Strengthening 1

Inside the cave.

In front of the gray-black rune pattern.

Yu Hong's palm gently pressed against the cold, dry stone wall.

At the same time, he silently recited,

"Enhanced pyroxene rune, direction: intensify the dispersal of shadow effects."

Hiss.

Instantly, a string of black lines flew out from the Black Mark on the back of his hand and burrowed into the stone wall.

One second later.

Feedback sounded.

"Would you like to enhance the pyroxene rune?" an icy mechanical voice asked.

Yu Hong was initially stunned, then slowly curved the corners of his mouth.

"It worked! It really worked!" he rejoiced in his mind.

This proved his hypothesis—such a combination could indeed help disperse shadows. With this, a piece of luminous stone, once refined, could have these runes etched onto any surface, anywhere.

And with the Black Mark replenishing them, these large runes were no longer single-use items but could perfectly protect any area around them!

At this moment, a black number appeared in the center of the rune stone carving on the wall.

"1 hour 12 minutes."

"Is it because the amount to be enhanced is lesser, so it doesn't need more time?" Yu Hong speculated.

After all, it had taken only a third of the luminous stone ink he had prepared to finish this rune stone carving, and enhancing such a small amount of material surely wouldn't take much time.

"Just over an hour... I can try enhancing it to see the effect."

He felt a faint sense of anticipation and immediately replied yes in his mind.

Instantly, the number on the rune stone carving began to slowly count down.

Taking advantage of the countdown, he found a stool to sit on by the side, fiddling with another unloaded handgun in his hand.

He raised it to aim, fired an empty shot, and put it down.

He continuously practiced, practicing drawing and shooting the gun from different angles.

Since there were no bullets, the practice was safe.

The two consecutive round-ups by the allied forces trying to capture him, treating him as labor, had left Yu Hong feeling insecure.

Although the allied forces had probably moved on with the townspeople by now.

It was uncertain when they might come back.

And the two men who had attacked him previously—when he had gone to check on them while gathering firewood, all that was left were two tattered sets of underwear.

Clearly, the Blood Tide Black Insects had devoured everything, flesh and bones, during the night.

This deepened Yu Hong's awareness of the dangers at night.

"Right, if I can practice shooting myself, practice my gunmanship, and then summarize my own shooting insights, could I use the Black Mark to enhance it? Would I get a better shooting training manual?"

After pondering for a moment, Yu Hong quickly came up with a unique new enhancement idea.

"Also, I need to prepare detection methods. If there's something like trap bells, placing them around might serve as a cautionary measure..."

He stroked his chin.

The cave safe house was hard-earned, so its basic safety had to be ensured.

As the creator of the Large Pyroxene Stone, the appearance of the Evil Shadow would inevitably increase the importance of the Large Pyroxene Stone. Subsequently, there might be more people looking for trouble... He had to prepare in advance.

***

***

***

Post office gathering spot.

Several burrows were clustered together, forming a small gathering point.

The most solid and largest of them was undoubtedly the stone basement beneath the post office.

It was more of an emergency war shelter rather than a basement.

It was large, almost the size of the entire Baiqiu Village, situated more than ten meters underground.

Since the outbreak of the Black Disaster, these war shelters had become refugee bases for people everywhere.

During extremely troublesome invasions of the Black Disaster, those who couldn't survive would hide in these shelters, seeking temporary refuge.

At this moment, in the dim and cramped emergency shelter, dark corridors stretched ahead.

On each side of the corridor were several small restrooms.

Greenish atomic lamps hung overhead, casting a dark-green glow down the corridor.

Moist, cold air swirled through the vents, stirring up the corridor.

Old Yu stood with a protruding belly, constantly looking around cautiously as he walked up to a room's door.

The gray-black iron door was full of rust. He reached out and gently grasped the doorknob.

Click.

The handle turned downward.

The door was slowly pushed open.

Old Yu was about to enter and close the door behind him.

Suddenly, the skin on his left side tingled, from his left face down to his left leg, his entire left side naturally broke out in goosebumps.

A strange yet familiar sense of horror instantly surged into his heart.

"....." Old Yu's throat moved; he felt something on his left.

Out of the corner of his eye, he faintly saw someone standing in the dark corridor on the left.

Gulp.

He swallowed, slowly turning his head to look that way.

His whole body trembled, his right forearm shaking, the sleeve sliding down to reveal rough yellow-black skin.

On that skin was a clear black handprint.

Swoosh!

He quickly turned his head, glancing sharply to the left.

There was nothing in the darkness. The corridor was empty, with only his breathing audible.

At this moment, he was the only person in the entire underground shelter; others would move in after packing up their things tomorrow.

He thought he could last through the day, just one short day.

But now it seemed...

Sweat flowed down his forehead to the tip of his nose, then dripped.

