Inside the cave.
Before the gray-black pattern of runes, Yu Hong gently pressed his palm against the cold, dry stone wall.
At the same time, his heart silently recited, "Enhance the rune of the glowing stone, direction: strengthen the dispelling effect on phantoms."
Hiss.
In an instant, a black mark on the back of his hand shot out a thin black line, burrowing into the stone wall.
A second later, feedback resonated.
"Would you like to enhance the rune of the glowing stone?" The cold, mechanical voice rang out.
Yu Hong was taken aback for a moment, then a smile slowly crept onto his face.
"It worked! It really can!" His heart surged with joy.
This proved his hypothesis that such a combination could indeed enhance the dispelling effect on phantoms.
With this, once the glowing stone was polished, he could carve this rune pattern on any surface, anywhere.
And with the black mark supplying energy, these large runes would no longer be one-time-use items but could perfectly protect any area around them!
At this moment, a black number appeared at the center of the rune engraving on the wall.
"1 hour and 12 minutes."
"Is it because the amount of the enhancement has decreased, which means it doesn’t require more time?” Yu Hong speculated.
After all, it only took him a third of the time he needed to complete the rune engraving after grinding down a piece of glowing stone into ink.
It surely wouldn’t take much time to enhance this bit of material.
"Let’s see if I can enhance it in just over an hour. Let’s see how effective it is."
A hint of anticipation flickered in his heart, and he promptly replied with a "yes" in his mind.
Instantly, the numbers on the rune engraving began to count down slowly.
Taking advantage of the countdown, he found a stool to sit on, playing with another unloaded pistol in his hand.
He raised it, aimed, and pulled the trigger, producing an empty sound before setting it down.
He kept practicing, drawing and shooting from different angles.
Because there were no bullets, the practice posed no danger.
Twice recently, the Joint Army had come to capture him, trying to treat him like a laborer, leaving Yu Hong feeling uneasy.
Although the Joint Army should have left with the townsfolk by now, he could not be sure when they would return.
And those two who had attacked him? When he checked the place where they had fallen unconscious while gathering firewood, all that remained were two tatters of underwear.
Clearly, the midnight tide of black insects had consumed them completely.
This deeper awareness of nighttime dangers made Yu Hong cautious.
"Right, if I can practice shooting by myself and summarize my understanding of shooting skills, then enhance it with the black mark, would that work? Would I possibly create a better training manual for marksmanship?"
After pondering a bit, Yu Hong quickly found a unique new approach to boosting his skills.
"Additionally, I should prepare some scouting measures. If I can set up some trap bells or something similar around, it might serve as a warning."
He stroked his chin.
The cave safety room was a hard-earned sanctuary for him, so he had to ensure its basic security.
As the creator of the large glowing stone, the appearance of evil shadows would surely heighten the importance of the glowing stone significantly.
Likely, there would be others seeking him out, so he must be prepared well in advance.
*
*
*
Postal station gathering place.
A few ground caves pressed closely together, forming a small gathering point.
Among them, the largest and most fortified was undoubtedly the stone basement beneath the post office.
Instead of just a basement, it was formerly built as an emergency shelter to respond to warfare.
It was spacious, roughly the size of the entire Baiqiu Village, located about ten meters underground.
Ever since the black calamity broke out, such war shelters had become havens for people fleeing across various regions.
During times of extreme crisis due to the black calamity, those unable to survive would hide here in search of temporary refuge.
At this moment, within the dank emergency shelter, dimly lit corridors extended narrowly.
On either side of the corridor were small resting rooms.
The green glow of atomic lamps cast a dark green light along the hall.
The humid, chilly wind swirled through the corridors along the vents.
Old Yu walked cautiously to the door of a room, glancing around with his belly protruding.
The gray-black iron door was covered in rust, and he reached out, gently gripping the doorknob.
Click.
He twisted the handle downwards.
The door creaked open slowly.
Just as Old Yu was about to enter, he turned to shut the door behind him.
Suddenly, he felt a prickling sensation sweep over the left side of his body, from his left cheek to his left leg, as goosebumps formed all over that side of him.
An unfamiliar yet familiar feeling of terror surged into his heart.
Old Yu swallowed hard; something felt wrong on his left side.
In his peripheral vision, he faintly saw a figure standing in the darkness of the left corridor.
Gulp.
He slowly turned his head to look in that direction.
His whole body was trembling; as his right hand's sleeve slipped down, it revealed his rough, yellow-black skin—the skin clearly bore a small black handprint.
Swish!
He quickly turned his head back to the left.
There was nothing in the darkness.
The corridor was empty except for the sound of his own breathing.
At this moment, he realized he was all alone in the underground shelter; others would only move their things tomorrow.
He had thought he could survive this one day, just a day.
Yet... it now seemed.
Sweat trickled down his forehead to his nose and then dripped.
