A Night of Desperation

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“Are you sure you didn’t see it wrong!?” Li Runshan’s expression changed instantly. He even set aside what he was about to ask Yu Hong for help with and stared at him intently, repeating the question.

“You have a detector yourself. Test it and see,” Yu Hong nodded.

“Damn!” Li Runshan wasted no time. He pulled out a detector, rushed out the door without acknowledging the people in the courtyard, and sprinted into the forest. Without hesitation, he pressed the button.

Soon, his face darkened. He quickly returned to the courtyard, ignored everyone else, re-entered the stone house, and shut the door.

“A big one is coming. This is a damn sign of a full-scale Blood Tide outbreak! Yu Hong, you need to leave now. Help the people outside as much as you can—take as many as possible. Otherwise, none of them will survive the night!”

“I already agreed to help. I won’t go back on my word,” Yu Hong nodded. He had some ideas about how to settle these people.

“If worst comes to worst, we can throw them into the mining zone,” he suggested.

“That’s useless. The mining zone is safe, but the radiation will turn them into idiots, which is pointless,” Li Runshan sighed.

“But on my end, I can only take in four or five more people at most,” Yu Hong calculated. If he built two more wooden huts in the yard, three people could stay in each. That should be manageable. The Luminous stone Grass could be transplanted a little further out.

However, he had no reason to take on too much responsibility. Protecting too many people wouldn’t benefit him.

Wait… benefits.

Yu Hong narrowed his eyes.

“Let’s talk about compensation. I charged Wei Shanshan and her mother for helping them. If the others want in, they can’t expect it for free.”

“What do you need? What can they offer? You can negotiate with them yourself,” Old Li sighed. “These people have a lot of resources, but the problem now is the deteriorating environment. I’m worried about the reception team…”

Yu Hong’s expression also shifted slightly.

“If the reception team doesn’t make it, what will you do?”

“Then we’ll have no choice but to—” Li Runshan gritted his teeth but didn’t finish his sentence. With limited resources, he couldn’t risk his and his daughter’s lives to protect a group of strangers.

“Uncle… will we die?” Aisena, who had been standing quietly on the side, suddenly spoke. Her big eyes looked at Yu Hong calmly.

“…No, you won’t,” Yu Hong looked at her round, fair little face, reached out to pinch her cheek gently, and forced a smile. “Your dad is really strong. He’ll protect you.”

“Nana,” Li Runshan gently picked her up and handed her to a beautiful woman nearby. “Go rest with Aunt Lin. Daddy has something to take care of and will check on you later.”

“Mm.” Aisena nodded obediently and nestled into the woman’s arms without another word.

“Alright, I’m heading back. Give me the ruin’s map,” Yu Hong said. His main purpose here was to investigate the origins of the rune patterns and gather more information on how to counter the Specters.

“You don’t actually need a map. The place is simple—just go straight in. The structure is shaped like an ‘L.’ You’ll understand once you’re inside. But be careful—the ruin is near the mine, so the radiation is high. And things might have changed inside. I haven’t been there in a long time,” Li Runshan warned.

“Got it.”

“And about taking people…”

“You took that job, so deal with it yourself,” Yu Hong refused to get involved.

Li Runshan had no choice but to go out and loudly ask if anyone was willing to follow Yu Hong to another safehouse.

However, no one was willing. The crowd, previously noisy and panicked, suddenly became eerily silent. Though fearful and anxious, no one wanted to leave the underground shelter of the post office for a completely unknown “safehouse.” 𝔯𝐚ΝօꞖÈꞨ

Creak.

Yu Hong pushed open the door, whispered a fixed communication schedule to Old Li, then glanced at the men and women in the courtyard.

No one paid him any attention.

Clearly, they trusted the reputation of the post office couriers more.

Two military officers, who appeared to be in charge, approached Old Li to negotiate for warm supplies and arrange for their key personnel to enter the underground facility first.

As Old Li talked with them, he also jotted down notes on paper.

Seeing no one willing to follow him, Yu Hong shrugged at Old Li—meaning it wasn’t that he didn’t want to help; rather, they simply refused his help.

Without delay, he turned and headed back to his residence.

After a brief preparation, Yu Hong packed his gear, weapons, protein bars, and a water pouch before setting off for the mining zone.

The sky was still bright, but he had no idea how large the ruin was inside. He needed to allocate enough time to explore and prepare accordingly.

Following a forest trail, he crossed scorched woodlands and small hills. After half an hour, he arrived at a massive gray-white stone wall, over ten stories high.

At its center was a narrow crack, just over two meters tall.

The fissure was pitch black and deep, resembling a jagged bolt of lightning in a painting. A thin stream of water trickled from it.

Standing at the entrance, Yu Hong examined the water’s flow. It didn’t travel far before disappearing into the cracks between the stones.

Lush green vines and grass surrounded the area, thriving despite the cooling temperatures.

He crouched down, pinched a blade of grass, and held it up to confirm—it was indeed fresh.

