared to Tang Ling?

Tang Ling had Precise Instinct. The moment he stepped into the forest, he decided to head straight to a high peak just so he could use his Precise Instinct to calculate the distance that he could cover within a day.

Then, there was another important clue: the extraterrestrial that extended from the south to the north. That basically gave away the direction that it appeared in.

There were still 20 hours on the clock, so what was he worried about? Given Tang Ling’s current level of strength, he could sprint like the fastest man in the old civilization for several hours and still be fine. It was considered the most stamina-efficient way for him to travel.

He also had Level 2 vicious beast meat jerky in his mouth. In order to save time, Tang Ling mostly leaped from tree to tree in the forest.

He would pause from time to time to digest a strip of Level 2 vicious beast meat. According to his own plans, he should not be going after Grade C, but the grades that the Dream Domain did not show him yet, which were the elusive Grades A, B or S, if there were any.

He grew stronger in the dream.

As a matter of fact, since last night, whenever he felt his body could digest and absorb the vicious beast meat, he would put a strip of it into his mouth. The stronger his body grew, the more pain he could endure. It was an effective cycle that he had created for him.

The most efficient way to grow strong in the Dream Domain was to limit his consumption by an appropriate portion. He would then digest it and then repeat it. Of course, the effect would double when he exercised for a great amount of time.

All the theories that he applied to himself were actually simple since they were all somehow connected. It was similar to muscle training in the old civilization.

Therefore, Tang Ling did not save his stamina. He used everything and forced himself to grow past the limit.

With his extreme speed, he shuttled among the trees and the search area started to shrink.

Slowly, the mountain forest turned quiet. Gradually, the temperature dropped because the trees were thick and lush with life, blocking out all direct sunlight.

He was at the third location that he highlighted in his map. As Tang Ling twitched his nose, he slowed down and jumped down from the tree all of a sudden.

It was at that moment when a ferocious tiger together with a bewitching blast of wind came out from the thick shrubs.

So, is  this  the tiger of the old civilization ?

Compared to the tigers in the Purple Moon Era, this one was like a cat.

Right after Tang Ling landed, he threw himself at the feline that raised its paw, but he landed a punch to its face first.

Tang Ling’s punch clocked nearly 1,500 kgs of force. Theoretically, 800 kgs of punching force or more could kill a bull in a single blow—that was a bull from the old civilization.

The tiger’s face caved in, but strangely, it looked like it was fine. Its distorted jaws opened and it tried to snap at Tang Ling’s arm.

Tang Ling expected the bite but did not dodge. When the tiger moved its fangs to his arm, he quickly grabbed its lower jaw.

The tiger was bigger than the slim Tang Ling, but he was able to lift it up. The tiger struggled madly when it was lifted into the air.

“Hmph? So, is this how the Kingdom of Yu came?” Tang Ling looked at the tiger. Its eyes should be yellowish gold, but this tiger’s eyes were grayish-white.

He gripped the tiger’s lower jaw tightly and twisted it.

Crack!

The tiger’s neck was twisted and its spine was snapped, putting an end to the mad struggles instantly.

Tang Ling then tossed the tiger’s body on the ground, but he did not leave. He grabbed the ball of mud that he had collected on the way from his bag and quickly covered the tiger’s seven apertures with it.

The tiger’s body started to engorge strangely and a small lump grew on its belly. The lump moved around and then started to struggle as if it was trapped. The fur around the belly where the lump moved flipped over, revealing the dead tiger’s grayish-white skin which then swiftly turned transparent.

Tang Ling did not sit back and watch. He quickly built a fire by rubbing two pieces of firewood together. A torch soon appeared in his hand and he burned the body straightaway.

The flames burned fiercely as strange noises came from the tiger’s body like something popping. A while later, it quietened down.

Tang Ling knew his way was old but useful.

After burning the tiger’s body, he faced the hardest challenge because when he looked up, he was surrounded by three wolves, two boars, and two panthers, or more precisely, they were zombie wolves, zombie boars, and zombie panthers.

