Night of Despair

Chapter 56: Alleviation Four

“It’s okay,” Li Rushan still had a smile on his face, “These people are potential dangers, even if you don’t deal with them, I would have driven them away.”

He glanced over the three bodies on the ground, his gaze quickly returning to the suit Yu Hong wore.

“It’s fine as long it is,” Yu Hong exhaled, turning to carry his equipment back to his dwelling, step by step.

At such a time, it was inconvenient for him to continue chatting with Li Rushan. The other had obviously become wary of him.

His silhouette, neither fast nor slow, gradually vanished into the depths of the forest.

Only after he had completely disappeared from sight did the smile on Li Rushan’s face gradually fade.

“That equipment… is very strong!” he murmured softly.

“Daddy, Uncle Yu Hong was so scary just now…” Aisena whispered behind him.

“It’s okay, Daddy will protect you,” Li Rushan smiled again, “Although his equipment is powerful, Daddy is stronger.”

He extended his hand to rub his daughter’s little head. Despite his reassuring words, recalling the sight of Yu Hong executing those low sweep legs, he felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

Wasn’t that the basic technique of the leg skills he had sold to the other man?

Although the movements were somewhat awkward, the way he executed the force was indeed similar.

But…

How was that guy’s sweep legs so fast?

Thinking back to those moments, a trace of solemnity flickered through Li Rushan’s eyes.

He had witnessed firsthand how comprehensive and strong the protection offered by that black suit was, far surpassing the Grey Lizard suit, and combined with Yu Hong’s inexplicably explosive speed…

It seemed only joint techniques would be able to subdue such a man.

—

Back in the cave sanctuary, Yu Hong stood in an open space, flexing the suit on his body.

He didn’t take it off; instead, he began to train in the Heavy Leg Skill with added weight.

Having just killed three men, he appeared calm, but inside there was an indefinable sense of panic.

Although he had dealt with others before, this time he had personally ended the lives of three men, creating three corpses.

The feeling of someone falling with a single hit was very surreal.

At this moment, to calm his emotions, all he could do was immerse himself in mindless training.

Over and over again.

Constantly repeating.

Unconsciously, the sky outside had darkened, and time had sped by, once again it was evening.

By the time Yu Hong snapped out of his trance, it was already dark outside.

No black bugs tonight, just silence.

He was drenched in sweat, standing still in the cave until his breathing fully stabilized, then he began to slowly remove his equipment.

Right now, a warm current flowed throughout his body; during this latest exercise, the fifth strand of Inner Qi had quietly condensed and gathered at his lower abdomen.

At the same time, the skin on his legs gradually felt like it was covered with a plastic film, as if his sense of touch wasn’t as sensitive anymore.

He took off his trousers and looked down to inspect them.

On the white skin of his legs, a transparent layer of keratin had grown unnoticed.

He touched it, finding it somewhat hard, as if it wasn’t part of his own skin, with very little sensation.

‘Is this the effect of the Heavy Leg Skill?’

Putting on his pants, Yu Hong sighed.

Unconsciously, he seemed to have become completely different from his former self.

He picked up the helmet of the suit, which was integrated with a Red Value detector. Wearing it, it could light up red in the direction of an incoming “shadow” or “Evil Shadow” within the helmet, while the specific values were displayed on the collar.

This was a very practical feature, allowing for specific detection of the direction of an approaching shadow or Evil Shadow, far more useful than a simple Red Value detector.

As the emotional turmoil from killing subsided, Yu Hong remembered the Black Mark’s function of ‘Synthesis’.

‘Since it can combine two things to create something new, then…’ His eyes flickered and settled on the dry wood piled in the corner of the room, which was mixed with some vibrant green wild grass brought in from outside.

Yu Hong stepped forward, picking up a palm-sized stalk of grass and then a luminous stone. He put them together and placed his hand on top.

Yes, he intended to test merging these two items, having randomly chosen two for the experiment.

‘Enhance the wild grass, with the direction of… wild grass with the effect of the luminous stone.’

Yu Hong thought silently to himself.

Quickly, black lines streamed out from the mark on the back of his hand and instantly entered the wild grass and luminous stone.

A cold, mechanical voice provided feedback in his ear.

‘Do you wish to enhance the wild grass?’

He hesitated, then mentally answered ‘Yes’.

Suddenly, a change occurred.

Hearing the familiar feedback, Yu Hong should have been pleased, but at that moment, a strong pulling force surged from the Black Mark on his hand the instant he responded.

In that instant, he clearly felt his physical stamina and mental energy being devoured and absorbed rapidly by the Black Mark.

This had happened before; suppressing the shock in his heart, he endured the discomfort of the absorption and mobilized his Inner Qi.

Before long, when his stamina and mental energy were nearly half-depleted, the first strand of Inner Qi was instantly replenished.

But it only lasted a few seconds before the replenished stamina and mental energy were again exhausted.

Yu Hong continued to mobilize the second strand of Inner Qi.

Unfortunately, the Black Mark’s absorption this time was even more exaggerated than before, and the replenished Inner Qi was still insufficient. Then came the third, the fourth, the fifth strand!

The fifth stream of Inner Qi that had just been aggregated was also rapidly devoured to exhaustion.

