Night of Despair

Chapter 194: Hope 192
 

The sixth second.

More than half of the hands had turned into black smoke and disappeared.

The conversion speed of the secondary formation was very fast. Due to its single specialized function, it far exceeded the conversion speed of the main formation.

This conversion itself absorbed the Red Value to weaken the nearby Black Disaster. Coupled with the conversion into array attacks, the process was further suppressing the manpower Black Disaster.

The eighth second.

The last few hands flew within a few meters of Yu Hong and could no longer sustain themselves, completely turning into silent black ash and disappearing.

He quietly watched all this. Not until all the hands had been eliminated did he slowly lower his hand.

*”Looks like the array still needs to be specialized and strengthened to achieve better combined effects. When a bunch of functions are mixed together, the enhancement of each function isn’t very high.”*

He walked over and, looking at the black ash scattered all over the ground, cautiously returned to the stone castle to find a plastic bag and carefully collected all the black ash.

After benefiting from the remnants of the Black Disaster, he paid extra attention to such things.

Having collected all the black ash and filled a large bag, he straightened up with satisfaction.

Outside the fence, a dense crowd of phantom shadows appeared once again.

Among them were men and women, old and young, most of them cleanly dressed and with expressions like living people, but devoid of any emotion.

Yu Hong put down the bag and scanned the crowd, looking for the Speed Man he had seen last time.

But he couldn’t find any trace of him this time.

Looking around, the entire camp exterior was densely packed with hundreds of phantom shadows.

He thought for a moment, then drew the Wolf Fang Club from his back, letting Inner Qi climb over it and adhere to its surface.

Then, he suddenly swung it forward.

Whoosh!!

The Wolf Fang Club whistled through the air, spinning as it carried a deep whooshing noise and smashed fiercely into the large crowd of phantom shadows directly ahead.

Poof, poof, poof, poof!!

In an instant, many phantom shadows shattered into black smoke, corroded away by the Inner Qi.

Dozens of phantom shadows were completely dispersed while the Wolf Fang Club embedded itself in the ground outside the fence.

Soon after, the phantom shadows converged around to fill the gap as if there had been no reduction in their numbers.

They neither advanced nor retreated, just standing there.

Yu Hong watched them, roughly estimating the consumption of Inner Qi and forming a simple plan in his mind.

Since the phantom shadows didn’t intend to invade, he decided not to bother with them.

Standing up, he took two steps back and quickly receded into the cave.

Observing the phantom shadows from inside the cave for some time, Yu Hong confirmed that they did not enter, merely stood there.

The array continued consuming energy, clearly blocking something that was trying to creep in discreetly.

*”Although it’s blocking the manpower, it’s still a bit strenuous. I need to supplement it with a secondary formation to serve as a reserve energy and converter for the main formation.”*

Sitting back at the wooden table, Yu Hong once again drafted subsequent enhancement plans.

*”Additionally, the Inner Qi I applied to the Wolf Fang Club is effective in dealing with phantom shadows, but it lacks a long-range weapon. The Wolf Fang Club is too close; it’s difficult to keep a safe distance and maximize the Inner Qi’s power. Full long-range attacks consume too much, as materials are limited. It’s best to make a weapon that’s sturdy enough and can reach a considerable distance for sustained use…”*

All along, his Inner Qi cultivation had been used mainly to augment explosive power and speed endurance.

There weren’t many instances where it played a major role in real battles.

After pondering for a while, Yu Hong quickly realized what kind of weapon he needed.

Once the black lizard’s enhancement was completed, he could utilize the Black Mark to process weapons.

*”Next, test different materials for the conduction speed and loss of Inner Qi.”*

The increasingly terrifying Black Disaster outside made him feel the urgency of returning to the original crisis state.

Yu Hong dared not delay for a moment. He immediately began testing the properties of Inner Qi.

He tried every material he had, including fur, plastic, stone, wood, earth, water, oil, and various alloys. Soon, Yu Hong concluded that metal was the best conductor.

So he rummaged through miscellaneous items for metal objects but found the quantity and weight far short of his needs.

While the black lizard was still being enhanced.

The next morning, he waited for the phantom shadows to disperse outside, and for the darkness to pass. By two in the afternoon, the outside world entered a chaotic period.

He left the camp directly, heading to the nearest highway at the camp’s edge.

Under the gray-white sky,

He glanced at the sky. The fog obscured everything. As far as the eye could see, the sky and earth were the same gray.

Sigh.

Yu Hong exhaled long and hard, jumping down a slope to stand on the road surface.

The gray-white pavement was more broken, with many remaining holes and scars.

In one spot, there was even a basin-sized depression filled with black, dirty water.

Yu Hong looked around. The gray fog limited his vision to only three or four meters.

Based on his bearings, he quickened his pace toward the roadside.

Soon, through the fog ahead, two jeeps slowly emerged.

Both vehicles were overturned on the roadside slope, half-hanging as if they might roll down at any moment.

Watching the cars hang there, Yu Hong found himself in a dilemma.

“Troublesome.” He looked around.

What if the car fell?

After thinking for a bit, he turned sideways, reaching to grab the edge of one vehicle’s chassis, tensing his muscles, and taking a deep breath.

Lift!!

He tried pulling upward with both hands.

Bang!!

In an instant, the jeep did a roll, unexpectedly lifted into mid-air, held aloft by Yu Hong.

“…”

The scene fell silent for a moment.

Yu Hong was a bit dazed, looking up at the car over his head, and then down at his feet sunk into the ground.

Boom, boom.

