Night of Despair

"You...!!" Su Dan seemed infuriated.

A guy so weak, yet daring to come to a place like this, must have relied on some external help.

Seeing him hiding inside the house and not coming out, he instantly understood everything.

"You... then why did you come here? To seek death?" Su Dan said in annoyance.

"Senior, I only wanted to explore the origin of the Source Disaster, to find the direction for the future. Of course, the real purpose was to see if I could get lucky and find some Black Disaster Source Material." Yu Hong replied honestly and sincerely.

"...Source Material? I have some Black Disaster Source Material here, forget it, I'll give you a bit, quickly go back." Su Dan said helplessly. "Your strength level is too poor, if you stay here longer, you might easily lose your life."

"Ah!?" Yu Hong was stunned, was it really that easy to get the Source Material?

As he was taken aback, suddenly outside the safe house window, a lump of black stuff like coal emerged from the ground and bumped against the window as if it were alive.

Knock, knock.

Yu Hong stared at the thing, dumbfounded.

"Is this... Source Material? Black Disaster Source Material?"

"Yes, I have plenty of it here, it's not worth much." Su Dan said nonchalantly.

"But, isn't it said that this stuff can be used to create something that will never be destroyed by a Source Disaster...?" Yu Hong felt his worldview crashing down. This wasn't valuable?

"You're right." Su Dan affirmed, "But you'll understand once you actually get it. This thing is far harder than you can imagine. Nothing you can think of can even wear it down a bit. So whatever shape you get it in, it stays that shape. Other than using it to hit people, you can't do anything with it."

"...Not even you, Senior?"

"The Black Disaster can grind on it for countless years without any damage, you overestimate me." Su Dan said self-deprecatingly.

"Take it. In the past, a lot of people thought it was very precious, but in reality, it's just like that. This place is actually full of it. Many worlds, many universes, have this stuff left over after destruction."

Yu Hong looked around, first testing it with his Eye of Destruction but leaving no mark with its destructive force on the black coal, which made him believe a bit more.

Then, he focused his mind, conjured a Colorful Mirror Taoist, grabbed the Source Material, quickly opened the window, threw it in, and shut the window.

The whole process took less than a second.

Thud.

The black coal fell to the ground, rolled a few times, and stopped moving.

Yu Hong didn't touch it immediately but summoned a Speed Man, carefully approached, and placed it in a metal box that could isolate Red Value radiation.

After that, Yu Hong quickly formed seals with his hands, activated his True Yuan, and set up layers of Sealing and Isolation Arrays.

Among his knowledge, besides the Qingyuan Heavenly River Miao Technique, he also practiced magic and Taoist skills, being very proficient in basic sealing techniques.

Previously, his strength wasn't enough, so it wasn't very effective.

But now he had broken through to the Golden Core stage, his True Yuan increased, and his overall energy level reached the Immortal Level, making his knowledge significantly more effective, achieving Immortal Level results with slight modifications.

"You're quite cautious, but it's good to be cautious. Alright, now hurry and leave, this place is not safe to stay in." Su Dan advised.

"Then why don't you leave, Senior?" Yu Hong felt somewhat indebted for the favor.

"I can't leave. Long, long ago, I integrated with this place, I can't move, nor can I get out." Su Dan replied.

"Alright, but earlier, you said this place is full of the kind of erosion energy I need?" Yu Hong asked again.

"Of course, if your main body comes out for a short while, you can naturally feel it." Su Dan answered.

"Understood." Yu Hong stopped talking, walked to the window, and carefully set up a tiny array to create a small isolation space with True Yuan.

Then, he grabbed the window handle, lifted it, and gently pulled open a small gap.

Hiss.

In an instant, a surge of icy airflow rushed in.

A thin layer of white frost quickly formed on the window and Yu Hong's body.

'Earlier I moved too fast, opening the window and closing it in an instant, I didn't feel anything. Now that I slowed down... the discomfort is immediate...'

Yu Hong carefully felt the cold air rushing in.

Sure enough, there was a bone-piercing, needle-like erosion power quickly damaging his skin.

It should be noted that his body now far surpassed the strength of over half the Golden Core stage cultivators.

After all, with various traits and continuous tempering by numerous special energies, his physical body had long reached a strength comparable to a Golden Core body cultivator of the same level.

Plus, the core Ancient Moon Divinity made most energy levels, even Transcendent Levels, not much of a threat to him.

Yet this piercing erosion was unimpeded, clearly due to an extremely high energy level.

The energy level was so high that the Ancient Moon Divinity had no effect, so his body strength was like paper.

'At least a contamination level far above...!' Yu Hong felt the erosion, quickly channeling the golden core in his abdomen, circulating True Yuan, fully resisting the needle-like erosion.

At the gap in the window, the invisible erosive power continuously poured in. As time passed, it repeatedly advanced, invading Yu Hong's internal organs.

