Chapter 66 - 59: Rock’s Plea for Aid

Chapter 66: Chapter 59: Rock’s Plea for Aid

Xu Mo filled in the trap, then dragged the bodies of the mutated wolves into a small pile. He poured a bit of accelerant over them and set it alight.

FWOOSH—

The flames surged upward, greedily licking at the cold fur and flesh of the wolf carcasses and letting out a crackling sound.

In the ink-black night, the dancing, orange-red flames became the only vibrant color in this deathly silent, snow-covered world. The fat from the wolf carcasses melted in the fire, feeding the blaze and filling the air with a peculiar stench of scorched flesh and blood. The scene was less a disposal of bodies and more a grim sort of "bonfire party."

The towering firelight dispelled some of the surrounding darkness and brought a bit of warmth, illuminating Xu Mo’s calm and pensive face. He stood at a safe distance, watching the twisted, charred silhouettes within the flames. He felt little joy in his victory, his mind already occupied with a calm analysis of his situation.

’Should I try some of the wolf meat?’ The thought had barely surfaced before Xu Mo snuffed it out without a second thought.

For one, these wolves were a product of Dark Energy corruption, and it was unknown if their meat was safe to eat. But more importantly, his own ample food reserves meant there was absolutely no need to take the risk. Xu Mo’s survival philosophy prioritized stability; as long as he wasn’t short on supplies, any unnecessary adventure was foolish.

As the fire blazed, Xu Mo’s thoughts began to drift. The night’s events, combined with the broadcast from the Jiang City Shelter, had given him a much clearer picture of the threat posed by the Eternal Night.

First, the darkness did indeed corrupt wild animals; the behavior of this wolf pack was clear proof. They had become stronger and more bloodthirsty. Their eyes had mutated, and they had even gained the ability to precisely locate living things in the dark. Their fear of light was a significant weakness, but that also meant their threat level would be drastically amplified in a completely lightless environment.

Second, this corruption also affected humans. The official warnings—"mental derangement," "cognitive impairment"—still rang in his ears. His own experience had confirmed it. After being in absolute darkness for an extended period, even with his current Cowhide Realm physique and willpower, he felt intense discomfort and a crushing sense of oppression, forcing him to circulate his qi and blood to resist it. What, then, about ordinary survivors? For them, the corrupting effect would undoubtedly be more pronounced, and more lethal.

A key question surfaced in Xu Mo’s mind: What would happen if a human were completely corrupted by the darkness? Would they descend into utter madness and become a monster bent on destruction? Or would it lead directly to physical death?

Xu Mo thought back to the zombies he had encountered before. They were caused by some kind of "flash" and a virus at the beginning of the apocalypse; they didn’t seem to share an origin with this continuous corruption from the darkness. But were the two related on a deeper level? ’Could the darkness of the Eternal Night be another form of "infection"?’

’I suppose future broadcasts from the Jiang City Shelter, or other sources of information, will gradually provide some answers,’ Xu Mo could only hope. The lack of information was one of the greatest hardships of this post-apocalyptic world, second only to the scarcity of physical resources.

The bonfire burned for a long time before finally dying down, leaving behind a pile of smoldering ashes. The strange smell lingered in the air, but the threat had vanished into nothingness with the flames. Xu Mo covered the ashes with snow and cleaned up the site, making sure it wouldn’t attract any unnecessary trouble.

Once he was finished, Xu Mo returned to the warmth of his second-floor shelter. Outside the window, the world had returned to its oppressive, inky blackness. Only the cold face of the watch on his wrist marked the passage of time.

Instead of resting, Xu Mo took out his radio and switched it on.

’Since the Jiang City Shelter was attacked and issued a warning, what about the Rock Shelter? It’s of a similar size and in a similar situation. Are they facing the same crisis? How are they coping? Perhaps I can glean more valuable information from their broadcasts, or even different strategies for dealing with this.’

The crackle of static hissed from the radio’s speaker as Xu Mo patiently turned the dial, cycling through the frequencies he had previously recorded that might belong to the Rock Shelter.

However, as the minutes ticked by, he found nothing but the occasional fragment of a weak, unintelligible signal and a constant background hiss. The expected broadcast from the Rock Shelter never appeared.

A subtle sense of unease began to sprout in Xu Mo’s heart.

’This isn’t right. Based on past experience, while the two major shelters don’t have fixed broadcast schedules, they usually broadcast continuously for a period after a major event to calm people down or relay information. Jiang City did, so there’s no reason for Rock to be silent this long.’

