Desperate Night

The night grew deeper.

The boy, Badaka, cautiously approached a massive object amidst the construction rubble.

The thing was round, like a large hot air balloon, yet it also resembled a huge cargo ship.

Subtle white lines flashed intermittently across its dark hull, creating a sense of science fiction.

"How is it?" asked a voice from his walkie-talkie, belonging to his companion, Xiaomei.

"Still in the interlude phase, no proton phosphorescence detected," Badaka whispered back.

"My calculations also show seventeen minutes remaining. Allow five minutes for your return trip, and be careful," Xiaomei instructed.

"Understood," Badaka nodded unconsciously, as if seeing his sister's solemn instructions before him.

Snapping back to reality, he quickly approached the dark, massive object.

It was the first time since the proton sea disaster five years ago that he had seen such a large and intact man-made structure on the surface.

Soon, he was within twenty meters of the behemoth.

Carefully picking up a branch, he poked the object's outer shell.

It was very hard.

The branch snapped easily.

"Hello," a voice suddenly entered his mind.

Badaka was startled and quickly retreated a few steps, warily eyeing the dark giant.

"Are you... talking to me?" Badaka looked around before focusing on the man again.

"Of course," Yu Hong nodded. "Because I don't understand the local language, I'm using brainwaves to communicate directly with your consciousness."

"That's possible!?" Badaka's eyes widened in shock.

"What's your name?" Yu Hong asked gently. "To say something, just think it in your head."

"So amazing!?" Badaka was amazed. "My name is Badaka. Who exactly are you people? From the Union? Or Tianxing?"

"What Union? What does Tianxing mean?" Yu Hong asked. Being new, he wanted to understand the situation first.

"You don't even know the Union?" Badaka was shocked again. "Five years ago, the proton sea erupted, destroying ninety-nine percent of the world's cities and settlements. A few humans survived in sealed underground shelters. But the proton sea continues to erupt periodically. You... you don't even know about this, do you?"

"Uh..." Yu Hong looked at Ku Chan, who had walked up beside him. The latter shook his head, confirming that he didn't know about any proton sea.

Fisina and Chi Xiao also shook their heads. Clearly, they didn't know either.

"Can you explain in detail what the proton sea is?" Yu Hong asked seriously.

"Uh..." Badaka was incredulous, but then he thought of a possibility.

If they had just come from a very safe and hidden place, it might be understandable that they didn't know about the proton sea.

So he patiently explained.

"The proton sea is a terrifying disaster that can instantly destroy all technological devices and biological structures. Specifically, it targets any living thing or instrument with a stable energy structure. Whether it's humans, animals, or plants that rely on chemical energy, or even smaller bacteria, viruses, and fungi, or sophisticated technological tools and equipment, all will be destroyed in an instant."

"Is there no way to deal with it?" Yu Hong frowned.

"No, you can only hide in very thick inorganic shelters," the boy replied.

"What about food and drink?" Yu Hong asked.

"Find previously stored supplies. After all, animals and plants can't survive, and bacteria can't either. Some people also raise and grow things in their shelters," Badaka replied. "But it's getting harder and harder now. Because the proton sea seems to be starting to erode inorganic shelters as well."

"Do you have anything other than technology here? Like, magic?" Yu Hong asked again.

But this earned him a look from the boy as if he were crazy.

"Have you been reading too many novels?" he couldn't help asking.

"Okay... What about Wraith Shadows? Superpowers? Or psionic monsters?" Yu Hong continued.

"What are you talking about?" Badaka said helplessly. "The proton sea is about to erupt in a few minutes. Your thing doesn't look thick enough. I advise you to go back to where you came from, or it could be very dangerous."

He raised his hand to look at his watch.

"I have to go, or I might not make it back. It's a pity I didn't find any food or drink on this trip."

Suddenly, something flew towards him.

Badaka immediately raised his hand and caught it.

It was a bottle of clear, clean water, about a liter in volume.

He looked at Yu Hong in surprise and shock.

"This is... for me?"

"Of course. I'll be here, looking forward to seeing you again next time," Yu Hong smiled and waved.

Swish.

The window closed.

Everything returned to silence.

Badaka looked at the bottle of incredibly clean drinking water. For the current survivors, this was incredibly precious, clean water that could be used to disinfect and wash wounds.

In the black market, a bottle of this water could sell for at least three days' worth of rations!

And that man just gave it to him so easily.

"Generous sir!" Badaka was overjoyed, carefully stowed the water, bowed to the object, and turned to run back the way he had come.

Soon he disappeared into the shadows.

Inside the Black Spirit.

Yu Hong watched the boy's departing figure, turned back to the others.

"How is it? Any results from the analysis?"

"The air index ratio here is different from other places," Ku Chan said. "There are no energy particles in the air, and even the radiation from the source disaster is very low. It's a bit strange."

