Night of Despair

Chapter 222: Scars of the Past 220

To verify the viability of his idea, Yu Hong went fully armed with weapons and equipment to patrol and inspect the wooden bridge for quite some time.

He confirmed there was no danger when the Black Ship wasn’t connected to certain locations.

Thus, he left the campsite to gather some deadwood and began adding guardrails to the wooden bridge.

Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump.

A round of hammering ensued.

Soon, two rows of wooden fences, meant to prevent people from falling into the dark water, were added alongside the previously bare posts of the wooden bridge.

Because the material of the bridge itself was extremely tough, making it impossible to hammer in nails, Yu Hong had to use glue and ropes for binding.

After completing these tasks, he returned to the cave, and after eating dinner, it was nearly time for the end of the strengthening technique for the Black Mark.

So, to get the technique as soon as possible, Yu Hong just like before simply waited in the basement.

The buzzing air purifier kept sounding continuously.

Inside the basement.

Yu Hong’s eyes were fixed on the countdown above, watching the last minute jump down to zero.

Whoosh!

Instantly, the paper in front of him with the technique transformed into a thin sky-blue booklet.

Written in Chinese on the cover of the booklet was: Condensing Water Technique.

Yu Hong’s heart relaxed a bit, he picked up the booklet, and flipped open the cover.

Generally, the first page would record the technique’s original name.

Yu Hong was already accustomed to this, so he looked with sharp focus and careful attention.

‘The original name of this technique was Cloud Water Techniques, it is one of the auxiliary methods of the Cloud Sky Nine Palaces sect, with nine layers in total, simple to practice, with almost no requirements for talent, and when fully mastered, one can control up to one hundred and seventy-two types of water sources. However, it’s limited to ordinary control, thus the method is used by disciples of the sect to become proficient in water manipulation skills.’

‘Warning: The Cloud Sky Nine Palaces sect brought disaster upon living beings by using the Source Disaster in their cultivation, leading to the extinction of numerous beings and environments, and suffered annihilation twelve epochs ago.’

“What does this mean? Wiped out is wiped out, why the need for a separate warning?” Yu Hong was somewhat puzzled. “Could it be that if I practice this technique now, someone might beat me to death later if they recognize it?”

And what’s this twelve epochs as a time unit?

After thinking for a while, Yu Hong couldn’t be bothered with the warning. Survival was already difficult, why worry about the future? He would deal with it if and when he survived.

He continued flipping through the subsequent pages.

‘Water, a liquid, exists within all things; as a liquid, it flows, and flowing is its source, its change. Therefore, water is the external manifestation of the changes in all things, the most basic state of its source…’

The opening of the first level was extremely simple, after explaining the grand principle, it provided a visualization, combined with a handprint technique, requiring first to practice control over the most common type of room temperature water flow around oneself.

Such control requires Inner Qi to drive, so the first assumption of this technique is that the cultivator already possesses a certain amount of Inner Qi to practice it.

Yu Hong finished reading the first layer and felt it was very simple.

So, he got up, found a bucket of stored water, and poured out a cupful.

In the white paper cup, the tranquil clear water gently rested on the ground in front of Yu Hong.

He gazed at the cup of water, quieted his thoughts, and slowly recalled the visualization of the first layer.

His hands formed a delicate handprint, with his fingers interlaced like soft orchids.

A strand of Inner Qi emerged from the Dantian, rising into his hands, automatically circulating through the handprint.

Very soon.

The clear water in the cup began to tremble slightly.

As if something was intensely shaking it.

‘What is the principle behind this!?’ Yu Hong’s curiosity surged in his mind, inadvertently causing him to exit the visualization state.

The water in the cup quickly returned to calm.

He exhaled sharply and quickly re-entered the visualization.

Soon, within a few minutes, the water in the cup began trembling again.

Inner Qi consumption accelerated, and once a stream of Inner Qi was exhausted, Yu Hong hurriedly called for the next.

After the water in the cup continuously trembled for over half an hour, finally.

A small ball of transparent water gradually separated itself from the cup, rising and floating upwards.

Yu Hong’s face turned red, his eyes fixed on the ball of water, striving to maintain the state.

Time continued to pass.

As streams of Inner Qi were increasingly depleted.

More than ten hours later, when Yu Hong walked out of the basement with bloodshot eyes, he was already holding a ping pong ball-sized water sphere in the air.

The water sphere was only a few centimeters away from the palm of his hand, but it didn’t fall.

The Black Mark had already been cast into the enhanced pyroxene, and during those ten-plus hours, he had easily reached the standards of the first layer.

While maintaining the floating water sphere in his palm.

“The second layer… control the water sphere to change into various shapes, from simple to complex,” Yu Hong flipped through the content of the technique with one hand.

Yu Hong wholeheartedly began to immerse himself in practicing the Condensing Water Technique, because his Inner Qi had the nature of Tao Breath Circulation, even when sleeping he would automatically practice Qi Cultivation, and so…

Three days later…

In the inner courtyard of the camp.

Yu Hong stood on the snow, floating a water sphere in his hand, controlling it to transform into a rope, encircling himself once before returning to its original form.

Then he controlled the water sphere to transform into a human face, a water pot, and a flower.

