Night of Despair

Chapter 219: Scars of the Past

Whoo…

Black Fog surged, and the cold wind howled.

Inside Black Wind Camp.

Yu Hong stood in front of the outer courtyard fence, waiting for the completion of the Black Mark enhancement.

He didn’t wear a helmet, just a simple breathing valve, his gaze fixed on the fence.

One minute.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

The countdown abruptly zeroed out.

Swoosh!

In an instant, the entire perimeter of the camp blurred, the fence disappearing all at once.

Following that, in the next moment, a three-meter-high, more than one-meter-thick, stout heavy stone wall rapidly materialized where the fence had been.

The stone wall, like the fence, circled and was constructed around the camp. Its surface shimmered with layer upon layer of dense and intricate rune white light.

The white light flickered only once before quickly dimming and receding into hiding.

Soon, the stone wall completely solidified, leaving a thick stone gate at the position facing the driveway.

At the top of the wall body, a row of sharp stone spikes grew.

The gray-black wall body had a surface that was smooth and flat. The runes that had just appeared were nowhere to be seen, all concealed within the inner layers.

Buzz.

At the same moment the stone wall took shape, strands of invisible fluctuations diffused from inside the wall, spreading outwards.

Yu Hong felt a stir in his heart and with a light tip of his toes, he easily jumped out over the three-meter-high stone wall, landing outside.

He then turned back to look.

The black stone wall almost completely blocked the view of the entire camp inside, only the stone castle was too high to be obstructed.

But apart from the stone castle and the poles for hanging lamps, everything else inside was out of sight.

Yu Hong stepped back a bit, looking from afar. At a glance, the stone castle merged with the wall, resembling a small mountain side. Without careful observation, no one could tell it was artificially made.

Just like a desolate mountain side, and nothing more.

“Not bad!”

He took out a detector and approached the wall to test it.

The detector’s values fluctuated constantly, matching exactly with those of the air around, perfectly canceling each other out.

“This has completely restored the non-radiation environment within the camp…”

Yu Hong was satisfied. He didn’t know how this dynamic cancellation was achieved, but that didn’t matter as long as the Black Mark worked.

“Now is not the time to delve into the principles…”

After putting away the detector, Yu Hong brought out a dragon lizard to face the wall, and fiercely rammed its head against it.

Bang!

The dragon lizard was sent reeling from the impact, collapsing to the ground.

But there wasn’t even a mark on the stone wall, only some pieces of the dragon lizard’s own scales were left behind.

Yu Hong took out a reinforced pistol and shot at a slant against the stone wall.

Bang!

A slanted notch appeared on the wall, scraped out by the bullet.

He approached, placed his hands against the wall, and tried to push inwards.

But even with half his strength, he couldn’t budge it. It was only when he exerted more than half his power that the ground slipped, and the wall finally began to shake and tilt.

“Not bad, at least the common Big Skins won’t be getting in. The extent of this improvement is large, and it perfectly meets the requirements.”

He stopped pushing and entered through the main gate.

The mechanism to open and close the gate was also by lifting a stone gate up and down, and even Yu Hong couldn’t move that stone gate’s weight without using full strength and Inner Qi—it must have been over twenty tons.

Although he couldn’t move it by himself, with the help of the mechanical transmission mechanism on one side, he was able to easily lift it by exerting very little force.

Bang!

The heavy black stone gate smashed down, blocking out all the various dangers and threats outside.

Standing in the courtyard, Yu Hong saw this scene and suddenly felt a great sense of safety welling up in his heart.

In the camp shrouded in darkness, he looked over the breeding boxes with satisfaction for the last time, harvested the mature ones, planted new seeds, and then went back to his cave to rest.

“Next, the water shortage must be resolved immediately, but since Night Text has been completed, I can first translate the Black Ship pamphlet and the mysterious Daoist Scripture I acquired earlier. Perhaps I can find some inspiration in them to solve the water supply issue.”

Thinking about how he always needed to ensure a water supply wherever he went, Yu Hong came up with a method.

That was, since the Thunderbolt Leg could kick out a whirlwind with substantial force, perhaps there might be other martial arts techniques that could create effects like frost and water streams.

Thus, so long as he practiced such martial arts, he would never lack water again.

Pfft.

He sat down at the desk and pulled open the drawer to take out paper and pen, ready to start writing his own newly-invented cultivation technique.

Suddenly, a strange thought flashed through his mind.

“Hold on… The purpose of martial arts is to cultivate one’s own flesh and body, to elevate it, to reach another level, another strength, which is essentially the evolution of life, the evolution of the cells inherent in the human body. So… given that, why not use the Black Mark to create a drug that evolves myself? No… Or rather, bring forth an evolved bloodline!”

“Martial arts are a way to slowly dig into oneself, to strengthen oneself, to evolve oneself, but I can totally just skip straight to the goal…”

This inspiration came from those modified humans.

Humans, no matter how much they cultivated, could never turn themselves into men of steel, but those modified humans needed only one operation to achieve it.

It was evident that direct modification was much faster than cultivation.

