Night of Despair

After placing the enhanced pyroxene, Yu Hong approached another part of the cave and found corresponding holes on the ground at both sides and at the top.

These were all spots he had prepared for future placement of more enhanced pyroxene, the purpose being to guarantee the absolute safety of the entire safe house.

During these days, he had been relying on Yiyi's stuttering support for food, and he had already accumulated seven pieces of enhanced pyroxene.

He was quite comfortable in terms of resources.

The blood tide of black bugs every three to five days no longer worried him, and the occasional shadows hadn't shown up either.

According to Yiyi's descriptions, it was a safe period now, generally lasting about a month. After that, a sudden outbreak would occur, entering a period of escalation.

By then, both the Blood Tide and the shadows would greatly increase in intensity.

Seeing this, no wonder Doctor Xu was so displeased with me. By relying on Yiyi, who should have been accumulating resources by now, I'm dragging her down. This could lead to a lack of supplies and danger for her.

Yu Hong understood this in his heart.

But he didn't take it to heart.

Because Doctor Xu didn't know what he was truly capable of. Not to mention anything else, just the effects of the enhanced pyroxene were enough to ensure Yiyi's safety against the shadows.

At least, it was much more effective than ordinary luminous stones.

Ordinary luminous stones could only be used once, but enhanced pyroxene could be used multiple times.

Just how many times exactly was uncertain; he would need to find an opportunity to test it later.

With these thoughts, Yu Hong snapped back to reality, closed the wooden door, and stood alone in the cave.

Once the door was closed, the cave dimmed instantly, with only the stripe-like air vents casting brilliant golden beams of light inside.

Yu Hong stood behind the door and reached out his hand.

Pressed it against the door panel.

Below his dirty sleeve cuff, his arm had become much darker than before, but it still couldn't hide the clear Black Mark on the back of his hand.

Quickly.

A large black number appeared on the door: 12 days.

"Do you want to reinforce the wooden door?"

A faint voice entered his ears.

Yu Hong's expression tightened as he took a deep breath.

Yes!

He responded forcefully in his mind.

Immediately, a thread of black emerged from the Black Mark on his hand, burrowed into the wooden door, and vanished.

Subsequently, the number on the door began to change, from 12 to 11 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes.

The numbers blinked on and off, barely visible, extremely mysterious.

"A countdown!?" This was the first time Yu Hong had discovered such a thing.

He had never closely observed the process when enhancing the luminous stones before, as he was avoiding Yiyi.

Now it seemed, the Black Mark could actually countdown, which was quite convenient.

Well then, all there was left to do was wait.

Yu Hong sighed in relief. Up to this point, the Black Mark's enhancements hadn't brought any negative sensations, at most making him feel a bit languid after use, which would be alleviated with a bit of rest.

Twelve days.

By then, he would see what the effects of the reinforced wooden door would be.

He was quite expectant.

After looking at the wooden door for a while, he casually picked up a piece of broken stone inside the cave and tried to activate the enhancement on the Black Mark again.

But there was no reaction.

He wasn't surprised.

He had tried before to see if he could enhance two objects at the same time.

But it seemed either it was never possible, or he hadn't yet met some special conditions.

Yu Hong wasn't in a hurry.

First, he needed to finish constructing the safe house; there would be plenty of time to study the Black Mark later.

Since Yiyi had gone out and wouldn't be coming back that evening, Yu Hong rested for a while in the cave. Then he packed up the enhanced pyroxene and headed back to Baiqiu Village.

Soon, he found his way back home easily and locked himself in.

He then placed the enhanced pyroxene in every corner.

He drank a sip of filtered water to soothe his throat.

The fact that the filthy, foul-smelling filtered water didn't give him diarrhea was in itself a miracle.

Yu Hong prepared himself, took a piece of jerky, and slowly gnawed at it sitting on the side of the bed.

The jerky was very hard, not like any kind of meat he had eaten before. They were slender and entirely black.

Yiyi had said this was lizard meat.

Yu Hong didn't care about that detail; at least he could accept lizard meat more than the other two types of jerky: dried rat and dried cockroach...

As it was almost dark, Yu Hong lit a candle and placed it beside him on the bedside table, allowing the candlelight to cover the specially left air vents at the door and windows.

Then he closed his eyes and rested quietly.

The night passed without incident.

The next morning, Yu Hong went to wait by the village entrance on the main road.

His cell phone had long run out of power, and he could only roughly estimate time using a sun dial he had improvised based on the shadows cast on the ground.

After waiting for more than an hour,

Two figures with big bags began to appear at the end of the road.

As the distance closed, the figures became clearer and clearer, returning were Yiyi and Doctor Xu.

Yu Hong hurried forward, lending a hand to stabilize the large cloth bag on Stutterer's back.

"Thank you for your hard work," he whispered to Stutterer.

"Ah, the whole house, how is it?" Stutterer asked with anticipation.

She had checked the progress before leaving yesterday; it should have been nearly complete.

"It's done, the door's all finished!" Yu Hong nodded seriously, smiling.

He was also in a good mood.

"I, bought, waterproof, paint!" Stutterer said in fits and starts, gesturing. "For you, to apply."