Old Yu’s anxious gaze remained fixed on the left corridor, repeatedly confirming that he saw no one before he turned back, gently pushed the door open, and walked into his bedroom.
He quickly grabbed a bag of glowing stones from the corner and held it to his chest, sitting on the bed.
The dim light of a candle was lit, illuminating the area around him.
The soft glow brought him a sense of security.
Sitting on the bed, trembling all over, he buried his head in the blanket and began to cry silently.
In truth, he had not escaped back on his own but had been discovered due to the black handprint and forcibly driven away.
There was no talk of half the supplies being taken; it was simply that he had been infected with the black handprint.
"Why… why do this to me?" Old Yu gazed at the candle in front of him, unable to help but cover his face with both hands, tears spilling down unchecked, soaking his palms.
"I only acted out of greed... I returned everything, I did!"
With tears blurring his vision, he sat alone in the dark bedroom, curled up on the bed, not daring to move.
Click.
Suddenly.
The doorknob to the bedroom was turned from the outside.
The clear sound in the quiet atmosphere was all the more jarring.
Old Yu felt a shiver run through him, his eyes widening in fear as he stared at the door.
But he had locked that door tight!
How, how could it be opened?!
But the truth was, the door had indeed been opened just a crack, despite being locked and having a steel chain securing it.
Creak.
The door slowly opened, revealing a pitch-black void outside.
Old Yu stared intensely at that darkness, at the sliver of a gap, barely daring to blink.
The door to the basement was locked; he had hung bags of glowing stones on it.
The corridor downstairs was filled with glowing stones as well.
He had traded everything he saved for a substantial amount of glowing stones, bags upon bags hanging everywhere, even some ordinary glowing stones marked with large glowing stone runes.
No one could possibly enter.
Not even the phantoms.
But now…
Blood vessels appeared in Old Yu's eyes from not blinking for too long, tears streaming down from the corner of his eyes.
However, the intense fear and sense of crisis kept him rooted, fixated on the door gap.
Fortunately, that barely opened crack in the door remained still, almost as if it were merely pushed by the wind.
A flicker of doubt began to rise in Old Yu's heart.
"Maybe I was just too scared earlier and forgot to lock the door after going in."
With this suspicion, he picked up the bag of glowing stones and glanced at its contents—all intact, with none consumed.
This calmed him down a little.
Raising his head, Old Yu took the candle and, relying on its light, stood up, planning to re-lock the door.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the candle was blown out by an unseen force.
Someone had sneaked up behind him and blown out the candle!
Old Yu froze in sheer terror.
In that moment, as the light was extinguished, he hazily caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure with long hair beside him.
Darkness engulfed everything completely.
*
*
*
Inside the cave.
Yu Hong gazed with eager anticipation at the large rune on the wall that was counting down.
If this test succeeded, it would mean he could quickly establish anti-phantom rune arrays anywhere, anytime.
Indeed, he referred to this large rune as an array.
"If I can repeatedly layer and interlace this array, or even directly place it as an array using large glowing stones, its power would far exceed that of ordinary glowing stones!"
Yu Hong contemplated, excited by his thoughts.
Of course, such a combined runic array would require a decidedly long enhancement time.
Right now, he primarily considered what kind of enhancement could be achieved with the current large rune.
Soon, the countdown reached its final thirty seconds.
He silently anticipated, fixating on the rune on the wall.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
Swish!
In an instant, the rune blurred for a moment before coming back into focus.
The previously rough lines of the rune became smoother and more refined after clarity returned.
The ink made from glowing stone inside also darkened, as if its density were increased.
Most importantly, the entire rune array subtly displayed a jade-like texture, clearly transformed into the material of the large glowing stone.
"It worked!!" Yu Hong was overjoyed.
In just over an hour, it was completed.
This meant he could significantly shorten the production cycle for large glowing stones.
Provided, of course, that this array's effect was not inferior to that of large glowing stones.
"Even if the rune array is slightly weaker than a large glowing stone, as long as it's stronger than ordinary glowing stones, that would still be quite good!" Yu Hong calculated in his heart.
Gazing at the rune array before him, he pondered where to find a phantom to test it out.
With this thought, he quickly squatted down again and began looking for a place on the back of the door to draw the array.
In less than ten minutes, Yu Hong, already highly skilled at it, quickly created a basin-sized rune array on the back of the door.
Then, he reached out to press down, ready to enhance it.
"Wait."
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.
"Since I can guide the direction of the enhancement, why not enhance it even more, so its effect is stronger? Perhaps I should test the upper limit of the black mark's enhancement."
With that thought, excitement surged within Yu Hong.
The black mark enhancement most certainly had its own strength limit.
Otherwise, why would a glowing stone only transform into a large glowing stone, instead of a giant glowing stone?
Whether this default enhancement degree could be adjusted was determined by what factors.
(End of Chapter)