Dominion’s End - Volume 5 Chapter 5

Volume 5, Chapter 5: Danger Lurks Around Every Corner of Lan City

Translated by Miaka_Mei (proofread by Faren & Arcedemius; C/E edited by lucathia)

I was squatting in a triangular shadow beneath the escalator. My whole body was covered with smelly blood. This was the result from just now when I’d dashed into a large hall that was covered with fresh blood and rotting flesh. The hellish place was actually heaven to me as I had immediately rolled around on the floor.

And just like that, the Yggdrasil Earthworm slithered back and forth on the streets for a while before reluctantly leaving.

Having been relentlessly pursued, I had attempted to strike back from time to time, but there were just too many factors—the heads were dreadfully fast, and they numbered too many. They were pretty much unavoidable. If the heads hadn’t been slowed down by its enormous body, I would have already been swallowed into its stomach.

However, that Yggdrasil Earthworm was still very fast despite being slowed down. It moved much like a snake would, though I really had no idea what it had transmuted from. I had never heard stories of this kind of thing in my past life either.

I never imagined that Lan City already had such a horrifying aberrant. As expected of one of the three most dreaded cities in the later stages of the apocalypse. My reincarnation had allowed me to learn so much in advance, like knowing about the evolution crystals, but which of the aberrants in Lan City hadn’t been devouring humans tirelessly upon coming to life?

I couldn’t counterattack and had almost failed to escape. If I hadn’t been relentlessly running into buildings to hinder its movement, on top of the rotting flesh masking the smell of my body, my corpse would have been torn into ninety-nine pieces!

Upon hearing the rattling sounds of the Yggdrasil Earthworm growing fainter, my body relaxed completely. I felt pain and numbness all over my body. The leg that originally hadn’t received much injury had been bitten twice. If Xiaorong hadn’t brandished his twigs to scare the enemy from time to time, the injuries on my thigh would not have been limited to only these two. However, it had resulted in a lot of Xiaorong’s twigs getting snapped, leaving him clinging for life.

I cut off the ends of my pants to bind up my thigh’s injury. Wrapping unclean fabric around it actually caused stabs of pain, but I had no other option. Moving around in a large city while dripping blood wasn’t a good option either.

Even after wrapping up the wound, noises could still be heard outside—it was the sound of low, threatening growls. I had a rough idea inside my mind. Resigned, I could only form a knife with my hand and step out of the shadows with no other choice.

Ten dogmen had surrounded me. You really can’t fool a dog’s nose. You wouldn’t be able to hide from them even with rotten flesh covering your entire body. They hadn’t shown themselves until now, probably due to their fear of the Yggdrasil Earthworm. As long as it was around, other aberrants wouldn’t dare to move at all.

As expected of aberrants in a first class city, these dogmen were one and a half times the height of a human. They had a dog’s head and legs with a slender, human body. Only its thighs were especially thick and solid. If you got kicked by that, a broken rib was entirely possible.

Compared with this bunch, the previous dogmen at the outskirts of Zhongguan City were simply Chihuahuas.

When I stepped forward, these dogmen seemed to sense that their current prey was a bit of a challenge. However, no sooner had they retreated than it was my turn to retreat. Those ten had merely served as the tip of the iceberg, as there were more dogmen stepping out of the shadows. A single glance already revealed fifty to sixty, and some of them might still be hiding in the dark.

The Jiang family’s luck! I was so angry that I started laughing. Even if I finish off these dogmen, who knows how many more are covetously eyeing me out there?

I had really underestimated Lan City. I had claimed that I was going to take down Lan City and had even deluded myself about Yu City. Yet who would have thought that I might unexpectedly die here for no reason? I might as well turn back and duke it out with that Yggdrasil Earthworm. At least dying by the mouth of a terrifying aberrant would be better than being chased to death by a bunch of small fry!

But I didn’t want to die. In my past life, I had lived for ten years without knowing what I was living for. Dying wasn’t much of a pity. In this life, I didn’t want to die no matter what!

I stomped my foot down and a path of ice sped toward the ten dogmen. Icicles then immediately shot out from the ground, impaling two dogmen who failed to dodge in time straight through the chest. Their limbs twitched, indicating that they were still alive but were no longer a threat. However, the remaining ones only suffered minor injuries.

