Puff.
Puff.
Puff.
Barrel after barrel of rocks was carried out of the cave by Yu Hong and dumped into the courtyard.
Then, carrying his stone-cutting tools, he returned to the cave to continue excavating a new chamber. This ti, his fourth chamber was not being dug downward but extending into the mountain.
This fourth chamber was ant to serve as a relaxation and entertainnt space.
For a long ti, he had been placing his bed in the frontmost entrance room, which significantly affected his rest.
So, he planned to create a separate rest and entertainnt room, which could also store so of his most valuable belongings. If the entrance was ever compromised, this additional depth would provide a secondary line of defense.
From 7 AM to noon, five full hours, he dedicated himself entirely to excavation.
After lunch, he took a one-hour nap before getting up to train.
His foundational survival leg technique, which had incorporated the Vortex Rune and Heavy Leg Technique, now greatly accelerated his internal energy cultivation. Based on the enhancent provided by the Black Mark, this technique should have the ability to resist the Ghostly Shadows.
This made Yu Hong quite curious—just how would this technique counter the Ghostly Shadows?
After three hours of training, he went out to the post office and finally retrieved the breeding boxes that Old Li had prepared for him. Along with them were fungus packs. He needed to start by cultivating mushroom bull’s-leg fungi. Once he had enough, he could begin breeding cockroaches, and ultimately, he would use lizard hatchlings—feeding them with cockroaches to produce dried lizard at.
“How do I start the cultivation?”
By the communicator, Yu Hong carefully poured teams of decomposed soil into the breeding boxes, leveling it out, before picking up the fungus packs to check the manual left by Old Li.
The instructions were detailed:
“First, sterilize the soil to ensure that only the fungal spores remain.”
After so thought, he decided to pour out all the decomposed soil and boil it in a large pot with a bit of water.
However, very quickly, the pot bottom started to burn—so unknown substances in the soil had charred.
Hurriedly, he removed the soil, only to find that the bottom of the pot was nearly burnt through. If not for the Black Mark’s ability to repair things, this one sterilization attempt would have cost him an entire afternoon.
Eventually, he ca up with a new thod—steam sterilization. Separating the soil into small portions, he sterilized them bit by bit.
By evening, he had finally finished preparing the soil, placing the fungus packs inside, spraying water, and covering it with a plastic sheet to maintain warmth. Now, it was a waiting ga.
“Hopefully, this works.”
After setting up the breeding boxes in the basent, he resud his evening training.
This routine continued for three days. Gradually, he watched as tiny white mushroom heads erged from the black soil inside the breeding boxes.
This finally put his anxious mind at ease.
On the fourth morning, he headed to the post office to check on things.
Knock, knock, knock.
A series of crisp knocks rang out, and the stone house door quickly opened. The two won inside, who had already been inford via communicator of his visit, had been waiting.
Aisena was also present, wrapped in a Luminous stone blanket, looking like she had just woken up.
“Uncle Yu!”
Seeing Yu Hong, she imdiately greeted him cheerfully.
“Nana, everything alright these past few days? Before your father returns, I’ll look after you. Let know if anything happens,” Yu Hong said as he entered, gently pinching her cheek.
“Mm, nothing happened,” Aisena shook her head, looking obedient and well-behaved.
“Mr. Yu, Nana is fine, but when we went out to fetch water yesterday, we found a corpse—a body lying by the water,” one of Old Li’s two won spoke. She had two braids, no makeup, and a naturally delicate appearance, looking no older than her early twenties.
“A corpse?” Yu Hong raised an eyebrow. “A fresh one?”
“No, no, it’s been dead for a long ti,” the woman shook her head.
“What’s your na?” Yu Hong observed the woman—her build was slightly petite, but her eyes were sharp and intelligent, unlike her companion, who seed more like a typical beauty without much depth.
“Lin Haini,” she answered quickly. “Right now, the wilderness is constantly covered with black tide. There shouldn’t be any corpses left intact. So when I saw it, I found it strange.”
“Where did you find it?” Yu Hong asked.
“Near Baiqiu Village. Brother Shan dug a small pond there to collect rainwater,” the other woman interjected, seemingly unwilling to be ignored. “Mr. Yu, my na is Song Wei. I also saw the corpse. I can take you there.”
Lin Haini glanced at her but remained silent, seemingly letting her take the lead.
“Alright, there’s still ti. Lead the way,” Yu Hong said, indifferent to who guided him. His goal was simply to see the body.
If a corpse remained intact despite the swarms of black bugs, it must be hiding so kind of secret.
Without delay, Song Wei grabbed an array board and, following a familiar route, led Yu Hong out of the stone house toward their usual water collection site.
Before long, they passed the stone house and arrived at a shadowy rock face.
This rock face was hidden behind shrubs and shielded by several large trees.
