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After putting away the enhanced pyroxene, Yu Hong walked into the cavern again, finding corresponding pits at the top and on both sides of the ground.
These were the places he had prepared for the enhanced pyroxene for later, aiming to ensure the absolute safety of the entire safe house.
During these days, he had been relying on Stammering Yiyi's food supplies, and he now had seven pieces of enhanced pyroxene.
*He felt rather well-off.*
The black insect Blood Tide that occurred every three to five days no longer worried him, and the shadow that occasionally appeared no longer showed up.
According to Stammering Yiyi, they were currently in a safe period, which generally lasted about a month before it exploded into a high-risk period.
By then, both the Blood Tide and shadows would greatly increase in intensity.
*No wonder Doctor Xu was so upset with me. I'm basically dragging down Stammering Yiyi's progress in accumulating supplies, which could endanger her by causing a shortage of resources.*
Yu Hong understood this in his heart.
However, he didn't care much.
Doctor Xu didn't know what he was truly capable of. Not to mention, the effect of the enhanced pyroxene alone was enough to ensure Stammering Yiyi's safety against the shadows.
At least it worked much better than ordinary luminescent stones.
An ordinary luminous stone could be used only once, but the enhanced pyroxene could be used multiple times.
He just didn't know exactly how many times it could be used, so he needed to find an opportunity to test it later.
After thinking this, Yu Hong came back to his senses, closed the wooden door, and stood alone inside the cave.
With the door closed, the cave dimmed at once, with only the striped vents casting bright golden beams of light inside.
Yu Hong stood behind the door and extended his hand.
He pressed it against the door panel.
Beneath the dirty sleeve, his arm was much darker than before, but it still could not conceal the clear Black Mark on the back of his hand.
Soon.
A large black number appeared on the door, "12 days."
"Would you like to strengthen the wooden door?"
A slight whisper penetrated his ear.
Yu Hong's expression hardened, and he took a deep breath.
*"Yes!"* he replied forcefully in his heart.
Immediately, a thin black line flowed from the Black Mark on the back of his hand, burrowing into the wooden door and disappearing.
Soon after, the number on the wooden door also began to change, from 12 to 11 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes.
The numbers flickered intermittently, appearing extremely mysterious.
"A countdown!?" It was the first time Yu Hong had noticed such a situation.
When he had enhanced the pyroxene before, he always tried to avoid Stammering Yiyi and hadn't observed the process carefully.
Now it seemed that the Black Mark could actually countdown, which was quite convenient.
*"Alright, now I just need to wait."* Yu Hong breathed a sigh of relief, as the Black Mark's enhancement hadn't caused him any negative feelings so far. At most, it left him a bit mentally weary, but a brief rest was enough.
Twelve days.
By then, he would be able to see how effective the enhancement of the wooden door was.
*He was very much looking forward to it.*
After looking at the wooden door for a while, he picked up a random piece of rubble from within the cave, attempting to trigger the enhancement of the Black Mark again.
But nothing happened.
He wasn't surprised either.
He had tried long ago to see if he could enhance two objects simultaneously.
But now it seemed that either it was never possible, or perhaps he hadn't yet met some special condition.
Yu Hong was not in a hurry.
*Once the safe house was built, he'd have plenty of time to study the Black Mark later.*
Stammering Yiyi had gone out and would not return that night, so after resting for a while in the cave, Yu Hong packed up the enhanced pyroxene and headed back to Baiqiu Village.
Familiar with the road, he soon returned to the house.
After securing the door, he placed the enhanced pyroxene in various corners.
Then he took a gulp of filtered water to moisten his throat.
The filthy, stinky filtered water didn't upset his stomach; one might say that was a miracle.
After completing his preparations, Yu Hong took a piece of jerky, sat by the bed, and slowly chewed on it.
The jerky was very hard, much harder than any meat he'd eaten before, thin and long, entirely black.
Stammering Yiyi said it was lizard meat.
Yu Hong didn't mind. At least compared to the other two kinds of jerky, he could still somewhat accept lizard meat.
The other two were rat jerky and cockroach jerky...
As it approached nightfall, Yu Hong lit a candle and placed it beside him, on the bedside table, allowing the candlelight to envelop the vents specifically left around the doors and windows.
Then he closed his eyes and rested quietly.
The night passed without incident.
Early the next morning, Yu Hong went to the village entrance to wait.
His phone had long since run out of battery, so he could only use the shadow on the ground from the sunlight to roughly calculate the time.
After waiting for about an hour.
Two figures gradually appeared at the end of the road, carrying large bags on their backs.
As they got closer, the figures became clearer; it was Stammering Yiyi and Doctor Xu returning.
Yu Hong hurriedly stepped forward and helped support the large cloth bag on Stammering Yiyi's back.
"Thank you for your hard work," he said softly to Stammering Yiyi.
"How's the, safe house, doing?" Stammering Yiyi asked with anticipation.
She had checked the progress before setting out yesterday; it should be almost done.
"It's done, the door is completely finished!" Yu Hong nodded earnestly and smiled.
He was also in high spirits.
