“Don’t try to deceive me. Don’t try to deceive me,” Yu Hong whispered to himself, closing his eyes to shut out the chaos inside.
He only listened to his own voice.
The cave was now a safe haven, a genuine hidden refuge, and thanks to the array of talismans used, it was even more secure than the original version, with far less radiation.
“As long as I don’t go out, you can’t harm me as long as I don’t go out,” he repeated those words like a mantra.
Looking back, he became increasingly certain that everything had started to go wrong when those two girls, Zhou Xiaoling and her sister, had appeared.
Before they came, the sounds around him had been peaceful and normal, no unexpected noises.
But once they arrived, the situation had changed drastically.
Yu Hong remained motionless, leaning against the wall like a statue.
After over ten minutes of noise outside, it gradually faded away, returning to the sound of rain.
Yu Hong did not move; he continued to lean against the wall, waiting for time to pass.
After more than half an hour, when he was sure there was no more sound coming from outside, he finally relaxed and straightened up.
He poured himself a glass of water and drank it, then checked the array of talismans in the safe house, finding them all intact, which brought him a great sense of relief.
Now he had accumulated three silver talismans, over twenty regular talismans, and more than ten large stones of brilliance.
The large stones had a radiance value of around eighty, the regular talismans were about a hundred, and the silver talismans boasted five hundred each.
With such strong protections in place, not counting the many carved talismans surrounding the cave, Yu Hong felt safe against any lurking shadows.
But that voice… ‘If it’s not a shadow, then could it really be me?’ Yu Hong repeatedly held the radiant value detector, confirming that all the readings were normal.
He could also tell he had no presence of shadows on him.
Sighing in relief, he removed his bulletproof suit and sat by the fireplace to rest for a moment.
“Move him to the operating room. It’s ready over there.”
A deep, steady male voice suddenly echoed in his ears.
Yu Hong's body jolted; he quickly heightened his alertness and looked around, but as before, he found nothing unusual.
He stood up, soon hearing the sound of wheels turning.
Then there was the sound of a door opening, and the beep of the elevator signaling movement up and down.
Yu Hong felt restless, and shortly after, a faint buzzing sound started to fill the air.
“The anesthesia is ready; the dosage is a bit low, so he might still feel something, but it’s not a big deal,” the male voice said again.
“Speed up the rotation; we’ll open the skull shortly, so take care with the angle. I need to keep the incision small.”
“Understood, doctor.”
The sharp buzz sounded like a cutting saw, becoming clearer and clearer.
Yu Hong felt a chill run through his scalp, as he could clearly hear the saw’s noise hovering in the middle of the cave.
Taking a few steps, he confirmed the saw's location and instinctively created distance between himself and it.
“Listen up,” the doctor's voice echoed again. “I’m about to begin.”
“Got it,” the nurse replied.
The buzzing sound grew closer and closer, like an invisible saw approaching him, edging nearer to his head.
“Still want to deceive me?” Yu Hong gripped his wolf tooth club and swung it down.
But the club sliced through the air without making a sound, not even a whistle.
It was as if the world had gone mute; he could hear nothing except the relentless turning of the approaching saw.
Sweat began to bead on his forehead, and his heartbeat quickened.
The entire safe house faded away in his ears, transforming into an operating room.
“Monitor the patient’s response; hold him down, don’t let him struggle,” the doctor’s calm voice rang out once more.
“Understood,” two nurses echoed in unison.
The saw buzzed closer and closer, and beads of sweat on Yu Hong's forehead began to multiply.
He continuously stared at the radiant value detector, letting go of the wolf tooth club and rapidly grabbing a silver talisman.
But it was useless.
The readings on the detector remained normal, and the silver talisman showed no signs of being expended.
The buzzing saw was now so close it seemed to be at his forehead, nearly touching his hair.
Soon.
Very soon, it would come down for a cut.
“Be sure to hold him; he’s still struggling as there’s not enough anesthesia,” the doctor shouted again. “On the count of three, all of you push down together.”
“Okay!” “Alright!”
The two nurses quickly responded.
Sweat continued pouring from Yu Hong; his muscles tensed painfully.
He was caught between two beliefs: if he trusted the voice, he should run; if he trusted the reality before him, he needed to stay in the safe house and remain still.
Suddenly, he rolled away from his original position.
But it was pointless, as it seemed the sounds of the doctor and nurses, along with the buzzing saw, were the only things left.
All other sounds faded as if a mute play was unfolding before him.
“Three.” The doctor started counting down.
The saw still hovered before him.
“Two.” Yu Hong’s eyes widened as he brandished the silver talisman, trying in vain to dispel the noise.
It was of no use.
His body tightened further, to a point of pain.
A chilling, tingling sensation spread from his forehead outward, like a sharp object drawing nearer.
“One!” the doctor shouted again, repeating his command.
“Ahhhhhh!” Yu Hong screamed, letting out a cry of madness!
