Night of Despair

Chapter 156: Air 154
 

“`

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

The footsteps gradually became softer, smaller, and seemed to be moving away.

Old Li’s heart chilled, knowing it wasn’t the boss but something else.

In such an environment, anything could show up outside.

He kept waiting, motionless.

Approximately five minutes later.

Pat pat pat.

A series of urgent, heavy footsteps quickly approached.

Then the car door was knocked loudly.

“Black Wind Mountain atop the Black Wind Ridge…” a code phrase swiftly arose from outside the window.

Li Rushan immediately got up and responded in turn.

Through the car window, standing outside was a figure in a familiar gray lizard costume.

The burly shape wore a helmet, face unseen, but the specially tailored and modified gray lizard costume allowed Old Li to recognize the visitor instantly.

“Boss!” He clicked open the car door, a smile appearing on his face.

Yu Hong stood by the car, glancing inside where it was filled with stuff; even the passenger seat was packed. There was no room to sit down.

He shook his head in silence, inwardly.

“This load, no wonder your car is moving so slowly. Charging is originally time-consuming, and with such a heavy load, the power depletion is even greater….”

“I was thinking, since it’s rare that I go out, why not take more at once, otherwise, wouldn’t that be a loss?” Old Li climbed out of the car, laughing.

“How do we bring it back?” He patted the car, “Shall we move the most important things back first?”

“No need.” Yu Hong thought for a moment, then turned his head back, looking at the path he had come from.

“We’ll drive back.” His voice was grave.

“Eh??” Li Rushan blinked, looking in the direction Yu Hong was watching.

It was a steep slope path by the side of the road; the incline was steep, and the entire path was only one or two meters wide, not enough for a car to drive up.

Moreover, the way was blocked by trees and underbrush, simply impassable.

“Let’s try.” Yu Hong said gravely. “I remember last time Xu Fan and the others came, they managed to drive the car up to the road near Baiqiu Village. It’s much closer to this place.”

“But that’s a long way round… Boss, you this….” Li Rushan hadn’t finished his sentence when he saw Yu Hong take a large tool off his back.

It was a sharp axe for chopping wood.

“I’ve long felt that this place was too far from the camp, inconvenient, so….”

Yu Hong walked up to the slope, gripped the axe handle, and with a burst of strength swung at a large tree.

Thud thud thud thud.

In four consecutive swings, a large tree as thick as an adult’s waist was effortlessly cut down by him, falling over.

And he did it leaving only a bit of the stump, which couldn’t stop the high chassis of a jeep at all.

“Let’s go; I’ll lead the way. Running back and forth is too dangerous at this time, driving straight back is the fastest.” Yu Hong turned his head to look at Old Li.

“…..” Li Rushan swallowed hard, he had long suspected the boss was a top-enhanced person, but now it seemed…

This wasn’t an enhanced person, this was a mutant!

Soon, the car followed Yu Hong up the slope and was quickly jostled by the uneven road, nearly overturning.

Yu Hong rushed forward, pressing down on the car, unleashing his inner Qi without releasing it, forcibly bringing the unbalanced car back to stability, to Li Rushan’s utter astonishment.

Boom.

The car landed back on all fours and continued forward on this road.

“We’ll need to come back and clean this up later, level the road so it’ll be convenient in the future.” Yu Hong muttered.

He walked ahead, guiding the jeep deeper into the woods.

Before long, several more large trees were chopped down with a crack and fell to the ground.

The fallen trees, still warm from Yu Hong’s energy, were tossed to the sides to make crude roadside barriers to prevent rainwater from washing mud onto the road and making it uneven.

He walked in front, and wherever the ground was uneven, he just gave it a kick.

With his inner Qi amplification, his already formidable strength was exaggerated. Under Thunderbolt Leg, mounds of earth and chunks of rock were easily shattered and flattened.

Inside the jeep, Li Rushan was shocked at first, but after seeing so much of it, he became numb, feeling that the boss was the epitome of badass.

