Night of Despair

Chapter 159: Storm 157
 

“`

Ssss!

The elephant worm’s massive body left behind two rows of deep footprints as it moved across the ground.

It made a hissing sound like air being blown, as it charged into the outer courtyard, brushing past the wooden shed where Ding Shao and her companion stayed.

The new Concealing Symbols on the exterior of the shed clearly had an effect, leading the elephant worm to disregard the two women and the rest of the wooden huts, charging straight toward Yu Hong.

“Perhaps they were targeting me all along…” Yu Hong realized at that moment.

His expression was cool and composed as he surveyed the fan-shaped area outside the camp’s front yard, where the eyes of all the shadows seemed to converge on him.

This involuntary connected to the rules of Speed Man in his mind.

“The Black Disaster must have locked onto me after that woman in the white dress!” he said somberly.

“Here it comes!” Li Rushan said tensely.

The two of them watched as the enormous elephant worm charged into the outer courtyard, nearing the inner courtyard.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

In the midst of the heavy footsteps, the elephant worm’s charging sounded utterly different from the usual quiet.

It roared, lowering its head like a giant bulldozer, and charged toward the inner courtyard wall covered in pitch black.

Pfft, pfft, pfft.

Sprays of radiation from the Array Fountain shot up from beneath, impacting its underside, but it blocked them all forcefully; they didn’t spread out and were neutralized by the red radiation emanating from its body.

Seeing this, Yu Hong and his companion immediately threw the Radiation Hand Grenades they had been holding for several seconds.

The grenades tumbled down toward the elephant worm, exploding violently above it.

Boom!

A silent flash of radiation enveloped most of the creature’s body.

The radiation, with a negative value exceeding seven thousand, was far more powerful than the Black Wind Protection Array, and immediately blasted two bathtub-sized holes in the elephant worm’s back.

Streams of black smoke rose from the wounds, as if the blood of the elephant worm were boiling.

It came to an abrupt halt, its front limbs collapsing to the ground, and before it could rise again to continue its charge, two more Radiation Hand Grenades were thrown toward it, landing above its wounds.

Boom!!

The two grenades exploded simultaneously, and a huge amount of negative radiation poured into the wounds, instantly raising a large cloud of black smoke.

Ssss!

The elephant worm shrieked, raising its head as its body rapidly deflated before their eyes, shriveling up.

In just a few seconds, it completely collapsed into a thin layer of black skin on the ground.

Two seconds later, the negative radiation from the sprays torn the black skin to shreds, neutralizing it into black smoke that vanished without a trace.

With that, an elephant worm was thoroughly vanquished, and it would now require a lengthy revival period before it could come back to life.

But its desperate struggle had left a mark; at the least, the outer courtyard’s fence had been breached, and the energy of the Black Wind Protection Array had been considerably depleted, now holding at only about half of its capacity.

Yu Hong and his companion exhaled in relief, as they watched the balance of the offense and defense battle restore. Together, they gazed into the deeper darkness beyond, where nothing was to be seen, only a murky grey fog.

They waited another ten minutes or so.

At last, outside the outer courtyard fence, the final wave of shadows rushed into the Array and were annihilated.

From that moment on, no new shadows appeared from within the mist.

“Get ready… it’s about to come,” Yu Hong said gravely.

Li Rushan nodded, his face serious, as he grabbed six grenades, readying himself.

There weren’t many grenades left in the box, only about a third. But he knew this was not a time to be conservative.

The two of them waited silently.

The distant dark mist was quiet, as if the onslaught had completely ended.

But inexplicably, an invisible pressure gradually covered both Li Rushan and Yu Hong, as well as everyone inside the camp.

“I feel… a heaviness in my chest… like low air pressure…” Li Rushan murmured, “The big one might be coming.”

Yu Hong nodded, not uttering a word, instead focusing intently on the area in front of the camp, shifting his gaze continually to be ready to identify the attacker’s direction at the first opportunity.

The atmosphere within the camp felt as if it were being suppressed by a massive boulder, heavy and tense.

Heeheeheehee…

Suddenly, a high-pitched, strange, and jubilant laugh echoed above the entire camp.

