Night of Despair

"Mei Lan!!" Uelman looked terrified, "No! We go together!"

"Get lost! Go find the teacher!! While I can still hold on!!" Mei Lan roared, frantically unleashing her mana, releasing the inexhaustible power of the Water Element Light Well.

But unfortunately, the power of the Water Element was ultimately hugely inferior to that of the Light Well.

Even though both sides wielded infinite energy, Yu Hong's red and purple Tai Ling Skill Inner Strength steadily corroded the blue and black Water Element power.

Countless energies overflowed, making the environment increasingly dangerous and oppressive.

A massive amount of energy compressed into such a small space, ready to cause a colossal explosion at any moment.

"Go!!" Mei Lan looked at the calm and imposing figure opposite, her own skin beginning to crack, with a lot of blue blood seeping out.

She knew her end was near.

Even though she had chosen counter-measures specifically targeting the opponent, the instantaneous output of their infinite energy far exceeded hers, and the quality of their energy was also superior.

"This guy.... is almost Level Five!! If you don't leave now, it'll be too late!! Hurry!!" she shouted the last message.

Instead of retreating, she advanced, gripping her Magic Wand, struggling step by step towards Yu Hong.

"Let the teacher avenge me!!" With a final roar, Mei Lan's entire body quickly dissolved, transforming into a blue light merging with countless Water Elements to form a Ghost Energy Arrow.

In an instant, this wave of Ghost Energy Arrows was covered by a layer of bright blue light.

Boom!!!

The final thousands of Ghost Energy Arrows shot explosively, detonating violently upon contact with Tai Ling Skill waves.

The ship exploded like a burst water ball in the blink of an eye, ejecting massive amounts of blue-black Water Element energy.

But in the next second, the blue receded, replaced by a surge of red and purple Tai Ling Skill Inner Strength.

Yu Hong floated in the center, sighing somewhat.

'I really just wanted to do a little raid....'

He wasn't a person with a heavy sense of vengeance. Margaret shorted him on mission rewards, so he planned to take one of her cargo ships.

A fair exchange, tit for tat.

He truly didn't intend to kill.

But now.

He hadn't even made a move, just scared his opponents, and the other side self-destructed.

'What to do now....' Yu Hong watched as Uelman and the others were instantaneously teleported away by the explosion.

"It's a life-or-death feud now." He hesitated for a moment. Eventually, he still reached out, remotely grasping towards the two.

"Looks like I have no choice but to root them out completely."

"Don't blame me; blame your bad luck."

Countless blue-purple Inner Strengths surrounded him like seawater, quickly forming countless spikes, which were about to be instantaneously launched.

But the next moment, Yu Hong's hand paused.

He saw another familiar humanoid figure suddenly appear beside Uelman and the others.

It was none other than the water element Arcane Master who had just seemed to have self-destructed!

This discovery made him quickly dissipate the spikes around him.

'Since she's not dead, that's good.' Yu Hong actually just wanted to teach Margaret a small lesson.

He hadn't intended to go overboard; the current situation was just about right.

'Looks like I need to engage more, I'm not used to the current style of combat after so long without action.'

Yu Hong shook his head inside.

He used to engage in close combat brawls.

Violent but dangerous.

Now, with such immense Inner Strength, he didn't need to rush up; just a wave of his hand could drown the opponent with waves of Inner Strength.

The previous bout looked intense, but for him, it was just a matter of moving his mind once, twice, thrice...

Waving his hand was just habitual.

At this moment, his strong eyesight allowed him to see Uelman and the others continuously teleporting back to the Floating City.

Yu Hong knew his time was limited, so he quickly flashed into the center of the ship's wreckage, scavenged, then called on the Black Black Spirit to leave quietly.

More than three minutes after he left.

A blue shadow finally arrived tardily, teleporting above the remnants of the Oyster ship, overlooking everything.

The blue shadow had a cold and stern face, clad in a white mage robe lined with silver thread, holding a menacing black Magic Wand like a spear, taller than her, with the top end flashing with blinding blue light.

"All the cargo is gone!!" The blue shadow was Margaret, "Three years' worth of cargo I painstakingly amassed...!!! Who!! Who did this!!!"

She shouted furiously. This shipload of goods worth millions of Crystal Coins had been saved through years of thrift and savings.

And now, it's just gone... all destroyed by the explosion....

"Investigate for me!!"

A small blue-black necklace floated in front of her chest.

'Clue investigation in progress...'

'Energy environment too chaotic, increasing investigation precision.'

'Residual energy radiation discovered, identified as Light Disaster Radiation Energy, suspected Light Disaster advanced creature attack.'

'List filtration concluded, identified pure white sea whale of Light Disaster as 77.65% likely.'"

'Where would a pure white sea whale come from nearby!!' Margaret really wanted to crush the Intelligent Spirit with a slap.

'Keep searching!!'

'Apologies, current precision is adjusted to maximum, if deep search is desired, please apply for future information inquiry privileges from Prophetic Department.' The Intelligent Spirit replied calmly.

"Useless!!!"

Margaret waved her hand fiercely, and a vast expanse of Water Element Light Wells materialized behind her.

The next moment, brilliant blue light engulfed everything around.

In a diameter of tens of thousands of kilometers around the ship, the entire space region was annihilated.

The blue light obliterated everything, matter or energy.

"Whoever you are! Don't let me find you!!" Margaret yelled impotently in rage.

*

*

*

Thud.

Yu Hong forcefully shoved a pile of golden-glowing ores into the house.

But the house was already so full, even the fireplace was stuffed with goods, and there was really no room left.

Sigh...

He sighed, standing at the door, pondering how to enter the Main Control Room.

