)At once, the three of them left the Stone House. Jenny took the nervous-looking Eve from the entrance and returned with her.
Doctor Xu and Yu Hong exchanged some candles for Large Glowstones, then went back to make preparations.
Carrying the items, Yu Hong did not return directly. Instead, he first went to Lao Yu's former residence—a Small Hillside Cellar that looked like a grave mound.
When he pulled open the cellar door, a wave of mold and rotting-meat stench immediately rushed into his face.
Holding a stick, he forced down his nausea and carefully crawled inside.
After roughly ten minutes, he crawled back out of the cellar, stinking from head to toe, a black-covered notebook clutched in his hand, and strode away.
Back at the Mountain Cave Safe House.
Yu Hong returned to his previous, orderly routine. He exercised in the morning, went out at noon to gather firewood, find water, and dig up vegetables, and spent the afternoon studying the Black Mark, strengthening it, and reading.
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
Crack.
At noon, inside the Stone House, Yu Hong snapped a dry branch into two, shortening it to a length convenient for putting into the fireplace. He tossed it aside and continued with the next one.
Suddenly, the countdown behind the main door caught the corner of his eye.
Only a few minutes remained on the display.
Almost there, almost there. Soon, I'll know what effect this strengthening will have when it reaches its limit. His heart was filled with anticipation.
Although the threat of the Evil Shadow had already spread to the Post Office gathering place, as long as he himself had not been infected, with the Black Mark-enhanced symbol array, he did not believe the Ghost Shadow and Evil Shadow could hurt him without making a sound.
The only thing he was worried about was how effective the symbol array would be against the Evil Shadow. Without actually testing it, no one knew whether it could hold up.
The few minutes quickly ran out, and the countdown suddenly hit zero.
Hiss! A blur completely enveloped the symbol array behind the door, but it became clear again in an instant.
When the symbol array reappeared, it had been completely transformed. Its original gray-white lines had turned a faint silver after strengthening.
The symbols in the array had also risen from the Large Glowstone level into an entirely new pattern. This pattern was far more complicated than the Large Glowstone's, and contained many details in both shade and depth.
It looks like the effect is very powerful. I just don't know how it'll perform in actual use. Yu Hong looked at the symbol array with delight and reached out to touch it. Its surface felt extraordinarily smooth, as if nothing had been carved onto it at all.
"Not bad, not bad. Next, if I grind the Large Glowstone into powder and make Glowstone Ink, will the effect be even stronger?" He had now roughly grasped the lower limit of the Black Mark.
It was true that each object could only be strengthened once. However, if he processed a strengthened object further and added a large amount of material belonging to himself, he could strengthen it once more.
The key was that his own material had to make up the majority of it.
The Evil Shadow may have reached the vicinity, and those soldiers came by before, too. I have to stay alert at all times.
Over the past few days, Yu Hong had also set up some simple alarms nearby, such as thin ropes tied between trees. Hidden in the grass, the ropes were impossible to spot unless someone looked carefully and slowly. As soon as a rope was touched, it would pull on a bell attached to one end.
The bell had been found in the Stone House at Lao Yu's place, but was now being used as part of the alarm line.
Coming back to himself, Yu Hong went to another corner, took out a Large Glowstone, and began grinding it up, adding water and carbon.
Soon, with practiced ease, he finished making a fresh batch of Glowstone Ink.
This time, he did not draw it somewhere else. Instead, he picked up a prepared wooden board and carefully began drawing the Large Glowstone symbol array.
The symbols of the Silver Symbol Array were far too complicated. He had observed them carefully, but even the shades and depths had to be taken into account, so he could not learn them for now.
Thus, he chose the Jade Quality Symbols he had grown increasingly proficient with—the Enhancement Symbols inherent to Jade Quality Large Glowstones.
Before long, after more than ten minutes, a brand-new wooden-board symbol array drawn with Glowstone Ink appeared beneath his hands.
Immediately afterward, he reached out and pressed his hand against it, beginning the strengthening.