That attack wasn’t enough to intimidate them, though. I was in such a bad situation that even dogs could see it. This was literally “if the tiger comes down the mountain, he would be insulted by dogs!”

Forming the ice dagger, I readied myself for a fight. Forget dozens of dogmen, even hundreds of them wouldn’t be able to make me surrender without a fight!

In the following battle, I did not strike often and was practically only using stabs, each stab hitting its target. The pain in my body and the exhaustion of my power only allowed me to use the barest of strength to kill my enemies. I grew smoother with every kill, as if the ice dagger had become a part of me, while my body only acted as an extension of the blade. If only the weapon in my hand was a long spear…

Suddenly, I felt a burst of coldness in my right arm. I got distracted, and a dogman managed to bite my shoulder. Fortunately, Xiaorong was quick to support me by stabbing into the guy’s eyes, not letting him bite into me too hard.

“The Ice Emperor Spear!”

Piercingly cold air gathered around my arm, but there was still no trace of the long spear. Nevertheless, the cold aura was enough to make the dogmen pause in their footsteps, and some of them even slowly retreated…

This time, I might really be able to call out the long spear…

A long howl suddenly echoed through the surroundings. As soon as they heard the sound, the dogmen charged at me as if they’d gone crazy. No longer having any time to check whether the Ice Emperor Spear was appearing or not, I could only use the ice dagger to meet the enemies head-on.

Despite heavy casualties, the dogmen still wouldn’t fall back. Something’s wrong!

But no matter how loud the alarm in my mind was, I didn’t have enough physical and mental energy to bother with anything else. Just these endless dogmen are enough to wear me down to my death. Just how many are there?

Why do they still refuse to withdraw?

“Those dogmen nearby are so troublesome. They won’t actively attack when there’s a lot of humans, but they would definitely surround a lone human. Why won’t Xia Zhengu exterminate them? He said something about them being our natural barricade, but what kind of a barricade eats people?”

“That’s just an excuse. Your boyfriend just doesn’t dare to kill them, but he doesn’t want to tell the truth, either.”

“Doesn’t dare to kill them?”

“That bunch of dogmen has a leader. We saw him from afar, and he was awfully tall…”

Leaning against the wall, my vision went black for a few seconds, but I lucked out with quickly stabbing my thigh with the ice dagger, instantly recovering my senses. A huge shadow appeared in front of me. His appearance was pretty much the same as the dogmen at his side. He was just much taller and sturdier and was at least three meters in height. That head looked more like a wolf’s than a dog’s.

“All of us call that guy—Wolfman.”

The Wolfman grinned, exposing his long canine teeth. If I got bitten by that, I’d definitely ended up getting punctured.

Patting my chest, I muttered, “Xiaorong. Sorry, can you still go on? I need you…”

An affirmative yet weak reply sounded in my mind. I was very distressed and almost told him to make a quick escape. But with dogmen surrounding us, Xiaorong would be unable to escape, so I ultimately didn’t blurt it out.

The Wolfman strode over like a king. I straightened my body and tightly gripped the ice dagger, determined to fight to the death. It was just a pity that I still couldn’t call out the Ice Emperor Spear…

However, the Wolfman suddenly halted his steps, abruptly looked toward the large doorway, and snarled in a low growl.

I was startled and followed his line of sight. Only then did I notice that there were several silhouettes there. But with their backs against the source of light, I couldn’t see them clearly.

A mantis stalks a cicada, unaware of the finch behind it. I had always been perfectly fine previously, and hadn’t encountered much danger, causing me to lower my guard. This time, only after getting injured, did I realize that there were dangers lurking around every corner, awaiting me.

It seemed that the aberrants all knew better than me. Getting injured in Lan City was something far from good. No one wanted to be the first to provoke me. They were all waiting for me to get injured on my own and become a delicious morsel of meat.

Dàgē, I’m sorry. I really was too reckless this time. You have to take good care of Shujun…

Bang!

Bang, bang!

Bang, bang, bang!

