专业炒股配资

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Inside the slightly drafty new wooden hut.

Wei Shanshan and her mother, Qiu Yanxi, stood in the cramped space, taking in their surroundings. The tiny room was barely enough to turn around in.

Creak.

Wei Shanshan noticed that Yu Hong had actually made them a door. She pulled it shut and slid the attached latch down to lock it.

It wasn’t much, but at least it offered some degree of privacy.

“Shanshan… you’ve suffered.”

As soon as Wei Shanshan closed the door, her mother gently embraced her. Hearing the exhaustion in her mother’s voice, she couldn’t help but feel a sting in her nose as her eyes welled up.

“It’s nothing… I’m not afraid. We’ve survived so many times before. Besides, Mr.Song has been looking after me,” she choked out.

“It’s all my fault. I should never have agreed to flee with them,” Qiu Yanxi held her daughter tightly, her face full of guilt.

She had known what her daughter intended when she saw her leave the house in a pretty dress and white stockings.

But at the time, she had been too weak to stop her. Later, when the dizziness finally faded and she regained some strength, she had nearly—

Thinking back to what had happened before, waking up to see Song Mingshi’s guilty expression, and the dull pain in certain sensitive areas of her upper body, her heart was filled with rage, frustration, and sorrow.

But she couldn’t tell her daughter the truth. She couldn’t explain why Song Mingshi had been so “kind” to them. She could only accept it in silence. In her weakened state, the only person she could rely on to keep her daughter safe was Song Mingshi—her former suitor.

Many of their former colleagues at the academy, once friendly, were now completely unreliable.

“Never again… You have to promise me, never do that again! Mom is still here—I’m not dead yet!” Qiu Yanxi clung to her daughter, her eyes turning red.

They remained silent for a while, listening to the howling wind outside. Finally, Wei Shanshan pulled away and fetched some food and hot water.

“Mr. Yu gave us this. Let’s eat something to keep our strength up.”

“I’ll eat first. If anything feels off, you run—back to the others. There’s still hope; they won’t completely lose control,” Qiu Yanxi instructed cautiously. ṚãΝɵBƐṦ

“Okay!” Wei Shanshan nodded quickly.

“Also… This hut won’t hold off the blood tide at night. But that Mr. Yu wouldn’t have gone to such lengths just to bring us here to die. So, go ask him what the plan is,” Qiu Yanxi whispered a few words into her daughter’s ear.

“Understood.”

***

Yu Hong rummaged through a corner, finding a previously enhanced anti-inflammatory pill. He used a knife to cut it in half before heading to the wooden door. Pulling back the cover, he peered outside at the mother and daughter in the courtyard.

These two were crucial to securing future energy sources, so he needed to take good care of them.

To be honest, Wei Shanshan was indeed cute—so much so that it made him want to bully her. If this were peacetime, he might have entertained thoughts typical of any man.

But in times like these, with danger looming ever closer, anyone who dared to slow him down would be swiftly kicked aside.

He glanced at the sky—it was nearly dark.

Holding the medicine, he strode into the courtyard and knocked on the hut’s door.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Who is it?!” Qiu Yanxi’s wary voice came from inside.

“It’s me. You’re safe here—I’ve set up defenses around the courtyard, so don’t worry about insects getting close. Also, I left medicine outside your door. Instructions are written on the packaging. And one more thing,” Yu Hong paused. “Don’t wander around the courtyard at night. To repel the insects, the red-value negativity here is quite high. Only inside your hut is safe.”

He had removed the Luminous stone grass in this spot to eliminate radiation, and now that the grand formation was complete, its energy was contained rather than dispersed. This small area remained free of harmful radiation levels.

“Understood. Thank you,” Qiu Yanxi replied softly.

“Alright then. If you need anything, find me during the day. One protein bar per person per day is enough. Don’t overeat. I’ll leave fresh water outside your door every day, along with candles and medicine,” Yu Hong stated quickly before turning to leave, avoiding prolonged exposure.

Night was falling—it was time for his training.

“Wait!” Qiu Yanxi suddenly called out. “Are we not allowed to leave the hut at all?”

“As long as it’s brief, you can walk around the courtyard. But do not leave it. The outside is getting more dangerous by the day.” Yu Hong hesitated for five seconds before answering.

Ever since the incident with the Whisperer, he had developed the habit of pausing before responding, just to be sure.

“Thank you for your arrangements. But… where can we relieve ourselves?” Qiu Yanxi asked hesitantly.

Yu Hong was momentarily stunned. He had completely overlooked that issue.

Looking around the courtyard, he walked over to a bare patch of dirt beside the hut—one without glowing stone grass—and started digging with his hands.

Within minutes, he had created a pit, about half a meter wide and deep.

“There’s a pit next to your hut. Use that.” Satisfied with his work, he informed them before heading back.

“O-Okay,” Qiu Yanxi replied.

Seeing that they were settled, Yu Hong returned to his safe house and quickly lit the fireplace.

As night fell, the sky turned pitch black, not a single star or moon in sight.

