A Night of Desperation-Chapter 252: Secrets of the Hidden Four

“Still thinking about how to deal with Agrius…”

Yu Hong silently shifted his focus.

After some thought, he felt the current dragon lizard nest was not very practical. Although the regular dragon lizards had been diligently ensuring the safety of the camp, their individual strength was truly not enough and their numbers were also insufficient.

“Either improve the quality of individuals or increase the breeding rate to boost the total number…”

“And there’s Moon’s Call, oh no, it’s Infinite River Technique, as long as I can handle a powerful enough summoning creature, perhaps I can resolve Agrius.”

With this thought, Yu Hong stood up again, first went down to the basement, and took some bone-strengthening and blood-enriching medicines from the boxes he had exchanged before.

Then he placed his hand on them.

“Enhance the healing medicines, focus on replenishing blood and helping bone healing.”

Black lines flowed out, and soon a new countdown emerged on the surface of the medicines.

“2 hours 11 minutes.”

Yu Hong did not add any extra requirements;he merely used these medicines as a foundation, setting the most basic requirement to extract effective medicinal properties and eliminate ineffective and side effects.

With low requirements and no enhancement of medicinal properties, the time given by the Black Mark was quite cost-effective.

After confirming the enhancement could be done, Yu Hong nodded in satisfaction.

“Indeed, this method works. Just treating the Black Mark like a foolproof, all-purpose alchemy furnace.”

“As long as the requirements are low enough, the enhancement time can be controlled within an acceptable range.”

After confirming the enhancement, he got up and took a shower.

When he changed his clothes and came back.

Click.

Suddenly, a slight explosive sound came from outside, as if something had burst.

Yu Hong frowned, put on his strengthened polar bear suit, and opened the door.

Whoosh!

Just as he opened the door, a gust of extremely cold wind and snow immediately rushed in.

Beep beep beep…

The temperature alarm of the detector went off, the temperature display plummeted from the indoor teens, plunged below zero, and quickly reached minus thirties, continuing to drop.

Yu Hong stepped out and forcefully pulled the door shut.

Outside, both the inner and outer courtyards had once again turned into a white expanse of snow and ice.

He glanced at the detector on his collar.

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Temperature display: -79 degrees.

“…Old Zhou is probably not coming back…”

This temperature was nearing the boiling point of carbon dioxide in the air.

Any lower, and the carbon dioxide would solidify, likely cutting off the little oxygenation that was happening. The slight amount of sunlight each day would become useless too.

Yu Hong sighed and began to inspect the courtyard.

Soon, he discovered that the cooling hot water pipes that connected to the outside from the cave had burst due to freezing.

The extremely low temperature had caused most materials to become brittle.

And as the hot water inside the pipes lost heat and began to freeze, expanding in volume…

The combination of these factors meant the pipes had held up until now because of the Black Mark enhancement work had much to do.

Although he found the cause, he couldn’t fix it and had to wait until the Black Mark enhancement was complete before repairing it.

At this time, the Black Disaster outside was also gradually dissipating, entering a period of easing.

Yu Hong glanced at the Black Fog outside.

It was somewhat strange that the Black Disaster had receded so soon, but its premature retreat was good, and he was too lazy to guess why.

Returning to the cave, he rested briefly and started practicing the Condensing Water Technique.

Two hours passed in a blink of an eye.

Soon, the medicines on the table flashed faintly, blurred, and turned into a dark red elixir with a soft gloss.

A palm-sized instruction manual was pressed underneath, which Yu Hong picked up and scanned.

“Bone Restoration Yuan Elixir: An essential medicine for Wuji Palace disciples when recovering from broken bones. Accelerates bone healing when taken, one per day, shortening the natural healing period by two-thirds.”

Again, Wuji Palace, Yu Hong silently took the elixir, popped it into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.

It tasted almost like chocolate beans, sweetened with sugar.

After taking the medicine, in less than five minutes, he felt a tingling sensation in his wounds, then hurriedly used the Black Mark to repair the water pipes for about fifteen minutes.

Once he confirmed there were no issues with the pipes, Yu Hong then went to the separate small cave where the dragon lizard nest was located.

“The accumulation of dragon lizards is too slow. I need to strengthen this aspect. Since I can’t ease the pressure from the Black Ship, I have to alleviate the pressure on the Array from other aspects. The more dragon lizards we have, the stronger the combat power against the Black Disaster, and the less Black Disaster the Array needs to handle.”

Since resolving Agrius in the short term was out of reach, he had to delay to extend time.

Standing in front of a dragon lizard nest that was taller than a person.

The nest was a black flesh mass with a dark red crack in the middle, inside which faint firelight flickered.

Yu Hong thought for a moment, then extended his hand and pressed it against the surface of the nest.

“Strengthen the Earth Pond Dragon Lizard Nest;directive: accelerate breeding.”

A black line flashed and disappeared into the nest.

Soon, the Black Mark inquired, and a countdown appeared: “19 days, 5 hours, 9 minutes.”

“…” Yu Hong was at a loss for words;such a long time—by then, the camp would probably have been destroyed.

“Change of plan… Since the nest’s breeding speed is too slow, could I add another nest, or maybe two, or three?”

