```html
This stone could hurt that white-clad shadow, it was likely some sort of special item. Being small, even if it made a bit of a commotion, it wouldn't be easily noticed.
Moreover, if it could truly be strengthened, the power of the White Stone would be greater, making it much safer to deal with that previous shadow.
Thinking of this, he picked up a piece of the White Stone and looked at Stammering Yiyi.
"Could I have one? Thank you for saving me earlier! I will return the favor."
He said seriously.
Stammering Yiyi shook her head.
"This... is already... useless..." she explained. "If you want, take it."
Yu Hong nodded and picked up the White Stone to have a look.
The stone was only the size of a thumbnail. On its surface, there was a dark red complex symbol that appeared to be some sort of religious talisman. At this moment, one-third of the stone had turned black for reasons unknown.
The stone felt icy and cool to the touch, like touching a block of ice, chilling to the bone.
Sss...
Soon, a number appeared on the surface of the stone: 3 days.
Quickly, a thought emerged, and the Black Mark seemed to have felt it, quickly transmitting a voice.
'Strengthen the target?'
Yu Hong put the White Stone into his pants pocket.
*He tried to respond in his mind: Yes.*
*As soon as he confirmed his answer, the Black Mark on the back of his hand lightly burned and then calmed down.*
*Immediately after, the White Stone in his pocket also heated up and then returned to normal.*
Stammering Yiyi didn't react at all to the White Stone's movement.
"You... are you... okay?" Stammering Yiyi curiously looked at him and asked.
"Soon... the sky... is getting dark... we must prepare..." she stammered.
"Prepare for what?" Yu Hong asked. Having just been through intense emotions and physical exhaustion, his already weak body was returning to its normal state as the adrenaline subsided.
*He was still in a state of inflammation and illness.*
*Just now, he had only temporarily needed energy and spirit to deal with danger. Now that the danger had passed, his body was beginning to fight against viruses and bacteria again.*
*The immune system started to multiply immune cells rapidly, and his body temperature began to rise again.*
"Night... monsters... danger..." Stammering Yiyi replied.
As she spoke, she glanced at the window, where the light between the cracks outside was growing darker and darker.
*That darkness was somewhat unnatural, a little too fast.*
*It was quick enough that Yu Hong could feel the light dimming with the naked eye.*
*This strange phenomenon made a sense of anxiety and crisis rise within him.*
Thump-thump, ding-dong-tonk.
Stammering Yiyi, from somewhere, produced a hammer and began banging around the edges of doors and windows, seemingly reinforcing and checking the surroundings.
The front door had been secured from the inside with thick chains and three horizontal bars.
Each bar was about as thick as an arm. The contact surfaces between the bars and the door panels had been worn smooth, indicating that this wasn't the first time.
Darkness deepened, darkening more and more.
Yu Hong stood dazed in the house for a moment, then quickly snapped out of it and tried to help check the gaps for safety issues.
But since he wasn't familiar with the environment, he was soon despised by Stammering Yiyi for getting in the way and was pushed back onto the bed to sit.
"Don't make a mess," Stammering Yiyi said earnestly. After speaking, she crawled under the bed again and brought out a large bag of black sacks.
Opening the bags revealed they were full of densely packed white stones. She started pulling out a red pen, taking each White Stone, and carefully writing red symbols on them.
'So all these red symbols were drawn by her?' Yu Hong watched this scene, his expression transfixed.
Eeh~~~eeh~~~~
Suddenly, a faint, sharp, opera-like woman's voice came from outside the house.
The voice fluctuated in pitch, strange and melodious, like crying, yet like performing, with a sense of being half-real and half-illusory.
Click.
Clearly, Stammering Yiyi heard the sound too. She swiftly grabbed a few White Stones and shoved them at Yu Hong, then took a yellow candle from the corner of the room, lighting it with a magnesium-like stick, and then held the candle, nervously watching the doors and windows.
Yu Hong stood behind her and noticed the candle was extremely large, as thick as an egg.
"It's coming...." Stammering Yiyi suddenly said.
At this point, Yu Hong also noticed the light outside the window had completely disappeared.
Only a solid blackness remained, seeping in from outside.
*Was it night already? How did it happen so quickly?*
He wanted to speak, but suddenly a dizziness erupted in his mind, continuously impacting his consciousness. His body grew hotter, and he felt like he might have a fever, with his throat becoming increasingly sore.
He needed to drink water and take medicine... fever reducers...
Otherwise, the situation might not be good.
*He understood his condition, having felt the same when seriously sick with a cold and fever before.*
*Moreover, last time he had a fever of thirty-nine degrees, it wasn't as weak as this. It was likely due to excessive prior shock.*
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he tried hard to grip the White Stone, his eyes wide open, anxiously watching the door and windows.
In the room, the two of them remained quiet, waiting.
For a moment, the only sounds in the air were their breathing and heartbeats.
This state did not last long.
Click.
