A Night of Desperation-Chapter 284: Route 2

Sitting at the foot of the bed, Yu Hong sighed.

‘Still, I have to go back once… It’s too inconvenient here without money…’

He tossed the keys and walked to the terrace, looking down.

Below directly faced the harbor, where ships were constantly moving back and forth, occasionally emitting loud horns.

The sunset in the afternoon barely peeked through the thick clouds, a hint of red glow flickering.

A group of seagulls continuously flew around the harbor, as if attending some collective ritual.

“How wonderful….” Yu Hong took a deep breath, greedily smelling the air filled with the aroma of various dinners being cooked…

He really, really wanted to stay in this place forever…

But…

Suppressing the regrets in his heart, he pocketed the keys, turned around, opened the door, and left the room.

He soon left the inn.

He began to jog slowly, like those fitness enthusiasts, running toward the direction outside the harbor.

About twenty or so minutes later.

He followed the highway to a completely deserted and desolate beach.

The beach was rocky and steep, dangerous, and the fierce sea kept crashing against the rocks, splashing.

Yu Hong leaped lightly and jumped onto a large black rock, calling out for the Black Ship in his mind.

Soon, a black fog slowly emerged ahead, and after a while, a decrepit Black Ship appeared before him.

Jumping onto the ship, Yu Hong looked back at the rocky beach, with a hint of unwillingness to leave in his eyes.

The Black Ship slowly carried him, completely submerging into the black fog, returning in the direction they came from.

After more than ten minutes.

The black fog ahead parted, revealing the camp’s wooden bridge.

Below the bridge, the waters of the Black River were still raging furiously.

The air temperature had also returned to well over minus one hundred degrees.

Bang.

Yu Hong jumped off the ship and strode toward the front of the camp.

Upon reaching the front, he checked the Ultimate Gate;this gate was protected by walls on three sides, only revealing one side emitting a ghostly blue halo.

From time to time, streams of inexplicable blue light would burst out from the gate, then a large crowd of Black Disasters from outside swarmed towards it, clashing with the blue light.

‘How can I make money quickly over there?’ Yu Hong pondered for a moment, ‘It’s best if it’s legal.’

Not long after, he returned to the cave to check the communicator, found it still had no contacts, so he simply put on a suit, left the camp, and headed towards the nearest town.

Not long after.

In Baishi Town.

Yu Hong walked along the street covered in thick snow.

On both sides of the street, some houses had collapsed or were buried, silent and empty.

Soon, Yu Hong paused in his steps and spotted his target.

Swish.

With a blink, he appeared in front of the shop, activated his Inner Qi, and instantly, a massive amount of snow powder around the shop erupted.

The large amount of snow powder blasted to the sides, revealing a large deep pit on the spot.

At the bottom of the pit was the entrance to the shop.

‘Dazzling Gold’

That was the sign of the shop.

Yu Hong forcibly opened the door and bent down to walk in.

Inside, the counter had signs of being smashed, but most of the gold ornaments were still there.

Yu Hong stepped forward, casually selecting a few easy-to-carry Golden Bracelets and gold rings, removed the tags, and checked for any marks.

There were none. He pocketed the gold, then turned and left the shop.

‘As start-up capital, it’s enough. Other legal incomes are easy for me.’

Carrying the gold ornaments, he quickly called for the Black Ship, changed clothes, and returned to the Huangsong Island world.

He simply found a roadside gold recycling shop, sold the Golden Bracelets and rings cheaply, and then he had over fifty thousand in cash.

Returning to the inn, Yu Hong paid off the money, just in time for dinner, so he changed into a black shirt and jeans, and went downstairs.

There were four people eating.

An old man and a girl, Yu Hong, and another middle-aged woman with a haggard face.

In the small hall, a simple overhead table was set with three dishes and one soup.

Green pepper pork stir-fry, tomato and egg stir-fry, boiled fish slices, and kelp and dried scallop soup.

“Come on, don’t be shy. I made enough for six people, eat up!” the old man warmly invited.

Yu Hong looked at the dishes served in four basins on the table and also took a bowl to serve himself some rice.

Everyone served themselves and began eating, and the old man started rambling about the gossip and local news he heard while walking outside today.

As he spoke, he turned to the middle-aged woman.

“Sister, how is your son doing? Can he get out?”

“I’m still not sure… They said it’s still in process and asked me to wait…” The woman lowered her head, her voice filled with sorrow.

“I’ve already apologized and offered compensation, even knelt before them, but…”

“Sigh… Just before I came back, I heard about another case similar to yours in the southern part of the city. The neighbors said it seemed like a group of young people had planned a trip to a rural village. They went there as three, but only one returned.”

“My son… he wouldn’t even dare to touch a chicken at home, how could he possibly commit murder!?” The woman began to sob quietly, covering her face.

“Recently, there have been several cases like this, all of them bizarre and unexplainable,” the old man sighed. “Some say that it’s the work of unclean entities. I don’t believe it though.”

He then rambled on about several other cases, complaining about the police’s inadequate investigations, and how local people could see through the flimsy excuses, even though no one dared to speak outright about it.