’Could it be... that Rock’s situation is worse than Jiang City’s?’ Xu Mo’s brow furrowed. This lack of information was more stressful than the bad news itself. The unknown often meant greater peril.

Xu Mo forced himself to wait patiently, continuing his daily routine of cultivation and shelter maintenance while periodically turning on the radio to search. Practicing the Thirteen Grand Protectors’ Cross Training allowed him to temporarily forget the troubles of the outside world. But every time he stopped, his faint worry for the distant shelter’s fate would resurface.

While he was in this state of alternating between waiting and focusing, the hour hand on his watch completed nearly two full rotations. Then, the radio finally produced the sound he had been waiting for, but had hoped he would never hear.

It was a voice completely different from the announcer’s usual calm tone—this one was hoarse, weary, and filled with an almost unconcealable urgency:

"...Calling... Calling all survivors who can hear this! This is the Rock Shelter! I repeat, this is the Rock Shelter! We... we’re under a massive attack! It’s not just those light-fearing beasts... there are... there are people! Our own people!"

The voice paused, thick with incredulous pain.

"The darkness corrupts the mind. A lot of people couldn’t hold on... they went mad! They’ve turned into lunatics who only know how to attack, shattering our defenses from within."

"The beasts—those damned black wolves and other demonic things—used the chaos to break through the perimeter. We’ve suffered heavy losses. At least half of the shelter has fallen. We’re resisting from the core sector using our fortifications, but we can’t hold out much longer! We need aid! Any shelter or survivor group that receives this message, we request your support! I repeat, the Rock Shelter requests emergency support!"

At that point, the broadcast changed to a repeating, automated distress signal that gave the Rock Shelter’s approximate coordinates and an emergency contact frequency. The desperate, human voice did not return.

Xu Mo listened in silence, his fingers unconsciously tightening around the radio’s cold casing until his knuckles turned white.

The last shred of wishful thinking in his heart was completely shattered.

He hadn’t gotten a broadcast detailing the Rock Shelter’s strategies, nor a situation report. What he got was a "distress call" penned in desperation.

The Rock Shelter, which Xu Mo had believed to be a major human settlement on par with Jiang City, had been pushed to the brink of collapse in the short time since the Eternal Night began. It wasn’t just suffering from external attacks by mutated beasts; far more terrifying was the collapse from within as its people were corrupted by the darkness and driven mad.

This confirmed his earlier theory. The corruption of sentient beings by the darkness was real and deadly, manifesting as a complete mental breakdown and aggressive behavior. It was something far harder to guard against than any external monster.

With half of the area fallen, tens of thousands of survivors—or even more—had likely perished. Their stockpiled supplies, their established order, their defensive fortifications—everything was crumbling under the combined assault from within and without.

A chill, even more bone-piercing than the harsh cold of the Eternal Night outside, crept up Xu Mo’s spine.

The Jiang City Shelter had also been attacked, but judging by the announcer’s tone, the situation there was still under control. Rock, however, was on the brink of total annihilation.

A thought once again surfaced in Xu Mo’s mind: If a large shelter like Rock was struggling this much, then what about the small and medium-sized outposts? What about the scattered survivors? What was their fate?

The cruelty of the Eternal Night ran far deeper and was more absolute than the blizzards and zombies Xu Mo had faced before. It didn’t just corrode the mind; it could dismantle from within the very strongholds that humanity had worked so hard to build.

Xu Mo switched off the radio. Rock’s plea for help fell silent, leaving only the sound of his own somewhat heavy breathing in the room. He walked to the window, his gaze looking past the wooden boards at the all-consuming inkiness outside. In the distance, in the direction of Rock, where the lights of human civilization might once have been, there was now only a dead, silent darkness.

Rock was crying for help, but what could he do? He was just a lone wolf, secure in his own small corner of the world. He had neither the ability nor the means to undertake a hopeless rescue mission across a treacherous region.

But this news from the Rock Shelter was without a doubt the loudest possible wake-up call for Xu Mo.

What if, one day, the corrupting effects of the darkness intensified? Or what if stronger monsters appeared, ones that were no longer so afraid of the light? What if he himself was careless and allowed his mind to be corrupted?

’I have to get stronger!’ Xu Mo clenched his fists, his eyes filled with immense determination.

The Rock Shelter’s current situation was not just a distant tragedy; it was a clear signal. In this war against the eternal darkness, there was no true safe harbor. Only by growing stronger and acquiring more knowledge and resources could he hope to carve out a path to survival in this desperate Eternal Night.

Xu Mo turned away from the window, no longer looking at the suffocating darkness outside, and walked toward his training room. It was the only thing he could control at the moment—the starting point on his path to greater strength.