Night of Despair

Chapter 171: Threat 1
 

Pfft!

The black humanoid suddenly lunged forward like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey, blinking across the distance and landing on the black lizard.

With a bang, the lizard was struck by a tremendous force and sent tumbling backwards, rolling over a dozen times before gradually coming to a stop, lying limp on the ground.

After a few seconds, the lizard’s body suddenly exploded into countless small black insects that reformed into the humanoid figure.

Just as the figure was about to turn and continue towards the nearby camp,

another glob of spit flew onto its face.

Hiss!

Enraged, the humanoid turned and lunged towards the second black lizard in the distance.

This cycle repeated four times until, finally, when the black figure reformed again, there was no longer any trace of the camp in sight.

It seemed to have forgotten about the camp and moved straight ahead in the existing direction, leaving.

Before long, the figure vanished into the dark mist, disappearing completely.

It seemed to have followed the direction its comrades had left in.

In the darkness, another black lizard slowly emerged from the grass, watching the direction the humanoid had left in before fading back into invisibility.

Inside the cave, Yu Hong heaved a long sigh, sensing only five remaining black lizards and shook his head with a sense of helplessness.

“Before the array has been fully enhanced, this is the only way to cope. Fortunately, the black lizards can incubate and fully recover in just three days.”

The exchange of information with Zhang Kaijun inspired him with some ideas to deal with the Black Disaster. It wasn’t necessary to confront every Black Disaster head-on since they would revive and never die; it was better to find opportunities and methods to lure them away.

This operation with the black lizards was also an attempt.

Having averted a crisis, Yu Hong instructed the remaining black lizards to continue surveillance while he retreated to the basement to strenuously practice the Thunderbolt Leg Technique.

Life in the camp gradually returned to normal.

Time passed day by day, and it seemed that the explosion of the Giant God Bomb had triggered a series of chain reactions in the Black Disaster.

Soon a week went by without encountering any Black Disasters more troublesome than Big Skin; the Black Wind Protective Array and the black lizards were sufficient to handle all troubles.

Everything was calm.

It appeared as Zhang Kaijun had said: after the high-risk Black Disasters staked out their territories, they settled down, and the most dangerous period was about to pass.

However, Yu Hong maintained high vigilance for the Insect men he’d encountered before. Through the black lizards’ vision, he often saw Insect men repeatedly entering and exiting the secondary safety zone outside the camp.

They seemed to be continuously driving out and expanding their territories.

Every day, their range of activity crept closer to the camp—not quickly, but steadily.

Pfft!

In the forest, a massive elephant worm was struck by a shadow, quickly swelling with numerous fine particles all over its body.

Then, with a muffled sound, the elephant worm exploded completely, turning into a large swarm of black insects.

The insects scattered before condensing into a black humanoid figure in a clearing ten meters away.

This clearing was now occupied by more than one humanoid; three additional figures rapidly took shape and stood behind the first.

From afar, in the bushes, a black lizard witnessed this scene, quietly retracting its head and melding back into the darkness.

This lizard was a sentinel Yu Hong had sent to monitor the Insect men, as the proximity had become so close that he didn’t need to move himself; using the black lizard’s two-kilometer extreme control range, he could observe the Insect men anytime, anywhere.

“This is getting troublesome…”

Inside the cave.

Yu Hong drew a circle with his hand on a piece of paper on the table. This circle was not alone on the paper; there were four others drawn earlier.

The circle he drew this time was the smallest of all, representing the shrinking safety perimeter around the camp.

“It’s smaller than a few days ago, closer to the camp… about thirty or forty meters left…”

Yu Hong frowned, finding the situation troublesome.

“Based on observations these past days, there are a total of four Insect men outside, each individually slightly weaker than Speed Man, but together, they far exceed him.”

“The most troublesome part isn’t just their strength but their speed. They ignore surface defenses and can directly burrow inside to parasitize swiftly. As good as instant injury upon contact, and certain death upon injury.”

Standing up, Yu Hong pondered how to deal with this kind of Black Disaster.

He paced back and forth in the cave, his mind cycling through the options at his disposal.

“The best way is to avoid contact altogether. Against this kind of Black Disaster, Protective Suits are utterly useless, and so are the enhanced humans. They are no different from ordinary people in front of it.”

He had asked Zhang Kaijun and Wei Song about it in these days, knowing that they had also encountered Insect men.

Faced with this Black Disaster, luminous stone bullets, firearms, fire, strong acids and bases, and various other methods were useless. Only luminous stone bombs were somewhat effective, but not greatly so, because the Insect men were too fast and would disperse and burrow underground before the bombs could explode.

More disgustingly, unless he could completely exterminate the Insect men, as long as one live insect remained, it could quickly regroup and become whole again. This Black Disaster, though not as terrifying as the Evil Shadow, posed a far greater threat of death.

Tough…

Yu Hong controlled the black lizards to monitor the Insect men’s progress while he dived back into the basement to commence new Qi Cultivation.

At this juncture, his Thunderbolt Leg Technique’s second layer was nearing completion, with the ninth Inner Qi about to condense successfully.

The speed increase from the Infinite Qi Condensing Technique was indeed extraordinary. Before he had refined this technique, his Qi Cultivation speed was as slow as a crawl, but now it was much faster.

“Forget it, I’ll think about it after breaking through the second layer. Perhaps the increased speed and enhanced power of Inner Qi will have a better effect when supplementing the Array.”

Inner Qi could help during the recovery of imprints; Yu Hong had tried this before. The black lizards were indeed cultivated with the assistance of Inner Qi.

Arrays were probably similar.

In the basement enveloped in white light.

