DOMINION'S END

Volume 5, Chapter 8: Whose Powerful Troop Is This

Translated by Miaka_Mei (proofread by Arcedemius & EvlNabiki; C/E edited by Elkin, Simone & lucathia)

I was obediently tagging along with Scar and his troops, moving at a quick pace. Three kilometers didn’t sound like a huge distance, but compared to moving alone, it was a lot more difficult for a group of humans to be traveling in Lan City. After all, the bigger the target, the harder it was to hide. A whole slab would always be more appetizing than a morsel of meat.

Just like how the humans worked together to go to hypermarkets and warehouses, the aberrants would also team up to attack the humans’ base. But the vast diversity of aberrants and their mercurial temperaments meant it was hard for them to keep working together for long. It was a common occurrence for them to devour their own group or each other after they had polished off the humans.

It was probably because of this that humans were able to persevere until the later stages of the apocalypse. Otherwise, considering how tenacious aberrants were, how many humans would have been able to survive the initial stages of the apocalypse?

No matter how powerful Thunder God Jin Zhan or Ice Emperor Jiang Shutian was, without knowledge from their past lives, one of them would have ended up holing himself up in Zhongguan City, while the other would have lost his whole troop just for the sake of returning home.

“Faster!”

As the leader of the group, Scar, continuously urged us on, I hurriedly increased my pace. These guys were moving pretty fast. Although their skills couldn’t be compared to the members of JDT, they had far surpassed an average person. Leaving that aside, we hadn’t encountered many aberrants along the way. Could it be that the Jin family has already cleared the perimeters up to three kilometers?

“How long have you guys been staying in Lan City?”

I asked the person beside me in a low voice. Scar had ordered him to join us. Still feeling a bit worried about me, he had especially appointed a big, strong, and taciturn guy to look after me.

Becoming the brother-in-law was truly a good thing. With Tough Guy by my side, I probably didn’t need to personally take action and could just be the obedient, pretty boy. I cast a glance behind the troop, glancing at the manstress—I mean, Chen Yishao. He hadn’t gotten this kind of treatment.

When Tough Guy had just been appointed, he had quite the cold look on his face. But after we started moving and Scar ordered us to pick up the pace, Tough Guy’s expression had lightened quite a bit upon noticing that I wasn’t falling behind, and was able to steadily maintain my position in the middle of the troop. Compared to the hindering Chen Yishao, I was doing a whole lot better.

Even several nearby men looked at me with a newfound respect—Well, not really, their expression was actually “How is this possible?!” It seemed that my weak and delicate pretty boy impression had already been set in stone for everyone. No matter how many times Jin Feng said “Xiao Yu isn’t weak,” it was obvious that nobody actually believed it.

I felt very conflicted. Could it be that when I reveal my true strength in the future, no one will believe me, and they might even think that I’ve been replaced by an aberrant?

Tough Guy replied, “More than ten days.”

“You guys already cleared out the nearby aberrants?”

Tough Guy nodded in response. “Feng-jiě is in charge of clearing the perimeters, while Jin-gē goes out to expand the territory.”

This came as a real surprise to me. Although my family’s Old Town had been thoroughly cleared out so that not even a single ant remained, it was a small town after all. It couldn’t compare to the horrifying Lan City. Despite this place being somewhat of a semi-suburb, its vicinity seemed quite spacious and empty. Even the hotel was particularly high-class. Who knows if it’s owned by the Jin family, an underworld organization…

It seemed that there were many advantages in having a lot of personnel. Although things would get a lot more complicated with more people, it was helpful in getting things done faster.

Considering the large amount of people employed by the Jin family, the matter of our alliance seemed a bit questionable. Maybe we can make up for the large disparity in the number of people with our individual strengths?

Although both Jin Zhan and Jin Feng were very strong, I was able to fight to a draw with Jin Zhan. After fighting that one battle, I dare say that if we fought with our lives on the line, I’d have at least a 60% chance of winning!

Even though both sides had prior information, and their side had the powerful and famous Thunder God, I had ten years experience of living in the apocalypse. Although most of those years had been spent on farming, a large part contained life-or-death situations. It was the kind of experience that you couldn’t possibly understand without experiencing it yourself.

The current Jin Zhan had gotten information beforehand from Dàgē, and then there was also Jin Xiaoyue, who supported him with information. With so many subordinates and formidable firepower, who knows if he has had any chance of experiencing life-threatening situations?

