Chapter 107: Fighting
“Those men said that as long as I behaved and went with them quietly, they wouldn’t hurt me… I—I was forced into it! The car… they made me drive it! I never wanted to leave you behind!” Lin Weiwei choked out through her tears, wearing an expression of pure, wronged innocence. “Every single day since then, I’ve regretted it. Every single day, I’ve been sick with worry about you all…”
“Forced into it? Made to go with them?” Lin Xiao let out a cold, humorless laugh. He was no fool. Back then, those thugs were locked in a desperate, life-or-death struggle against them. Once defeated, they had scrambled to flee in sheer panic. Where would they have found the time or interest to coerce her into stealing a car?
Chu Yang showed zero mercy, tearing her performance to shreds on the spot. “Save your breath, Lin Weiwei. Who are you trying to fool with that fairy tale? There were only two groups in that warehouse: us and those bandits. Where was this mysterious third group you’re talking about? How come none of us noticed them? You had this planned the entire time! The second things went south, you greased your heels and ran faster than anyone. And ‘they forced you to drive’? Tsk, tsk. You handled that wheel pretty smoothly. You slammed the gas and didn’t even glance back once. You didn’t look forced in the slightest!”
Lin Weiwei’s face turned an ugly shade of green and white under Chu Yang’s blunt words. She was seething with rage inside, but she had no choice but to keep up her fragile act.
She glanced toward Lin Xiaoyu’s group for backup, but when no one stepped forward to defend her, she turned a tearful, pleading gaze back onto Lin Xiao. “It wasn’t like that at all… Chu Yang, why do you always assume the absolute worst of me? Brother Lin, we survived together on the run for so long in the past. Do you… do you really not believe me either?”
Watching from the side, Li Yu and Jiang Lin were completely dumbfounded. The two women exchanged a look, both seeing the utter disbelief in each other’s eyes.
Li Yu leaned in and whispered into Jiang Lin’s ear, “Good grief… is this woman shameless or what? She stole Brother Lin’s car, and now she’s acting like the victim?”
Jiang Lin lowered her voice as well, her tone thick with sarcasm. “Tell me about it… I knew she was fake before, but I didn’t realize she was this shameless.” She paused, her gaze drifting toward Chu Yang, who was standing with his arms crossed and wearing a mocking sneer, then back to the fidgety Lin Weiwei. A quiet sigh escaped her.
In the past, Jiang Lin had always dismissed Chu Yang as nothing more than a pretty face—spineless, dull, and acting like an obsequious bootlicker whenever he hung around her before the apocalypse. Yet after traveling together over the past few days, she realized how sharp his mind actually was, how agile he moved, and that he even possessed that rare and formidable Space Ability. She had truly misjudged him back then.
As for Lin Weiwei, to pull off stealing a supply vehicle right under the noses of Chu Yang, Lin Xiao, and Jiang Jue… she really couldn’t tell if the woman possessed insane luck or reckless audacity.
Looking at Lin Weiwei again, Jiang Lin felt a weird sort of “admiration”—that level of psychological fortitude and brazen shamelessness was almost a talent in itself.
“Wait, Linlin, you know her?” Li Yu caught the familiarity in her words and whispered back.
Jiang Lin nodded, dropping her voice even further. “Yeah. We went to the same university and were in the same department, but we were just casual acquaintances. She was already pretty good at playing games back then, but I never expected her to become this brazen…” She trailed off, exchanging a knowing glance with Li Yu before they turned their attention back to the confrontation.
Throughout it all, Jiang Jue stood silently behind Chu Yang, his face completely expressionless as he watched the cheap drama unfold.
Beside him, Su Mubai pressed his lips into a tight line, looking at Lin Xiao’s tense profile with a complicated gaze.
“Hey! Are you done with your family drama yet, damn it?” The burly bandit leader cut in impatiently, swinging his weapon. “If you want to catch up on old times, get out of the way! Are you paying the toll or not? If not, get lost!”
