There was no movement, nor did any numbers appear.
*"Looks like it won't work."*
He lifted his head in disappointment.
After taking a rest and thinking for a while, he suddenly recalled the two people he had just seen.
*"Danger doesn't necessarily only come from monsters and shadows; it might also come from people... So, safety must be the top priority."*
*"My physical condition is poor, even worse than Stammering Yiyi's, and I haven't fully adapted to life here. In a short time, the fastest way to ensure safety... is equipment!"*
But he had nothing at hand in terms of equipment. Should he enhance an axe and fight hand-to-hand with someone?
His gaze fell on the axe, saw, nails, hammer, and other tools.
He shook his head inwardly, not holding out much hope.
But regardless of everything, he still stepped forward, picked up the axe, and as numbers appeared on it, he confirmed the start of the enhancement.
*"Since there's still time, let's try enhancing it and see how it goes."*
After confirming the start, he placed the axe in a corner, covering it with some items.
He then walked to the door and looked outside through the peephole.
There was nobody outside; it was utterly quiet.
The wind rustled the leaves gently, and there were neither insects nor birds.
Click.
Yu Hong opened the door, holding a bag of protein bars as he walked out, and cautiously looked around.
He checked the steel nail and luminous stone baton tied to his back, which had been a great help before.
Facing shadows, its effect was quite evident.
Although according to Stammering Yiyi, shadows couldn't be killed and would soon reappear automatically,
being able to resolve an immediate crisis was enough.
After securing the wooden door, Yu Hong frowned slightly.
*"There's nothing to cover... If someone discovers it, everything inside might be gone...."*
He touched the door lock.
The round keyhole housed a standard metal structure: cold and hard.
The wooden door originally had no lock, and he couldn't make one. But after enhancement, the lock appeared on its own, complete with several keys.
This was also a part of the Black Mark enhancement mechanism that Yu Hong found highly intriguing.
Standing at the door, he gathered many branches, leaves, and vines from the surroundings and placed them around the entrance to the cave door.
Thus, from a distance, it appeared less conspicuous.
Although still unsafe, it was much better than before.
After finishing the cover-up, he quietly headed in the direction of Baiqiu Village.
The emergence of protein bars alleviated the food scarcity issue for both, but the more critical matter right now was candles.
They didn't have enough candles!
If the peak period really stretched to six days, their current three candles would be far from sufficient.
They had to trade for more.
Following the familiar mountain trail, Baiqiu Village came into view after over ten minutes.
Just as Yu Hong was about to move closer, he suddenly paused in his steps.
His face changed slightly as he looked toward Baiqiu Village and quickly hid behind a tree trunk.
From his position to the old road of Baiqiu Village, a person lay on the grass, lying on his side.
A slim black-haired man in camouflage clothing.
The man was motionless, with a large pool of blood beneath him staining the grass crimson.
*"Dead?"* Yu Hong felt his heart tighten as he hid behind the tree trunk.
Standing motionless, he observed carefully.
He didn't even dare to breathe too heavily, fearing that he might disturb something nearby.
He hid like that for a long time.
The person remained still, leading Yu Hong to speculate that he was either dead or unconscious.
After ensuring no one was hiding in the vicinity, he slowly emerged from behind the tree trunk and inch by inch approached the man.
Kneeling beside the man, he patted his shoulder.
"Hey?"
No response.
Yu Hong reached out and touched the side of the man's neck.
Cold.
His heart skipped a beat, realizing the man was truly dead.
A corpse...
A corpse of a person he had just seen turn into...
At that thought, Yu Hong's face turned slightly pale.
His abdomen tensed, breathing became rapid, pupils expanded, and an urge to vomit arose. His hand, which had just touched the man, felt unclean.
He forcefully repressed his nausea.
He reached out, firmly grabbing the corpse's shoulder, and rolled it over.
Thump.
The black-haired man lay facing the sky, lying on the ground.
There was a clear dark red blood hole in his left chest. His eyes were wide open, his mouth agape, as if in a rage.
Yu Hong dared not look any further and quickly started rummaging through the man's clothes.
Both jacket pockets, trousers pockets, waist pouch—he searched every place swiftly.
No food, no useful tools, only a broken and cracked black radio was discovered.
Clutching the radio, Yu Hong bolted, unwilling to remain with a corpse longer.
Although he had anticipated witnessing such scenes, the presence of a real corpse at his feet stirred an uncontrollable turmoil within him.
Sprinting madly, before long, he reached the door of Stammering Yiyi's house.
Bang bang bang.
He knocked intently.
"Stammering Yiyi, open the door!" he hurriedly uttered a series of jumbled numbers.
This was their agreed signal.
Bang bang bang!
Bang bang bang!
The continuous knocking echoed sharply in the dusk-tinged Baiqiu Village.
Usually, as soon as Yu Hong knocked, Stammering Yiyi would promptly open the door.
But this time, there was no response from inside for a long while.
"Stammering Yiyi?" Yu Hong's voice involuntarily rose.
The sound of knocking and his calls reverberated off the village's gravel paths.
