“Alright, we’ll exchange everything,” Song Ming sighed.
Behind him, his three students, except for the chubby girl with twin ponytails, looked somewhat displeased, as if they deemed the situation unfair.
“The city’s market price is only one silver coin a day,” one of the boys mumbled softly.
The purchasing power of silver coins was still quite strong, after all, it could buy quite a bit of food.
But here with Yu Hong, it had multiplied five times!
This was simply outrageous profit.
Before long, Yu Hong took out three portions of anti-inflammatory medicine from the cave and exchanged them for silver coins with the four of them.
The four quickly returned to the village with the medicine, while Yu Hong returned to his courtyard, waiting for the final moments of the great formation to unfold.
The countdown gradually decreased.
‘03 minutes.’
‘02 minutes.’
‘01 minute.’
As Yu Hong focused on his anticipation, in the yard surrounded by shattered stones, the lush glowstone grass suddenly lit up with a faint white gleam the moment the countdown reached zero.
At the same time, a grand talisman array, sprawling across the entire yard, emerged from the ground without a sound.
The array was entirely white, and as soon as it appeared, it unexpectedly stirred up subtle air currents, gathering into wind.
Yu Hong stood outside the yard, holding a red value detector, clearly watching the rapidly increasing negative value on the detector.
Previously, the average negative value in the yard had been around negative one hundred and two or three, but now, at the moment the array appeared, that number rapidly soared.
Yu Hong watched as the value climbed from one hundred three, to one hundred six, then to two hundred five, three hundred, five hundred, eight hundred, and finally one thousand!
Once it surpassed one thousand, the value increased by another seventy to eighty, before finally slowing down and coming to a halt.
Next, the brilliant white light of the grand talisman array began to dim and disappear, and the red value swiftly dropped from over negative one thousand back down to negative one hundred.
‘Just like the talisman array, there’s a concentrated feature of radiation now, not easily leaking out.
That’s good!’ Yu Hong nodded in his heart.
The talisman array he crafted was like this; the usual radiation value was far less than that of the grand glowstone, only bursting forth rapidly when encountering the eerie shadows, elevating it to heights beyond the grand glowstone.
This was also why talisman arrays were more popular, as it substantially reduced the chances of the glowstone disease.
‘Over a thousand in negative value!’ Yu Hong gazed at the gradually vanishing, concealed in the grass, large talisman array, finally letting out a long breath.
‘It’s still an automatically replenishing grand array; ordinary eerie shadows wouldn’t even be able to approach it.
Even ghastly things like withering women would probably not dare get too close.’
With the strengthening of the grand talisman array complete, he felt a strong sense of safety, while the three thousand or so talisman arrays had thoroughly resolved the issue.
The withering woman was significantly weakened too; a silver talisman array with five hundred negative value could briefly shatter her.
Thinking this way, Yu Hong recalled the news brought by the academy’s students and rushed toward Old Li.
He needed to check if his water supply system had arrived.
Ten minutes later.
Yu Hong arrived at the stone house near the post office but unexpectedly saw two quite attractive young women cleaning the yard and maintaining the fence.
They both wore completely inappropriate gray yoga outfits that accentuated their well-proportioned figures perfectly.
Their faces also bore delicate makeup typical of peacetime, and every movement exuded a strong sense of incongruity.
The little girl, Aisena, stood at the door, arms crossed, pouting and looking quite unhappy.
Clearly, she was not pleased with these newcomers.
“Yu Hong! You’re here! Come here!” Inside the stone house, Li Runshan was also tidying up something.
Upon seeing Yu Hong, he hurriedly laughed, coming out with a cheerful expression, arms open for a hug.
“What’s going on here?” Yu Hong gave him a light hug, whispering a question.
“Looking for some help. Heaven has kindness toward living beings, and since I’m bringing in people anyway, isn’t it better to choose a couple of pretty ones?” Li Runshan said with an expression of obvious reasoning.
“Can you manage it on your own?” Yu Hong retorted.
“One is helping me grow mushrooms, and the other is taking care of lizards—perfectly freeing up my time to spend more with Nana,” Li Runshan said naturally.
“Haha, just keep an eye on things; don’t cause any trouble,” Yu Hong thought this guy was just after beautiful faces.
“There are plenty of people in the village; feel free to pick whom you want. This group is also pitiful, lacking food and drink, and won’t last long before they face trouble.” Li Runshan whispered.
“Aren’t you eating enough? Why not share some for relief?” Yu Hong scoffed. “What’s the deal, pretty faces are people, and the others aren’t?”
“Look at what you’re saying! I just want to find someone to take care of Nana; after all, she’s growing up, and as a father, I can’t always be there to bathe her,” Li Runshan reasoned quite well.
Yu Hong didn’t want to waste more breath.
He couldn’t just casually bring people inside without proper vetting.
It was fine if it was the little stammerer, and to a lesser extent Dr. Xu; everyone else was off the table.
“Alright, where’s my water system?”
“I was just about to mention that; it’s inside. Come and see the damaged parts yourself.” Old Li led Yu Hong into the house, where in the living room, the water supply system was disassembled into many parts.
