Night of Despair

Chapter 89: The Situation

Inside the slightly drafty new wooden cabin.

Wei Shanshan and her mother Qiu Yanxi stood in the cramped room, surveying the small space that was just big enough for a person to turn around in.

Creak.

Wei Shanshan noticed that Yu Hong had even made them a door…

She pulled the wooden door shut and lowered the attached bolt, locking it securely.

Although it provided only modest security, it could at least prevent some invasion of privacy.

“Shanshan… you’ve suffered…,” Wei Shanshan had just closed the door when her mother gently hugged her, hearing the extreme weariness in her mother’s voice, and she couldn’t help but feel a sting at the bridge of her nose.

“It’s… it’s okay… I’m not scared… We’ve made it through so many times before… and Teacher Song has always taken good care of me,” she replied with a bit of choking in her voice.

“It’s all my fault… blame me… we should never have fled with them…” Qiu Yanxi hugged her daughter tightly, her face filled with guilt.

She had guessed what her daughter wanted to do when she found out that Shanshan had put on a pretty dress and white stockings to go out.

But at that time, she was too weak to stop her, and later, when the dizziness in her head had subsided a bit and she had regained a bit of strength, she almost got…

Remembering what had happened before, waking up to Song Mingshi’s guilty behavior, and the unexplained slight pain in the sensitive areas of her body, her heart was full of anger, frustration, and pain.

But she dared not tell the truth, dared not tell her daughter why Song Mingshi took such good care of her. She could only acquiesce. Because in her own powerless and sick condition, the only person she could count on to take care of her daughter’s safety was Song Mingshi, an old suitor.

As fellow college teachers, many of the colleagues who had once been friendly were now utterly unreliable.

“Never do this again in the future… I’m still here… I’m not dead yet!” Qiu Yanxi hugged her daughter tightly, her eyes inevitably reddening.

After a quiet moment, listening to the howling wind outside, Wei Shanshan hurriedly broke free to fetch the hot water and food.

“This is from Mr. Yu, let’s have something to eat first.”

“Okay… I’ll eat first, if… there’s anything wrong, you run back! There are people waiting for the response team over there, there is still hope, they won’t completely wreak havoc!” Qiu Yanxi, anxious, gave careful instructions.

“Okay!” Wei Shanshan nodded quickly.

“And… our cabin definitely won’t keep out the Blood Tide tonight, but that Mr. Yu wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble just to bring us here to die. So later you go ask him, what exactly the arrangement is….” Qiu Yanxi thought for a moment, then leaned into her daughter’s ear and whispered a few words.

“Okay.”

*

*

*

Yu Hong dug out the previously reinforced anti-inflammatory medicine from the corner, split it in half with a knife, then walked over to the cabin door and slid open the shutter to observe the mother and daughter in the yard.

They were tied to the energy he might get later on, so he had to make sure they were well taken care of.

To be honest, Wei Shanshan was indeed cute, and there was an impulse to tease her intensively, if it were peacetime, Yu Hong might have had the kind of thoughts all men have.

But at a time like this… as a crisis kept approaching, any guy who dared to obstruct or drag him down would surely be kicked far away by him.

He looked outside at the sky that was about to go completely dark.

He took the medicine, opened the door swiftly, and stepped into the courtyard, approaching the small wooden cabin.

Knock knock knock.

He knocked on the door.

“Who is it?!” The vigilant voice of Qiu Yanxi came from inside.

“It’s me, you can rest assured to stay, I have an array arranged around the yard, you don’t need to worry about bugs getting close at night. Also, I’ve left medicine outside the door for you to pick up. The instructions are on it, and another thing,” Yu Hong paused, “don’t walk around in the yard if it’s not necessary, the place is set up to repel bugs, so the Red Value is very high. Only your house location is safe.”

He had specifically moved the luminous grass from this part of the wooden cabin to get rid of the radiation, and now that the large Array had taken shape, the radiation was more contained, no longer indiscriminately radiating, so this small area had no significant Red Value negative effects, which meant little harm to the human body.

“….Understood, thank you.” Qiu Yanxi replied softly.

“Alright, I’m going back now, if you need anything, you can find me during the day. One protein stick per person per day is enough for you. Don’t eat more. Water will be delivered to your doorstep every day at a fixed time. Candles and medicine are the same.” Yu Hong quickly finished speaking and turned to leave, to avoid contamination.

Night was falling, and it was time for him to practice his Cultivation Technique.

“Please wait…” Qiu Yanxi suddenly called out to him. “Are we completely confined to the wooden cabin?”

“You can walk in the yard for a short time, but don’t leave the yard, the outside will become increasingly dangerous,” Yu Hong waited a few seconds to respond.

Ever since being frightened by the Language Person, he had inexplicably started waiting five seconds to respond in conversation ever since that incident.

Many times, even if he was sure the other person was alive and well, he would still do this out of habit.

“We are very thankful for your arrangements. Just…,” Qiu Yanxi paused for a moment. “Where should we go for our… necessities?”

Yu Hong was also taken aback; he had completely forgotten about that.

Looking around the yard, he stepped forward a few paces next to the wooden cabin and found a spot without luminous grass, where he began to dig haphazardly into the ground with his hands.

