“Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake?!” Li Runshan's expression changed dramatically.
He set aside the matter of helping Yu Hong and stared intently at him, asking once more.
“You have a detector too, don’t you? Take it out and check for yourself.” Yu Hong nodded.
“Damn!” Without another word, Li Runshan pulled out a detector, opened the door, and dashed outside.
He ignored the people in the courtyard.
Before they could react, he had already exited the yard, sprinting into the nearby forest to press the button on the detector.
Before long, his face turned ashen as he hurried back to the courtyard.
Ignoring everyone else, he re-entered the stone house and shut the door.
“Something big is coming. This is definitely a sign that the blood tide is about to erupt completely! Yu Hong, you need to go back now! Help the people outside, bring as many as you can, or they won't make it through the night!”
“I won’t go back on my word,” Yu Hong replied, nodding.
He also had some ideas about how to settle these people.
“If it’s really necessary, we can throw them into the mining area,” he suggested.
“That won’t work. The mining area is safe, but the radiation will turn them into fools, and that’s pointless,” Li Runshan sighed.
“But I can only accommodate four or five more on my side,” Yu Hong considered.
If he built two wooden huts in the courtyard, each could house three people, which shouldn’t pose too much of a problem.
He just needed to transplant some of the Huishi grass a bit farther outside.
However, he didn’t need to carry the entire load; having more people to protect wouldn’t benefit him either.
Wait, benefits…
Yu Hong narrowed his eyes.
“Let’s talk about compensation. I accepted a payment from Wei Shanshan and her daughter, so if others want to come, they can’t expect it for free.”
“What do you lack? What can they offer? Will you go talk to them yourself?” Old Li sighed. “These people have plenty of resources behind them, but the problem right now is the worsening environment. I’m worried about the rescue team.”
Yu Hong’s expression changed slightly.
“If the rescue team can’t come, what’s your plan?”
“Then we can only…” Li Runshan gritted his teeth, unable to finish.
Given the limited resources, he couldn’t risk his and his daughter’s lives to protect a group of strangers.
“Uncle… are we going to die?” The quiet Eisenna suddenly asked, her big eyes looking at Yu Hong.
“… No, we won’t.” Yu Hong looked at her chubby face, reached out to pinch her cheek, and managed a smile. “Your dad is very strong; he will protect you.”
“Nana,” Li Runshan gently lifted her and handed her to a beautiful woman who had approached. “You go rest with Aunt Lin for a bit. Daddy has something to take care of, and I’ll come see you in a little while.”
“Okay.” Eisenna nodded obediently, snuggling into the woman’s embrace and falling silent.
“Alright, I’ll head back now. Give me the coordinates of the ruins,” Yu Hong said.
His main purpose in coming here was to try to get to the source of the talismans and gather more information to deal with the strange shadows.
“Actually, you don’t need the coordinates. The layout there is simple; you just need to go straight in. It’s basically an L-shape. You’ll understand once you get there. But be careful—the ruins are close to the mining area, so the radiation is quite strong. It might have changed since I was there last.” Li Runshan reminded him.
“Got it.”
“About taking them with you…”
“You’re responsible for that; handle it yourself.” Yu Hong didn’t want to get involved.
Li Runshan sighed, helplessly stepping outside to loudly ask the group what their situation was.
Then he inquired if anyone was willing to follow Yu Hong to another safe house.
After asking several times, no one stepped forward.
The crowd, which had been noisy before, was now a picture of fear and confusion.
No one wanted to leave the safety of the post office’s underground structure for a place whose safety was entirely unknown.
Creak.
Yu Hong pushed the door open, quietly agreeing on a set time to communicate with Old Li, then glanced at the men and women in the courtyard.
No one paid him any mind.
Clearly, everyone trusted the reputation of the postal workers more than him.
Two officers who looked like they were in charge even tried to approach Old Li to negotiate for warm supplies, arranging for important people from their group to be the first to move to the underground facilities.
Li Runshan was busy arguing with the two while also jotting down notes with pen and paper.
Seeing that no one wanted to follow him, Yu Hong shrugged at Old Li, indicating it wasn’t that he didn’t want to help, but that the others were unwilling to accept his assistance.
Immediately, he turned and headed back to his own place.
After a quick整理, he equipped his weapons, protein bars, and water pouch and dashed toward the mining area.
It was still early, but he didn’t know how large the ruins were, so he had to allow extra time for preparation.
He followed the forest path, passing through burned patches of land, crossing small hills until, after more than half an hour, he arrived before a gray-white stone wall that was more than ten stories tall.
In his reinforced gray lizard armor, he stood still in front of the wall, holding a wolf fang club and a massive wooden shield.
In the middle of the stone wall, there was a small crack over two people high.
The crack was dark and deep, resembling a lightning bolt from a painting, with subtle water trickling out from the ground nearby.
Yu Hong stood before this crack.
He lowered his head to observe the water’s flow, noticing that it didn’t travel far after coming out of the crack before vanishing into stone crevices.
Around the water was lush green grass and vines.
Even as the temperature began to drop, fresh wild grass was still growing here.
