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“I’ll go find a vessel first! I don’t have enough Great Luminous Stones here, so I’ll be counting on you! Consider this as me owing you twice!”

Without speaking, Yu Hong gave a heavy nod.

The risk of the Whisperers was too high—they had to deal with it as soon as possible. With Li Runshan being more experienced, it was obviously better for him to go out searching for a corpse.

After confirming the plan, the two split up. Li Runshan quickly headed out to search, while Yu Hong carried Aisena, grabbed some food from the stone house, and hurried back to his mountain cave safe house.

Rushing all the way—

Yu Hong reached the cave just before the rainstorm arrived, set Aisena down, and tied her up tightly with rope. To prevent her from biting her tongue, he stuffed a clean cloth into her mouth.

Then, he quickly placed several rune formations around her, including a silver rune formation.

After finishing these preparations, he immediately resumed restoring the third silver rune formation.

Restoring the charge alone didn’t take much time—just two hours.

‘How long from infection to outbreak again?’ Yu Hong glanced at a piece of paper. ‘Twelve hours!’

He quickly disinfected Aisena’s wounds, then used the free time while the Black Mark was idle to reinforce new rune formations.

Strengthening a silver rune formation would take two days, which was clearly too long, but ordinary rune formations were much faster.

Yu Hong immediately buried himself in creating more formations.

Each ordinary rune formation only took 45 minutes to complete—right now, this was the best way to strengthen defenses, since even Luminous Stones required three days to refine just one.

After ensuring the reinforcement process had started, Yu Hong let out a deep breath and sat down to plan his next steps.

‘Even silver rune formations are running low. I need to find a stronger countermeasure.’

The outbreak intensity of a Whisperers was enormous, potentially reaching tens of thousands—it was an absurd level. If he hadn’t developed countermeasures in advance, the next time he encountered a similar situation, he’d suffer a great loss.

‘First, I need to strengthen the Red Value Detector. The current one is insufficient and can’t detect traces of a Whisperers.

‘Second, I must develop something superior to silver rune formations.’

That was easier said than done. A single silver rune formation took two days to craft, and relying solely on manually refining them with the Black Mark would take too long. If the Ghostly Shadows attacked one by one, it might be manageable, but what if they all came at once?

He sat cross-legged, racking his brain.

‘If only there were a rune formation that could recharge itself without consuming the Black Mark, then I could mass-produce them nonstop.’

A spark of inspiration flashed through his mind.

Luminous Stone Grass worked in a similar way. After being depleted in defense, the grass would wither and die but later regrow, naturally replenishing its energy. ɴỖВĚŞ

Wasn’t that exactly the kind of mechanism he needed?

‘Then there’s the issue of Inner Energy. Strengthening my Heavy Leg Technique improves my combat ability against humans, but it doesn’t enhance my ability to deal with Shadow Nightmares or the Blood Tide. I need a method to strengthen myself so that I can feel secure when facing greater dangers in the future.’

He continued organizing his thoughts, developing a clear plan for action once he got through this crisis.

He had originally thought his preparations were sufficient, but the sudden surge in the Whisperers’ strength had nearly capsized him. The deception of the Evil Shadow was far too treacherous.

Time passed little by little.

Outside, the rain finally began to fall, thunder rumbling as the storm turned the world into a misty downpour.

Yu Hong worked tirelessly, reinforcing rune formations. By the time he was on the third, Aisena woke up.

He got up, dampened a towel Li Runshan had given him, and placed it over her forehead, quickly pressing her back down before she could fully regain consciousness.

By the time he was nearly finished with the sixth rune formation, night had almost fallen.

Knock, knock, knock.

There was a knock on the door.

“Don’t reply, just listen. Aisena is in your hands now—I don’t have enough Luminous Stones. I’ll be back in the morning,” Li Runshan’s voice came from outside.

Knock.

Yu Hong tapped the door in response.

After six seconds, he asked, “Did you find a corpse vessel? Knock once if yes, twice if no.”

Knock, knock.

The sound came from outside.

Yu Hong frowned.

“Let’s get through the outbreak first. See you tomorrow! Aisena is safe with me. I have enough Luminous Stones and rune formations,” he assured.

Knock.

A single knock in response.

After five more seconds, Li Runshan spoke again, “I’m counting on you!”

He stood outside for a long time, only leaving when the sky had nearly gone completely dark.

His footsteps mixed with the sound of the rain and quickly faded away.

Yu Hong sighed, picked up his tools, and resumed mixing Luminous Stone ink powder—his stock of rune ink was running low, and he needed to replenish it as soon as possible.

This Whisperers attack had drained him both mentally and physically, reinforcing his belief that he needed to develop a technique like the Heavy Leg Technique—one that could both enhance himself and counter Ghostly Shadows.

Otherwise, relying solely on rune formations lacked scalability. If he encountered a more severe danger in the future, he wouldn’t be able to react in time.

Boom!

A thunderclap exploded across the sky, and night completely took over.

Yu Hong lit the fireplace, its firelight and the electric lamp forming a protective glow, keeping the rustling black insects outside at bay.

Beyond the perimeter, the Luminous Stone Grass emitted a faint fluorescence, repelling the Blood Tide’s black insects as they tried to approach.

Everything was the same as before—no changes. That put Yu Hong at ease.

He pulled open the observation window and checked outside. Seeing no issues, he closed it and prepared to pull an all-nighter making rune boards.

But the moment he shut the window, a strange buzzing noise filled the air.