In a few minutes, a hole about half a meter wide and deep was hastily dug out.

“There’s a hole next to your cabin, you can use that,” he said, satisfied with the perfectly dug pit, and instructed before returning.

“Okay… okay then,” Qiu Yanxi replied.

Once he was sure they were fine, Yu Hong returned to the safety house and quickly ignited the fireplace.

In no time, night fell, and the sky was dyed black as ink, without a single star or moon visible.

From the woods came the faint sounds of crawling creatures, which started sparsely but soon gathered together, becoming louder and more numerous.

After taking the medicine, Qiu Yanxi and her daughter clung tightly to each other in the wooden house, huddled together, terrified that insects might crawl in through the cracks in the door.

But after waiting a long time, no insects attacked the wooden house. This increased their trust in what Yu Hong had said earlier.

Once they were certain no insects were approaching, their fear slowly subsided, and eventually they fell into a deep, heavy sleep.

Wei Shanshan crawled out from under the covers, saw white light seeping through the door crack, and felt that it was morning.

She glanced at her sleeping mother, walked to the door, and peered through the crack outside.

“!!?”

She saw that the tiny grass in the courtyard was emitting a faint white glow, like a blanket of light.

And beyond the courtyard, countless black bugs were flowing past the wall like a tide.

They did not approach the area and didn’t violate the confines of the yard as if this place was completely off-limits.

Wei Shanshan watched this scene in shock, reminding her of the sights she’d once seen in the urban district, where walls were coated with the “Sunlight” series of expensive paint. Was this place also using that type of costly paint?

‘Mr. Yu… Who exactly is he…!?’ At this moment, intense curiosity welled up within her.

*

*

*

“We can’t go on like this…”

Unlike Wei Shanshan, Yu Hong was also observing the outside from within his safe house.

He was positioned higher up and could see further afield.

At this moment, outside the courtyard wall, in the dark, gigantic shadows roughly the size of rhinoceroses slowly passed by.

These were Big Skins, also large Blood Ticks, but this alone did not alert Yu Hong. What was key was that further away, a Blood Tick as large as an elephant was silently moving through the forest.

Strangely, this enormous tick’s body seemed like smoke, appearing semi-illusory. Sometimes when it encountered a tree, it didn’t turn away but passed directly through it without any collision.

This elephant-sized tick was currently passing by the courtyard. Unlike the other ticks, it slowed down, paused, and edged slightly closer to this side.

Hiss…

A soft hiss came from the behemoth, as it slowly approached the wall. Its body, smoke-like and ethereal, passed through the wall. As it entered the courtyard, it recoiled as if electrocuted, and quickly withdrew.

This repeated three times.

The elephant-sized tick finally gave up and slowly moved away from the yard without haste, heading toward another area.

Yu Hong’s expression changed slightly; he recognized where it was heading… Baiqiu Village!

‘Thank goodness the Array is complete; otherwise… my main gate might not have held up…’

The Array’s thousands of negative Red Values clearly repelled the giant tick, eventually causing it to leave.

Had it been the environment with only hundreds of negative Red Values before, it might not have been enough to drive away such a creature.

At that moment, Yu Hong was immensely relieved about his decision. Without the Array, he would have had to waste a lot of his reserved talisman arrays to temporarily repel the swarm.

He watched the elephant-sized tick leave, then he took out his enhanced Red Value detector and turned it on.

After a beep, the LCD displayed -0.124. @@novelbin@@

‘Thank goodness, I’m outside the range of the Array, and even detection on the outer edges shows negative values, indicating that the Array’s reserves haven’t been depleted and will slowly recover over time.’

Yu Hong breathed a sigh of relief. After observing a while longer at the door and noticing no second elephant-sized tick, he finally relaxed and went back to his sleeping bag to rest.

A quiet night passed.

The next morning, Yu Hong rose on schedule and began his daily training routine.

With his strength significantly enhanced, he could no longer train in the cave; a little carelessness could cause unnecessary damage.

So he switched to training in the newly excavated basement.

In the basement, illuminated by pale green fluorescence,

he put on the heaviest reinforced polar bear suit, then took up the giant wooden shield and Wolf Fang Club, and started on the second layer of training.

The second layer also had only one move: the side grab and kick.

This move was meant to be used in close combat, grabbing the opponent’s arm and kicking sideways. Since there was no sparring partner, Yu Hong could only practice in the air.

With the heavy load, he thought for a moment, put down the Wolf Fang Club, and reached out his hand in a forceful grabbing motion as if capturing something, then pulled back. He then lifted his foot for a kick.

The whole process consisted of three steps: Grab, pull, kick.

Combining this with a special visualization, gradually, over time, his practice became more skilled and began to speed up.

And with the repeated exercises, streams of mysterious air started to seep into his body from nowhere, turning into countless grain-like particles, converging toward his Dantian in the abdomen.

During this process, Yu Hong vividly felt his body heating up and becoming stronger bit by bit.

He didn’t know if this was an illusion, but the sensation of feeling himself grow stronger was somewhat addicting.

About an hour later, Yu Hong, exhausted and completely drained of strength, unable to move, stopped training.

He sat down on the floor and slowly caught his breath to recover.

While resting, he began to ponder again how to develop a Cultivation Technique that could deal with shadows and Evil Shadows.