Then, he dipped his hand into the stream to test its temperature.

Warm—significantly warmer than the outside air.

After a pause, Yu Hong took out a glowstick, held it high for illumination, and strode into the fissure.

The shifting environment made him even more curious about the ruin. With no progress in his search for techniques, he hoped this place—where the first rune patterns were discovered—might hold some valuable clues.

He had a feeling that if he didn’t explore now, the worsening conditions might make it too dangerous to venture out later.

“Search quickly and return immediately,” he set a goal for himself before entering the fissure.

Rustle.

As he moved deeper, the passage widened, but the temperature dropped.

Yu Hong’s black combat suit blended perfectly with the surroundings, though his occasional breath produced faint white mist.

Inside, the floor bore many footprints and drag marks from heavy objects—clear signs of frequent activity. The walls had recessed alcoves, once used for storage but now empty.

“Looks like everything’s been taken,” Yu Hong muttered, activating his enhanced detector.

Beep.

The LCD screen displayed the surrounding red value: 37.122.

“It’s already over thirty,” Yu Hong’s heart sank as he tightened his grip on the spiked club.

He continued inward. The passage gradually widened until it stabilized at around five meters.

At this point, the cave’s height was also about five meters, forming a semi-cylindrical shape that stretched further into the mountain.

As he ventured deeper, strange symbols and writings began to appear on the stone walls on both sides.

These markings, drawn in black ink, resembled claw marks left by some kind of monster under the eerie green glow.

Apart from these, small scattered stones started to appear along the sides of the stream on the ground.

Most of these stones had incomplete carvings on their surfaces.

They were similar to pebbles found along a riverbank—grayish-white and evenly distributed.

Crack.

Yu Hong bent down, wedged the atomic light stick under his armpit, and picked up a stone about the size of an egg.

The black markings on the stone’s surface looked oddly familiar.

‘Isn’t this the Luminous Stone Rune? The earliest form of rune Array!’

He suddenly recognized the markings.

Placing the stone back, he picked up another one and found the same runes, though incomplete due to the stone’s broken edges.

Yu Hong systematically examined one stone after another and discovered that they all bore the same runes.

Standing up, he exhaled, releasing a faint cloud of white mist into the air.

He then turned the light toward the murals on both sides of the cave. The walls were covered in black inscriptions of an entirely unknown language.

Both sides bore the same script.

After staring at it for a while without making any sense of it, he decided to continue deeper into the cave.

Before long, he reached the end of the passage.

A towering black stone wall completely blocked his path.

The walls on either side of this stone barrier were filled with countless small holes, from which thin streams of water silently trickled down.

These streams pooled on the ground and merged into a small creek that meandered out of the cave.

Standing before the black stone wall, Yu Hong raised his atomic light and illuminated the massive five-meter-high rock.

Carved into the stone was a large, gray-inked archway.

The drawn gate was densely inscribed with numerous unfamiliar symbols and writings.

Among these, Yu Hong quickly identified several symbols used in the Luminous Stone Rune.

His spirits lifted instantly. Setting down his club, he retrieved paper and pen from his pocket and carefully copied all the symbols from the archway.

Including the ones from the murals he had seen earlier, he recorded a total of seven distinct symbols after eliminating duplicates.

However, upon closer examination, Yu Hong noticed that these seven symbols not only formed the Luminous Stone Rune but also came together on the archway to create an even more complex and intricate symbol.

This larger symbol appeared frequently at the top of the mural gate. Its sharp, striking strokes exuded an imposing aura, though its function remained unclear.

Even after transcribing everything, Yu Hong felt something was off about this large symbol.

At first glance, it seemed like a swirling vortex, but upon closer inspection, he realized it was merely an optical illusion.

‘Why did the previous explorers only study the Luminous Stone Rune and ignore this symbol?’

He couldn’t understand.

After finishing his notes, he searched every corner of the cave for more clues. However, it was evident that anything of value had long since been taken, leaving him with no further discoveries.

Reluctantly, he exited the ruins.

The way in had been slow, but the way out was much faster—within minutes, Yu Hong was back at the cave entrance.

‘The markings on the Luminous Stone should be called the Amplification Rune. As for this newly discovered symbol… I’ll call it the Vortex Rune for now. Hopefully, it’ll lead to some new findings.’

Feeling a tinge of disappointment, he turned back to glance at the cave ruins.

‘Did the original Black Disaster really seep out from places like this?’

He recalled the archway mural at the cave’s end, covered in inscriptions—aside from the vast, unreadable text, it prominently featured the Luminous Stone’s Amplification Rune and the newly found Vortex Rune.

Yet on the stone walls, the symbols had been distorted—some stretched long and thin, others shrunk, some shaped into squares, and some flattened like dough.

With unanswered questions in his mind, Yu Hong quickly returned to his residence.

He planned to use the Black Seal to decipher the function of the Vortex Rune as soon as possible.

(End of Chapter)