Chapter 128: Bloodbath in Kun City
“Gah… uh… uh…”
Wu Hejun, her limbs severed, her vocal cords pierced, couldn’t even scream. Her shattered bones prevented any struggle.
“Zzzt—”
A spark of red electricity in her eyes, a last, desperate attempt to fight back.
But before the lightning could even escape, two bone spikes pierced her eyeballs.
“Splat—”
The spikes twisted, and with a yank, her eyes, still connected to their bloody optic nerves, were ripped out.
The excruciating pain, nerves connecting directly to her brain being torn away, paralyzed her, only her lips and cheeks twitching uncontrollably.
“That’s… about right…” Lin Jiayao murmured, keeping Wu Hejun barely alive. “She’s already dead, but… we can make this… last.”
“Why didn’t you just kill yourself? Why keep fighting?” she asked, looking down at the still-breathing body, a cruel smile playing on her lips. “Do you really think you can still win?”
“Your fire-starter has been dealt with. The trees within a hundred meters of the burning area have diverted all their nutrients elsewhere; the fire can’t spread. You’ve lost.”
Wu Hejun’s heartbeat quickened, as if spurred by Lin Jiayao’s words.
Seeing her reaction, Lin Jiayao, controlling the bone spikes, leaned back, her posture mirroring that of a Nest Zombie, her head resting beside Wu Hejun’s.
“Thinking about your… organization?” she whispered in Wu Hejun’s ear. “Such a powerful group… built on… inhumanity… You must have enjoyed being the ‘Boss,’ didn’t you?”
Her smile widened, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “That zombie I sent to Chongyu City… it’s B-rank now.”
She felt Wu Hejun’s body twitch.
“It’s already in Chongyu… an airdrop.”
Wu Hejun’s face, previously still, contorted again.
“And it brought… another B-rank zombie with it.”
Lin Jiayao’s final words were the breaking point. Wu Hejun snapped.
“Zzzt—”
Her body blazed with electricity, a reckless release of power, a self-destructive surge.
Lin Jiayao’s words had struck a nerve, the news of her headquarters’ impending destruction breaking her completely.
A wave of rage and hatred surged through her, a desperate desire for revenge. She would self-destruct, even if it meant obliterating her own body, taking this demonic girl with her.
But what she didn’t know was that, while whispering those taunts, the girl had also released a massive amount of pheromones…
B-rank power built within her, her body glowing brighter and brighter, and then, just as she was about to explode, the girl beside her, calm and unfazed, said a single word.
“Stop.”
The energy within Wu Hejun dissipated instantly, no longer under her control.
No… not uncontrolled, she had dispelled it.
She had dispelled her own power!
No… impossible… she hadn’t felt any mental control; she could still think clearly…
A mental suggestion?
“Zzzt—”
She tried to gather her energy again, but as it reached its peak, another soft “Stop,” and it dissipated.
She couldn’t even self-destruct.
Her ragged breathing calmed.
She seemed to have given up, resigned to her fate.
She knew that any display of fear, any plea for mercy, would only prolong the torture.
This demonic girl… she wanted to break her, both physically and mentally.
Indifference… her only escape.
It was over anyway. The moment she’d failed to stop the destroyer, everything had been lost. The Voodoo Cult, herself, the world… all gone.
Having lost everything she had built, her life now in someone else’s hands, she had nothing left to lose.
“You look…” Lin Jiayao, using her bone spikes to stand, her voice returning to its usual calm indifference, “…like a stray dog.”
The girl’s cold words, coming from above, didn’t elicit any reaction from Wu Hejun, whose spirit was broken.
Her vision darkened, her heart sinking into an abyss of despair.
She stopped breathing.
“Oh?”
Lin Jiayao, standing over Wu Hejun’s broken body, noticed her still chest.
If she wanted to kill herself this way… even constant injections of nutrients wouldn’t keep her alive.
So this is how you want to die?
Did she think this would erase the years of terror she had inflicted, the pain she’d caused her sister, the countless lives the Voodoo Cult had destroyed?
Such naivete.
Lin Jiayao wasn’t merciful. Anyone who hurt her sister would pay tenfold.
She wasn’t a righteous hero, nor a villain, just an ordinary girl trying to protect the person she loved most in this broken world.
So you’ve given up…? Let’s see if that’s true.
Lin Jiayao increased the flow of nutrients, regenerating Wu Hejun’s eyes and optic nerves.
At the same time, she extended her right hand, a tendril emerging from her palm, touching the ground.
Fueled by her energy, the tendril rapidly split and multiplied, forming a head, a torso, limbs, clothes… a simulated body, a Mimic.
