Chapter 119: Intermittent 3
Bang, bang, bang.
Bang, bang, bang.
The rapid knocking continued.
Yu Hong was tidying up in the basent when he suddenly heard soone pounding on the safety house’s front door.
He quickly went upstairs and, from the peephole behind the board, saw Li Rushan standing at the door, impatiently knocking.
He approached the door but didn’t open it imdiately.
...
Instead, he tapped back gently according to their secret code as a reminder.
Imdiately, Li Rushan changed to a rhythmic knocking pattern of one-three-one.
This was the identity verification code they had just agreed upon.
Assured the code was correct, Yu Hong breathed a sigh of relief.
“What’s wrong, Old Li?”
He checked the Silver Talisman Plate behind the door, which showed no reaction, so he then opened the door to let Li Rushan in.
“I’m in trouble!” Li Rushan hurried in, looking distressed.
Strangely, as soon as the safety house door in the mountain cave shut, the indescribable chill that seed to follow him vanished as if lifting a heavy burden.
Whew, whew!
Li Rushan gasped heavily, sweat visible on his forehead. He had run over quickly from the post office stone house and, combined with his nervousness, was drenched in sweat.
“Can I stay here for a while? I might be in trouble. I’m worried about affecting Nana.”
“You’re worried about Nana and not about ?” Yu Hong spoke, exasperated, but seeing the pleading look in the other’s eyes and considering their fairly good relationship, he ultimately did not refuse.
“You can stay here, but I’m still remodeling this place. You’ll have to stay in the wooden house outside. Don’t worry, I have special protection asures here; even the wooden house is safe.”
“The wooden house in the yard, right?” Li Rushan nodded in understanding. “Okay. Also, give more talisman plates; I have a really bad feeling.”
“What happened to you?” Yu Hong squinted and quickly grabbed the Enhanced Red Value Detector, approaching the other and pressing the power button.
Beep-beep—the detector stabilized at the reading: 52.221.
Seeing this number, Yu Hong’s expression grew grave.
“It seems sothing indeed has its sights on you…”
Seeing this, Li Rushan was sowhat surprised because he had just checked himself and his own reading was normal. Why did it show a different number at Yu Hong’s place??
He glanced at the detector in Yu Hong’s hand, feeling it might be slightly different from his.
“Drink so water first, then tell in detail what’s going on.” Yu Hong poured him a glass of water, and they both sat down.
“I feel like sothing has been following . No matter what, I can’t shake it off.” At this mont Li Rushan sat down but kept looking back constantly, as if even within the cave, sothing persistently followed and watched him.
“Following you? Shadow? Evil Shadow? Or a Blood Tide Monster? When did this start?” Yu Hong asked quickly.
“Just now when I ca back. Actually, when I went to collect bacterial packs, as I passed a large living room, I felt for a mont soone was following , but I thought it was an illusion then and didn’t care.” Li Rushan ran his hands through his hair, feeling terrible.
“In the past, as long as I was within a talisman-protected area, I wouldn’t feel this. But this ti… even when I returned to the stone house, sothing still felt off. You know my situation; if it was a normal shadow, I wouldn’t feel this. But this ti, I’m sure it’s different. It’s definitely an Evil Shadow, and likely a type we haven’t encountered before!”
Yu Hong stood up and took a pen and paper, writing down:
‘1 — Tracks behind, but initially did not attack.
2 — The entity probably appears as a white, blurry figure, smiling, indistinct.
3 —…’
Thinking for a mont, he took the paper and showed it to Li Rushan.
“Anything else to add?”
“Does a cold back count?”
“Yes, you better stay put right here, I’ll go ask Zhou Xueguang and then check the post office for you.” Yu Hong quickly noted it down earnestly.
Regardless, he had a good relationship with Li Rushan, who was also one of the few food producers around. If he could help, he didn’t want anything to happen to him.
Previously, Yu Hong wouldn’t have bothered with such matters, but after his latest trip, his fear and concern regarding the Black Disaster had greatly diminished.
He also clearly understood what level his own strength was in the current environnt.
After brutally killing little Du, who was fully enhanced, Yu Hong’s inner worries had significantly lessened.
“This trip out, I realized sothing, we can’t always be passive, letting them fully prepare and gather all their forces to attack us,” Yu Hong said earnestly. “We need to disrupt them proactively, to understand and weaken them as much as we can. That way, we can seize the biggest hope, more chances to live.”
Hearing this, Li Rushan looked startled, as if seeing Yu Hong for the first ti.
“You’re right… but how do we disrupt them? We don’t even know what this thing is. If it were at the post office, I could use communication to inquire with higher-ups, but now I dare not go back.”
He sighed.
“But this ti, I really need to rely on you. I feel that the thing behind might not be inferior to a Language Person… Be careful.”
“Mm, got it. Anything else you want to add?” Yu Hong passed him the pen and paper.