All at once, Yu Hong turned his head to look left.

Over there, in that direction!

Outside the fence.

A woman in a yellow coat and white dress appeared out of nowhere, standing just a meter outside the fence.

She stood quietly, pausing for two seconds, then began to move forward, step by step.

She made contact with the fence, which instantly and silently disintegrated into nothingness, as if it had never been there; even the holes fixed in the ground vanished.

Heeheeheehee~~~

The eerie laughter circled overhead.

In a sudden flash, the woman’s figure moved.

Incredibly, she crossed over ten meters in a single leap, bypassing the entire outer courtyard and arriving in front of the inner courtyard wall.

Pfft, pfft, pfft!

The Black Wind Protection Array beneath the ground madly gathered energy, emitting jets of negative radiation, but all the radiation fountains seemed to be sucked into a black hole, disappearing without a trace as they approached.

Beep!!

A sharp alarm from the detector sounded feverishly as if to accompany the enemy’s approach with music.

Yu Hong’s gaze was fixed on the woman, glancing only briefly at the detector’s reading with the corner of his eye.

‘Red Value: 17494.331’

The number was increasing rapidly, soon surpassing twenty thousand.

“So much red value even before she gets close!?” Li Rushan’s voice rang in shock beside him, but Yu Hong dared not take his eyes away.

If this was Speed Man, then the attack mechanism would be to see twice, and experience fear.

And he was the one seen twice!

Moreover, he noticed that the Black Wind Protection Array beneath the woman’s feet kept erupting in fountains, attempting to strike her, but it was all in vain. All the radiation was completely neutralized.

‘It seems the Black Wind Protection Array can only deal with regular Black Disasters.’

He reached a conclusion in his mind, feeling the camp’s Array imprint in his mind grow weaker and dimmer, and stopped observing.

“Throw!” he shouted, tossing six grenades outward.

Pfft, pfft, pfft…

A series of invisible radiations burst forth.

Negative radiation far stronger than the Array’s fountains exploded above the woman in the white dress.

Bursts of radiation with negative values exceeding seven thousand finally caused waves to ripple around her.

Like before, the air next to her seemed to twist, obscuring her figure.

Ripples like those from stones thrown into a lake spread from her, creating waves as if the grenades were stones splashing into water, stirring up countless ripples.

“`

Hee hee hee hee!

The eerie laughter sounded again.

The woman’s footsteps halted as if forcibly obstructed by the grenade.

“It’s effective!” Li Rushan also threw grenades together, his voice trembling with tension at this point.

Previously, as a postman, he had witnessed high-risk Black Disasters, but that was within the base at Hope City, alongside a large team with plenty of support from modern weapons.

But now… just their little camp… relying on him and the boss as the main force… they were actually facing a high-risk Black Disaster that only Hope City had encountered before…!

“Damn… this is thrilling!” Old Li couldn’t help but swear as he watched the white-dressed woman ripple with disturbed waves.

“She’s slowing down!” Suddenly, he spotted the key clue. “The air’s Red Value has dropped to negative twenty thousand! The grenades are working!!”

“Throw more!” Yu Hong also perked up, noticing the key point.

Grenades burst incessantly above the woman, brutally dragging down the Red Value of the area.

Soon, the number on the detector plummeted to negative thirty thousand!

Snap.

Suddenly, Yu Hong grasped at air.

He and Old Li simultaneously glanced over with the corners of their eyes.

Gone!?

“We’re done for…!” Old Li’s face turned pale. “Boss, what do we do now!?”

Before Yu Hong could respond, that strange laughter echoed through the air again.

The white-dressed woman took a step forward, her body moving once again.

Pfft!

In an instant, her silhouette flashed, disappearing outright.

When she reappeared, she was already within the inner courtyard, underneath the central electric lamppost.

“Dodge!” Yu Hong roared lowly, grabbing Old Li and throwing him to the right, right into the doorway of a wooden cabin.

He himself dared not take his eyes away, staring intently at the woman.

Strangely, there was no fear or panic in his heart, only calmness—as serene as the surface of a lake.

Snap.

He reached behind and pulled out a stack of Vortex Talisman Plates, silently counting in his mind.

