Dark Moon Era

“So, you want my bone marrow, am I right?” Tang Ling’s words silenced Ro Yan. His thoughts traveled back in time and through space, and he found himself in that freezing winter 16 years ago.

The Ro Drifter Group had decided to set up camp at the Herrocky Mountain Ridge, or more precisely, its most significant branching ridge, the Mary Jane Branching Ridge during winter.

Winter that year was extra harsh. The wind was stronger, the snow was colder, and even the beasts went into hiding. The starving and powerful highly mutated beasts or vicious beasts roamed the mountain paths and searched the caves for a handful of food during winter.

Every day was tough for the Ro Drifter Camp and they were only barely surviving. Why not search for a better spot to set up camp?

It was impossible. The harsh season pinned them down, so no one could stray far from their current camping spot. The tough situation lasted for half a month and those were Ro Yan’s toughest days. More than half of his family members died, leaving him with only his little brother and sister, who were 15 and 6 years old respectively. They were not even of age.

His wife finally gave birth to a son after arduous labor, but his son was born with a defect. His son was as scrawny as a kitten and as he whimpered like a starving kitten, the whimpers could not even last for a few minutes.

The harsh season and the health complication with his son almost made Ro Yan collapse. He still remembered the days when he had to face everyone in camp with an energetic front and lead them into battle.

Every battle ended with a sacrifice and every time he returned from an exhausting battle, what welcomed him was his wife’s depressed and forbearing gaze. Their conversations sounded clear in his ears until today.

“Has Li eaten something today?”

“He’s only drinking milk and nothing else. He even spat out the soft meat paste right away.”

“This can’t go on. He’s already one and he’s still drinking only milk. He will be malnourished,” Ro Yan picked Ro Li up as he voiced his concerns.

A strong one-year-old boy would have some weight when carried, but Ro Li was no heavier than a kitten.

“I’m clueless. He’s drinking lesser by the day,” his wife said as she held back her tears. What else was more torturing for a mother than to watch her young son weaken day by day?

However, she could not simply vent her emotions in front of her husband because he had to shoulder an even bigger responsibility and face battles that involved life and death as well as many other issues daily.

“I’ll think of something. I’ll try to get some milk from the rocky snow clouded leopard tomorrow, and I heard someone discovered a beehive in the forest. If the fight isn’t that tough tomorrow, I’ll try to get some honey, and if I can get some royal jelly…” As Ro Yan spoke, Ro Li whimpered, wrenching his father’s heart terribly.

Ro Yan dared not even carry his son tightly. Some smarter one-year-olds could already mutter words and the stronger ones could already walk since they were children of the Purple Moon era and were born stronger than the old civilization, or at least, they should have.

His son, however, could not speak or walk. All Ro Li could do was whimper weakly on the bed. How useless of a father was Ro Yan to be this helpless about his son’s condition?

If only he could understand the medical knowledge that had been passed down from his family teachings. If only…

Ro Yan drowned himself in alcohol without telling his wife as his guilt ate away at him. On top of that, every day was filled with uncertainty. How many people would have to die? What kind of beasts and mutated insects would he have to face? No one could provide him with an answer.

He was on the brink of collapsing! However, he could not afford to! He had to be the pillar of support for the camp and his family, and be a mentor to his younger siblings.

All he hoped for was the passing of winter. He had a feeling that things could get better after the harsh winter. The beautiful spring would bring better luck to everyone, including Ro Li.

However, winter that year was extra long to the point that every second in the snowy season was endless torture.

On the 21st day of winter, a powerful army set up camp at the Mary Jane Branching Ridge. It was the Dragon Army and they set up camp less than 300 meters away just beside the Ro Drifter Camp.

As a bunch of self-disciplined and wonderful folks, they lived in the snowy season with bare tops and used the white snow as water for their baths. On freezing nights, they built fires to dance and sing around while a jar of alcohol was distributed to everyone. Because of the limited amount of alcohol, everyone had nothing more than a sip, but they were still happy and satisfied.

With their arrival, the battles that troubled the Ro Drifter Camp disappeared.