Because the entire first floor of the Safe House was packed with all sorts of supplies.

There was no walking space left.

Indeed, considering he could teleport, he left no room for walking; it was all taken by supplies.

'Right, I can teleport.... still not used to this way of moving...' Yu Hong realized.

Clapping his hands, he blinked directly into the Main Control Room.

The entire Black Black Spirit was filled with containers of all kinds, except for the Main Control Room.

Some boxes were even burst, spilling things all over the place.

'It's a shame I don't recognize most materials, don't know how to handle them, guess I need to find a place to fence them....' Sitting in the Main Control Room, Yu Hong contemplated how to deal with this batch of goods.

He actually only managed to take about half; the rest were destroyed in the explosion.

'Arcane Masters are all tricky individuals; if they tampered with the goods, it would be problematic. So... this batch of supplies can't stay for long.'

After a half-second hesitation, Yu Hong immediately decided to reinforce the Black Mark and merge all these goods into the Black Black Spirit!

No matter if they are useful or not, merging first is what counts.

Let Black Mark work its magic; it would surely find a use for every material.

Once his idea was confirmed, Yu Hong settled down in the depths of the Wind Disaster in Isolation State for a few days.

He acted only after the Black Mark finished repairing the Safe House.

Click.

Yu Hong took hold of a toilet and with an Instantaneous Movement, threw its contents into the depths of the Wind Disaster.

Then with another Instantaneous Movement, returned to the house.

The toilet was scoured by Wind Disaster colorful lines, not only emptying the waste but was as pristine as new, looking brand new.

This was one point Yu Hong was quite satisfied with about traveling in the Wind Disaster, better than the Black Disaster Black River.

In the past, when emptying a toilet over Black River, it not only didn't clean it but contaminated it with a lot of unknown filth—very disgusting.

But here, it was different.

Having settled the toilet, Yu Hong looked around at the newly repaired Safe House, nodded in satisfaction.

The repaired Safe House was fully intact, with formations completely restored.

"Finally, I can deal with dirty goods." Yu Hong breathed a sigh of relief; initially planning to strengthen the secondary Star Spirit Alloy given by Ku Chan, but now he had a better choice with this plundered batch of goods.

He rummaged around the corner and soon brought out a watermelon-sized box.

Opening the lid, it contained a pile of hard metal ingots with colorful luster.

A note was pasted inside the lid with: Star Spirit Alloy 15 Ker.

Ker was a weight unit unique to the Floating City. Yu Hong weighed it in his hand; there was about a hundred kilograms of Star Spirit Alloy, much more than what Ku Chan had given, and it was not secondary.

"Tsk tsk tsk.... To think there's so much, yet she didn't give me any..." Yu Hong didn't know how Margaret was reacting, but he felt quite pleased now.

Using something taken without consequence felt so satisfying!

'Pity, if it weren't for dealing with dirty goods first, I could have strengthened this to the extreme before merging it into the Safe House. But there's no time for that now.'

He placed the alloy back, then pressed one hand on the floor. His consciousness enveloped all goods.

'Enhance Black Black Spirit, focus: prioritize enhancing self-repair ability. Others freely enhance.'

A black line flickered, and the Black Mark's feedback promptly sounded.

'Enhance Black Black Spirit?' Included was a countdown: 48 days, 17 hours, 51 minutes.

"A bit long, but acceptable given the amount of material to merge." Yu Hong paused, quickly responding affirmatively.

At once, the countdown trembled slightly, stabilizing and counting down.

Simultaneously, a deluge of Inner Strength flowed out, pouring into the Black Mark on his backhand. This Black Mark seemed bottomless, no matter how much energy went in.

After completing this, Yu Hong gazed at the colorful lines passing outside, recalling the intensity of the Phoenix Eye he experienced earlier.

'Speaking of which, although the Safe House was unfinished in enhancement, my Inner Strength has vastly increased now. Maybe I could try again, see if I can pass through the Phoenix Eye.'

If not, spending more than forty days idling in the Wind Disaster seemed to him wasteful.

Now with unlimited Inner Strength, he could afford to try it out.

Setting his next plan, he acted without delay, maneuvering the Black Black Spirit towards deeper regions of the Wind Disaster autonomously.

Previously he had forcibly restrained the Black Black Spirit from moving, but now, that restriction was lifted.

The Black Black Spirit trembled in response, quickly accelerating as it dashed toward a direction in the Wind Disaster.

Soon, the ship jolted suddenly, plunging into a slightly darker swirl of colorful lines, vanishing.

Yu Hong stood by the circular window, watching the continuously darkening stream of colorful lines outside.

The Black Black Spirit seemed to enter a tunnel darkening.

This tunnel was filled with an invisible pressure, and its walls turned increasingly black.

'Last time I remember it took about fifteen or seventeen minutes to get through; this time it's faster... maybe it'll only take...' Just as Yu Hong thought.

The window abruptly shook.

Buzz...

A huge and deep sound echoed.

The dark tunnel outside turned into countless colorful lines in an instant; seeing this, Yu Hong knew he was about to enter that strange black ocean.

He and Ku Chan had analyzed afterward, believing that black ocean might actually be the true Phoenix Eye.

Immediately, he operated all his Power, first letting Tai Ling Skill flow out forcefully, spreading across the ship, forming an external protective membrane.

Then it was Chaotic God Sky Eye Skill Inner Strength, gray Inner Strength akin to buffer material, behind the Tai Ling Skill Inner Strength.

Next came various Arrays, finally another Tai Ling Skill blended into the outer walls as sinews to strengthen defense.

'This time, the defense strength should be vastly superior, perhaps able to get through!'