Dark Moon Era

Accompanied by thunderous applause, over 70 young geniuses made their entrance in the same uniform provided by Darkness Port.

They stood on the stage in an orderly fashion and their combined presence was terrifying. Despite still being teenagers, they bore names and titles of great heights, so it was natural for them to be high-spirited.

When they stood on the stage, the crowd’s cheers broke the air.

A lot of the young geniuses were evidently impatient. Being in Darkness Port and joining the Hell Ledge Challenge required them to go along with Darkness Port’s activities and events. Otherwise, some of them would never want to be put on display like a monkey in the center stage for the crowd.

Tang Ling was also standing in an inconspicuous corner among them, and beside him was Ro Xin and Ro Li, who were the underdogs.

They were not geniuses, or at least, not yet. Neither of them had gained a reputation for themselves, but they were eligible to participate in the Hell Ledge Challenge purely because of Tang Ling’s request.

As for Tang Long, whether intentionally or not, the other young geniuses let him stand in the center of the group. Even though everyone was wearing the same uniform, he was the most outstanding one.

The Simpering Pierrot was giving his best to stir up the atmosphere, and when the crowd’s emotions reached the climax, he waved and told them to quieten down.

“I suppose everyone is eager to watch the competition, and I don’t have any more nonsense to talk about either except for one more thing. I have to inform everyone about the only rule that Darkness Port has set up for this competition, which is, on the first day, everyone must enter the Hell Ledge Challenge. After the first day, they can continue the challenge whenever they want since the competition will last for months. It’s never too late to enjoy the best, am I right?” The Simpering Pierrot stated the rule set by Darkness Port in a somewhat unusual tone.

The crowd continued to boil and none of the young geniuses objected.

The first day was just to hype up the public, so it was necessary for all the young geniuses to display themselves. After that, they would have the liberty to continue the challenge whenever they wanted.

They were genius teenagers after all. They did not only grow stronger every day, but they were also growing every single hour. As their strength accumulated, it would be another fantastic match, so why set more rules to limit their performance?

After the rule was announced, the Simpering Pierrot skipped the nonsense. He raised his hand and troops marched into the colosseum. The troops opened that inconspicuous gate at the bottom of the giant monolith with 10 monitors.

The little gate was the only entrance to Hell Ledge.

“Now, let us start the competition. Contestants, please go in.” The Simpering Pierrot bowed at all the young geniuses.

As the locally born and bred geniuses, Dark Nine Feathers must be the one who took the lead. All nine of them jumped off the stage and headed towards the little gate to the Hell Ledge Challenge.

…

Tang Ling was the last few people to get into Hell Ledge.

Before he went in, he told Ro Xin and Ro Li to withdraw if either of them faced any difficulties and could not continue. The competition would go on for months, so it was not necessary to risk their lives on the first day or show off.

As a matter of fact, Tang Ling did not have to worry about Ro Xin. He actually said those words for Ro Li.

After that, he walked through the gate. Behind the gate was a long and somewhat humid corridor. As he walked along the corridor, he realized that it was part of the cliff and was directly built inside.

The whole Hell Ledge Challenge must be hidden in the cliff by the shore.

The corridor was more than a hundred meters long, and at the end was another door. Unlike traditional doors, this door had a mysterious halo glowing around it and it looked like it was spiraling.

Tang Ling did not know about the others, but at first glance, the halo reminded him of the halo doors back in the ancient and mysterious temple.

Are they somehow related?

However, he would never get the answer to the question in a short period. He paused for half a second in front of the door with the halo before he walked through it without a second thought.

Right after he stepped through the door, a mysterious voice entered Tang Ling’s ears.

“On Gray Mist Street, a group of killer demons is at large. No one knows what these demons are because those who did, died.

“However, in front of your eyes is a street. You must travel less than 200 meters across the street.

“Getting through the street will reward you with a D rating. Getting through the street and killing two or more demons will reward you with a C rating. Killing five or more demons will reward you with a B rating while killing 15 demons will reward you with an A rating.

“Killing all the demons will reward you with an S rating. Killing all the demons within 8 minutes will reward you with an SS rating and will trigger the conditions to achieve an SSS rating.

“The gray mist has appeared. The breathing and footsteps it carries sound a little scary! Try your best, pitiful passerby.”

After the brief introduction, the mysterious voice disappeared.

“Killer demons?” Tang Ling grinned. His ears picked up the convoluted noises in the mist. Then, he drew his grade A alloy longsword from his back with a swish while his other hand held the dagger in reverse as he sauntered into the street.

As he landed his first step into the street, a scaly claw covered in moss flew out from the mist and tried to grab him.