My eyes widened. The numerous loud gunshots made it almost impossible to hear anything. Only the sounds of dogmen yelping could be heard occasionally, as the heavy firepower filled the sky with smoke and dust. A figure then slowly approached me. That’s definitely a human! Could it be the soldiers from the Shangguan family just now? Is this considered “a good deed always pays”?

“Why do you always get hurt so badly?”

I was stunned. It’s actually a woman’s voice? No, no, this is… this is…

I was almost in utter disbelief. My whole body unconsciously relaxed, and I fell to the ground on my butt. I didn’t even have the strength to maintain the ice dagger, letting it return to the tattoo on my wrist.

I couldn’t resist smiling and asked in reply, “Why are you always there to save me when I get hurt?”

A familiar, slim figure—Jin Feng—walked forward and squatted down in front of me. Her mouth quirked a smile that was not quite a smile. “You can still crack jokes? Looks like you aren’t hurt as badly as last time.”

I couldn’t help stealing a glance. The weather was so cold, but there were actually two unfastened collar buttons. I can see cleavage!

Immediately afterwards, I was given a whack on the head. Such familiar pain. I have the feeling that I’ll soon get used to getting smacked on the head.

She raised her eyebrows. “If you can check me out, then your injuries must be pretty light.”

“My injuries aren’t as bad as the last time, but I’ve used up all my strength and feel even more tired,” I bitterly said, after which I was dizzy and felt throbbing pain in my head. My vision blacked out intermittently. “Actually, I’m about to pass out. Can I faint? Ah, ah, ah, I’m really gonna faint—”

A brief “then just faint” reached my ears. Although the voice belonged to a woman, her voice was somewhat deep with a hint of magnetism, making people feel particularly at ease.

I was about to lie down on the floor, hoping to avoid the tragic fate of hitting the ground face-first after fainting. But instead, I got swept up bridal-style by someone.

On one hand, I inwardly felt embarrassed, like “this is wrong.” On the other hand, I felt safe, and it was also very comfortable, especially with how big and soft the thing squashing my left cheek was. I also seemed to smell a nice scent. Surely, this isn’t an illusion made up by my dirty mind!

“Not fainting yet?” Jin Feng said icily, “Neither fainting nor marrying, yet you dare to bury your face into my chest? You wanna die?”

“Fainting, I’ll faint this instant!”

Obediently following her orders, I completely relaxed, my vision went dark, and I passed out immediately.

Upon waking up, I was confused for two seconds before instantly recalling what had happened. I quickly looked around. Jin Feng was nowhere to be seen, but there was a very familiar-looking thin, dark-skinned youngster on the sofa. It took me a while to remember him.

“Ben?”

The dark-skinned youngster put down his magazine, walked over, and said with a raised eyebrow, “Heh, didn’t expect to see you again. You actually didn’t die out there. What a pity.”

“Eh? Did I do something to offend you?”

Ben said with a cold smile, “You got free food, free drinks, and even slept with Feng-jiě for free but still ran away at the end?”

To put it briefly, that was kind of right. But there were four words that I could not admit to! I quickly clarified, “I didn’t sleep with Jin Feng. I really didn’t!”

Ben raged, “I mean sleeping next to her! If you actually dared to sleep with her and then run away, you’d be thrown into an oil drum, have it filled with cement, and get submerged into the ocean! You think you’d still be lying here?!”

“I swear I won’t sleep with her!” I hurriedly vowed. This wasn’t so hard. Even though the me in my current life was a bit horny, I had at least been a woman in my past life. Surely, I’ll be able to restrain myself and won’t get seduced by female charms… right?

“Eh, screw that, you think you can’t sleep with her?” Ben slapped my shoulder hard enough that I grimaced in pain. He then said with a meaningful tone, “You can sleep with her, once you’re married. Then not only will you be safe from the ocean, I’ll even call you jiěfu. Watcha think, not bad huh?”

I lowered my head, not daring to speak. If I simply let myself be married off like this… Wait, that’s not it, it should be simply “taking a wife” like this. If Dàgē and Xiǎomèi didn’t go crazy from this, it would be—Eh, remembering Dàgē who has been urging me to get a love life in the apocalypse and Xiǎomèi who had instantly sold out her Dàgē, they might very well be happy that I’m getting myself married off at eighteen… Bleh! I mean “taking a wife” at eighteen!

