DOMINION'S END

Volume 6, Chapter 6: Ice Spear’s Power Flares

I had expected the people outside to charge right in as soon as the front gates opened, like locusts swarming over a country uncontrollably. After all, that mass of people had always been of that kind of character. However, they were actually being held off by the soldiers’ gun barrels, and could only obediently follow behind the soldiers.

Seeing this, I was really left speechless. My older brother and Cain could also ruthlessly use guns to push people away, but they really weren’t too interested in managing the people. Although they’d use martial law to quell any disturbances, they wouldn’t be bothered to manage them afterward. That said, not having enough time to manage people was probably also a factor. After all, the Jiang Dominion’s manpower was truly too pitiful.

After this, I’ll have to advise Dàgē to find some people to specially handle things like this—wait, isn’t Tai Wen a nicely fitting candidate for this?

The people their group had been leading were just so good. It couldn’t have been just because of Guan Weijun’s mighty fists, and looking back on the past few days, Tai Wen’s contributions couldn’t have been insignificant. This was the talent of managing people. In addition, he had a unique and useful ability. Letting go of such a talented person absolutely couldn’t happen; as soon as I went back, I’d have to raise the issue with Dàgē.

That is, assuming we survive this…

Compared to the Shangguan family, I was even less certain I’d be able to last through the aberrant tide outside. If this aberrant tide was really the same one that had broken through the shelter that year, I was afraid that even if Dàgē’s reinforcements arrived, they still might not be of any use.

But of course I don’t plan to just give up on life!

As soon as the soldiers outside came in, they immediately rushed to a spot a few steps away from Cain. My level of wariness shot up to the max at once. If I hadn’t spoken with Cain and agreed to only start demonstrating our might after a certain signal, I almost wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from leaping down there and building up a strong, unbreakable wall of ice.

Shangguan Chenhong was surrounded by the protection of an elite team of soldiers. He walked up in front of Cain with a clearly hostile expression, and the muzzle of the gun he hadn’t yet put down demonstrated his intent to start a war.

“Tsk,” Cain made a sound of mocking, then sneered as he said, “Really? You only just came in here, and you’re already planning to eat your promises of facing the aberrants together that you swore weren’t just lies? If you don’t go up the city walls right now, well, you won’t need to go up later.”

Shangguan Chenhong’s expression was dark. It was clear he didn’t intend to do as Cain said.

Seeing this, I had my own intentions. I got ready to construct a giant blade of ice, waiting for the moment Cain gave the signal so I could show my hand and intimidate them immediately afterward. However, at this moment, someone spoke up, one step ahead of me.

“Strike teams two, three, and four, go up the walls immediately! Follow the commands of those at the top.”

The old soldier’s stern voice gave commands from diagonally behind Cain. I had already released him; after all, right now our relationship was one of collaboration against an enemy. If we still kept the other side’s leaders tied up, this collaboration would really be too insincere.

Anyway, just looking at how the people in front of us hadn’t even tried to negotiate for the old soldier’s release earlier, a tactic that included threatening the hostage would probably be useless.

When the old soldier finished giving his command, several groups of soldiers turned around and began climbing the wall. They didn’t even cast a single glance at Shangguan Chenhong. This made Shangguan Chenhong’s expression grow even darker, but he ultimately didn’t say a word.

This was truly out of my expectations. It was hard to say whether the soldiers’ true commander was the old soldier we had caught earlier. No wonder Shangguan Chenhong hadn’t wanted to come rescue him from the start. Isn’t he just taking this chance to get rid of him?

“Let’s make it through the crisis together.” The old soldier gave Shangguan Chenhong a few words as explanation, “Outside, the aberrants eat people. To preserve life, we cannot cause strife within.”

Shangguan Chenhong indignantly rebutted, “To the point that we have to listen to their orders?”

The old soldier was about to continue giving his advice, but the sounds of a huge number of guns firing could already be heard from the top of the city wall. Everyone’s complexions changed, and nothing more needed to be said. The old soldier bellowed, “Ascend the walls immediately,” and those soldiers who hadn’t yet climbed the walls seemed to take two steps in one, practically leaping up to the top.