As though he predicted it, Tang Ling raised his longsword swiftly and blocked the claw with a hard clunk. At the same time, he twisted his body and launched a kick. A figure that was around half a meter tall whimpered sharply before falling out from the mist.

Hoho, killer demons!

Tang Ling did not even flinch. His dagger was flung out and precisely plunged into one of the eyes of the figure that fell out from the mist.

He then elbowed the killer demon that his sword blocked away before he jumped forward and grabbed the handle of the dagger. With a violent and quick twist, the killer demon, which eye was stabbed, screamed in pain and died by the blade. It disintegrated into a whiff of gray mist and disappeared before Tang Ling’s eyes.

Before he even lifted his head, he twisted his body around and leaned back. When his body touched the cold ground, his longsword whirled across his front at the right second.

Swish!

The killer demon that jumped towards him screamed in pain as the grade A alloy longsword lopped its head off.

Tang Ling had no intention of letting it go. Even if he was lying on the ground, he launched a kick and sent the killer demon flying. While the killer demon was in the air, his longsword swung higher up and slashed the killer demon’s body in half.

It had only been 30 seconds since Tang Ling stepped into Gray Mist Street and he had already killed two of the so-called killer demons!

If he wanted to gamble and dash out of the street that was less than 200 meters, it was very possible.

Getting through the street and killing two killer demons would already nab him a C rating, but Tang Ling only had one goal in mind: a clear SSS rating!

Therefore, without any pause, he raised his sword and dagger and moved forward. His figure was also barely visible in the mist. It made him look like a teenage demon god looking for his prey. Tang Ling’s unique presence was apparent when he fought everything, his aura brazenly on display.

30 seconds later, Tang Ling’s performance was presented on one of the big screens on the giant monolith at the entrance.

As the Simpering Pierrot said, the screens only displayed 10 of the best contestants and their live performances.

As ever-changing as the Hell Ledge Challenge was, all 10 of the screens were showing 10 different young geniuses facing various scenarios.

When Tang Ling came up on the screen, the Simpering Pierrot seized the moment and announced excitedly, “Yo, yo, yo, what do we have here?! The infamous son of the great Tang Feng! Let’s see how he performs? Will he disappoint or…? Look at that! It’s only been 30 seconds and he’s already on the screen before our eyes! Tsk, tsk tsk, Gray Mist Street? I wonder if anyone in the audience knows this scenario?”

“Gray Mist Street?” Boss Huang was also in the Colosseum, but since he was used to enjoying life the extravagant way, he was not in the normal audience seat but in a VIP room that provided the best view.

Other than Boss Huang, there were four more figures in the room. One of them glued her eyes onto Boss Huang in a less friendly manner. It was none other than Madam Qing from the Dreamy Visitor. Beside her was Gu Dao, munching on a fried pork trotter with peas. The two other figures were covered in black mantles, so their faces were shielded in darkness.

The five of them were paying attention to the battles on the screen, but they were not looking at the other contestants’ performances. They were only watching Tang Ling and Tang Long’s performances.

Since Tang Ling was almost the last one to enter the Hell Ledge Challenge, the scene of his battle had just come up.

As for Tang Long, he was the first 20 who went in, hence he had already been on the screen for some time now.

The scenario that Tang Ling faced was Gray Mist Street.

Meanwhile, the scenario that Tang Long faced was considered one of the classic scenes of the Hell level in the Hell Ledge Challenge. It was also the most well-known scene of all—the Bloody Tower.

Difficulty-wise, the two scenes were equally difficult, but in terms of strange events…

Boss Huang took a sip of alcohol as he purposely averted Madam Qing’s gaze and fixed his gaze on Tang Ling’s screen. He muttered heavily, “How lucky is the kid? SS rating is in the bag, but SSS rating…”

Before Boss Huang could finish, Gu Dao with his oily beard cut in, “I notice a little problem here. Who sent him into Gray Mist Street? By right, this street shouldn’t have appeared in the first level of difficulty in the challenge.”

As though she was trying to disagree with them, Madam Qing coldly grumbled in a fit of pique, “Gray Mist Street shouldn’t have shown up in the first level of difficulty, but what about Bloody Tower?”

Indeed, three levels in the Hell Ledge Challenge were grouped under a single level of difficulty, and both Gray Mist Street and Bloody Tower were infinitely close to the second level of difficulty in the challenge.

In short, one must be very unlucky to run into either one of the scenes! However, even for the Hell level difficulty, the chances of running into these two scenarios were as slim as hitting the jackpot.

To everyone’s surprise, Tang Ling and Tang Long had both struck the jackpot. Was it a coincidence?

At the same time, in the other VIP room, the man with the strange robust physique and copper mask was also watching the competition. He muttered, “Gray Mist Street? Bloody Tower? Why not Blazing Road? Pah! Weak!”