Night of Despair

Chapter 137: Information 135
 

In the clearing, the freshly cleared mud ground had been simply covered with some wooden boards. For Yu Hong at this time, laying these boards wasn’t too much of a hassle; a saw could easily cut off a long strip of wood.

He and Li Rushan stood facing each other, about five or six meters apart, neither of them wearing suits.

Surrounding them, Zhou Xueguang and Aisena stood watching.

“It’s just past one in the afternoon now. After we finish, it will be just right time to take a shower, and it’s almost getting dark,” Li Rushan said with a smile.

“Alright. So, shall I go first?”

Yu Hong moved his ankles. After receiving an affirmative response from across, he suddenly took a step forward, reaching to grab Li Rushan’s shoulder.

“Aren’t you all about leg techniques? Why start with your hands?” Li Rushan quickly retreated and immediately spoke up.

“How am I supposed to use leg techniques if I don’t grab you first?” Yu Hong replied as if it were obvious.

“Why do you need to grab me??” Li Rushan didn’t understand.

“If I don’t grab you, you’ll run away!” Yu Hong countered.

“Damn, that actually makes a lot of sense!” Li Rushan opened his mouth, then suddenly thought of something, “Wait! Are you planning to grab me and then go crazy with Low sweep leg?!”

“….Is that not okay?” Yu Hong blinked. “That’s how I’ve always been doing it. It works very well.”

Li Rushan: “….” He took a few deep breaths, trying his best to calm the surge in his heart.

“The lethality, with that approach, it’s indeed great, but… what if you meet an opponent who’s fast, you won’t even be able to grab them, how will you fight then?”

“Yes, that’s why I came to seek advice from you, right?” Yu Hong stated matter-of-factly.

“…..” Li Rushan felt a lump in his chest that he almost couldn’t breathe out.

“Forget it, let’s start with the most basic combat teaching….” he pondered for a second, “Firstly, you have already mastered several sets of moves with significant lethality. Fundamental skills are not something that can be learned overnight, so in order to form combat capabilities quickly, you need to understand the concepts of distance and dynamic striking points. The distance is the optimal range for your leg techniques to cross over instantly and exert the greatest power, and dynamic striking points refer to the range your enemy falls within when you launch your techniques from various postures….”

Li Rushan began a detailed explanation to Yu Hong about how a true leg technique master should fight an opponent.

Originally, he intended to start with teaching about balance, but remembering Yu Hong’s previous heavy exaggerated suit, he didn’t want to waste time.

After a brief basic explanation, the two immediately began to try it out.

Li Rushan tapped the ground with one foot, breathing steadily, standing three meters away from Yu Hong.

Suddenly, he took a forceful step and launched a side kick.

His left leg, like a spear, thrust rapidly towards Yu Hong’s face.

Swish!

The kick stopped in mid-air, just a dozen centimeters from Yu Hong’s face.

Yu Hong only reacted at that moment, attempting to parry with his hands, but they had only lifted halfway and were already too late.

“Impressive! I thought you were too far away to hit me, so I defended late,” Yu Hong exclaimed admiringly.

“Seizing the weak points and relentlessly attacking—that’s the basic principle of the leg techniques I’ve mastered,” Li Rushan nodded. “Your physical fitness far exceeds the standards, but you need to adjust and adapt your combat awareness when fighting people. Before, you were wearing a suit, which others couldn’t damage, so you got used to taking hits before defending and countering. Since your suit was so durable, it would often lead the opponent to misjudge, making their strikes ineffective, causing them to expose a huge weakness, which you would then exploit to get in close and eliminate them. But…”

He paused for a moment.

“Once you face a real combat master, especially one who isn’t much smaller than you, you could be in danger. After all, your equipment can’t protect against all weapons. If someone with high-powered firearms keeps their distance and concentrates fire on you, how will you defend?!”

“That makes sense,” Yu Hong nodded.

Immediately, he began to learn various quick-response leg techniques from Li Rushan.

Stepping forward with a direct kick, side kicking, flipping back kick, high kicks, spinning kicks, and so on.

Internal Qi Technique seemed to optimize Yu Hong’s adaptability to the moves, and he mastered them very quickly.

Two hours later, he had essentially mastered them all.

As the two sparred, they were able to fight using only legs, without the need for their hands to assist.

After training for a while, Li Rushan’s stamina fell short, and he took a break while Yu Hong continued to review the various skills he had just acquired.

His Inner Qi was abundant, his recovery speed was fast, and his endurance was astonishing. He could continue training at this intensity right until the evening without any problem.

The time passed three o’clock, and the sky gradually darkened.

Reluctantly, Yu Hong returned to the cave to continue his training, enhancing Radiation Hand Grenades while practicing the Thunderbolt Leg Technique.

The Thunderbolt Leg Technique, like other types of Martial Arts, contained various leg techniques, but it lacked the practical experience of when and how to use them in combat.

This is exactly what he was in dire need of.

Inside the basement.

Yu Hong took a deep breath, standing in the center.

A strand of Inner Qi was activated, coursing into his legs.

With the modified Thunderbolt Leg Technique, this was his first time using Inner Qi to try out the moves.

This leg technique, in theory, should combine speed with refined martial prowess.

So…

Under the white light.

Yu Hong suddenly performed a Low sweep leg, sweeping forward.

Inner Qi instantly infused his right leg, greatly enhancing its hardness.