‘1.’

‘2.’

‘3!’

Right then, the white-dressed woman’s footsteps paused once more.

Beneath her feet, the entire ground of the inner courtyard began to slowly light up with huge, complicated patterns of white light.

One by one, patterns emerged on the ground, spreading and lighting up, turning from dim to bright in a flash, bright enough to rival the illumination of the lamps, corresponding exactly with Yu Hong’s count to three.

Buzz!!

In a flash, a massive amount of negative radiation burst forth from the second set of Arrays underground.

Unlike the continuous output of the Black Wind Protection Array before, this was an exaggerated, one-time explosion.

In that instant, invisible negative radiation surged from the ground, concentratedly bombarding the white-dressed woman.

The Red Value around her plummeted past negative fifty thousand in the blink of an eye.

Her clothes began to rapidly get dirtier, older. The skin on her fair and delicate arms started to show cracks, like porcelain about to shatter.

The surrounding air twisted and blurred further; even someone standing ten meters away couldn’t see clearly.

“DIE!!”

At that moment.

Yu Hong’s body surged with Inner Qi, exploding, as the first channel of Inner Qi in his body burst open, uniformly covering the insides of his legs.

He bent down, the ground behind him suddenly exploding, hurling him towards the woman like a fierce wind.

‘Thunderbolt!’

He roared in his mind.

Powered by the full amplification of Inner Qi, the Thunderbolt Leg Technique tore through the air, creating overlapping distorted airwaves, and he swung out a roundhouse kick towards the woman’s head.

Rumble!!

The ground of the camp seemed to be struck by thunder.

Accompanying the thunderous sound was the weird laughter mixed within, but this laughter completely differed from the playful laughter the woman had previously emitted.

If the previous laughter was eerie, sharp, and sinister, then the strange laughter now felt exaggerated, terrifying, and wild.

In a blink, Yu Hong’s right leg turned into a blurry shadow and landed on the side of the woman’s head and neck.

Boom!!!

The immense suppression from the negative radiation made the woman’s movements sluggish, unable to avoid the kick.

Perhaps she didn’t intend to dodge at all.

Sudden distortions erupted between them, causing the surrounding cabins to creak and sway slightly.

The skin on the woman’s head quickly showed cracks, and chunks of her fair skin, like pieces of porcelain, fell away, turning into black smoke in mid-air and dissipating into nothing.

Beneath the skin was a sticky substance like black oil.

‘Thunderbolt! Type two!’ Yu Hong’s expression turned fierce as the second channel of Inner Qi burst forth.

The frantic, bizarre laughter rang out once more as he drew back his leg for a second explosive strike.

His right leg broke through the air again in an instant, creating ripples in the air and slamming against the woman’s neck.

“Type three!” Not waiting for the opponent to move, Yu Hong kicked out his third leg.

The third channel of Inner Qi erupted, magnifying his terrifying lethality at this moment.

It was as if the explosion of thunder spread again.

This time, much of the woman’s skin shattered, cracked, and fell off.

Her body revealed a black, slimy substance that made up her inner flesh.

She struggled to slowly lift her head, her black hair parting to either side, seemingly about to face Yu Hong with the face she had always hidden.

This movement elicited an indescribable terror in Yu Hong’s heart.

As if just seeing the woman’s face would result in something unimaginably horrifying.

He roared, and the fourth channel of Inner Qi burst open with force.

With the sound of thunder, accompanied by the noise of him crushing a stack of Vortex Talisman Plates in his hands, the sounds overlapped and spread.

“Type four!!!”

He twisted his body to the side, concentrating all his power into this kick.

The tip of his leg shot out, tearing through the air with a high-pitched screech.

Boom!

The thunderous sound of the Thunderbolt Leg went silent, disappearing in an instant.

Yu Hong’s leg struck harshly against the left side of the woman’s head. Everything paused for a moment.

Pffft!!!

Suddenly, the woman’s body exploded like a water balloon, with masses of black substance gushing from within.

As soon as the black substance splattered out, it was negated by the massive amount of negative Red Value radiation in the air, suppressed.

In an instant, all the black substance turned to smoke and vanished into nothing.