At the base of the rock, a duckbill-shaped pond had been dug, with floating leaves scattered across its surface.
The pond was filled with clear water, and on a patch of grass beside it lay a withered black corpse, face down, silent and still.
The corpse wore a gray-black, multi-pocketed loose jacket, a wide-brimd sun hat, and one outstretched hand clutched sothing tightly, as if it had been crawling forward in desperation to reach the water.
“When you fetched water before, was this body here?” Yu Hong asked.
“No, it must have appeared recently,” Song Wei quickly answered, feeling sowhat fearful of the burly man beside her.
Yu Hong nodded and moved closer, pulling out a red-value detector.
To his surprise, even when he was just a ter away from the corpse, the detector showed a stable reading of the environntal red value—twenty-sothing, with no fluctuations at all.
Drawing out his spiked wolf club, he carefully flipped the corpse over.
Puff.
The body landed face-up. Its dark, hollow eye sockets were devoid of eyeballs, as if they had been dug out.
It looked like the shriveled corpse of an old man, but from the size of its shoes, it was clear that this was no elderly person.
After all, an old man wouldn’t deliberately wear shoes far larger than his feet, especially in such a dangerous environnt.
Soon, Yu Hong noticed that the corpse’s tightly clenched hand seed to be holding sothing.
Crouching down, he carefully pried open the stiff fingers one by one and extracted a crumpled, yellowed paper.
Unfolding it, he found hurried, scribbled lines of writing:
“Dear Vasana, if you see this letter, I am no longer in this world… The family’s downfall was never my intention. That gamble—had I won, we would have risen to great heights. But since I lost, this is the price we pay…”
Yu Hong frowned and scanned the surroundings for danger before continuing to read.
“Follow the map I left in the safe. Return to the place where our family first rose to power… All of our secrets lie buried there.”
“What is this? A fallen noble on an adventure, searching for treasure?”
Yu Hong finished reading the letter, then flipped it over and examined it again carefully.
Aside from a na at the very bottom of the letter, there was nothing else of note.
“Lurs sa.”
He read the na aloud. It was clearly not an Eastern River na—more like sothing from the Flica region.
Yu Hong thought for a mont, then quickly searched the corpse’s pockets.
All he found were a few miscellaneous items—a flashlight, a magnesium rod, a simple water filtration straw, and a hiking backpack stuffed with food wrappers.
Other than that, this guy had nothing. Not even a single silver coin. A complete pauper.
Yu Hong stood up, his brows furrowed.
“Let’s go back first. We’ll talk later.” He ordered.
The surrounding fog was growing thicker. Staying outside too long could be dangerous.
“Okay!” Song Wei nodded quickly.
The two of them hurried back to the post office, arriving just as Old Zhou was moving supplies.
Zhou Xueguang was transporting goods from the post office to the underground safe house where Jenny and her daughter lived.
Carrying a large sack on his back, he nodded at Yu Hong before preparing to leave.
“Old Zhou, I just happen to have sothing to ask you.” Yu Hong stepped forward and called out. “Why don’t you co in and sit for a bit?”
Old Zhou hesitated for a few seconds before speaking.
“Alright.”
They entered the post office and sat down. Song Wei and Lin Haini, knowing what to do, took Nana to hide underground.
Only Yu Hong and Zhou Xueguang remained, sitting across from each other.
“What’s the matter?” Zhou Xueguang exhaled wearily.
“I found an unusual corpse. Have you seen anything like it on the frontlines?” Yu Hong described the blackened mummified body and handed the letter over.
“I’m just a low-ranking officer. I know a lot about frontline intelligence and common knowledge, but I don’t know much about the Flica region.” Zhou Xueguang shook his head.
He lightly shook the letter in his hand.
“This is strange. In a place this dangerous, how did a Flica native manage to cross the sea, reach Eastern River, and end up near us?”
“Could he have been like you, a soldier discharged from the frontlines?” Yu Hong asked.
“Eastern River doesn’t recruit rcenaries. The United Army might have so exchange officers, but why would he co all the way here?” Zhou Xueguang frowned.
“According to the letter, their family’s great secret is hidden here.” Yu Hong said.
“Not necessarily. Maybe he died on the way before reaching his actual destination.” Zhou Xueguang countered.
“That makes sense.” Yu Hong nodded. “Honestly, besides an old luminous stone mine, there isn’t much of value around here.”
Even so, Yu Hong couldn’t shake the feeling that there was sothing unusual about the corpse.
“Let’s not worry about anything else for now. While the multi-eyed birds are avoiding this area, we need to finish all our preparations quickly.” Zhou Xueguang reminded him.
“Got it.” Yu Hong nodded firmly. The mushrooms in the cultivation box were sprouting—soon, self-sufficiency would beco a reality.
When that ti ca, he could stay hidden at ho, never going outside again.
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