Inside the Mountain Cave Safe House.
Yu Hong sat down and gasped for breath, recovering his strength.
He placed the Silver Symbol Array in his hand on the ground. His whole body was drenched in sweat, and his eyes were glued shut by it.
After resting for a few seconds, he looked back at Doctor Xu. Seeing that her eyes were closed as if she were resting too, he reached out and pressed his hand against the Silver Symbol Array on the door.
After a few seconds, he lifted his hand. When he saw the black countdown for restoration and replenishment appear on the array's surface, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It wouldn't take long. A little over forty minutes would be enough to restore him completely to peak condition.
"Doctor Xu, are you all right?" Yu Hong finally had time to ask.
"."
There was no response.
Yu Hong furrowed his brows and turned around again, only to see Doctor Xu still curled up on the ground, motionless. Sweat and saliva dripped constantly from her chin. Her body was also twitching and trembling faintly.
"Doctor Xu?" Yu Hong called out again. He vaguely sensed that something was wrong, and his expression grew solemn.
He reached out and pushed her, but she gave no reaction at all.
He immediately stood up, poured a cup of boiling water, and brought it over, intending to feed it to her.
Unfortunately, Doctor Xu's mouth could no longer close properly, and her breathing was extremely erratic. If he fed her water like this, she would likely choke.
Yu Hong could only carefully wet the inside of her mouth with a little water. Then he dragged her up and placed her on the softer sleeping bag.
"I don't have any emergency medicine, and I don't know what happened to you. Right now, the only thing you can do is save yourself." He sat beside her and spoke quickly. "If you can hear me, can you tell me what I should do to help you?"
Doctor Xu remained still. She lay on the sleeping bag with her eyes closed, her whole body twitching, unable to move.
Her body was growing somewhat cold, but sweat kept seeping from her skin.
Soon, the fire in the fireplace flared up, radiating intense warmth and easing her body somewhat. Her breathing also seemed to gradually steady as the warmth spread through her.
Seeing that she had improved, Yu Hong also relaxed. At a time like this, he couldn't possibly handle the logistics and production of supplies by himself. Since Doctor Xu was an acquaintance with a good nature—and Little Stutterer's friend—he would naturally do his best to save her if he could.
He glanced at the countdown on the door, then at the grime on Doctor Xu's face, and used tree-leaf newspaper to wipe away her saliva and sweat.
Then he sat to one side and began rummaging through the bag he had just brought out of Jenny and Eve's underground shelter.
It wasn't a cloth bag, but merely a thick black plastic bag with white handles, light enough to carry in one hand.
Yu Hong tore it open and took out the items inside one by one.
The Red Value Detector was on top. He took it out and placed it on the ground.
Next was a pair of women's small black leather boots.
Three candles.
A brown hardback notebook.
A bottle of small red pills of unknown purpose.
A grimy black cloth mask.
A sheathed short knife with a snakeskin pattern.
A small green box that looked like a handheld Game Console, complete with a screen and directional buttons.
Yu Hong picked up the green box first and found a small black switch on its side. He flipped it open.
Nothing happened.
He set it down and picked up the bottle of pills. Through the transparent glass, he could see that the red pills were fresh and dry, without the slightest trace of mold.
"Neither Jenny nor Eve seemed to have any illness, so what is this medicine? Emergency Anti-inflammatory Medicine? Or..."
He couldn't figure it out and could only wait until Doctor Xu woke up before testing it.
After setting down the medicine, he picked up the short knife and gently drew it.
The sharp silver blade was exceptionally clean, with a faint layer of maintenance oil on it. The back of the blade had a saw-like design, while the side had a fuller. It looked highly practical.
Swish.
He sheathed the short knife and finally reached for the notebook.
He picked it up and opened it.
'Adjust the radiation time according to the dosage, then proceed with the next test according to the detailed plan for Scheme Two.'
'Three accidents occurred in April. Glowstone Radiation data was collected sixteen times.'
'In May, conducted a radiation data survey of the terrain surrounding the Glowstone Mine. Collected samples seventy-four times.'
'In June, discovered an individual entering the mine. Mild physical abnormalities occurred, and data was successfully obtained through sampling.'
'In July, conducted five successful animal model experiments. Due to environmental changes causing a drastic reduction in the number of animals and insects, the animal experiments were forcibly terminated.'
'In August, collected Eve's cells for cultivation and began radiation testing on the cultivated tissue. Through the tests, compared with the Lin Yi Yi cell tissue collected earlier, the progression of the disease was inferred.'
Under the firelight, Yu Hong frowned as he read the rows of writing in the notebook. Beneath the text were detailed charts and character data, much of it written in abbreviated code whose meaning he couldn't understand. But judging from the writing alone, Jenny's family had likely come here with ulterior motives a long time ago. They had also secretly sampled, observed, and studied Little Stutterer, Lin Yi Yi.
He kept flipping through the pages, skipping over many data charts. Soon, he saw more text in between.
'Glowstone Disease has been confirmed to provide considerable resistance against Ghost Shadow. Under the same level of infection, patients with Glowstone Disease show some degree of intellectual decline, but in a high-red-value environment, they also display strong resistance. They no longer suffer from bodily rigidity, convulsions, hallucinations, or similar symptoms.'
