Chapter 157: Ji Heng Pays a Visit
That afternoon, Zhuang Mingxu was reviewing the harvest records of potatoes and sweet potatoes with Bai Miao, planning for the next day, when the gatekeeper came to say someone was asking for him.
“Do you know who it is?” Zhuang Mingxu wheeled himself forward and looked at the person guarding the gate.
“He said he’s Lu Weiyi’s younger brother,” the man replied.
Lu Weiyi’s brother… Ji Jin…
Only he would disgust Lu Weiyi this way.
Zhuang Mingxu guessed the timing—Ji Jin had probably come for food. With everything going on, he had completely forgotten about the Ji family and hadn’t brought them up in front of Lu Weiyi. Meanwhile, Lu Weiyi had been at the Qingyuan City base for months and hadn’t asked about the Ji family once. This made Zhuang Mingxu even more inclined to believe what Ning Yuan had said that day.
Privately, he didn’t want Lu Weiyi to get involved with the Ji family again. That would just be reopening old wounds. But that was also his family by blood, and Zhuang Mingxu had no right to make decisions for him.
“Brother Mingxu, should I just have them drive him off?” Bai Miao asked when he saw Zhuang Mingxu hesitate.
“…Yeah.” For now, that was the best option. Zhuang Mingxu made a mental note to mention it to Lu Weiyi later—hopefully they could resolve this matter once and for all.
Ji Heng was getting old. He had lived a life of privilege, and after getting injured, he stopped going out. The entire burden of the household now fell on Ji Jin. Even Ji Lin was forced to suck up to the illegitimate son of the Li family.
It was hard to imagine how a whole family could survive relying on just Ji Jin. He had repeatedly tried to convince Jiang Fu to go to Ji Heng and get him to demand supplies from Lu Weiyi, but Ji Zhong always firmly stopped them.
Although Ji Heng wasn’t a good person, he did have one redeeming quality—filial piety. He treated Ji Zhong with real respect. Life was tough, but not impossible, so he never took Jiang Fu’s advice.
Ji Jin was very dissatisfied with this. After failing to get supplies from Zhuang Mingxu, he thought about intercepting Lu Weiyi directly at Longmen Villa. In his mind, Lu Weiyi had once been willing to be sold for money, which meant he was very filial—especially since the old man in the family had always been good to him.
Just as he arrived at the gate, he saw someone else “waiting by the tree for the rabbit”—Yun Lu. She hadn’t seen Lu Weiyi at the Greenland community, and the people in the team clearly weren’t willing to help her. So Yun Lu had simply decided to wait at the villa gate.
Because of his close attention to Lu Weiyi, Ji Jin recognized Yun Lu right away. He stared at her from a distance for a while, then turned back to find Ji Lin.
“Why are you making me approach her?” Ji Lin was already unhappy about being used to curry favor, and her tone was naturally unfriendly.
“She might be Lu Weiyi’s future wife. If you win her over, you might be able to get supplies from her. With those, you won’t have to kiss up to the Li family’s bastard anymore, right?” Ji Jin said confidently. People had always believed Lu Weiyi had no real feelings for Zhuang Mingxu, so when a new woman suddenly appeared, everyone just waited for Zhuang Mingxu to become a joke.
Ji Lin fell silent.
“The whole base is talking. They say the real decision-maker in the Only Team is Lu Weiyi, and all the supplies are in his hands. You’ve seen our situation—we’re living off the last of our stock. How long do you think that’ll last?”
“Our only option now is to get a hold of Lu Weiyi. Once we have him, won’t the whole Only Team be ours to command? With supplies in hand, we won’t need to suck up to anyone,” Ji Jin said, thinking he had everything figured out.
“And how do you plan to control him?” Ji Lin asked.
“Grandpa’s always been bitter about Lu Weiyi hanging around with Zhuang Mingxu. He never acknowledged Zhuang Ai Yi and thinks he’s a freak. Now that a woman has finally appeared, you think he won’t jump at the chance?” Ji Jin chuckled and urged her, “Go make friends with Yun Lu, and while you’re at it, let a few things about Zhuang Mingxu forcing Lu Weiyi slip out.”
Ji Lin hesitated for a moment before finally saying, “You’d better convince Grandpa yourself.”
*
Meanwhile, as Ji Jin was scheming against Lu Weiyi, the latter was facing a zombie siege outside the base.
The weather had been poor lately. It rained almost every afternoon, and many squads had started camping outside. Lu Weiyi’s group didn’t need to travel far—they left early, came back early, and never stopped for rest.
They had been busy all day until 4 p.m. When the weather started looking gloomy, the group immediately set off in the car to return. Normally, they used a single truck—apart from the driver, everyone else sat in the enclosed truck bed, shielded from the rain and able to rest. Given that they sometimes traveled in the rain, it was always Lu Weiyi who drove or navigated, and today was no exception.
So the moment the zombie horde approached, Lu Weiyi noticed. Rainy weather was not friendly to them. He initially planned to take a detour, but unexpectedly, a horde of zombies came charging directly at them.