At least my dàgē had the life and death experience traveling home from Zhongguan City at the start. As for Jin Zhan, he probably wouldn’t go as far as to “put his own life on the line,” right? Getting his leg broken by me might have been the most shocking experience so far.

There shouldn’t be anything wrong going on with the Thunder God’s rebirth, right?

I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. It remained unknown whether there would be a new Ice Emperor or not, so hopefully there wouldn’t be a problem with the Thunder God. Otherwise, even if I did become the Ice Emperor, it still wouldn’t be enough to compensate for the loss.

“I can see it—Chen family’s Ocean Freight.”

At the front, Scar said in a low voice, “Everyone, move faster. No talking.” He specifically glared at Chen Yishao, obviously regarding the guy as a loudmouth.

Chen Yisao looked very embarrassed. He simply clamped his mouth tightly shut to show that he wouldn’t shoot his mouth off again.

I lifted my head and looked around. The tall, white building seemed quite familiar. Hm? Isn’t this the place where I almost got bitten to death by the Wolfman?

Jin Feng had probably come here specifically to exterminate those dogmen. That’d be great. Their leader, the Wolfman, better be slaughtered quickly. Otherwise, the next time he evolved, he might need to be called Wolf King. And at that time, there would be wolfmen and dogmen among his underlings. Rumor had it that their numbers could even reach the thousands.

Colonies of aberrants with a leader were extremely terrifying. They were the most daring type of aberrants when assaulting human colonies. Furthermore, their leaders usually had intelligence that wouldn’t lose to a human’s. They were strong and intelligent, and even internal strife rarely occurred. It was basically impossible for humans to compete against them!

I wonder who had gone head to head with Jin Feng. Instead of fighting the Wolfman, they had gone and fought against their own humankind. Plus, their firepower seemed to be quite powerful. As expected of Lan City—although it’s a terrible forest of aberrants, there are extraordinary humans who remain hidden inside, too. It’s just that at the later stages of the apocalypse in my previous life, the aberrants ended up winning, and Thirteen became the most terrifying aberrant king of this place.

Now that I thought about it, maybe Thirteen wasn’t the only aberrant king. There was at least some news about the situation inside Lan City, but what about Zhi City in the north? Even after ten years of the apocalypse, there was only a little news about that place. Most humans only lived in its outermost areas, so no one truly knew about the situation inside of it.

Before we even managed to reach the green and white buildings, both sides had already shown signs of movement. First, flames ignited on the ground floor of the white building. Although there was a bunch of miscellaneous objects around there, those were clearly non-flammable. The fire erupted several times before it finally succeeded in burning several objects.

If I was right, that was most likely Jin Feng’s handiwork. Being able to set fire from such a distance meant she had definitely reached tier one. If the ones facing her didn’t have enough strength to defend themselves, it was quite possible that they would end up getting burned to a crisp the moment she caught them.

If her enemy was an average person, her action of setting fires would be quite effective. It would at least be able to force them to come out. Even if the enemy refused to come out, they would choke to death because of the plume of black smoke rising over the building.

However, a huge ball of water suddenly appeared and extinguished the fire.

Stunned, I hadn’t expected that there would be an ability user among the enemy. Moreover, they had power over water.

That water ball had only been used to extinguish the fire, so I couldn’t tell if they were weak or strong. Furthermore, we were in Lan City, a most dangerous first class city. For someone to be able to control a water ball at this current phase isn’t such a strange thing, right…? It’s already January… Uh, or is it February already? It can’t already be almost March?

I was starting to lose track of the days. Not to mention that lately I’d often been shutting myself in my room to play with Xiaorong. With just a bit of carelessness, many days had quickly passed. Time in the apocalypse wasn’t so important though. And considering that I had always been making wrong estimations of the occurrence of certain events, that made time even more irrelevant.

Still, it wasn’t right to paint everything with the same brush. “Ten years” was an important length of time. Furthermore, humans who survived the apocalypse would continue to pay close attention to the 20th of June. Just for that one single day, no humans could be seen, and the same went for aberrants. Everyone would take cover in special hiding places they located, quietly waiting for the moment of judgment that would come in the middle of the night.

