Night of Despair

Chapter 48  Idea Four

Yu Hong flipped through the subsequent pages.

"Soil humus should be extracted from beneath trees; try to dig in areas with plenty of rotten branches and leaves, as the soil harvested from such areas will be richer in nutrients. After digging up the soil, it needs to be left under the sun for three days to kill any insect eggs and weed seeds within,"

The following sections dealt with how to put the soil into boxes, how to maintain humidity in the environment, how much water was needed, how to introduce the fungal spawn, and how often to check on them, as well as how to resolve any problems that might arise.

It covered every imaginable detail.

In just a few pages, every piece of information was essential, even containing reminders on how to prevent mushroom lung.

Having gone through the mushroom cultivation section, Yu Hong had a basic plan in mind for how to go about it.

"The key issue is that I don't have the spawn, or the cultivation boxes!" he frowned, "And they were right here waiting for me."

He went back to the previous page and saw a line written at the bottom, "To purchase fungal spawn and cultivation boxes, please inquire about specific prices."

Speechless, Yu Hong shook his head and continued to reinforce a new talisman array, then scanned through subsequent content.

This time he flicked through the pages quickly, just skimming over them.

And then, he stumbled upon a realization.

"Mushroom cultivation is the basis for other forms of cultivation? After growing mushrooms, they can be used to cultivate cockroaches, and once there are enough cockroaches, they can be used to feed lizards. One cycle follows another... But for each phase, the initial seed must be purchased from the post office."

Now he finally understood how the old Yu used to provide mushrooms, cockroaches, and lizards as three types of food by himself.

As for wild vegetables, the forest was full of them, and he already knew many, having learned together with Xiao Stutter.

After finishing with the survival manual, Yu Hong picked up the leg fighting skill manual.

"Hmm..." He looked somewhat perplexed at the drawings in the manual.

There were only three moves in this manual.

Low kick, side-grab kick, upper kick.

According to the illustrations, the low kick involved kicking the opponent's lower leg to make them lose balance and fall down.

The side-grab kick was more brutal: one grabs the opponent's arm and uses the heel to kick their waist or abdomen. Because the arm's grasp and the area of impact created a tearing force, this move had great lethality. Once executed successfully, a regular person could instantly suffer severe internal injuries and fall to the ground, incapacitated.

The upper kick was the simplest move, just kicking upwards toward the sensitive area between the opponent's legs.

"Just these three moves... I might as well come up with them on my own..." Yu Hong had no words and just continued flipping through.

What followed in the content piqued his interest.

The manual described how to execute those three leg techniques as quickly as possible in various situations, states, and from different body positions and stances.

"This is more like it..." He nodded slightly.

After studying the two manuals carefully, it was dark outside again.

He cooked some food, lit a fire, and continued to strengthen the talisman array.

For three straight days, he didn't go anywhere. If he wasn't in the mountain cave practicing the Advanced Physical Training Method, he was studying and transcribing the survival and leg fighting skill manuals.

The lines of the reinforced charcoal pencil were very fine, and he quickly copied the contents of the two manuals.

The place where he copied them was on thin wooden boards he had split with an axe, and stacked together, they made a manual.

Once he finished copying, he returned the manuals to Li Rushan, and asked about three challenging problems he had amassed.

Li Rushan answered the questions candidly and proceeded to sell the mushroom cultivation boxes he had just made, clean spawn, and a rudimentary wooden dummy for practicing the leg fighting skill.

This fellow was clearly aiming to fleece Yu Hong for all he was worth. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Yet, for the sake of self-sufficiency, Yu Hong still bought the boxes and spawn with Large Pyroxene Stones.

He took them back and began digging and sun-drying the soil while also preparing a sufficient supply of clean water for future cultivation.

He also needed to carve out a separate space in the cave to cultivate mushrooms.

Even though he had specialized cultivation boxes, the spores released by mature mushrooms could still escape through any gaps, posing a significant hazard.

He didn't want to end up like the old Yu, with a cough, fever, and physical weakness.

Soon, another two days had passed.

Yu Hong had finally completed the reinforcement of all his talisman arrays. The arrays covered the entire cave, perfectly concealing every corner, and creating a standard Pyroxene Secret Room environment.

Black Mark was finally free to enhance other things.

What Yu Hong wanted to enhance the most, and what was most crucial, was the leg fighting skill manual.

Inside the cave's secure chamber.

He quietly looked at the stack of leg technique wooden boards in front of him. There were a total of thirteen boards, which together made up the leg fighting training manual that Li Rushan had sold to him.

"The ordinary physical training before could be enhanced into the Advanced Physical Training Method, so this ordinary Leg Fighting Skill... what could it be enhanced into?"

Feeling the additional strand of coolness within his body, Yu Hong had now developed a total of four strands of cool energy, meaning he could replenish his strength four times when exhausted to the limit.

Even though in other respects he was still no different from an ordinary person – only able to run a bit faster due to regular practice – the presence of the cool energy made Yu Hong a mini superhuman, distinct from ordinary people!

"If a normal person could at most run five kilometers, then I could run four times that distance, twenty kilometers. If the maximum were ten kilometers, then I could run forty kilometers! It's best to enhance training like this Advanced Physical Training Method as early as possible to get a snowball effect, becoming stronger and stronger."