This is just the beginning, isn’t it?

Tang Ling provoked the dead tiger by jabbing it with his finger. A roar came from the dead tiger like a bell that started the battle.

The battle lasted for less than 5 minutes and more bodies fell to the ground. It was, without a doubt, an easy fight.

However, Tang Ling failed to seal all the seven apertures of the dead animals in time, When the spores similar to the Devil Fungus appeared, it would go through a clumping process before disintegrating.

All he had to do was torch the thing.

Truth be told, Tang Ling was not sure that the Devil Fungus was afraid of fire since it was a wild guess. Similar to how the Purple Moon Era dealt with dead bodies through cremation, it might seem necessary to burn the bodies, but it might also be effective in isolating the Devil Fungus.

After making sure of it, Tang Ling was a lot more confident. He realized that if not for the controlled animals, he would have missed out on a particular spot.

It was common sense that when new plants grew on a charred land, the newly grown greens would be different from its surroundings. They were newer and shorter than the other plants in the forest.

However, the mountain forest was different. The tall trees blocked the sunlight, yet the shrubs were lush and the grass was thicker than usual. It could only mean this place was a fertile ground filled with nutrition, but it might not be the sole reason for the abundant plants.

With that thought in mind, Tang Ling drew his knife and started digging under a tree. What he found was as he expected. There were seven to eight rotten bodies buried underground.

A terrifying picture unfolded before Tang Ling’s eyes. The Devil Fungus must have controlled dead bodies from graveyards or possessed the living in some secluded village. They were then moved to the mountain and used as food and fertilizer.

Wanghe County was not the only place that the Devil Fungus attacked! If this were to continue, it would become an era even scarier than the Purple Moon Era.

Tang Ling already had his guesses about the fungus. Of course, they were not the real Devil Fungus of the Purple Moon Era. They should be some beings that were of a higher level than the Devil Fungus since they had intellect, consciousness and could live in a symbiotic relationship with humans like Grandfather Han. Not to mention, they could control the dead and were able to understand orders.

It was scary. It was always frightening when such things were related to organized consciousness.

The central command of all these dead animals should be Gu Gu because she was the mother of them all!

After killing Grandfather Han, Gu Gu would have gone completely mad. She would then try to take over this world as her only goal. She never had feelings and would never have feelings for any other human other than Grandfather Han.

Therefore, the most difficult mission in Qingxi town of the Dream Domain had appeared—eradicate them.

It might seem impossible because who knew how many younger spores had Gu Gu given birth to throughout the years? If a young spore had the potential to become a mother, sparing any single one of them would be catastrophic.

Just think about it. If Tang Ling had to face an army of flying spores that could cover the Earth and heaven, even if there were a hundred Tang Lings, they would not be enough. On top of all that, there was still one more question—what kind of existence was the ape-like body?

Nonetheless, it would not matter much anymore since Tang Ling accepted the challenge! When it came to life and death, there would always be a line, would it not?

Tang Ling held his longsword with one hand and the torch in the other, and walked forward in the gloomy and dark forest. Every single tree in this forest had dead bodies buried under its roots.

He was like the light of hope traversing in the darkness.

*****

Six out of the 20 hours had passed.

As Tang Ling moved forward, he met all kinds of dead animals along the way. How sick was this? Even a bird had been possessed by the fungus.

The undistinguished annihilation fueled Tang Ling’s rage. Those who had not experienced the end of the world would never understand his feelings.

Even though it was not for the same reason, Tang Ling seemed to be witnessing the shadow of a civilization collapsing, like how the old civilization disappeared overnight.

It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream! Tang Ling kept reminding himself, but when the wind whistled and the leaves trembled, the dead bodies under the trees wailed unwillingness and everything screamed genuine to him.

This kind of hyper-realistic dream would never bewitch him, but he could not help but relate it to the Purple Moon Era which was his reality.

Humans were still alive in the Purple Moon Era, and in this dream, if he could not achieve the perfect completion rate, the people in this dream would surely die.