And this was no ordinary strengthening. It was strengthening all the way to the upper limit.
Before long, a new countdown appeared on the wooden board: "2 days 1 hour 04 minutes."
Yu Hong looked as though his entire body had been hollowed out as well. He struggled to confirm that the strengthening had begun.
He intended to make as many preparations as possible. If Jenny and the others failed to raise meat for food, they would most likely have to enter Lao Yu's basement to transport food.
He also did not know how powerful the Evil Shadow was, so all he could do was prepare as thoroughly as possible.
If things truly came to that, he planned to take Lao Yu's notebook and explore and experiment on his own.
But that was the final method, because starting from zero would inevitably result in failure again and again. It would also bring countless troublesome problems.
***In the blink of an eye, another five days passed.
At the Post Office gathering place, in Jenny's cave.
"The High Tide Period is coming. We're running out of dried meat, Mom. Don't we have any food hidden away? I'm so hungry!" Eve sprawled on the bed, flipping through a romance novel.
"Didn't you just eat?" Jenny's voice came from the workroom. "I gave you all the dried meat, and there's none left at home either. I'll go see Doctor Xu tomorrow and ask if we can borrow some."
She had already given most of the food to her daughter, but five days had passed and she still had not managed to grow edible mushrooms.
Growing mushrooms was the first step in raising lizards, but now she did not even know how to begin. She had seen Lao Yu grow mushrooms so easily and quickly before and thought it would be simple. Now, it seemed far too slow. "But Mom, I'm hungry," Eve complained. "We already borrowed from Doctor Xu once. She definitely doesn't have any left either."
"Just bear with it. It'll be ready soon. We'll make do with mushrooms and wild vegetables for now." Jenny was helpless.
Lao Yu's disappearance had thrown her carefully laid plans into a desperate bind. She had originally intended to raise food herself, but when Lao Yu returned midway through, she had thought she no longer needed to do it herself and stopped.
She had never expected that just as it was time to replenish their food, Lao Yu would be gone!
This had left both Jenny and Doctor Xu in a hungry state, short of food.
"Lao Yu should have food at home, right? Why don't we just go take it?" Eve said unhappily. "He's gone anyway. Doesn't that mean we can take whatever we want?"
"No. What if the Black Handprint infects us?" Jenny was startled and immediately shouted sternly. "Normally, I can help you deal with any trouble, but this time you have to listen to me! Whatever you do, whatever you do, whatever you do, don't go near Lao Yu's place. It's extremely dangerous!!"
Seeing how resolute her mother was, Eve could only nod and indicate that she absolutely would not go.
Yet her eyes shifted as she lowered her head and rubbed her hungry, shrunken belly. It felt as though her whole body was burning. She wanted meat, meat, meat.
She became increasingly fixated on the huge stockpile of food at Lao Yu's place. She had heard that Lao Yu also had candy, drinks, and such that he had brought in from town. If she could eat them, it would be unbelievably wonderful! He's been dead for so long that Black Handprint must have disappeared by now. Besides, I'm only going in to take some things and leave. I won't touch any Black Handprint. It'll definitely be fine!
She dismissed her mother's concerns.
The High Tide Period was almost here, and the household's dried-meat reserves were nearly depleted. If she did not hurry to stock up, she might not be killed by the insects—instead, she would starve herself to death.
The canned supplies her father had left at home had finally been eaten as well. Everything now depended on replenishing their supplies from outside. If she did not go out soon, she might not even have the strength to leave once hunger set in.
Eve paid lip service, but while waiting for her mother to go out and borrow food from Doctor Xu, she quietly slipped out of the cave.
Without wandering around, she quickly reached the smashed-open door of the Stone House. She switched on the Atomic Lamp flashlight, a trace of fear on her face, but her unbearably hungry stomach forced her to hesitate only briefly before she gritted her teeth and dashed inside.
Before long, she crept back out and climbed out of the basement.
