Night of Despair

Chapter 136: The Second Seal Four
 

“Now… When the crowd gathers, it will definitely trigger an attack from the Black Disaster swarm… We can’t run to crowded places… The more people there are, the more it attracts stronger Black Disasters…” Xue Ningning’s leg was pierced by a piece of broken glass, and the blood wouldn’t stop flowing.

Before the attack, she was lying in a hospital bed resting and healing, and couldn’t react in time.

As a result, a Multi-eyed Bird burst into the ward, and in the chaos, she was rescued by Fang Shijun, who drove to the hospital.

“Where should we go then?” Fang Shijun frowned.

“My sister has a temporary safe house in the wilderness, let’s go there!” Xue Ningning gritted her teeth.

“The wilderness… The place you mentioned… might be too far. If we just rush there, it’s very dangerous!” Chen Xinji frowned and retorted, “Now is a chaotic time outside, and high-risk Black Disasters are still lurking nearby. We must find a nearby hiding spot to lay low.”

“Nearby… I know of a safe point,” Lin Yiyi suddenly spoke up, even though she stuttered.

She had always been active, searching for her father and grandfather, and had teamed up with a few friends with the same goal.

These people lived their separate work lives and gathered periodically to share clues they had collected.

The gathering spot was an extremely safe small base.

“There, we, have stored, a lot of, food,” Lin Yiyi reiterated seriously upon seeing the skeptical looks from the group.

“Let’s follow Yiyi’s lead!” Xue Ningning immediately decided.

*

*

*

Inside a cave.

Yu Hong slowly awakened from his stupor.

He paused for a moment, then suddenly flipped out of the wooden bed and immediately looked towards the Cultivation Technique book for leg techniques.

As he expected, it had been more than five hours, and the leg technique had already been enhanced.

What appeared before Yu Hong was a black book that was completely different in style from before.

The cover of the book clearly printed: Leg Techniques.

The two large characters were neatly written, stroke by stroke.

However, this book gave Yu Hong the same feeling as yesterday’s Black Lizard.

‘It’s just freshly enhanced, yet it carries a faint sense of age…?’

He furrowed his brow slightly, extended his hand, and gently flipped to the first page of the black book.

Inside, the white paper clearly read: Thunderbolt Leg Technique.

The four large characters were flamboyantly written as if by a master’s hand.

Yu Hong’s expression changed slightly and he continued to turn to the next page.

The contents of the second page left him stunned.

It described the life of the technique’s creator, a story about a boy who faced the tragedy of his clan being annihilated, how he overcame various hardships, studied under a master, and eventually created his own leg technique to avenge his clan.

The names of places and people mentioned in the story, along with its twists and turns, made Yu Hong even more certain that the Black Mark likely moved this leg technique directly from somewhere.

‘Could it be that everything the Black Mark brings over is directly moved from other places?’

‘No… that can’t be. I’ve enhanced the door many times, and if it were simply moved, it wouldn’t fit so well. It’s very likely that sometimes it’s moving, and other times it’s synthesizing enhancements…’ Yu Hong speculated in his mind.

With this thought, he continued to flip through the book in his hand.

The following content detailed how to practice the leg technique; as he expected, the content of the Basic Survival Leg Technique was still there, but it was clear that some parts had merged with the vastly different Thunderbolt Leg Technique.

The Thunderbolt Leg Technique resembled traditional Chinese martial arts, while the previous Basic Survival Leg Technique was a special technique that incorporated interstellar elements.

The two were poles apart, yet here and now, under the amalgamation of the Black Mark, the two actually merged into a new Thunderbolt Leg Technique with six levels.

Yu Hong read through the book once and found that the pathway of the Thunderbolt Leg was the same as before, also focusing on exercising from outside to inside to generate Inner Qi, then using that Inner Qi to execute damaging moves.

However, compared to the previous leg techniques, the speed and agility of the Thunderbolt Leg were much faster.

‘Refined to a minor level, the leg technique is like a thunderbolt, swift and unmatched. Perfected to a major level, under the propulsion of Inner Qi, the leg technique inherently carries a trace of true thunderbolt intent, reaching where the electricity touches, significantly enhancing the strength of the legs, known as Thunderbolt Transformation.’

This was the original text of the Cultivation Technique, and below it, there were attached visualization diagrams. The peculiar diagrams from before now vaguely showed a shape of a faint lightning bolt at the center.

Yu Hong read the booklet several times, then started making Radiation Hand Grenades, and in the basement, he also tried practicing the new leg technique.

The Thunderbolt Leg matched extremely well with the previous basic leg technique. He slightly adjusted and familiarized himself with the new practice moves, quickly adapting to the changes of the first and second levels.

Through repeated practice of the techniques, his Inner Qi gradually became more active.

In one morning, Yu Hong successfully adapted the practice, and with the new visualization diagrams, his Inner Qi continuously circulated and flowed in his abdomen, releasing a sensation similar to a mild electric current.

He roughly estimated that fully adapting to the Thunderbolt Leg would still take some time.

While adapting the technique was easy, actually applying it in combat would require specific scenario practice.

But he wasn’t in a hurry—things needed to be done one by one. First, he needed to finish the Radiation Hand Grenades, see Old Li off on his journey, then free up the Black Mark to enhance the Internal Cultivation Methods. Taking advantage of the enhancement time, he would continue practicing the leg technique, and also adapt to using the Black Lizard.

At noon, after eating protein bars and nutrient paste, Yu Hong stepped out of the front door.

