Chapter 34
The bald man beside the leader narrowed his beady, triangular eyes, finally taking a proper measure of Jiang Jue.
Seeing the man’s tall, imposing frame and the suffocatingly heavy pressure radiating from him, the thug felt a cold pang of intimidation. Yet, banking on their superior numbers, he braced himself, jutting out his chin as he bellowed: “Still trying to look tough, pretty boy? Boys, show ’em what we’ve got! Let these little brats know who actually runs the show in this ruined world!”
Before the last word even left his mouth, the skinny redhead couldn’t hold back any longer. With a sharp flick of his wrist, three or four crackling fireballs shot through the freezing air toward Chu Yang. He spat curses with every throw: “That’s for running your filthy mouth! I’ll scorch that smart-aleck grin right off your face! Let’s see if you can still talk trash after this!”
Chu Yang’s reflexes were lightning-fast. Dropping low into a fluid, side-stepping crouch as if operating on fast-forward, he watched the flames graze his jacket before slamming into the snowdrifts behind him. The fireballs hissed loudly as the ice swallowed them whole, leaving behind nothing but charred black craters in the snow.
Rolling back up to his feet, Chu Yang didn’t miss a beat. “Nice try, kid! Your aim is worse than the national soccer team taking penalty kicks!”
As he mocked the man, his fingers twitched with lethal precision. An invisible Spatial Blade cut through the freezing wind with a sharp whistle, shearing a bright red lock of hair clean off the redhead’s scalp. The severed strands drifted down, stark against the virgin white snow.
“Damn it! A sneak attack?! You fight dirty!” The redhead’s face went pasty with shock. Clamping a hand over his bald patch, he scrambled backward two paces, the fire in his palms wavering under his sudden panic.
Seeing his comrade falter, the burly brute on their flank let out a guttural roar. He slammed his heavy combat boot into the frozen ground, instantly channeling his Earth-type Ability!
The earth beneath Chu Yang’s group bucked violently. Seven or eight jagged stone spikes erupted from the permafrost with terrifying force, lunging straight for Lin Xiao!
“Watch out!” Su Mubai cried, instinctively lunging to pull his friend back, but Lin Xiao held his ground, thrusting an arm out to shield him.
Lin Xiao acted in a heartbeat. Manipulating his Metal Ability, a long section of rusted rebar from a nearby abandoned vehicle snapped free with a sharp metallic screech and flew straight into his grip, positioning itself like a steel barrier.
CLANG!
The stone spikes smashed violently into the reinforced metal bar, sending off a shower of sparks and instantly shattering into a spray of jagged gravel.
Lin Xiao sneered, his gaze dripping with cold contempt. “Is that the best you can do? That barely tickles.”
At the rear of the enemy line, the refined man with wire-rimmed glasses pushed the frames back up the bridge of his nose, his voice issuing cool, detached commands: “A’Qiang, use your speed to flank around and take out that loudmouthed brat! Xiaodao, use your wind to assist the fireballs—suppress the metal user and keep that lightning guy pinned down!”
The speed user, A’Qiang, shifted his weight and vanished into a blur of motion.
In the next fraction of a second, he materialized directly behind Chu Yang’s blind spot, a combat knife gleaming with a frosty edge as it drove straight for Chu Yang’s spine!
“Third Brother, behind you!” Lin Xiao caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and yelled a frantic warning. He swung his metal pipe to intercept the strike, but a sudden wall of compressed earth surged up from the ground, blocking his swing with a heavy crash.
Chu Yang’s instincts flared. He threw himself sideways in a desperate roll, the knife slicing through the outer shell of his windbreaker.
Scrambling back onto his feet, a dull ache radiated across his spine as cold sweat broke out across his forehead. He glared at A’Qiang through gritted teeth: “You sneaky bastard—you fight dirtier than I do!”
Before the words fully landed, Chu Yang snapped his wrist in a reverse arc, hurling a Spatial Blade. A’Qiang couldn’t dodge the invisible strike in time; the blade ripped open his forearm with a spray of blood, making the speedster hiss in agony.
