Night of Despair-Chapter 114 - : The Harvest

Chapter 114: The Harvest

“Activate!” Yu Hong confirmed in his heart.

Instantly, he felt a trace of Inner Qi in his abdomen surge upward, flowing into the Black Mark on the back of his hand, and vanishing without a trace.

A second later.

The specks of light in his field of vision suddenly brightened and then burst with a pop, disappearing from sight.

“Activation successful, Large Pyroxene Grass has entered rapid growth period. Duration of twelve consecutive hours. Growth location is the same as last growth area.”

Releasing his hand, Yu Hong relaxed.

...

Having arranged the Large Pyroxene Grass, he then stood up, went down to the basement, and approached the food he had brought back this time.

All the food was stacked in the second basement.

In the pitch-black basement, the green glow of the atomic lamp was dim and dark.

There were boxes on the floor: one of beef cans, one of fish cans, two of scallion oil biscuits, and one of chicken with mushrooms flavored instant noodles.

In addition, there were four pieces of dried salted fish of varying lengths; the longest was the length of an arm, and the shortest was only the size of a book.

“What a good person…” Yu Hong exclaimed. He had long been tired of eating protein bars and dried meat. Now he finally had the chance to change his palate.

“First, strengthen to extend the shelf life.” He extended his hand, gently pressing it on the surface of the stacked boxes.

“Strengthen food, direction: prolong shelf life, increase heat and nutrients, reduce side effects.”

A black line flashed, instantly flowing out from the Black Mark and into the boxes.

Soon.

A black countdown appeared on the boxes: 3 days 15 hours 32 minutes.

“Do you want to strengthen the food?” The Black Mark’s feedback voice sounded.

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Yu Hong calculated the time.

“Originally, it took three hours to strengthen a piece of lizard dried meat into a protein bar, and a bag of ten pieces of dried meat took over a day. Now with so much food, to enhance it into higher-quality food, it only takes a little over three days.”

In fact, he had recently noticed that the time he needed to strengthen many things had become somewhat shorter than before.

This reduction in time was spread across a variety of small things and was not very noticeable, because each was shortened only a little. But now, with so much food all at once, the reduced time was quite significant.

Once he confirmed the strengthening had started, Yu Hong, with patience, returned to the first floor to enjoy the cooked protein soup.

He could wait three days…

After eating and resting for half an hour, he began to practice.

The new Cultivation Technique integrated Heavy Leg Skill and added a lot of static exercises. According to Yu Hong’s original strengthening goals, it was able to inflict certain damage on shadow.

That was why Yu Hong had great expectations for it.

Standing in the first basement, he continued to practice the static exercises of the First Layer of the Cultivation Technique.

Following the description in the Cultivation Technique, he sat quietly on the ground, imitating the Taoist meditation posture.

At the same time, the Inner Qi that had just been depleted inside his body began to slowly absorb the mysterious particles around him, gathering new threads of Inner Qi.

He closed his eyes in concentration, visualizing the First Layer’s visualization diagram, as if he was flying and roaming within that bizarre image.

Time seemed to lose its meaning at this moment; he had no idea how much time had passed and gradually forgot where he was.

When he came to, he had gathered a small point of a second thread of Inner Qi in his abdomen.

Compared to the size and density of the first thread of Inner Qi, he estimated that after about two more such progresses, he would be able to successfully gather the second thread of Inner Qi. This meant that he would completely fill the First Layer static exercises and begin to work on the Second Layer.

Whoosh.

The sound of rain from outside faintly entered the basement.

The rain pattered against the wooden door, making a dull pitter-patter noise.

Yu Hong slowly opened his eyes from meditation, stood up with some joy.

“Soon… I didn’t expect that after just one outing, the First Layer static exercises would be completely filled.”

He was not sure why this happened, but as long as the progress was positive, it was acceptable.

He glanced at the Red Value detector for the time, which showed that only a little over three hours had passed since he began his practice.

Ignoring the food being strengthened, Yu Hong ascended to the first floor, went to the door, and pulled open the cover.

Outside the fortified glass was a downpour in the night.

No black insects, no moonlight, and even fewer stars. Outside was pitch black as if drenched in ink, invisible to anything.

The sound of the rain was the only sign of life outside.

Not only that, but the outside temperature had also become chilly. The door continuously radiated a cold chill.

Yu Hong stoked the fireplace, making the flames burn fiercer to emit more warmth, dispersing the dampness that permeated the air.

Then he turned on the radio and tuned to the only national channel: AM500, National Security Headquarters.

He went back to the storage area to rummage, found a bottle of Large Pyroxene Stone ink and a stack of thin wooden boards, and began to carefully draw a new talisman array board while listening to the radio.

The Central Station had no news, only the soft sound of gentle music, which seemed like a mournful melody combining the piano, bamboo flute, and drum, carrying a sense of longing, quiet and deep.

As time passed, the rune boards were created by Yu Hong one by one, placed aside, waiting for the Black Mark to strengthen.

On this outing, he hadn’t needed the previously made Vortex Rune boards, but that didn’t hinder his contemplation of their specific uses.

