Night of Despair

Chapter 201: Key 1

“What? Not send it out and just wait to be engulfed by the Black Disaster, expecting us all to die together?” Xin Zhilei turned back, her face cold as she stared at the other.

“But outsiders might crack the most crucial secret. That poses a threat to the existence of the association,” the shadow retorted discontentedly.

“Threat? I have never feared threats. Could the association’s threat possibly be greater than the Black Disaster?” Xin Zhilei responded nonchalantly. “I warned you all long ago not to mess around, not to escalate matters! And what happened? You caused trouble and didn’t clean it up! Now this mess has become like this, and you all bear responsibility!!”

“You should know, your committee has always been watching us. With them in Donghe, we can’t fully mobilize too much power,” the shadow replied.

“Enough, I didn’t come here to listen to all this nonsense, if there’s something to say, just say it,” Xin Zhilei said impatiently.

“Furika cleaned up four people on their side, and two escaped to Donghe, you are responsible for dispatching and handling them. Make sure the loose ends are tied up cleanly, any problem with that?” the shadow said.

“Two?!” Xin Zhilei’s expression was fierce, “Are you trying to force me to die!?”

“You should know, once exposed, none of us can escape,” the shadow said blandly. “So, no matter what methods you think of, no matter what means you use, if you don’t want to die, you must deal with it cleanly. Including that investigation team, they will definitely come into contact with the truth, use them thoroughly, then dispose of them.”

“You guys….!” Xin Zhilei wanted to say something, but the person had already turned and swiftly disappeared outside the door.

His speed far surpassed that of ordinary people, definitely among the top speed-enhanced individuals.

Smack.

Xin Zhilei fiercely slapped her palm against the wall, her face looking extremely unpleasant.

Her breathing was rapid, after calming herself down shortly after, she picked up a tablet and quickly opened the contact list to reach out to the subordinate units.

“What’s the location of the investigation team? How’s the supply of materials?” she asked in a low voice.

“Everything’s normal, the latest batch of materials has been loaded, about to be transported there using unmanned equipment,” the logistic department’s head replied succinctly.

“I remember the latest batch included quite a few rune boards and hidden runic luminous stone carpets from Black Wind Camp, right?” Xin Zhilei asked.

“Yes, a total of five items, and there are two hundred and twenty-one rune boards.”

“Take half out, send them here. I need them.”

“But…”

“No buts, the committee has entrusted me with full authority over the investigation team’s affairs, do as I say,” Xin Zhilei said sternly. “Once I’ve finished researching here, I’ll send them back over. This is for the safety of everyone, if we can figure out how to replicate and mass-produce, it will provide positive feedback for the entire situation!”

“…Understood.”

The call ended.

Xin Zhilei exhaled.

All that talk of research feedback was just her pretext, Black Wind Camp’s goods were excellent, so naturally, she would divert some for her own stockpile first. Since the investigation team was going to die anyway, instead of wasting resources sending it to them, it’s better to surreptitiously save some for herself to save her life.

As long as it wasn’t discovered by the committee, everything wouldn’t be an issue.

Currently, they were still overwhelmed dealing with the war, the Black Disaster, and the Gate of Despair. Having sacrificed too much elite combat power and equipment to close the Gate of Despair, they had no time to manage minor situations here.

*

*

*

Several days later.

Behind Black Wind Camp.

In the dimly lit forest, a towering figure with a huge spiked iron ball on his back stood beside a stream, quietly watching.

The figure was clad in heavy bulletproof gear, with the helmet’s breathing valve continuously exhaling white air.

Two massive, pitch-black lizards lay quietly prostrate on the ground, motionless.

“It’s getting closer…” Yu Hong surveyed the surroundings. It was still gray time; the nearby forest had gradually withered and died, devoid of any greenery. Everything visible was scorched black.

He looked left and right, and noted wherever this black stream passed, whether trees, rocks, or any landscape, all seemed to be engulfed as if by a gluttonous beast.

Wherever the stream passed, everything would restore to its original state, reappearing behind it.

He jumped forward using the daylight.

The fog dispersed, whisking by his sides; his jump cleared over four or five meters, effortlessly crossing the stream formed by the heavy rain.

The other side of the river was just ordinary mountain rocks and black soil.

He stomped his feet, the soil underfoot not very hard.

He bent down, crouched, and dug up a handful of black soil, soil like modeling clay, very moist, emitting a strong rotting smell.

Jumping back to this side, he left a dragon lizard here to watch and hide, then quickly returned to the camp cavern.

After completing the monitoring enhancement, in these days, he had continuously enhanced the sunlight paint, transporting the luminous stone.

But just as he hadn’t completely finished enhancing the luminous stone, that eerie wooden bridge behind finally approached the range of the cavern’s array.

The ensuing array activation also made Yu Hong pause his Cultivation Technique Inner Qi practice and come back again to assess the situation.

Sitting in the cavern, Yu Hong closed his eyes and sensed the array marks in his mind.

The marks were continuously releasing a faint white light, indicating that the entire array was in active state.

The Array inside the mark was a white disk seen from above.

On the disk, it clearly marked where the intrusion points were—wherever there was an invasion point, it would flare up red.

And at this moment, the red light spot Yu Hong saw was right behind the array.

That is, the invasive array was startlingly the eerie wooden bridge that only appeared under the illumination of light.

‘Trouble… The invasion’s intensity is comparable to about a thousand Red Values of Black Disaster per second… This is like reducing the strength of the entire Array by a thousand every second.’

The Red Value in the invasion range needed to be neutralized by the Array, which was a significant weakening to the entire Array.

This didn’t even account for that mysteriously powerful figure that appeared, should that person appear, it would undoubtedly have more than just this level of Red Value intensity.