Only then did Chu Yang rub his sore back, muttering under his breath: “Trying to ambush me? You’re still too green behind the ears!”
The moment A’Qiang had moved, Jiang Jue’s eyes had turned to solid ice. Crackling violet sparks had already begun pooling across his knuckles. But just as he moved to wipe out the ambusher, the wind user, Xiaodao, thrust both palms forward, whipping up a violent gale.
The sudden squall scooped up frozen gravel, grit, and powdery snow from the pavement, driving the abrasive vortex straight into the eyes of Chu Yang and Jiang Jue, completely blinding their vision.
“Pfft, ptui! Throwing dirt when you can’t win? What are you, toddlers throwing a playground tantrum?!” Chu Yang wiped frantically at his burning eyes. Through the blurred, swirling whiteout, he barely caught the silhouette of Xiaodao condensing a razor-sharp crescent of compressed wind, hurling it forward with savage force.
SWISH—!
The Wind Blade tore through the air with a piercing screech, burying itself deep into Chu Yang’s left flank.
A choked groan escaped Chu Yang’s throat as a searing, tearing agony ripped through his side. His knees gave out, and he collapsed heavily into the snowbank, bright crimson immediately staining the white drifts around him.
Looking down through the blinding pain, he saw a massive tear in his coat. Dark blood was pouring from the gash, rapidly soaking through his layers and pooling into the snow.
“Third Brother!” Lin Xiao’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. Panic seized his chest as he tried to rush over, but the earth user kept him locked down with a relentless barrage of stone pillars.
The moment Jiang Jue saw Chu Yang fall and the snow turn red, the atmospheric pressure around the courtyard plunged into an icy, suffocating abyss.
His suppressive aura detonated like a storm. The quiet calm that usually defined his demeanor shattered completely, leaving behind an all-consuming, terrifying bloodlust that made the surrounding thugs freeze in sheer dread.
“You are all dead.”
He held nothing back. Raising both hands, dazzling arcs of violet lightning exploded from his palms, illuminating his chiseled, murderous features in an eerie, blinding glow.
In the next heartbeat, two thick, violent thunderbolts ripped through the air, striking the red-haired fire user and the wind user dead-center.
“Aaargh—!”
The two men didn’t even have time to brace themselves. Their bodies seized in violent convulsions as black smoke poured from their scorched clothing. Within seconds, their screams choked off, and they crashed lifelessly onto the frozen pavement.
The opposing gang was paralyzed with horror. The scarred leader’s knees shook violently, his teeth knocking together in uncontrolled panic: “A… a Tier 2 Lightning user! Run! Get out of here!”
“You think you’re leaving?” Jiang Jue’s voice was an icy death knell. He snapped his wrist, sending a third bolt of lightning straight through A’Qiang’s back just as the speedster turned to flee. A’Qiang stiffened, spasmed once, and dropped dead in the snow.
The bespectacled advisor had realized the battle was lost the second Jiang Jue unleashed his power. He had already slipped into the passenger seat of their lead truck, frantically turning the ignition as he yelled at the stunned leader and the bald brute: “Boss! Get in the damn car! Move!”
Terrified out of their minds, the remaining survivors scrambled into the truck. The modified engine roared with a deafening whine, its tires spinning wildly against the icy pavement before finally catching traction and speeding away into the distance, abandoning the smoking corpses of their companions without a backward glance.
Jiang Jue didn’t spare them a second thought. The moment the threat was cleared, he bolted to Chu Yang’s side and dropped to his knees in the snow.
Seeing the gruesome, gaping laceration still pumping blood across Chu Yang’s waist, Jiang Jue’s hands trembled visibly. For the very first time, the unshakeable composure in his dark eyes cracked, replaced by raw, unvarnished panic.
“Su Mubai!” he shouted, his deep voice carrying a desperate tremor he couldn’t control. “Save him!”
Su Mubai threw himself across the snow, his knees slamming hard onto the frozen ground beside them. When his fingers touched Chu Yang’s coat, they were instantly dyed crimson. Taking in the depth of the wound, he sucked in a sharp breath of air.
