Night of Despair

Chapter 140: Development
 

Roughly ten minutes later, Black Lizard No. 2 crossed the highway and crawled into the concave canyon on the other side of the road.

Here, there were overturned jeeps, clothes, and belongings left by the dead, along with charred traces of fires that had burned through.

But even here, the signal remained clear.

Through Black Lizard No. 2, Yu Hong saw the mess within the canyon.

“Keep going,” he thought, prompting the Black Lizard to continue crawling toward the distance.

Soon after covering more than a kilometer, the signal rapidly weakened. He couldn’t see the image anymore, yet besides that, he could still control the Black Lizard’s movements—he just couldn’t see what it was doing.

Yu Hong didn’t stop and instead commanded Black Lizard No. 2 to advance further.

Until nearly reaching a range of two kilometers, the status of the Black Lizard No. 2’s signal became increasingly indistinct, getting to a point where even sensing it was difficult.

“It seems the control limit is two kilometers,” Yu Hong thought with unexpected satisfaction.

“If I use Inner Qi to stimulate it, I could get a Black Lizard to lay an egg every three days. By the looks of it, this Black Lizard should soon be able to form a dense fighting force.”

Yu Hong calculated in his mind.

He now had two streams of Inner Qi, both of the second layer of Cultivation Technique quality, with one stream capable of inducing the hatching of a Black Lizard egg.

“With the speed of my Inner Qi recovery, there should be enough for inducing hatching, but I just don’t know if there will be a limit to the number of Black Lizard marks I can control…”

Thinking of it, he acted.

The crisis loomed closer, and the inability to save little Stutterer intensified the sense of urgency within Yu Hong’s heart.

He simply sat cross-legged at the entrance, closed his eyes, and continuously channeled Inner Qi into the second Black Lizard mark.

After using both streams of Inner Qi, he was able to induce the hatching of two Black Lizard eggs.

The recovery time for Inner Qi was over three hours, slower than before—an obvious sign that the quality of his Inner Qi had greatly improved and so had the recovery time.

Three hours later, Yu Hong stimulated the birth of two more Black Lizard eggs. Then he repeated the process until he managed to hatch the sixth Black Lizard egg.

The second mark could no longer be infused with Inner Qi.

“The hatched Black Lizards, along with the eggs, total up to exactly nine… Is this the limit of the second mark?”

Yu Hong opened his eyes, pondered for a bit, and slid the doors of the cave open.

Descending the steps, he walked straight to the edge of the courtyard wall.

The yard was empty; Zhou Xueguang and Aisena had each returned to their own rooms to rest, and their even breathing was faintly audible.

Yu Hong didn’t wake them but stood by the wall, stretched out his hand, palm up.

Phwit phwit.

Suddenly, from the misty forest outside, the sound of wings flapping rapidly approached.

Following closely, a shadow the size of a small cat swooped out and landed precisely on his palm.

The shadow revealed its form, and it was none other than an enlarged version of a Black Lizard.

It was Black Lizard No. 1, the earliest hatched marked creature.

Compared to its palm-sized beginning, it had now grown to the length of an adult’s forearm.

A pair of dry yellow eyes were set in its all-black body, with transparent insect wings folded neatly under the protection of the black carapace, giving off a peculiar and chilled appearance.

Cradling Black Lizard No. 1, Yu Hong thought for a moment, then threw it gently, letting it fly back into the misty forest, blending into the vapor.

“Patrol in a ring around the yard as the center, driving away all shadows.”

He planned to thoroughly test the combat capabilities of the grown Black Lizards before the highly dangerous Evil Shadows arrived.

After the order was given, Black Lizard No. 1, the sole near-adult individual, started to quickly circle the yard.

Yu Hong, meanwhile, monitored the situation on the mental map in his head.

Around the yard, three challenging areas had already been marked based on Black Lizard No. 2’s previous patrols.

These were dangers that the Black Lizards couldn’t dispel on their own.

The first was next to a waterway pointing towards Baiqiu Village.

The second was a section on the path leading to the luminous stone mine.

The third was under a withered old locust tree to the left of the road to the post office.

In the patrol safety map in Yu Hong’s mind, these three areas were marked as dark spots, indicating that hidden within them were dangers of the Black Disaster far beyond ordinary shadows.

Soon, Black Lizard No. 1 encountered the first danger.

In the misty forest, a gaunt woman sat on a horizontal tree branch directly in front of it.

She wore a tattered and oversized long skirt, grey in color and smeared with patches of blood.

The moment Black Lizard No. 1 spotted her, she also noticed it.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, Black Lizard No. 1 lifted its head and sprayed a stream of venom instantaneously.

The dark venom, like an arrow, crossed the distance of over ten meters in a flash, hitting the woman’s skirt precisely.

Ahh!

The woman’s body contorted and melted like a candle in high temperatures, struggling until she dripped from the branch within three seconds, turning into a puddle of black sludge.

“Impressive!” Yu Hong let out a sigh of relief, not expecting the Black Lizard to possess such lethal power after growing.

“It looks like, although ordinary shadows can regenerate indefinitely, with Black Lizards patrolling, I can maintain a relatively safe living area.”

His mood was quite good at that moment.

Then, he watched as Black Lizard No. 1 went forward, quickly sucking up the melted black sludge into its mouth and swallowing it.

Then it continued patrolling.

The second time, two shadows appeared together, hand in hand, seemingly two brothers silently drifting through the foggy woods.

The moment the two shadows spotted Black Lizard No. 1, they launched an attack, swooping toward it swiftly, and in a flash, they reached out to claw at the Black Lizard.

