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Night of Despair-Chapter 154 - : Empty Space 152
Chapter 154: Empty Space 152
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Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
Nighttime.
A giant elephant worm, towering up to six meters, was slowly walking step by step on the spacious highway.
...
Suddenly, it paused, stopping in the distance, raising its head to look straight ahead.
At the edge of the slightly damaged gray-white road stood a woman with black hair, wearing a yellow top and white skirt.
Her long hair covered her face, and the yellow top was fresh and bright, unusually clean, clearly visible in the moonlight. The white knee-length skirt had fine long vertical folds, gently swaying with the night breeze.
The woman stood quietly by the roadside, alone, her hands seeming somewhat long, the exposed skin fair and delicate, as if it hadn’t seen sunlight for a long time.
This was a very clean person.
And in such an environment, such a clean person shouldn’t appear.
The elephant worm hesitated.
It stood quietly on the road, staring at the woman, motionless.
After a moment.
The elephant worm slowly retreated, turned around, and began to leave in the direction it came.
It had only turned around, not taking more than a few steps.
Incredibly, the woman in the white skirt appeared once again along the roadside ahead.
Bang.
The elephant worm instinctively stepped back.
Click.
Suddenly, its vision blurred, the woman’s figure vanished.
In an instant, it realized something, looking down.
Somehow, without it knowing, the woman had appeared right beneath it.
She was slowly raising her head, parting her long dark hair, revealing the face hidden underneath.
Whoosh…
The night wind blew gently, restoring everything to peace.
The elephant worm on the highway disappeared without a trace, leaving only the woman in the white skirt standing quietly by the road.
Even the footprints left by the elephant worm on the ground vanished mysteriously.
*
*
*
In the basement.
Yu Hong moved with agility, constantly kicking in the same direction.
Left leg, right leg, circular kicks in succession, his whole body spinning like a top, faster and faster, thus stirring the air currents with increasing intensity.
In the middle of the basement, strange, sharp laughter gradually emerged once more, one after another, without pause.
Rising and falling, overlapping each other, bringing a strong sensation of unease that made the scalp tingle.
Before long, Yu Hong switched to high whipping kicks, low sweeping kicks, turning to sweep, Battle Axe smashing down, and various moves.
As his moves grew more skilled, the speed and continuity of his leg movements increased, slowly causing a faint weak air current to linger around him.
Bam!
Finally, a front kick to the heavens.
Yu Hong slowly retrieved his leg, stood still without moving, heat steaming off his body, sweat pouring down like rain.
*Another three days had passed, yet the Black Disaster still hadn’t arrived. No word from Old Li either… Could something really have happened to him!?*
He frowned deeply, and even though the fifth Inner Qi in his abdomen had half condensed, he couldn’t dispel the worry in his heart.
Having known each other for so long, Old Li was his only friend in this world besides Stammering Yiyi. If something happened to him now…
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He pulled a towel over, wet it under the faucet, and wiped away the sweat.
Following the stairs, he returned to the first floor.
Outside, faint voices of Old Zhou, Doctor Xu, and Aisena could be heard.
Yesterday Yu Hong had taken some time to go to the post office, brought back a stone stove, also a bunch of miscellaneous household items, just in time to fill the gap.
Now the temperature was growing colder, and the previous dampness seemed to have started dissipating, becoming dry, perhaps due to the moisture freezing into frost.
But the strange mist still lingered.
Sitting by the communicator, Yu Hong adjusted the channel. From Li Rushan’s pager channel, he turned to the satellite channel.
Soon, amid crackling static.
There came a wheezing sound from the communicator.
“Heh heh… heh heh heh heh….”
It was Guan Cao’s voice!
Something was wrong!
Yu Hong’s heart tightened, without thinking, he immediately shut it off.
Pop!
A spark flashed, the communicator seemingly burnt out inside, went silent.
Yu Hong exhaled long, stretched out his hand, quickly adjusted to another frequency, then placed it over the power button.
Clap.
Suddenly, a pale human hand stretched out from behind the communicator, grabbing his wrist.
Hiss!!
The intense burning sensation brought tremendous pain, causing Yu Hong to involuntarily cry out.
The four strands of Inner Qi misaligned automatically, surged forth, concentrating on his grabbed right wrist.
The powerful force of separation immediately broke Yu Hong and the hand apart, like an electric shock.
He staggered back, knocking over a chair as he stood, retreating two steps.
Looking at the communicator, the human hand had disappeared without a trace, the communicator still quiet, seemingly undamaged.
Huff… huff… huff….
Yu Hong continuously breathed deeply, the sweat that had just receded now seeping out again, soaking his undershirt.
He raised his hand, looked at his wrist, seeing a gray-black handprint.
It was as if a hand had truly grabbed him tightly, trying to pull him into the communicator a moment ago.
“It was fine contacting yesterday…. Guan Cao’s channel seems unusable now.”
Yu Hong’s heart sank, realizing something might have happened to him.
He had advised this guy along with Zhang Kaijun and the others before, telling him not to stay online all the time; it was dangerous.
But he wouldn’t listen.
Setting the chair back up, Yu Hong circulated his Inner Qi, finding that there were only two strands left out of the four just now.
Evidently, they were consumed in the confrontation with that hand just now.