Although the transformations were very rough, like doodles made by a child, such progress was already quite impressive.

After completing his daily training, he let go of the water sphere and let it hover beside his shoulder.

The characteristic of Tao Breath Circulation meant he didn’t have to worry about running out of Inner Qi, and likewise, after he had become familiar with the first two layers of the Condensing Water Technique, it had already started to circulate these techniques for him constantly.

As a result, Yu Hong discovered that even without forming handprints or using visualization, the characteristic of Tao Breath Circulation maintained the control of the water sphere for him.

‘Tsk tsk tsk… such a bargain!!’

He poked the water sphere with his finger, creating ripples that quickly faded and disappeared.

And not a drop of water stained his hand.

Every single drop of this water was under the control of Inner Qi Technique, unable to break free.

“With this progress, in at most three more days, I’ll begin the third-layer training!”

Yu Hong recalled the content of the third layer.

If the first two layers were just superficial control, then the third layer was a significant enhancement in the control of water flow.

The third layer emphasizes microscopic control, that is, separating water from other objects.

‘To achieve this step, several factors come into play,’ Yu Hong recalled and analyzed. ‘One is the object’s own binding force to its internal moisture. For example, it is quite easy to control and separate the water in a cup or a pouch. But if it’s a piece of damp flesh, the water inside is much harder to manipulate, and the Inner Qi required would also vary greatly.’

‘The distance of Inner Qi manipulation also affects the control range of water… However, once the third layer is cultivated, one could basically condense moisture from the air…’

This wasn’t about the principle of condensation like a dehumidifier, but about the aggregation of hygroscopic energy particles with water vapor, like a magnet attracting iron filings.

Thinking of this, a strong sense of anticipation and motivation surged in Yu Hong’s heart.

Once the third layer was reached, the issue of water sources would be largely resolved.

He looked at the tall stone walls of the outer courtyard; the black, solid walls had the effect of repelling lower-level Black Disasters and the capacity to absorb Red Value reserves. The moment they were destroyed, they could unleash a massive negative radiation explosion, which would definitely cause damage even to high-risk Black Disasters.

The three-meter-high Black Walls, even when bumped by Big Skin a few days ago, remained unharmed.

Several elephant worms he let in hit the Black Wall a few times, causing only a slight tremble, and did not move an inch.

‘It’s probably only the Black Giant that can destroy the current Black Wall…’ Yu Hong thought, his sense of safety reaching its peak.

Rip.

Suddenly, from the small mountain cave behind him, a newly born dragon lizard crawled out slowly and then quickly accelerated, climbed over the Black Wall, and disappeared into the Black Fog.

The number of dragon lizards was increasing. Currently, there were still more than a dozen, a number reduced due to several deaths before.

‘As long as this continues, with time flowing, the area around will become the territory of the dragon lizards…’

‘Only the Black Giant… Later on, only higher-level Evil Shadows and the Black Giant could pose a threat to the camp… but with the dragon lizards and monitoring radar, I could be alerted at the fastest speed.’

With his mind at ease, Yu Hong returned to the cave and continued with his Cultivation Technique training.

The Dao Breath Circulation could only guarantee a bit more than half of the training effect; it was still much faster for him to do it himself.

Rare stable times passed day by day.

Finally.

On the fourth day at noon.

The sky remained pitch black.

Yu Hong grabbed a clump of black soil in one hand, gently loosened his grip, and let the soil fall to the ground.

The black soil, previously moist and dark, instantly transformed into dry powder as it fell.

Yu Hong opened his palm to reveal a small cluster of transparent water floating in the center, a happy smile spread across his face.

“At last, I’ve done it!!”

He took a deep breath, Inner Qi swirling inside him, and fiercely struck the snowy ground with his palm.

Hiss…

In an instant, countless white snow particles dissolved, melting into spheres of water under the influence of Inner Qi, and began to float upward.

At the same time, the deeper layers of black soil within a three-meter radius of Yu Hong also began to dry rapidly as transparent, small water spheres rose from them.

Dozens of water spheres of various sizes floated alongside Yu Hong, slowly starting to spin.

Plop plop plop.

Then, all the water spheres plunged one by one into the prepared wooden barrel, filling it more than halfway.

Yu Hong ended his training, the smile in his eyes growing even denser.

“Next, the fourth layer, time to switch to a second type of water stream, to train my control over other liquids. So, the second water stream I’ll choose is…”

For a moment, he found himself in a dilemma.

Where in this icy, snowy landscape was he supposed to find a second type of liquid?

Lava? Chemical solutions? Or… the Black Water under the wooden bridge behind?

Suddenly, an idea flashed through Yu Hong’s mind like lightning.

‘Since that river water is also a liquid, why can’t I attempt to control that substance?’

‘If I could control that Black Water, perhaps I could use it as a kind of attack method!’

After all, he had perused the subsequent content; the Cultivation Technique stated that whatever liquid was controlled, the body would gradually develop various special effects related to that liquid.

For example, with ordinary water flow, reaching great accomplishment would lead to effects such as breathing underwater. Thus, this supplementary Cultivation Technique of the Cloud Water Techniques Sect was indeed worthy of a world-destroying, top-tier power, even as a supplementary technique, it had formidable effects.