Ben said with discontent, “Tsk. Feng-jiě’s so nice to you, so watcha hesitating for? It’s different if you aren’t interested, but you’re clearly very into her. The moment Feng-jiě appears, your eyes are glued to her body!”

I said with a wry smile, “But I’m only eighteen!”

Ben instantly flared up and snapped, “So you think Feng-jiě is too old for you?”

I quickly explained, “No, I’m just saying I’m still too little.”

Ben went “oh” and said with sympathy, “Little isn’t great, but anyway, Feng-jiě doesn’t have any expectations about that!”

…Why are you looking down there? I meant I’m little in age, you bastard!

“Stop staring!”

Ben said with a wide grin, “Don’t worry, I didn’t look. Both times, it was Feng-jiě who personally gave you a bath and changed your pajamas.”

Dammit, glancing at her chest a few times is nothing. She has already seen me in all my glory!

Firstly, my younger sister inspected me for “that thing,“ then Jin Feng even scrubbed my body…

I took a deep breath. I’m a guy. Who cares about chastity? Getting seen naked by a woman should be to my advantage!

Calm down, calm down. After justifying myself with these few sentences, I then requested Ben to pour me a glass of water, and he acted accordingly. This left me feeling very relieved. It looked like my previous escape hadn’t caused too much trouble.

Ben handed over the glass of water, snorted twice, and said, “You slept for a day, so you must be starving, right? But even if you are hungry, you still gotta keep on waiting. Feng-jiě said to wait for her to bring food. So just wait here, and no sneaking food!”

I obediently complied, but the next second my stomach failed to live up to my expectations and started growling.

Watching in delight over my misfortune, Ben said, “Feng-jiě just left with Jin-gē to meet with their underlings. So you can just sit here and be hungry. It’s your fault you’re not big sis’s husband. I’m not letting some nobody like you sneak a few bites.”

Left with Jin-gē for a meeting… Hold it! Jin Feng’s big brother… isn’t he the Thunder God, Jin Zhan?!

Greatly alarmed, I quickly asked, “What are you guys doing here?”

What happened to the Thunder God staying in Zhongguan City? What did you guys come to Lan City for?

Ben nonchalantly explained, “Jin-gē is leading us to conquer territory. Just Zhongguan City doesn’t count for anything. If we’re going to conquer, then we have to conquer the biggest one!”

The corner of my mouth twitched. I was amused. So everyone just happened to take a fancy to Lan City unanimously? Aside from the Shangguan family, we now had a Thunder God too.

I’m ninety-nine percent certain that it was Jin Xiaoyue’s idea. The northern Zhi City was so terrifying that no one dared to go there, so we’re only left with Lan City and Yu City. Among these, Lan City is slightly closer to Zhongguan City, and it’s also farther away from the water than Yu City. Upon comparison, it’s truly the best option out of the three large cities.

In my previous life, I had sometimes heard about marine creatures climbing ashore to attack coastal cities. Even though I hadn’t heard news of the three large cities getting invaded, any person who had experienced the apocalypse would choose to stay away from the seaside.

I didn’t know how strong marine creatures and aberrants were, but they were pretty alien to me. I had exactly zero idea about their form or abilities. Compared to terrestrial life forms, where you could at least guess what they were like, no one had any desire to encounter marine life forms.

Among the twelve strongest elites, one of them was a marine creature who even had a very beautiful nickname, “The Mermaid.”

However, the only thing I knew about it was the nickname. I had paid attention to this elite simply because I specifically asked the others whether or not there was a female among the twelve strongest elites. They told me that there was a mermaid, but the gender was unknown as it was merely a title.

Suddenly, a noise came from Ben. He took out a wireless transceiver from his waist and walked to the window to talk.

He spoke a few words, then turned around, and asked, “Xiao Yu, Feng-jiě is asking if you can come to the dining hall to have a meal?”

Come to the dining hall? I blinked and quickly agreed to it. I had basically used up too much of my ability, and my whole body felt weak. Although my injuries weren’t light, they didn’t reach my bones. They were all painful, superficial wounds. While it was painful, it was still bearable. Walking around shouldn’t be a problem.

