Night of Despair

Chapter 200: Believe in Four
 

“Yes!” Yu Hong touched the newly born dragon lizard, feeling its warm and soft scales, estimating it would still need a few more days to mature.

This was a type of soldier in his imprinting that didn’t require occupying a light spot, so the number could be limitless, not restricted by imprints.

Currently, there were four dragon lizards left outside, freely patrolling and hunting, temporarily reducing the defense force of the camp.

But, starting from today, the defensive power of the camp would continually grow. The Earth Pond Dragon Lizards, which were not restricted by numbers, would definitely become the strongest defensive power of the camp!

‘Wait!’ Suddenly, Yu Hong thought of a problem.

‘Since the dragon lizards born from the nest are not restricted by the imprint anymore, does this mean this dragon lizard is also not restricted by distance??’

The range limitation of imprinted creatures mainly resulted from the original starting point of the imprint being fixed and unmovable,

but now…

Yu Hong thought about it and decided to test it.

He picked up the little lizard, walked out of the cave, and arranged for an adult dragon lizard to escort it.

Big and small, the two dragon lizards vanished into the Black Fog in the blink of an eye, disappearing from sight.

In the shared vision, they rapidly moved away from the camp, quickly crossing the highway, rushing down the slope, and reaching the three-kilometer control limit.

At that moment, the large Earth Pond Dragon Lizard stopped.

The small new-born one, however, continued to move forward. It quickly passed the limit.

One hundred meters.

Two hundred meters.

Four hundred meters!

Yu Hong could still sense the new-born dragon lizard was alive; this was the feedback given to him by the magic nest in his imprint.

He could vaguely sense the approximate distance of the new-born dragon lizard, but he was unable to directly control it, nor could he share its vision.

Instead, he had to give orders indirectly through the magic nest.

‘It’s a bit inconvenient, but… there’s absolutely no distance limitation now!’

Yu Hong breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

“With this, I can completely bring dragon lizards with me when I go out as guards to patrol the surroundings! This has given my combat strength a considerable boost!”

Feeling great, Yu Hong returned to the cave, directly reinforced all the remaining luminous stone powder with the Black Mark.

Once the enhancement of the luminous stone powder was finished, there were still sunlight materials waiting, and then he continued to strengthen the talisman arrays and dragon lizards.

This was his plan.

Having confirmed that the dragon lizards could move far from the camp without any trouble, Yu Hong felt much more lively in his thoughts.

Once the number of dragon lizards rose, the security of the camp would be greatly assured.

He could also free up the Black Mark to research why the Black Disaster couldn’t be completely eradicated.

“The Black Disaster can’t be eradicated completely, that’s the conclusion Silver Tower had come to after numerous research experiments,” Xin Zhilei, the minister from New Aurora City, replied in a deep voice during their routine communication.

“Hasn’t there been any exception?” Yu Hong didn’t believe anything was absolute.

“Indeed, many institutions are researching this topic,” answered Xin Zhilei. “Here in the city, at least three institutions are still delving into this subject, hoping to come up with results. After all, if a way to completely eradicate the Black Disaster can be found, the Black Disasters in the world wouldn’t keep increasing. With the power of human weapons, it’s absolutely possible to quickly eradicate a large number of Black Disasters. But…”

She paused, “The reality is, there’s really no way. The revival of the Black Disaster is completely unaffected by any external factors. We’ve tried to lure Shadows into a sealed room to destroy them. Useless. Using negative radiation at far beyond their tolerance to destroy them, useless as well. We even completely soaked and covered the Shadows’ revival points with luminous stone solution. Still useless. When their revival point was restricted, it just revived somewhere else.”

“But our human resources are limited…” Yu Hong said gravely.

“Exactly,” agreed Xin Zhilei. “Of course, Mr. Yu, you are a very excellent top-notch research and invention expert. Your individual achievements surpass many research institutes’ entire teams of dozens of people. The enhanced detectors and Vortex Talisman Plates and other tools you invented are very powerful. Maybe you could find a new approach, a new direction.”

“I will try my best,” exhaled Yu Hong. “How is the situation with the second survey team?”

“They are still advancing and have already achieved certain results. We release drones every two days for serial relay connection. The engineering team has also gone to maintain the signal stations. Under stable conditions, as long as it’s not a Black Hour, the signal can stay stable,” said Xin Zhilei.

“The progress this time has been so rapid, and the physical constitution of the mutants has played a big part,” interjected Zhang Kaijun. “During the quiet periods, as long as they stay hidden, they won’t attract the attention and attacks of the Black Disaster. This has given the team a great security guarantee.”

“According to the latest intelligence, the survey team has found traces left by the Meisha family members at the origin point ruins. The traces are very clear, and I already have photos as evidence,” Xin Zhilei said.

“Are we certain it was the Meisha who triggered the Black Disaster?” Zhang Kaijun’s voice grew colder.

“Yes, according to the ancient text content we interpreted. The ruins in Black Tree Village are mainly considered the second node. The ruins’ seal has three major nodes in total, and Flurika’s survey team has already confirmed that one of their origin site ruins is the first node. It seems that the Meisha people thought of some way to break the seal of the ruins,” Xin Zhilei said.

“Since it’s possible to break it, should it also be possible to repair it?” Yu Hong asked.

