Dominion’s End - Volume 6 Chapter 5

Volume 6, Chapter 5: The Captain that Got Slapped Too Hard

I tossed out an entire wall as an ice shield, protecting Chen Yanqing from the front. In the very next second, the shield was in shattered pieces all across the ground.

Chen Yanqing was knocked onto his back. Wen Jianuo’s expression changed. He quickly rushed over to check on his comrade’s condition, only to see him breathing heavily with his face full of pain. However, with Wen Jianuo’s support, he was still able to sit up.

Wen Jianuo dug out a bullet from the chest area of Chen Yanqing’s bulletproof vest. Still, the bullet had blood on it. This gun had strong firepower. The bulletproof vest hadn’t been able to block the attack, and the bullet had managed to meet its mark. If not for the ice shield obstructing it, I had a strong feeling that this bullet would have directly blasted Chen Yanqing’s head into pieces.

The ice shield I had tossed up had been slightly angled. Even though the ice shield I had formed on the spot wasn’t sturdy enough, the angle would make sure the bullet would ricochet or be deflected.

I was once again grateful for Uncle’s guidance. Who says that a memory ability isn’t useful? The key is the person with the ability!

Also, Uncle had speculated that his power shouldn’t just be having an improved memory. Even his thoughts had become clearer and faster. It probably wasn’t just memory. It could be that his brain’s full capabilities had been unlocked, and that it had simply best manifested in his improved memory.

Even though the power wasn’t offensively oriented, Uncle could help the entire Jiang Dominion think of various ways to use and develop their powers. Just this already made me feel like this power was practically godly!

Of course, the key was that Uncle, this knowledgeable person who excelled at thinking, had been matched with this power. Otherwise, this power wouldn’t be this useful.

At this time, Chen Yanqing finally recovered and caught his breath. His injuries didn’t seem serious. He looked at me gratefully and even exaggeratedly saluted me.

“Go into the mansion and get your injuries checked out.”

Chen Yanqing nodded. Seeing that he could stand on his own and leave, he was probably fine.

Wen Jianuo held the bullet and said, “Sniper rifle.”

I nodded and asked, puzzled, “Why didn’t Yunqian retaliate?”

“Maybe the opponent didn’t stick their head out again after shooting, or their position is too hard to hit.” Wen Jianuo explained, “Even though the mansion is on high terrain, the building isn’t high. If the opponent is hiding in a building, she’ll have a hard time retaliating—”

A gunshot rang out. At the same time, glass from a nearby building suddenly shattered.

“She retaliated.” I gazed into the distance. So it wasn’t that she’s not returning the favor. The timing just wasn’t right!

“Was it a hit?” Wen Jianuo asked curiously.

“It was.”

Blood had sprayed onto the other half of the glass window, the part that hadn’t broken. There was quite a lot, too. Other than that, there was no sign of any movement. The person was most likely dead.

“Beautiful marksmanship!” Wen Jianuo praised, but then questioned, “Why isn’t she the one with enhanced vision? If a sniper had that power, they’d be like a tiger with wings. No one would be able to escape from her sniping.”

That goes without saying. I’d even gone out of my way to request that Uncle study Lily’s sight power to see how she could develop it.

When I made the request, my feelings were very conflicted. If her sight power really couldn’t be improved on much, then what should Lily do?

Or maybe, the power of sight had a lot of room to improve. Then, why had I given up on myself in my last life because of my sight power? Wouldn’t I have been stupid beyond words?

However, in the last life, I had found a boyfriend like Xia Zhengu, so I had already been stupid beyond words. This life’s Lily was much more important. Sight can definitely be a useful power!

I warned Wen Jianuo, “Firearms will become less and less useful soon. They’re fine for killing regular people, but against someone like me who has reached tier three, well, you’ve already witnessed how ‘useful’ a gun is against me.”

Wen Jianuo laughed. “But there aren’t many people like you.”

I coldly said, “You just have to survive for ten years. Even those who haven’t eaten a single crystal will all become people like me.”

Even so, “surviving for ten years” itself was a huge barrier. Around ten years into the apocalypse, someone in the group estimated the population of the world with the number of people we had in the area. The conclusion was that there were approximately 100 million to around 150 million people in the world. He even stressed that this was likely to be a great overestimation.

There had originally been a population of more than seven billion. After ten years, there were only around 100 million left. Out of seventy people, only one and a half could survive. With such a low survival rate, anyone would be tier three or higher. It seemed like a matter of course.

I had just hoped that this time, without Thirteen wreaking havoc in Meisia, and with the base we constructed as the Jiang Dominion, we could ensure that more people would survive on this land—yet now, we were going to fight with other humans.

This is just so stupid! Can’t you have it good and I have it good, so we all have it good?

“Soldiers and civilians inside the wall, listen to us. We are the troops that the higher-ups have sent over to help. However, we have met a private troop that blocked our assistance. They want to occupy the land. Do not help someone who will abuse you. Do not get tricked into becoming their slaves…”

An endless broadcast came spewing all this nonsense from outside the wall, clearly for the sake of inciting a rebellion inside the mansion.