"I can't recover any natural energy either," Fisina nodded. "Because there's no divine power, I mainly rely on natural energy to maintain my body. Natural energy includes the four elements of earth, water, wind, and fire, but none of them are here. This means there can't be any mages here."

"What about gods?" Yu Hong asked.

"I haven't sensed any faith power either. So there can't be any gods," Fisina shook her head.

"Black disaster, spirit disaster, wind disaster, light disaster, I haven't sensed any of the radiation energy. It seems something here is completely clearing all energy," Yu Hong nodded.

"What do we do now?" Ku Chan asked.

"Wait. If that child doesn't come back, we'll leave directly. If he comes back, I plan to trade with him," Yu Hong replied. "It seems that this is a very pure material world. There are no supernatural phenomena. But we can't let our guard down."

He looked at everyone.

"Everyone, go do your own thing, and improve your strength as much as possible. We may encounter more and more difficult things in the future, so being prepared to deal with trouble at any time is the key."

"Actually, I can just find a world to drop me off..." Fisina raised her hand.

"If we encounter a suitable one, we can, but the premise is that you have to pay the fare first," Yu Hong looked at her.

He could understand Fisina's desire to leave, after all, she was just a temporary crew member. There was no talk of affection or loyalty.

After confirming the arrangements, Yu Hong recondensed the water he had sent out. Replenishing it.

This world can condense water from the air, so replenishing water can also be solved through skill and spells. That's good, the only trouble is food.

Standing by the window, he quietly watched the outside world through the glass, waiting for the proton sea that the boy spoke of to descend.

The clock on the wall slowly ticked past a few minutes.

Finally.

A large patch of black oily liquid began to appear outside.

They flowed out from the darkness, rapidly submerging all the houses, buildings, and ground they passed.

These black oily liquids quickly came in front of the Black Spirit and immediately came into contact with the Black Spirit's outer wall.

Hiss.

A slight corrosive sound rang out, and the little bit of formation energy that remained on the Black Spirit instantly collapsed and disappeared at this moment.

"It really can destroy all energy structures," Yu Hong tried to release his perception outward.

But as soon as he released it, his mental power was cut off as if a section had been cut off by a knife, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

No Wraith Shadows, no monsters, no earth-shattering explosions or flames, and no demons or gods.

All there was was this endless stream of black oily liquid flowing past.

They simply and unassumingly devoured all the energy they touched.

Time slowly passed.

About half an hour later, these black liquids began to turn transparent, and then silently disappeared before Yu Hong's eyes.

He stopped practicing and looked out the window.

"Interesting... A substance that can exist in this environment must be the best energy insulator."

Just then.

Yu Hong's expression suddenly changed.

His body naturally radiated a faint blue light.

The blue light quickly turned red, the color of the sixth layer of the Tai Ling skill's internal force.

But then, the red began to continue to transform, from dark red, slowly changing to a deeper reddish-purple.

'No!! The Tai Ling skill is about to break through!!' Yu Hong's heart tightened.

He hadn't practiced the Tai Ling skill recently, only the Luan Shen Tian Mu Sutra. He planned to replace the Tai Ling skill with this martial art, but the Tai Ling skill's progress was faster than the Luan Shen Tian Mu even without practice!

And it seemed to be getting faster and faster!

This gave Yu Hong a bad feeling.

He suddenly realized why the Taiyuan Orthodox Church was destroyed and swallowed by the Ultimate Sun back then.

'Although the Dao breath is circulating and automatically cultivating, this progress is too fast!' Yu Hong realized that if he didn't take measures, he could only pin his hopes on the Black Seal's optimization of the Tai Ling skill.

Hoping that the optimized skill could avoid the Ultimate Sun's devouring.

But thinking about it, it wasn't very realistic, after all, just a few dozen days of enhancement time, wanting to solve the Ultimate Sun, a top-level source disaster core.

It was obviously impossible.

Yu Hong felt the large amount of internal force beginning to condense in his abdomen. He forcibly suppressed the panic and carefully felt it.

A large amount of Tai Ling skill internal force was rapidly gathering into something like a glutinous rice ball, and then further shrinking from the glutinous rice ball into a dark red light spot.

The light spot began to slowly move, outlining a strange and complex three-dimensional symbol.

Slowly, Yu Hong seemed to hear waves of mournful howls in his ears, countless voices crying, roaring, screaming, despairing, and weeping.

A blue phantom of the Ultimate Sun seemed to appear before his eyes.

Crack.

Suddenly, Yu Hong came back to his senses and sensed his body again.

He found a vortex-like blue sphere quietly floating in the center of his abdomen.

In the center of the vortex, countless painful and twisted human faces were flowing, rotating, and emitting dense wails.

At the same time, endless amounts of terrifying Tai Ling skill internal force were pouring out of this sphere, constantly strengthening Yu Hong's body strength, recovery speed, and energy resistance.