“I need time the most right now, the pace of cultivation is too slow, the speed of modification is fast, but it likely leads to problems with adaptation. If I combine both…”

The moment this idea emerged, it swirled around unceasingly in Yu Hong’s mind like a curse.

The chaotic bloodlines from his past life, zombies, immortals, demons, blood clans, werewolves, dragons, phoenixes, and so on, if he could directly enhance and transform his bloodline…

Inside the cave, Yu Hong became more and more excited the more he thought about it.

But soon, a most critical issue arose.

“The main point now is, how do I take the first step?”

“The Black Mark requires a starting point, a foundation, so what should be the starting point for bloodline transformation? How can I get it?”

Yu Hong pondered in his mind but couldn’t yet find a starting point.

“Maybe I should contact Aurora City and Gray City to see if they can get a sample, which would save me a lot of time.”

“Moreover, the enhanced humans and mutants, they should be considered a type of bloodline, right? A bloodline mutated by the negative radiation of luminous stones… If I used that as a basis for enhancement…”

Ideas in Yu Hong’s mind gushed out like a spring.

Stopping his train of thought, he took a deep breath and pulled out the Black Ship pamphlet he had acquired earlier.

Now that the translator had completed collecting samples, he could finally take a close look at its contents.

He turned to the first page of the pamphlet.

“The Nautical Logbook of the Fan Ming—Captain Chen Zhilong.”

Yu Hong frowned slightly, as his expectations lowered—just a nautical log, which probably only provided informational gains.

He continued to flip through the pages.

“Finally got it… my first ship in life!”

“Borrowed a huge sum of money from my master, a huge sum from my brother, and added to my own savings over the years. Now, I have finally done it. At thirty-five, I own my very own Black Ship!”

“Even though the situation seems a bit unstable, the Daoist priests from the True Origin Sect along the coast and the experts from the Seven Leaves Sect frequently clash. But with the court in place, the unrest will be subdued sooner or later. When that time comes, it will be our shipowners’ time to become rich and powerful!”

The True Origin Sect?

Yu Hong couldn’t help but think of the blue-light booklet he had just gotten, which recorded the mentioned True Origin Divine Light, and it seemed there was some connection here.

He noted this in his heart and kept reading.

Page after page detailed how this Chen Zhilong conducted trade, acquired goods, and sold to the territories of the two major factions of the True Origin Sect and the Seven Leaves Sect, colluding with their internal powers to make a fortune.

Yu Hong quickly skimmed through these unimportant bits and got to the useful part after flipping more than ten pages.

“Today, another group of guests came on board, among them a merchant girl just back from the Western Capital, claiming that plague has started to spread there, truly frightening.”

“On the way back, I saw a very strange person at the departing dock talking to the official in charge. He had a very strange smile on his face, seemingly a special inspector from the imperial court. Odd, this place actually has an inspector…”

Then there were more records of running a business, boasting, and chasing women.

Yu Hong continued to flip through.

“I’ve encountered that weirdly smiling inspector again, he just so happens to be taking my ship back. He initiated a chat with me, talking about the limitations of life and the endlessness of all ages, how so many truths float between heaven and earth, and yet we are like summer insects that cannot see the beauty of winter. He also said I have good potential and as long as I offered all my family wealth, he would take me as his disciple. Haha, what use is that to me? I just want a beautiful wife, marry ten or eight concubines, and now he wants all my family wealth? Does he think I’m a fool?”

“Bad luck… ran into that guy again. He’s shedding flakes of skin all over his face and body, just disgusting, like those with dandruff. This time, he didn’t talk to me about those useless things. He just kept smiling at me.”

“The imperial policy is becoming more and more bizarre recently… The Holy Emperor and the ministers have actually begun advocating for the entire population to practice Fasting, using hunger to refine the essence of the inner heart. They’re crazy! Can people live without eating? Without strength, what’s the use of spirit?”

“The prices of foodstuffs on the market are getting lower, and there’s more meat, not bad at all, life is getting tastier!”

“I heard that in the North County, the crops are rotting in the fields, unharvested, offered for free. If someone wants it, they can come and cut it themselves. This is just too…”

“The Seven Leaves Sect has disappeared, those Daoist priests from the True Origin Sect are really fierce… If I could join the True Origin Sect that would be great. They look thin and frail, but could punch a hole through my Black Ship with one slap! Totally awesome!”

“Today’s old man on board is actually a madman, what the hell! He says in the Western Capital’s court, some people haven’t eaten for twenty days and are still spirited. What nonsense is that!?! What a mess of eating qi, that’s just drinking the northwest wind isn’t it! The man’s got a screw loose!”

The following parts were again records of regular shipments, either dealing with daily conflicts or women, or swindling a passenger out of a hefty ship fare, until he came across something valuable on one of the last few pages.

“They are all freaking crazy! Farmers are not farming; breeders are not raising pigs; fishermen are not going to sea! Burning grain silos for ‘resolute purpose’, what the hell is that!?! What on earth are they doing!?! Fasting, eating qi! Look at those madmen’s faces, they’re all freaking flaking skin!”

“An old man from the Western Capital said that the court hasn’t bought grains, oil, rice, or flour for three months! The devil! If this continues, could there still be living people inside?! You can spout nonsense, but not like this, right??!”