As the moon hung over the night sky, Boss Huang was sitting in a corner in the dining area of the second floor. He sat in his rocking chair with a pot of tea beside him and a plate of fried purple-striped broad beans, enjoying the solitude.
At times, he would look at Tang Ling and monitor the cultivation. His calm gaze revealed his happiness as if he was enjoying his masterpiece and savoring the sweetness of his own work.
“Am I playing this role of a teacher a little too well?” Boss Huang could not help but chuckle silently before he took a sip of tea from the cup.
Life was strange.
Who would have thought that the great Huang Dao would devote his attention to becoming a teacher? He had once been reluctant to accept this role, maybe because his disciple, Tang Ling, did not acknowledge him. The little bastard must have seen through his cover!
Han Xing was snoring loudly to the point that Boss Huang wanted to kick the bastard. Nevertheless, Boss Huang decided to spare the poor bastard since Han Xing went sword training and exhausted himself quite a bit after his supper.
Boss Huang was always good at distinguishing the pros and cons. He did not want to interrupt Han Xing’s sleep so that the little bastard could continue working tomorrow. In his opinion, having the heart to work was considered a healthy habit.
As for the two little fluffy balls, Ding Ling and Ding Dong, the rustling from their room finally stopped. It seemed like the girls had gotten tired of all the snacking and decided to sleep once and for all.
The night was peaceful. Boss Huang squinted his eyes and enjoyed the silence a lot, but the enjoyment did not last long before a heavy feeling troubled him.
“Damn it. It’s not as peaceful as I thought.” He suddenly thought of the update he received from Latitude 39, the frontline of humanity, and his expression became even heavier.
Boss Huang believed in the butterfly effect, especially in the Purple Moon era. The slightest of change would grind his nerves because the changes were unpredictable and uncontrollable, thus the outcome was never expected.
Something serious had happened at the frontline and the storm that it whipped up would certainly be stronger than a tiny flap of a butterfly’s wing, would it not?
Things seemed to have hastened a bit.
Boss Huang grew frustrated. He put the cup of tea down and stood up. Then, he squatted down beside Tang Ling who was still cultivating.
It’s been four hours and this kid isn’t done absorbing the energy? How much did he eat? He must have gotten so fat that the oil is oozing out of his skin!
Boss Huang poked Tang Ling on the cheek. However, Tang Ling did not respond to the poke as he was carried away by his cultivation.
Boss Huang tilted his head, moving closer to Tang Ling’s face and sizing up the kid.
Is it because of this kid’s arrival? Is that why everything is starting to change expectedly? No, we still can’t be sure at the moment.
While Boss Huang was troubled by his own thoughts, Tang Ling slowly opened his eyes. He had been cultivating for a little over four hours. Only Tang Ling himself knew how exhausting it was. It felt like every cell in his body was aching.
After all, the Thousand Satin Skill tempered every single cell of his body and he had to strictly control the process. At his current stage, his cells were still fragile, thus excessive tempering would hurt or even damage his cells.
However, he was dealing with an excessive amount of energy. He must try his best to temper his cells to their limit in order to split the flow of energy.
Thankfully, the most vicious stage was over and he was certain that his cells felt sore. The little seed was crying because Tang Ling was simply stuffing more energy into it.
He was fortunate that his body could keep up with the conversion of energy, and at the end of his cultivation session, Tang Ling was only a little shy from the strength of nine bulls and a tiger.
After breaking through the limits, all that was remained for him was the accumulation which would not be slow by any means! He still had the Hell Ledge Challenge and could earn more Black Sea coins to cultivate in the best training room at the cabin area. On top of that, he had Boss Huang by his side.
Boss Huang!
Tang Ling widened his eyes all of a sudden. The moment the name came into his mind, he realized that Boss Huang’s face was less than 5 mm from his own.
“Boss, do I owe you money again? Even if I owe you something, you don’t have to be this close to me. I can’t get used to being this close with you” Tang Ling was scared.
Boss Huang’s face twitched helplessly. Tang Ling was sometimes a despicable kid, and he always had the urge to beat him up, but this time, the boss failed to stop himself at the right moment. He did not expect Tang Ling to wake up all of a sudden.
However, the boss was a businessman who would never deal with a losing trade. He blinked and said with unusual excitement, “I got you now!”
Before Tang Ling could react, Boss Huang slapped him in the face. He stood up as if it was normal and said, “While you were busy cultivating, I noticed a mosquito flying around you and I finally got to kill it.”
Really?
A wise man would not fight when the odds were against him.
Tang Ling let the boss go this time. He swore that when he got stronger than the boss, he would kill a thousand mosquitoes around the boss.
