Danger II (Thanks, Gray Tombstone Silver)

Danger II (Thanks, Gray Tombstone Silver). This stone could injure that White-Clothed Wraith. It was most likely some kind of special item, and its small size made it hard to notice even if it caused a little commotion.

Besides, if it could truly be enhanced, the White Stone would become even more powerful. It would also be much safer to deal with that Ghost Shadow from before.

With that in mind, he picked up a white stone and looked at Little Stutterer.

"Can you give me one? Thank you for saving me just now! I'll repay you."

He spoke earnestly.

Little Stutterer shook her head.

"This... is already useless." She explained. "If you want it, take it."

Yu Hong nodded and picked up the White Stone for a closer look.

The stone was only the size of a thumbnail. A dark red, intricate symbol had been drawn on its surface, resembling some religious talisman. At present, one-third of the stone had turned black, though he had no idea why.

The stone felt icy cold to the touch, like touching a block of ice, chilling him to the bone.

Hiss. A number soon appeared on the stone's surface: 3 days.

A thought quickly surfaced, and the Black Mark seemed to sense it, swiftly sending out a message.

'Enhance target?'

Yu Hong slipped the White Stone into his pocket.

He tried responding in his heart: Yes.

The instant he gave an affirmative answer, the Black Mark on the back of his hand warmed slightly before calming down.

Then, the White Stone in his pocket also warmed up before returning to normal.

Little Stutterer beside him showed no reaction whatsoever to what had happened to the White Stone.

"You're okay now?" Little Stutterer asked curiously as she looked at him.

"Soon. It's... getting dark. We... have to prepare," she stammered.

"Prepare for what?" Yu Hong asked. After the intense emotions and physical exertion just now, his already weak body was returning to normal as the adrenaline faded.

He was still sick and inflamed. He had only temporarily needed physical strength and mental focus to deal with the danger. Now that the danger had passed, his body resumed fighting the viruses and bacteria.

His immune system began rapidly producing immune cells again, and his body temperature started rising once more.

"At night... monsters are dangerous," Little Stutterer answered.

As she spoke, she glanced toward the window. The sunlight shining through the cracks outside was growing dimmer and dimmer.

That darkness was abnormal. It was coming far too quickly.

It was so fast that Yu Hong could see the light darkening with his naked eye.

This bizarre phenomenon filled him with an ever-deepening sense of anxious danger.

Thud, thud, clack, clack. Ding, ding, dong, dong.

Little Stutterer somehow found a hammer and began pounding nails around the edges of the doors and windows, seemingly reinforcing and inspecting the surroundings.

Several thick chains were hung across the main door from the inside, and three horizontal bolts had also been dropped into place.

Each bolt was as thick as an arm. The contact surfaces between the bolts and the door had long been rubbed smooth, clearly showing that this was not the first time.

The light grew dimmer, and dimmer.

Yu Hong stood blankly in the room for a moment. He soon snapped out of it and tried to help inspect the cracks for safety issues.

But because he was completely unfamiliar with the surroundings, Little Stutterer quickly found him more hindrance than help and shoved him back onto the bed.

"Don't... make trouble," Little Stutterer said seriously. Then she crawled beneath the bed and dragged out a huge black cloth bag.

When she opened it, it was packed with densely piled white stones. She found a red pen and began carefully drawing Red Symbols on each White Stone.

So she drew all those Red Symbols herself? Yu Hong watched the scene with sudden realization.

Eeee~~~ Eeee~~~~ Suddenly, an extremely faint, shrill female voice, like an operatic falsetto, drifted vaguely from outside the house.

The voice rose and fell, winding and strange. It sounded like weeping, yet also like a performance, carrying a peculiar sense of being half real and half fake.

Click.

Little Stutterer had clearly heard it too. She quickly grabbed several White Stones and stuffed them into Yu Hong's hands. Then she picked up a yellow candle from a corner piled with junk, lit it by rubbing it with something like a magnesium rod, and raised the candle as she stared tensely at the doors and windows.

Standing behind her, Yu Hong noticed that the candle was extremely thick—thick as an egg.

"It's here," Little Stutterer suddenly said.

At that moment, Yu Hong also noticed that the light outside the window had completely vanished.

Nothing remained but an impenetrable blackness filtering in from outside.

Is it nighttime already? How did it get dark so fast? He wanted to speak, but wave after wave of dizziness suddenly surged through his mind, battering his consciousness. His body grew hotter and hotter. He felt as though he might have a fever, and his throat hurt increasingly badly.

He needed water, and medicine. Fever medicine. Otherwise, things might turn ugly.

He knew his own condition. When he had caught colds and run fevers before, this was what it felt like when they got serious.

And when his fever had reached thirty-nine degrees last time, he had not felt nearly this weak. He had probably been frightened too badly earlier.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, he gripped the White Stone tightly and stared wide-eyed at the doors and windows.

The room fell silent, the two of them waiting.

For a time, only their breathing and heartbeats filled the air.

That state did not last long.

Click.

At last, a faint sound came from outside the door.

"It's here!" Little Stutterer shouted.