I didn’t know when everyone started calling the arrival of black fog the “moment of judgment.” No one knew for sure what basis was used for the judgment. Although it was widely known that weak and helpless humans are usually unable to survive it, there was also an exception to this rule. There were several cases where humans with decent strength had turned into aberrants after the judgment. Despite those exceptions being few, it was more than enough to cause panic. After struggling to survive for so long and avoiding being devoured by aberrants, no one would want to end up dying a mysterious death during the moment of judgment.

I’d just pondered for a few moments when conflict broke out between the two buildings. Sounds of gunfire could be heard everywhere. Speaking of which, it was quite a coincidence that both sides had chosen to hide on the third floor. As the office buildings both had large windows, the gunshots were accompanied by the sounds of shattering glass. This was really bad. Even if nearby aberrants were afraid of powerful firepower and wouldn’t dare to approach us for now, the sounds were loud enough that they could travel several kilometers from here.

Scar was anxious. The whole troop was advancing at lightning speed, so it didn’t take long before we arrived near the two buildings. Suddenly, the gunfire died down and a few balls of fire shot from the green building toward the white building. Those three fireballs could each swallow a human whole!

But the fireballs speeding into the building smacked into a wall of water that had appeared out of nowhere. Surprisingly, the enemy’s water ability user was quite strong. But when comparing the strength of their ability, the sheet of water wasn’t able to fully block the fireballs. Instead, it was only enough to weaken the power of the fireballs such that they could only do limited damage to the ability user.

In the next heartbeat, a counter-attack was launched from the white building. The movements were initially so small that they were almost unnoticeable. It was only when a loud sound came from the green building that Scar and his crew realized that something was amiss. Despite not knowing what was going on, their expressions clouded over after realizing that Jin Feng had been attacked.

But I was able to “see” everything clearly. That was a wind blade—they actually had a wind user! Although the power of wind wasn’t very rare, it wasn’t as common as water and fire. Unlike the kind of soft wind blown from a fan, they were actually able to use wind blades at the current phase.

With both wind and water abilities available, their troop could defend and attack. They truly seemed to be quite powerful. Fortunately, that wind blade shouldn’t be able to heavily injure Jin Feng. She’d already reached tier one and should be able to vaguely sense energy waves, so she wouldn’t be completely oblivious to the invisible, formless wind blades unlike the others.

There’s wind as well as fire. So it turns out that troops like these already formed in the first year of the apocalypse?

My past self really was a frog at the bottom of a well. I had thought that the first year of the apocalypse was the year when everyone was running for their lives, where our only priority was trying not to get ourselves eaten. But it turned out that people had already started teaming up and entering the city to fight against aberrants. Their progress was so advanced that it left others in the dust!

At this moment, Tough Guy abruptly grabbed me with one arm and wrapped me into a hug. I froze, and was about to jab into his rib then throw him over my shoulder, but stopped in time when I realized that his actions weren’t malicious but actually protective.

I lifted my head, looking around in disbelief. The battle was certainly very intense. With fire and wind flying from both sides, the wind fanned the flames—when these two abilities clashed, even terrifying things like a flaming tornado could be created in an instant.

Occasionally, the water ability also appeared to join in the fun. But the water attacks weren’t very strong and even interrupted the wind attacks several times. Eventually, they stopped appearing to create trouble.

I was watching with great interest, along with feeling relieved that the wind and fire abilities weren’t comparable to my power. It seemed that my progress in this life was still super advanced. Good, good. If I still lost to others despite having the two cheats of reincarnation and the Jiang family’s bloodline, then I really should hit myself with an ice brick as an apology.

I started feeling awkward after being hugged like this, so I struggled for a bit. But he pressed me tighter against him, and even scolded, “Quit moving around!”

Fine, I’ll just quietly stay put. In any case, this guy was simply taking his duties very seriously, carefully protecting me, the brother-in-law. He didn’t have any other intentions.

Despite feeling anxious, Scar wasn’t so reckless that he would jump right into the scene. He led us closer to the side of the road, seemingly intending on approaching the enemy’s side, the white building, and not Jin Feng’s side.

Suddenly, the enemy’s gales of wind slowed and were instantly engulfed by the fire counterattack. Just as the flames were about to blast into the windows, a wall of water appeared in the nick of time and blocked the fire from entering. This water user sure had great reaction speeds, and they were more orientated toward defense than offense, very much resembling Yunqian.