Waterproof paint?

Yu Hong paused, realizing he had forgotten about waterproofing... Otherwise, it wouldn't be long before the wooden door he had labored over would mold and rot from the moisture.

After all, he wasn't a professional carpenter, just someone handy with crafts, not knowing essential steps.

Fortunately, Stutterer had unexpectedly covered that base.

"That's right, how could I have forgotten to apply the waterproofing!?" he said, slapping his hand, somewhat scared by the oversight. "Good thing you remembered, or the work on the wooden door would have been for nothing!"

"That jar of waterproof paint cost Yiyi one-third of her jerky," Doctor Xu reminded them gloomily from the side. Her look toward Yu Hong was rather unfriendly.

"Now that it's built, when will you move out?" she followed up.

"Very soon, I'll move out immediately!" Yu Hong nodded. "Doctor Xu seems to have some misunderstandings about me. Just you wait. In no time, I'll be able to provide Yiyi with a better life."

Stutterer had helped him a lot, and he kept it close to his heart. As for the secret of the Black Mark, he was now almost certain that only he had it.

At least Stutterer and Doctor Xu didn't have it; he had asked Stutterer about others she had seen, and nobody mentioned having such a special ability.

So his confidence grew substantially.

'There he goes again, bragging.'

Doctor Xu gave him a disgusted look and turned to leave with her bag.

She had seen others Yiyi had rescued before; those people would wake up, recover a bit, learn some skills, and then leave.

No one stayed more than five days.

But this Yu Hong... he had already been there so long... almost twenty days, nearly a month, and still not leaving!

It was bad enough he was not leaving, but he wasn't helping with the work either! As a result, Yiyi had to significantly increase the time spent digging up wild vegetables and drawing on luminous stones. And they had less food than before.

Originally, food was scarce, and now with two people eating, they had to reduce the portions to make it last.

"I, believe, you!" Stutterer Yiyi leaned in beside Yu Hong, speaking earnestly.

"Mhm! Thank you!" Yu Hong nodded, watching as Doctor Xu left.

Only then did the two return to the house to sort through the things they had brought back.

A large pack of luminous stones, even after trading for the paint, got them only half a pound of jerky and one pound of dried mushrooms.

With these mixed with wild vegetables, they'd need to make do for at least three to five days.

Inside the house, the two of them sorted the jerky, packaging it into separate bags, inserting charcoal to absorb moisture, and tying them closed.

This was to individually package it to avoid frequent opening and exposure to humidity.

"By the way, during the heightened period, how strong are the shadows and the Blood Tide? Can you explain in detail?" Yu Hong asked while packing.

"Very, strong," Stutterer nodded. "At any time, there could, be, shadows. The Blood Tide, will appear, daily, alongside, the shadows."

"Ten luminous stones, to, deal with... one, shadow." Stutterer began to elaborate carefully on the dangers of the heightened period.

Through her halting explanations, Yu Hong gradually learned about some of the dangers of the heightened period.

Especially the shadows; ordinary luminous stones, after being drawn on, would have a better dispelling effect on the shadows.

Stutterer's luminous stones naturally worked better than others, which is why she could always sell them at a good price.

And during the heightened period, even her luminous stones needed ten pieces to dispel a single shadow, let alone for others.

Yu Hong also inquired about the consumption of candles.

The answer he received sent a chill down his spine.

During the heightened period, a large candle would be used up in a single night, which was a great loss. Of course, they could also burn wood, but they needed constant bright light to ward off the Blood Tide.

After getting the specific data, Yu Hong calculated the duration of the heightened period in his mind. Looking at the worn-out calendar on the table, there were fifteen more days.

The door would be finished enhancing in twelve days... and if the effects were not so good by then... it might be troublesome.

A sense of heaviness settled in his heart.

"Where can we buy those candles?" he asked again.

"Uncle Wang..." Stutterer pulled out a simple map, pointing to a point that was quite distant.

"He was, a former, villager..."

"How long does the heightened period usually last?"

"Before, it was, one, day. Later, it slowly, changed, to five days," Stutterer answered.

"Could it become even longer?" Yu Hong frowned.

"Mhm!" Stutterer nodded vigorously.

"I understand," Yu Hong acknowledged, knowing he needed to act quickly.

In the following times,

he began to speed up the construction of his own safe house. Although the door was installed, the interior structure was not yet arranged properly.

Especially the chimney; if he wanted to make a fire inside, he would need to arrange ventilation and smoke discharging in advance.

Actually, this was not difficult, because he had seen stoves with chimney pipes in the village houses before.

He just needed to move and dismantle them, as the most important parts were those metal chimney pipes.

But... according to what Stutterer had said, it was better not to venture too deeply into those houses.

Working on the door outside is one thing, but going into places that are too dark could likely lead to an encounter with a shadow.

However, with enhanced pyroxene, it should not be a big problem.

One piece of enhanced pyroxene could fend off several shadows—much more effective than ordinary luminous stones.

But even so, just thinking about the trouble and danger of the shadows made Yu Hong's heart tingle with anxiety, and he had no desire to deliberately get closer.