There was no movement, nor did any numbers appear.
"It seems it's not working."
He raised his head in disappointment.
After resting for a while, and giving it some thought, he suddenly remembered the two people he had just seen.
"Danger doesn't only come from monsters and shadows; it can also come from people... So, safety must be the top priority."
"My physical condition isn't good, even worse than Little Stutters, and I haven't fully adapted to life here. In the short term, the fastest way to ensure safety... is equipment!"
But he had no equipment on hand, what was he supposed to do, hack at people with an enhanced axe?
His gaze fell again on the axe, saw, steel nails, hammer, and other tools.
He shook his head inwardly, not holding out much hope.
Regardless, he still walked over and picked up the axe, watching the numbers that appeared on it, confirming the enhancement had started.
"Well, there's still time, let's try enhancing and see."
After confirming the start of the process, he placed the axe in a corner and covered it up with something.
He then walked to the door and looked outside through the peephole.
Outside, there was no one to be seen, all quiet.
The wind rustled the leaves with a whispering sound, not even the insects or birds were heard.
Click.
Yu Hong opened the door, carrying a bag of protein bars, and looked around cautiously.
After checking, he secured the steel nail luminous stone bat to his waist; this thing had given him considerable help last time.
It was really effective against the shadows.
Although, according to Little Stutters, shadows can't be killed and will soon reappear on their own.
But it was enough to avert immediate danger.
Yu Hong frowned as he closed the wooden door.
"There's no cover... if people discover it... everything inside might be gone..."
He felt the door lock.
The round keyhole contained a standard metallic structure, cool and hard.
The wooden door originally didn't have a lock, and he didn't know how to make one, but after enhancement, this lock just appeared by itself, complete with several keys.
This was also why Yu Hong was particularly curious about the Black Mark's enhancement mechanism.
He stood at the doorway, picked up many branches, leaves, and vines from the surroundings, and then scattered them on top of the entrance to the cave.
From a distance, it was now not so noticeable.
It was still unsafe, but much better than before.
After setting up the cover, he quietly headed towards Baiqiu Village.
The appearance of the protein bars had eased their food shortage, but the key issue now was the candles.
They were running out of candles!
If the high-risk period really extended to six days, their three candles wouldn't be enough.
He had to exchange for more.
While walking along the familiar mountain path, Baiqiu Village came into sight after more than ten minutes.
Yu Hong was about to move closer when his footsteps suddenly halted.
His expression changed slightly as he looked in Baiqiu Village's direction and swiftly hid behind a tree trunk.
Between his position and the old highway that led to Baiqiu Village, a person was lying on his side on the grass.
A man with black hair, dressed in camouflage and of slim build.
The man was motionless, and the large amount of blood pooling underneath him stained the grass red.
"Dead?" Yu Hong hid behind the tree trunk; his heart instantly tensed up.
He stood still, not moving, and carefully observed.
He even held his breath, fearing to disturb anything around him.
After hiding for a while, as the person remained motionless, Yu Hong guessed that the other party was either dead or had fallen unconscious.
He looked around to make sure no one was hiding, and then slowly walked out from behind the tree trunk, inching closer to the body.
When he reached the man's side, he crouched down and patted his shoulder.
"Hey?"
No response.
Yu Hong reached out to feel the side of the man's neck.
It was ice-cold.
His heart sank, realizing the man was indeed dead.
A corpse...
A corpse that had just been a living person he had seen...
The thought made Yu Hong's complexion turn pale.
His abdomen tensed, his breathing quickened, his pupils dilated, and he felt a rising urge to vomit, as if the hand he had used to touch the man was dirty.
Fighting the nausea,
He grabbed the body's shoulder and turned it over with force.
Thud.
The black-haired man lay on his back, facing skyward.
A dark red bloody hole was apparent on his left chest. His eyes were wide open and his mouth agape, as if he had been screaming.
Yu Hong didn't dare look any longer and quickly started searching the man's pockets.
He rifled through the two pockets of the man's jacket, pants, hip pack, checking every possible spot in haste.
No food, no useful tools, only a black radio that had been damaged and broken.
Yu Hong grabbed the radio and ran for it, not wanting to stay any longer with a corpse.
Even though he had anticipated possibly encountering such a scene, when a real corpse appeared before him, the turmoil in his stomach was uncontrollable.
He dashed all the way until he reached Little Stutters' door.
Bang, bang, bang.
He knocked on the door quickly.
"Little Stutters, open up!" he blurted out a series of scrambled numbers.
It was their agreed-upon passcode.
Bang, bang, bang!
Bang, bang, bang!
The continuous knocking, at this twilight hour in Baiqiu Village, was particularly jarring.
Usually, as soon as Yu Hong would knock, Little Stutters would quickly open the door.
But this time, there was no response from inside the house for a long while.
"Little Stutters?" Yu Hong couldn't help raising his voice.
The sound of knocking and his shouts echoed along the village's stone-strewn paths.
