Night of Despair-Chapter 125 - : Mark of 123

Chapter 125: Mark of 123

“The second mark!?” Yu Hong stared in shock.

The luminous grass was his first bound creature for the mark; he couldn’t even count how much it had helped him. Without the luminous grass, his gate would have eroded daily by the Blood Tide worms, and he would have had to spend significant Black Mark time repairing it daily.

Even big Blood Tide Monsters like the elephant worm might not have been stopped by it alone.

Such a creature, seemingly simple and ordinary in its utility, played a crucial part in such a perilous world.

And now, the Black Mark had opened up a second mark position!?

After the shock ebbed away in Yu Hong’s heart, overwhelming joy followed.

...

But this was not the moment to rejoice. He regained his composure and stared intently at the figure attempting to step into the yard of luminous grass through the window.

He was certain that this person was not a shadow but very possibly the mastermind himself.

Previously, the figure might have detested the continued emission of negative Red Value by the luminous grass, but now, for some reason, it was trying to enter the yard voluntarily.

Hiss.

Yu Hong watched as the luminous grass within several meters of the figure rapidly turned black, shattered, and turned to ashes.

And as he continuously poured his Inner Qi into the mark, new and stronger luminous grass began to sprout from the mud around the figure.

Snap.

The figure took another step further and then stopped.

Its body seemed to continually emit an invisible radiation force, fighting against the regenerating luminous grass around it.

Time slowly ticked by.

Ten seconds.

Thirty seconds.

Fifty seconds.

Finally, the figure slowly retreated, step by step, out of the yard and stood outside the wall again.

It looked up, its face blurred with a smile, giving Yu Hong a glance before turning and disappearing into the dense fog.

At the same time, inside the yard, the grassland that had turned to black ash rapidly returned to its original state with the supply of Inner Qi.

Yu Hong sighed deeply, sweat faintly visible on his forehead.

He had just thought that the luminous grass yard wouldn’t hold, and without it, he had no sufficient means to confront the mastermind.

If the yard were breached, all he would have left was the safety of the Pyroxene Secret Room inside the cave.

“This time, even the luminous grass yard couldn’t expel it… It seems relying on the luminous grass alone might not be enough against the mastermind….”

Thinking this, he withdrew his gaze, feeling the scant remains of his Inner Qi and knowing just how perilous the situation had been.

“The second mark… what should I bind this time?”

He breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and looked around inside the cave.

The dim red charcoal in the fireplace slowly released heat, a black box-like communicator lay on the wooden table in the middle, and to one side was a solar panel responsible for generating electricity.

Yu Hong’s gaze swept through all the objects.

“The function of a mark, allowing rapid regeneration, recovery, and enhancement in accordance with the strength of Inner Qi, is closely related to my Cultivation Technique. I must bind something that could protect my safety even better than the luminous grass….”

“Non-living items definitely wouldn’t work… their cost-effectiveness compared to living beings is too low, and they can’t recover by themselves.”

“As for living beings, I could choose a new type of wild grass, vine, shrub, or even the trees outside!”

Yu Hong turned and slid the barrier aside, looking at the trees faintly illuminated by the light of the luminous grass outside.

Pillars of trees standing at least ten meters tall, robust and powerful.

“The advantage of a large tree is that it’s not easily damaged, but it grows slowly… and its range is fixed… though its radiation is definitely far greater than that of luminous grass.”

Yu Hong felt that if he chose a large tree as the bonded creature for the mark, the fusion time might be significant.

“And besides, the Black Mark has not yet been fully enhanced; I can’t use the mark to bind anything in the short term. I remember the initial binding of the mark was accidentally achieved through a mixture of luminous stone and wild grass. Now that there’s an extra mark slot, it just means I can synthesize and bind another living being. This process must still use the Black Mark enhancement….”

“That is to say, I still have to wait for the Black Mark enhancement to finish, to bind the second mark….”

With that thought, Yu Hong steadied his mind.

At this point, everything was converging towards the moment the Black Mark enhancement completed.

“Only two more days… soon…” He took a deep breath, closed the barrier, and went back to continue his training.

The new Inner Qi let him directly touch the mastermind, signifying that the merged Cultivation Techniques were beginning to show the capabilities he originally wanted.

He had enhanced his Cultivation Technique specifically to acquire abilities to counter the shadow and Evil Shadow.

“Keep it up!”

He muttered to himself quietly.

He buried himself in intense training.

Regarding what to bind with the second mark, he now had a clearer idea.

When a person wholeheartedly buries himself in one task, time flies by rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, two days passed.

Inside the cave basement.

Yu Hong sat cross-legged, his body suddenly trembling slightly.

He opened his eyes, a genuine smile breaking over his dirt-streaked face.

“It worked!!”

The second stream of Inner Qi was now silently circulating in his abdomen.

Two streams of Inner Qi—that was the result of his re-crafted Cultivation Technique.