One she had… recorded earlier.
And by now, Wu Hejun’s eyes had regenerated, but they remained closed.
Lin Jiayao didn’t use her bone spikes to force them open, but instead, stepping back, controlled the newly formed Mimic and spoke.
“Xiao… Jun?”
A childish voice, right beside her ear.
Wu Hejun didn’t react immediately.
“Junjun, why are you sleeping here?”
And then the memories, long suppressed, flooded back, a torrent of emotions, and she opened her eyes.
Amidst the dust and debris, a cute little girl, about ten years old, with a side ponytail, stood beside her, her large eyes filled with concern.
It was her childhood sweetheart, Nangong Mian… the Nangong Mian who had brought her so much joy, who had been her constant companion during the happiest years of her life.
Seeing this figure from her past, tears welled up in her eyes, her heart, which had been dead just moments ago, now filled with a bittersweet longing.
Even knowing it was an illusion, she wanted to savor this moment, to hear Mian’s voice again.
“Sob… sob…”
Her breath hitched, tears and blood trickling from her lips, her eyes filled with a desperate yearning, but she could only manage a choked sob, her voice hoarse and broken.
“Come on… you’re five years old now… you have to wake up… no more sleeping in… didn’t we promise to go to the same middle school?”
The girl’s eyes crinkled into a crescent moon smile, her every movement, every expression, every inflection and tremor in her voice, every detail a hammer blow against Wu Hejun’s heart.
“Here, let me help you up.”
Tears streamed down her face as the girl reached out, her hand extended in a comforting gesture.
This has to be a hallucination… brought on by the pain and the near-death experience…
But to die in such a beautiful hallucination… I have no regrets…
She struggled to raise her hand, reaching towards the girl, her fingers trembling.
And just as their hands were about to touch, the girl stopped.
“Uh…”
Her smile faltered, replaced by a look of confusion.
“Shhh—”
A sharp bone spike, emerging from behind her, pierced her heart, exiting through her chest, a spray of blood.
The warm blood splattered Wu Hejun’s face, and though harmless, it felt like acid, a burning sensation.
“Gah… aah…” Wu Hejun stared at the bone spike protruding from the girl’s chest, her eyes wide with rage and disbelief, a guttural scream escaping her lips.
A face slowly emerged from behind the girl, its chin resting on her small shoulder, its gaze fixed on the now sobbing Wu Hejun, a cruel smile playing on its lips.
“Waaah… Junjun… help me… it hurts… waaaah…”
The girl’s weak cries, the blood trickling from her mouth, enraged Wu Hejun further.
“Yes… that’s it… that expression… so you know how it feels… perfect…” Lin Jiayao, controlling the bone spike, twisted it within the girl’s chest, blood and gore dripping.
She reached into the wound and pulled out a heart.
“Oh dear, you’re so badly injured… we need to get you some treatment,” she said, her voice filled with mock concern, looking at Wu Hejun, her acting skills impeccable, disturbingly so. “Here, eat something to replenish your strength.”
As Wu Hejun’s heart pounded, her breath coming in ragged gasps, Lin Jiayao held the heart and shoved it towards her mouth.
“Eat! Eat!!! Didn’t you want to see her? Didn’t you destroy Survivor’s Light for her? Now she’s here, right in front of you! Why aren’t you eating?!”
As “Nangong Mian’s” heart was forced into her mouth, Wu Hejun, having endured unimaginable physical and mental torment, was driven to the brink of madness, her eyes vacant.
But it wasn’t over yet. Lin Jiayao, her own emotions now rising, suddenly stopped.
Using her bone spikes to stand, she controlled the now-healed “Nangong Mian” and had it kneel beside Wu Hejun.
“Junjun?”
Hearing the familiar nickname, a flicker of recognition in Wu Hejun’s vacant eyes, she turned her head with difficulty towards the seemingly unharmed “Nangong Mian.”
“Uh… Mian…” she whispered.
“Good, you’re still awake.”
“Nangong Mian” took the crude bone blade offered by the figure behind her, placed its left hand on Wu Hejun’s neck, and then, like sawing wood, began to slowly cut.
Death by a thousand cuts, delivered by the very person you longed for.
But before the head was completely severed, Wu Hejun’s breathing stopped, her face contorted in a grotesque grimace, a mask of agony and rage, her expression frozen in death, a disturbing sight.
But beside this twisted corpse, a young woman stood, her face calm and serene, a stark contrast to the horror beneath her.
Lin Jiayao had never felt so… at peace.
Even the gruesome surroundings, the stench of blood, the gore on her hands and face, couldn’t taint this feeling.