Cain turned to me and shot me a look, then looked toward the city walls. This probably meant he wanted me to go up the walls and see the situation for myself.

Seeing that the old soldier was in his element and that his men were also sincerely collaborating, my misgivings dissipated. I walked up the walls directly, relying on only momentum and the adherence of ice to get me to the top.

As I did this, I could hear exclamations of things like “What kind of person is that?” coming from behind me. This relieved me even more. Although the Shangguan family was linked to the MORC and had someone like the shadow man, it was clear that their understanding of different ability applications lagged far behind our group’s.

I walked over to Wen Jiannuo’s side and looked out. The cloud of dust stirred up by the aberrants was only two blocks away from the wall surrounding the main building, but they had stopped moving and didn’t advance any further.

“The aberrants stopped before we opened fire and haven’t continued their advance,” Wen Jiannuo said, feeling strange. “I don’t know why they suddenly stopped. In addition, they even all stopped at once, so we shot at them to feel them out. They dodged quite quickly. We didn’t hear too many of their screams.”

I squinted my eyes and peered through the dissipating smoke in order to get a closer look at the aberrants. There was a large group of dogmen, and from the countless shadows I could see moving within the smoke, they likely numbered around five hundred. If I included the other bizarre aberrants, the total number might be two thousand.

These definitely aren’t the same aberrants that raided the Shangguan military camp! That might have happened quite a while ago, but I sure as hell won’t easily forget running into an aberrant group with this many dogmen.

During the initial waves of aberrant attacks, all kinds of aberrants would attack together. Only when we got past the initial chaos and humans began to huddle together in immense garrisons, did the aberrants evolve enough intelligence to form settlements made up of members of the same, or similar races.

I might have been ignorant and ill-informed in my previous life, but this is something that I definitely wouldn’t get wrong. Compared to legendary beings like the Twelve Strongest Elites, aberrant attacks were a common thing. They happened so often, we were basically living out a survival manual titled, “How to Survive an Aberrant Wave”.

“Isn’t this weird?” Wen Jianuo, who had also sensed that something was off, said, “I’ve never seen so many aberrants of the same kind gathered together before. Also, their movements are too organized. They might have a leader among them.”

I frowned and asked, “Did you hear the sound of a wolf howling, or something like that?”

Wen Jianuo shook his head.

Normally, dogmen would be led by wolfmen, who were higher up in the aberrant hierarchy than them. However, in order to lead the dogmen, the wolfmen would have to howl loudly enough for hundreds of dogmen to hear them. There was no way Wen Jianuo wouldn’t have heard anything if that was the case.

Although I thought that it was impossible, once I started recalling the Jiang family’s bad luck… No, technically, it’s just me, I shouldn’t try to avoid the truth! After all, whenever I get in trouble, Dàgē and Xiaomèi aren’t always around. Now that I think of it, Dàgē always lucks out when choosing mercenary group members…

I took a deep breath. I’d probably used up my luck just transmigrating into a nice family consisting of my amazing siblings, Uncle, and Auntie. I can’t always be reaping all the benefits, so from now on, I should treat my misfortune as training.

“My guess is that there’s at least one higher-ranking “wolfman” hidden somewhere among these dogmen. In addition, we might also be facing several psychic-type aberrants.”

“Wolfman? Psychic-type aberrants?” It was Wen Jianuo’s first time hearing those terms, but he instinctively understood that they were bad news.

I explained, “Wolfmen are the evolved forms of dogmen, hunt in packs like wolves, and can command the dogmen. Psychic-type aberrants are highly-intelligent aberrants possessing psychic abilities such as telepathy.”

The combination of wolfmen packs and intelligent aberrants was one of the worst ones possible, although it was a common occurrence toward the later end of the apocalypse. For example, the brainwright that we met last time is one of the strongest among the psychic-type aberrants. Well, I’m not really sure if the brainwright actually is an aberrant or not, but the fact is, they ended up siding with the aberrants.