I used to think that the muscle lady Yunqian would definitely prefer playing offense, but she turned out to be the defensive type. It shocked me so much that I had dropped Xiaorong from my hand. However, Dàgē said that as a sniper, the most important things are patience and calmness, not offensive prowess. For her to prefer a more defensive approach wasn’t really a shocking thing.

I was then struck with realization—judging someone based on their muscle is just as unreliable as judging someone by their appearance!

The raging flames gradually died down. Even if Jin Feng was a tier one, she didn’t have an endless amount of energy. She might be lacking strength or had decided to change her battle tactics, but I couldn’t easily figure it out since I hadn’t seen the whole fight from the very beginning.

Once the fire completely died out, the water wall instantly fell to form a flat puddle. Suddenly, a giant whirlwind many times stronger than the previous one flew out. Considering the strength of this wind attack, it was in no way weaker than Xiao Sha’s. They might have already reached tier one!

I suddenly realized something was amiss. Don’t tell me that even this troop has someone who has been reincarnated? It’s only the first year of the apocalypse. Even if this is a first class megacity, with no prior knowledge, could so many strong humans actually exist?

A shaft of fire swiftly shot from the green building. Its flame was no longer red, but rather a yellowish orange. Even I could feel the rising temperature from here. The fire blasted toward the enemy’s side with the ferocity of a dragon.

Jin Feng was no easy opponent. She wasn’t someone who would easily shrink back, but instead fought against the towering whirlwind with her massive, raging flames.

As wind and fire clashed between the two buildings, the cars below were blown away one after another, and all the surrounding glass windows were shattered by the giant, flaming whirl. There were sharp fragments of glass flying around everywhere. At this time, even Scar stopped edging closer. If they approached too closely, they might end up getting roasted or sliced into pieces from just a trail of the flaming wind that flew by.

Ahem, that’s right! It’s “them” who would get roasted, not me. Luckily for me, my progress was so advanced that I could freeze people into a popsicle, while nobody could roast or slice me into pieces.

Abruptly, I jerked my head up. It looks like I was too full of myself just now. I hadn’t expected that troop to have someone so strong…

A person descended from the sky, kicking through the wind and flames with earth-splitting force. His energy level was so high it rivaled Jin Zhan’s, but he wasn’t aiming at Jin Feng’s building. He was rushing straight at our team!

My heart was beating really fast, and I instantly realized—this person was charging toward me!

I immediately formed an ice whip. This was not Xiaorong’s branch that I had used when tricking Jin Zhan. Xiaorong was too heavily wounded, so I couldn’t bear to make him fight the enemy. Jin Zhan wasn’t here anyway, so he had no way of finding out that I was the one who had broken his leg.

Hey, send out some light—Chen Yishao, you idiot! He was actually scared shitless. What the hell did you come here for?!

I shoved away Tough Guy. Ignoring the shocked expression on his face, I then lashed the whip at the enemy in midair—

“Jiang Shuyu!”

The whip twisted, hitting a wall to the side. The person landed. Although his back was against the sun, I could clearly see half of his face, while the other half was cast in shadow. Er, he already looked cold and merciless enough, but with the dramatic lighting and shadows, it was really, really scary!

Even Tough Guy beside me was alarmed, immediately lifting his gun and firing three rapid shots. Fortunately, that person turned the bullets into dust just by lifting his hand. This move was so shocking that Scar and his crew were taken aback, pointing their weapons at him but not daring to open fire.

That person was staring straight at me, completely ignoring everyone else. Scar and the others noticed that something was off. Amid their intense vigilance, they suspiciously glanced at me.

“Jiang. Shu. Yu.” The other party spat the words out.

I gulped, loudly replied, “Yes!”

He was sizing me up from head to toe, practically shooting X-ray from his eyes. Inspecting every inch of me, he looked like he would have included my insides if it was possible. I hastily stood straight, letting him have his fill of scanning me. I’m definitely not wounded—no wait, I did get wounded.

I stood up even straighter.

He opened his mouth to speak, and I tensed, awaiting my judgment. But before he could speak, a blaze of fire suddenly lit up behind him. He turned on his heels, and the huge fireball that was flying straight toward him disappeared at a wave of his hand.