Her body tensed, the lines of muscle in her arms standing out clearly. She raised the thick candle high in her right hand, letting its flame form a circle of light that covered as much of the room as possible.

Yu Hong watched nervously behind her as well.

He did not know what would happen, but judging from Little Stutterer's reaction, something bad was likely about to occur. After all, not even that white Ghost Shadow from before had made her this tense.

Soon, their wait finally bore fruit.

In the darkness, the rustling sound of insects crawling began to rise outside the doors and windows.

The sound came with startling suddenness and density, like crossing from a silent void into a noisy desert in an instant.

Sand seemed to flow endlessly across the doors and windows, making soft scraping sounds.

Soon, Yu Hong's eyes widened as he saw black insects crawling through the gaps in the doors and windows, gaps less than a centimeter wide.

The densely packed insects were like sand. At least hundreds, perhaps thousands, rushed in all at once.

Each was only the size of an ant, resembling a beetle with an oval shell on its back. Its head bore vicious centipede-like mouthparts. It had no eyes, but more than ten pairs of densely packed legs.

Taken as a whole, they looked like shortened black millipedes.

The mass of insects quickly poured into the room, making faint crawling noises. At the same time, the elusive shrill female voice in the air grew closer and clearer.

"Get out!!" Little Stutterer screamed, yet strangely, she remained motionless with the candle raised, standing in the center of the room and doing nothing but roaring.

Yu Hong sat at the bedside, wanting to get up and help, but his weak body had little strength left.

Sweat seeped from his back, only to be quickly evaporated by his burning body temperature.

Watching the Black Worms continuously crawl in through the cracks, his entire body tensed and trembled.

Terrifying images kept flashing through his mind—his body covered in insects, his flesh bitten and torn apart.

It was an instinctive human fear, impossible to suppress.

But at that moment.

Hiss. The first wave of Black Worms to crawl inside entered the candlelight.

And at that instant, something unexpected happened.

Under the candle's pale yellow light, these horrifying Black Worms rapidly dissolved into black smoke and evaporated away.

Wisps of black smoke rose densely. Every strand had been formed from dissolved Black Worms.

Like wax melting in flame, they seemed not to know how to retreat at all and continued charging madly toward Little Stutterer, who held the candle.

Soon, centered around Little Stutterer, the Black Worms crawling in through the doors and windows formed a ring, constantly drawing closer, constantly dissolving, and constantly evaporating.

Black smoke rose and quickly dispersed through the air, becoming a choking, foul odor.

Yu Hong watched the scene, shock unconsciously appearing on his face.

He searched through every scrap of knowledge in his mind, yet could not think of any kind of insect that would automatically dissolve into black smoke simply because it had been illuminated by light.

The bizarre scene before him had completely shattered every previous guess and imagination he had held.

Monsters.

A word Doctor Xu, that middle-aged woman, had mentioned before suddenly surged into his mind again.

Yes. Monsters.

Weren't these Black Worms before him real monsters? They were like an endless tide, yet they dissolved and vanished the instant light touched them.

For a time, Yu Hong fell into an indescribable state of mental sluggishness. He carefully observed the Black Worms and the candle, trying to find some false flaw in them.

Every now and then, he pinched his thigh hard, using pain to force his mind awake and prove that what he was seeing was not a dream.

But every action proved that it was real. None of it was false, and it was certainly not a dream.

And he noticed something else.

As the Black Worms dissolved, the thick candle in Little Stutterer's hand, which should have lasted a long time, was also rapidly melting away under their assault.

It was as though fighting the Black Worms consumed the candle's heat at an astonishing rate.

Time passed in this deadlock.

Ten minutes.

Half an hour.

One hour.

Two hours. The two of them remained in that position without moving.

The candle in Little Stutterer's hand quickly shrank from the length of a forearm to the length of a palm.

"Ah!" Yu Hong suddenly sprang up, spun around, and reached behind himself, grabbing a Black Worm and pulling it free.

The Black Worm turned into black smoke the moment the light shone on it.

But when he reached down and touched his buttock—

His left buttock had been bitten by a bug. Blood immediately soaked through his pants, and the wound was clearly not small.

Seemingly drawn by the blood, the Black Worms around him grew more agitated and began surging madly toward Yu Hong.

But the candlelight continued firmly blocking them, turning every one of them into black smoke.

Clutching his buttock, Yu Hong simply struggled closer and stood beside Little Stutterer, watching the scene unfold.

Watching circles upon circles of Black Worms beyond the halo of light continuously dissolve, evaporate, and turn into black smoke.

This fantastical and dangerous sight was like a meteor, endlessly smashing his once-whole worldview into pieces.

No one knew how much time passed.

At last, the faint shrill female voice in the air gradually faded and receded.

As the voice vanished, the Black Worms crawling into the house also began to thin out.

A faint ray of light slowly shone in through the cracks around the doors and windows.

Finally.

The last Black Worms were covered by the light, struggling as they dissolved into black smoke.

Everything finally returned to silence.

Book recommendation~

Strange World: From Infant to Eternal Martial Saint. Zhao Rongshan transmigrated into a strange martial arts world, carrying the Life Simulation System and the Life Achievement System. He began cultivating from infancy and speedran the world.