That was probably because brainwrights looked too freaky, which made it hard for humans to accept them wholeheartedly. On the other hand, there were all kinds of aberrants, so they never cared about appearances, only strength.

However, for this exact same reason, the aberrants in the early stages of the apocalypse would not be aware of the true value of the psychic-types. If they were the ones that had run into the brainwright, they would probably have treated it as tofu brains, just like soybean pudding, and devoured it. There was no way they would actually work with it!

Even if I included the butterfly effect consequences of my transmigration, I didn’t think that one person was enough to affect the evolutionary rate of the aberrants regardless of how many I kill! That’s too much!

Wen Jianuo furrowed his brow and asked, “If we kill the wolfman leader, will these guys retreat?”

Going straight for the jugular, huh? I frowned and replied, “I’m not sure. I don’t think one wolfman can command this many dogmen, so there might be more than one of them. Additionally, dogmen have very good senses of smell, and it’d be difficult for us to avoid being noticed by them during an assassination attempt.”

Most importantly, there were plenty of other aberrants besides the dogmen. We couldn’t be sure if there was another leader besides the wolfmen. In that case, exterminating the wolfmen wouldn’t do us much good.

Wen Jianuo nodded in understanding. Then, with a hint of suspicion in his voice, he said, “You have an unexpectedly deep understanding of these monsters, don’t you? You’re even the one who coined the term, ‘aberrant.’ Looking back at it now, that name is really fitting. Calling creatures that are intelligent enough to assemble an army ‘monsters‘ is really selling them short.”

My heart suddenly skipped a beat, but thankfully, I still had some composure left in me. I calmly said, “Of course I understand them well. How do you think I got as strong as I am today? It was only possible because I fought my way through hordes of aberrants!”

Wen Jianuo seemed skeptical of my answer, but before he could say anything, we heard a wolf’s howl far in the distance. Our faces immediately paled, and we turned to confirm the situation along the two streets.

Dogmen poured through the streets toward the mansion, quick as lightning. In the blink of an eye, they had already advanced a great distance.

I shouted an order, “Open fire! Don’t let them get close to the barricades!”

Although our barricades were built like castle walls, with a height of two floors and riddled with sharp spikes to prevent climbing or stepping, the dogmen could still overcome it with their incredible jumping capability. All they needed was some kind of foothold, and they could easily leap right over the barricades.

They’ll use the dead bodies of their own comrades as the easiest footholds for jumping over the barricade. We have to prevent them from dying too close to the barricade at all cost!

The first wave of gunfire rang out, and the dogmen in the frontlines fell to the ground, unmoving.

Then, suddenly, we heard the howl of a wolfman, and the dogmen scattered in every direction, entering buildings and searching for cover rather than charging forward blindly.

“F*ck!” Wen Jiannuo suddenly cursed quietly.

I looked in the direction of where he was looking, and realized that his attention was not on the battlefield, but rather to the right. Only then did I notice that there were aberrants heading toward the house, flanking us!

These aberrants came in very different varieties, unlike the dogmen which looked more or less similar. Many looked very disfigured, making one unable to tell what kind of aberrant they were. Perhaps they had not been able to evolve successfully yet, or perhaps they became extinct later.

The apocalypse was a time when many new species flourished, but extinction was something even more commonly seen and happened daily. The species that I could remember that survived to the later stages of the apocalypse were all those that were more famous.

This wave of aberrants had the dogmen attack from the front as their main fighting force and the rest of them stealthily attacked from the sides. What a frightening formation. Could we have run into another brainwright?

Other than this kind of half-human half-aberrant, what other aberrant could possibly have this kind of commanding power in this time period? Could this be a problem due to me being too ignorant in my previous life?

“Everyone, move to the side as you shoot!” After shouting that, Wen Jiannuo rushed back again and shouted to the people below, “Cain, get people to go defend the city wall from behind!”

Without even asking for an explanation, Cain’s answer of “Okay” transmitted back to us. Indeed, as expected of a professional.

