Night of Despair

"Al... alright, we'll trade them all," Song Mingshi sighed. Behind him, except for the chubby-cheeked twin-tailed girl, the other two students looked disgruntled, seemingly finding this situation unfair.

"The market price in the city is only one silver coin for a day's supply..." the boy muttered under his breath. The purchasing power of a Silver Tower silver coin remained strong, as it could be exchanged for a decent amount of food. Yet here with Yu Hong, it was five times the amount!

It was practically profiteering.

Soon, Yu Hong fetched three portions of anti-inflammatory medicine from the cave and traded them for silver coins with the four people.

After acquiring the medicine, the four quickly returned to the village, and Yu Hong also went back to his courtyard, waiting for the final phase of the grand array to end.

The countdown slowly reduced its numbers.

'03 minutes.'

'02 minutes.'

'01 minute.'

As Yu Hong focused intently on the expectation, the lush, luminous stone grassland encircled by rocks in the courtyard suddenly lit up with a faint pearl white glow as the countdown reached zero.

Simultaneously, the entire courtyard became engulfed with a large, silent talisman array emerging from the ground.

The talisman array was entirely white, and upon appearing, inexplicably stirred up tiny air currents that gathered into a breeze.

Yu Hong stood outside the courtyard, holding the Red Value Detector, clearly seeing the values on the detector rapidly increase.

Before, the courtyard's negative value was around negative one hundred and twenty-three on average, but at that moment, as the grand array appeared, this value skyrocketed.

Yu Hong watched with wide eyes as the value shot up from one hundred twenty-three to one hundred sixty, then to two hundred fifty, three hundred, five hundred, eight hundred, one thousand!

After surpassing one thousand, the value added another seventy to eighty, then slowly reduced and eventually halted.

Immediately, the white light of the large talisman array on the ground began to rapidly dim and disappear, along with the red value, which also dropped from over negative one thousand back to the negative one hundred mark.

*"Much like the talisman array, the radiation now also has the characteristic of condensing and gathering without leaking easily. This is good!"* Yu Hong nodded in his heart.

*The talisman array he made was like this, with the usual radiation red value far inferior to that of the Large Pyroxene Stone, only exploding rapidly upon encountering shadows or Evil Shadows, surpassing even the Large Pyroxene Stone in intensity.*

*This was also why the talisman array was more popular, as it significantly reduced the likelihood of developing stone sickness.*

*"Over a thousand negative values...!"* Yu Hong finally let out a long sigh of relief as he watched the large talisman array gradually disappear and fade into the grassland.

*"It was still an automatically replenishing grand array; ordinary shadows couldn't get close anymore. Even something like a Withered Woman or an Evil Shadow might think twice about approaching...."* he thought with a sense of security from the reinforced grand array. While with a three thousand plus array, that problem would be completely solved. A Withered Woman was even weaker back then, and a silver array with five hundred negative values could briefly defeat it.

Thinking about it, Yu Hong recalled the news brought by that group of academy students and quickly headed toward Old Li's place.

He needed to check if his water supply system had arrived.

Ten minutes later.

Yu Hong arrived at the stone house of the post office, only to be surprised to see two reasonably good-looking young women cleaning the yard and maintaining the fence.

Both were wearing rather inappropriate gray low-cut yoga outfits, which perfectly outlined their curvaceous figures. Their faces were adorned with the light makeup of peacetime, and every movement they made while working exuded a strong sense of incongruity...

Little Aisena stood at the door, arms crossed, with a pouty, displeased expression.

It was quite clear that she didn't approve of the two newcomers.

"Yu Hong! You're here. Come, come, come." Li Rushan inside the stone house was also tidying things up, and upon seeing Yu Hong, he quickly came out laughing, a smiling familiarity on his face, opening his arms for a hug.

"...What nonsense is this?" Yu Hong, out of courtesy, gave him a light hug and asked in a low voice.

"Getting some help. Heaven has the virtue of good order, plus since I need to take in people to help anyway, isn't it better to choose a couple of good-looking ones?" Li Rushan said, as if it were a matter of course.

"Can you manage them alone?" Yu Hong retorted.

"One is helping me grow mushrooms, and the other is helping raise lizards, freeing up my time so I can spend more with Nana," Li Rushan replied naturally.

"Hehehe... Anyway, just keep an eye on it, don't let anything get out of hand," Yu Hong thought this guy was just after beauty.

"There are a lot of people in the village. If you want any talents, go pick them. These people are also pitiful, lacking food and drink. I'm afraid it won't be long before something happens," Li Rushan said quietly.

"Aren't you the one with an abundance of food? Why don't you share some to help?" Yu Hong sneered. "So, the pretty ones are people, and the others aren't?"

"Look at you saying that. I'm also looking to find someone to care for Nana. After all, my daughter is growing up, and I, as her father, can't always be the one to bathe her, can I?" Li Rushan had a justified reason.

Yu Hong was also uninterested in arguing further. He wasn't one to let people into his house without thorough testing. If it were Stammering Yiyi, it would be acceptable, Doctor Xu could barely make the cut, but for others, it was out of the question.

"Alright, alright, where's my water system?"