What a terrifying result! Would the Purple Moon Era welcome such a ghastly end someday?

A strange feeling grew in Tang Ling and it amplified the flame of rage in him. He ceaselessly searched for the mountain stream that Grandfather Han’s journal mentioned, but after searching almost every inch of the charred land, he failed to find any stream.

A mountain stream should be a small flowing stream inside a crevice of the mountain. It was such an obvious terrain, so how could it be hidden from sight?

The sky got darker while the sparks from the torch became a little irritating to the ears and it somehow frustrated the ever-calm Tang Ling.

“Where is it hiding?” Tang Ling finally sat down and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

A stream seemed to be the only clue for now. However, soon a new hint was formed in his mind. Tang Ling tried to connect the dots together. He bolted upright and ran towards a certain spot in the charred land.

This particular spot was filled with lively shrubs, making it inconspicuous. The only peculiar thing about the shrubs was a cave that was half a man’s size hidden behind it.

Tang Ling shed his torch over the cave. He realized the cave was not big, so he stuffed the torch inside.

He had been shackled by his common knowledge. A mountain stream should be a crack in the mountain that had water flowing, and it should be flowing downwards. The correct way to locate the stream was to move downward and concentrate around the bottom part. Then, it would be easier to locate the mountain stream there.

With common sense, he could hardly relate to a cave with a mountain stream. Moreover, this cave was at the edge of the charred land, near the hill that went upward to the peak.

However, if the mountain stream was hidden behind this strange hill, could one discover it by going through the cave?

With a closer look, the hill was indeed strange. Rather than a hill, it looked more like a leveled pile of mud. Since it had been 20 years, the peak of the hill was filled with lush plants. One would not notice that the peak was flat without a closer look.

It made Tang Ling feel like he was watching the scene where the extraterrestrial crash-landed on the hill. The thing that leaked out of the extraterrestrial spilled all over the charred land and the valley behind the hill. It slowly tilted sideways and eventually fell into the valley with a bang.

This is the place!

Tang Ling reined in the excitement in his heart as he arched his back and tried to squeeze through the cave which could only fit half a man.

After he made it through, he found a giant rock lying upright. The rock behind the entrance blocked the view from outside, leaving only a crack outside. One could only enter by walking sideways and because of that, it looked like a small cave from the outside that had no way behind it.

It was a revelation that the Imperial officers had missed back then. Tang Ling also almost missed out on this entrance. His slight anxiety calmed down gradually after he found the right way.

The dark cave was wet and filled with giant bats.

Those bats were no longer common bats without a doubt, and upon Tang Ling’s entrance, they attacked him madly.

Tang Ling also did not want to waste the opportunity. These bats that flew swiftly were very similar to the obstacle course during the reflexes test!

In fact, Tang Ling did hear about training one’s reflexes in such a way back at the Hope Barrier, but the fee to enter the training was high and someone as poor as Tang Ling would never be able to experience it.

Now, these bats provided Tang Ling with an opportunity to train.

Tang Ling raised his longsword and went on a rampage. With his great reflexes, these bats could do no harm to him. The only troublesome thing was that he had to burn every bat that he killed.

While Tang Ling intentionally trained himself in the cave, the torch that he held slowly shed its light over the dark cave and it grew brighter as he killed and burned the bodies. The whistle of the wind entered the cave as the cave got a lot emptier.

With all the bats eliminated, the mountain stream appeared right before his eyes.

Having been through two tough battles, Tang Ling was eager to unveil the final answer of his mission. He raised his torch and hastened his steps at the exit of the cave.

However, the moment he stepped out of the cave before he could catch a glimpse of the mountain stream that Grandfather Han’s journal mentioned, a seemingly thin but tough iron-like claw that was green in color attacked his face without a sign. It was as fleeting as the wind.

The claw was extremely fast! Tang Ling bent his body backward to barely escape the claw attack, but before he could catch a breath, a green object half the size of a man threw itself at Tang Ling.

What the hell is this?!