Night of Despair

Chapter 82: Treatment Four

“Doomed for sure?” Yu Hong said calmly, “The residents of Hope City who got crushed were no different. Instead of entrusting my fate to the alliance army, to the protection of others, I’d rather rely on myself. At least even in death, I wouldn’t live in fear.”

“…How forthright!” Li Rushan slapped his thigh.

Having confirmed the follow-up orders and postal service, Yu Hong left the stone house; it was already past four in the afternoon.

The sky began to darken, gradually growing dim.

Yu Hong frowned slightly and hurried back toward the cave.

Minutes later, he ran into his courtyard, feeling the radiation from the surrounding luminous grass. He was instantly filled with a sense of security.

Looking up at the sky, he didn’t enter the house this time but stood outside, watching the luminous grass in the yard.

‘Since the luminous grass can recharge on its own, can I directly use it to set up a large talisman array? This way, the large array would gain the regenerative ability of the luminous grass and amplify and strengthen its radiation field.’

Thinking this, Yu Hong quickly entered the cave and soon took out a portion of Large Pyroxene Stone dust, burying it around the entrance to the cave.

Soon, a huge and intricate talisman array was set up, at the cost of all of his recently replenished Large Pyroxene Stone supplies. And where there wasn’t enough line texture in some places, he dismantled the previously ordinary talisman array wooden boards and buried the Large Pyroxene Stone dust from within into the soil.

After he was finished, another half an hour had passed, and it was about to be completely dark.

Yu Hong wiped his sweat, hands on hips, standing in the center of the courtyard’s great array.

Then he stretched out his hand to press on the central ground of the array patterns.

‘Enhance the large talisman array, with the direction being to merge with the self-regenerating radiation feature of the luminous grass within the array.’

Hiss.

A black line flashed across the back of his hand and flowed into the ground.

‘Enhance the large talisman array?’ The Black Mark’s inquiry echoed in his ear.

Success!

Yu Hong stared at the giant countdown emerging from the ground.

’19 days 21 hours 30 minutes.’

‘Nineteen days… as expected, but if it can truly be enhanced and combined, the safety house’s resistance against the Evil Shadow is absolutely going to rise another level!’

Each encounter with the Evil Shadow cost him a lot of Black Mark time to restore the talisman array, which brought him great trouble.

If he could save this part of time, then the Black Mark could be applied in many other areas, and not be stuck rigidly on restoring the talisman array, unable to move.

‘Begin enhancement.’

Yu Hong affirmed in his heart to the Black Mark, with anticipation, and then entered the cave to start a fire and cook soup.

In the following time, he planned to keep a low profile, never act rashly, never roam around aimlessly. Without the means to replenish silver talisman array and Large Pyroxene Stone, he had to conserve the use of talisman arrays as much as possible. @@novelbin@@

Thank goodness, the other luminous grass in the yard had saved him a lot of talisman array luminous stone, avoiding the daily consumption by the shadows.

Time continued to flow as Yu Hong diligently trained with his Heavy Leg Skill every day.

After condensing the eighth strand of Inner Qi, the Language Person’s attack instilled a deep sense of crisis in him.

Thus, based on the characteristics of the Heavy Leg Skill, he started to increase his own weight until he reached his limit, and after adapting, he would often go to spar with Old Li.

In the blink of an eye, two weeks had passed.

Outside of the postal house, in the courtyard.

The chilly sunlight bathed the ground and cast the shadows of two figures in a standoff.

On the left, a tall and robust man in a camouflaged full-body Protective Suit appeared agile and powerfully proportionate.

On the right, a figure that could only be called sturdy, but his Protective Suit was rather exaggerated, at least twice as thick as the other’s, especially the lower half of his body. His legs looked like tree trunks firmly rooted in the ground, unmovable as an immovable mountain.

But even more exaggerated was the crude giant wooden shield in the right-hand man’s grasp.

Over a meter tall and more than ten centimeters thick, the triangular wooden shield stood in front of the man, its sharp end piercing the ground, looking extremely stable.

The shield was a pale yellow throughout, still carrying the scent of the trees, with edges full of splinters, and a rough surface that showed even polishing had been deemed unnecessary before it was put to use.

“Little Yu… did you make this shield yourself?” the man on the left couldn’t help but ask.

“Yeah, I finished making it a while ago, but I just adjusted to it in the house for a bit before bringing it out to spar.” The man on the right was Yu Hong, who after two weeks of rigorous training, had become significantly more muscular.

He had thought long and hard about how to carry weight, to increase the efficiency of his Heavy Leg Skill’s cultivation, and the ultimate method was to craft both a shield and weapons.

The shield came first, and weapons were still being polished, all chosen from extremely heavy Yin Iron Wood.

Yin Iron Wood was a tree with high hardness from the nearby forest, a light yellow color throughout, with straight and neat grains, and a scent similar to camphor.

“How much does this shield weigh?” The man on the left was one of the only three residents nearby—Li Rushan.

Dressed in a high-end Mountain Cat Suit, he looked at the opposite’s thick wooden shield that covered more than half of the other’s body, and his teeth itched a bit.

“Ah, I don’t know, but it feels about the same weight as the white rock outside your place, Brother Li,” Yu Hong replied honestly.

“…” Li Rushan’s itchy teeth suddenly turned to aching. He knew the weight of that large white rock, around ninety pounds or so… If this wooden shield weighed as much as that rock…

“Is this guy’s strength increasing a bit too fast?”

“Are you tired?” He felt it might be time to pause the practice session to prevent any accidental injuries.