But that fireball was just the beginning. Once the fire was extinguished, a figure as fierce as fire appeared—Jin Feng. She had used the fireball as a shield, while she herself was the killer move. The moment she appeared, she fired both of her guns in rapid succession.

Despite being tier two, he was still wary of bullets. Even more so for the kind of guns used by Jin Feng that had been modified in some way. Their firepower was frighteningly powerful. They would have been defective guns if used before the apocalypse because no one would have been able to withstand their powerful recoil during actual battle. But now, they had become the best kind of firearm.

A moment ago, if Scar hadn’t been shocked by his move of “turning bullets into dust with a wave of one hand” and had continued to open fire, he would have realized that that person wasn’t able to disintegrate that many bullets with just his bare hands. Three bullets posed no problem, five was barely manageable, seven would depend on luck, but he’d get shot if it was ten.

It wasn’t actually difficult to disintegrate small things like bullets, but the problem was that he couldn’t deal with them fast enough.

The two fighters were both gun experts. Their shooting skills were in no way weaker than their powers. They might depend on their powers when fighting against normal people; however, when facing off against gun experts in close combat, these two were obviously more familiar with guns and fighting moves. Their powers were merely used for support.

Jin Feng’s whole body was enveloped by a circle of flames, used as a protective shield. But from how I saw it, this flame shield would only be effective against people below tier one. Against her current opponent, it would only provide light and sound effects, and at most burn his coat.

As for that person’s bullet disintegration with his bare hands, I’d said that it was easy for him to deal with three bullets, but this was on the condition that he was prepared. He wasn’t familiar enough with using his ability to disintegrate the bullets while dealing with fast close combat at the same time. He was able to react much faster when dodging and opening fire to counter-attack.

It seemed that we had no choice but to slowly accumulate experience. After thinking for a bit, I realized that I had been expecting too much. It had only been a little more than half a year since the apocalypse. Nobody would be able to master their powers so quickly, as they were things that had never existed before.

Even the Ice Emperor wouldn’t have been able to.

Suddenly, another person descended from the sky. By the time I managed to see her face clearly, she was already wordlessly kicking at Jin Feng’s head, fast enough that you could hear the sound of air ripping. If that kick were to land, her head would definitely be smashed like a watermelon!

Fortunately, Jin Feng sidestepped it. But her original opponent used this opportunity to deliver a strike to her knee. Although she could have evaded it, Jin Feng had to take it because the real threat was the gun in his hand. That knee strike was merely used to drive her into a corner.

Seeing this, I hastily rushed over. Just as Jin Feng took the blow to her knee but was still unable to avoid having the muzzle of the gun pointed at her, I managed to get in front of her. I completely ignored the dark muzzle of the gun; rather, it was the terrifying look in the eyes of the person behind the muzzle that was making my blood run cold.

That look in his eyes—it was blazing with outrage!

That scared the shit out of me. I’ll never run in front of his gun ever again.

I stammered, “Dà, Dàgē. She saved me. Don’t kill her.”

This person, in other words, my dàgē, moved the muzzle away from my forehead but still pointed it at the person behind me without dropping his guard. Then, with an icy expression, he said in an extremely dangerous and belligerent tone, “Saved you?”

Er, it looks like I’ve shot myself in my foot again. Left with no choice, I simply steeled myself and nodded.

At this time, Scar and his men rushed over. They pointed their guns, separating into two groups. They were mostly pointing at Dàgē. A few of them were pointing at the other person who had jumped down, Guan Weijun. She wasn’t holding a gun, and was merely clenching her fists. With that fierce appearance of hers, she seemed ready to face bullets with just her brute strength.

Just as I was about to roar “put your weapons down,” more people dropped down behind Dàgē —Xiao Sha, Yunqian, Ding Jun, and a bunch of soldiers. Walls of water instantly rose up around us, and winds started gusting so hard that people had to squint their eyes. Of course, we couldn’t forget the mountain of guns being pointed in all directions—as those soldiers could only use their guns for now.

Dàgē coldly said, “That woman attacked me first.”

I was stunned. I turned to glance back, but my shoulder was suddenly pulled by Jin Feng. I was about to be dragged behind her, but Dàgē immediately grabbed me.

The current situation was, Dàgē grabbing my right hand, while Jin Feng was pulling my left hand. Dàgē’s gun was in front of me, pointed at Jin Feng, while Jin Feng’s gun was behind my head, pointed at Dàgē.