As before, the second layer of the Basic Survival Leg Technique also required accumulating nine streams of Inner Qi before one could advance to the next layer.

Today, this Cultivation Technique possessed a total of six layers. Moreover, as the booklet explained, the higher the layer, the more environmental Red Value needed to be absorbed.

This was also the fundamental reason why the Red Value radiation in the air inside the cave shelter was extremely scant.

It was not just the mitigation by the luminous stone grass and the talisman array’s radiation, but also Yu Hong’s continuous absorption.

“Today is also the last day of the Black Mark enhancement!”

Yu Hong’s heart was filled with anticipation.

He stood up, moved his limbs, walked out of the basement and went to the newly excavated third stone chamber, which was the designated energy control room.

This room housed the nuclear energy motor he had obtained, as well as the central water supply system.

In fact, these past days, Yu Hong had not checked on the situation for the first time; the impatient he would come and examine the nuclear energy motor every day.

Through this examination, he discovered a problem.

The nuclear energy motor itself was not perfect. In a corner at the very bottom, there were faint engravings, “Experiment No. k238.”

This led Yu Hong to speculate that perhaps the device was only an experimental model, incomplete in function, far less valuable than the complete units used in Hope City, and thus left behind unclaimed—a fact linked with what Wei Hongye had said about the inadequacy of miniaturized nuclear technologies.

Thus, it was used by Wei Hongye as bait, continuously exchanged for benefits.

“However, all these don’t matter. With the Black Mark…. even an imperfect experimental model can be fully repaired by me!”

Yu Hong stared at the countdown numbers continuously changing on the wall.

Only one minute left, enhancement was about to end.

His eyes were focused intensely, filled with thick anticipation, on the nuclear energy motor before him.

“Starting today…. For a very long, long time, I won’t have to worry about energy problems….”

This exhilarating thought kept revolving in his mind.

Hum!

All of a sudden, Yu Hong felt a tingling sensation throughout his body.

Everything before his eyes, everything around him, everything in the entire cave shelter, at that moment, completely blurred.

It blurred for an instant, not even 0.1 seconds; it felt like his vision had briefly blurred as something floated by, obscuring it.

Then, everything transformed.

The originally rough and primitive basement, at this moment, swished and turned into a room with smooth, thick walls, entirely black.

The nuclear energy motor was gone, and so were the components of the water supply system.

Instead, the wall now had two integrated box covers implanted into it.

Yu Hong walked over, pulled open the black box cover on the left, marked with a red skull and inscribed with red letters: Energy Control Box.

Inside the box cover were various switches and buttons, controlling the electricity supply for all basement rooms.

After closing the lid, Yu Hong opened another white box cover.

This lid was painted with a huge blue water droplet on its surface.

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Inside were water source switches corresponding to each room.

Snap.

He closed the lid, took a deep breath, turned around, and rushed upstairs to the first floor.

The first floor of the cave, near the exit door, had also changed.

The cave walls were completely regularized, all turned into what seemed like a thick black color, apparently coated with a layer of hard metal.

Everything else was still in its original place, but there was a new rectangular washbasin recessed into the wall on the right side next to the fireplace.

The basin was entirely made of stone, smooth and flat, without any patterns.

A faucet, a sink, and a drainpipe—just those three structures. Similarly, the entire washbasin was also black, as if coated with the same type of paint as the walls.

Yu Hong took a breath, went up, and turned the tap.

Whoosh.

A stream of clear water immediately squirted out from the faucet.

Endlessly flowing.

Watching the glistening water flow, Yu Hong’s lips were tightly pursed, his facial skin trembling.

He could not recall the last time he had seen such ordinary tap water.

Only those like him, who had lived in such terribly dangerous environments for so long, could appreciate how precious having an uninterrupted water supply was.

Watching this gushing water flow, an indescribable emotion welled up in Yu Hong’s heart.

“From now on…. I can finally…. stop searching for water outside, finally not worry about bathing, finally not have to sleep uncomfortably under these smelly, greasy, and sweaty clothes and bedding…”

At this moment, his eyes unconsciously moistened, only he could understand how painful it was to sleep night after night by these stinking, simultaneously slimy, sweaty bedding and clothes.

Standing still, he turned off the faucet and tried to calm his agitated emotions before going to check the power supply.

As he expected, each room had a switch to control the lights. Light bulbs were naturally installed in each room, with switches and wires embedded in the walls.

The entire safe house looked like a meticulously decorated three-bedroom hall, showing no signs of its initial roughness and manually chiseled traces.

Moreover, Yu Hong found reserved wall sockets in each room, though they were made of stone, not the familiar plastic, but this made him understand why this enhancement needed so much time.

It seemed that a lot of time had been spent on replenishing many small details of the shelter.

He meticulously inspected every room, the three basements, and the main hall.

Every single corner was meticulously inspected for changes.

And as he repeatedly rechecked, the joy and comfort rising in his heart slowly returned to calm.