240: Chapter 240 The Night of Watch

The night, like spilled ink, completely erased the contours of the hills, leaving only deeper darkness and the sound of the wind.

Inside the cave, there was only the extremely faint "drip" of water seeping from rock crevices, and Ling Ye's own long, almost imperceptible breathing.

He moved his "bed" behind the blockade at the cave entrance, back against the cave wall, where he could peek outside through the observation slit while remaining in a relatively hidden and safe position.

The steel rebar spear lay horizontally across his knees, the tip pointed toward the entrance.

A fruit knife was tucked at his waist, with a slingshot and several carefully selected, sharp-edged stone shards within reach.

The bottle of medicine and the oil-paper package were placed in a hidden crevice behind him, within arm's reach.

He entered a special, half-meditative state using "Star Visualization".

His spirit was like a taut bowstring; one part was highly concentrated, used to perceive the slightest external changes (sounds, light, energy fluctuations), while the other part was like a trickle, guiding that faint warm current, continuously and extremely slowly nourishing his wounds, maintaining the body's most basic metabolism and alertness, but keeping consumption to a minimum.

He turned himself into a "living stone", merging with the darkness and silence of the cave.

Time lost its meaning in this absolute concentration.

Only the rhythm of the night wind and the interval of the dripping water served as a blurry timer.

The first half of the night was uneventful.

There was only the wailing of the wind, the occasional muffled thud of rocks rolling in the distance, or the almost inaudible flapping of wings as small nocturnal animals (like owls) swept past.

Ling Ye's vigilance did not relax in the slightest.

He knew that if that green light was truly some kind of "active" anomaly, the darkest moment before dawn, when humans were also most drowsy, was often the peak of its activity.

Sure enough, around 3:00 AM, when the night wind seemed to pause temporarily and the wilderness fell into a heart-palpitating silence that was almost a vacuum—

The change happened.

It was not visual light, but auditory.

An extremely faint but exceptionally clear "rustling" sound, as if countless fine grains of sand or small pebbles were slowly rubbing and rolling against dry leather or a hard surface, came from a direction outside the cave.

The sound was erratic, intermittent, but continuous, and... it seemed to be moving slowly, getting closer.

It wasn't the wind, not the sound of animals walking, nor rocks rolling.

This was a sound Ling Ye had never heard before—teeth-grinding, yet carrying a strange, rhythmic quality.

"It's here!"

Ling Ye's muscles tensed instantly, but his breathing and heartbeat, controlled by his will, became even slower and weaker.

He slowly lifted his eyelids, pressed his eyes against the observation slit, his gaze piercing the darkness outside like a cold probe.

"Rustle... rustle..."

The sound was closer.

It seemed to be just below the steep slope where the cave was located, in the direction of the dry riverbed.

But in the darkness, he could see nothing.

He concentrated, pushing the passive perception of the xuanyuan ring to its current limit, attempting to capture the energy signature of the sound's source.

It was very faint, very... "turbid."

Unlike the cold erosion of the abyssal eye, and different from the corrupt activity of the "green light" sewage outlet, this energy signature was more obscure and stagnant, as if it carried some kind of mineral, inert quality, yet it contained unstable chemical energy.

It felt a bit like the gray-green residue discovered during the day, but more "active."

The sound lingered below the steep slope for a moment, as if "observing" or "sensing" something.

Ling Ye could even feel an invisible, faintly tingling "scanning" or "probing" wave spreading out like ripples from below, sweeping across the steep slope where the cave was located, and passing over the cave where he was hiding.

The cold sensation of the xuanyuan ring intensified instantly, as if spontaneously resisting or interfering with this detection.

The "Ancient Ring" mark deep within his Soul also emitted a trace of an extremely faint, protective rhythmic fluctuation.

The probing wave swept past the cave, seemingly finding no abnormalities (the concealment effect of the xuanyuan ring and the "Ancient Ring" mark?), paused for a moment, and then slowly receded.

The "rustling" sound below also changed.

It was no longer lingering but began to move slowly, extremely slowly, upward along the base of the steep slope!

The direction of movement was not directly toward the cave entrance but toward the ridgeline of the hills where the green light had appeared the previous night.

"Is it going back? Or going somewhere else?"

Ling Ye's heart jumped to his throat.

This thing was right outside, possibly only a few dozen meters away!

He could hear that slow, heavy (judging by the sound) friction of movement, getting closer and closer, and then it seemed it was about to scrape past the side of the steep slope where the cave was located.

He gripped the steel rebar spear tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.

If it discovered the entrance, or changed direction and crashed into it...

"Rustle... rustle..."

The movement sound became clearer, accompanied by a low, "creaking" sound as if rocks were pressing against each other, and the occasional, extremely short, "crackling" sound like electrical sparks bursting.