“`

Hiss!

Black Lizard One began to emit smoke rapidly upon contact with the shadow, the black smoke distorting its figure slightly.

With a puff, another spray of venom was ejected. Black Lizard One rolled and dodged, watching as the two shadows twisted and tumbled, melting into a new puddle of black mucus.

It continued forward, consuming the mucus and at the same time feeling a faint sense of weakness emanating from within itself.

Apparently, the touch of the shadow had not been without harm to it.

“Is three the limit?” Yu Hong set the data in his mind.

It seemed that nine adult Black Lizards should be able to drive out a territory occupied by about thirty shadows.

Considering the roaming of other Black Disasters and the varying regeneration speeds of the shadows, Yu Hong quickly sketched out a rough estimate of a future safe zone patrolled by the nine Black Lizards in his mental map.

This area just happened to cover a circular range around the yard, extending two hundred meters in all directions.

“Once all the Black Lizards hatch and grow, this new safe zone will be secured… Then it’ll be easy to gather humus, timber, and so forth.”

Yu Hong felt somewhat relieved.

The Black Lizards were more effective than he had imagined; they essentially created a dynamically adjustable safe zone. They also allowed for early detection of the approach of high-risk Black Disasters.

“A standard sentinel,” he finally defined the role of the Black Lizards.

After resting for a bit, Black Lizard One continued to carry out its cleansing command, while Yu Hong shifted his sensory vision back to the departing Black Lizard Two.

Before long, he suddenly uttered a soft exclamation, his expression showing mild surprise.

“People?”

Within a range of one kilometer, Black Lizard Two began its covert roaming patrol.

During this patrol, it unexpectedly came across an overturned bus.

A gray bus.

The bus had rolled off the road and tumbled into a deep ditch, its exterior sheathed in thick metal plates that sealed all the windows.

From a distance, it resembled a shriveled bean pod at the waist.

Inside the bus, several figures were crying out in pain, wriggling and struggling to crawl out of the twisted wreckage.

Their legs were injured, bleeding everywhere. They dragged themselves through the bus, leaving behind long marks like brushes soaked in blood.

Through the eyes of Black Lizard Two, Yu Hong roughly estimated that out of the survivors, five in total, only three could live, while the other two had their lower bodies completely crushed and were bleeding out hopelessly.

The three who would survive had minor injuries that did not significantly affect their mobility.

After hesitating for a moment, Yu Hong decided to go and check it out, to see what kind of people they were. If they weren’t the despicable sort, rescuing them might provide some additional manpower.

He himself couldn’t leave at the moment and had to rely on others for external assignments. He was severely short on manpower.

Once the decision was made, Yu Hong immediately instructed Black Lizard Two to patrol the area stealthily, driving away the shadows to ensure the safety of these people.

He then donned his reinforced lizard suit and swiftly left the yard, heading in the direction of Black Lizard Two.

A few minutes later.

He arrived near the overturned bus.

Before he got close, the survivors spotted him.

“Over here!”

One person waved frantically at him.

As Yu Hong approached, he suddenly paused.

He recognized one of the three surviving women.

“Doctor Xu? How is it you?!”

The remaining three were all female or, more precisely, everyone in the bus was female.

From the uniforms and firearms on the corpses at the entrance of the bus, Yu Hong deduced that they were likely a women’s refugee group formed for self-protection.

This matched what Old Li had told him before: in these chaotic times, many women became persecuted vulnerable groups, and in the absence of law and order, many formed small self-protective groups to avoid harm.

Among them were those who voluntarily underwent luminous stone radiation surgery.

“Yu Hong!” Doctor Xu’s arm hung limply at her side, her hair was messy, her face covered in blood, and her features were hardly distinguishable until he drew closer.

Seeing Yu Hong, she became emotional all at once.

“Help me! I’m dying! Ah… the pain is killing me!” She clutched her arm and wailed loudly.

“Just wait there. Don’t move,” Yu Hong glanced at the other two.

They both wore helmets and gray-white women’s suits, supporting each other; one held a submachine gun, both turned towards him, watching warily.

“If you need help, wait a moment.” Yu Hong maintained a distance as he passed by them, and grabbed Xu Ruoying by the shoulder.

“Ouch! My bones are broken here too!” Doctor Xu screamed in agony.

So Yu Hong had no choice but to grasp her hair with one hand and the collar of her neck with the other, and heaving with both, lifted her up.

“You can still scream, that’s good, at least the pain means your nerves are still alive,” Yu Hong sighed and, carrying the woman, turned towards the safehouse to leave.

“I’m so miserable, Yu Hong… really, I’m too miserable…” Once lifted, Doctor Xu became much more agitated than when she had first left.

Back then, she had been filled with hope about going to Hope City.

And now…

“My herbal patent was stolen, reduced to a pill-making machine, working from dawn till dusk, only five hours of sleep, even had to use a completely transparent cubicle for the toilet… I tried to escape nine times! Each time they caught me and beat me mercilessly, hahaha, I think being killed by the Black Disaster would be better than living that hellish life!” Xu Ruoying dangled in the air, on the verge of mental collapse.

As she spoke of her ordeal, tears streamed down her face unceasingly.

“Eventually, I almost got used to it. Ah! It didn’t hurt as much after being hit so many times. I never thought that when I finally stopped trying to escape, the chance to get out would come!”

She started laughing amidst her storytelling.

Yu Hong sharply noticed something.

This woman… her mental state seemed a bit off.

“`