"I was about to tell you, it's in the house; you can check the damaged parts yourself," Old Li said, leading Yu Hong inside, where they saw the water supply system dismantled into multiple components in the living room.

The structure was simple; it was just a bunch of pipes paired with a high-power silent water pump and included control water valves like faucets.

The key was the materials, which were infused with a small amount of the sunshine series materials that wouldn't be gnawed by Blood Tide insects.

Yu Hong quickly assessed the damage, mainly the core water pump was broken, but he wasn't concerned. With the Black Mark, there was nothing that couldn't be repaired.

Without hesitation, he grabbed a handful of stuff and headed back.

Not far from the post office, he saw Li Rushan quietly taking one of the girls on a supposed firewood-gathering trip, only to end up hiding near the house for some mutual groping.

He was speechless, knowing Old Li had such a pressing need, but it still left a rather casual impression.

Returning with the water system to the safe house, Yu Hong placed it in the newly excavated underground stone chamber.

He then picked up the Red Value Detector, intending to enhance this device to prevent a sneak attack similar to what the shadow had pulled.

Putting a hand on the detector, Yu Hong silently meditated on reinforcement, envisioning the enhancement direction to increase sensitivity, detection range, battery life, and integrate it into the reinforced White Bear suit.

Then, as the Black Mark exuded black lines, the countdown appeared.

'6 hours 17 minutes.'

After confirming the reinforcement had begun, Yu Hong contentedly settled by the fireplace, gazing out the high-strength glass window with the board pulled back, contemplating what to send to Stammering Yiyi next.

After giving it some thought, he decided to wait until the detector reinforcement was complete to see its performance. If it proved effective, he would send one to Stammering Yiyi.

Compared to one-time-use items like talisman arrays, a fully charged detector could be used for a long time, and there were certainly places in the city where it could be recharged. Ensuring safety, it was far superior to talisman arrays.

So he lay there, and during the waiting period for the enhancement, Yu Hong unknowingly fell asleep. It was his nap time; after his morning exercises, he used a portion of the time for a midday nap to ensure energy for the afternoon exercises and work.

Usually, he would nap for about an hour and a half.

But this time, there was a small incident.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

A cautious knock on the door woke Yu Hong from his slumber.

He slowly opened his eyes, seeing someone standing outside the window, unexpectedly the chubby-cheeked female student he had met only that morning.

This girl had even redder eyes, slightly swollen, now wearing an adorable white lace princess dress. From the glass, he could see the pure white thick stockings beneath her skirt outlining her well-shaped legs.

Although she was short, her body proportions exhibited under this outfit were quite decent.

"Do you need something?" Yu Hong stood up, walked to the door, and asked against the stone wall.

"Please... please, sir, could you spare one more portion of the anti-inflammatory medicine for me? I beg you!" The girl forcefully bowed her head, banging her forehead against the door, letting out a cry of pain.

"I told you there isn't any more. Whatever could be spared was given to you all," Yu Hong replied with an expressionless face.

"But... but the medicine really isn't enough!" The girl said suppressing her sobs. "This morning's medicine, my mother didn't get any.... It was all snatched away and distributed among them.... Please, I beg you!"

Yu Hong was at a loss for words. Indeed, he still had more medicine, having sold three portions and keeping some for his own use, and he could gather herbs to make more once used up.

But making medicine required time. Moreover, his favorite principle since childhood had always been equivalence, letting no one gain anything from him for free.

Especially after many experiences with others taking advantage of him, he adhered to this principle even more firmly.

"I can spare you one final portion. But this time, it will cost six silver coins," Yu Hong replied calmly. He needed the other party to pay a higher price so they wouldn't have unrealistic expectations of him.

"One portion... might not be enough.... Could you give me one more? My dad works in Aurora City, and once we get there, we'll definitely repay you!" the girl pleaded tearfully.

"Aurora City?" Yu Hong's heart stirred. He now understood that this group was clearly all second-generations; there wasn't a single ordinary person, considering none could casually pull out that many silver coins and join the resupply team for evacuation.

"Can you get sunshine series materials?" Yu Hong suddenly asked.

"...Well, I don't know.... My dad is at the energy research institute, working on nuclear micro-energy research..." the girl hesitated.

Nuclear micro-energy??!

Yu Hong's heart skipped a beat. The most ideal energy for him at present was nuclear power. If he could get his hands on nuclear batteries, even if they were just incomplete versions, he could use the Black Mark to enhance them, creating a complete version. At that moment... it would truly be trading an old gun for a cannon! Once and for all!

"How can you prove it?" He pressed down his excitement and asked seriously.

"We joined the supply team this time because my father entrusted the postal system to help us. If you wish to confirm, you can verify it through the postal system," the girl answered this part quite fluently, clearly having addressed this question multiple times before.

Upon hearing this, Yu Hong felt slightly moved.

He knew that on Li Rushan's side, real-time communication equipment was available.

"Alright, I'll head to the post office now to find someone to verify it. If what you say is true, then we can definitely have a good discussion," he said.

"By the way, what's your name?" he asked.

"Wei Shanshan, and my father's name is Wei Hongye. He's the deputy director of the research institute..." the girl answered softly.

"Alright, let's head to the post office to verify your identity. No problem, right?" Yu Hong quickly said.