“What are the limitations of the nest?”

Yu Hong closed his eyes and sensed the imprints inside his mind.

The second imprint was that of the Dragon Lizard Nest;the entire nest appeared as a huge white light spot, the largest formed by the fusion of Nine-Headed Dragon Lizards.

“The original dragon lizards left light spots in my imprint first, then I used nine light spots to form the nest. But now, the current dragon lizards have no light spots left. So, if I want to add more nests, do I have to repeat the previous process?”

Yu Hong pondered.

The dragon lizards were initially created through direct control using the Black Mark;hence they had light spots.

“Then, can I directly use the existing dragon lizards to fuse into a nest?”

With a thought, he controlled the nest and summoned the Nine-Headed Dragon Lizards.

Then, through the nest, he indirectly ordered them to fuse.

Hiss…

Suddenly, inside the cave, the Nine-Headed Dragon Lizards huddled together into a sphere, and soon their flesh began to melt and fuse together, gradually forming a familiar black mass.

In the middle of the mass, a dark red fissure tore open, with faint flickers of fire visible inside.

It turned out to be another Earth Dragon Nest!

“It actually works!?” Yu Hong’s eyes shone brightly as he suddenly realized he had not fully tapped into the real potential of the Earth Dragons.

After a few minutes,

The new nest took shape, and a dragon lizard egg emerged from below with a “plop.”

The eggshell cracked and a small, mucous-covered dragon lizard crawled out.

However, what felt wrong to Yu Hong was that this nest was now completely out of his control;he could no longer command it directly but only relay orders through the original nest.

This back and forth increased the time required;a single command took more than ten seconds to execute, much less responsive than before.

“If each Nine-Headed Dragon Lizard can form a nest, it could quickly form a large army of dragon lizards. Command delays and roughness are acceptable. I knew it, Wuji Palace, a major force like that, wouldn’t choose such an ordinary creature as a Daoist Soldier… I simply hadn’t figured out the right method before.”

Yu Hong was in high spirits, and the pain from his recent injury seemed to diminish greatly.

In response, the two nests bred together, producing two dragon lizards every five days—much faster than before.

After optimizing the breeding method for dragon lizards, Yu Hong boldly enhanced the previously produced lots of radiation bombs using the Black Mark.

Although the radiation bombs were single-use items, as long as they could withstand the attacks during this period, and once the number of dragon lizards increased forming a quantity suppression, they could completely stabilize the camp and ensure the safety of the surrounding area.

*

*

*

At the Flirika and East River border castle.

Inside the Eternal Life Association’s conference hall, members in black robes appeared one by one.

“Today’s meeting topic is about how to adjust the indirect guidance route for the Snow Demons,” announced the chairwoman’s assistant on the main seat side, two masked black-robed women.

“Flirika, East River, Weylans, Free Alliance—guidance routes for luring Snow Demons have already been planned;on average, each Aurora City lures two Snow Demons.”

“The specific routes require members to dispatch hands to maintain precision.”

The two women reported progress alternately.

“The biggest problem with Snow Demons is that they spread easily and are very difficult to control;maintaining routes requires great sacrifice, doesn’t the association have resources to compensate?” a small-statured old woman slowly spoke.

“There is no compensation,” the chairman responded. “The Snow Demon serves as a test for Aurora City to determine which city could truly threaten the Cold Disaster and can genuinely support our future destined new city plan.”

He paused, then continued.

“It’s a test of potential—Black Disasters we can just barely guide, but the Cold Disaster is something we must face alongside ordinary people. If you all can’t shift your thinking, the future will surely bring great losses.”

“The key issue is, once the Snow Demons are provoked and go out of control, they become unpredictable. We aim to create a new world, build a city that belongs solely to us, the new humanity. If everyone dies, what’s the point of this so-called new city?” a burly man stepped forward and said.

“This is a destined sacrifice,” the chairman stated calmly. “Everything demands a price;the greater the aspiration, the greater the cost.”

He slightly tilted his head, looking towards a burly man in a black robe on his right.

“Seventeen, how are your preparations?”

“Almost done, the preliminary work for guiding the Snow Demons is complete, but two of my subordinates mysteriously disappeared;I suspect Black Wind Camp might have noticed something. They may have acted prematurely,” Number Seventeen replied.

“After all, the only Inner Qi Cultivator in the world, just like that multiple-enhanced individual from the Free Alliance side, both are unique globally, possessing some abilities we cannot predict,” the chairman nodded.

“So, shall I begin?” Number Seventeen asked.

“Yes, officially start tomorrow, let’s see how much lethality Inner Qi has against Snow Demons,” the chairman nodded.

“Understood, directing from where the Snow Demons currently are, it should take about seven days, please witness this,” Number Seventeen spoke somberly.

“Snow Demons… if we cannot counter the Cold Disaster… we too will face the ultimate predicament, everyone… for the future of the new city, for the future of humanity’s evolution, for everyone’s ultimate wish before coming here… to survive the Cold Disaster, to find the final star,” the chairman spoke solemnly. “Don’t be stingy with resources, find more effective ways to combat the Cold Disaster as soon as possible.”

He gently gripped his cane, leaning forward.

“Our time… is running out….”