It’s over… the Voodoo Cult…
From today onwards, no more being hunted, no more running. Even central and southern China would be safer now.
And most importantly, she and her sister could finally… rest.
But one last, small problem remained.
The fire-wielding man, still rampaging near her sister.
…
“Boom—”
“Burn!!! Woohoo!!!”
Kun City, previously a serene landscape of green, glowing faintly, was now scarred by a swathe of crimson, the flames accompanied by manic laughter.
“Boom—”
The man at the center of the inferno, his chest riddled with empty injector needles, the source of his power seemingly depleted, his arms outstretched, blasting flames in all directions, igniting the surrounding trees, the force propelling him forward.
The fungus on the building-trees and vines, sensing the flames, released a shower of white spores in self-defense.
But the spores were incinerated before they even reached the crimson flames… This wasn’t ordinary fire.
And these flames, not just incredibly hot, also spread rapidly, a single spark igniting a massive inferno.
At this rate, he could burn down most of the city within ten minutes.
But things didn’t go as planned.
Having propelled himself several kilometers with his flames, he heard a buzzing sound from behind.
“Buzz—”
A loud buzzing, louder even than his own flames.
A familiar sound, one he’d endured for six hours.
“Just what I need!” He raised his hand slightly, the flames intensifying, burning through the vines above, the fire spreading upwards.
He thought the insect was bringing him more blood crystal serum… they were supposed to signal him… why was it here now?
Had something happened?
He couldn’t carry a walkie-talkie in his current state; he might have missed a message.
“Whatever… I’ll go check it out.”
He redirected his flames downwards, propelling himself upwards, towards the hole he had burned through the vines.
As he emerged, a massive object blocked his vision.
“Wha—”
“Thwack—”
The massive object slammed into him, the force of the impact sending him crashing downwards.
But as he fell, the flames engulfing him incinerated his attacker, turning it to ash.
“What the fuck…?”
He pushed the burning head off his body and scrambled out from under it.
Although not as strong as a dedicated strength-based Awakened, he was still C-rank; he wouldn’t be crushed by something like this.
What… what just happened? Why had their own plane attacked him?
But as he pushed the insect’s head aside, he’d felt that it was… unusually light… hollow…
His flames shouldn’t have incinerated it that quickly…
Something was wrong.
He looked up, searching for anything unusual, and spotted a figure clinging to the vines on a nearby building.
“C…” He grinned, the flames around his body receding, now flowing beneath his skin like glowing red cracks, a network of fire.
Since it wasn’t strong, this would be quick.
It was a pity he had a mission; otherwise, he would savor this “barbecue.”
He focused the flames in his palms and, aiming at the dangling C-rank Awakened, pushed forward with both hands.
“Burn!”
“Boom—”
A five-meter-wide wave of fire erupted, a fire dragon, incinerating everything in its path.
But to his surprise, the woman, like Tarzan, swung from vine to vine, quickly evading his attack.
A muscle-type?
He frowned, annoyed.
Muscle-type Awakened, especially speed-based ones, were annoyingly difficult to catch.
Tough and fast, like cockroaches.
His least favorite type of opponent.
But there was still a whole rank difference between them; he had many ways to kill her.
He lashed out with both arms, the fire dragon now a giant whip, cracking through the air towards the swinging woman.
“Boom, boom, boom—”
The fire whip, leaving a trail of charred vines in its wake, moved much faster than the woman.
As the flames closed in, the heat scorching her hair, about to incinerate her, Anan suddenly frowned.
Something behind him.
“Whoosh—”
He spun to the left, his left arm lashing out behind him, the fire dragon splitting in two, a smaller, thinner stream of fire now aimed at whatever was behind him.
“Crack—”
“Hmm?”
The moment the fire whip connected, he knew something was wrong.
It hadn’t ignited anything; instead, it was being… absorbed.
He looked towards the source and his eye twitched.
What the hell…?
A massive area to his left was now covered in blood-red tendrils, and among them, a little girl, her legs connected to the fungal carpet.
And on the carpet… several large, empty military supply crates.
That’s… Voodoo Cult equipment!
My blood crystals! My precious serum!
“That’s the stuff I just took from the warehouse! Motherfucker! That’s mine!”
Ignoring the C-rank Awakened he’d been chasing, he charged towards the fungal carpet, his body engulfed in flames.
Afraid?
Fear wasn’t in his vocabulary. No matter how powerful, how evolved, could a mere carbon-based lifeform withstand his flames?
Dream on!
“Boom—”
He unleashed a flaming punch, aimed at the little girl on the fungal carpet.