Squatting down, Yu Hong pinched a tip of the grass, held it up to his eyes, confirming it was tender grass.
Then, he dipped his hand into the creek, sensing the temperature.
It was warm, much warmer than outside.
After a moment, Yu Hong pulled out a glowing tube, held it high for light, and quickly stepped inside.
The change in environment increased his interest in the ruins.
Having been unable to locate any skills, he intended to explore this site where the talismans were first discovered to see if he could find other clues.
He had a premonition that if he didn’t explore soon, it might be too late to go out later, possibly even more dangerous.
‘Search quickly and then return.’ Before entering the crack, Yu Hong set this goal for himself.
Splash.
As he moved inside the crack, it grew wider the further he went, but the temperature also dropped.
Yu Hong was in his black bulletproof suit, seamlessly blending into the environment.
However, puffs of white breath occasionally escaping his mouth felt odd.
Inside the crack, the ground was covered with many footprints and several small pits.
Clearly, many people had come in and out, and there were marks from dragging heavy objects.
He carefully illuminated the surroundings.
On both sides of the stone surface, there were shallow niches that looked like decorative platforms.
These niches were empty, most showing signs of having once held items.
‘Looks like they’ve all been cleared out.’ Yu Hong took out his enhanced detector and pressed the switch.
Beep.
The liquid crystal screen showed a red value of: 37.122.
“They’re all over thirty,” Yu Hong’s heart sank, and he tightened his grip on the wolf fang club.
He pressed further in.
The surroundings grew wider, stabilizing at about five meters.
At this point, the height inside the cave was also about five meters, forming a half-cylinder shape extending deep into the mountain.
As he continued deeper, strange symbols began to appear on the stone walls on either side.
These symbols were left in black ink, glowing in the green light like claw marks from monsters.
Beside the flowing creek on the ground, small stone pieces began to appear.
Most of the surfaces of these stones were etched with fragmented patterns.
They resembled cobblestones along the river banks, evenly distributed and gray-white all over.
Crack.
Yu Hong bent down, wedging the atomic light between his armpit to free up a hand to pick up a stone the size of an egg.
The black patterns on the stone looked familiar to him.
‘Isn’t this the Huishi talisman pattern? The original version of the talisman formation!’
He suddenly recognized the pattern’s prototype.
Putting the stone down, he picked up another one, finding the same talisman pattern again, except this time it was shattered, leaving only a small portion of the pattern.
Without hesitation, Yu Hong picked up one piece after another and examined them, finding them all with the same pattern.
He stood up and exhaled, instantly filling the air with a white mist.
Next, he illuminated the wall paintings on both sides, which depicted a completely unfamiliar black text.
The characters were the same on both sides.
After looking at them for a while, unable to make sense of them, he continued deeper into the cave.
Not long after, he reached the end of the cave.
A tall, black stone wall completely blocked his path.
On both sides of the wall, there were numerous tiny holes, from which thin streams of water flowed silently.
All the water converged at the base, forming a small creek that wound out of the cave.
Standing before the imposing black stone wall at the end, Yu Hong raised his atomic light, illuminating the five-meter tall rock.
On the wall, a massive arched door had been clearly drawn in gray ink.
The door was densely inscribed with many unfamiliar symbols.
Among these symbols, Yu Hong quickly spotted several that were used in the Huishi talisman pattern.
He instantly felt invigorated, setting down the club and taking out paper and pen from his pocket to carefully copy down all the symbols he found on the door.
Counting those he noted while entering, excluding duplicates, he had copied a total of seven.
However, after reviewing, Yu Hong vaguely realized that these seven symbols not only composed the Huishi talisman pattern but, on this wall’s grand door, formed an even more complex main symbol.
This main symbol frequently appeared in the upper area of the painted door, its strokes sharp and imposing, leaving him wondering what its function was.
After finishing the transcription, Yu Hong felt an odd sensation about this main symbol.
At a glance, it appeared like a swirling vortex.
But on closer inspection, he realized what he initially saw was just a visual illusion.
‘Why didn’t the explorers from outside research this symbol? Why is it that they only studied the Huishi talisman pattern?’
He was baffled.
After completing his transcriptions, he rummaged through the corners for some time, ensuring there were no other discoveries, realizing that all the original items had long been taken away before reluctantly exiting the cave of ruins.
Entering had been slow, but he exited much faster, taking only a few minutes to stand again at the cave entrance.
‘Let’s call the pattern on the Huishi the Amplification Talisman.
This newly discovered symbol… I’ll temporarily name it the Vortex Talisman.
Hopefully, something new will come of it.’
Feeling a bit disappointed, he glanced back at the ruin cave.
‘Did the initial Black Disaster really emanate from places like this?’
He recalled the painted door at the end of the cave, the characters carved on it—aside from the lengthy, unfamiliar texts, there were the Huishi amplification patterns and the newly discovered vortex patterns.
It was just that the patterns on these stone walls were stretched, deformed, reduced, or squished like dough.
With puzzling thoughts, Yu Hong hurried back to his residence.
He planned to swiftly research the function of the vortex talisman through the black seal.
(End of Chapter)