From the forest came the faint rustling of crawling insects. At first, the sounds were sparse, but they soon converged into a growing, unsettling chorus.

Inside the wooden hut, Qiu Yanxi and her daughter huddled together, terrified that insects might squeeze in through the cracks.

But time passed, and nothing happened. No insects attacked the hut.

This made them start to believe Yu Hong’s words a little more.

Once they were sure the insects weren’t coming, their fear gradually subsided. Eventually, exhaustion took over, and they drifted off to sleep.

At some unknown hour, Wei Shanshan stirred awake. Seeing a faint white glow seeping through the door cracks, she assumed dawn had arrived.@@novelbin@@

She glanced at her sleeping mother before walking to the door and peering through the gap.

“…!?”

Outside, the tiny grass in the courtyard was emitting a soft white glow, like a luminous carpet.

Beyond the courtyard walls, an endless tide of black insects surged past, flowing like a dark river.

They did not cross into the courtyard, as if it were an absolute forbidden zone.

Wei Shanshan was stunned. The only time she had seen something similar was in the city, where walls coated with expensive Sunlight Series repellents kept the insects at bay.

“Mr. Yu… Who exactly is he?”

For the first time, an intense curiosity bloomed in her heart.

***

“This can’t go on.”

Unlike Wei Shanshan, Yu Hong was also keeping an eye on the situation outside from within his safe house.

His elevated position allowed him to see farther than most.

Beyond the courtyard walls, in the darkness, several massive figures—each about the size of a rhinoceros—were slowly making their way past.

These were Great Skins, a type of large Blood Tick, but they alone weren’t enough to make Yu Hong wary. What truly caught his attention was something further in the distance—an elephant-sized Blood Tick moving silently through the forest.

What made this creature particularly eerie was its semi-ethereal form, as if it were made of smoke. Sometimes, when it encountered a tree, it wouldn’t bother going around; instead, it would pass straight through, as though neither it nor the tree truly existed in the same space.

As it neared Yu Hong’s courtyard, unlike the others, it slowed down and hesitated, even inching closer.

“Sss…”

A faint hissing sound escaped from the massive creature.

It approached the courtyard wall, its ghostly body phasing through the structure, only to jerk back the moment it crossed the boundary—as if shocked by an invisible force.

It tried again. And again.

On the third attempt, the enormous elephant-sized Blood Tick finally gave up. Without rushing, it slowly turned away and headed elsewhere.

Yu Hong’s expression darkened as he recognized where it was going—Baiqiu Village!

“Good thing I completed the Grand Array in time. Otherwise, my defenses might not have held up.”

The Grand Array, with its overwhelmingly negative red value, had clearly repelled the Blood Tick, forcing it to leave.

Had the negative red value only been in the hundreds instead of the current thousands, the formation might not have been strong enough to drive away such a powerful entity.

Yu Hong couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of relief at his decision. Without the Grand Array, he might have burned through his reserves of Rune Array just to hold back tonight’s wave of insects.

He watched as the elephant-sized Blood Tick faded into the distance, then took out his enhanced red-value detector and switched it on.

A soft beep sounded, and numbers appeared on the LCD screen:

-0.124.

“Good. I’m outside the Grand Array’s main coverage zone, yet the negative red value still registers here. That means the array’s reserves haven’t been drained completely and will continue recovering over time.”

Yu Hong let out a breath of relief and observed the surroundings for a while longer. Seeing no second elephant-class Blood Tick, he finally felt at ease and returned to his sleeping bag.

The night passed uneventfully.

The Next Morning

At dawn, Yu Hong woke up on time and began his daily training routine.

As his physical strength had increased significantly, training inside the cave was no longer an option—any misstep could cause unnecessary destruction.

Instead, he moved to a newly excavated underground chamber.

A dim greenish glow illuminated the training area.

Yu Hong donned his heaviest reinforced White Bear Suit, then grabbed his Giant Wooden Shield and Spiked Wolf Club before starting the second level of his combat drills.

This level focused on a single technique—the Side Grab Kick.

It was a close-quarters move meant for grappling an opponent’s arm, stepping sideways, and delivering a powerful kick.

Since he had no sparring partner, Yu Hong could only practice solo.

Burdened by immense weight, he carefully set down the Spiked Wolf Club, reached forward, and snapped his hands closed as if grasping an opponent’s arm.

Then—pull!

And finally—kick!

The entire sequence consisted of three precise steps: Grab, Pull, Kick.

With mental visualization techniques, he gradually refined his movements, increasing speed and fluidity over time.

As he repeated the drill, something strange happened—mysterious energy currents began to seep into his body out of nowhere, condensing into countless tiny particles that flowed toward his dantian.

Yu Hong could feel it—his body was heating up, growing stronger bit by bit.

He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but the sensation of getting stronger was undeniable and exhilarating.

After over an hour, his muscles burned with exhaustion, his strength completely drained. Finally, he collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath.

While resting, he began contemplating his next goal:

How could he develop a martial art specifically to counter those Ghostly Shadow creatures…?

(End of Chapter)