“Possibly, the expert group is already urgently studying it. Right now, the difficulty is that the expert group cannot go to the site to test and take samples. They only obtain samples indirectly through the mutant investigation team and operate remotely, which is very inefficient,” Xin Zhilei sighed.

“After many failures, their current approach is trying to repair the seal by synthesizing the same materials found through the remnants on the ground and by repairing the ruins’ talisman arrays and runes. But the success rate of this plan isn’t high, so this time I came hoping to obtain your secret technique for hidden rune technology from Mr. Yu. Of course, rest assured, this will be compensated. Our problem with hidden runes is that no matter how precisely we replicate the pattern, we can’t produce the same effect as you do.”

“I’m very willing to cooperate, but it’s indeed not replicable. When making the hidden runes, besides using the same materials and steps as you, I also used my unique Inner Qi,” Yu Hong said frankly.

He had not intended to keep secrets, for people were nearly extinct; keeping the secrets of Inner Qi was useless. Except for him, nobody else could cultivate it anyway.

“Inner Qi?”

Xin Zhilei and Zhang Kaijun exclaimed almost in unison.

“Is it the Inner Qi mentioned in martial arts novels?” Zhang Kaijun was obviously quite surprised.

“Yes, it’s not much different,” Yu Hong confirmed. “The concealment runes require my infusion of Inner Qi to take effect. The cultivation of Inner Qi is a long, repetitive process. The method I cultivate is only suitable for a part of me, and I’m not sure if it can be replicated by others.”

“If it’s true, and Mr. Yu isn’t joking, we would like to pay for the cultivation methods of Inner Qi. I wonder if you are willing…” Xin Zhilei said urgently.

“I am, but I can’t guarantee success,” Yu Hong held little hope for this.

He had gradually discovered from his long practice that the most critical part in his Inner Strength cultivation was the conversion of the Black Mark.

That is to say, he first converted the external energy through the Black Mark, then absorbed, contained, and refined it into Inner Qi that belonged to him alone.

Moreover, this conversion was specific to the constitution and psyche of his body.

Without the Black Mark, it would be difficult for ordinary people outside to cultivate Inner Qi.

Soon, both parties, Yu Hong, Zhang Kaijun, and Xin Zhilei, had agreed on the terms of the trade.

The two offered two sets of standardized Talisman Plate production lines and transported them over.

The production lines’ Talisman Plates could be designed by Yu Hong himself, and they also offered a total of one ton of luminous stone powder.

Additionally, there was a full set of the latest technology computer mainframe and twenty pounds of Sunlight No. 9 paint.

The supplies and instruments were actually secondary; the transportation was what mattered most.

After confirming the details of the trade, since the Internal Cultivation Methods involved a visualization, Yu Hong and the two agreed to conduct a physical transaction in person.

Perhaps the urgency of the two sped up the process, or perhaps the route through the Black Disaster Rift had become more stable.

On the third day’s grey hour, Shu Cheng came again with his people, bringing the agreed-upon trade items.

At the same time, they took away the photo images of Inner Strength cultivation content that Yu Hong had provided.

*

*

*

New Aurora City.

The gloomy sky was illuminated by the city’s gigantic searchlights.

Inside the city stood dilapidated and decaying tall buildings, their surfaces stained with unknown black and grey grime, not cleaned for who knows how long.

At the top of the tallest silver-gray skyscraper,

inside a spacious office over five hundred square meters,

a woman with silver-grey hair tied into a high ponytail was squinting, staring at the tablet in her hand.

The tablet’s screen displayed the Thunderbolt Leg Technique Internal Cultivation Methods recently obtained from Yu Hong.

This was the first layer provided by Yu Hong, including the visualization. The text that originally said the Thunderbolt Leg Technique had six layers was removed and changed to a fully handwritten copy.

“Still not working?” the woman asked in a deep, forceful voice, looking at the content on the screen.

“Sorry, Minister, based on actual testing, ordinary people, enhanced people, fully enhanced people, and mutants have all been tried, and none have exhibited any so-called sensation of Qi,” an exhausted, elderly male voice responded from the computer’s speakers.

“Furthermore, apart from causing a bit of dizziness after looking at the other visualization for too long, there has been no other reaction.”

“So you mean to say Yu Hong is fooling us with something made up?” The woman’s voice turned cold.

“We can’t dismiss that possibility…” the elder responded.

“Let it be for now. Continue monitoring the investigation team. Once the template for the compound substance found in the relics is printed out, the door-shaped pattern on that wall should be restorable. Now it depends on whether it will work after we send the repair pattern over,” the woman said.

“Fortunately, Elder Yang and Professor Boerse teamed up to decipher those mysterious ancient texts, otherwise… we might not even understand where the true source is,” the old man sighed. “According to the translation of the ancient texts, as long as the sealing talisman array is completed, it should restore the relics node. My only concern is that I always feel things won’t be that simple.”

“With the mutants there, we’ll try and see. As long as there’s a glimmer of hope, we must not give up,” the woman said solemnly.

“Understood!”

The call ended.

The woman set down the tablet and walked to the broken floor-to-ceiling window to overlook the entire city.

The strong wind blew, lifting the ponytail hair behind her.

She slipped the tablet into the coat pocket of her overcoat, watching the traffic and people below moving like ants.

“Xin Zhilei, you shouldn’t have disseminated the Yingshan culture privately.”

Behind her, a blurry tall figure, wearing a black round hat, appeared in the office out of nowhere.