I stood on the city wall without moving, for the distance between me and the dogmen was too far and not currently ideal for me to launch an attack. Though my ice energy was able to reach that distance, it was so energy-draining that I would be better off using a gun!

I didn’t bring a gun… I looked around with furrowed brows. At that moment, I saw Wen Jiannuo walking briskly along the city walls, going around scouting and observing the current situation with the aberrant wave. He was so busy that he could only fire a few shots during his down time. Seeing that, I simply snatched his gun away as he passed by me.

While he was still frozen in place, I turned around and fired three rounds straight into a dogman hiding behind a car, into its brain, right shoulder, and knee respectively. Even if his skull was too hard for the bullet to pass through, it would be no threat to us with its missing limbs.

Though I did not have visionary abilities, I could still shoot further than anyone with my enhanced eyesight and danger senses from being tier three, and my aim wasn’t too shabby either. I was still far from a legendary marksman who hit the target all the time, but with my good vision and ability to keep my hand still, my hit rate was definitely pretty high.

Seeing that, Wen Jianuo immediately said, “Try and see if you can locate the wolfmen.”

I did not answer, but nodded my head. At the same time, I fired a few shots which all hit an aberrant. It had long arms and legs and looked like it would be good at climbing, so of course I prioritized taking it out.

Under the heavy bullet rain, the dogmen ran to the point they did not dare to even stick their heads out, and instead hid away and refused to come out. At the moment, it looked like with our city walls and the heavy firepower, four hundred defeating two thousand might actually be possible—No, wait!

I dashed to the side of the wall and looked down. I did not see anything unusual, but my instinct told me that it was going to be too late!

I leaped directly off the city wall with my hand supporting me, without even sparing the time to materialize ice to step onto. Right now, the faster I landed, the better! There was no need for a cushion!

The surrounding soldiers all turned wide-eyed, and one person even yelled, “Someone has fallen down!”

Wen Jiannuo sprinted to the side of the wall and looked downwards, his face a picture of shock as he shouted.

“Shu- Ice Spear!”

As I landed, I immediately put both hands on the ground, letting the frost spread. Most of it went straight downwards, and only a little spread onto the ground surface, but even that little bit of it was enough to form a layer of white frost on the ground.

As the ground emitted cold air, the aberrants hid into shelters one after another. Even the gunfire sounds from the city wall had abruptly stopped, making the place so quiet, it didn’t seem like a battlefield.

Wen Jianuo broke the silence, as he anxiously said, “Ice Spear, hurry and come up—”

Before he could finish his words, “black oil” started gushing out from the ground, accompanied with squeaking sounds. A large number of horned mice started emerging from the ground, so much so that it resembled a fountain of black oil spewing on the ground. They spread out wave by wave like ripples, and it was so gross that it gave people goose bumps all over.

If I had not frozen the ground below in time and blocked off the horned mice’s path, the place where this “black oil” would have spawned would not have been outside the city walls, but inside of it!

At this moment, the soldiers on the city wall seemed to return to their senses, and the sounds of gunfire were heard all over, the gunfire even more intense than when we had been dealing with the dogmen just now.

“Cease fire!” I shouted loudly.

It was hard to shoot the horned mice due to their small size, and even if we had lots of bullets, we shouldn’t waste them like this. No one knew how many more aberrants were heading over. However, it wasn’t like we could ignore them either. Once the horned mice got close to the city walls, they would be able to form a ladder scaling the city wall instantly, regardless of whether they were dead or alive.

Even so, we could not use explosives on them, for if we were to deplete all our explosives, it would make it easier for the aberrants after this to attack us.

The sound of gunfire was too loud, and my shout was unable to draw the soldiers’ attention. Even if someone happened to be closer to me and heard it, perhaps they would ignore me. After all, the black wave of horned mice was simply too appalling, and I didn’t have credibility…

From above, I suddenly heard Wen Jianuo roaring so loudly that he almost matched the volume of a gunshot!

“Cease fire! Have you all gone deaf? Didn’t you hear what Ice Spear said? Everyone, I said cease fire!”