*Fortunately, I strengthened my Cultivation Technique, able to use Inner Qi to hurt the Black Disaster; otherwise, that encounter just now…* Yu Hong felt lingering fear.
His body was now much stronger than initially, his Inner Qi quite abundant, equipped with all kinds of weapons, tools, and armor, yet still, he was defenseless, almost caught off guard.
Sitting down again, he took out a Radiation Hand Grenade, keeping it ready to explode at any moment.
Then again clicked the communicator on.
This time, the communicator’s channel was not directly linked to Guan Cao’s public channel; only faint static was heard from the speaker.
*If something has happened to Guan Cao, then Zhang Kaijun and Wei Song might be in trouble too…. A sudden attack like the one just now, a slow reaction would surely lead to death.*
He memorized the problematic channel’s number just now, continually adjusting the dial, trying to find other contact channels.
But there were none.
The national radio station that was there before now left only static, blank and bewildering.
*Has everything gone wrong? Or… should it be a kind of Black Disaster that can be transmitted through broadcasts, attacking all communication devices…*
He snapped the communicator off; a channel he had just found was suddenly broken.
Were Zhang Kaijun and Wei Song alright? He didn’t know. Guan Cao… might already be gone.
Alone in the underground nuclear facility, faced with danger with no one to help him. Such places, safe as they were paradises, became certain death traps in the event of trouble.
Finally rising, Yu Hong turned the communicator back on, switching to Li Rushan’s pager frequency, quietly making new Radiation Hand Grenades, waiting.
Over an hour passed in no time.
Yu Hong stood to pour himself a glass of water, drinking halfway through.
“Cough cough!” Suddenly, a vigorous coughing sound came from the communicator. “Boss! Boss, can you hear me? I’m back! Boss!” Li Rushan’s voice echoed.
Yu Hong’s eyes widened, straightening his back. But he didn’t answer immediately, waiting six seconds.
“Codeword.”
“At Black Wind Mountain’s Black Wind Ridge, in Black Wind Ridge’s Black Wind Cave, a peach tree grows, picking peach blossoms to sell for wine money.”
“… Not bad, you remember well,” Yu Hong said, his mouth twitching, realizing now that the design of the code had a sense of shame he hadn’t felt before.
“Ashamed, ashamed.” Li Rushan replied. This follow-up dialogue was also part of the code.
“It truly is you! Where are you now?” Yu Hong was now completely certain it was Li Rushan himself.
“About two kilometers from the camp, otherwise even with the communicator modified on your end, I couldn’t get a signal here on my walkie-talkie.” Li Rushan answered. “Don’t worry, I’ve made a big haul this time, almost there.” He sounded in a pretty good mood.
“Why did it take you so many days?” Yu Hong quickly asked.
“Encountered trouble on the way, took a big detour, the vehicle’s power was low, had to charge using solar power for quite a few days to finally fill it. Now the sun is becoming shorter, hard to run the vehicle.” Li Rushan said helplessly.
“Wait there, don’t get out of the car when you arrive, there’s danger here, wait for me to get you,” Yu Hong instructed.
“Ah? But I’m out of food and drink… Boss, I’m gonna starve to death!” Li Rushan complained.
“You’ve endured this long, still concerned about that little bit?” Yu Hong replied.
“Okay, okay…” Old Li answered weakly.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Yu Hong quickly explained to him about the three types of high-risk Black Disasters he learned from Zhang Kaijun and the hand he encountered in the communicator, advising him to be careful.
To prevent invasion by the strange hand earlier, they agreed on a fixed time to turn on the machine again, before finally disconnecting.
After thoroughly shutting down the communicator, Yu Hong stood up, quickly donned his enhanced gray lizard suit, packed a large bag of Radiation Hand Grenades, holstered his enhanced pistol.
He prepared to pick up his friend…
Old Li’s return timing was unfortunate, high-risk Black Disaster attacks could happen at any moment, making trips outside highly dangerous.
So Yu Hong decided to take several black lizards for vigilance along the way.
He exited the cave, arrived beside a small wooden house, knocking on the window.
“Nana, there’s news about your dad, he’s on his way back!”
After several breaths.
With a clatter, the window opened, revealing Aisena’s excited little face.
“Really!? There’s really news about Dad!?”
“I just got in touch with him. I’m getting ready to pick him up now, you all stay careful at the camp, try to stay in the inner courtyard and don’t go out.” He instructed.
“Got it!” Aisena nodded vigorously.
Old Zhou also emerged from another wooden house nearby, showing a hint of joy on his face.
“He’s finally back, worried for so long, good thing nothing happened.”
“Indeed.”
Yu Hong nodded, ruffling Aisena’s head.
“I’m heading out now.”
Old Li’s comeback seemed promising, and looking at him, it was evident that he wasn’t returning empty-handed, so maybe this time they’d get some new and unseen runes.
This brought a strong sense of anticipation to him, after ensuring Old Li’s safety.
“Boss.” Suddenly, Doctor Xu walked out of Aisena’s wooden house. “What about that girl in the outer courtyard?”
“Yao Feiling?” Yu Hong thought for a moment, “How’s she recovering?”
During these days, he saw Doctor Xu attending to her daily.
With the black lizard’s help, he could monitor Yao Feiling and Doctor Xu’s interactions; they seemed to get along quite well.
“Her hands can’t move, but slowly she’s able to shuffle her legs.” Doctor Xu answered.