Besides, if there’s a chance to see how strong the Thunder God’s current men and base are, I’d drag myself over even if my legs were broken! Everyone is aiming for Lan City now, so we’re… competitors?

I hesitated for a bit and remembered that I had first been hunted down by the Yggdrasil Earthworm, then dogmen had continuously swarmed me, with the Wolfman showing up at the end to wrap things up—these were the results of me greatly underestimating Lan City. If Jin Feng hadn’t saved me, I might have really lost my life for some inexplicable reason. Now that would drive both Dàgē and Xiǎomèi crazy for sure.

There was also the Shangguan family that was eyeing the large city covetously. I was not even sure about their stance. Although I had saved a bunch of their soldiers, just this reason alone wasn’t enough for me to expect goodwill from them. After all, the Shangguan family that Xiao Sha had mentioned was anything but good.

Or perhaps, the Thunder God and us aren’t actually competitors… but allies?

“Go wash up.” Ben patted my shoulder and said, “I’ll get you a change of clothes. It’s your first time meeting with your in-laws, so make sure to groom yourself nicely!”

Well, that’s… Wait a sec! Meet what?

Seeing my frightened look, Ben consoled me, “No need to be afraid. Although Jin-gē’s got a scary reputation and is pretty scary himself, you have Feng-jiě, right? She won’t allow Jin-gē to touch you. At the very least, he won’t beat you to death. So don’t worry.”

Goddamnit, don’t say such scary words with that sympathetic face! Who is this “Jin-gē”? That’s the Thunder God, okay! He might leak electricity and zap me to death in a fit of anger!

“Go wash up.” Watching with a quiver of delightful schadenfreude, Ben said, “That face of yours is the greatest trump card. Quick, make it look a bit more handsome. Jin-gē himself likes beautiful women, so it’s not surprising that Feng-jiě also likes handsome boys.”

I was truly having mixed feelings about getting called a “handsome boy” by a fourteen year old youngster. Considering that I could only rely on my face, I simply got off the bed and obediently entered the bathroom to make myself presentable. I took off the pajamas. The thinly layered, half-transparent Xiaorong was still underneath it. I quietly called out to him through my mind for a moment, but there was no response. He seemed to have sunk into a deep sleep.

It was impossible for Jin Feng to not have noticed Xiaorong, since she had already changed me out of my clothes. Although Xiaorong was a bit strangely shaped, he shouldn’t be very conspicuous in the apocalypse. If someone were to ask, then I would just say that he was armor which I had made by skinning the shell of a certain aberrant. That would likely pass as a good explanation.

I took a good wash, even conscientiously combing my hair until it was smooth and slick. My hair had already grown past my shoulder blades. After combing my hair straight back, the long, soft, and shiny hair fell past my shoulders—Fuck, watching this makes even me unsure whether I’m a man or a woman. I simply tied it up in a ponytail, barely making up some manliness.

When I came out of the bathroom, Ben handed some clothes over and said, “Feng-jiě says that your clothes were dirty, torn, and even stinky! It couldn’t even pass as a cleaning rag. So she simply threw them away. Here, wear this.”

My clothes made from butterfly silk were simply thrown away… Well, it was already covered in rotten flesh and blood. I would feel haunted if I had to wear them again. Fine, just throw it away.

I was lucky to have made many sets of it all at once. At that time, I knew I’d surely waste a lot—wasting one in every battle—it was basically a disposable battle outfit. Fortunately, I had previously brought home enough fabric.

After putting on the clothes, I finally realized that it looked very similar to the previous t-shirt, vest, and jeans I had worn. The only difference was that the pants were thicker, the top was a long-sleeved shirt, and the vest was insulated with soft and warm down feathers.

Jin Feng’s thoughtfulness made me feel like I was a horrible man for not giving her my hand in marriage—this won’t do. I already promised the Ice Emperor, no puppy love within the next two years!

Ben was mending his knife at the side. “Feng-jiě knows that you like wearing these. Every time we go searching for supplies, she would first pick out this kind of clothing and take them.”