“I’m okay, it’s not tiring in the short term,” Yu Hong replied.

He was now holding a Wolf Fang Club and a massive Shield, and with the enhanced polar bear set, his equipment added up to over 160 pounds.

This load significantly drained his stamina. According to earlier tests, while under this load, each minute of combat would consume a strand of Inner Qi.

But that was fine, as he was only using it for training.

Ever since he increased the weight, Yu Hong only felt his Inner Qi condensing much faster than before.

Clearly, the instructions for Heavy Leg Skill were not just for show—the heavier the load, the higher the efficiency.

“Come on, Big Brother Li, let’s have a match.” This was Yu Hong’s first time bringing out the massive Shield for a fight, and he was eager to test its mettle.

He had planned to wait for the butcher Xu Fan and the others to come for their equipment and then ask to spar with them. But it seemed they were impacted by the Language Person attack and had not shown up to pick up the blue whale set.

“Okay… then be careful…” With his daughter by his side, Li Rushan couldn’t afford to lose his grand image as a father.

He drew the short knife from his thigh but, seeing the armor as thick as a dictionary across from him, he silently sheathed it again.

“With all that weight on you, straightforwardly, ordinary people can’t handle you, but the price is a significant drop in agility. So, it’s actually simple to defeat you.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than he darted forward. With a push of his left foot on the ground, he harnessed the momentum to combine his waist and leg strength for a direct side kick!

This kick focused all his strength into one point, propelled by the inertia of his sprint, it moved incredibly fast, striking Yu Hong’s Shield in the upper half.

And Yu Hong, just as he said, was too heavily burdened to react in time. He could only manage to lift the Wolf Fang Club halfway when the Shield was directly hit.

Bang!

A dull, heavy sound echoed, and Yu Hong’s entire body shook. With the Shield weighing a hefty 300 pounds, he was nearly knocked off balance… as if!

Yu Hong’s back leg tensed, and standing still, he simply shook a bit and then continued to swing his club outside the Shield.

He may have been slower, but so what if the opponent was faster? Speed was useless if it couldn’t break through his defense.

Whoosh!

He swung into nothing but air.

The Wolf Fang Club smashed into the ground, creating a deep black mud pit.

Yu Hong saw a blur before he could retract his club, and suddenly Li Rushan was nowhere in sight. Then, a faint whistling sound came from his right.

Bang!

He lifted the Shield, slightly altering its direction, covering his right side completely.

A heavy whip kick struck the Shield with tremendous force.

But it was in vain.

The massive 90-pound Shield, coupled with Yu Hong’s thick armor, didn’t even get scratched.

Then, Yu Hong kept shifting the massive Shield, blocking in various directions.

He stood his ground, like a fortress, allowing Li Rushan to circle and attack rapidly.

His bulletproof suit, which was too heavy to describe, and his lower body stance firm as Mount Tai embedded deeply into the ground, combined with the exaggeratedly thick and massive Shield in hand, were completely unfazed by Li Rushan’s frenzied kicks from every angle.

Two minutes later…

Huff, huff, huff…

Li Rushan leaned on his knees, drenched in sweat, face flushed from exhaustion, too tired to speak, just helplessly staring at the opponent.

What kind of a damn turtle shell was this? He’d used his strongest leg technique, circling around for two minutes.

And all this guy did was casually sway and handle it, not even moving his position once, much less getting injured.

“This won’t do…” he said, catching his breath and offering some advice. “This defense is really strong, and up-close nobody can match you. But what about firearms? You can’t keep up with my speed; if I threw a grenade at you, you wouldn’t even be able to dodge; you’d be dead for sure.”

“I think it’s not bad. For firearms, I can compensate with weapons. Isn’t it good to take out the opponent from a distance?” Yu Hong’s voice filtered through the solid helmet.

He felt better than ever. During the spar with Li Rushan, his ninth strand of Inner Qi almost completely formed, and he was close to solidifying it entirely.

“What about armor-piercing rounds? How are you going to dodge those? Even if your armor is thick, is it as thick as a tank’s?” Li Rushan countered. “Your strategy makes you a live target. Sacrificing agility isn’t worthwhile.”

“Big Brother Li makes sense, but even with high agility, you can’t dodge armor-piercing rounds if you’re targeted, right? Can a person’s speed compare to a bullet’s?” Yu Hong replied. He wasn’t concerned because he had chosen this path due to the needs of his Heavy Leg Skill cultivation—the greater the weight, the faster the skill progressed. But this wasn’t something he could disclose.

“If your leg skills are good, you might not outrun a gun, but you can outpace the gunman,” Li Rushan said with a smile.

“It’s fine. It’s not like I’ll be targeted by armor-piercing rounds to be shot anyway. I’m just an average Joe, I don’t steal or rob, I’m clean, with no criminal record—who would bother using armor-piercing rounds on me out of such spite?” Yu Hong dismissed the concern.

He felt that this training method gave him a sense of utter safety.

“All right, as long as you’re happy,” Li Rushan said, out of words. “But you need to switch your weapon; the Wolf Fang Club isn’t much use against opponents at a distance. You need long-range methods and to expand your attack range.”

“Any suggestions?” Yu Hong asked.

“I recommend the Meteor Hammer with a long chain, and also to install gun mounts on your suit. You’ve got plenty of thick armor, so mounting stuff won’t be an issue. Get some grenade launchers, poison spray, etc., for long-range—quite convenient,” Li Rushan chuckled, immediately offering his valuable advice.