Strangely though, every time the power was about to thoroughly necrotize his organs, it abruptly stopped.

Consistently, a green-light halo enveloped and isolated it just in time.

After isolation, the organs rapidly regenerate and recover their strength, while the erosion force has to start over from scratch.

After trying five or six times, Yu Hong was sure there was no problem and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

'As expected, the elder of decay didn't lie to me...'

He looked down at his neck, where he wore a necklace that was half-transparent, resembling numerous snowflakes strung together.

The necklace was emitting a faint green glow, which protected the organs inside Yu Hong's body.

This necklace, according to the elder of decay, was a powerful healing treasure comparable to the Red Sky Fruit.

The name was long forgotten, but the necklace could guarantee that Yu Hong would regain full recovery every ten seconds in any situation and any environment.

This full recovery could heal all injuries and remove all abnormal statuses. The key is that the necklace doesn't require any consumption; it activates automatically and supports itself.

Its effect is nothing short of miraculous.

This was also the core confidence behind his boldness to continue charging into the depths of the Source Disaster.

'The elder of decay gave me this treasure, clearly worried something might go wrong with me... Now it seems, it truly is practical.' Yu Hong felt his rapidly recovering organs and sighed.

He named the necklace the Recovery Necklace, a simple and understandable name. At this moment, under the protection of the green light, combined with his Elf Ancient Tree's Call trait, his survival ability had reached an extremely terrifying level.

Inside the safe house.

Yu Hong sat cross-legged, green light flashing on his body, layers of white True Yuan constantly appearing on his surface, resisting the invisible and intangible strange erosion.

Time passed bit by bit.

Vaguely, Yu Hong fell into an extremely focused deep meditation state.

He seemed to hear some hints, but at this moment, having completely entered the state, he had no time to care for anything else.

Because... his Golden Core, the strands of golden Dan Qi surrounding it, had become purer, and the gold color was much richer than before.

On the Golden Core, a face of his own slowly appeared.

The face meditated with closed eyes, looking serene, exactly mirroring his current state.

Sigh...

Slowly opening his eyes, Yu Hong's whole body surged with True Yuan like ocean waves. A lot of new, richer True Yuan surged out again from the Golden Core.

The refined Dan Qi flowed continuously back into the Golden Core, making its golden color even more brilliant.

Crack.

A slight sound was heard.

A golden ripple exploded from Yu Hong's body.

'I've broken through... to the Golden Core Middle Stage.' A slight smile of satisfaction appeared on his face.

He stood up, carefully feeling the changes inside his body. The output of the Golden Core at the middle stage was faster, the True Yuan flow was stronger, and the total amount was much greater than before, at least five to seven times more.

Strangely, as soon as he broke through to the middle stage of the Golden Core, Yu Hong immediately felt that the invisible erosion entering from outside was not as unbearable as before.

The speed at which that breath eroded him also quickly decreased, almost imperceptible.

It was clear that his body had developed resistance due to repeated pulls.

"Thank you, elder." Yu Hong got up, closed the window, and bowed vaguely forward.

"No need to thank me. It's your own effort, unrelated to anyone. Also, it's time for you to leave..." Su Dan reminded.

"I understand, elder. Before I leave, I've received such a great favor from you. Is there anything you want or need? Next time, I can bring it in or help you solve it." Yu Hong spoke up.

"You are too weak; you can do nothing. Hurry up and leave. If you don't go, and the Black Tide breaks out here, you won't be able to leave even if you want to." Su Dan said solemnly.

"There is also a Black Tide here? But I still need a place to temper myself... May I ask, elder, if you know of any other force nearby that can erode external objects?" Yu Hong asked again.

"You brat... not planning to leave, right?" Su Dan was speechless.

He paused for a moment.

"Yes, there is. Here, there's something called a Black Puppet. It can emit invisible music to erode a person's spirit. It also accompanies an undefendable strange bone-eroding power. This bone-eroding power only affects bones, turning them into crumbly bone powder polymers that shatter upon the slightest knock."

"Elder, can you show this junior the way! I'm extremely grateful." Yu Hong hurriedly said.

He now lacked only one more tempering of Dan Qi to step into the Late Stage of the Golden Core.

The Innate Body was truly extraordinary, cultivating like eating and drinking, without any bottlenecks.

"You still haven't left? Do you know how long you've been meditating?" Su Dan was speechless.

"Two days?" Yu Hong didn't notice.

"Two months." Su Dan answered.

"....." Yu Hong was shocked and quickly looked up at the digital clock on the table.

Sure enough... the time was already 6582, July, of the 12th era of the Mining Star.

He had left in May. Because of the constant travel through the Source Disaster, each place's time was different, so the dates and calendars were always messy, and he gradually paid less attention to them.

Now reminded by Su Dan, he was horrified to find that a shallow meditation had consumed so much time.