My face clouded over. In order to avoid accidentally marrying myself off out of sheer guilt, I could only change the topic.

“Where’s the dining hall?”

Ben grumbled, “Heartless guy.” Then he said, “It’s this way.”

Walking out of the room, I instantly understood where I was. This is definitely a five-star hotel!

Red carpet spread along the long, wide hallway. Paintings that I didn’t understand but thought were incredible hung on the walls. The decorative mirrors on both sides had been polished until they shone, except there were a few irksome bloodstains on the surfaces.

I followed Ben and stepped into the elevator, saying, “This is a hotel?”

Ben gave an affirmative “mm,” and said, “Jin-gē always stayed in this hotel whenever he came here.”

You stayed here before the apocalypse, and you still want to stay here after the apocalypse. Those with men, firepower, and supplies had the means to be willful!

“This isn’t the downtown area, right?”

My face grew serious. In that case, I had better bundle Jin Feng up and run away with her.

“It’s not.” Ben explained, “Our business is the type that can’t be shown in public. Staying in the city center would take us too far from the suburbs. How are we supposed to handle business deals then?”

Hearing that, I finally calmed down. The Thunder God was truly not a fool.

Ben seemed to despise my timidity. He snorted and said, “There’s no need to be afraid of anything. Feng-jiě will protect you.”

I nodded. That’s true, she has saved me twice already. It’s not a lie to call her my Lady Luck.

Ben stared at me, and I looked back at him, eyes blinking.

He asked, “You’re not unhappy?”

Stumped, I answered the question with a question, “Unhappy about what?”

“Unhappy about having to depend on Feng-jiě to save you!”

I have someone to save me. Why would I be unhappy? I shook my head and said, “I’m happy. If Feng didn’t save me, I would have died twice already. How can I not be happy?”

Ben nodded with satisfaction, and even remarked, “Feng-jiě has a really good eye. The little man that she fancied is clever and clearly understands his role.”

Well shit, I’m at least older than you!

Going down to the second floor, the elevator opened and noises could instantly be heard. There were quite a few people around with more than half of them being men. Each and every one of them seemed very fierce and imposing.

Although my family’s mercenaries didn’t look any less intimidating than these people, they definitely lost in numbers. Additionally, the soldiers that joined afterward had been running for their lives for a long time like stray dogs and had had little time to settle down. Their spirit was somewhat lacking, and their strength was a cut below these people’s. However, their profession had been a fighting one since the start. With their foundation, they’d be able to catch up in no time and would definitely be even more disciplined than these people before me!

We may have lost in numbers, but we weren’t going to lose in discipline. When I get back, I’m gonna stop being a shut-in and drill my family’s mercenaries and soldiers to death even if it’s freezing cold!

“Don’t worry!” Ben said while walking confidently, “We are all people of the Jin family. If they don’t obey Jin-gē, then they listen to Feng-jiě. Even the top two guys under Jin-gē wouldn’t dare to show disrespect to Feng-jiě.”

Once Ben uttered the names of “Jin-gē” and “Feng-jiě,” the surroundings instantly fell into a strange silence. Everyone turned to look at us and almost started drooling when they looked at my face. It had been a long time since I last saw such undisguised, lecherous gazes. As expected of the mafia, they weren’t even bothering to cover it up.

“The hell you looking at?!” Ben’s face turned dark. Irritated, he shouted, “This is Feng-jiě’s man. If anyone dares to ogle him, I’ll dig out your eyeballs!”

With that shout of his, the number of people watching had increased even more. Originally, there were only a couple of them drooling, but now, even those that seemed strong had turned to size me up.

“This the guy Feng-jiě fancies?”

A man with a knife-wound scar walked over. The scar stretched across the man’s face from the left side of his forehead down to the right side of his chin. The marks weren’t the kind of thin and fine strokes like the work of a red pen, but were instead lumpy and uneven, a deep, dark red.

I bet you weren’t able to get a job with that face before the apocalypse. One can tell at a glance that it’s a knife-wound. What normal person would dare to hire this big shot?

“This is Feng-jiě’s subordinate—the commander!” Ben assisted me with an introduction. “His name is Lin Qi. You can just call him Scar.”