The sound of gunfire all stopped, for the most part, but there were still the sounds of a few gunshots. Wen Jianuo continued to bellow, but it seemed like he couldn’t do much about them. I thought for a moment. Those must be Shangguan Chenhong’s soldiers, right? No wonder they aren’t listening to him at all.

“Ah Nuo, have Cain and Xiao Sha come up the walls!”

I shouted loudly without turning my head to look. This whole time, neither of my hands had left the ground, but I also hadn’t continued releasing ice energy. Horned mice were a very cowardly species of aberrants and would hardly ever challenge an opponent head-on, not to mention that I was already tier three. However, the horned mice in front of me were clearly being commanded by someone, and it was hard to say whether they could be forced back through intimidation.

So first, I would keep both my hands at ready, threatening them where I stood, and acting as a much-needed obstacle for the moment. I’d just have to wait for Cain and Xiao Sha to climb to the top of the wall. With a blast of fire and a gust of wind, all that small aberrants like horned mice could do was get blown back or burnt to a crisp. Don’t you even dare think about becoming footholds for scaling the walls!

The frost on the ground really did slow the horned mice down a few steps. They weren’t charging ahead as wildly as before, but this only lasted a few seconds before they gathered their courage and began to advance once more. It looked like a tsunami about to burst over, but closer inspection would reveal that this black tsunami was formed of masses of small bodies densely packed together. It was enough to make one’s hair stand on end, even if they weren’t claustrophobic.

The frost only delayed them a moment. I still didn’t hear Cain and Xiao Sha, and now I really had no ideas left. I had very much wanted to conserve my energy to use on something more important, whether it was getting rid of the ringleader to put a stop to the aberrants, showing off my power to intimidate the Shangguan family’s soldiers, or—if worse came to worst—fleeing with the people of the Jiang family, I needed my ability for everything!

However, if I continued refusing to show my hand even in this situation and let all these horned mice inside the walls, then I’d only have the third option of “escaping with everyone” left. But even then, although I was ahead of most people and aberrants at tier three, how many people would I be able to bring along and escape with?

There were only a few people in the Jiang family. Even though Uncle and Auntie weren’t people who could fight, if I were there, with the addition of Shujun’s superior firepower, we shouldn’t have a problem. The Jiang Dominion mercenaries had been impressively strong from the start, and would perhaps be able to match my pace, while the other people… Well, I’m afraid they’d all end up as food for the aberrants?

Though, to tell the truth, aside from the Jiang family and people of the Jiang Dominion, I hadn’t known the others for very long. Are they really that important? Important enough for me to stake my life on—

“Shu… Ice Spear, hurry up and come up!” Wen Jianuo shouted, completely flustered. “What are you staring blankly at down there? Haven’t you seen how many horned mice are rushing over? Even if you’re tired of life, don’t pick the kind of death where you’re eaten alive by rats! If you don’t come up, I’ll go down and grab you personally!”

“Ha,” I let out a short laugh.

Being eaten alive by rats, perhaps this kind of death was really more miserable than the one from last time. Strangely enough, though, I don’t feel too bad about this kind of death—Pfft, death my a**! This time around, this old lady wants to live forever as the Ice Emperor!

I pushed down hard with both my hands, which were touching the ground. A horizontal sheet of icy frost froze across the earth’s surface like a scar. Then, I slowly picked myself up, and the icy scar followed, “growing” upward as I stood. Long icicles began to form, one by one.

When I stood fully upright, I looked at that abhorrent black wave and began to smile. Using both hands, I motioned toward the icicles as though I were smacking them down, one by one. Each one broke into a thousand pieces, turning into splinters of ice that filled the sky as they sprayed outward. Each of which was no less powerful than a bullet. They pierced the horned mice in the front row and burst into thickets of ice thorns as they hit the ground, skewering the horned mice that were unable to stop in time and threw themselves onto the thorns.

There was now a whole row of semi-transparent horned mouse ice skewers, stained with large patches of spilled blood, like some kind of grotesque shrubbery. At this moment, the sound of gunshots finally ceased, and the sound of people’s voices had also correspondingly vanished. In an instant, I felt like the whole world had been put on mute.