Yu Hong listened quietly from the side, without uttering a word. From the old man’s words, he vaguely felt that something might have already infiltrated this place, and it had begun.

After finishing a meal, he expressed his satisfaction to the old man, complimenting how long it had been since he had such normal food, making everything seem as sumptuous as a feast of rare delicates.

After the meal, he went for a walk and quickly found a local internet cafe. He went inside, paid, and booted up a computer.

The old computer buzzed softly and its fan furiously spat out heat.

Soon, a massive logo flashed past.

Followed by a somewhat familiar operating system interface.

“It’s quite similar to the computers I’ve used before.” He felt relieved that he didn’t have to adapt all over again.

Expertly, he opened a browser and typed in “Heavenly Master Mansion”.

Quickly, a clear list of entries appeared.

He soon found the official website of the Heavenly Master Mansion and clicked on it.

Instantly, the screen flickered, and a photo of the Taoist Palace gate at sunset, used as a background image, appeared before his eyes.

The gate, decorated primarily in gold and red, bore a large Tai Chi Diagram.

Above, marked in blue watermark, were words like “Yasong Taoist United General Assembly”, “Innate Nine Sects”, “Heavenly Master Mansion Global United General Gate”, and others.

“Very official…” Yu Hong continued to browse through the next page.

The website structure was quite standard for an institutional website, with dropdown options which, upon clicking, unfolded into mind-map-like structures of links.

Soon, he found detailed information about the Innate Nine Sects.

“The Innate Nine Sects are founded on tracing the origins of hundreds of major and minor Taoist sects, defining nine major lineages. Each of the Nine Sects represents an unbroken lineage passed down from antiquity.”

“Members of the Nine Sects: Yunchong Mountain Upper Primordial Heavenly Master Mansion, Lower Primordial Heavenly Master Mansion, Jinxiao Temple, Yunshen Temple, Mo Wen Palace, Dayunluo Temple, Zihe Palace, Qingxia Palace, Supreme Ningxu Palace.”

Yu Hong memorized these nine names and then opened a new webpage to look up ‘resentful mark’.

However, he mostly found ancient texts and mythological legends;nothing modern.

He then searched for ‘Black Disaster’.

Still nothing.

Changing the query to ‘Black Fog’.

This time a high number of entries came up…

Tens of thousands of entries appeared;many were related to games and novels.

Yu Hong patiently clicked through one by one.

Finally, after more than an hour, he stopped his mouse, his gaze fixed on the screen.

“April 1942, the Mo Wen Palace’s master accompanied the Northern Military District on a special mission, successfully sealing three dangerous Black Fog Cave entrances.”

This was an excerpt from a biography laced with memories.

Yu Hong continued his search.

Soon, he found similar text in a travel memoir.

“Over forty years ago at Qiheng Mountain, although picturesque, it was fraught with danger due to the presence of the Black Fog Cave, leaving those who entered unable to find their way out. Later, a Heavenly Master from the Upper Primordial Heavenly Master Mansion conducted a ritual ceremony, and miraculously, post-ceremony, the Black Fog Cave also disappeared. Since then, this place has become a perpetually famous tourist destination.”

Not only that, he continued discovering mentions of the Black Fog Cave in various travel memoirs.

The description of the cave emitting black fog was commonly used by everyone.

“As I thought… The Black Disaster might have started corrupting here a long time ago, but the Innate Nine Sects of this world kept it sealed and suppressed, prolonging and blocking it till now.”

Yu Hong found out that the current year was 2012, closely correlating with Earth’s calendrical time, both counting over two thousand years.

Records of Black Fog Cave spanned beyond the Yasong region to several other countries as well.

He spent the entire day sitting in front of the computer, ceaselessly searching records on webpages in various languages.

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Here, there were no firewalls, allowing free access to international websites.

Thus, his translator worked at full power, rapidly recording through network lexicons, phonetics, characters, and articles.

By eleven o’clock at night, Yu Hong’s translator had mastered the pronunciation of over fourteen languages from this place.

Except for a few languages with different syntactic order, most could achieve simultaneous translation.

He had also found more than eighty official records of Black Fog Cave incidences.

Outside the Innate Nine Sects, two major factions from the Buddhist Sect—Vajra Sect and Shura Sect—had also shown their traces in sealing the Black Fog Cave.

Yu Hong recalled the high-risk Black Disasters he saw at the edge of the light spot, numbering thousands, and looked back at the numerous Black Fog Caves being sealed here incessantly.

“If the Black Fog Cave is indeed the light spot, then… this place… managing to delay and avoid destruction by the Black Disaster, is truly… very strong!”

Yu Hong was somewhat excited.

This was the first time he encountered a force capable of confronting the Source Disaster head-on, ensuring self-preservation.

Previous experiences, be it with the Taiyuan Orthodox Sect, True Origin Sect, or his own Cultivation Technique’s background forces, all were tremendously powerful but ultimately…

Either they were destroyed, or they brought destruction to their own worlds, as recorded by the Black Mark’s owner’s manual.

At this moment, Yu Hong truly encountered a major force that could confront the Black Disaster directly.