Driving the jeep, he always felt that the previously safe vehicle, if it encountered the boss’s exaggerated bulk, would be dismantled in no time…

After a while.

Yu Hong suddenly looked up at the sky; his expression a bit unsightly.

“It’s getting dark.”

“Eh? What time is it?” Li Rushan also felt something was off, but his detector was out of battery, and he couldn’t see the time.

“Half past twelve.” Yu Hong glanced at the time on his own detector, “It’s earlier again… we need to speed up, otherwise it’ll be dangerous at night.”

“According to this pace, I’m afraid there won’t be daylight soon…” Li Rushan heaved a sigh. “Boss, do you have a way to move at night? The luminous stone blanket can only hide oneself.”

“Not for now.” Yu Hong replied. “But… we could use the principle of the luminous stone blanket to make a few sets of similar costumes.”

“That’s doable.” Old Li smiled.

The two chatted casually and lightly, the closer they got to the camp, the more relaxed they felt.

As they made their way slowly back to the camp.

The sound of chopping trees seemed to have attracted something.

On the highway behind them, a figure in a white dress appeared abruptly and silently in the mist, stepping onto the slope path that had just been cleared.

The figure observed the clear wheel tracks on the muddy path, paused, then stepped forward, following the tracks.

Plop.

She had only taken a few steps.

Suddenly, a jet of black liquid sprayed out from the shadows, hitting the figure squarely.

Hiss!

The liquid hadn’t even touched the figure’s clothes; it evaporated in mid-air, turning into black smoke, and vanished.

The figure paused, turning her head toward the direction from which the black liquid came.

Plop.

She vanished from the spot instantly.

Seconds later.

“`

She returned to the newly blazed trail, step by step, and continued forward.

*

*

*

In the woodland,

Another huge tree crashed down heavily.

Yu Hong abruptly paused in his steps, glancing back at the fog-shrouded forest behind.

“Something’s catching up,” he said in a deep voice.

Li Rushan rolled down the car window, hearing the words, he too looked back, but could only see fog.

“Then we’ve got to speed up, and make it to camp fast,” he said, trusting Yu Hong though he couldn’t see anything himself.

Yu Hong sensed that one of his Black Lizards had suddenly gone missing. This was not something a shadow could have done.

The Black Lizard’s camouflage and concealment abilities were strong, and in these dark, foggy woods, it was a top-tier scout. There had been no losses during previous patrol sniping operations against shadows—at worst, they were injured.

The two immediately moved forward and, in short order, returned to where Ding Shao was lying.

Without wasting words, Yu Hong went to check and found her still alive, merely fallen into a deep sleep after consuming the nutrition paste; he wrapped her in a luminous stone blanket, squeezed her into the car, and headed back to the camp together.

Old Li, seeing this, didn’t ask who it was. With one hand clutching a Radiation Hand Grenade and the other steering the vehicle, he silently drove on.

The difficult journey continued for more than ten minutes.

Ahead in the fog, the outline of the camp’s lights gradually loomed.

“We’re here!” Old Li’s face showed a glint of joy.

At that moment, a figure in a yellow dress appeared out of the fog behind him.

Bang!

An explosive sound ripped through the air, and the ground burst open.

Yu Hong darted to the side of the car, opened the door, grabbed the person, and rushed back.

All in one fluid motion.

With a person in each hand, he activated his Inner Qi at his feet and leaped over ten meters in a second, landing lightly within the outer courtyard.

After setting them down, he didn’t look back, but threw five Radiation Hand Grenades behind him.

Bang bang bang bang bang!

The grenades silently exploded, emitting invisible negative radiation that covered the area near the car in an instant with more than seven thousand Red Value radiation.

The intense negative radiation spread unseen by the naked eye, covering several dozen meters around.

It seemed the explosion of the Radiation Hand Grenades made the woman in the dress halt in her tracks.

She stood in the fog, her outline flickering in and out of sight, watching the camp from afar.