Ice thorn thicket was a defensive maneuver the Ice Emperor had taught me. Oh, yes, I really did mean defensive—first they would shoot out to stab the enemies, then they would become a thicket of ice after they hit the ground, killing anyone who dared to touch them. This is what a defensive maneuver is for the Ice Emperor!

If the Ice Emperor had been the one using the technique, the ice shards would have been large enough to burst apart a whole pile of horned mice and would have directly turned into an ice wall upon hitting the ground. However, right now, it was just me, and the clusters of ice on the ground were only tall enough to be considered underbrush. It would have been too shameless to call this technique by its original name—ice thorn rampart—so all I could do was change the name to ice thorn thicket instead.

Originally, I had wanted to set up another ice thorn thicket and deal with many more horned mice while seeing if I could scare them into breaking command and fleeing, but I unexpectedly heard a familiar voice float down from above.

“What on earth! What kind of situation is this?”

As soon as I heard Cain’s voice, I immediately shattered all the remaining icicles into a spray of shards, which then became a few scattered ice thorn thickets that blocked some of the major holes in our defenses. When I was certain they’d be able to at least slow down the speed of the horned mice’s attack, I resolutely turned and climbed back up to the top of the wall.

All the soldiers on the city wall were staring at me in shock, even including that old soldier; it seemed that he had finally ascended the city wall as well. No wonder Wen Jiannuo had been unable to control the Shangguan family’s soldiers just now.

I had originally wanted to maintain my cold, ruthless expression, but suddenly remembered that my upgraded ice mask covered it all. No matter how ruthless my expression was, it would be impossible to see. I could only give off a pressuring wave of energy and say frigidly to Cain and Xiao Sha, “Wait for the horned mice to draw near, then incinerate them to a crisp. You two work together well. Let the wind stoke the fire, and don’t squander your energy; there are far more enemies than just the horned mice.”

Seeing the ice thorn thickets blocking the black wave not too far away, Cain and Xiao Sha immediately understood. With one person sending out a blazing fire and the other releasing gusts of wind, the two would only have to wait for the horned mice to advance a little closer before they could start roasting the mice.

“Opening fire on the hordes of mice, do you think we have too many bullets?!” I deliberately provoked the old soldier in a cold voice, expressing my disapproval of his idiotic commands.

Unexpectedly, the old soldier roared with furious rage, “You were the one who ambushed our camp and killed dozens of our soldiers!”

Dozens of soldiers… I remained silent, unable to keep my heart from sinking. I’d killed more people that night than I had altogether in the ten years of my previous life. I just hadn’t had time to think much about it since waking up, not with how much was going on. I could only pay attention to Wei Xiaogē.

I shook my head. When two armies clashed, it was either them or us. There’s no room for feeling guilty!

Fat chance they’d have been willing to negotiate with us if not for the ambush confusing them about our strength. They had heavy firepower and even killer weapons like crystal energy guns.

Anyway, I used my ice ability so much that night. It wasn’t strange that I got recognized. In any case, I was wearing an ice mask. As long as they couldn’t recognize the person underneath as Jiang Shuyu, all was well.

The moment the old soldier said that, the surrounding Shangguan soldiers’ eyes sharpened. Several people immediately turned their guns, from the aberrants to me.

The black muzzles immediately made me lose all feelings of guilt. Hmph, if you were all at least a bit farther away, I’d still be scared of getting swept by bullets from a distance. But you’re all so close, and it’s so cold too. If you want to become ice cubes, then continue glaring at me!

I glared right back and coldly said, “You dared to invade our territory, and now you’re complaining about losing lives in an ambush? If those things outside hadn’t suddenly attacked, I’d have slaughtered you all!”

Whether I can or not is a different matter. The first to talk tough is the first to win!

The old soldier angrily replied, “You’re not human at all! What difference is there between you and those things out there?”

I coldly smiled at him. “If I were those things outside, would you have been able to stand here shouting so energetically?”