The sounds also fluttered and scattered through the empty black houses.
The village grew even more silent.
"Stutterer!?" Yu Hong's heart felt a little hairy. Could it be that no one was there?
He turned around to make sure there were no shadowy figures, then stopped knocking on the door.
Where could that guy have gone at this time? It was about to get dark... If he didn't find a place to hide soon, it would be too dangerous!
His breathing became hurried, one hand carrying the bag of protein bars, and the other quietly gripping the steel nail luminous stone baton hanging from his waist.
"Coming, coming!" Suddenly, a familiar response came from inside the house.
It was Stutterer!
Yu Hong's heart leapt with joy, and he knocked on the door again.
"It's getting dark; let me in first."
"Okay, okay...." Stutterer's voice responded from inside the door.
"I'm, coming, right, away."
Yu Hong breathed a sigh of relief, continually scanning his surroundings vigilantly, afraid the weird white figure from last time would appear again.
This village was not normal.
There were more shadows here than in the caves outside.
That was one of the reasons he was so eager to move out.
He waited about ten seconds.
"Are you coming?" Seeing the door still closed, Yu Hong's brows furrowed slightly.
It was getting darker outside. If he didn't get in soon, it would really be dangerous.
"Coming, now."
Stutterer's voice suddenly sounded from behind the door.
Very close, very close.
As if she was speaking right up against the door.
But just now, Yu Hong hadn't heard any footsteps in the house at all!
In this extremely quiet environment, it was impossible for him not to hear sounds inside the house.
But there was absolutely no sound of footsteps mixed in with Stutterer's responses just now.
It was as though...
It was as though she had suddenly appeared behind the door.
At this moment, Yu Hong's scalp tingled once again.
Click.
The door slowly opened a crack.
Bang!!!
Just then, he suddenly kicked out, hitting the wooden door.
The loud noise burst forth, and Yu Hong lifted the steel nail baton to smash inside!
"Die, die, die, die!!!"
He became engulfed in intense fear, swinging the baton fitted with enhanced pyroxene blindly into the interior.
Puff, puff, puff, puff!
Behind the door, a pale figure hadn't even had a chance to appear before being smashed flat by the baton, shattering into many pieces, dispersing into nothing.
"Stutterer!!" Yu Hong shouted as he rushed through the door, fear driving him to frantically sweep the room with his eyes, baton at the ready to smash anything in sight.
But the interior was empty, no one there.
Only on the table lay a piece of paper with charcoal marks on it.
Gasping for breath, Yu Hong realized that his nostrils were dripping with sticky fluid.
He wiped it away, bright red, blood.
'That shadow again... How could it make me bleed without even touching me...' He felt a stabbing pain in his chest, and looking down, he saw that his shirt had been slashed open as long as a finger.
The flesh underneath exhibited knife-like wounds, and blood was slowly seeping out.
Clearly, the shadow had injured him with some unknown method just now.
Boom.
He closed the door and lit a candle.
Yu Hong sat in the chair, taking deep breaths to calm himself.
"This godforsaken place!!"
He cursed under his breath.
"This fucking, godforsaken place!!!"
A few moments later, he cursed again in a suppressed voice.
The candle's light stretched his shadow long on the ground, constantly flickering.
He picked up the paper on the table, pushing down the heartache, and read it.
'I've gone to change the candles will be back tomorrow'
No punctuation, no paragraphs, and the writing was very slanty, but thankfully, at least it was legible.
Setting down the paper, Yu Hong pinched his nose with one hand, waiting for the nosebleed to stop.
"I must... create an absolutely safe house! No more fear of any danger! Definitely!!"
He was fed up; this place was full of traps, full of disguises!
Holding the candle, he moved to sit on the bed, his gaze falling on the gaps around the door and windows.
Those were places where the Black Mark could potentially crawl through.
The Black Mark's invasions weren't on a set schedule, occurring every three to five days.
According to Stutterer, at the very beginning, the Black Mark weren't this numerous or dense.
Now it seemed they were increasing, consuming a lot more candles as well.
After a while, when his nosebleed had stopped, Yu Hong finally freed his other hand to check the wound on his chest.
Fortunately, the wound wasn't itching—since there was no clean water, he could only withstand it. An infection would be a big problem.
After making sure there was nothing wrong, he breathed a sigh of relief, listening to the howling wind outside, sitting alone on the bed, feeling a deep sense of loneliness welling up.
'Perhaps now, I'm the only one left in Baiqiu Village?'
The villagers had all left, only Stutterer stayed here by herself.
Yu Hong didn't know how she had survived, but... it must have been very hard, very dangerous.
He sighed deeply and leaned back.
Suddenly his buttocks squeezed against something hard.
Hmm?
He reached down to touch it, picking it up for a look.
It was a radio.
'Wait, the broken radio, can it be enhanced?'
Yu Hong was about to put it aside when this thought flashed through his mind.
With the thought, the radio's surface timely displayed a number: 5:12.