The Dragon Army consisted of a bunch of battle fanatics. Every single one of them was powerful and they would compete with one another just to get some action with the beasts and mutated insects. Be it the highly mutated beasts or the vicious beasts that troubled the Ro Drifter Camp, none were entertaining enough to the Dragon Army since they were always able to clear the threats easily.

On the second day after Dragon Army set up camp, a man visited the Ro Drifter Camp.

Ro Yan would never forget the scene for the rest of his life. A man shuffled in the snow while carrying a thousand kilograms of vicious beast single-handedly. Other than the dripping blood from the dead vicious beast’s body, there was nothing else left on the snowy land except for a set of shallow footprints which was easily negligible.

“Hey, come over and have some meat There’re a lot of people in your camp,” the man said when he tossed the vicious beast’s body in front of the Ro Drifter Camp. Despite everyone in the camp looking at him as their greatest enemy, he smiled.

Ro Yan was standing in front of his people at that time and he had a clear glimpse of that man’s appearance. He had black hair, gleaming black eyes, and two scars on his face that did not make him look vicious but added a tinge of maturity to his delicate fate.

Around his mouth were shallow stubble and there was a shallow curve on his mouth, which revealed a faint smile. Even his eyes curved kindly. He looked wild and untamed but kind and somewhat impish at the same time. His face remained lively in Ro Yan’s memory even until today and there was a resemblance with Tang Ling’s face when compared, especially their gleaming black eyes.

It was at that moment that Ro Yan met Tang Feng.

Ro Yan had heard of the man’s name and knew that he was the leader of the Dragon Army. On top of that, he had also heard from the Dragon Army that their leader was a legendary man.

Just how legendary? Ro Yan had no idea since he never asked about the matters of the world, so he did not have a clear concept of how powerful the Dragon Army was at that time.

All he knew was Tang Feng’s kindness. He was friendly and somewhat frivolous with a mischievous mouth. Whenever the folks in the Dragon Army got fed up with his pranks and jokes, he would lift a jug of alcohol and a few kilograms of meat to Ro Yan’s place.

Because of Tang Feng, the Ro Drifter Camp was no longer troubled by the harsh winter. There were no more battles, no more shortage of food, and even the people in camp got a boost in strength because the folks in the Dragon Army were good mentors. Sometimes, they would even teach Ro Yan’s younger siblings on his behalf, but only in the areas of cultivation and training.

Ro Yan’s pressure was halved, so Ro Li became his only concern at the time.

Once, during a drinking session, he finally spilled his problems to Tang Feng.

“If you trust me, carry your son out and let me have a look. He will be fine. He is a boy after all. No matter how weak he is, surely he can endure a short bout of snow,” said Tang Feng.

Ro Yan somehow trusted Tang Feng and because of the man’s assurance, he did something he had never done before—he carried Ro Li out of the house.

Tang Feng carefully checked Ro Li from top to bottom. He opened the baby’s eyes and mouth, touched the baby’s stomach and pinched his hands and legs. He looked like a swindler when he was checking, but Ro Yan could feel a faint aura of energy from Tang Feng during the quick check-up.

“It’s not optimistic at all.” Tang Feng passed Ro Li back to Ro Yan, then he added with a serious look, “I need a few drops of his blood. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, go ahead.” As a matter of fact, Ro Yan was actually worried. Could Ro Li spare even a drop of blood? However, he could not find a reason not to trust Tang Feng. That man had a strange aura that could win anyone’s trust.

Tang Feng took a vial from his side of the camp and extracted several drops of Ro Li’s blood. Throughout the blood extraction, he did not say a thing about Ro Li’s condition to Ro Yan.

In the next two days, Tang Feng did not show up and only came back in the afternoon of the third day. “Your son is a genius!” That was the first thing Tang Feng said when he saw Ro Yan.

“What did you say?” Ro Yan thought Tang Feng was joking with him. How could his son, who was as weak as a kitten, be a genius?

“He really is a genius! He’s so ingenious that his name can be written in here.” Tang Feng raised the book in his hand.

Ro Yan had thought it was just some book back then and he eventually found out that that it was actually the real List of Seeds. Tang Feng had said that the List of Seeds was one of the two most important things in his life. Of course, Ro Yan had no idea what the other one was.