…
Back in the smithing room, the spoils that Tang Ling poured out from his backpack filled an entire corner. Among the items included the black gloves that he stripped from the black-robed clergies, the crusts from the white-robed apologists, and most importantly, the crusts from the red-robed bishop.
Other than all sorts of crusts, there were also the bodies of Demon Seeds and the one and only body of the Demon Infant. Strangely, the bodies of both the Demon Seeds and Demon Infant crystalized into some kind of black crystals.
Boss Huang was carefully checking the items.
Tang Ling was carried away by the problem that he realized. Back in the Dream Domain, he did accept the sub-mission from Tonnies and he was required to complete it within 48 hours. Yet he easily left the Dream Domain without even completing the sub-mission.
Tang Ling believed such a huge bug would not exist in the Dream Domain. Instead, he related it to the main street world, where he had been given multiple hints that the missions could only be completed in multiple entries.
He came up with a theory: could the time in the Dream Domain revolve around him?
To break the theory down in simple words, once he left the Dream Domain, everything in the dream would stop and would only continue upon his return, similar to how online games in the old civilization worked.
If that’s the case…
Tang Ling responded bitterly at the thought because he would have to face the Spider Queen immediately in his next dream entry.
If it was true, what were the odds of surviving the Spider Queen? Given how powerful the Spider Queen was, it would take at least a Rank 3 or a very powerful Rank 2 Purple Moon Warrior to kill it. Could he improve that quickly before the next dream?
Tang Ling felt more cynical as he pondered upon the thought.
His theory was correct, but little did he know that this special situation would only happen once to a handful of Dream Seeds in the harshest conditions.
For example, Ji Chenxi the fatty did not know that the Dream Domain would alter its settings just for a single Dream Seed. Based on what he knew, even if one Dream Seed chose the main street, the next entry point would be random and the missions would be distributed at random, so whatever the dream contained would also change accordingly to the absence of the Dream Seed.
In simple words, the dream world would continue spinning and a Dream Seed would have to face a different situation in the same world next time.
“What are you thinking about?” Boss Huang was shocked after checking all the materials that Tang Ling brought back. He was in doubt.
Did Tang Ling rob someone in the dream? How did he bring this many materials back? There is some good stuff here and some of it even makes me jealous!
One thing worth noting was that Boss Huang had seen countless quality materials and to see materials that could move him was considered precious.
“Nothing. I’m just thinking about the dream.” Tang Ling regained his senses after the question entered his ears and he did not lie to Boss Huang.
Boss Huang instinctively opened his mouth and wanted to find out more, but he suddenly thought of discussing the dream between Dream Seeds was considered a taboo, so he kept his curiosity to himself.
A few seconds of silence later, Boss Huang looked at the pile of materials and said, “You did bring back some good stuff this time. They are all useful materials.”
“However, I’m not sure about this. Keep it first.” Boss Huang took something out from the bunch, and of course, it was the body of the Demon Infant.
“What’s the problem?” Tang Ling was most concerned about the Demon Infant’s body because his little seed strongly desired it. Even though he did not have high hopes for Boss Huang to know what it actually was, he still hoped for Boss Huang’s personal opinion on this.
“Yeah, it’s a problem. The materials you brought back this time are all bio-materials if I’m not wrong. Like this and this problematic one, they are all the dead bodies of a certain being, aren’t they?” Boss Huang looked at Tang Ling.
Tang Ling nodded, impressed by Boss Huang’s accurate insights.
“I don’t know what kind of living beings they are, but since they crystalize after death, you can view it as a type of fossil. The only difference is that these fossils have some useful components. If you refine it, you can get a bio-material similar to superalloy,” said Boss Huang.
“Similar to superalloy?” Tang Ling scratched his head in confusion.
“In the Purple Moon era, there are two types of materials that we can harvest. One is the traditional mineral and the other is the material harvested from living beings. These two materials are different, but some of the traits overlap. It’s like a dagger forged out of steel and a dagger made using the fang of an animal. The common traits they share are toughness and sharpness.” Boss Huang provided a detailed explanation.
From a certain aspect, Tang Ling was actually learning how to be a blacksmith, and speaking from the heart, Boss Huang did not mind Tang Ling inheriting his smithing business either, hence the generosity of sharing his knowledge.
“I get it now. The materials extracted from these crystals have traits that overlap with superalloy, am I right? What kind of traits would that be?” Tang Ling immediately understood what Boss Huang was trying to say. He was curious about what kind of traits he would get from extracting the materials.
“I can’t be sure for now. I checked it using the spirit visualization method and realized it contained some structural component that is similar to the superalloy. You will have to find it out for yourself after refining.” Boss Huang was conservative in his answer.
“Then, what about this? Why is this different from the others?” Tang Ling shifted the question back to the Demon Infant’s body.
Why would the little seed desire it so much?