The laceration was over ten centimeters long. While it hadn’t punctured any internal organs, it had cut terrifyingly deep into the muscle.
Su Mubai channeled his power immediately, a soft, pulsating white glow enveloping the injury. The torrential bleeding steadily slowed to a trickle, but the mangled, parted flesh remained exposed, looking utterly gruesome.
“How is he?” Jiang Jue demanded, his gaze locked onto Su Mubai’s hands, his voice tight and strained with overwhelming anxiety.
Su Mubai’s face was completely drained of color, a sheen of cold sweat covering his brow as his breathing turned ragged.
Letting the white light fade, he shook his head with heavy guilt in his voice: “The bleeding has stopped, but my power rank is still too low… The cut is far too deep; I can’t close the tissue completely.”
Chu Yang was in so much pain that beads of cold sweat rolled down his pale forehead, yet he forced his lips into a strained, crooked smirk. “I’m… I’m fine… As long as I’m not bleeding out… Hiss… That bastard really took a cheap shot. If I’d known… I wouldn’t have run my mouth so much earlier…”
Gritting his teeth against the throbbing pain, he focused his mind and retrieved their emergency medical supplies from his storage space—sterile gauze, iodophor disinfectant swabs, and a tube of concentrated healing ointment—handing them over with a trembling hand.
Before Su Mubai could take them, a slender, calloused hand reached out and took the kit.
“I’ll do it,” Jiang Jue said quietly.
He unscrewed the ointment, dipped a swab into the salve, and gently dabbed it along the exposed wound.
The moment the medicine touched raw nerve endings, Chu Yang’s entire body tensed, the sweat on his brow dripping faster.
Seeing him flinch, Jiang Jue’s brow knitted with worry. His touch grew impossibly gentle, his voice dropping to a soft murmur: “Hold on. It’ll heal faster once the salve sets.”
His eyes never left the laceration, painstakingly coating every millimeter of the damaged tissue to ensure nothing was missed.
Once the ointment was applied, he took the clean gauze and wrapped it securely around Chu Yang’s waist with smooth, practiced care.
Finishing the knot, Jiang Jue immediately stood and supported Chu Yang’s arm, his tone firm. “We need to find a safe place to rest. It’s too dangerous out here; we can’t linger.”
“Don’t, Brother Jiang!” Chu Yang hurriedly grabbed Jiang Jue’s sleeve. Though his face was as pale as paper, his eyes held an stubborn resolve. “We’re already standing right at the doorstep, and the storage door hasn’t even been cracked open! The bleeding’s stopped—I’m really okay.”
He looked pleadingly at Jiang Jue before casting a longing glance at the massive warehouse doors. “There’s a whole mountain of supplies sitting right behind that metal. If we walk away empty-handed, I won’t get a wink of sleep tonight. Come on, I took a blade to the side—you can’t let me bleed for nothing, right?”
As he spoke, he shot Lin Xiao an urgent, pleading look.
Catching the cue, Lin Xiao stepped forward, carefully inspecting Chu Yang’s bandaged waist and assessing his color. He hesitated for a moment. “Are you sure you can handle this? That’s not a shallow scratch.”
“I’m completely fine!” Chu Yang insisted quickly. “Little Bai already checked—no organs were hit, it’s just a flesh wound! It stings, sure, but it doesn’t stop me from walking!”
Lin Xiao turned to Jiang Jue, offering a practical compromise: “Brother Jiang, Third Brother definitely needs bed rest, but this warehouse is too valuable to leave behind. If another scavenger squad stumbles on it while we’re gone, we’ll lose everything. How about… we breach the door, grab the most vital rations as fast as possible, and immediately take Third Brother somewhere safe to recover?”
Jiang Jue stared down into Chu Yang’s desperate, pleading eyes, then looked at the white gauze wrapped around his waist. A conflicted shadow flickered across his gaze.
Seeing him hesitate, Chu Yang struck while the iron was hot, promising over and over: “Brother Jiang, I swear! We’ll just grab the essential goods—no lingering, no greed! The second we pack what we need, we’ll head back and rest. I promise I won’t push myself!”