The sound wove between the hollow black houses, moving back and forth.
The village grew even quieter.
"Stammering Yiyi?" Yu Hong's heart palpitated with fear. Was she not present?
He glanced around, ensuring there were no shadows before stopping his knocks.
At this moment, where did she go? It was nearly dark... without finding a place to hide, the danger would be too immense!
He started to breathe heavily, holding the protein bar bag in one hand and quietly grasping the hanging steel nail and luminous stone baton with the other.
"Coming!" Suddenly, a familiar response echoed from inside the house.
It was Stammering Yiyi!
Yu Hong felt a surge of relief and knocked on the door again.
"It's almost dark, let me in first."
"A- alright..." Inside, Stammering Yiyi's voice responded once more.
"I, will be, there, soon."
Yu Hong exhaled a sigh of relief, maintaining vigilance as he surveyed the surroundings, fearing the reappearance of the bizarre figure in white from last time.
This village was extremely abnormal.
There were far more shadows here than in the caves outside.
This was also one of the reasons he was desperate to move out.
He waited for about ten seconds.
"Are you coming?" With the door still closed, Yu Hong's brows furrowed slightly.
The sky outside grew darker and darker. If he didn't get inside soon, it would be genuinely dangerous.
"Coming."
Stammering Yiyi's voice suddenly came from right behind the door.
The distance was very close, very close.
As if she was speaking with her mouth right against the door.
Yet Yu Hong hadn't heard any footsteps within the house!
In this extremely quiet setting, he couldn't possibly miss any sound inside the house.
But during Stammering Yiyi's several responses, no footsteps accompanied them at all.
As if...
As if she had appeared behind the door all at once.
In that instant, Yu Hong felt goosebumps spread across his scalp again.
Click.
The door slowly opened a crack.
Boom!!!
At that moment, he kicked fiercely, slamming against the wooden door.
A loud bang erupted as Yu Hong swung the steel nail and luminous stone baton inside!
"Go to hell! Go to hell! Go to hell!"
Confronted with overwhelming terror, he swung the reinforced baton embedded with enhanced pyroxene wildly into the room.
Thump thump thump thump!
A pale figure behind the door was crushed into many pieces before it could reveal itself, dissolving into nothing.
"Stammering Yiyi!!" Yu Hong yelled as he dashed into the room, fear driving him to frantically scan the interior with the baton ready for an immediate outburst of smashing.
But the inside was empty, and there was no one.
Only a piece of paper lay on the table, showing traces of charcoal.
Breathing heavily, Yu Hong noticed for the first time that a sticky liquid was dripping from his nostrils.
He wiped it, finding bright red blood.
*"What kind of shadow is it this time... to make me bleed without even touching..."* He felt a sharp pain in his chest and looked down to find a finger-long slit in his shirt.
The skin beneath bore cuts like knife scars, with blood slowly oozing out.
Apparently, the shadow had used some unknown method to injure him.
Thud.
He closed the door and lit a candle.
Yu Hong sat in a chair, taking deep breaths to calm himself.
"This godforsaken place!!"
He muttered under his breath.
"This damn place!!!"
After a few seconds, he cursed again, suppressing his voice.
The candlelight stretched and swayed his shadow long across the floor.
Picking up the paper from the table, Yu Hong suppressed the bitterness in his heart and took a look.
"I went to get candles, will be back tomorrow"
No punctuation, no line breaks, the writing extremely skewed. The only consolation was that it was understandable.
Setting the paper down, Yu Hong pinched his nose, waiting for the bleeding to stop.
"I must... create an absolutely safe! No longer afraid of any danger kind of safe house!! Absolutely!!"
He had had enough of this cursed place, filled with traps, filled with disguises!
Gripping the candle, he shifted to the edge of the bed, his gaze falling on the gaps around the door and windows.
These were the spots where black bugs might slip in.
The invasion of black bugs had no fixed schedule, occurring every three to five days.
According to Stammering Yiyi, at the very beginning, there weren't so many, or so densely packed black bugs.
Now they seemed to be increasing, causing far more consumption of candles.
After waiting for a while, once his nose stopped bleeding, Yu Hong freed a hand to check the wound on his chest.
Fortunately, there was no itching or numbness. Lacking clean water, he could only endure, because infection could lead to major problems.
Once he confirmed it was nothing serious, he breathed a sigh of relief, listening to the howling wind outside, sitting alone at the bed's edge, and couldn't help but feel a deep sense of loneliness.
*"Perhaps, in the entire Baiqiu Village, I'm the only one left?"*
The villagers had left, leaving only Stammering Yiyi alone here.
Yu Hong didn't know how she survived, but... it must have been very tough, very dangerous.
He heaved a long sigh and leaned back.
Suddenly, a hard object pressed against his hip.
Hmm?
He reached for it, and took a look.
It was the radio.
*"Wait, could the broken radio be enhanced?"*
Yu Hong was about to set it aside when the thought abruptly crossed his mind.
The moment the thought occurred, a number surfaced on the radio's surface: 5:12.