Yu Hong stood in the center, focusing his mind and stabilizing his Qi, visualizing the Thunderbolt Leg Technique’s visualization chart in his heart, while directing his Inner Qi and lightly tiptoeing on his feet.

Swoosh!

In an instant, he lifted his right leg for a high sweep, slicing through the air with a piercing whine.

As quickly as a flash of lightning, the moves of the Thunderbolt Leg Technique were executed one after another, and the basement gradually echoed with strange, manic laughter.

A layer of transparent air began to surround him, distorting the light.

As time passed, Yu Hong’s figure became more and more blurry, mysterious particles in the surrounding air being rapidly absorbed into his body, adhering to the nearly complete ninth strand of Inner Qi.

He lost track of how much time had gone by.

Puff!

In an instant, Yu Hong’s actions came to a halt; he stood in place.

His skin turned red all over, and the layer of transparent air that was shrouding his body didn’t disappear when he stopped moving. Instead, it flowed like water, congregating into a transparent whirl of air in front of him.

The whirl of air was the size of a palm, condensed and suspended in front of Yu Hong’s right shin, giving him the sense that he could easily kick it away with a casual flick.

Without hesitation,

Yu Hong fiercely kicked toward the Polar Bear Suit hanging on the far wall.

Whoosh!

The transparent whirl of air suddenly turned into a shadowy figure and shot out like a bullet, crashing into the Polar Bear Suit.

Bang!

The Polar Bear Suit, as if struck by a heavy punch, emitted a dull sound against the wall and shook violently.

“….Breakthrough…” Yu Hong took a deep breath, walking over to check the part of the suit where the whirl of air had struck; there was no trace.

‘Almost like the power of an ordinary person’s punch…not great, but at least now I have some sort of ranged attack,’ thought Yu Hong with satisfaction.

First, he relied on the normal leg technique to accumulate airflow and then, when needed, sweep it out to produce a whirl of air. “This is only the third layer, and I can create a whirl of this level. If I fully master the Thunderbolt Leg Technique, the whirls I produce will probably be even more powerful and perhaps more numerous!”

He speculated in his mind.

He sat cross-legged on the spot, feeling the changes in the Inner Qi inside his body.

To his surprise, the nine strands of Inner Qi did not disappear and were still in the Dantian.

‘Before, I would have used it all up and had to start accumulating Inner Qi from scratch…but this time….’

He was somewhat astonished and quickly pulled out the pamphlet for the Thunderbolt Leg Technique to check it.

There was no explanation of this aspect on it.

‘Never mind that, I’ll just consolidate what I’ve achieved for now.’

By this time, the nine strands of Inner Qi within him flowed in a continuous circle, forming a loop that had already begun to slowly radiate warm streams of air outward.

These streams once again caused Yu Hong to feel an itch over his entire body.

He knew that it was time to start strengthening his body’s durability again, something that had also happened once before during his second-layer breakthrough.

Each breakthrough in the Thunderbolt Leg Technique granted the Cultivator a small enhancement.

The strengthening lasted for over three hours before it finally stabilized.

In the basement, covered in profuse sweat, Yu Hong rubbed his hands together, and a layer of transparent skin, thin like paper, peeled off from his hands.

He was startled and quickly rubbed vigorously at other parts of his body, soon shedding a large layer of skin.

The skin beneath, now uncovered, became pale and hard, like marble, complete with evenly distributed natural lines.

‘Time to test this.’

He approached the rarely-worn Polar Bear Suit, extended his hand, grabbed at the wrist area of the suit, and squeezed hard.

Crack.

A slight noise came from inside the suit, as the bulletproof metal plates bent.

Yu Hong withdrew his hand and saw a shallow impression of his fingertips on the surface of the suit, feeling a wave of satisfaction.

‘To have trained to this extent, finally, I can cause damage to a bulletproof vest to some degree using my bare flesh. This is my reinforced Polar Bear Suit, which is of high durability. If it were a normal bulletproof suit….’

He walked to the other side, where several sets of ordinary bulletproof suits that he had collected were still remaining.

He casually picked one up and squeezed it single-handedly.

Creak.

The steel plates inside were easily bent out of shape, crumpled together at the wrist, and could no longer be worn.

‘Not bad….’

Yu Hong glanced around; the area was too small for speed testing, so he simply put on the reinforced Grey Lizard Suit and stepped out of the cave.

Outside, a rough stone passageway had been constructed between the stone castle and the cave, with enhanced air purifiers placed within the passage.

To the left of the joint passageway, a wooden door had been installed as an entrance and exit to the communal area.

Yu Hong first exited the cave’s main door, then crossed the corridor of the passage and walked through the wooden door before he was truly back in the inner courtyard.

He strolled around the inner courtyard several times, very pleased with the current renovations.

With this setup, there was no longer a need to risk exposure to external long-range attacks when moving between the stone castle and the cave; safe passage was now assured.

With air purifiers in place, everyone could stay inside the stone castle continuously, only venturing out to collect raw materials when absolutely necessary.

Click.

He exited the inner courtyard gate and closed it behind him. Yu Hong glanced at the detector; the Red Value remained in the forties and was not fluctuating.

The situation had become even more stable. Insect men were expanding their territory right next to the camp, driving away various sizes of Black Disaster threats.

Even shadow figures hadn’t been seen in days.

Click.

Click.

Yu Hong cautiously maneuvered through the woods, his Inner Qi ready but not released, prepared to burst into motion at any moment.

This expedition was meant to test his own speed, not to seek out insect men and ask for trouble.

Therefore, caution was of the utmost importance.

Fortunately, the territory of the insect men was to the left of the camp, while he had chosen to go right for his speed test, in the direction of the highway.

He had also cleared a sloped driveway here for solar-powered vehicles to pass.