This thing had a simple structure, just a bunch of pipes plus a high-power, silent water pump and control valves.
The key was that it had fused some sunlight series materials, making it resistant to blood tide bugs.
Yu Hong quickly checked the extent of the damage; mainly, the core water pump was broken, but he didn’t mind.
After all, if he had black ink stains, there wasn’t anything unfixable.
With one hand, he picked up a collection of things and headed back.
Not far from the post office, he saw Li Runshan discreetly taking a girl who seemed to be collecting firewood, but in reality, they looked like they were sneaking off to a nearby house, touching each other.
He had no words to say; he knew Old Li had this primal need, but it really felt a bit too casual.
After returning to the safe house with the water system, Yu Hong placed it into the newly carved underground stone room.
Then he picked up the red value detector, intending to enhance it to prevent sudden attacks like the eerie shadows.
With one hand pressing on the detector, Yu Hong mentally recited the enhancement mantra and imagined the enhancement direction - increasing sensitivity, expanding detection range, prolonging battery life, and incorporating it into the strengthened white bear suit.
As the black ink flowed with black lines, the countdown appeared.
‘6 hours 17 minutes.’
Confirming the enhancement process had started, Yu Hong calmly sat by the fireplace, staring out through the high-strength glass windows, he began to decide what to send to the little stammerer.
After thinking for a bit, he decided to wait until the detector enhancement was done, see how it performed, and if it was good, he’d send one over to the little stammerer.
Compared to talisman arrays, which were disposable, the detector could last a long time while fully charged, and surely there were charging locations in the city.
Safety-wise, it was far superior to a talisman array.
Lying down, while waiting for the enhancement, Yu Hong unknowingly fell asleep.
This was his afternoon rest time; after his morning training, he would always take a portion of time to rest.
It ensured he had the energy needed for practicing and working in the afternoon.
Usually, he would sleep for about an hour and a half during his noon break.
But this time, a little mishap occurred.
Knock, knock, knock.
A careful knocking sound woke Yu Hong from his slumber.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw outside the window stood the chubby girl student he had only seen once in the morning.
Her eyes were even redder now, and they looked a bit swollen.
She had changed into a rather cute white lace princess dress, and through the glass, he could just see her pure white thick stockings outlining her lovely leg curves.
Though the girl was short, her figure was quite nice, especially in such attire.
“Is there something you need?” Yu Hong stood up, walking to the door and leaning against the stone wall.
“Um, please, is it possible to spare me another portion of anti-inflammatory medicine? I beg you!” The girl bowed deeply with her head down, but then her forehead bumped against the door, letting out a pained cry.
“I said there isn’t any left. What I could spare has already been given to you,” Yu Hong responded expressionlessly.
“But… but there really isn’t enough medicine!” The girl spoke with a choked-up voice. “The medicine this morning, my mother didn’t get any; it was all taken during the distribution. Please, I beg you!”
“...” Yu Hong was at a loss for words.
He did still have some medicine; having sold off three portions, he had a few set aside for himself, and if he ran out, he could forage and make more.
But making medicine took time.
And he had always valued the principle of equivalence; no one could benefit from him without working for it.
Especially after experiencing people trying to exploit his kindness repeatedly, his resolve on that principle grew stronger.
“I can spare you one last portion. But this time, it will cost you six silver coins,” Yu Hong replied calmly.
He needed the other party to pay a higher price, so they wouldn’t harbor unrealistic expectations of him.
“One portion might not be enough. Could you give me another one? My father works in Aurora City; once we get there, I will surely repay you!” The girl pleaded, her voice straining with emotion.
“Aurora City?” Yu Hong’s heart stirred; he now understood that this group clearly consisted of second-generation individuals, and not a single ordinary person among them.
After all, which common person could come up with so many silver coins in one go and have the means to leave with a supply convoy?
“Can you procure sunlight series materials?” Yu Hong suddenly asked.
“Uh, I don’t know. My father works at the Energy Research Institute, doing nuclear energy miniaturization research,” the girl hesitated.
Nuclear energy miniaturization?!
Yu Hong’s heart trembled; nuclear energy was his ideal source of power.
If he could obtain nuclear energy batteries, even if they were imperfect versions, with black ink enhancement, he could create the complete version.
By then, it would truly be like exchanging a shotgun for a cannon! A one-time solution!
“How can you prove that?” he suppressed the excitement in his heart and said sternly.
“This time, my mom and I joined the supply convoy because it was my father who entrusted the postal system for assistance. If you want to confirm, you can verify through the postal system,” the girl spoke this part clearly, indicating she had answered this question more than once before.
Instantly, Yu Hong felt a stir of interest.
He knew that Li Runshan had instantaneous communication equipment on his side.
“In that case, I’ll head to the post office immediately to find someone for verification. If it’s true, then we can certainly discuss things properly.”
“By the way, what’s your name?” he asked.
“Wei Shanshan, my father is Wei Hongye, the deputy director of the institute,” the girl answered softly.
“Good, let’s head to the post office right now to confirm your identity, is that okay?” Yu Hong said quickly.
(End of Chapter)