Chapter 63: Catching Turtles in a Jar
Lu Yang was from N City. Before the apocalypse, his family ran a small grocery store. He had an overly doting father, and although their living conditions couldn’t be called wealthy, Lu Yang had never suffered when it came to food or clothing. He was fed so well that he grew a body full of fat. Nearly forty years old, he still hadn’t managed to marry a wife.
When the apocalypse came, his father turned into a zombie and bit him. But his father was already old, his teeth long gone, and he bit Lu Yang with dentures—only breaking a bit of skin. Misfortune turned into a blessing: Lu Yang awakened an ability. He gained immense strength, and dealing with one or two zombies was as easy as chopping melons and vegetables. His confidence swelled rapidly. He gathered a group of underlings, collected supplies, and with the stock from his family’s grocery store, seized control of a residential complex, truly taking on the air of a mountain bandit king.
For ordinary people, the apocalypse might have been a hellish doomsday, but for Lu Yang, it was the beginning of a new life. He could now be said to get whatever he wanted. With his ability, he no longer needed to watch others’ expressions, and the beautiful women he had long desired before the apocalypse now threw themselves at him.
His power grew more and more smoothly, and he thought his era had finally arrived. Unfortunately, those carefree days didn’t last long. Evolved zombies appeared in his territory and bit many of his men to death. Left with no choice, he hurriedly fled with a few remaining followers.
From the radio, Lu Yang learned that the state had established survivor bases, but he didn’t want to go. He still wanted to live his free and unrestrained life.
It was then that he discovered a small base had appeared in Lincheng. Lincheng was just a small county town, not very large to begin with and primarily agricultural. It was the autumn harvest season, and Lincheng’s grain reserves were said to be extremely abundant. Rumor had it that the leader of the Lincheng Base had seized guns from prison guards after the apocalypse broke out, led a group of brothers out of Lincheng Prison, and that more than half of those men had lucked into awakening abilities. In recent days, they had wiped out most of the zombies in Lincheng, gathered the local survivors, and begun building a base.
Because the Lincheng Base’s leader himself was an ability user, he understood their power well. As a result, ability users there enjoyed very high status and treatment, which in turn attracted more and more ability users to join. Lu Yang also felt that place suited him better. However, he was ultimately just an ordinary strength-type ability user, no match for those who could manipulate the five elements. If he wanted to secure a foothold in Lincheng, he needed more trump cards.
But he couldn’t touch the supplies within Lincheng itself, so he had to look outside. The people he brought with him were all carefully selected. They lay in wait at highway entrances, specializing in deceiving those who wanted to seek refuge at survivor bases. These people drove cars—cars that certainly carried supplies. Relying on his harmless-looking face and a “family” that appeared kind and enthusiastic, he succeeded every single time.
This time, he had also been lurking by the roadside, waiting for prey to walk right into his trap. He never expected to run into Li Ming’s group. At the sight of the military trucks and that heavy container truck, a surge of evil courage rose from his gut. Four military trucks, over a hundred soldiers—that was more than a hundred guns! And that heavy container truck—who knew, it might be loaded with massive amounts of supplies!
Lu Yang was so excited he practically started trembling. This was a huge score!
This wasn’t his first time scamming people—only a matter of numbers.
Originally, he hadn’t planned to act so early. He wanted to probe their bottom line a bit more. And the people in that off-road vehicle gave him a very dangerous feeling. After learning that this team was heading to G City on a mission, he grew curious about what the mission was. He had a feeling there might be even greater gains. Especially those people in the off-road vehicle—he even sent the two young girls to cozy up to them, but unfortunately got no results.
He had prepared a whole crate of drinks and laced them with a very special drug, meant specifically for ability users and those who looked physically strong. The drug had been developed by a young man at the Lincheng Base who did biological research. It was pollen from a mutated plant. According to him, ingesting it caused no immediate reaction, but once the person smelled the fragrance of the mutated flower, a highly toxic substance would form inside the body, killing them instantly.
As long as they drank the beverage, Lu Yang could decide when they lived and when they died. Moreover, the scent of the mutated flower also had anesthetic properties—even those who hadn’t drunk the beverage would fall unconscious within seconds of smelling it. Whenever he chose to act, he could ensure absolute advantage.
Later, however, his people went to eavesdrop on Li Ming and the tall man and overheard that G City had evolved zombies. Perhaps traumatized by his encounter with evolved zombies back in N City, Lu Yang felt lingering fear the moment he heard those four words. As a result, he decided to act ahead of schedule. He absolutely did not want to go to G City to face evolved zombies.
Still, it was all rather rushed, and Lu Yang felt uneasy. But as the saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Some risks had to be taken. If he succeeded, he would gain over a hundred weapons and a massive stockpile of supplies!
