Night of Despair

Chapter 298 - 298 Road 296 Second

?Chapter 298: Road 296 Second Chapter 298: Road 296 Second Behind the door.

Yu Hong was met with darkness, and in front of him was a stairway leading underground.

The passageway was grey-black in color, with dark red bloodstains covering the walls. The safety lights tainted with blood cast a faint green glow, making the place all the more gloomy.

Yu Hong’s expression darkened as he looked down the passage; there was no sound from below.

“Zhang Kaijun!?”

He called out.

No one responded.

Yu Hong glanced at the Red Value Detector; the value displayed on the LCD screen had already reached four digits: -1187.234.

Suppressing the unease in his heart, he moved quickly into the passageway.

Step by step, he proceeded along the corridor.

On the ground around him, on the walls, the bloodstains grew more and more abundant.

The entire corridor seemed to have completely turned into a sea of blood.

Seeing this, a hint of despondency flashed across Yu Hong’s face. He seemed to have guessed what had happened here.

He continued to walk inside.

Soon, the passageway leveled out, leading into a square black hall with ventilation fans still spinning.

In the hall, bodies covered in white frost and frozen stiff were densely piled together.

At a glance, the ground was covered with corpses.

They were wearing protective suits, with no obvious wounds, but underneath them flowed copious amounts of blood, frozen into red crystals that blanketed the entire floor.

“Zhang Kaijun?” Yu Hong called out again.

Still, no one replied.

Yu Hong checked the bodies but confirmed that he did not see the other party.

He continued towards the other passages connected to the hall.

Room after room passed by him, with doors open or closed, but inside and outside on the ground were bodies in blood-soaked waters.

There were no shadowy figures, no Evil Shadows, not even a Blood Tide, only bodies and silence.

Before long, a silver-gray metal door appeared in front of Yu Hong.

He pushed it open and entered.

In this large room filled with various supply boxes, right in the center,
a figure in a blood-stained protective suit was struggling to crawl out of one of the boxes.

Thud.

The person lay down on the ground, face up, the transparent visor of the helmet filled with white mist.

“Yu Hong?” the shadow asked weakly.

“It’s me,” Yu Hong responded. Recognizing the voice. “Old Zhang… was it the Evil Shadow?”

“Yes… a new type of Evil Shadow… I was too naive… the materials from the sun had no effect on it…” Zhang Kaijun chuckled weakly.

“The Talisman Array only had a little effect… they seem to be evolving, developing a resistance to the luminous stone…”

“Is there anyone else alive in the base, aside from you?” Yu Hong sighed.

“428…” Zhang Kaijun spoke in a solemn tone.

“What?”

“4, 2, 8… the hidden Talisman Array compartment on the wall… it’s up to you…” Zhang Kaijun’s voice trailed off. “I’m too tired, let me rest for a while…”

Yu Hong wanted to speak, but suddenly the scene before him blurred, just for a blink of an eye.

The Zhang Kaijun before him vanished instantly.

There was no sign of the figure in the protective suit on the ground, nor any trace of anyone having lain there, nothing at all.

“Zhang Kaijun??” Yu Hong’s heart sank and he called out again.

There was no response.

He quickly went to the supply box from which Zhang Kaijun had emerged and lifted the lid with his hand.

It was empty inside.

Now he finally noticed that on one side of the room, there were lines in the wall resembling drawer cuts.

At intervals, there were numbers marked on the wall.

Shortly thereafter, Yu Hong saw the number Zhang Kaijun had mentioned.

428.

It corresponded to a number for a hidden compartment drawer on the wall.

He reached out, lightly touching to find a small recess.

Hooking his fingers into it, he forcefully pulled it outwards.

Swoosh.

A large drawer suddenly opened on the wall.

Inside the silver-gray metal drawer was a somewhat familiar black-haired girl, curled up.

The girl was wearing a silver protective suit, with a line of markings on the side of the helmet: Comprehensive Experiment Subject No. 428.

Through the glass visor, Yu Hong seemed to recognize why he found her familiar.

Because the girl’s face… bore some features of Zhang Kaijun, stern, with distinct features and contours that were very similar.

He gently reached out, pressing his hand against the side of the girl’s neck to feel for a pulse.

‘Still alive.’
Yu Hong quickly lifted her out with one hand, then went checking through the other drawers.

Unfortunately, there were no more miracles.

Inside were other people, but all were dead, breathless.

Zhang Kaijun, who had just been talking, had also disappeared without a trace.

In a completely sealed underground base, he had vanished as if evaporated from the world.

This made Yu Hong involuntarily focus his gaze on the No. 428 he was holding.

With the only living person in hand, he quickly searched for a while, but ultimately exited the base and headed back to Black Wind Camp.

Half an hour later.

Within the camp, in another sealed cavern right next to the safety house cave.

Yu Hong used black cloth to thoroughly seal the crevice at the cave entrance, preventing any light from shining in.

Then he turned around, looking at the black-haired girl who had awakened and was slowly sitting up.

The girl looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old, youthful and delicate, with an unusual silver-gray color in her eyes, instead of the common black, blue, or other colors.

“You and Zhang Kaijun, what is your relationship?” Yu Hong asked her directly.

“Daddy.” The girl answered calmly. “He’s my dad.”

“….” Yu Hong was at a loss for words, he remembered that Zhang Kaijun wasn’t even married, so where did this grown daughter come from? And how old was he himself?

But no matter what, the girl’s face indeed resembled Zhang Kaijun’s.

“What’s your name?”

“Zhang Kajing.” The girl replied. “Did you save me, Uncle Yu Hong?”

