Night of Despair

Chapter 75: Night Rain Three
 

“Don’t try to deceive me… Don’t try to deceive me…” murmured Yu Hong in a low voice, closing his eyes to isolate his heart, listening only to his own voice.

The cave safety shelter now had the full effect of a Pyroxene Secret Room, and because it used a talisman array, the radiation was safer and lower than that of the original version of the Pyroxene Secret Room.

“As long as I don’t go out, you can’t harm me… as long as I don’t go out…” he repeated to himself.

Looking back now, he was ever more certain that everything had started to go awry since the sisters Zhou Xiaoling had appeared.

Before the two had come, all the sounds around him had been normal, with no sudden noises appearing, but after they appeared, the situation had completely changed.

Yu Hong remained motionless, his back against the wall, as if he were a statue.

And after the sounds outside continued for over ten minutes, they slowly faded away, giving way to the prior sound of rain.

Yu Hong didn’t move, continued leaning against the wall, waiting for time to pass.

Half an hour later, he finally breathed a sigh of relief when he was sure that there were no more sounds, and straightened up.

After gulping down a glass of water, Yu Hong checked the talisman array inside the safety shelter, ensuring it was intact, which settled his mind a lot.

He had now accumulated three silver talisman arrays, a pile of over twenty ordinary talisman arrays, and more than ten Large Pyroxene Stones.

The Red Value of the Large Pyroxene Stone was around eighty, a typical talisman array around one hundred, while a silver talisman array was five hundred each.

With such strong guarantees in place, that didn’t even count the large number of talisman arrays carved in all directions on the walls of the entire cave safety shelter.

To create the Pyroxene Secret Room, over fifty ordinary talisman arrays of various sizes had been inscribed here, covering every inch of the cave’s inner walls.

With these measures for protection, Yu Hong was not afraid of any shadow or Evil Shadow invasion.

It was just that voice…

‘If it isn’t the Evil Shadow or shadow, then… could it really be me…’

Yu Hong repeatedly used the Red Value detector to confirm that the data on it was normal. He also confirmed that there were no positive values of shadow or Evil Shadow on his body.

He breathed a sigh of relief, took off his bulletproof suit, and sat by the fireplace to rest for a bit.

“Let’s push him into the surgery room, it’s ready over there.”

Suddenly, a calm male voice came to his ears.

Yu Hong’s body jolted, quickly heightening his alertness, looking around.

But still just like before, there was nothing.

He stood up.

Soon, he heard the sound of wheels turning.

Then came the sound of doors opening and closing, and the announcements of the elevator going up and down.

Yu Hong began to feel restless, and shortly after, a faint buzzing sound came through.

“The anesthesia injection is ready, the dose is a little low, he may still be a bit conscious, but it’s not a big issue,” the male voice sounded again.

“Speed up the rotation, pay attention to the angle when we open the skull, I need to make as small an incision as possible.”

“Alright, doctor.”

The irritating buzz, as if from a saw used for cutting, grew clearer and clearer.

Yu Hong felt his scalp tingle; he could clearly hear that the sound of the saw was hanging in the air in the center of the cave.

He moved a few steps to pinpoint the exact location of the saw and instinctively pulled away from it.

“Be ready,” the doctor’s voice rang out again. “I’m going to start.”

“Okay,” a nurse responded.

Buzz.

The sharp buzzing approached Yu Hong slowly.

Closer and closer.

As if there was an invisible saw, suspended in midair, rapidly advancing towards him.

Heading for his head.

“Still trying to deceive me?!” Yu Hong grasped the Wolf Fang Club and swung it with all his might.

But the Wolf Fang Club slashed through the air, not only missing its target, but even the swooshing sound it should have made disappeared.

Like a silent movie with the volume turned off, Yu Hong couldn’t hear anything, only the relentless approach of the saw’s rotation.

Sweat began to seep out on his forehead, and his heartbeat gradually accelerated.

The whole safety shelter to his ears had entirely turned into an operating room.

“Watch the patient’s reaction, hold him down, don’t let him struggle free,” the doctor’s authoritative voice came through once more.

“Okay,” two nurses responded together.

Buzz…

The saw was getting closer and closer.

Closer and closer.

Sweat on Yu Hong’s forehead grew more profuse.

He looked down continually at the Red Value detector, loosened his grip on the Wolf Fang Club, and quickly grabbed a silver talisman array.

But it was futile.

The detector read normal. And the silver talisman array showed no signs of wear.

The buzzing of the saw was now almost upon him, as if it had reached his forehead, nearly touching his hair.

Any moment now.

It was about to make its cut.

“Be ready to restrain the patient, there’s a lack of anesthesia, he’s still struggling,” the doctor’s voice rose again.

“I’ll count three, two, one, then you push down together.”

“Ready!” “Okay.”

The two nurses quickly replied.

Sweat poured off Yu Hong, and his muscles tensed even more.

He didn’t know which side to believe. If he believed the voices, then he should flee immediately.

If he believed what was in front of him, then he had to stay in the safety shelter, and hold his ground.

Pu!

Suddenly, he rolled away from his original position.

But it was no use, it seemed that only the voices of the doctor and the nurse remained, as well as the sound of the circular saw.

All other noises from his collisions with objects seemed to disappear; everything turned into a silent movie, he couldn’t hear anything.

“Three.”

The doctor had begun the countdown. The circular saw was still hovering before his forehead.

“Two.”

Yu Hong’s eyes widened as he incessantly waved the silver talisman array in an attempt to drive away the voices, but it was useless.

