A Night of Desperation-Chapter 229: Closing In

Xinpeng City.

This was the second node on the map.

During the brief daylight hours,

Yu Hong rapidly sprinted through the city streets, occasionally leaping over vehicles clogging the road.

The road surface was littered with trash and dust;some areas seemed to have been trampled by a massive weight, leaving behind footprints and pits of various sizes.

On the roadside stood office buildings of uneven heights.

The upper floors of buildings that were often ten or twenty stories tall had almost all turned to a shade of gray due to the accumulated ash.

Between the city’s buildings, Yu Hong and two dragon lizards swiftly darted through the streets.

Thump.

He stepped on a jeep that had already been flattened and looked up at the sky.

“Something’s not right about this place…”

Yu Hong glanced at his detector and the values on it were also wildly fluctuating, from millions to tens of millions in crazy variations.

He shifted his gaze back to the front, where the endless dark windows of the buildings on both sides seemed as if unknown dangers could burst forth at any moment.

By now, Yu Hong had a clear understanding of his own perception.

Standing on the roof of the car for a while, he waved his hand for the dragon lizards to lead the way with him following closely behind.

He jumped off the car, leaping over one vehicle after another.

Suddenly, he paused, spotting through the window of a white sedan to his right a woman in black holding a child.

The woman was slumped over in her seat, motionless, with only the child’s black, short hair visible, curled up in her arms, equally still.

In the sub-zero temperatures of twenty or thirty degrees below zero, for the two to be sitting in such a vehicle meant no good…

Yu Hong reached out and gently tapped on the car window.

No response. The two seemed as if they were asleep.

Yu Hong’s increasingly powerful perception also sensed that the interior of the car was ice-cold, long without the slightest sound.

He silently withdrew his hand.

‘Escaped the Black Disaster, but couldn’t escape the extreme cold, huh…’

The sky gradually darkened, and night was about to descend once more.

Yu Hong moved away from the sedan and hurried forward.

Minutes later, he arrived in an area near the center of Xinpeng City.

There was a shopping plaza here, resembling a European-style structure with gray columns encircling a large, semi-open circular marketplace.

In the plaza, large deflated inflatable toys could occasionally be spotted on the ground.

Passing by a milk tea shop, the hard plastic bear standing outside the store was wearing a warm smile, except its originally white fur was already stained with dark red blood spots.

Yu Hong narrowed his eyes at the promotional advertisement stuck on the exterior wall of the shop.

A cartoonish pure white bear was on it, contentedly drinking a cup of bubble milk tea.

Puff.

Suddenly, his vision blurred.

The cartoon bear on the advertisement actually winked at him.

‘….’ Yu Hong quickly glanced at his detector, the readings still showing gibberish.

He took a few steps closer, reached out his hand, and gently touched the advertisement.

Just as his hand got close,

Bang!!!

A large black iron ball violently struck the wall, shredding the advertisement along with it.

Whoosh.

As the iron ball retracted, it pulled out a shower of debris and powdered cement.

As for the advertisement, it was already smashed into many tiny pieces.

Yu Hong retracted the iron ball, frowning.

‘I should have been on my way. Why did I strangely stop here to look at some inexplicable advertisement? Dare to tempt me?’

At that moment when he passed by here, a spontaneous impulse had risen in his heart—he just wanted to take a look.

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And the result…

“This place is too dangerous… can’t leave it to continue harming people.”

Reflecting on what had just happened, Yu Hong also found it quite chilling.

That something could influence his movements without his awareness indicated that if paired with high-powered bombs, such an ability… would definitely be a huge ambush weapon!

So, he raised the iron ball, letting the black spiked iron ball whirl rapidly above his head.

The heavy whirring sound of slicing through the air was incessant.

Boom!

The milk tea shop was the first to be completely flattened.

More store after store on its side followed suit.

In an instant, the area was filled with flying dust, stones scattering everywhere, walls collapsing into powder, and several small buildings quickly imploding.

By the time the sky turned completely dark, the entire shopping plaza where the milk tea shop stood had been mostly reduced to ruins.

‘That should do.’

Putting down the iron ball, Yu Hong wiped his helmet’s visor clean of dust.

While he was smashing, he thought he had heard some noise from the buildings.

But because of his swift actions, he did not pay attention to it, and since the noise was fleeting, he simply chose to ignore it.

Moan!!

Just then, from the black fog overhead, the familiar cry of a bird approached rapidly.

‘Multi-eyed Bird?’ Yu Hong looked up, but apart from the black fog, he couldn’t see anything else.

‘Seems to be quite a few of them…’

Whoosh!

Suddenly, the iron ball in his hand shot out, striking towards the sky.

Thud!

The iron ball hit something, was rapidly pulled back, and landed.

Yu Hong hurriedly went over to inspect.

Impaled on the spikes of the iron ball was a large, hairless gray-white bird over three meters long.

The bird possessed a long beak akin to a spike and its face was covered with dense pairs of tiny red eyes.

‘According to the characteristics of high-risk Black Disaster areas, most high-risk Black Disasters do not allow lower-level Black Disasters to roam freely in their territory, so the presence of Multi-eyed Birds, which are lower-level Black Disasters, implies that the surroundings are relatively safe.’

Moan!!

At this moment, the Multi-eyed Bird tried to break free from the iron ball, attempting to flap its wings and take off again.

But Yu Hong stepped forward and grabbed its beak with one hand.

Under the suppression of great force, the Multi-eyed Birds could only frantically flap their wings. But such actions were futile.