Judging by the Basic Survival Leg Technique that had fused with the Vortex Rune, the speed of his Inner Qi condensation was significantly faster than before.

Perhaps this was due to the Vortex Rune’s absorption of unknown energy.

After making a pile of rune boards, Yu Hong drank some water, got up, lay down in his sleeping bag, and closed his eyes to sleep peacefully.

Night unknowingly passed in such a tranquil setting.

*

*

*

At Baihe City, at the entrance of an integrated research park.

Troops of armed United Forces soldiers stood guard around, protecting the black solar-powered sedans parked at the gate.

Soon, doors of the cars opened, and people of all ages, men and women, disembarked. They looked disheveled; some even bore wounds, but at that moment, there was a common feature on their faces, joy.

Joy mixed with relief.

The people were organized into two lines by the soldiers, gradually checked, registered, and let into the park.

Wei Shanshan and her mother were among them, lining up in the middle, surrounded by important family members from the various research institutes just like them.

Some, like them, had been rescued by response teams, others had come from other cities, all to catch the thorough relocation of Baihe City’s research institutions.

After registration, led by a guide, Wei Shanshan and her mother quickly approached a five-story building within the park.

A group had already gathered at the entrance, waiting. Leading them was a haggard-looking, short-haired middle-aged man with black-framed glasses.

The man’s features closely resembled Wei Shanshan’s, but more pronounced, seemingly with a touch of foreign ancestry.

Upon seeing Wei Shanshan and Qiu Yanxi, the man’s lips uncontrollably quivered, he took a few steps forward, and opened his arms wide.

Thump.

Father and daughter embraced each other tightly, weeping.

It was a touching scene, while Qiu Yanxi remained calm by their side.

“This time, I owe you one,” she said softly.

“Yanxi, are you still mad at me?” Wei Hongye held his daughter and walked over to his wife, grabbing her hand.

“No… it’s just…” Qiu Yanxi sighed, her trials of life and death seemingly softening her once sharp and stern nature.

“Forget it, let’s not talk about that for now. We brought you something this time; though it turned into powder along the way, maybe you could use it as a sample for research.”

She carefully took out a plastic bag containing luminous stone weed powder, handing it to Wei Hongye. When she realized that the plant had turned into powder, she immediately knew it was out of the ordinary and promptly sealed it in a bag.

“I understand, I’ll take a detailed look. Tell me more about the origin of this,” Wei Hongye nodded, speaking earnestly, “Also, that wild man who helped you, the man named Yu Hong, did he … ”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but a serious gravity appeared behind his glasses.

“…No!” Qiu Yanxi cut in firmly. “Both your daughter and I are safe! Have peace of mind about that.”

“That’s good to hear!” Wei Hongye breathed a sigh of relief, whether genuinely convinced or not. “In exchange, I gave him a token for the nuclear-powered engine he wanted. He can only get the real miniature nuclear-powered engine if he finds it with the token inserted. This deal was fair enough.”

“Was it really fair?” Qiu Yanxi gazed at her husband. She knew well her husband’s personality and nature.

“I told him the location and gave him the key. Whether he gets it or not is not my concern. It’s out of my reach, and I can’t control that much,” Wei Hongye said nonchalantly.

As for whether he knew about the Black Crow team fishing at the nuclear-powered engine site, having sold the information to several buyers, only he would know.

Holding the powder of the luminous stone weed.

“Alright, come inside and rest first, then tell us what you’ve encountered, what this powder is,” he said with a relaxed smile.

“Okay!” Qiu Yanxi nodded.

“We don’t have much time, we must hurry to Aurora City,” Wei Hongye said.

“What now? Another incident?” Qiu Yanxi frowned.

“Yes… The defense line retreated again and again, the Red Value increased, and the frequency of shadow appearances went up, with monsters and shadows that were less dangerous becoming harder to deal with. The range of the luminous stone mines is also shrinking. We can’t stay here much longer,” Wei Hongye sighed.

“…Even Aurora City and the Silver Tower can’t hold on?” Qiu Yanxi’s eyes widened.

“The wireless contact with the Silver Tower has been broken for half a month now… the situation may be grim,” Wei Hongye sighed. “The increase in the concentration of the Red Value environment is starting to cause various dangerous alterations to the external environment. The Aurora City combined with the heads of the United Forces from various countries have signed a new agreement. For all Black Disasters of danger level four and above, the main strategy is to isolate and seal off, no longer to crush, resist, and rescue as before…”

“How could it be!?” Qiu Yanxi and her daughter were both stunned.

“That’s why I was so eager to bring you back. This batch of response teams might be the last. After this, there won’t be any more army responses… If stranded outside, one can only leave it to fate,” Wei Hongye sighed.

He looked up at the distant dark night sky.

“We must leave here within a month. According to reliable information, the high-danger Black Disasters flooding through the frontline gaps will arrive in a month and a half. In addition to the troublesome Language Person, the Multi-eyed Bird, the Withered Woman, there are also danger level six Intermittent Beings included,” he closed his eyes, his face exhibiting a hint of fear, “Given Baihe City’s current circumstances, upon contact, annihilation is certain… We must leave before the news spreads.”