'In the cell-sampling experiments, cells infected with Glowstone Disease displayed a substantial increase in activity. Their lifespan decreased by 65.4%, while their resistance to bacteria and viruses increased by more than 70%. It has therefore been confirmed that taking Eve to the mine for approximately half an hour every five days can effectively suppress the unusual-mark disease afflicting her.'
By the time he read this, Yu Hong understood somewhat.
Jenny's family had most likely come here because their daughter, Eve, had first been targeted by something. Left with no choice, they had come seeking a way to save her through research.
Unfortunately, their research had only just begun to show results when he interrupted it.
Eve hadn't been killed by the Ghost Shadow Black Calamity. Instead, she had died at the hands of an ordinary person like him.
"But Glowstone Disease... Glowstone can actually make people sick?" he wondered, recalling Little Stutterer's condition.
She had suffered intellectual decline, yet possessed extremely strong resistance to Ghost Shadow and the like. At any rate, he had never seen Little Stutterer get so frightened by a Ghost Shadow that she screamed her head off.
"Could Little Stutterer also have Glowstone Disease?" Yu Hong guessed inwardly.
As long as he could determine the cause, perhaps he could find a way to cure her someday.
***White River City.
The surface.
On the beach by the sea, wave after wave dragged white lines across the sand, surging up and falling back in an endless cycle.
A hundred meters above the beach stood a stretch of abandoned, rust-covered skyscrapers, silently rising beneath the scorching sunlight.
The pale-blue glass on their surfaces reflected the blinding sun and occasionally clanged loudly as the sea breeze swept past.
At the top of one of the buildings, on the rust-coated rooftop.
Several men and women in camouflage uniforms were speaking in hushed voices.
They stood together, the insignia of the United Army marked on their clothes.
One short-haired man wearing glasses held a piece of jade-like Large Glowstone. He lowered his head and listened with a frown to the person beside him.
The man had gentle features and bronze-colored skin, with a small silver-white Pistol tucked at his waist. On the outer side of his right forearm, his clothing bore a three-star mark different from everyone else's.
"A Dong and the other one still haven't returned. We didn't have time to deal with it before, but now that we've finally settled down properly, I sent someone back to wait at the agreed meeting place. In the end, there wasn't a single person there. I suspect something happened to them." A young woman with dark skin spoke in a deep voice.
"They had two guns, and there were rest stops along the way. It shouldn't be likely that something happened, right?" another person couldn't help saying.
"Hard to say. Evil Shadow had been spreading everywhere before. Maybe they were killed on the way while searching. Satellite signals are too badly disrupted now, so long-distance contact is impossible. The only thing we can rely on to judge their situation is whether they show up at the agreed time. If they can't make it on time, we can only assume they're dead." The young woman spoke rapidly.
"Then what do we do? If someone in White Mound Village really can make Large Glowstone, it would be a waste to give up just like that," another person said.
"Well said. Then who's willing to go back and investigate what happened, so we can determine the truth?" the man with glasses asked loudly, sweeping his gaze around.
But every person around him quickly looked away whenever their eyes met his, unwilling to respond.
"Is no one willing to make the first sacrifice?" The man with glasses sighed. "If we can capture the person who makes the Large Glowstone, I guarantee that his monthly treatment will be doubled! Food and supplies alike."
Still, no one around him spoke.
They had only just escaped Evil Shadow and fled that dangerous region. No one was willing to return and throw their life away.
Besides, the distance was so great that they might be killed by Ghost Shadow monsters halfway there, before even reaching their destination.
"Xu Yang, you've always been my most capable assistant." The man with glasses shifted his gaze to a strong man wearing a black mask.
"Team Leader Zhao, if we go back alone, we'll probably run into danger halfway there. Think about how many difficulties our entire town encountered while migrating here," Xu Yang said quickly.
"Then what do you mean?" The man with glasses frowned.
"The key issue is that White Mound Village is too dangerous. None of the brothers and sisters present can withstand it. So we need to find people who can." Xu Yang smiled.
"Who can guarantee that they can withstand it?" the man with glasses asked.
"I've already made inquiries. There's a black-market bar in White River City that specializes in hiring desperate people. I went there once and met a genuine expert. He used to work as a Mailman and came from the front line of the United Army in Aurora City. He's an absolute elite. Whether it's marksmanship or close-quarters combat, he's incredibly strong," Xu Yang said.
"He must be expensive, right?" The man with glasses frowned. "And why would someone that capable be willing to work for us? Wouldn't he earn more by capturing the person himself?"
"We just have to avoid telling him and only ask him to capture the person." Xu Yang smiled. "If he finds out, we can negotiate then. At worst, we'll give him a share of the benefits. That's still better than having nothing at all."
The man with glasses nodded and carefully examined the piece of Large Glowstone in his hand.
"Reasonable. Given the current environment in White River City, as long as we can control the person who can produce Large Glowstone endlessly, it'll be like holding a hen that lays golden eggs."
He paused.
"The Large Glowstone's effect is comparable to Glowstone Marrow. Its inscriptions are secondary; there are many similar types, and imitations would be easy enough. The key is the material. It can absolutely be used to pass off as rare Glowstone Marrow, and the price difference is far beyond what ordinary people can imagine. I truly wonder how he made it."
He exhaled and looked at Xu Yang again.
"I'll leave this matter to you. Can you do it?"
"Mission guaranteed complete." Xu Yang smiled.
"What's his name?"
"White Serpent Guo Xu Dong."
Before you continue