At the same time, the speed of this leg swept up much faster than he had anticipated.

“`

Hummm!!

A faint rumbling noise, like thunder, rolled back and forth, emanating from Yu Hong’s leg.

He then followed up with a side kick, a whip kick, a turning low sweep leg, and a high sweep leg, among other moves.

With his Inner Qi pouring into his moves, he became at least thirty percent faster than before, and much more agile.

For a while, the basement air whirlpool with his practiced moves stirred up invisible whirlwinds, blowing around the fine dust.

After practicing the sequence over a dozen times, Yu Hong slowly retracted his moves and stood still.

“Speed has increased this much, and I’ve only reached the second layer. By the later stages of the sixth layer, I wonder how fast I could get!”

He was very satisfied with the increase in speed because in this era, being fast often meant keeping alive.

Once the dynamic Cultivation was done, he began to practice static Cultivation. But as the primary method of cultivating Inner Qi, static Cultivation absorbed Inner Qi far too slowly. Yu Hong endured and completed his daily routine as the darkness fully settled outside.

He took a nutrition paste, went upstairs to check on the Vortex Talisman Plate’s absorption.

The Radiation Hand Grenade needed the Vortex Talisman Plate to fully absorb the radiation before using the Black Mark to optimize the structure for production.

So, after intermittent work, he had only accumulated fifteen to date.

“Almost there, ten for Li Rushan to use on the road, plus several luminous stone blankets, a Silver Talisman Plate, a stack of ordinary talismans, and a protection suit. As long as we don’t provoke trouble or have accidents, there shouldn’t be a problem…”

Yu Hong checked the prepared items and sat down at the wooden table, nodding in satisfaction.

Next, he planned to start the most anticipated part.

He picked up a pen and quickly wrote down a set of the most basic Internal Cultivation Methods on the paper.

“The requirements and control of the Inner Strength method on oneself aren’t much. The key lies in the matching sequence of visualization and visualization charts.”

The visualization chart is the real core of Inner Strength cultivation. Whether it was the basic leg techniques before or the current Thunderbolt Leg, both had their unique visualization charts.

“Visualization charts are based on the Cultivator’s own body and are meant to adjust to a specific state to absorb certain special energies from the outside world.”

Yu Hong re-examined the Thunderbolt Leg’s visualization chart, clearly marked as being designed based on his physical and mental state.

This is like the same abstract painting that makes some people think of rivers, others see a rainbow, and still others might think of twisted houses and more.

This is the so-called “A thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes.”

“I can’t create my own visualization chart… The difficulty is too great.” Yu Hong looked at the Thunderbolt Leg Technique, frowning deeply.

The writing of these basic cultivation methods stumped him from the start.

“There’s another way, just directly strengthen it. Use the static visualization of the Thunderbolt Leg Technique, taken out on its own.”

There are many copies of the Thunderbolt Leg Technique’s visualization chart, six each for dynamic and static exercises, corresponding to six layers.

Yu Hong chose the simplest first static visualization chart.

It was a square colored chart with blue, red, and purple dots, and in the center of the pattern, a black and gray bolt of lightning struck downward.

The lightning bolt pierced through the entire pattern, fierce and distorted.

Yu Hong gazed at the chart, recalling the matching static exercises.

His hands swiftly wrote out the simplified key points.

In total, there were five points, which after his testing and reduction, were all absolutely necessary for the cultivation of Inner Qi. The other parts, he tried to remove without much impact.

More on the impact was on attributes like the Inner Qi absorbed and the speed of absorption, etc.

After finishing this, Yu Hong satisfactorily double-checked everything.

“This time there should be no problem. I’ve tweaked the details, and although I’m using the original visualization chart, it also has my adjusted proportions, enough to go through the Black Mark’s secondary strengthening.”

Confident that there was nothing wrong with the base Inner Strength method, Yu Hong extended his hand and placed it on the paper.

“Strengthen the Internal Cultivation Methods, objective: maximize the speed of Qi Cultivation.”

There were no other demands, just this one. This was Yu Hong’s greatest requirement.

Otherwise, by his estimates, if he were to cultivate Qi step by step honestly, up to the sixth layer, when would he finish?

“Would you like to strengthen the Internal Cultivation Methods?” The timely response from the Black Mark came.

Yu Hong let out a sigh of relief, leaned back in his chair lightly. He looked at the countdown appearing on the paper: 12 days 22 hours 09 minutes.

The time was long… almost half a month, but if it really worked, after the enhancement, his speed of Inner Qi Cultivation would increase substantially.

“Yes!” Yu Hong unhesitatingly affirmed the Black Mark’s inquiry.

The countdown flashed and quickly started timing.

Watching the red-glowing countdown numbers, he breathed a sigh of relief, leaned quietly in his chair, suddenly feeling a hint of melancholy in his heart.

“Now I have water and electricity, food can be secured by the Black Mark, and although I can’t cycle it completely autonomously yet, it’s already so much better than before.”

“I am now slowly cultivating Inner Qi on this world, standing firm… What next? What should I do next?”

A sense of puzzlement suddenly rose in Yu Hong’s heart.

“Just stay in the safe house, honestly facing the various dangers that come?”

“Maybe occasionally shelter a few survivors, just live here… eating nutrition paste and protein bars until old?”

He stood up, walked to the door, and looked through the peephole to see the well-lit white courtyard.

Beyond the courtyard wall, the tide of black bugs surged.