Yu Hong watched his remaining physical and mental energy dwindle, his body growing increasingly burdened with sleepiness and fatigue.

Finally, the absorption by the Black Mark stopped.

“Every time it’s like this, it has precisely calculated all the stock I have on me…”

He was speechless, leaning on the table and gasping for air, waiting for his body to recover. @@novelbin@@

At this moment, his eyes were full of white spots, and he breathed rapidly with a feeling of excessive weariness and lack of oxygen. All his muscles were weak and powerless, as if he was about to completely overdraw his state.

After resting for several minutes, he finally had the strength to examine the culprits that had caused him to be like this—the wild grass and the luminous stone.

At this time, a new countdown number appeared on both the wild grass and the luminous stone: 2 days 8 hours 47 minutes.

“Pretty impressive…” Yu Hong had never expected that the two random things he had put together could actually enhance each other.

Looking at these two disparate items, he felt some anticipation, curious about what would be enhanced from their union.

But at this time, the Black Mark had already occupied the enhancement time, so he could only wait two days. Luckily, it was only two days.

This time, the Black Mark instead initiated the inquiry first and did not display a countdown, which caused him to suffer quietly.

If he canceled the enhancement now, he feared all his previous efforts would go to waste.

“Wait a minute… I don’t know how to cancel the enhancement…?” Yu Hong suddenly came to his senses.

Having used the Black Mark for so long, he just realized that he truly didn’t know how to cancel an enhancement of the Black Mark.

After lighting the fireplace, he began to drink the sweet soup he had cooked during the day, gasping heavily. Even though the taste was sickeningly sweet, there wasn’t much choice at the moment.

After eating, Yu Hong fell asleep by the fireplace.

He slept straight through to the next afternoon, and when he woke up, it was almost dark outside again.

After taking care of personal hygiene, Yu Hong turned on the solar power generator he had bought before and placed it in the sunny spot behind the door to test if it would work tomorrow.

He also checked the countdown for the enhancement of the wild grass from time to time.

He was genuinely excited about what this thing could enhance.

By evening, he continued to practice his Heavy Leg Skill, eat, rest, and then it was the next day. Finally, in the afternoon of the following day, the countdown was about to end.

Yu Hong had been practicing the Heavy Leg Skill all day and stopped as the end approached, standing by quietly and waiting.

Ten minutes.

Five minutes.

Two minutes.

The last minute.

Yu Hong sat by the table, his eyes unblinkingly fixed on the wild grass.

Whoosh!

In an instant, a distorted blur covered the wild grass and the luminous stone.

After the blur, the luminous stone vanished. The wild grass remained in its place, but its color had turned into a larger stalk with white spots.

Apart from the color and size, the wild grass didn’t seem to change much.

Just as Yu Hong’s brow furrowed in confusion, the feedback sound of the Black Mark suddenly rang in his ears again.

“Enhancement successful, default name given as ‘Luminous Stone Grass.’ Current enhancement is a living entity, shall a Black Mark be given?”

“Current number of Marks: 1.”

Yu Hong stood up abruptly, with a somewhat astonished expression on his face.

“Mark? What’s that?” He had been using the Black Mark for such a long time, and this was the first time he encountered this.

The Black Mark gave no answer. It seemed rather rigid, like a preset dead program that only provided hints when it coincidentally encountered the corresponding part.

Yu Hong stood there, intently observing the dotted green grass, with a deep frown.

He was contemplating what this Mark might be.

After thinking for a long time, he gritted his teeth. The wild grass he had enhanced for so long certainly wouldn’t be completely worthless. He decided to give it a try.

“Once a Mark is placed, can it be changed or canceled?” he thought to himself.

No response.

Yu Hong thought for a moment, pressed his hand on the Black Mark, and repeated the question.

This time, he got a response.

“Yes, after changing, the non-Marked entity will lose most of its effects,” replied the mechanical voice of the Black Mark quickly.

“Well then… give it a Mark!” Yu Hong responded in his mind.

He was curious to see what this new function of the Black Mark was.

At the moment of his response, the strengthened wild grass on the desk flashed with a glint of luminescent halo.

At the same time, Yu Hong felt a slight prick in his heart, as if something penetrated into his mind.

“Mark complete, current controllable Mark: Luminous Stone Grass,” came the voice of the Black Mark.

“Luminous Stone Grass…!?”

At this moment, Yu Hong inexplicably felt a connection with the Luminous Stone Grass in front of him.

It was as if he could control it, command it to undergo various changes.

The sensation was like holding a remote control in his hand that could manipulate a moving electric model at will.

Except this remote control was implanted deep within his heart, controlled by his consciousness and thoughts.

Along with the control came a brief influx of information into his mind.

“Luminous Stone Grass: A special plant that can reduce the Red Value in the air to a certain degree. When gathered in sufficient quantities, it can produce a clustering effect. It has a strong vitality, requiring only a small amount of water, sunlight, and ordinary soil to grow.”

“Growth cycle: Four days.”

“The operator of the Mark can use Inner Qi to shorten the cycle.”

“…..” Yu Hong stood shockingly still, almost doubting his own senses.

Could the enhancement… actually be like this??!