“Haven’t you seen enough of our Ice Spear’s prowess?” After Cain roasted a wave of horned mice, he cut in to say, “Don’t rub him the wrong way, or else you’ll know how you’ll die right this moment!”

He gazed out at the ice thorns outside the walls and even gave strange “hehe” chuckles.

The old soldier had a very ugly expression, but the horned mice shish kebabs on the ice thorns were too frightening. He didn’t open his mouth to continue provoking me.

Wen Jianuo calmly reminded me, “Ice Spear, those things seem to have retreated… Ice Spear!”

Ah, he’s calling me! I returned to my senses and almost called out “here,” but luckily, I remembered in time that my character setting was “a cold person who doesn’t follow orders.” Instead, I glared at Wen Jianuo as my response and walked beside the wall to look outside. The black tide really was retreating. Even the other aberrants had begun to retreat.

Seeing that, the flame on Cain’s hand gradually shrank. He even jokingly said, “Ice Spear, you really overdid it just now with that move. You even scared off the aberrants!”

I frowned and said, “Horned mice are timid, so it’s possible they were scared away, but such a large number of dogmen can’t have been so easily scared off. The other side must have given the order to retreat.”

“Given an order?” The old soldier’s expression was ugly as he said, “How could aberrants possibly give an order to retreat?”

Aberrants? I glanced at the old soldier but then remembered on the spot that the MORC had provided them weapons. It was possible that the MORC had told them about the name “aberrants.”

Now that I think about it, the bullets that had rained down upon the horned mice had all been normal bullets. There had not been a single killer weapon such as the crystal energy gun. It seemed that unless they had no other choice, they did not plan to fight seriously.

No matter, our side hadn’t shown our winning cards either. We all had our secret weapons. Let’s see who could keep it hidden better!

Wen Jianuo coldly said, “The dogmen attacked us head-on to divert our attention. Other aberrants flanked them, and horned mice dug tunnels below us. Why is an order to retreat surprising when they already used a three-pronged attack on us?”

The old soldier didn’t say anything else. His complexion just looked really terrible. I didn’t know if it was because of Wen Jianuo, or if he had been scared by the aberrants. Maybe it was a bit of both.

Honestly speaking, even I was surprised. Are psychic-type aberrants already this smart by now? Can it really command so many aberrants?

In my past life, I must have used all of my bad luck to meet my rotten boyfriend. I was a lot luckier in other areas than in this life. At least, in the previous life, Guan Weijun had only ever heard about something like psychic-type aberrants and had never ever met one before. On the other hand, Jiang Shuyu was running into them one after another!

Aren’t the brainwright and Thirteen enough? Just what is over there right now? My knowledge base on psychic-type aberrants is running dry!

Wen Jianuo worriedly said, “If they’re retreating, there might be another wave of attacks.”

“It’s not just a possibility. It’s definitely going to happen!” I shouted in a bad mood, “Stay here and keep guard. If anyone refuses to listen to orders or contribute, then head back to the mansion with our people. I’ll freeze the mansion into one big freezer. Remember, only ‘our people’!”

Cain exaggeratedly shouted, “Can we go and sleep in the ice freezer right now?”

I deliberately remained silent for a while. I gazed at the Shangguan soldiers who had glared at me earlier before I pretended to force myself to say, “Keep guard first.”

The moment these words were spoken, the soldiers were stunned and conflicted.

I can at least earn the Best New Actor Award, right?

Or maybe it wasn’t an act at all. Thinking back on it, I had just been hesitating about whether or not to grab my people and escape, yet now I was instead… Sigh, even if just for the sake of the dozen lives in my hands, I should try my best to last until the end.

Before going down the wall, I made sure to deliberately warn the old soldier first.

“Don’t even think about messing with our people in this chaos. If there’s any strangeness among the casualties, I’ll immediately leave with them. Even if you have crystal energy guns, it doesn’t mean you’d know where to aim it to hit an aberrant!”

Upon hearing the words “crystal energy guns,” the old soldier froze and suspiciously asked, “You’ve also come into contact with ‘them’?”