Ling Ye stared intently through the observation slit into the darkness in the direction of the sound.

Suddenly, not far below, at the edge of a rock's shadow, he saw a few extremely faint, fleeting, tiny sparks of eerie green light, flashing and extinguishing, as if they were sparks generated when the moving object rubbed against the rocks.

Immediately after, aided by that extremely brief flash of light, he vaguely caught a glimpse of a blurry, irregular outline, about half a person's height, appearing to be composed of rough, dark stones and some kind of gelatinous substance, slowly crawling!

The outline had no obvious head or limbs; it was more like a mass of moving, surface-cracked and protruding, glowing aggregate of rocks and organic matter!

"That's it! The main body of last night's green light!"

That fleeting glimpse made Ling Ye's back instantly soaked with cold sweat.

This was definitely not a natural creature!

Was it some kind of... "rock" or "mineral lifeform" that had been contaminated or twisted by natural forces and alienated?

Or was it another, more materially-oriented, distorted form of the abyssal eye's contamination?

"Rustle... creak... crackle..."

The thing did not stop; it continued to move upward along the side of the steep slope at that slow, heavy, yet unyielding speed.

The sound and those faint, occasionally bursting green light sparks gradually faded, heading toward the ridgeline of the hills, disappearing into the darkness and the wind.

Not until the "rustling" sound and all abnormal disturbances had completely vanished, and another full half-hour had passed, did Ling Ye slowly and exhaled a long, pent-up breath of stale air.

His body remained stiff, but his taut nerves relaxed slightly.

It had left.

It didn't discover the cave; it seemed to be just "passing by," or moving along some kind of fixed "route."

Ling Ye slowly sat upright, leaning against the cold cave wall.

The inner layer of his clothes was already soaked with cold sweat.

The silent standoff, being so close to that thing, was more mentally draining than any intense battle.

He quickly integrated the information he had just obtained in his mind:

Form: Suspected creeping aggregate of rock/mineral and organic matter, half a person's height, irregular, with cracks and protrusions on the surface, potentially emitting green light sparks when moving.

Movement method: Slow, heavy, accompanied by sand and stone friction, rock squeezing, and electrical spark sounds.

Seems capable of climbing steep slopes.

Perceptual ability: Possesses some kind of passive, detection-like perception field, but seems insensitive to (or unable to penetrate) the concealment effect of the xuanyuan ring and the "Ancient Ring" mark.

Energy signature: Obscure, stagnant, with mineral inertia and unstable chemical energy, matching the residue from the day.

Behavioral pattern: Active at night, seems to have a fixed route (from the riverbed direction up the steep slope to the ridgeline), target unknown, aggressiveness unknown (currently, it seems to "ignore" targets that do not trigger its perception).

This is a brand new, material-level, slowly moving "anomaly."

Threat level: Unknown, but extreme vigilance is required.

The fact that its movement route happens to pass near his cave is a huge hidden danger.

He needs to adjust his plan immediately:

Stronghold security: The cave is still usable, but that thing's "patrol route" must be treated as a restricted area.

Based on the early warning network outside the cave, monitoring of the path coming from the riverbed direction and moving up the steep slope must be specially strengthened.

Activity restrictions: Going out at night is strictly prohibited.

Daytime activities should also try to avoid getting close to that thing's movement route and areas where it might stay or "feed" (if it needs to).

Continuous observation: Under the premise of ensuring safety, try to survey that thing's movement route more carefully during the day, looking for its possible lair, food sources, or activity patterns.

But maintain an absolute distance.

Response plan: If that thing unexpectedly approaches or discovers the cave, how to respond?

Escape (route?)?

Combat (is the steel rebar spear effective against that kind of "rock" body? Gun?)?

Or try to use the characteristics of the xuanyuan ring or the "Ancient Ring" mark to interfere or drive it away?

Needs thought, but no good strategy for now.

Daylight once again laboriously penetrated the cave.

A new day arrived after the thrilling watch.

Ling Ye moved his stiff body and drank a few mouthfuls of the collected rock-crevice water.

Exhaustion washed over him like a tide, but he forced himself to stay awake.

He needed to go check the external warning devices immediately and observe the traces left by that thing last night.

He picked up the steel rebar spear, carefully moved the internal blockade, and crawled out of the cave.

The hills in the morning light were still desolate.

But in his eyes, this land was no longer just a place for survival; it was a hunting ground hiding slowly creeping, unknown dangers, and even more bizarre things.

He found fresh traces left on the movement path of that thing last night—a patch of ground that had been obviously pressed and rubbed, with compacted sand, fine scratches, and several charred marks, as well as slight gray-green corrosion marks newly added to the surface of some rocks.

The traces clearly indicated that the thing had indeed "crawled" through here last night, coming within perhaps less than twenty meters of his cave entrance at its closest point.