“Yes… What are your plans for the future?” Yu Hong asked.

“I don’t know… My dad told me to follow you,” the girl responded.

“I’m not obligated to take care of you, and there are neither the conditions nor environment here to do so,” Yu Hong frowned. “Go to Hope City, I’ll send you there.”

“Hope City, too, is doomed. There is no hope in this world,” Zhang Kajing said calmly.

Yu Hong watched her, feeling that there was something off about the girl.

Whether it was the way she appeared or her demeanor and manner of speaking, it all conveyed an unnatural stiffness to him.

“So you want to follow me?”

“Yes. Dad said if there’s anyone in this world who could survive to the end, it would be you,” Zhang Kajing said solemnly.

“That does sound like something he would say,” Yu Hong nodded slightly.

Looking at this child, no matter how he felt she was hiding many things, he wasn’t willing to manipulate a child, considering Zhang Kaijun’s situation, nor did he deem it necessary.

“Your father and the others at the base, they all died, aren’t you sad?” he asked suddenly.

“…. I’m very sad, but I’m numb now, I just want to live according to my father’s last wishes,” Zhang Kajing answered, her pretty face tranquil, showing no sign of sorrow.

“….”

Yu Hong was at a loss again. Is that expression meant to be sad?

He instructed her not to leave the cave at will, as all her daily activities had to be confined within, otherwise, she’d be confused by the Light Disaster’s rays as soon as she went out and dissolve into part of the Cosmic Divine Light.

He stuffed a pile of food and drink for her and brought a hot water pipe from the safety house cave to increase the temperature inside her cave.

Only then did he leave, returning to the base to search for clues.

Inside Gray City Base, with a more thorough search, he finally found a large number of records of Zhang Kaijun gathering researchers to perform frantic human experiments.

Then Yu Hong understood why that guy had been so determined to seal off the entire base.

He had been attempting to mutate a special type of cell that could fully adapt to the Black Mist and the toxic air.

Many places conducted such experiments, but his was different; he found a case of someone mutating into the Black Disaster, and after sacrificing more than a dozen people, he successfully obtained part of the target’s body tissue cells.

The reason Zhang Kajing was number 428 was that she was the four hundred and twenty-eighth human subject experimented on.

And the previously unsuccessful experiments finally made a breakthrough this time.

Thus, thrilled by the progress, Zhang Kaijun named her Zhang Kajing.

With the sound of flipping pages, Yu Hong sat in the cave reading all the experiment records, which abruptly ended here; all subsequent records were gone, either destroyed or taken away.

“Zhang Kajing…” Yu Hong closed the documents. “Forget it, let’s start the game over there first, then come back and solve the issues here.”

He stood up, left the cave, and went to another cave where the Dragon Lizard Nest was stored.

Swish.

The moment he entered, numerous red eyes suddenly opened in the darkness.

These were the black Dragon Lizards that had accumulated over several months.

This time, he planned to take most of the Dragon Lizards to another world to deal with potential trouble. After all, left here with slow movements in the cold, these Dragon Lizards wouldn’t be of much use.

When he came back next time, if the Black Mark strengthening was almost over, and he managed to control the situation with the Magic Skill, he would go to Hope City to select and impart Daoist Skills to the chosen seeds.

He couldn’t deny his self-interest; he didn’t want the Cultivation Method he passed on to be used against him in the end.

So he had to set up advanced restrictive measures.

It’s fine to use them against the Black Disaster, but not against him.

*
*
*
Huangsong Island world.

Taizhou City, Wangyue Villa District.

Inside the private villa of Yu Mo, the old Daoist.

Yu Mo, Yu Fang, Yu Zhong, the three old men looked at Yu Hong, who had just completed demonstrating the four techniques of the Qi Condensation and Shadow Transformation Technique.

Their hands trembled as they held their teacups, their eyes slightly unfocused.

Fast.

Too fast!!

Just now, Yu Hong had demonstrated all four techniques of the Qi Condensation and Shadow Transformation Technique to them, showing off his proficiency.

“It’s been such a short time… Truly, truly it’s…”

“With all-out cultivation, with Ding Rou here, our Qingchen Temple is bound to achieve great things in the future!”

“What does the Temple Master say?”

“The Temple Master asked us to confirm whether the situation is true, and if it is, to spare no expense, everyone should step aside for Ding Rou. As long as he can surge up in Cultivation, our Qingchen Temple will definitely be able to turn the tables at the year-end Taoist Sect competition! Ding Rou is absolutely the most talented person in a hundred years of our Qingchen Temple!! Without a doubt, the strongest!! If he can perfect the Daoist Skills and the Qi Condensation and Shadow Transformation Technique, who in the Taoist Sect would dare to say in our faces that our Qingchen Temple is in decline!?”

“Exactly!! Cheers! This is truly a blessing from heaven! A golden opportunity!”

Yu Hong listened to the emotionally charged words of the three old Daoists, his face still showing a faint smile, calm and composed.

The forty Dragon Lizards he brought had already been distributed around Taizhou.

Having confirmed that the Secret Technique here could completely destroy the Black Disaster, he was also very interested in the other Magic Skills of the Taoist Sect.

At the same time, he was more interested in their methods of sealing and blocking the entrance to the Black Disaster.

And to gain access to these, he needed to truly ascend to the upper echelons of the Taoist Sect. So…

Starting as a genius, step by step to the top, quickly reaching the upper levels of the Nine Sects through the competition is the most orthodox and quick method.

And the Dragon Lizards could act as his eyes and subordinates to do some things he was not convenient to handle personally.