Dragging the Multi-eyed Bird, Yu Hong continued on his journey and began to attempt extracting water from within the Multi-eyed Bird’s body using the Condensing Water Technique.

He speculated that if he could apply the water-extraction capability of the Condensing Water Technique in battle, its power would be immense.

*

*

*

Outside the second Aurora City.

Inside the eerily black circular mountain range.

A row of armored vehicles formed a ‘口’ shape, creating a rudimentary camp.

A bonfire rose in the middle of the camp. The firelight, not very bright, was mingled with burned Large Pyroxene Stone powder, which was currently the main method to block the Blood Tide of the Black Disaster.

Xue Ningning, An’an, and Lin Yiyi, along with two deputy commanders of the rescue team they had just escaped with, were sitting by the fire, roasting the ground potatoes they had just dug out.

“So, you’re saying you don’t know why the commanders want to harm you?” Xue Ningning asked with a frown.

“Indeed, we have no idea. Just now, Yiyi said she encountered a very mysterious foreigner outside who saved her life, only to be blasted by a rocket. If the identification is correct, the rocket that hit them must have been launched by our side,” a deputy commander quickly said.

“It looks like… the investigation team has always been under Minister Xin’s responsibility. They were able to pinpoint Yiyi’s location but had us fire rockets toward Yiyi’s position… this…”

Xue Ningning’s expression turned solemn.

Before she could finish,

suddenly, outside the armored vehicles, a rescue team soldier responsible for the guard duty let out a scream.

“Alert!”

Everyone quickly stood up and drew their guns to check the detectors.

Bang!

Suddenly, an armored vehicle was violently rammed from the outside, the body crushed inward, hitting the three people.

“An’an!”

Xue Ningning saw An’an had been hit and rushed forward to help.

Yiyi also hurriedly followed, lending a hand to move the armored vehicle aside and extricate someone from the compressed area.

Bang bang bang bang!

At this moment, the sound of gunfire rose again in the camp.

A tall humanoid figure, wrapped in black bandages, was withstanding a hail of bullets, swiftly weaving through the crowd.

With each lift of his hand, he could easily kill a nearby team member.

There was no need to hit a vital spot;just a scrape of skin was enough for a team member to quickly turn purple all over, gasp for breath, and fall to the ground, unable to get up.

“What the hell kind of Black Disaster is this?!”

Someone roared in anger and fear.

But it did little to stop the bandaged man’s cold butchery.

The bullets were ineffective against him, and even the more powerful specially-made grenades that exploded violently only pushed him back a few steps. He quickly advanced again, the burns on his body healing quickly, reverting to their original state.

“Run!”

Lin Yiyi suddenly shouted. She pulled Xue Ningning and An’an and turned to run into the Black Fog.

Once they left the bonfire, the outside temperature of minus thirty-some degrees immediately stiffened their movements.

But they had no choice…

The bandaged man was of enormous strength, with incredibly fast regenerative healing. His flesh could even withstand a barrage of bullets and seemed to carry potent venom.

Other than scattered flight, they could think of no better strategy.

*

*

*

The Black Fog tumbled.

Yu Hong twisted the neck of the Multi-eyed Bird, tossing it far away.

The dead Multi-eyed Bird rapidly disintegrated, turning into black smoke that dissipated into thin air.

Meanwhile, in Yu Hong’s palm, a small ball of pitch-black liquid formed.

The liquid shaped into a sphere and quietly floated and spun.

‘Could it really have drawn water out?!’

As he continued on his way, he carefully observed the water ball.

On the surface, this black ball seemed no different from the water of the Black River, but on closer inspection, one could see that the black water ball, originating from the Multi-eyed Bird, was constantly trying to escape his control, wanting to fly off into the distance.

It appeared to have a will of its own.

Having quickly returned to the highway outside the city, Yu Hong looked back at Xinpeng City shrouded in mist.

There was something wrong with this place, but fortunately, he had traveled the Black Disaster Rift route, so aside from encountering the pass-through Multi-eyed Bird, he hadn’t met any danger.

“Covered most of the journey, I hope the camp is alright.”

Holding the water ball, Yu Hong couldn’t help but think of the Black Wind Camp, where his special Constitution Potion was intensifying.

If not for the fear of it being very easily smashed by accident, he actually would have preferred to carry it with him.

Collecting his emotions, he integrated the dragon lizard’s vision and continued following the map.

This time, thankfully, he didn’t encounter any trouble and after four long, tedious hours of travel,

the final node at last appeared ahead—Yufei City.

Yufei City, completely different in style from Xinpeng City before it.

Walking through the streets.

Yu Hong’s alertness was raised to its highest.

The buildings and houses around him, their doors and windows were all gone. In their place, countless black strands sealed the entrances and exits.

The black strands were visible everywhere on the ground, scattered and broken.

On street lamps, on steps by the roadside, inside abandoned shops.

The black hair was omnipresent.

Whoosh.

Yu Hong, dragging the black water ball single-handedly, involuntarily quickened his step.

Amid the faint footsteps, the entire city seemed increasingly cold and empty.

Yu Hong had to increase the burning of his Inner Qi a bit to combat the incessant chill invading from the outside.

Hiss…

Suddenly, the black hair to his right began to creep.

They gathered and stitched together, quickly forming a woman in a black cloak holding a black lantern.

The woman bent her head low, revealing only her pale, rotting chin.

Her lantern suddenly lit up with a red flame, illuminating a small area around her.

But it seemed because Yu Hong was walking in the rift, she did not attack.