Night of Despair

The stone that harmed the white-clothed shadow could possibly be some kind of special item, plus its small size means it would be hard to detect even with a little noise.

Moreover, if it could be strengthened, the power of the white stone would be greater, and it would be much safer to deal with the previous shadow.

Thinking of this, he picked up a white stone and looked at Stammer.

"Can I have one? Thank you for saving me just now! I will repay you."

He said earnestly.

Stammer shook her head.

"This... is no longer... useful," she explained. "If you want it, take it."

Yu Hong nodded and picked up the white stone to examine it.

The stone was only the size of a thumbnail, with a dark red complex symbol drawn on its surface, looking like a religious talisman of some sort. At this moment, a third of the stone's area had turned black, though the cause was unknown.

The stone felt ice-cold to the touch, like holding a piece of ice, chilling to the bone.

Hiss...

Quickly, a number appeared on the surface of the stone: 3 days.

Almost instantly, a thought emerged, and Black Mark seemed to sense it, quickly emitting a sound.

'Would you like to strengthen the target?'

Yu Hong pocketed the white stone in his trousers.

He tried responding in his mind: Yes.

As he affirmed his answer, the Black Mark on the back of his hand warmed slightly and then calmed.

Soon after, the white stone in his trouser pocket also warmed and then returned to normal.

Stammer by his side showed no reaction to the activity of the white stone.

"Are you... okay now?" Stammer asked curiously.

"Soon... the sky will darken... we must prepare..." she stuttered.

"Prepare for what?" Yu Hong asked. After the intense emotional and physical exhaustion, his already weak body began to return to its normal state due to the reduction in adrenaline.

He was still in a state of illness and fever, only needing temporary strength and mental focus to deal with the peril. Now that the danger had passed, his body began fighting the virus and bacteria once more.

His immune system started producing a multitude of immune cells again, and his body temperature began to rise once more.

"At night... monsters... dangerous," Stammer replied.

She glanced at the window while speaking, where the light seeping through the cracks was getting darker and darker.

It was an abnormal darkness, accelerating too quickly.

So much so that Yu Hong could feel the light fading into blackness with his own eyes.

This strange phenomenon heightened the sense of anxiety and impending crisis in his heart.

Plop, plop, bang, bang, ding, dong, dong.

Stammer, seemingly out of nowhere, produced a hammer and began to hammer the nails at the edges of the doors and windows, seemingly reinforcing and checking the surroundings.

The main door had several thick chains hung across it from the inside, and three horizontal bolts had been dropped into place.

Each bolt was as thick as an arm. The contact surface between the bolts and the door had been rubbed smooth from use, indicating that this was not the first time for such a precaution.

The light grew dimmer and dimmer.

Yu Hong stood inside the house, dazed for a while, but he quickly snapped back to action, attempting to help check the gaps for safety.

However, being completely unfamiliar with the surroundings, he was soon deemed a hindrance by Stammer, who pushed him back to sit on the bed.

"Don't... make trouble," Stammer said seriously. She then crawled under the bed and pulled out a large black bag.

Inside the bag, opened up, were densely packed white stones. She started to take out a red pen, carefully writing red symbols on each stone.

'So she drew all these red symbols herself?' Yu Hong realized as he watched.

Eee~~~ Eee~~~~

Suddenly, a very faint, shrill, almost theatrical female voice wafted in from outside the house.

The voice had highs and lows, melodiously weird, like crying, or like performing, with a curiously half-real, half-fake sensation.

Patch.

Stammer on the side had clearly heard the sound too, swiftly grabbed some white stones and handed them to Yu Hong, then picked up a yellow candle from a corner full of miscellaneous items. She lit it by scraping something similar to a magnesium bar and held the candle up, watching the doors and windows anxiously.

Yu Hong stood behind her and noticed that the candle was incredibly thick, as thick as an egg.

"It's coming..." Stammer suddenly said.

By then, Yu Hong noticed that the light from outside had disappeared completely.

Only a swath of impenetrable darkness seeped in.

Was it night already? How had it gotten dark so fast?

He wanted to speak but was hit by waves of dizziness in his head, assaulting his consciousness. His body grew hotter and hotter; he felt he might be running a fever, and his throat was getting sore.

He needed water and medicine... fever-reducing medication...

Otherwise, things might turn bad.

He knew his condition; it felt just like when he had severe fever and cold before. And last time, even when his fever reached thirty-nine degrees, he wasn't as weak as now; it was likely because of the excessive shock he had experienced earlier.

Sitting by the bed, he clenched the white stone tightly and watched the doors and windows with widened, nervous eyes.

In the house, both of them were silent, waiting.

For a time, there was nothing but their breathing and heartbeat in the air.

This state did not last long.

Patch.

Finally, a faint sound came from outside the door.

"It's here!" Stammer exclaimed loudly.