“Hi, Scar-gē. I’m Xiao Yu.” Unsure of what to say, I simply gave a brief introduction. Although I didn’t know how old the other person was, it was correct as long as I used gē for the men and jiě for the women!

Scar barked a laugh and said with a smile, “This kid’s got manners.”

Ben nodded. “Xiao Yu has quite a good character.”

I was a bit speechless. Ben, don’t you think it’s very weird for a junior high school kid like you to be talking like this?

Scar eyed me up and down, asking with slight disbelief, “Heard you traveled alone to look for your fam’ly? What kinda power you got?”

Ben actually helped me out while I was struggling to answer. He gave Scar a meaningful look and said in a low voice, “Don’t be so nosy. Feng-jiě doesn’t want the others to know his background to prevent him dying for no reason.”

Scar nodded with understanding. “Tell Feng-jiě to keep an eye on him. With looks like that, just one careless moment and he might get taken and locked away to be toyed with.”

Ben patted his chest and declared, “Feng-jiě ordered me not to take even one step away from him.”

“Then where’re you taking him?” Scar asked with a frown. “Don’t take him out if it’s not important. We just got some new recruits, so things are still messy.”

Ben shook his head, replying, “Feng-jiě said that too. But Jin-gē and the others want to see him, so I’m taking him there.”

Scar was very surprised. “Jin-gē actually wants to see him?”

Ben honestly replied, “Seems like the Madam and Missus want to see him.”

Shit, so I’m really going to meet the in-laws? I’m okay with Jin Zhan, but this is clearly leading up to meeting the mother-in-law!

Several beads of cold sweat dripped down, but I didn’t plan on going back upstairs. This is my chance to check on that Jin Xiaoyue. As for mother-in-law… cough cough! I mean, the mother of the Jin family, I’ll just have to take things as they come. Since I was young, I’ve always been an irresistible “people magnet.” Believe me, I might even win over the in-la… the senior generation!

Scar roared, “Then hurry up! The hell you hanging around for!? You gonna let Madam and Missus wait? Jin-gē’s gonna skin ya!”

“Chill man. Feng-jiě said just now to meet up in half an hour. We still have five minutes.”

Despite saying that, Ben hurriedly took me to the dining hall. There were even more people here, but it was contrarily quieter. It wasn’t completely silent, but compared to the hall just now, the sounds of speaking were nothing more than murmurs, as if no one dared to speak too loudly.

The dining tables were small and square, except for the several large round tables at the back which were almost fully occupied. Everyone was dressed in pitch-black, making the scene look exactly like that of a funeral. Upon comparison, our JDT’s uniform was definitely more than a hundred times better than theirs!

While I was inwardly rejoicing “we won,” the sounds of Ben gulping could be heard from the side. I turned to look at him. Ben quietly said, “It’s all the way at the end,” and guided me over.

There was a round table in the middle of the very far end. The table was large but wasn’t fully occupied. Only four people were seated there. The woman with a high ponytail in the middle was particularly eye-catching. That was Jin Feng.

We hadn’t even gotten close to the round table when Jin Feng had already stood up and walked straight toward me. The dining hall instantly quieted down, so much so that even the sound of a pin dropping could be heard in such a scene. But she didn’t seem to mind at all as she held my hand and said in a natural manner, “Let’s go see my family.”

I stiffly nodded, somewhat feeling as if I was the ugly daughter-in-law meeting her in-laws.

I was led to the side of the round table. Upon seeing the Thunder God Jin Zhan for the first time, I was completely flabbergasted.

This, this… isn’t this the guy that I just fought with?!

Oh, that’s right! This guy’s ability is lightning. I had thought that the Thunder God would be in Zhongguan City, so I hadn’t connected the two of them together. Now that I thought about it, other than the Jiang family that had me as the cheat weapon with my past life’s memories and could acquire strong abilities within half a year of the apocalypse, didn’t the Jin family also have Jin Xiaoyue?

I should have guessed this guy’s true identity from the moment I saw Jin Feng!

Hehe. It’s our first time meeting, but I have already broken the leg of this brother-in-law. Can this get any worse?!

Thunder God-dàgē, by all means, please don’t recognize me!