Finally, a slight noise came from outside the door.
"It's coming!" Stammering Yiyi shouted.
Her body tensed up, her arm muscles clearly defined, and she raised the thick candle high in her right hand, casting a disc of light to cover as much of the room as possible.
Yu Hong stood tensely watching right behind her.
He wasn't sure what would happen, but based on Stammering Yiyi's reaction, likely something bad would occur soon....
*After all, even the previous white shadow hadn't made her so nervous.*
Soon, their waiting finally bore results.
In the darkness, the sound of insects scuttling began to appear outside the door and windows.
The sound was extremely sudden and extremely dense, like shifting from a silent void to a noisy desert in an instant.
Sand continuously flowed and scraped across the doors and windows of the house, producing a fine sound.
Soon, Yu Hong widened his eyes and saw, at the gaps in the doors and windows, less than a centimeter wide, black insects started crawling in.
Countless tiny insects, like grains of sand, swarmed in numbering at least hundreds, if not thousands.
Each was only the size of an ant, resembling beetles, with oval shells on their backs, centipede-like jaws on their heads, no eyes, and over a dozen pairs of legs.
Overall, they looked like shortened black millipedes.
The dense insects quickly swarmed into the room, producing fine sounds as they crawled, and the vaguely sharp female voice in midair grew increasingly closer and clearer.
"Get out!!" Stammering Yiyi shouted, but strangely held the candle still, standing in the center of the room, only yelling.
Yu Hong, sitting on the bed, wanted to get up to help, but his weakened body had little strength left.
Sweat trickled down his back, but it soon evaporated with his feverish temperature.
Watching the black insects constantly crawling in through the gaps, he tensed up and trembled.
*His mind overflowed with horrific images of insects crawling all over, biting into his flesh.*
*This was an instinctual human fear, impossible to suppress.*
*But just then.*
Sss...
The fastest of the black insects crawled into the range of the candlelight.
*And at that moment, the unexpected happened.*
*These terrifying-looking black insects, under the candle's pale yellow light, dissolved rapidly, turning into black smoke, and evaporated away.*
*Plumes of black smoke rose densely, all formed from the dissolved black insects.*
*They melted like wax in flames, each accelerating toward Stammering Yiyi holding the candle.*
Soon enough, centering on Stammering Yiyi, a circular ring of black insects emerged from the door and window gaps, continuously approaching and dissolving, then evaporating.
Black smoke rose and quickly dissipated into the air, leaving a pungent, unpleasant odor.
Yu Hong watched this scene, his face unconsciously showing shock.
*He searched through all his knowledge and couldn't think of any insects that would automatically dissolve into black smoke just by being exposed to light.*
*This bizarre scene in front of him entirely shattered all his previous predictions and imagination.*
Monster.
*Suddenly, the word that Doctor Xu, the older man, had mentioned before resurfaced in his mind.*
Yes, monster.
*Weren't these black insects in front of him truly monsters?*
*They surged like a tide, endless, yet dissolved and vanished upon exposure to light.*
For a moment, Yu Hong fell into an indescribable state of mental inertia, carefully observing the black insects, the candle, trying to find some false flaw among them.
Occasionally, he would pinch his thigh hard, using the pain to clear his mind, proving what he saw was real.
However, all these actions proved that everything was true, neither false nor a dream.
Additionally, he noticed something else.
*As the black insects dissolved, the thick candle in Stammering Yiyi's hand, which should have lasted a long time, quickly melted and disappeared with the insect invasion.*
*It seemed fighting these black insects consumed the candle's heat very quickly.*
Time continued to pass in this tense standoff.
Ten minutes.
Half an hour.
An hour.
Two hours....
The two remained in that state, unmoving.
The candle in Stammering Yiyi's hand, once forearm-length, quickly shortened to a palm's length.
Ah!
Suddenly, Yu Hong jumped up, turned around, and grabbed a black insect from behind.
That black insect, illuminated by light, turned into black smoke.
But he reached to touch his buttocks.
His left buttock was bitten by an insect, blood soaking through his pants, the wound was clearly significant.
Apparently drawn by the blood, the black insects around him grew more frantic, clawing madly towards Yu Hong.
Yet, the candlelight remained steadfast, blocking them and turning them all into black smoke.
Yu Hong clutched his butt cheek, then struggled to move closer, standing with Stammering Yiyi, watching the scene.
Watching beyond the halo of light, circles of black insects continued to dissolve and evaporate into black smoke.
This strange and dangerous scene, like a meteor shower, continuously shredded his previously whole worldview into pieces.
*He had no idea how long had passed.*
*Finally, the faint, sharp female voice in the air gradually disappeared, fading away.*
*As the sound vanished, the black insects that had invaded the room also began to thin out.*
A sliver of light slowly seeped through the gaps in the doors and windows from outside.
Finally.
The last few black insects were covered by light, struggling as they dissolved into black smoke.
*Everything returned to complete calm.*
```