Her body tensed, the lines of muscles on her arms becoming distinctly visible as she raised the thick candle high, making the firelight form a circle to cover the whole house as much as possible.

Yu Hong also tensed, watching behind her.

He didn't know what was going to happen, but given Little Stutter's reaction, something bad was very likely to occur soon...

After all, even the recent white shadow hadn't made her this anxious.

Soon, their waiting finally yielded results.

In the darkness, rustling sounds of insects crawling began to emerge from outside the doors and windows.

The noise was extremely abrupt and dense, as if instantly transitioning from the silence of a void to the clamor of a desert.

Sand continually flowed and scratched past the windows and doors, making a soft sound.

Quickly, Yu Hong's eyes widened as he saw through the gaps in the doors and windows—gaps of less than a centimeter—countless small black insects crawling in.

Like sand, the swarm of tiny insects poured in, hundreds, then thousands of them.

Each was only the size of an ant, resembling little beetles with oval-shaped carapaces on their backs, vicious mandible-like mouthparts like centipedes, no eyes, and a multitude of densely packed legs.

Overall, they looked like shrunken versions of black millipedes.

The mass of insects quickly flooded the room, making a soft rustling noise as they crawled, and the high-pitched, ethereal female voice in the air seemed to draw nearer and clearer.

"Scram!" Little Stutter shouted, but oddly stood motionless, holding a candle in the center of the room, only bellowing in anger.

Yu Hong, sitting on the bed, wanted to get up to help, but his weak body had little strength left.

He broke out in a sweat on his back, but the perspiration quickly evaporated due to his feverishly high body temperature.

He tensed and shivered as he watched more and more black insects squeezing through the cracks into the room.

His mind was flooded with horrific images of being covered and bitten by insects.

This was an instinctual human fear, unstoppable.

But then...

Hiss...

The first wave of black insects to enter were exposed to the range of the candle's light.

And at that moment, something unexpected happened.

The insects, which appeared terrifying, actually dissolved instantly under the soft yellow glow, turning into black smoke and evaporating away.

Streams of black smoke rose densely, all from the dissolving insects.

They melted like wax blocks under a flame, seemingly oblivious to retreat, and still madly rushing toward Little Stutter with the candle.

Soon, the black insects that had entered through the doors and windows formed a ring around Little Stutter, continually approaching and dissolving, and then evaporating anew.

Black smoke rose and soon dissipated into the air, transforming into a choking, foul odor.

Yu Hong watched this scene, his face involuntarily showing shock.

Racking his brains for any knowledge at hand, he couldn't think of any insects that would dissolve into black smoke when illuminated.

The bizarre spectacle before him shattered all his previous conjectures and imaginations.

Monsters.

Suddenly, the word a middle-aged doctor had mentioned before surged into his mind again.

Yes, monsters.

Weren't these black insects the very definition of real monsters?

Like an unending tide, they were infinite yet dissolved away at the slightest touch of light.

For a moment, Yu Hong fell into an indescribable state of mental stasis, carefully observing the black insects and the candlelight, searching for any false flaws.

Occasionally, he would even pinch his thigh forcefully to bring pain and alertness to his mind, to prove that what he was seeing wasn't a dream.

But all his actions confirmed one thing: Everything was real, there was no falsehood, and it was certainly not a dream.

Moreover, he noticed something else.

As the black insects dissolved, Little Stutter's large, coarse candle, which was supposed to last a long while, quickly melted away as if combating the insects rapidly depleted its heat.

Time passed in this tense standstill.

Ten minutes.

Half an hour.

An hour.

Two hours...

The two maintained this state without moving.

Little Stutter's candle had rapidly shrunk from the length of a forearm to that of a palm.

Ah!

Suddenly Yu Hong leaped up, turned around, and grabbed, plucking a black insect from behind him.

The black insect turned to black smoke upon exposure to the light.

But he felt his buttocks—there was a bite on the left side, and blood had instantly soaked through his underpants, evidently a sizable wound.

As if attracted by the blood, the surrounding insects became more agitated, began to rush frantically toward Yu Hong.

But the candle's light remained steady, blocking them all and transforming them into black smoke.

Yu Hong, holding his buttocks, simply moved closer and stood beside Little Stutter, watching the scene unfold.

Watching as layers of black insects outside the circle of light dissolved, evaporated, and turned into black smoke.

This magically dangerous scene, like a relentless meteor shower, continued to tear his formerly intact worldview to pieces.

Who knows how long passed.

Eventually, the faint shrill female voice in the air gradually faded and receded.

As the voice dissipated, the black insects crawling into the room also began to thin out.

A wisp of light slowly shone through the gaps in the doors and windows.

Finally.

The last of the black insects was covered by the light, struggling as they dissolved and turned into black smoke.

And everything finally returned to calm.