Hehe. Even I could read the expression in everyone’s eyes of “what the fuck is going on here?”

“Let’s all just calm down for a moment.” I was at a loss for words, and helplessly persuaded, “One side is my dàgē, while the other side is my savior. Let’s discuss this like civilized men.”

As a result, both sides rolled their eyes at me. Okay, fine. With the mafia and mercenary troop holding several dozen powerful guns, it was obvious that they looked nothing like “civilized men.”

I turned and said, “Feng, this is my dàgē, Jiang Shutian.” Then I turned my head again. “Dàgē, this is Jin Feng. She’s Jin Zhan’s younger sister, and also my savior.”

Dàgē narrowed his eyes, staying silent. But I could clearly read his mind. It was probably along the lines of, “Why the hell did you run into Lan City for no reason and end up needing to get saved?”

I tugged both of my hands, but neither side would let go. No one else seemed inclined to put their weapons down either. However, I was focusing on something more important.

“Dàgē, where’s Junjun? Is she okay?”

I didn’t see any lightning just now. Don’t tell me something actually happened to Junjun? If Dàgē is perfectly fine, nothing bad should have happened to Xiǎomèi!

Dàgē gave a short reply, “She’s okay. You’re not okay!”

Just as my heart settled down, it started racing again. I turned to face Jin Feng once more, and persuaded, “Feng, this is my dàgē. Is there some kind of misunderstanding between the two of you?”

Jin Feng briefly explained, “He stole my wolfman.”

Dàgē arched an eyebrow. “As far as I remember, I’m the one who attacked that wolfman first.”

“I attacked him first but he got away. I was in pursuit. He’s got an injury on his right thigh.”

Hearing this, Dàgē frowned, and I hastily adopted a pitiful look. Although his expression was still extremely cold, looking like he couldn’t wait to tear into his dìdi, he put down his gun in the end.

In response, Jin Feng readily put her gun away. Despite not really understanding the situation, everyone else was very obedient, as they put away their weapons, one after another.

The moment I breathed a sigh of relief, a soft and fragrant body immediately jumped into my arms.

“èrgē!”

My heart settled back into my chest when I heard Junjun’s clear, melodious voice as she shouted “èrgē,” but it was at that moment that I was hauled backward and forcibly pressed into a hug. The hug was so tight that I felt like I was suffocating.

I didn’t even need to turn around to see who was hugging me, as I could feel the familiar big and soft sensation on my back. “That’s my little sister, my biological little sister! Look at that face, she looks just like me!” I exclaimed, strongly stressing the words.

She’s blood-related, not the kind of sister that I can marry. And definitely not an adopted sister! I had to emphasize that part, because I could already feel that the temperature was rising as high as an oven. There was even a burning plastic smell coming from my down vest.

Junjun was still holding out her hands and maintaining a hugging posture. She wasn’t able to respond for a moment. Upon seeing Jin Feng tightly hugging me, she blinked her eyes and curiously asked, “èrgē, why are you letting her forcibly hug you?”

…Should I start a language class for everyone in the Jiang Dominion?

“Pfft!”

As the sounds of stifled laughter resounded, the tense and hostile atmosphere instantly vaporized. Everyone had turned a deaf ear to my numerous pleas, but once Mèimei appeared, laughter instantly spread everywhere!

“Feng, can you let me go?” I said somewhat helplessly, “I”m feeling a bit hot.”

Jin Feng immediately let me go. I turned to glance at her. Her cold and stony face was slightly flushed, making me extremely curious. So even a fierce lady like her can get embarrassed? It’s red from embarrassment, not red from anger, right…?

Junjun stepped forward. She was staring at me and Jin Feng with wide eyes, looking like she was dying from curiosity.

In order to prevent my powerful and fierce little sister from trying to convince someone to become my wife, I hurriedly introduced, “This is Jin Feng. She’s Jin Zhan’s younger sister, and my savior that has saved my life twice!”

Jin Feng glanced over, obviously dissatisfied with the introduction. But I simply glanced back at her with innocent eyes. We agreed to wait two years. Don’t tell me it’s already void after just a few hours? Even if a day drags past like a year, it shouldn’t be that fast!