“A zombie horde is approaching, and it’s coming straight at us. Finish this quickly,” Lu Weiyi said over the intercom to the people in the back of the truck. At a distance of only a few hundred meters, there was no time to evade. It would all be over in seconds.
Their experience in hunting zombies meant they didn’t panic when facing large groups. As their powers had become more refined and powerful, they could now attract several hundred zombies at a time. Upon hearing Lu Weiyi’s warning, the group immediately entered combat mode—those with powers on the outside, ordinary people in the middle.
Within moments, the zombies surrounded them. The group removed the truck cover, intending to fight in the rain from atop the truck. Just as they were about to use their abilities, the falling rain turned into icy balls and sharp ice needles that came crashing down on their heads and bodies.
“There’s a water-type ability zombie!” Ning Yuan, the strongest water-type user among them, was the first to detect it and shouted. He quickly unleashed his powers to turn the transformed raindrops around them back into normal rain. Unfortunately, his strength was inferior. He could only affect the area immediately above their heads—any higher, and the ice remained unchanged.
Gu Qingyue quickly stepped in to help, but having awakened his powers late and possessing weaker abilities, he couldn’t make much difference.
“Hurry and attack! Find the water-type zombie and kill it—I can’t hold on much longer,” Ning Yuan said.
“We’ll try,” Antonio replied.
Ordinary people had to fight up close, which was useless on a moving truck. As for the powered users? Fireballs launched by fire-type users were doused by the pouring rain before they could do much. When they did hit zombies, it was like built-in extinguishers were attached.
Earth-type users had their hardened spikes softened by the rain, weakening their impact and consuming more power than usual. Even metal-type users saw reduced speed and accuracy, especially with ice beads colliding around them, throwing off the trajectory of their flying knives.
Only the wood-type users were relatively unaffected. Gu Qingji’s mutated ivy couldn’t pierce bodies like Lu Weiyi’s Little Green Branch, but using Lu Weiyi’s early techniques, he manipulated the ivy to strangle zombie necks.
However, Gu Qingji’s power hadn’t reached B-level, and the mutated ivy had lost some strength after being previously damaged. Its range extended only a little over 30 meters—just enough to handle the zombies in front.
“Damn, ice needles—” Xu Sa shouted just as a bolt of lightning struck a needle that was shooting straight for his head. If Lu Weiyi hadn’t constantly reminded them to watch for subtle signs of approaching powers, he might never have noticed amid the chaos.
The needle was so thin and transparent it resembled an embroidery needle—almost invisible to the naked eye. If it had pierced his forehead, he would have dropped dead the next moment. Xu Sa was shaken.
As soon as he spoke, it was as if a machine had been triggered—countless ice needles launched at them from all directions.
“Rainstorm Blossom Needle!” Wu Yue yelled, rapidly forming an earthen shield around them. Xiong Jie extended part of it, and Li Zhuang completed the rest, giving everyone a moment to catch their breath.
“Was this zombie a martial arts expert in its past life?” Xu Sa joked, then turned to check on the others, focusing on the two ordinary people in the middle. “Any serious injuries?” Even though they managed to block the attack in time, some injuries were unavoidable. Fortunately, powered users had better physical resilience than ordinary people.
“Not too bad,” Shen Xing replied after checking Chen Zhong and confirming that none of the hits were fatal.
“Did any of you notice if the zombies have other powers?” Antonio asked with a frown.
“…No,” Gu Qingyue replied. “Don’t tell me… they’re all water-type zombies?”
“I can’t hold on much longer,” Xiong Jie suddenly said. Once his wall was up, all the attacks turned into a torrential assault from every direction. The wall was barely holding, and his powers weren’t particularly strong.
“Lu Weiyi, crystal cores—I’m about to burn out!” Ning Yuan said over the intercom, seizing the last moment.
In the front passenger seat, Lu Weiyi was simultaneously directing Lin Yimu to drive and using Little Green Branch to harvest cores from the zombies blocking the road. As zombie powers had increased, Little Green Branch was no longer as efficient. Lu Weiyi hadn’t yet noticed the situation in the back.
Hearing Ning Yuan’s request, he had Little Green Branch toss a pouch of a hundred crystal cores to the rear, and warned the others, “This section of the road is bumpy—hold on tight.”
As the earth wall collapsed, ice spears and spikes surged from all sides, densely surrounding the truck. It looked like they’d be turned into human pincushions at any moment. Everyone was defending with all they had, but the attacks were relentless. Just as Li Zhuang was preparing to raise another earth wall to help Lu Weiyi break through—
Ning Yuan, in the middle of absorbing crystal cores, suddenly released a powerful wave of energy, knocking several nearby people off their feet inside the truck. Liu Rui, who was near the edge, almost fell off but was saved by Xu Sa’s quick reflexes.
As the wave of energy spread in all directions, the rain of ice seemed to freeze in place for a moment before reversing direction. The spikes pierced through the ordinary zombies surrounding the truck and continued toward the more distant powered zombies.
The lack of communication between MLs is killing me??