The cover of the book was deep blue in color and upon a closer look, there were countless stars moving like the starry night or even the galaxy. The first page of the book was blank. The page was actually made of some purple crystal, not just normal paper and had nothing on it.

The purple crystal reminded Ro Yan of the Universal Source Rock. Making a book out of the Universal Source Rock was undoubtedly a luxurious move, but Ro Yan’s speculation was quickly denied.

The book was not made from the Universal Source Rock as the rock did not have a purple as pure as the pages or waves of energy as strong as the book.

After the first page were ten more pages that looked like they were made from diamonds and they were also empty. After the diamond pages were platinum, gold, silver, and bronze pages. It certainly was a strange book made from unusually precious materials though it did not have a single word written on it. Despite that, it formed the List of Seeds.

That was the reason why Ro Yan had not been surprised that Tang Ling had a page with him. Compared to the real List of Seeds, Tang Ling only had a page that was not one of the precious front pages.

In short, that day when Tang Feng had come back and shown Ro Yan the List of Seeds, he had also explained Ro Li’s condition for the first time.

“Your son has a very powerful genetic chain. His basic stats have reached seven stars! Do you want me to explain to you what a seven-star genetic chain is?

“Never mind that. The important thing is your son’s talent! He has a very powerful sixth sense. In simple words, uh…how should I put this? You can view this ‘sixth sense’ as an inspiration.

“If he continues to develop his talent, his pineal gland,” said Tang Feng as he pointed above the center of his brows and continued, “which is this thing here, will be absurdly powerful. He can see a whole different world. Everything in this world has its own presence and aura, and he can see them all. Do you understand me?”

“This talent is really powerful although you might not think much of it. If his pineal gland is matured enough, quoting the ancient Huaxia words, your son will open ‘heaven’s eye’. Do you know how amazing that is?”

“And then?” Although Ro Yan was confused, he had a tinge of understanding of what Tang Feng said because it was related to his family and their teachings that had been passed down from generation to generation.

“Then…hmm, okay let me put it this way. Your son has a very powerful talent, but his body can’t handle it right now. Ancient Huaxia people sought balance. A person’s body has all sorts of strange ways of balance and if any of them is tipped to one side, bad things will happen. If a person has a high body temperature, his body must be heaty and many illnesses related to heatiness will follow suit. This is also a type of balance.” Tang Feng tried his best to explain.

Ro Yan looked at Tang Feng with an awkward smile as he said, “Hold on.”

Tang Feng waited blankly, not even asking why he was being stopped all of a sudden.

After a while, Ro Yan brought a small booklet out. “This is a copy of my family teachings. There is a much better description of the balance that you mentioned here.”

“There’s such a book?” In shock, Tang Feng took the book and flipped through it excitedly.

The more he read, the more excited and captivated he got. Ro Yan had to stop him to ground him. “Brother Tang Feng, you are a likable man. If you really want to read, I can lend you a part of my family teachings, but not all of them because that would be going against the family’s creed, unless…”

“If I can save your son, can I read all of it?” Tang Feng bashfully scratched his head and explained softly, “Well, even if you don’t let me read it all, I’ll still save him, but this is really interesting. Your family teachings are great. They pique my interest in learning and research.”

Ro Yan unconsciously chuckled before he was stunned. “Can you really save my son? Are you sure? Can my son be saved? If you really can save Ro Li, I can lend you all my family teachings. It won’t be deemed as going against the creed because my family creed clearly says that we should repay debt with gratitude, and this is a life-saving debt.”

“Of course, I can! Look, there are clues in your family teachings. The foundation of a human body is the balance of yin and yang. We can view yang as our body and yin as a combination of our spirit, will, and consciousness. I don’t know whether it consists of our soul or not since it can’t be proven yet, but in short, Ro Li’s yin is too strong, so his spirit is tipping the scale. Therefore, the balance is disrupted. His little body can’t handle the power within,” Tang Feng said seriously.

“Then, how can you save him?” The family teachings did not say anything about that.

“How? With me, of course!” Tang Feng insisted.