With one hand holding the silver talisman and the other gripping the wolf tooth club, an explosion of internal energy surged through him, causing his skin to dimple with a translucent armor.
“Go to hell!!!”
He swung the talisman and the club like a frenzied warrior, then lunged forward, crashing his head into a stack of talisman panels as he sought refuge in the corner.
“Two!”
Yu Hong huddled into the corner, feverishly pressing the talisman against himself, choosing to trust his instincts!
“Three!!!”
Buzz!!!
At that moment, a thunderous hum burst in his ears.
The cave’s lights began to flicker violently, alternating between bright and dim.
On the ground, as he collapsed, a bizarre, transparent gel-like substance flowed out of him like water.
This eerie gel surged from every pore, seeping through his clothes, and as it met the air, it was immediately neutralized by a powerful force released by the talismans around his head, vaporizing it away.
Buzz!!!
A faint buzzing reverberated within the cave.
All the talismans inside began to glow with a soft light, as if they were warding off some unseen threat.
The large stones of brilliance piled on the ground also began to emit a glow, the brightest among them being the three silver talismans.
They radiated silvery light, releasing an invisible and strange radiation in frantic waves.
This powerful radiation merged with the other talismans, creating a force field that compressed Yu Hong's oozing translucent gel.
The radiant value on the detector fluctuated wildly, quickly dropping from the 3500s where the gel had appeared, rapidly falling with each glowing talisman, plummeting down to 2000, and continuing to decline further.
Ten seconds.
Twenty seconds.
Thirty seconds.
Suddenly, the readings dropped to zero, triggering an alarming beep.
Phew!
Finally, the gel had completely seeped out of Yu Hong.
As the last remnants evaporated, the stack of talisman panels beside him turned grayish-white, showing signs of depletion.
The three silver talismans also transformed to gray, completely expended.
Not only that, but over half of the wall’s talisman markings also dimmed in that instant, leaving about a third of them barely maintaining their original state.
A minute passed, and everything was silent once more.
“Ugh,” Yu Hong groaned as he slowly pushed himself up from the ground, shaking his head to clear the fog.
Surveying the surroundings, the first thing that caught his eye was the stack of completely consumed talisman panels.
His expression changed as he quickly picked one up for inspection.
“All used up.”
He set the panel down and checked the silver talismans, quickly realizing they too had been used and were now in a state of depletion.
“Indeed, I didn’t gamble incorrectly. That voice was trying to force me out of the cave, out of this protective array!”
In an instant, Yu Hong understood everything.
Reflecting on the sequence of events, he grasped that the earlier sounds—those of colleagues, operations, stuttering voices, and Dr. Xu—were all attempts to lure him away from the safe house, away from the multitude of protective talismans.
But he had held on! Even at the last moment, he hadn’t given in to the temptation of the voices.
“What in the world was that? Could it have been the Voice of the Man?” Yu Hong panted heavily, clutching a silver talisman as he quickly employed his dark seal to restore it.
Watching the countdown start and ticking down, he finally laid the silver talisman down and straightened himself up.
It was only then that he realized he was drenched in sweat.
Remembering the harrowing events just past, it truly had been a narrow escape.
Especially the voice of the stutterer at the start, which had almost lured him away from the safe house.
Fortunately, he had detected something wrong in time and burst back inside.
“Now it seems safe,” Yu Hong checked the cave again, ensuring no further sounds had returned.
After a tumultuous half hour, he finally sighed in relief.
While the silver talisman was still restoring, he stepped to the door, opened the peep window, and looked outside.
“!!”
In the courtyard, the once vibrant brilliant grass had all withered, turned black, and lost all signs of life.
It resembled a lawn frozen in a harsh winter, void of any vitality.
Yu Hong's expression darkened.
He closed the peephole and, having seen enough, glanced around the cavern before striding toward the pile of exhausted large stones.
Sitting cross-legged, he bore the overwhelming drain on his spirit, wrapping himself in the brilliant blanket and closed his eyes to rest.
This time, no voices echoed in his ears.
He slept soundly until dawn.
Time passed, and Yu Hong slowly awoke from his deep slumber.
The cave was illuminated, and the rays of sunlight poured in through the gaps in the door's peephole.
Yu Hong removed the brilliant blanket, which had fallen off at some point, stood up, and found that the silver talisman panels had fully restored.
He quickly replaced them behind the door before grabbing a new, exhausted silver talisman to continue the restoration process.
After putting on his reinforced white bear suit and picking up the wolf tooth club, he didn’t do anything else but began his routine training to strengthen his leg techniques.
His internal energy, previously used, had been fully replenished.
Next, he had to break through to the eighth layer of internal energy, and once achieved, he would only need to break through the ninth layer to undergo a complete body enhancement, and then enter the second level of his leg technique, unlocking the next set of moves.
He longed to go to the post office and ask Li Runshan about the situation immediately, but the events of yesterday left him still shaken, and his mood had yet to fully recover.
(End of Chapter)