Sitting in front of the basement monitor screen, Yu Hong carefully checked the surrounding camp situation.

Apart from sparse shadows occasionally appearing, there wasn’t much trouble around the camp at the moment.

High-risk Black Disasters had been dealt with by him previously. Having developed some primary intelligence, they seemingly knew to avoid the camp, not to contact this side, leaving this territory to him.

“Perfect, we need to deal with this wooden bridge issue properly.”

Yu Hong frowned as he stared at the monitor, having a bad feeling about the appearance of this wooden bridge… It could just be the beginning—if not dealt with promptly…

Thinking this, he quickly stood up and began gathering all sorts of equipment and weapons he would need for the investigation.

Due to the plentiful supply of Large Pyroxene Stones, he was able to restock on Radiation Hand Grenades, making a hundred new ones and carrying a large bag of them on his back.

Next, he prepared a large black cloak designed for concealment, supplied and initially enhanced by Zhang Kaijun. It was filled with embedded runes, capable of covering his entire body, masking him, and creating a Pyroxene Secret Room effect, while also being tough enough to provide puncture resistance.

Then, he topped up the ammo in his enhanced handgun.

He packed a large bag with plenty of drinking water and food, shouldering it too.

After these preparations, three days had passed.

Yu Hong’s seventh Inner Qi had successfully condensed. Once the ninth was condensed, he would be able to attempt breaking through to the final, sixth layer with his Thunderbolt Leg Technique.

Originally, he planned to investigate the mysterious wooden bridge only after his Inner Qi was fully developed, but now there was no time to wait.

‘If the investigation team simply tries to seal off the Black Disaster without understanding its origin, we might not be able to address the core of the problem,’ he contemplated.

He grabbed his things, donned a white bear bulletproof suit, and threw on the thick cloak. Once again, he ventured behind the cave.

It was a night dark as ink.

No light, except for the white bulbs hung high on wooden poles within the camp, the only source of illumination around.

But this light only lit up the camp.; beyond that, the endless Black Fog would swallow everything.

There was a clear boundary between the camp’s white light and the external Black Fog created by the Array.

Yu Hong stood right at this boundary, holding an atomic lamp flashlight, shining it ahead.

The Black Fog illuminated by the green light revealed a vague phantom of a black wooden bridge.

Turning off the atomic lamp made the bridge disappear.

Turning on the atomic lamp brought it back into view.

Turning off the atomic lamp again.

Then on again.

Suddenly, a pale human face emerged abruptly in front of Yu Hong.

The face opened its mouth as if to speak.

Bang!!

A massive black shadow struck his face, breaking through the face and crashing into the Black Fog.

The face dissipated into black smoke and vanished.

Yu Hong quickly reeled back in the heavy iron ball.

Without the amplification of Inner Qi, even touching the shadow would be impossible.

But with Inner Qi covering it, even the shadow crumbled instantly under the ball’s heavy strike.

‘However, that wasn’t a regular shadow; Red Value showed more than just tens.’

Yu Hong thought this briefly, but didn’t dwell on it much. For him now, anything that could be killed with one iron ball wasn’t a serious threat.

Having reassured himself of his readiness, he took a deep breath, stepped forward, and clamped the atomic lamp onto the special hook at his suit’s waist.

With a gun in one hand and the iron ball’s chain in the other, he stepped onto the wooden bridge.

Creak.

At the moment his boots touched the bridge, Yu Hong glanced at the detector. The Red Value was: 1211.541.

His expression under the helmet grew slightly grim.

He continued forward.

Two dragon lizards, one ahead and one behind, guarded him on both sides.

He hadn’t walked far when he stopped, crouched down, and picked up a splintered piece of wood from the bridge.

As soon as the wood piece was removed from the bridge, it disintegrated into countless wisps of black smoke.

Yu Hong’s expression under the helmet tightened slightly; he then took out a prepared wooden spoon, bent over, and scooped up a spoonful of dark black water.

Hiss…

Similarly, the black river water also steamed into countless wisps of black smoke once removed, leaving the spoon wholly empty, as if it had held nothing from the start. Yu Hong’s gaze grew even heavier.

He stood up and continued forward, constantly readying his Inner Qi in his legs, prepared to leap back at any moment,

Soon, led by the dragon lizards, a huge, dilapidated Black Ship emerged directly ahead.

The ship, hung with torn and hole-riddled sails, fluttered weakly with the breeze, resembling incomplete human skin torn off.

Yu Hong stood on the wooden bridge, staring intently at the Black Ship, the detector embedded in his high collar now showing values that were skyrocketing madly.

From the initial thousand, it surged to tens, then hundreds of thousands, even reaching over a million!

‘1273482.124’

Finally, the Red Value stabilized, settling around one million two hundred seventy thousand.

‘An aggregation of Black Disaster? This ship must be formed from many merged Black Disasters…’

Yu Hong by now could vaguely distinguish between a fused body of Black Disaster and a strong individual Black Disaster.

Like the previous Speed Man and Insect Man, a high-risk individual Black Disaster would radiate intense Red Value radiation from a distance and possess a powerful oppressive psychic field.

However, if it was merely a large number collectively formed by Black Disaster, like the previous masses of shadows surrounding the camp at night, it wouldn’t have such oppressive power.

Now, the sensation the Black Ship gave him was similar to when the vast number of shadows had encircled the camp.

And not too different from when the clusters of grey-white human hands had attacked the camp.

Therefore, though he was tense, he wasn’t fearful or retreating.

Standing on the wooden bridge, he didn’t board the ship but instead took a step back and let the Earth Pond Dragon Lizards advance.