"I bought water, proof, paint!" Stammering Yiyi gestured haltingly, "For you, to coat."
Waterproof paint?
Yu Hong paused for a moment. He had forgotten that he needed to apply waterproofing... Otherwise, it wouldn't be long before his painstakingly built wooden door would mold and rot due to moisture.
He wasn't a professional carpenter, just someone with some handyman skills, missing key steps unknowingly.
Luckily, Stammering Yiyi had thought of this.
"Oh, how did I forget about the waterproofing!?" He slapped his hand, a bit fearful, "Good thing you remembered, or the work on the wooden door would have been wasted!"
"Yiyi sacrificed a third of her jerky for just this can of waterproof paint," Doctor Xu reminded quietly from the side, casting an unfriendly glance at Yu Hong.
"Since it's finished, when are you moving out?" she continued.
"Soon, I'll move out soon!" Yu Hong nodded. "Doctor Xu seems to have some misunderstanding with me, but wait and see, soon I'll be able to help Yiyi have a better life."
Stammering Yiyi had helped him a lot, and he remembered it clearly, and now he was almost certain the secret of the Black Mark was unique to him.
At least neither Stammering Yiyi nor Doctor Xu had it; he had asked Stammering Yiyi, and she hadn't heard of anyone else with such special abilities.
So his confidence had grown considerably.
*'There he goes again, just a guy who brags.'*
Doctor Xu gave him another disgusted look and turned her back to leave with her backpack.
She had seen others rescued by Yiyi before, and once they recovered and learned a bit, they left.
None stayed longer than five days.
But this Yu Hong... he had been here for so long... almost 20, nearly 30 days, and still didn't leave!
Not leaving would be fine, but he didn't help with work either! This made Yiyi spend much more time picking wild vegetables and painting luminous stones. Yet, the amount of food had decreased significantly.
Food was already scarce, and with two people eating, they had to cut back to make it last.
"I, believe, in you!" Stammering Yiyi said seriously to Yu Hong as she leaned over from the side.
"Yes! Thank you!" Yu Hong nodded, watching Doctor Xu walk away.
Only then did they return to the house to count the items they had brought back.
A big bag of luminous stones, minus the paint, brought back only half a pound of jerky and one pound of dried mushrooms.
Mixed with wild vegetables, this had to last them at least three to five days.
In the house, they sorted the jerky together, packing them into bags and adding charcoal to absorb moisture, tying them securely.
This was so each package was separate to avoid frequent unsealing and moisture buildup.
"By the way, how strong are the shadows and the Blood Tide during the high-risk period? Can you explain in detail?" Yu Hong asked as he continued to pack.
"Very, strong." Stammering Yiyi nodded, "They could be, anywhere, shadows. Blood Tide, will appear every day, and accompany, shadows, together."
"Ten luminous stones are needed just to deal with... one shadow." Stammering Yiyi began explaining carefully the level of danger during the high-risk period.
Through her intermittent explanations, Yu Hong gradually learned about some of the dangers of the high-risk period.
Especially the shadows; an ordinary luminous stone, once marked with symbols, could have even better dispersal effects against shadows.
Stammering Yiyi's luminous stones naturally worked better than others, so they always sold at a better price.
During the high-risk period, even her luminous stones required ten pieces to dispel one shadow, let alone those used by others.
Yu Hong also asked about the candle consumption.
The answer took him aback.
During the high-risk period, a single large candle could be consumed in one night, causing significant depletion. Of course, they could also burn firewood, but there must be a source of bright light at all times to ward off the Blood Tide.
After calculating the high-risk period duration, Yu Hong glanced at the tattered desk calendar on the table, noting fifteen days left.
The wooden door would be enhanced in twelve days... If the enhancement wasn't as effective as he hoped... it could be troublesome.
*He felt slightly apprehensive.*
"Where did you buy the candles?" he asked again.
"Uncle Wang..." Stammering Yiyi took out a simple map and pointed to a relatively distant spot on it.
"He, used to be, a villager..."
"How long does the high-risk period usually last?"
"It used, to be, one, day. Later, gradually, became, five days." Stammering Yiyi answered.
"It can last longer?" Yu Hong frowned.
"Yes!" Stammering Yiyi nodded vigorously.
"I understand," Yu Hong knew he needed to act fast.
In the following time.
He began to accelerate the construction of his safe house. Even though the door was completed, the various internal structures still needed to be arranged.
Especially the chimney; if he wanted to make a fire inside, he had to prepare for ventilation and smoke emission in advance.
This was actually not difficult, as he had previously seen stoves with chimney pipes in the village houses.
He just needed to bring them out and disassemble them. After all, the most important parts were the metal chimney pipes.
But... those houses, according to Stammering Yiyi, were best not explored deeply.
It was okay to dismantle door panels outside, but going into places where the light was too dim could easily lead to an encounter with shadows.
However, with the enhanced pyroxene, it wasn't much of a problem.
One piece of enhanced pyroxene could resist several shadows. It worked much better than ordinary pyroxene.
Still, just thinking about the troublesome and dangerous aura of shadows made Yu Hong's heart race, and he really didn't want to approach them willingly.
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