Old Yu nervously stared at the left corridor, confirming repeatedly that he saw no one, then he turned back, gently pushed open the door, and entered his bedroom.

Quickly, he grabbed a bag of luminous stones from the corner, hugged it to his chest, and sat on the bed.

The candlelight flickered on, illuminating the surrounding eyes.

The light provided him a measure of safety.

He sat on the bed, trembling all over, burying his head in the quilt, and sobbed silently.

He hadn't actually escaped on his own, he was discovered to have the Black Mark, forcibly expelled.

There was no demand for half of his supplies, it was simply because he was infected with the Black Mark...

"Why... why do this to me..." Old Yu stared at the candle in front of him, couldn't help but cover his face with both hands, tears streamed down his face continuously, even dampening his palms.

"I was just greedy for a moment... I returned everything... I really did!"

Tears blurred his vision, he sat alone in the dark bedroom, shrinking on the bed, not daring to move.

Click.

Suddenly.

Someone outside twisted the handle of the bedroom door.

The clear noise was especially harsh in the quiet environment.

Old Yu shuddered, fearfully raising his head to stare at the door.

He had double-locked that door!

How, how could it possibly be opened?!

But the reality was, the bedroom door, which had been double-locked and chained with a metal chain, had been opened a crack.

Creak.

The door slowly opened.

Revealing the darkness outside.

Old Yu stared dead at that darkness, at that crack, not daring to blink.

The basement door was locked, and a bag of luminous stones hung on it, the corridor below also was hung with luminous stones everywhere.

He had used all his savings to exchange for a large amount of luminous stones, bag after bag, hung everywhere, even some were ordinary stones painted with the Large Pyroxene Stone runes.

No human could have entered...

The shadow couldn't have...

But now...

Bloodshot appeared in Old Yu's eyes as he stared without blinking, tears flowing down his cheeks and eyelids.

But the intense fear and sense of crisis made him not dare to move, staring intently at the door gap.

Fortunately, the opened gap remained still.

It seemed just like it was blown open by the wind.

This slowly raised a hint of doubt in Old Yu's heart.

'Maybe I was just too scared earlier, forgetting to lock the door when I entered...'

With this slight doubt in his mind, he picked up a luminous stone, glanced at the bag, and saw all the stones were intact, not consumed.

This settled some of the fear in his heart.

Raising his head, he picked up the candle, and using the light, stood up, planning to re-lock the door.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, the candle was blown out by a breath.

Someone, just behind him, suddenly came over and blew the candle out!

Old Yu's body stiffened with fear.

The moment the light went out.

He dimly saw, beside himself, a vague figure with long hair.

Darkness, completely swallowing everything.

*

*

*

Inside the cave.

Yu Hong stared in anticipation at the countdown of the large rune on the wall.

If this test was successful, it meant he could quickly construct the Anti-Shadow Rune Array anywhere at any time.

Yes, he called this large rune a talisman array.

'If this type of talisman array is repeatedly stacked, intertwined, even directly arranged with the giant pyroxene, the power would definitely exceed that of ordinary Large Pyroxene Stones!'

Yu Hong pondered in his heart.

Of course, such a combination of talisman arrays would definitely take a long time to enhance.

His main concern now was what this large talisman array could be enhanced into.

Soon, the countdown entered the last half minute.

He silently anticipated, staring at the rune on the wall.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

Swish!

In that instant, the rune blurred for a moment, then became clear again.

The originally rough lines of the rune became smoother and more perfected after becoming clear.

The graphite used inside, its color also became deeper, seemingly the concentration was increased.

The most critical part was, the whole talisman array faintly showed a hint of jade-like texture, clearly it had completely become the material of the Large Pyroxene Stone.

"It worked!!" Yu Hong's mood lifted greatly.

It took just a little over an hour to complete.

This meant he could significantly shorten the production cycle of the Large Pyroxene.

Assuming the effect of this talisman array wasn't worse than the Large Pyroxene Stone.

'Even if the talisman array is slightly worse than the Large Pyroxene Stone, as long as it's stronger than the average Luminous Stone, it's still good!' Yu Hong calculated in his heart.

Looking at the talisman array in front of him, he thought about where to find a Shadow to test it.

Thinking this, he quickly crouched down again, looking for space on the back of the main door to draw a talisman array.

In just ten minutes, the well-practiced Yu Hong quickly made a basin-sized talisman array on the back of the main door.

Then he stretched his hand to press it, preparing to enhance.

'Wait a second.' Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind.

'Since I can guide the enhancement direction, why not directly enhance more, making its effect stronger? Maybe I should test the upper limit of the Black Mark enhancement.'

Thinking this, Yu Hong's heart stirred.

Black Mark enhancement certainly has its own intensity limit.

Otherwise, why would a Luminous Stone only turn into a Large Pyroxene Stone and not a giant pyroxene?

The default enhancement amplitude, whether it can be adjusted, is decided by what.