Looking at Chu Yang’s mix of pitiful pleading and stubborn mischief, Jiang Jue finally let out a quiet, resigned sigh.
“Step back,” Jiang Jue commanded softly, leaving no room for argument.
Chu Yang’s face lit up instantly. Leaning against Lin Xiao for support, he shuffled a few paces back. Su Mubai stayed glued to his other side, whispering gently, “Take it easy—don’t stretch the stitches.”
Jiang Jue turned toward the massive industrial doors. His eyes narrowed, and violet lightning crackled to life across his palm. With a sharp flick, a condensed arc of electricity surged forward, blasting directly into the electronic keypad.
Crack!
The lock gave off a shower of blue sparks before short-circuiting completely. The heavy, pressurized seal broke with a dull hiss, and the industrial doors swung inward, releasing a thick, rolling cloud of sub-zero vapor.
“It’s open!” Forgetting his pain for a split second, Chu Yang took an eager step forward, only to be stopped in his tracks by Jiang Jue’s stern glare.
“Wait here.”
Jiang Jue stepped through the threshold first, his silhouette swiftly swallowed by the rolling white fog.
He swept the interior thoroughly, and once he confirmed the area was free of infected and other hidden threats, he called out toward the entrance: “Clear. Come in.”
Supported by Lin Xiao, Chu Yang stepped slowly into the facility. The moment he crossed the threshold, Jiang Jue stepped up and took over, wrapping a strong arm around Chu Yang’s shoulders. The steady warmth radiating through his coat brought an immediate sense of comfort and stability.
“Watch your footing. Don’t trip over the pallets,” Jiang Jue murmured, his deep voice laced with quiet care.
Chu Yang leaned his weight into the taller man, the crisp, frosty scent of Jiang Jue filling his senses. The throbbing pain in his side suddenly felt much more bearable.
When the rest of the group stepped into the main chamber, despite having anticipated a large haul, the sheer scale of the facility left them completely speechless.
“Sweet mother of…” Lin Xiao’s jaw hung open, his voice barely a whisper. “This place is massive!”
The cold storage depot stretched out so far that the distant walls were lost in the gloom. Endless rows of industrial shelving stood packed to the rafters with pristine provisions.
Neatly stacked crates of premium frozen beef, bulk boxes of assorted seafood, mountains of packaged prepared foods, and pallets of vacuum-sealed fresh produce stretched as far as the eye could see. It was an untouched, multi-million-dollar reservoir of food.
The frosty air carried the clean, preserved aroma of frozen goods—a scent that was pure, intoxicating luxury in a ruined world.
Chu Yang trembled with pure excitement. He tried to take a hasty step toward the nearest rack, but a sharp twinge in his side forced him to stop with a wince.
Su Mubai was beside him in an instant, asking anxiously, “What’s wrong? Is it tearing?”
“I’m good, I’m good, just pulled the skin a bit,” Chu Yang waved him off, his eyes blazing with delight as he mumbled, “We’re rich… We’re officially set! With this haul, we won’t have to worry about food for years!”
He reached out to begin storing supplies, but a heavy hand rested firmly on his shoulder.
Jiang Jue’s grip was unyielding, his tone brooking no argument: “Take only the high-value essentials, then we leave. Your wound cannot take any more physical strain. If you tear it open again, it won’t heal properly.”
Knowing his limits, Chu Yang nodded obediently and began channeling his spatial ability, sweeping targeted goods into his pocket dimension.
He prioritized items with long shelf lives and dense nutritional value—choice beef cuts, steaks, giant prawns, frozen poultry, and countless boxes of dumplings and filled pastries. He couldn’t bear to leave any of the delicacies behind.
Yet, within minutes of packing, he felt the familiar, dense resistance in his mind—his spatial storage was completely maxed out.
“Are you kidding me?! That’s all it holds?!” Chu Yang looked at his overflowing storage space, then glanced around at the massive depot, where ninety percent of the stock remained untouched. He stomped his foot in sheer frustration, the sudden jerk making him gasp as his wound throbbed. “Damn this tiny storage capacity! If I’d known, I would’ve farmed a thousand more zombies to level up my space first…”
