Chapter 272: The Rescue
Antonio silently stared at Zhuang Mobai, the vicious look in his eyes like a wolf ready to bite.
“That’s the spirit. Hang in there,” Zhuang Mobai said, looking at him like merchandise, which deeply disgusted Lu Weiyi. Then Zhuang added, “If you can’t hold out, I’ll have to mess with your little boyfriend…”
“You… huff… hiss…” Antonio’s teeth clenched audibly. His veins bulged all over, but he still couldn’t move.
“I hear he’s not even of age yet. Wonder how many rounds he can take,” Zhuang Mobai said, savoring Antonio’s powerless rage, then turned and walked out of the lab.
The woman fiddled with the equipment beside the bed for a moment, then left as well.
The room fell into complete silence. Lu Weiyi was still dazed, until Antonio’s finger—gently wrapped in the green twig—moved slightly, brushing against it.
Antonio’s eyes suddenly tightened. He tried to turn his head to look, but couldn’t move his body at all. He asked in a low voice, “Lu?”
Lu Weiyi gently touched his palm in response.
Antonio’s breathing hitched for a moment before he forced it down. He whispered, “Dean was taken by Zhuang Mingxu. He’s torturing him.”
“He betrayed us. Drugged us. When we woke up, we were all here.”
“He wants to extract my crystal core and transplant it into himself.”
Lu Weiyi’s branch suddenly went taut.
“It’s true. Everyone heard it. He came to see me and said it himself.” Since Lu Weiyi had made it here quietly, Antonio pinned all hope of escape on him. “We were injected with something. We can’t move or use our abilities. They could drug us again at any time…”
Just as he finished speaking, Lu Weiyi heard a scream from a nearby room. He raised his branch to look — in Lin Mo’s room, two people in lab coats were injecting him with something.
The scream was abruptly cut off halfway through, though Lin Mo could still be seen thrashing and shouting in pain behind the glass.
Lu Weiyi immediately moved into Lin Mo’s room, seeing his contorted face wracked with pain.
Next, the two staff pushed a cart toward Lu Xi’s room.
Lu Weiyi followed closely and watched them verify the details, then pull out a syringe filled with green fluid and jab it into the sleeping Lu Xi’s arm.
With a sudden flick, Lu Weiyi lashed out and knocked the man — syringe and all — to the ground.
“What the hell?” the man scrambled up in alarm.
“You were just careless. What else could it be?” said the other as he checked the syringe.
Disturbed by the noise, Lu Xi groggily opened his eyes. Seeing the two men, his body trembled instinctively. Still unclear on what was happening, he murmured weakly, “My dad’s a senior officer… you just wait… he’ll kill you all… my dad will definitely kill you all…”
“Stop hitting me… it hurts…”
“Dad… save me…”
Lu Weiyi threw himself over his little brother to shield him. Lu Xi seemed to sense something and weakly muttered, “Bro… bro, run… Zhuang Mingxu… he’s bad… run…”
Back when Lu Weiyi had found Lu Xi being bullied, he hadn’t looked this weak.
In his childhood, with a frail mother and a father constantly busy with work, most of Lu Xi’s joy came from Lu Weiyi, who had always protected him.
Lu Weiyi had promised Lu Xiao he’d protect his son.
And now he’d let him suffer like this.
“Lu Xi!”
As soon as Lu Weiyi called out, he returned again to the mental space.
This time, he didn’t leave again. Instead, he took out all of his remaining cores.
An immense energy unlike anything he’d felt before surged out of the cores, flooding into his body, tearing at his meridians — like he might be ripped apart at any moment.
At the same time, the giant tree that had manifested in the courtyard began to tremble violently.
When Cong Qing returned early that morning to investigate more thoroughly, he immediately had someone report to Lu Xiao. Before long, Lu Xiao arrived at the villa with Qi Lin.
“When I found it earlier, it wasn’t trembling this much. You couldn’t even see it with the naked eye,” Cong Qing reported. Now, the tree was moving on its own despite the still air.
“Lock down the area,” Lu Xiao ordered. “No one is to approach!”
“Yes, sir.” Cong Qing saluted and gave the orders swiftly.
Soon, thousands of troops had surrounded the area completely.
Unlike Zhuang Chengye, who had no abilities and had grown complacent in his high position, Lu Xiao had earned his status through real combat. After the apocalypse began, before even awakening an ability, he had led teams to clean up zombies and collect supplies. At least two-thirds of the Zhuang family’s stockpiles had come from his efforts.
Naturally, Lu Xiao commanded far more loyalty and manpower than Zhuang Chengye.
Compared to Lu Xiao’s calm, Qi Lin was far more agitated. Ever since learning that their teammates’ disappearances might be part of a conspiracy, he’d wanted to return to base for help last night.
But Lu Xiao had stopped him, saying that leaving now would draw too much attention. He told him to stay and investigate first before making a move. Qi Lin agreed and had spent the entire night using his powers to scout the base, searching for Xu Yi’s potential hiding place.
“Captain? Captain? Is that you?” Qi Lin, nearly two meters tall, craned his neck at the front of the group, trying to get closer, only to be stopped by Lu Xiao.
The various factions monitoring the area had also been alerted by now and quietly sent people to observe. Only the Zhuang family tried to approach openly, but Lu Xiao’s men politely blocked them.
Zhuang Chengzheng got increasingly angry, but still couldn’t get any closer. Furious, he stormed off to the Zhuang family estate to find Lu Xiao’s direct superior, Zhuang Chengye.