He lightly balanced the car, placing it gently on its side, setting it upright.

Then he pulled his feet out and moved to the side of the second jeep, staring at it in deep thought.

*”Was my strength already this great??”* He had previously only been able to drag or lift the vehicle, but now… it felt like paper in his hands.

Reaching out again, Yu Hong hugged the rear of the second jeep, hands squeezing toward the center.

Crunch.

The second jeep was lifted in his arms and placed gently on the roadside ground.

Looking around to ensure no one was watching, he exhaled, lifted the vehicle again, and prepared to return to camp first.

But after only two steps, the road underfoot cracked.

Helplessly, he set the car down and changed to dragging the car head with his hand, running forward.

Going back and forth twice like this, he finally managed to drag both vehicles back to the camp.

Inside the camp, he quickly removed all the non-metal parts from the vehicles, leaving only the metal frames.

He then stacked the two metal frames together. That way, the raw materials needed for the weapon should be sufficient.

Then it was just a matter of waiting for the Black Mark to complete the black lizard’s enhancement so he could synthesize the weapon.

The next day, a communication from Zhang Kaijun reported another outbreak of Black Disaster from closed-eye people, which was even more terrifying than the gray hands assault.

After losing more than thirty lives, the death zones were obliterated with a strong acid spray using luminous stones.

Gray City had fewer than two thousand people remaining.

According to Zhang Kaijun, many people had stolen equipment and weapons, and fled unnoticed during the gray period, their whereabouts unknown.

Xin Zhilei also started preparing to battle the upcoming Black Giant and the Multi-eyed Bird flock.

The only good news was that teams from the three sides successfully joined forces to compile a safe rift map.

The team of twenty had only sacrificed five members while completing the rift map verification.

After photographing the map, the remaining fifteen people printed three copies and hid them at the meeting point, waiting for subsequent personnel to retrieve them.

Then they all headed toward the origin of the Black Disaster at Donghe—the Black Tree Village.

Going around and around, Xue Ningning and two others still headed toward Yiyi and her group.

In the Black Wind Camp.

Yu Hong practiced Inner Qi while occasionally venturing out to observe the wooden bridge to the south of the cave. His Inner Qi had reached the third path of the Fifth Layer, and the wooden bridge was indeed getting closer to the cave.

This cast a shadow over his heart.

In the afternoon, after the gray period, entering the chaotic period, the Black Mark’s enhancement on the black lizard was finally about to end.

Inside the stone castle.

Yu Hong crouched down, reaching out to gently stroke a black lizard before him.

The back of the black lizard showed a dark red countdown: 2 minutes.

Gulp.

Yu Hong drank a cup of hot water, put down the cup, and exhaled a puff of white breath.

Even with the insulated water pipes, the temperature inside the stone castle had dropped to around 7 degrees.

Outside was even colder. The previous rain had left the ground covered in thin frost.

The forest was draped with countless icicles everywhere.

Poof.

Just as Yu Hong slightly let his mind wander, the countdown ended.

The cat-and-dog-sized black lizard before him suddenly trembled, its form becoming blurry.

One second later.

Its scales became blacker, its size increased by another circle, now as large as a big dog. When it stood up, it reached a human’s waist, over four meters in length.

It was a real big guy.

At that exact moment, all the black lizards within the mark completed their enhancement.

The black lizard in front of him, with its bright black eyes open, stared at Yu Hong, awaiting orders.

Clap, clap.

Yu Hong reached out and patted the scales on the black lizard’s back.

It felt a bit hard, so its defensive power should be good.

But otherwise, there seemed to be no outward changes noticeable.

*”Did it only grow in size?”* He stood up, circled the black lizard, and quickly found a yellow paper under its right claw.

The yellow paper was about palm-sized, with ancient cloud patterns at the edges, its texture fine with a slight warmth.

Yu Hong slid out the yellow paper, brushed off the dust, and examined it closely.

Characters were written on it.

“Black Lizard, also known as Earth Pond Dragon Lizard, possesses natural Copper Skin Iron Armor, moves as fast as the wind, excels in concealment, and feeds on Earth Evil Qi. It can emit Earth Fire to corrode enemies into pus water. It’s one of the low-ranking Daoist Soldiers of the Infinite Demon Palace.”

“…..” Again with the Wuji Palace, Yu Hong was at a loss for words. Were they targeting a fat sheep and squeezing it relentlessly or what?

On the reverse, there were small characters.

“In combination with Wuji Palace mental method Inner Qi, nine Earth Pond Dragon Lizards can form an Earth Pond Demon Nest.

The Earth Pond Demon Nest will automatically spawn an Earth Pond Dragon Lizard every five days, controlled by the nest and not occupying a mark slot. A single mark can only convert into one demon nest, with no limit on the number of dragon lizards controlled by the nest.”

“….” No wonder the enhanced effects of the Insect man’s remnant are shown here. It’s said that Insect men can rapidly increase their own individual numbers.

Looking at this yellow paper, Yu Hong suddenly felt like he was an unofficial disciple of the Infinite Demon Palace.

Although he had no idea where this faction actually was, it didn’t stop him from speculating that they might be very close to where he was; otherwise, he couldn’t explain why the Black Mark kept leeching off it.

*”Looking at it this way, switching to an Earth Pond Demon Nest would be tough initially, but the accumulated results are quite substantial later on. One every five days, that’s six in a month. In two months, it would catch up with the previous numbers. However, I still need to test the battle strength of these Earth Pond Dragon Lizards before deciding.”*

Source: Webn𝘰vel.com, updated on Novg𝘰.co