“Just one more thing, like I said just now, every ti that thing appears, my back feels cold, not psychologically, but actually cold, lowering my body temperature and slowing my movents.” Li Rushan quickly took it and scribbled down.
“Anything else?”
“That’s it.”
“Alright, let’s go. I’ll get so things for you; we’ll head to the wooden house outside.” Yu Hong stood up, took a stack of talisman plates from a wooden fra, thought for a mont, then also took a Silver Talisman Plate, putting them together and handing them to Li Rushan.
“Take these for now.”
Li Rushan was seeing the Silver Talisman Plate for the first ti and closely examined it.
“Is this an advanced version?”
“That’s right, one of these is equivalent to ten regular ones,” Yu Hong said sowhat exaggeratedly, but it wasn’t far from the truth.
“Good stuff…” Li Rushan exclaid, “Thanks a lot!”
“Let’s go, there are too many secrets in this place, I don’t want to show you,” Yu Hong said quite directly.
“Okay, but speaking so bluntly can be hurtful,” Li Rushan replied, holding the Silver Talisman Plate, sowhat regaining a relaxed deanor.
“My biggest trait is being straightforward,” Yu Hong responded.
Click.
The wooden door opened, and the two walked out one after the other.
Yu Hong pushed open the door of the cabin and placed an Enhanced Red Value Detector on the wooden bed.
“This detector of mine has also been modified; its precision is extrely high. You can try it imdiately if you feel sothing is wrong.”
“Yeah, alright. Thank you,” Li Rushan nodded, paused, then added, “The last shipnt of your sunlight materials through the internal channels should be arriving soon, I’ll give you a discount then.”
He was well aware that for Yu Hong to assist without a second thought in such a dangerous environnt was no easy feat. He rembered this favor; including the previous one, he owed Yu Hong twice now.
“Can’t it be shipped anymore?” Yu Hong paused, then asked.
“There’s no ‘anymore.’ From now on, we can only rely on ourselves. However, I can try to contact the folks in Baihe City who haven’t relocated yet, but the supplies will definitely not be as good as before. Don’t get your hopes up,” Li Rushan sighed.
Yu Hong said no more and left, closing the door behind him.
After locking the door, he took the recorded papers, the remaining two Silver Talisman Plates, a stack of ordinary talisman plates, and put on the Enhanced Polar Bear Suit; then he hurried towards the post office.
Along the way, he held the detector, continuously checking the fluctuating Red Value displayed.
‘31.224.’
‘31.532.’
The environntal Red Value had risen to 31 and had stabilized completely.
Whoosh.
As he walked, Yu Hong exhaled, surveying the surrounding woodland.
In the gray, foggy mist, he could only vaguely make out the outlines of trees five or six ters away.
Click.
Click.
Click.
His boots crushed the dry leaves on the ground, producing a rhythmic crackling sound.
While hurrying, Yu Hong occasionally picked up the detector to check the variations in the numbers.
Click.
Click.
Snap.
Suddenly, he halted his steps.
Swish— he spun around sharply to look behind him.
The gray, fog-enshrouded woods behind him were quiet, eerie, and chilly.
“Just now… sothing was following ,” Yu Hong thought back to the situation monts ago, where an extra sound of crushing leaves had mixed with his footsteps.
This sound might be unnoticeable to an ordinary person, but he was energetic and focused, always alert to the changes around him, which was why he noticed it so quickly.
Once he confird there was nothing, no one behind him, Yu Hong turned back and continued forward.
This ti he quickened his pace, his hand tightly clutching the Silver Talisman Plate, ready for action.
He encountered no more issues on the way, and fortunately, he arrived safely at the post office.
The post office, a stone building, was empty. The large door of the deserted building was tightly shut.
Yu Hong looked around outside the yard, then entered, circled the building to ensure everything was alright, and then went to the front door.
He pulled out the key Li Rushan had given him, gently inserted it into the keyhole, and turned it.
Click.
The door opened.
But Yu Hong suddenly paused.
For at the mont he made the sound of unlocking, a similar, extrely faint sound of footsteps ca from behind him.
Those footsteps were like the crisp sound of high heels striking the wooden steps in front of the stone building.
Subtle and brief.
Yu Hong maintained his pose as he was about to open the door.
His peripheral vision, however, cautiously glanced at a side window of the stone building.
The window was nailed with thick wooden planks, but so broken glass still remained on the outside.
Through a shard of this glass, he caught a glimpse of the situation behind him.
Reflected in a triangular piece of glass was a vague white figure with long black hair, standing two ters behind Yu Hong, quietly smiling.
Yu Hong froze.
He didn’t continue opening the door but slowly withdrew the key and slipped it into his pocket.
Then.
“Screw you!”
Whoosh!
Suddenly, he turned and lunged forward, drawing a Silver Talisman Plate from his pocket and swinging it forward.
At the sa ti, he also swung the Red Value Detector.
Bang!
His arm tensed, his robust forearm like a hamr, fiercely smashing onto the wooden step, cracking and indenting it.
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