Night of Despair

Chapter 86: Ashen Darkness

“Fine… fine, let’s make the exchange,” sighed Song Mingshi. Behind him, three students stood discontentedly, save for the chubby girl with twin ponytails; the other two seemed quite disgruntled, as if they felt the situation was incredibly unfair.

“In the city, the market rate is just one silver dollar for a day’s quantity….” The male student muttered under his breath. Silver Tower currency still held strong purchasing power; after all, it could be exchanged for quite a bit of food. But here at Yu Hong’s, the rate was fivefold!

Such profits were extortionate.

Soon, Yu Hong fetched three doses of anti-inflammatory medicine from his cave and traded them for the silver dollars with the four individuals. @@novelbin@@

The four hurried back to the village with the medicine, while Yu Hong returned to the courtyard, waiting for the final phase of the large formation to end.

The countdown methodically decreased the numbers.

’03 minutes.’

’02 minutes.’

’01 minute.’

In Yu Hong’s intense anticipation, at the moment the countdown reached zero, the courtyard, edged with rocky debris and covered by lush luminous grass, suddenly lit up with a faint pearly glow.

At the same moment, silently, a large talisman array that covered the entire courtyard surfaced from the ground.

The talisman array was entirely white, and upon appearing, it inexplicably stirred up subtle air currents, forming a breeze.

Yu Hong stood outside the courtyard, holding a Red Value detector, clearly watching the detector’s figures soar rapidly.

The Red Value of the courtyard had previously averaged around negative one hundred twenty or thirty, but at the moment the large array surfaced, the reading skyrocketed.

Yu Hong watched the numbers climb from one hundred thirty to one hundred sixty, then to two hundred fifty, three hundred, five hundred, eight hundred, a thousand!

After surpassing a thousand, the number added another seventy or eighty points before finally slowing down and stabilizing.

Following that, the white light of the large talisman array on the ground quickly dimmed and vanished, and the Red Value also began to drop swiftly from over negative one thousand, back down to the negative one hundred range.

‘Like the talisman array, it also has the characteristic of dense radiation beginning to condense and gather, not carelessly leaking out. This is good!’ Yu Hong mentally nodded in approval.

The talisman array he created was just so; the usual radiation Red Value was nowhere near that of the Large Pyroxene Stone, only in the presence of shadow or Evil Shadow would it rapidly erupt, soaring to heights surpassing the Large Pyroxene Stone.

This was also why the talisman array was more popular, as it greatly reduced the chances of contracting Luminous Stone disease.

‘Negative values in the thousands…!’ Watching the large talisman array gradually vanish, sinking into the grass, Yu Hong finally exhaled a long breath of relief.

‘Even the ordinary shadow wouldn’t be able to come near to an automatically replenishing formation like this one. Even the Withered Woman, that type of Evil Shadow, would probably not dare to approach…’

With the enhancement of the large talisman array completed, he felt an immense sense of security. The Language Person was completely dealt with by the mere three-thousand value talisman array. The Withered Woman was much weaker at the time; a silver talisman array with a five hundred negative value could temporarily defeat her.

With this thought, Yu Hong quickly remembered the news brought by the group of academy students and teachers, so he hurried towards Old Li’s place.

He needed to check if his water supply system had arrived.

Ten minutes later.

Yu Hong arrived at the post office’s stone house entrance, but unexpectedly saw two attractive young women cleaning the yard and maintaining the fence.

Both women wore completely anachronistic low-cut grey yoga outfits which perfectly accentuated their curvaceous figures. They also wore light makeup popular in peacetime, and every move they made while working exuded a strong sense of incongruity…

Little Aisena was standing at the doorway, arms crossed, her little mouth pouting, clearly unhappy with the arrival of the two newcomers.

Obviously, she wasn’t pleased with these newcomers.

“Yu Hong! You’re here. Come, come,” Li Rushan, who was also tidying up something inside the stone house, saw Yu Hong coming over and quickly walked out laughing heartily, as if he were very familiar with him, opening his arms for a hug.

“…What are you doing?” Yu Hong gave in and hugged him lightly, asking in a low voice.

“Looking for help, ah. It’s a virtue to aid those from heaven above, and besides, since I have to shelter people anyway, why not pick two pleasant-looking ones to my liking?” Li Rushan’s expression was one of sheer entitlement.

“Can you manage them alone?” Yu Hong countered.

“One’s helping me grow mushrooms, the other is helping take care of lizards. They’re exactly what I need to free up my time so I can spend more of it with Nana,” Li Rushan said naturally.

“Hehehe… Just keep an eye on them, then—don’t stir up trouble,” Yu Hong thought the man was just indulging in his love of beauty.

“The village is full of people; you can choose any talents you want. These folks are pitiable, lacking food and drink; they might not last long before trouble starts,” Li Rushan whispered.

“Aren’t you the one with plenty of food? Why don’t you distribute some and give aid?” Yu Hong scoffed. “What, the pretty ones are people, and the others aren’t?”

“What are you saying? I’m also thinking of finding a couple of caretakers for Nana, after all, my daughter is growing up. I can’t be wiping her down forever, can I?” Li Rushan had a well-reasoned excuse.

Yu Hong couldn’t be bothered to argue with him; he couldn’t make the move of taking people into his home without proper scrutiny. Maybe Stammer, Dr. Xu at a stretch, but no one else.