Yu Hong’s expression shifted, and he quickly opened the observation window again.

Outside, in the torrential downpour of the night sky, a massive swarm of moth-like, red-eyed flying insects surged forward like a cloud of glowing red sand, rushing rapidly in this direction.

Their eyes glowed with a sinister red light in the rainy darkness, and each one was twice the size of the black insects.

As they flew, their moth-like gray wings flapped rapidly, producing a faint buzzing sound.

“Devourers!” Yu Hong’s expression darkened. He had heard about these creatures from the radio—they were one of the few Blood Tide insects with detailed records.

These flying insects could consume everything except Luminous Stones, whether metal, wood, flesh, or soil.

Without a strong enough defense, encountering Devourers was practically a death sentence.

‘But Devourers usually only appear in areas with large gatherings of people. Why are they here? There are only three people in this place—it should be far less attractive to them than Hope City.’ Yu Hong was puzzled.@@novelbin@@

With a swift motion, he pulled the wooden shutter closed and pressed his hands against the door.

If things got out of control, he planned to try synchronizing the door’s restoration while under attack.

One second.

Two seconds.

Boom!!!

Suddenly, the wooden door trembled violently, as if something massive had slammed into it.

Yu Hong braced against the door with both hands, startled by the force.

Immediately after, the sound of countless tiny mandibles gnawing at the wooden door filled the air from outside.

His expression grew serious as he waited in silence.

As time passed, the sounds of gnawing became louder and closer—some parts of the door were about to be chewed through.

He focused his thoughts and activated reinforcement.

‘Restore?’ The Black Mark prompted him.

Yu Hong exhaled deeply.

‘Yes!’ he confirmed.

At that moment, a countdown appeared on the door: 3 hours and 12 minutes.

But this time, something was off—the timer was increasing as the insects continued their relentless chewing.

In just a short moment, Yu Hong noticed that instead of decreasing, the countdown had increased by over ten minutes.

‘Does this mean the repair time corresponds to the severity of the damage?’ He was speechless. Without hesitation, he pulled open the observation window, letting the indoor light spill outside.

The moment the light touched the darkness, a swarm of moth-like Devourers surged forward—only to crash into the illumination.

Instantly, the densely packed creatures disintegrated, evaporating into black smoke.

However, at the same time, the electric lamps and fire inside the cave dimmed slightly—the electricity consumption spiked, and the firewood burned much faster.

Throughout the night, Yu Hong gritted his teeth and endured in this tense atmosphere.

By dawn, when the Blood Tide finally receded and the Devourers disappeared, he let out a long sigh of relief.

But the attack had delayed his progress in crafting rune formations.

At that moment, the restoration timer for the door had been extended to over 3 hours.

Exhausted, Yu Hong collapsed onto his bed to rest.

He had barely shut his eyes when a sudden scream jolted him awake.

“Ah!!!”

Aisena’s shriek pierced through the air as her entire body convulsed violently. From her mouth, nose, and eyes, a large amount of transparent, gelatinous liquid gushed out.

The moment the strange substance appeared, the surrounding rune formations flared up, resisting its spread.

An invisible force radiated outward, suppressing the mysterious gelatinous mass within Aisena.

At the same time, every rune formation inside the cave’s walls lit up with a fluorescent glow, reinforcing the containment.

Standing in the corner, Yu Hong watched intently, tension gripping his entire body.

He had gone through this ordeal once before, but witnessing it again from an outsider’s perspective felt even more unsettling.

Then—something unexpected happened.

Aisena’s body suddenly twisted unnaturally, releasing an inhuman burst of strength.

Snap!!

The ropes binding her snapped apart, the severed strands flying toward the walls.

A massive glob of transparent gelatin spewed from her mouth, rapidly morphing into the upper half of a grotesque humanoid figure.

It looked as if an invisible entity was trying to crawl out of the young girl’s body.

Yu Hong’s expression darkened. Without hesitation, he lunged forward, grabbing a silver rune board and slamming it onto the emerging figure.

Buzz!!

The silver rune board erupted with radiant energy, smashing against the humanoid figure’s head—but to his shock, it raised its translucent arms and blocked the attack.

Yu Hong could feel the sheer strength radiating from the creature.

He never imagined that a small girl like Aisena could unleash power comparable to that of a giant white python.

“Ahhhhh!!!”

Aisena’s mouth gaped open in a bone-chilling scream, her eyes rolling white as if completely overtaken by another presence.

But Yu Hong had had enough.

The last time he was ambushed, he had barely survived. Now, this thing dared to challenge him head-on?

The memory of being tricked into nearly leaving the safe house resurfaced, and an overwhelming fury surged through him.

Fueled by pure rage, he bellowed back at the creature with equal intensity.

“Get the hell out, you bastard!!!”

Roaring, he grabbed a second silver rune board and smashed it repeatedly into the figure.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!!!

Each impact sent chunks of gelatin flying off the humanoid shape.

The silver light clashed with the gelatinous mass, instantly neutralizing it into nothingness.

The transparent figure struggled, trying to resist, but the cave walls lit up once more, the rune formations generating an invisible force field that locked it in place.

It writhed like a giant blob of jelly, each strike from the silver rune board making it smaller and thinner, sending ripples through its form.

Within minutes, the battle was over.

Aisena’s body stiffened, her blank eyes rolling back as she collapsed into unconsciousness.

The last remnants of the gelatinous substance oozed out of her, lost its form, and evaporated into nothing.

All of it had been completely neutralized.

(End of Chapter)