Once everyone was sound asleep, he sprayed the mutated-flower perfume several times in their direction. The scent spread quickly. He waited patiently for quite a while before slowly standing up, gripping a sharp dagger and walking toward them.
He had personally seen many of Li Ming’s men drink the beverages. By now, their bodies were probably already cold. As for the rest who had merely fallen unconscious, they couldn’t be left alive—they all had to be killed.
And that group in the off-road vehicle—they made him feel extremely uneasy and had to be eliminated as well. As for the two pretty women, they could be spared for now. When they woke up and found everyone around them reduced to corpses, they would surely be terrified out of their wits. By then, wouldn’t they do whatever he said?
Lost in his lewd fantasies, Lu Yang wore an extremely malicious smile as he slowly approached Zhan Yun and the others.
Just as he raised his dagger, about to end Zhan Yun’s life with a single strike, the room suddenly lit up. Wu Jing had yanked away the cloth covering the glass doors.
Lu Yang’s vision blurred. A lean man had somehow appeared in front of him out of nowhere, snatched the dagger from his hand, and kicked him hard in the stomach, sending him flying four or five meters away.
Lu Yang stared in disbelief. He was a strength-type ability user! How could someone snatch a dagger from his hand—and kick him that far away…?!
At that moment, he suddenly noticed Yu Dongdong, who was obediently hugging the Xiao Hei cat nearby. Lu Yang was best at finding other people’s weak points. Knowing that this group was traveling with a child and would surely treasure him, he rolled up from the ground and charged toward Yu Dongdong at top speed, intending to seize the child as a human shield.
However, just as he rushed up to Yu Dongdong and before he could even reach out, he felt a sharp, crushing pain in his chest. Staring down in disbelief, he saw a knife buried deep in his chest. The one holding the blade was a boy who looked only seventeen or eighteen, utterly well-behaved and harmless. Yet the way this boy looked at him was vicious, as if laced with poison.
Lu Yang spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground in unwilling defeat.
Su Ruizhe pulled out his knife, wiped it on Lu Yang’s clothes, and then put it back into his spatial storage.
A beat too slow, Zheng Jiahe swallowed hard and hurriedly turned around, charging with the rest of the group to stop those who were about to attack the soldiers.
Although Li Ming and the others had been warned by Zhan Yun and only pretended to drink the beverages without actually swallowing them, the floral scent had appeared too suddenly. Even though they held their breath immediately, they still felt dizzy and lightheaded. Moreover, to be on the safe side, Lu Yang had waited a full five minutes until the scent dispersed before making his move. No matter how skilled someone was, no one could hold their breath that long. If Cheng Jiao hadn’t promptly used wind to blow the scent away on Zhan Yun’s side, they really might have fallen into Lu Yang’s trap.
Seeing Lu Yang fall, the others all realized things had gone badly and immediately fought back. The people Lu Yang brought with him were, of course, no pushovers—they were all ability users, just not ones with particularly strong offensive powers.
The older of the two girls was a water-type ability user, but unfortunately her level was low. The amount of water she could produce was about the same as a running faucet, making it difficult to use offensively. The younger girl, however, was no lightweight. Her hair could grow longer, and she could use it like a whip to attack, giving her some real offensive power. As for the three young men—one was fast, one could jump high, and one could change color—they were certainly troublesome, but in front of Zhan Yun and the others, they were simply not enough. Once Zhan Yun released his gravity ability, all of them were forced to lie flat on the ground.
Seeing this, the middle-aged woman knew things had gone terribly wrong. Without caring about anything else, she instantly transformed into a gecko and scurried toward the exit.
“Meow!” Xiao Hei cried out, leaping from Yu Dongdong’s arms and pouncing on the chubby gecko.
Xiao Hei pinned the gecko’s tail firmly under its paw. The gecko let out a shrill cry and decisively chose to shed its tail to escape. Staring at the wriggling half-tail under its paw, Xiao Hei blinked its feline eyes, clearly not quite understanding what had just happened.
The tailless gecko had already reached the doorway and was just about to slip out through the crack in the glass door when a blade of wind chopped off its head.
Then the gecko’s corpse slowly transformed into a headless, naked female body…
From every possible perspective, the sight was painfully hard on the eyes.
Everyone fell silent and turned to look at Cheng Jiao.
Cheng Jiao blinked her beautiful, peach-blossom eyes innocently. “Ah… I really didn’t mean to…”
Wasn’t she still not very skilled at controlling her ability? Her aim with wind blades wasn’t that great yet! How could she have known that her wind blade would take the gecko’s head clean off in one strike?
In the end, Cheng Jiao wrapped the headless female corpse in a piece of cloth, had Zheng Jiahe help her throw both the woman’s body and Lu Yang’s corpse outside, while Song Chengshu washed all the bloodstains from the floor clean.
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