For now, both sides seemed to understand that we were no longer enemies. Jin Feng secured her gun back in her holster and ordered her subordinates to put away their weapons. Seeing that everyone was crowding around with excitement, she coldly gave an order, “What’re you guys staring at? Hurry up and dig out those crystals that we just hunted and clear out the remaining aberrants. Don’t let me see even a single dog nearby after this!”

“Yes, Dàjiě!”

The crowd of mafia, who were by no means “good and honest people,” all wore a distraught expression. They dispersed one after another to go beat up some dogs, even shooting desperate glances at Scar, the only person who stayed behind. If it weren’t for them holding various kinds of weapons, I’d have really thought that they were a bunch of housewives looking for gossip.

Chen Yishao wanted to stay behind as well, but obediently left with the others after earning a severe glare from Scar. Then, it was Jin Feng’s turn to glare at Scar. The latter hurriedly adopted a bodyguard’s posture, looking very loyal and devoted, as if he’d rather die than leave his master’s side. If he hadn’t been constantly sneaking glances at the people from my family, I might have really believed that he had stayed behind to protect Jin Feng.

Jin Feng was too lazy to bother with him. She then called out to my dàgē and xiǎomèi, “Jiang-gē, Mèimei. Sorry for being rude just now.”

Upon hearing this form of address, Dàgē’s mouth twitched while Mèimei’s eyes lit up. I instantly realized that my family’s fierce little sister had been defeated. There was an even fiercer opponent right here, who just went straight to calling someone “gē”!

Dàgē shot a glance at me. I neither acknowledged nor denied it. I simply lowered my head, pretending to be dead.

When he didn’t get any response, Dàgē simply ignored the form of address, and changed the topic. “That wolfman was injured. His crystal is yours.”

But Jin Feng shook her head, and explained, “I only chased after the wolfman because he almost killed Xiao Yu, not for the crystal. I did injure him, but if it wasn’t for Jiang-gē and your troop stopping him, he might have gotten away.”

I was taken aback. So she was trying to avenge me?

Dàgē stared daggers at me, and growled, “Didn’t I tell you to watch over the house? Why did you go into the city, and even managed to get wounded?”

I could only honestly confess, “I saw lots of lightning flashing over the city. I thought you guys were in danger, so I rushed into the city without a second thought and ended up running into aberrant after aberrant. Jin Feng saved me in the end.”

Despite what was said, Dàgē was fully aware of my exceptional strength. Even if the aberrant that I encountered was too strong, I’d at least should have been able to escape. For me to need saving, it must have been an exceptional situation. But he no longer continued his line of questioning and just gave me a bland look, obviously planning to resume his interrogation at home.

“The person that you saw must have been Jin Zhan.” Jin Feng explained, “He’s got lightning powers. You got someone in your troop with this power, too?”

“That’s me!”

Junjun fervently answered as she stepped up to Jin Feng. Even Guan Weijun followed as well. Although she had just mounted a sneak attack on the other party, this tiny grudge wasn’t enough to stop herself from listening to gossip.

Transfixed, Jin Feng couldn’t take her eyes off Junjun once she saw her, and her frosty expression gentled. She couldn’t resist reaching her hand out to twiddle with Junjun’s hair, which was tied in long twin ponytails. She nodded and said, “Mèimei, you look really cute. You can just call me Feng-jiě.”

“Feng-jiě!” Junjun quickly jumped at the opportunity. “Just call me Junjun. That’s what my èrgē calls me.”

“Feng-jiě.” Guan Weijun grinned as she followed in saying the same thing.

“…” Who do you think you are? Following along in calling someone “jiě”—you think I don’t know that you’re exactly the same age as Jin Feng?

“So Feng-jiě has power over fire?” Junjun said with a look of adoration, “Wow, you’re so strong! Dàgē says that you’re even stronger than Xiao Sha!”

Jin Feng stroked the ponytail again. She seemed to really like Junjun’s long, black hair. I’m not bragging or anything, but I spent ten long years taking care of Junjun’s hair before I finally managed to get the hair so smooth and silky. Everyone just loves touching it because of the softness!

I had tied up Junjun’s hair into twin ponytails to prevent some weird uncles and aunties from touching her hair all day long. Junjun didn’t have a particular dislike toward her hair getting touched by others, but I, this èrgē wasn’t happy about it! My family’s darling shouldn’t be touched by some random stranger!