One of his sleazy underlings stepped forward, his eyes roaming hungrily over Lin Xiaoyu, Li Yu, Jiang Lin, and Lin Weiwei. He licked his lips and grinned vulgarly. “Boss, why waste our breath talking to them? These chicks look pretty damn fine, especially the cold-faced one over there—” he pointed right at Lin Xiaoyu “—and that one in white over there—” pointing at Jiang Lin. “They’re gorgeous! Why not pull them over so the brothers can have some fun? Wouldn’t that be better than—”
Before the man could finish his filthy sentence, the temperature around Lin Xiaoyu dropped to absolute zero.
Without any warning, a razor-sharp ice spike condensed out of thin air. With a shrill whistling sound, it shot forward, piercing the vulgar lackey’s throat with lethal accuracy!
“Urgh…” The man’s eyes bulged in shock as he clutched his spurting neck. He let out a wet, wheezing choke before collapsing face-first into the dirt, stirring up a small cloud of dust.
The entire road fell dead silent.
The bandit leader and the rest of his gang froze in pure shock. Though they made their living through robbery and had blood on their hands, they had never seen someone execute a person so cleanly, ruthlessly, and without uttering a single word of warning.
“You… you crazy bitch! You killed my brother!” the bandit leader roared, veins bulging on his forehead. “Get them! Kill them all!”
The fight erupted in an instant!
The bandits were clearly experienced brawlers. Howling furiously, they charged forward, brandishing crude weapons alongside a chaotic flurry of low-level superpowers.
Lin Xiaoyu let out a frosty snort, a wave of freezing mist rolling off her frame. Several spinning ice blades whistled through the air toward the two men leading the charge. Simultaneously, a slick, glassy sheet of ice spread across the asphalt beneath their feet, sending several rushing attackers slipping and crashing into the dirt.
Chu Yang didn’t hesitate either. Channeling his Space Ability, he directly compressed the air around the necks of two charging men. Their breath caught instantly; before they could even comprehend what was happening, their eyes rolled back, and their bodies went completely limp.
Jiang Jue was even faster. The moment the leader yelled the order to attack, his silhouette vanished from where he stood. Arcs of violent purple lightning cracked across the air, and three bandits instantly dropped to the ground, lifeless.
Behind them, Wang Qiang planted himself firmly in front of Li Yu and Wang Li, his knuckles white around the hilt of his blade as he guarded their flank.
Little Yu was pulled safely behind Su Mubai. Spotting an enemy scrambling to get up from Lin Xiaoyu’s patch of ice, Su Mubai focused his new power. A slender yet incredibly tough, emerald-green vine suddenly burst through a crack in the pavement. It whipped around the man’s ankle and yanked violently, slamming him face-first into the asphalt before wrapping tightly around his limbs to immobilize him.
Lin Xiao, who had been wrestling with pent-up frustration and confusion all morning, finally found an outlet. These highway bandits had walked straight into his line of fire.
Letting out a low, guttural roar, he pushed off the ground like a cannonball, charging directly at the burly bandit leader!
As a Metal-element user, his physical strength, resilience, and command over metallic force far exceeded normal limits. Facing the heavy machete swinging down viciously toward his head, Lin Xiao didn’t bother dodging. The muscles in his right arm swelled as his skin took on a dull, metallic sheen, throwing a direct punch straight into the edge of the descending blade!
Clang—!
A deafening metallic ring echoed across the highway. An overwhelming, bone-crushing force surged through the weapon, instantly tearing open the web between the bandit leader’s thumb and index finger. Blood sprayed as the machete was torn from his grip, spinning through the air before embedding itself deep into the roadside dirt.
Lin Xiao gave him no time to breathe. His left fist followed like a sledgehammer, driving brutally into the man’s unguarded stomach!
Thud!
The leader’s eyes bulged, his vision swimming as a mixture of blood and bile spewed from his mouth. His entire body folded inward like a boiled shrimp.