“Enough, enough, where’s my water system?”

“I was just about to tell you about that, it’s inside. You can see for yourself the damaged part,” Old Li led Yu Hong into the house, into the living room, where the supply water system had been disassembled into many parts.

The thing had a simple structure: a series of pipes plus a high-powered silent water pump and control valves and taps.

The key is that the material had been fused with a bit of solar series material, which wouldn’t be nibbled on by the Blood Tide parasites.

Yu Hong quickly checked the extent of the damage; the main issue was the core water pump was broken, but he didn’t care since he had Black Mark with him — there was nothing he couldn’t fix.

He immediately grabbed a pile of stuff in one hand and headed back.

Not far from the post office, he saw Li Rushan sneakily taking a girl who seemed to be gathering firewood, but in fact, they had run near the house to hide and frisk each other.

He was at a loss for words, knowing that old Li had this primal need, but it really felt a bit too casual.

Carrying the water system back to the safe house, Yu Hong placed it in the newly excavated underground chamber.

Then he picked up the Red Value detector, intending to enhance it to avoid surprise attacks like the one from Language Person.

With one hand on the detector, Yu Hong silently wished for enhancement, then visualized the direction of the enhancement — increase sensitivity, expand the detection range, extend battery life, and also integrate it onto the enhanced polar bear suit.

Then he waited as Black Mark flowed out black threads, and a countdown appeared.

‘6 hours 17 minutes.’

After confirming the start of the enhancement, Yu Hong sat peacefully by the fireplace, looking out the high-strength glass window with the guard board opened, he began to decide what to send to little stutterer Nana.

After some thought, he decided to wait until the detector was enhanced to see the results; if they were good, he’d send one to Nana.

Compared to one-time-use talisman arrays and the like, a charged detector could last a long time, and there were surely places to recharge it in the city. It offered far more security than a talisman array.

Lying there, waiting for the enhancement, Yu Hong unknowingly fell asleep. It was his nap time; after morning training, he’d take some time to rest for a nap to ensure he had energy for the afternoon training and work.

Usually, he would sleep for about an hour and a half.

But this time, there was a small accident.

Knock knock knock.

A cautious knocking on the door woke Yu Hong from his sleep.

He slowly opened his eyes and saw someone outside the window; it was the chubby female student he had just seen that morning.

The girl’s eyes were even redder, slightly swollen, wearing a rather cute white lace princess dress. From inside looking out through the glass, he could just make out the pure white, thick, thigh-high stockings outlining her shapely legs.

Although short, her figure was well-proportioned in this outfit, not too shabby.

“Is there something you need?” Yu Hong stood up, approached the door, and asked through the stone wall.

“Please… Could you possibly spare another anti-inflammatory medicine for me. I’m begging you!” The girl bowed deeply, but her forehead banged against the door panel, causing her to cry out in pain.

“I’ve told you already, I don’t have any more. I gave away what I could.” Yu Hong replied expressionlessly.

“But… but the medicine is really not enough!” The girl spoke with a suppressed cry in her voice. “The medicine this morning, my mom didn’t get any… it was all snatched up and gone… please, I beg you!”

Yu Hong was speechless; he indeed had medicine left. He sold three portions and kept some for personal use, and he could still gather herbs and make more if he ran out.

However, making medicine took time. Moreover, from a young age, he always favored the principle of equivalent exchange; no one could gain without effort from him.

Especially after experiencing several instances of people taking advantage of his generosity, he became more firm in this conviction.

“I can spare you one last portion. But this time it will cost six silver coins.” Yu Hong replied calmly. He needed the other party to pay a higher price, so they wouldn’t hold any unrealistic expectations of him.

“One portion… might not be enough… Could you give me another one? My father works in Aurora City, and once we get there, we will surely repay you!” The girl pleaded sorrowfully with a sob in her voice.

“Aurora City?” Yu Hong’s interest was piqued; now he understood that this group was clearly the ‘second generation’ — none of them ordinary people. After all, which average person could cough up so many silver coins at once and still evacuate with the supply team?

“Can you get solar series materials?” Yu Hong suddenly asked.

“This… I don’t know… my father works at the energy research institute, involved in nuclear energy miniaturization research…” the girl hesitated.

Nuclear energy miniaturization?!

Yu Hong’s heart skipped a beat; his most ideal source of energy was nuclear. If he could get a nuclear battery, even an imperfect version, he could use Black Mark to enhance it into a complete version. Then… it would truly be a massive upgrade — once and for all!

“How can you prove this?” He pressed down the excitement in his heart and asked sternly.

“My mother and I joined the supply team through the post office system arranged by my father. I didn’t expect… If you want to verify, you can inquire through the postal system.” The girl spoke this line quite smoothly, clearly having answered this question more than once.

Yu Hong was somewhat moved upon hearing this.

He knew that Li Rushan had instant communication equipment.

“Alright, I’ll go to the post office and find someone to verify it now. If everything you’ve said checks out, we can indeed talk things through.”

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Wei Shanshan, my father is Wei Hongye. He’s the deputy director of the research institute…” the girl answered softly.

“Great, we’ll go to the post office now to verify your identity, is that okay?” Yu Hong said quickly.