Jin Feng directly held the ponytail in her hand and played with it. She showered her with praise, “It’s good that you have lightning powers. Train up a lil’ bit, and you’ll be able to protect yourself in the future.”

Junjun cheerily said, “èrgē said the same thing, too. He told me to train myself to become the Thunder Goddess, and trample under my foot all the men of the world!”

“Oh?” Jin Feng gave me a thoughtful glance, “Xiao Yu really is different from others.”

With a younger sister as adorable as Junjun, of course Gēgē would have to slaughter all men that tried to make advances!

“That’s right! èrgē is the best! He’s even greater than Dàgē!”

Junjun wore an expression of having discovered someone with the same mindset as her. The only thing missing was her holding both of Jin Feng’s hands, and passionately declaring her as her best friend. For some reason, it feels like Xiǎomèi’s speed at selling her èrgē is a lot faster than selling Dàgē…

Laden with grief, I simply stopped watching the ongoing sales and looked away. I turned my gaze toward Dàgē who was busying himself with work. He was giving orders to Yunqian and Xiao Sha to lead people in clearing out the aberrants and look for some supplies while they were at it. Even ordinary stuff like toilet paper couldn’t be excluded.

Toilet paper was the type of supply you needed in large quantities. That said, in my previous life, toilet paper was definitely not something I’d have taken. I couldn’t eat or drink it, and it was bulky as hell. A clean butt doesn’t meant shit for survival!

In any case, everyone smelled like a rotten corpse when they were running for their lives. The only use our noses had was for breathing. Our noses wouldn’t even have been able to make out any smells. It was good enough to just grab anything to wipe our butt clean. Plus, most of the time, we were so hungry that nothing would come out from down there!

Upon noticing that I was looking at him, Dàgē beckoned me.

I suspiciously walked over. Dàgē said, “Shuyu, we haven’t found Shangguan Chenyang, but Xiao Sha suspects that he’s close by. He sensed someone’s probing gaze several times, but still hasn’t managed to find anyone. Xiao Sha thinks that someone with this kind of power would most likely be him. When Jin Feng attacked us just now, we thought that the Shangguan family had finally made their move.”

I frowned. “I encountered soldiers from the Shangguan family, too. They must have sent a lot of troops into Lan City.”

At the current phase, it was impossible to take over Lan City. Nevertheless, searching for supplies was still a necessity, even more so for populous military districts. The rate of depletion of their supply stocks would be a lot faster than Jiang Dominion’s. At worst, they might not even be able to sustain themselves for a week.

Dàgē narrowed his eyes, and said in a dangerous tone, “Was it the men from Shangguan family that put you in danger?”

“They did attack me, but it’s not a big deal. A few bullets aren’t enough to injure me.” I avoided the important parts and continued, “I only got a bit wounded afterwards. I got away from a huge aberrant that I encountered and got surrounded by dogmen. It was because the attacks came in succession.”

Dàgē said mercilessly, “If something like this happens again, you’re forbidden from leaving the base ever again!”

Locked up until aberrants become extinct—I get it. But then again, there’s no one capable of stopping me in the base, and that includes Dàgē.

“We searched the police station along the way. Nothing much was left, but there were plenty of handcuffs. The next time you get reckless, I’ll have you handcuffed with Shujun twenty-four seven!”

…Fine, I lost! I lowered my head and admitted my wrongs, “I’m sorry, Dàgē. I’ll never be reckless again.”

Dàgē looked at me coldly. I wasn’t sure if he believed me or not, but he finally stopped dwelling on the topic. He glanced at Junjun, and saw that she was chattering continuously with Guan Weijun. Meanwhile, Jin Feng was listening attentively, occasionally nodding her head or answering with a “no.”

For example, Junjun asked, “What does Feng-jiě like about my èrgē? Is it his face?”

Guan Weijun promptly said, “Of course it’s the face. With a face as captivating as that, what else could it be?”

Jin Feng nodded her head, and added, “Actually, he’s got a pretty nice body, too. He’s just a bit thin.”

The two girls’ eyes were shining so bright that laser beams were about to shoot out from their eyes.

Dàgē walked two steps away, and beckoned me over with his finger. After I obediently walked over, he got straight to the point and asked, “What’s up with you and that Jin Feng—”

“Boss!”

Xiao Sha anxiously shouted. He sped over like a gust of wind, with a dark expression on his face.

“We’ve been surrounded!”