Contact? The only thing that the MORC can come into contact with is my Ice Spear!

I smirked without responding, putting on a profound air. Then I turned to jump down the wall, but the moment I spotted the scene at the mansion entrance, I instantly blew up in rage!

“Move it!”

Lily was standing in front of the mansion entrance to block off the path, fearlessly facing a bunch of guns. Shangguan Chenyang wore an impatient expression, not even looking Lily straight-on. Instead, he had his troop’s soldiers use their guns to force her aside.

This guy was quite lucky that Lily’s power could not be used to attack at the moment. If it had been Yunqian or Junjun… Hah, if he dared to point a gun at my Junjun, he’d already be dead by now!

Technically, Zheng Xing was standing next to Lily, and could use an earth wall. Even if it could not block all the bullets, any bullets that did pass through would not be able to kill those two.

But if the opposing party immediately opened fire, Zheng Xing might not be able to use the earth wall in time. Plus, I refused to believe that a guy like Shangguan Chenyang who cherished his life wouldn’t keep a few crystal energy guns on him. Your life wouldn’t even be enough to compensate for hurting my Lily or Zheng-shū!

“What are you trying to do?”

Sliding down on skates, I landed in front of Lily and Zheng Xing. Since it happened so quickly, Shangguan Chengyang froze for a moment at my sudden appearance before snapping out of it.

“Ice?” He frowned at the ice path on the ground, then raised his head to glare furiously at me. “You’re from the group that did the night attack?”

Shangguan Chenyang raised his gun. I immediately whipped out an ice blade to knock the gun away, but the soldiers by his side swiftly aimed all their guns at me.

“If you want to die, go ahead and try firing!”

I shouted in fury while simultaneously shooting out an entire row of ice blades. However, I did not injure anyone; they merely stabbed into the ground in front of the soldiers’ feet to form a pile of icy thorns.

Shangguan Chenyang had not gone up the wall at all earlier. If he had, he would’ve seen the horned mice shish kebabs. Then maybe he would’ve been well-behaved enough to not have the nerve to bully my Lily and Zheng Xing.

I had the urge to directly freeze this guy to death. The one in charge of the troops was that old soldier, and I had already ruthlessly showed my strength just now anyways. Even if I really did freeze this guy to death, these Shangguan soldiers might not dare to act hostilely anyway.

Just thinking about it makes my heart flutter!

Unfortunately, the old soldier had already dashed down to block Shangguan Chenyang. He declared, “We will not enter the mansion.”

Shangguan Chenyang’s expression turned foul when he heard this, and he opened his mouth to lash out.

I did not have the patience to hear his high-pitched arguments, so I immediately materialized a bone-chilling aura. Everyone instantly sensed something was wrong, their gazes fearful as the temperature dropped so sharply that their gun-holding hands began to shiver.

After oppressing the crowd, I frostily stated to the old soldier, “Watch your people. Or if you think your men are as invaluable as the horned mice outside, I don’t mind disposing of them either.”

Cain leisurely strode out and threw his arm around my shoulders. As if to make peace, he said, “Since they’ve already said they won’t enter the mansion, you should cool down a bit, Ice Spear. You’re always so impulsive, trying to turn people into ice cubes at any disagreement.”

I snorted and threw Cain’s arm off. Seeing how calm he was, I shot a look at Lily and Zheng Xing to let the others follow as we led the first advance into the mansion. Time was tight; we had to quickly reinforce the doors and windows while Zheng Xing secretly dug up a tunnel. If things really looked bad, we could escape from the tunnel!

Cain’s helpless explanation sounded out from behind. “Sigh, Ice Spear only listens to our leader. He doesn’t show respect to anyone else but the leader. You’d better not provoke him under any circumstance. Oh right, I’m Cain, but I still don’t know how I should address you.”

After experiencing the oppression, the old soldier could no longer afford to be careless. He straightforwardly answered, “Zhu Yuanzhou.”

“Oh, so it’s Old Zhu!”

“You flatter me…”