His body tensed more and more, to the point of pain.

A terrifying, numbing sensation kept spreading from his forehead to the surrounding area, as if a sharp object was slowly getting closer.

“One!” the doctor’s voice boomed again as if in repetition.

“Aaaaahhhhh!!!!” Yu Hong screamed furiously, a frenzied roar!!

With a silver talisman array in one hand and the Wolf Fang Club grasped in the other, his Inner Qi burst forth, suffusing his entire body, and a translucent layer of keratin bulged beneath his skin.

“Go to hell, all of you!!!”

He swung the talisman array and the Wolf Fang Club wildly, then suddenly lunged forward, plunging his head fiercely into the corner piled with talisman array boards.

“Two!”

Yu Hong lay in the corner, frantically bringing the talisman array and the Large Pyroxene Stone close to himself, choosing to believe what was in front of him!

“Three!!!”

Buzz!!!

At that moment, a huge boom resonated, exploding beside his ear.

Inside the cave, the lights began to flicker violently, oscillating between brightness and darkness.

Transparent, strange gel-like substance began to seep out crazily from Yu Hong, who had collapsed on the ground.

This gel surged rapidly from every pore on his body, seeped through his clothes, and as soon as it was exposed to the air, it was rapidly neutralized and evaporated by the powerful force emanating from the talisman arrays around his head.

Buzz!!!

A faint buzzing sound arose within the cave.

At this moment, all talisman arrays inside the cave lit up with a faint glow, seemingly resisting something.

The large number of talisman arrays made from luminous stone on the ground also began to glow, with the three silver talisman arrays shining the brightest.

They emitted silver radiance, releasing an invisible, strange radiation with fierce intensity.

This radiation forcefully merged with the radiation from other talisman arrays, forming a force field that heavily suppressed the vast amount of transparent gel emerging from Yu Hong’s body.

The numbers on the Red Value detector were changing crazily, dropping quickly from over 3500, as the gel appeared, and continued to plummet as each talisman array lit up with luminescent glow, falling swiftly to 2000, then dropping further.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

Thirty seconds.

Suddenly, the numbers on the detector zeroed out, followed by a beep of an alarm.

Phew!

Finally, the gel stopped seeping from Yu Hong’s body, and as the last bit evaporated, the pile of talisman array boards around him turned to an ash-white color, indicating their exhaustion.

The three silver talisman arrays had also turned to ashes, completely empty and spent.

Not just that, at least half of the Array Patterns on the walls had also dimmed down at this moment, leaving only about one-third of the talisman arrays further away still barely maintaining their original state.

A minute later, peace was restored.

“Ugh…” Yu Hong slowly climbed up from the ground, shaking his head.

Looking around, the first thing he saw was a pile of talisman array boards that were completely exhausted…

His expression changed, and he quickly picked one up to examine it.

“All of them are exhausted…”

He put down the board, then checked the silver talisman arrays, which, too, showed post-use conditions.

“Indeed… I didn’t bet wrong… Those voices were trying to force me to leave the cave, to leave this place!”

Yu Hong instantly understood everything.

Linking the events together, he realized that those previous voices—colleagues, surgeries, the stutterer, and Dr. Xu—all were meant to lure him away from the safety room, away from the protection of the numerous surrounding talisman arrays.

But he held on! Even to the very last moment, he did not fall for the voices’ temptation.

“What the hell is that… Could it be, ‘Language Person’!?” Yu Hong gasped for air, holding the silver talisman array, and quickly used the Black Mark to restore it to its original state.

Upon seeing the countdown appear and start, he put down the silver talisman array board and straightened up.

Only now did he realize he was soaked all over with sweat.

Thinking back to the recent events, it had been really perilous.

Especially the initial voice of the stutterer, which nearly led him away from the safety room; thankfully, he had sensed something was wrong in time and had burst back in with his Inner Qi.

“It seems safe now.” Yu Hong checked the cave again. After assuring himself there were no voices around, he busied himself for over half an hour before he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Taking advantage of the silver talisman array’s ongoing restoration, he walked to the front door and opened the peephole to look outside.

“!!”

In the courtyard outside, the luminous stone grass that was initially lush had now withered away completely, turned black, and lost its vitality.

It was like a grass field hit by severe frost, utterly void of life.

Yu Hong’s expression darkened; closing the peephole, he looked no further. He surveyed the cave, walked to the pile of exhausted Large Pyroxene Stones, sat down cross-legged, resisting the immense drain on his spirit, pulled over the luminous stone blanket, completely covered himself with it, and started to rest with his eyes closed.

This time, no voices disturbed his ears.

He slept soundly until daylight.

He didn’t know how much time had passed. Groggily, Yu Hong woke up from his deep sleep.

It was already bright inside the cave, beams of sunlight traced through the gaps around the door’s peephole.

Yu Hong pulled off the luminous stone blanket, which had somehow fallen off, stood up to find the silver talisman array boards fully restored. He quickly swapped them behind the door and took a new exhausted silver talisman array board to continue the restoration process.

Dressed in the enhancement outfit, he picked up the Wolf Fang Club and didn’t do anything else but began his routine practice of Heavy Leg Skill.

The Inner Qi he had used before was replenished, and next, he had to aim for the eighth strand of Inner Qi. Once condensed, he would be just one away from the ninth, which would allow him a full body enhancement and then progression to the second level of the Heavy Leg Skill—the second move.

He really wanted to go to the post office right away to inquire with Li Rushan, but the events of yesterday were still causing him trepidation, and he hadn’t entirely recovered emotionally.