The negative radiation that had just erupted made her figure seem like a reflection on rippling water, constantly distorting and blurring.

Yu Hong stood erect, watching her, with no further movement.

On both sides, time stalled, a silent standoff ensuing.

One minute.

Five minutes.

A full ten-plus minutes passed.

Then the woman in the dress began to slowly retreat until she disappeared into the fog completely.

Yu Hong glanced at the detector, making sure its readings had returned to normal before calming turning around.

At this moment, Old Li and Ding Shao were still lying on the ground, motionless.

Ding Shao had passed out, and Old Li… did not dare to get up on his own.

Not far away, Zhou Xueguang, hearing the commotion, peered in their direction but did not rashly approach.

Both he and Old Li were particularly cautious individuals; without an order from Yu Hong, they would not take action on their own.

“It’s okay now. No trouble for the time being,” Yu Hong exhaled and picked up Ding Shao; together with Li Rushan, who was getting up, they entered the walled inner courtyard.

“That was tough. They really tried to catch up at the end!” Old Li cursed under his breath, spitting out dirt.

“Daddy!!” Aisena lunged into Old Li’s arms, causing a sharp pain in his chest wound.

“Ouch.” He fell backward, yet his face showed a mixture of pain and happiness.

Seeing the bandages and blood on him, Nana panicked, apologized quickly, and then stood up to allow Doctor Xu, who had also risen, to check the wound.

As the bandages were unraveled, a ferocious, centipede-like dark red wound was revealed.

The wound stretched from the chest to the shoulder, as long as a forearm.

“It’s a bit infected!” Doctor Xu said gravely, “There’s some iodophor left, I’ll use it on you, then we’ll cut away the necrotic tissue, and apply powdered antibiotics to it. It’s going to hurt, so bear with it.”

“No problem… I’m a tough guy, don’t worry… ah!!” Before Li Rushan could finish his sentence, he let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.

Yu Hong, unable to bear the sight, sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes, directing the Black Lizards to patrol the surroundings.

Particularly the few dozen meters between the camp and the car.

Eight Black Lizards shuttled back and forth, circling the car several times, yet they did not find the woman in the dress again.

“It should be fine now,” he said, sighing.

“Having you take it so seriously, could it be a high-threat Black Disaster?” Zhou Xueguang stood beside him, also looking into the fog, but could see nothing.

“Mhm, encountered it on the way back. The Red Value suddenly spiked to over ten thousand, and that was without fully closing in,” Yu Hong said gravely.

“Can we determine which of the three types it is?” Zhou Xueguang asked seriously.

“Certainly not the second type, the tick ball; the figure was human-shaped, either a Speed Man or an Insect Man…” Yu Hong replied. “Of course, the possibility of other types of high-threat Black Disasters emerging is not excluded. Unexpected things always happen.”

“It seems to have disappeared now,” Zhou Xueguang conjectured.

“Right, I’ll go and drive the car into the outer courtyard. Don’t come out,” Yu Hong remained cautious, not daring to make rash moves.

The staggering radiation levels he had encountered without even getting close were not something he could combat with his Inner Qi alone.

Inner Qi indeed caused damage to Black Disasters, but he wasn’t sure if his own Inner Qi could harm a high-threat Black Disaster.

‘I need to test the actual damage value of my Inner Qi… I have to clearly understand my barehanded killing power against a Black Disaster, to know both myself and my enemy, and not foolishly charge into battle unprepared.’

With subsequent arrangements in mind, Yu Hong quietly exited the outer courtyard and quickly returned to the car.

Click.

Without a word, he opened the door and threw in a Radiation Hand Grenade.

Buzz!

A burst of invisible negative radiation instantly exploded in the enclosed space, neutralizing any possible hidden dangers.

Only then did Yu Hong sit in the vehicle, which now felt cramped to him, especially wearing a suit that made him bulkier than normal.

The vehicle started and slowly approached the gate of the outer courtyard.