Before he could even enter the courtyard, Zhuang Chengye came out in a hurry, followed by Zhuang Mingwu, heading toward the sealed-off area.
“Out of the way,” he ordered with authority — these men had once served under him, after all.
“…Sorry, Major General,” the soldier on the outermost perimeter said firmly, neither humble nor arrogant.
Zhuang Chengye was momentarily stunned, then sneered, “Have you forgotten whose troops you are?”
After a year of the apocalypse, the military had effectively split in two. Soldiers now placed more trust in those who had fought beside them through thick and thin. A former superior who once seemed distant and powerful now felt like a stranger.
The soldier’s disregard completely enraged Zhuang Chengye. Just as he was about to act, Cong Qing emerged and said, “General Zhuang, the Captain asked me to tell you that he’s investigating the scene where his son was harmed and asks that you not interfere. Also, could you please inform us where the captured ability users have been taken? The Captain would like to interrogate them personally.”
Zhuang Chengye, who had repeatedly avoided meeting with Lu Xiao, now stared coldly at Cong Qing. After a moment, he let out a dark chuckle. “I’ll bring them myself. He can… interrogate them personally.”
“Thank you.”
Zhuang Chengye swept his gaze over the surrounding soldiers, a glint of menace in his eyes.
“Let’s go,” he said, leading his men back toward the Zhuang estate.
*
In the courtyard, a violent surge of energy erupted from the tree, flinging Qi Lin, who had been closest, three meters through the air. The rest of the crowd, caught off guard, were knocked to the ground.
When they got back up, the giant tree had vanished — and in its place, a young boy lay collapsed on the ground.
“Captain!” Qi Lin jumped up and ran toward Lu Weiyi.
Lu Weiyi struggled to get up from the ground, staggered a bit, and was quickly supported by Qi Lin. “Captain, what’s wrong? Something happened to our team. They’re all missing…”
“I—know,” Lu Weiyi said each word with force, his tone sharp and eyes fierce.
“Xiaoyi,” Lu Xiao approached and looked at Lu Weiyi.
“Sorry, Uncle. I didn’t protect Xiao Xi.”
“You still have me. You look very weak — go back and rest first,” Lu Xiao stepped forward, trying to bring Lu Weiyi back to his place to rest.
Lu Weiyi pushed him away. “Save them first.”
He tried to crouch down but had no strength and simply collapsed onto the ground. A powerful surge of mental energy burst from his body, creating an invisible pressure in the air that seemed to crush directly onto everyone’s soul.
Everyone around showed pained expressions.
Lu Xiao, being at a higher level, barely held on.
Looking at his nephew, who was merely pale-faced under such strain, Lu Xiao finally understood why the entire team referred to him respectfully as “Captain.”
Lu Weiyi’s mental power spread across the entire underground lab. As it enveloped the space, it suddenly contracted—and the whole lab appeared in his personal space.
From a distance, the sound of the villa collapsing thundered loudly.
“Father? Father, where did you go? There’s a monster—Tao Tao is scared…” Inside the space, Tao Tao’s teary voice rang out.
With a flicker of consciousness, a baby suddenly appeared in Lu Weiyi’s arms. His arms were long, his eyes brimming with tears. Upon seeing Lu Weiyi, he cried “Daddy!” and clung tightly to him.
Having left the space, Tao Tao’s figure had shrunk considerably. While he looked around five or six years old inside the space, now he seemed less than one year old.
“X-Xiaoyi?” As the mental pressure dissipated with Lu Weiyi’s retraction of power, Lu Xiao stood stunned, staring at the child in his nephew’s arms.
“We’ll talk later,” Lu Weiyi said, handing the child to Lu Xiao. “Let Great-Uncle hold you. Daddy has no strength left.”
Tao Tao looked up at Lu Xiao with his big eyes and reached out carefully. Lu Xiao received his just as carefully, his arms beginning to stiffen from nervousness.
Qi Lin helped Lu Weiyi up and they walked into the bloodstained villa.
*
Inside the lab.
As Lu Weiyi moved the entire lab into his space, all circuits and lights instantly went out.
Zhuang Mingxu paused, looking around alertly. He stepped out and saw the doctors in the hallway also trying to figure out what happened. Returning to Dean, he said, “The power’s out everywhere. This is a good chance. Want to go help save people? I can’t guarantee success.”
“Yes.” Dean leapt out of bed, a youthful fierceness on his face.
Zhuang Mingxu took a crystal-core gun from his space and handed it to Dean. “Only use this if absolutely necessary. It’s tight quarters—easy to get caught in the crossfire.”
“Hold onto my coat, follow me.” The two crept out of the room in the dark, heading toward the elevator amid panicked voices.
But after only a few steps, Zhuang Mingxu felt his coat tug free—Dean had vanished, as if into thin air. Even his breathing was gone.
“Dean? Dean?” Zhuang Mingxu whispered. The hallway lights suddenly flared on. In panic, he hurriedly put away the gun. Looking again, all he saw were chaotic staff—no sign of Dean anywhere.
Meanwhile, back in the now-cleared villa living room, a series of dissection tables appeared. Some on them were awake, others unconscious—thirteen in total.
Fearing that removing instruments directly would cause excessive bleeding, Lu Weiyi transferred both the tables and attached medical devices together, tightly packing the entire hall without a single gap.