Thinking this, Yu Hong exhaled a long breath and placed his hand on the wooden plank.

In his mind, he silently recited.

"Leg Fighting Skill Enhancement Manual, the focus is on: Inner Strength Martial Arts Leg Fighting!"

Yu Hong's mind had leaned towards martial arts styles last time, which led him to enhance his Advanced Physical Training Method. Tasting the sweetness of success, this time he again imagined scenes from martial arts films he had seen before.

A black line flashed.

Immediately, the Black Mark responded.

"Would you like to begin the enhancement?"

Yu Hong looked down and sure enough, there was a countdown on the wooden board: 4 days 17 hours 41 minutes.

"Can it really work!?" His spirits lifted, and his eyes shone with intense anticipation.

The Advanced Physical Training Method had given him a significant physical advantage, and now, if the enhanced leg fighting skill could substantially improve his combat ability, then in this harsh environment, facing opponents would mean a great assurance of survival.

The ability to fight and flee, further enhanced with a full set of bulletproof gear, would mean being armed to the teeth!

"I hope it can be enhanced strongly enough!" Yu Hong hoped in his heart. "The last enhancement of the Advanced Physical Training Method took only over nine hours, and this time it takes more than four days, it must be far more powerful!"

*

*

*

Baihe City.

In a gloomy underground passage.

The ground was covered with abandoned railway tracks, dark and occasionally rusted, with piles of miscellaneous trash stacked at intervals.

Xu Yang, leading two teammates and holding hand-cranked flashlights, walked along the edge of the railway tracks.

As they passed piles of rubbish, they could smell various strong musty odors and the foul stench of dirty water.

The three walked while observing their surroundings.

The walls on both sides were scrawled with chaotic patterns and slogans. Beneath the slogans, every few feet, there was a room with lights on, from which raucous swearing and laughter emerged.

Xu Yang frowned his way further inside until he arrived at a room marked Old Cat Bar.

At the entrance to the room, the walls on both sides were overgrown with green mold, glossy and slimy to the touch.

Xu Yang looked up to see that the tunnel ceiling seemed to be leaking, with a trickle of water running down the walls, parting at the doorframe, and falling to the floor.

He wrinkled his nose in disgust and entered the room.

This really was a bar, with red lights giving each single sofa a crimson hue.

Each sofa was partitioned off with wooden boards.

Inside sat about a dozen scattered patrons, with skimpily dressed waitresses moving back and forth, serving food and drinks.

In the center, near one of the sofas, four people sat playing cards loudly. The noise was coming from them.

"Fancy a mushroom drink?" As Xu Yang and his two companions entered, they were immediately approached by a ponytailed girl in a skimpy three-piece outfit.

"We're here looking for someone." Xu Yang pushed her away impatiently and headed straight for a corner of the bar.

The three fully equipped, dressed in the uniform of the Allied Forces, caused the bar's ready-to-rise bouncers to frown and hold back.

Soon, the three reached the corner and stood before a hulking strongman who was at least two meters tall.

"Mr. White Python Guo?" Xu Yang asked in a deep voice.

The strongman was hunched over, his hands on the table, resembling a bear lying down, with untidy black hair, and his gray shirt open revealing his muscular chest.

He looked to be in his early forties, with a troubled face, dull eyes, and dry stains of vomit at the corner of his mouth.

He was a man whose fortunes had taken a downturn.

"What's up?" The strongman looked up indifferently, eyeing Xu Yang and his team.

"We've got a job for you and are willing to negotiate the payment," Xu Yang said in a low voice.

"What's the job?" White Python asked coldly.

"Travel about two hundred kilometers to the Pyroxene Ore Mine area, find a person, and bring him back within six months," Xu Yang replied.

"Too far, not going," White Python responded coldly. "Besides, I don't even know anything about this person."

"He's just an average adult male, possibly equipped, but easily taken down by a regular recruit. The main difficulty is the journey," Xu Yang said quickly. "As for payment, we can offer fifty pounds of jerky, twenty pounds of dried mushrooms, one hundred pounds of synthetic flour."

"Not enough," White Python didn't even lift his head. "Add five silver coins."

Xu Yang fell silent for a moment.

"Okay, one-third upfront before departure, the rest upon return."

"Fine," White Python said coldly. "Three days from now, meet here again. Bring the items, and I'll leave immediately."

"Agreed!"

Xu Yang and his team left.

Exiting the bar, one of the team members couldn't hold back.

"Xu, that's five silver coins, are we really going to agree? One silver coin can be exchanged for ten to fifteen pounds of jerky!"

"White Python is strong, good with firearms, stealth, and well-rounded in all aspects. Except for his attitude, everything else checks out. And as long as we catch that man, everything else is trivial. If he dies, White Python fails his mission, and we don't have to pay the balance," Xu Yang said with a smile.

"Besides," he paused, "the exchange rate you remember is no longer correct. Today at the state bank, one Silver Tower silver coin can be exchanged for twenty-three pounds of jerky. After all, that's a currency synthesized from minerals that can be refined into 'Sunlight series' materials..."