Afraid that her mother would discover what she had done and scold her, she had only searched around the entrance and brought out a small packet of food. This was a snack she had hidden for herself. She firmly decided that she could not let her mother find out, or she might get beaten again.
After returning, Eve carefully hid the food. Her mother indeed failed to notice, which filled her with a strong sense of accomplishment.
The next day, she used the excuse of going out to gather firewood and went to Lao Yu's basement again. She lit the candles inside, searched for food, and enjoyed a satisfying meal.
The third day was the same. As the days slowly passed, Eve did not notice at all that, with her constant trips in and out of the Stone House basement, the places she entered had gradually moved farther inward from the area near the basement entrance.
After discovering that nothing happened, her vigilance slowly declined as well. Every day, she lit the candles and leisurely gorged herself in the basement.
Soon, she finished the dried meat stored in one room and continued on to open the next.
As time passed, she finally reached the bedroom where Lao Yu had previously been attacked.
In the pitch-black corridor, a candle burned at regular intervals. The bright candlelight gave Eve a considerable sense of security.
After secretly eating there for so many days, she was completely certain that there was nothing wrong with the place and no danger. Her mother and Doctor Xu were simply scaring themselves.
Humming a little tune, she walked to the door of Lao Yu's bedroom and glanced at the scattered clothes on the floor. She also noticed the Black Handprint on one of the sleeves.
"As long as I don't touch the Black Handprint, what's there to be afraid of? They made it sound so terrifying, but nothing has happened at all." Eve stepped over the clothes and entered the bedroom.
By the light of the candle in her hand, she quickly rummaged through the bedroom, searching for food and anything valuable.
The gloomy, chilly basement was completely illuminated in every corner by the candles Eve had taken from Lao Yu.
People truly did not cherish what was not theirs. These supplies, which had belonged to Lao Yu, were now being wantonly wasted and enjoyed by Eve.
After searching for a while, she soon let out a cheer and pulled a bar of white chocolate from a cabinet.
"This is delicious!" She stuffed it into her mouth in one bite and hummed with satisfaction.
Snap.
Just then, a soft sound came from the bedroom doorway.
Eve froze and turned to look carefully. She discovered that one of the candles at the doorway had gone out.
Snap.
As she turned to look toward the door, another faint sound came from beside her. The candle in her hand had inexplicably gone out as well.
Eve hurriedly turned back, but saw nothing.
As she watched the room slowly grow darker, fear began to creep into her heart.
I have to go back. Nervously, she took two steps backward and hurried toward the doorway.
Just as she was about to step over the pile of clothes at the entrance—
Whoosh! All at once, two candles in the corridor outside the doorway went out.
In an instant, only two candles remained lit in the corridor.
Eve shuddered in fright. Her foot slipped, and she dropped heavily onto her backside.
Thud! She landed hard on the floor, pain shooting through her buttocks.
Just as she hurriedly tried to get up, her entire body suddenly froze.
She looked down.
The place where she had sat was directly on top of that pile of Lao Yu's clothes! "N-no way...!?" Her whole body turned cold and her scalp went numb. She sprang up and ran outside.
She failed to notice that beneath her lower back, on her buttocks, a distinct Black Handprint was slowly taking shape.
Whoosh! After she left, the final two candles in the corridor were blown out.
***In the blink of an eye, it was once again almost time for the High Tide Period.
At this time, Yu Hong, Doctor Xu, and Jenny had arranged to meet and exchange supplies.
Inside the Safe House, Yu Hong carefully took everything he could carry. After exercising during this period, his physical abilities had improved noticeably, and another thread of Cooling Qi had formed inside his body.
In other words, he now had three threads of Cooling Qi available to him.
"I hope Jenny can manage to raise enough meat for dried meat. Otherwise... I can hold out for a while, but they definitely won't be able to."
After packing everything up, Yu Hong opened the door. He looked at the bright sunlight outside, strode out, and hurried toward the Post Office gathering place.
Before you continue