Outside in the yard, Old Li and Zhou Xueguang were already gathered together discussing something, with equipment for the departure neatly packed and placed at the cabin door.

Aisena silently drew something on the yard wall with charcoal; it seemed that since she arrived, she rarely stayed inside like before.

“Uncle Yu!” Aisena’s round face lit up with joy when she saw Yu Hong coming out, and she waved at him from a distance.

Yu Hong waved back, a relaxed smile appearing on his face.

In such a world filled with some despair, seeing such an innocent smile every day was a comfort to anyone’s heart.

On the other side, Old Li and Old Zhou were about to come over, but Yu Hong motioned for them to continue with their tasks.

Returning to the wall where the shadow lizard was located, Yu Hong looked down at the shadow lizard hiding in the luminous stone grass and activated the second mark in his mind.

Instantly, the shadow lizard silently jumped onto the wall and quickly climbed out.

By now, the Blood Tide Black Insects were gone outside, the early morning mist illuminated by the pale sunlight. Although it was still profound, like a gray wall, it was much safer than night.

The shadow lizard jumped down the wall and swiftly burrowed into the thick fallen leaves, disappearing from sight.

Following that, a peculiar sensation surged in Yu Hong’s heart.

He focused on the second mark and suddenly felt the distance, direction, and condition of the shadow lizard.

This feeling was bizarre, as if a dark map suddenly emerged in his mind. The places where the shadow lizard crawled were like the black erased parts of the map.

Just as he was immersing himself in this peculiar radar sensory experience, suddenly, the shadow lizard halted, and its condition abruptly shifted to a medium flame state.

Then, a cryptic piece of information travelled from the shadow lizard to his perception.

It was a gray, indistinct image.

In a forest full of thick fallen leaves, a gray-white silhouette stood silently by a withered tree, looking towards the shadow lizard.

‘Evil Shadow?’ Yu Hong recognized the identity of the figure immediately.

What he didn’t expect was that the shadow lizard could also transmit vague image information back to him.

This was impressive!

‘A perfect fit for the Sentinel Patrol role I wanted!’ Yu Hong’s prior disappointment was somewhat assuaged at this point.

Then, unexpectedly,

The shadow lizard stopped its movement and started to look up at the Evil Shadow.

Then…

Puff!

A stream of dark green liquid shot out from the image, landing precisely on the Evil Shadow.

Hiss…

An acidic hole instantly formed on the Evil Shadow’s body.

The figure also silently lunged towards the shadow lizard.

The image abruptly cut off.

Yu Hong was stunned, his heart sank, slightly worried.

Shortly after, the image restored. It was still the same forest, still the same gray and slightly blurry.

The Evil Shadow had disappeared, and the condition of the shadow lizard also relayed back a sensation of weakness and pain.

Then, the shadow lizard remained motionless, entering a hidden state, and started to absorb the Red Value radiation from the air, like Yu Hong had discovered before.

Simultaneously, he could feel that as the shadow lizard absorbed the Red Value, it was transmitting back information about its recovery.

‘This shadow lizard actually possesses a clear and simple intelligence! It can even drive away an Evil Shadow while on patrol!’

Yu Hong never expected that a palm-sized shadow lizard could drive away such a large Evil Shadow. This pleasant surprise was unexpected.

‘In this way, as long as there are enough shadow lizards, I can completely drive out all the Evil Shadows within a certain radius. And when a Blood Tide occurs, the shadow lizards can also significantly reduce their numbers. I just wonder how effective this ejected venom can be, if it works against Big Skin or Evil Shadow, then… the future is promising!’

A smile unconsciously appeared on Yu Hong’s face.

His previous disappointment had now completely turned into joy.

The shadow lizard was recovering and didn’t need attention for the time being. Yu Hong sent it a simple command to patrol the road between the mountain cave and the post office once it had recovered, driving away Evil Shadows.

There were still many supplies at the post office that couldn’t be transported back, so clearing and restoring this road was the priority.

After setting up everything here, he returned to the cave and continued practicing the Thunderbolt Leg Technique.

By the afternoon, it was the time he had arranged to practice with Old Li and others.

Practicing required a space and an environment.

Yu Hong brought tools and took matters into his own hands, marking out a large new territory on the right side of the courtyard wall as an expansion of the safety zone for the luminous stone grass.

For now, he surrounded it with broken stones, and placed a few Enhanced Red Value Detectors around it, which allowed him to monitor the changes in Red Value around the area at any time.

After setting the alarm threshold, the detector would automatically sound an alarm if any danger approached.

Thus, a simple practice field was set up.

“I’m still using electricity so extravagantly for the first time, having four detectors running simultaneously,” Yu Hong marveled at the comparison between the current environment and the past, feeling somewhat emotional.

Standing across from him, Old Li also marveled.

“Now we can sort of consider ourselves wealthy; boss, your capabilities not utilized at Silver Tower is a loss for humanity.”

“Enough flattery, let’s practice properly. I need you to guide me when to use which moves, how to connect them, I’m not clear on that. Help me with that after I finish a move,” Yu Hong wanted Old Li’s real combat experience.

“Sure thing,” Li Rushan nodded, agreed though he did glance at Yu Hong’s starkly robust muscles stripped of a suit, hesitating somewhat.

Compared to the initial butcher, his muscle mass was not too modest.

“Just to be clear, only use ten percent of your strength!” he reminded.

“Ten percent, how much is that? I’m not too good at fine control, you need to teach me that,” Yu Hong nodded.