Wen Jianuo and I were greatly alarmed. Then suddenly, a loud clamor could be heard behind us, prompting us to turn around at the same time. The civilians near the tents were rising to their feet and yelling in excitement. Although I couldn’t hear what they were yelling, it was clear from one glance that the broadcast had a huge impact on them.

Now that things had reached this stage, it was pointless to be angry. I coolly said, “Wen Jianuo. If you’re allowed to call the shots, what would you do?”

In my opinion, Cain and Wen Jianuo more or less handled things similarly. Still, when it came to ruthlessness, Wen Jianuo wasn’t exactly on the same level as Cain . After all, one is a soldier, while the other is a mercenary. A mere difference in title makes a huge difference in actuality.

Wen Jianuo coldly said, “Just shoot two or three people dead. They’ll quiet down.”

I immediately turned silent. What’s the point of making them quiet anyway? They’ve already had a change of heart. If we forced them to stay, we’d even have to keep our guards up.

If Cain were in command, what would he do? He obviously wouldn’t show any more mercy than Wen Jianuo’s method of “forcing obedience by sacrificing a few,” right?

I quietly contemplated, then said, “I’ll go look for Cain and have him let them leave from the back entrance. Those who want to leave can leave. There’s no need to keep them.”

Upon hearing this, Wen Jianuo’s expression changed, and the hard lines around his face softened. It seemed that he hadn’t really wanted to use brute force—killing people, demonstrating power and whatnot. He’s all bark and no bite.

Wen Jianuo then said, “But the civilians know who we have. I’m afraid it’s too risky to release them.”

“They barely know anything. Dàgē and Cain scared the sh*t out of them several times before, so they’ll definitely mislead others about our powers. Releasing them might even cause others to overestimate us.”

I rolled my eyes at him. Despite his tall and intimidating outward appearance, his bark was really worse than his bite. When compared to Chen Yanqing, he was just slightly more decisive.

“Once I’ve gone down from the city walls, tell everyone to take cover and avoid the sniper’s shot. We’re already few in number, so each and every one of us must be protected.”

In an exaggerated manner, Wen Jianuo lifted his right foot and set it down again with his legs straight. He performed a military salute and barked back, “Yes, vice—cough, sir! We will absolutely stay alive and await your return.”

The surrounding soldiers standing nearby shot sideways glances at us. There was a hint of helplessness on their faces.

I jumped down from the wall and strode toward the civilians, enshrouded by an intimidating icy aura. Silence spread through the crowd without my having to say a word.

Before some troublemakers managed to speak up, I quickly walked over to them and stomped my right foot. Countless ice thorns erupted from the ground, completely surrounding them like an ice prison. These ice thorns were at least three meters tall and dense as a thicket.

“W-What’s happening!?”

The great majority of them were panicking, while some were reaching out their hand or stomping their feet in an attempt to break the ice fence. However, the moment they touched the ice, all of them would scream out in pain from the inevitable frostbite.

“He wants to kill us!”

“Help!”

I sent the noisy ones flying with several ice pillars. Although they lay on the ground screaming in pain, none of them were seriously hurt. I didn’t want to injure them so badly that they couldn’t run away. It’s not like I wanted to keep them around for the moment of judgment.

I coldly said, “Shut your traps, and maybe I’ll let you live. But keep annoying me, and I’ll fucking kill you right now!”

At this moment, Cain was rushing over and happened to hear this sentence.

He walked over, and intentionally asked, “Let them live? Don’t tell me you want to let them go?”

I didn’t say a word and merely nodded my head, adopting an aloof stance.

Cain scratched his head, seemingly vexed and said, “So you won’t kill unarmed civilians—Tsk tsk. I guess even someone as cold as you can act human once in a while. You know what? I think they know way too much. If they want to leave, we can just kill them and save ourselves the trouble!”

Hearing that, the civilians’ faces went ashen with fear, but no one dared to cry out.

In response to Cain’s statement, I remained indifferent and simply answered, “Get them out of here!” As for how to put that into practice, let’s just leave it to Cain! After all, he’s more experienced than me.

Cain turned around to face the civilians, and cursed loudly, “Goddamn, you’re lucky! Except for our Leader, only this person can let you out of here alive! We’re more than happy to kick out some freeloaders anyway. Just remember this: If anyone dares to expose anything about our side, you can look forward to becoming an ice sculpture!”

Well, it’s pretty much an idle threat. Once they leave, we won’t be able to control their actions.

At this moment, Tai Wen and Zhang Jing had come running out of the mansion. They were heading straight toward their group of people. Among the civilians, this group had stayed calm from the very beginning. Although everyone panicked when the ice fences started surrounding them, they didn’t cause too much of a ruckus. They didn’t even try to touch the ice thorns.

I saw some familiar faces among the group. One of them was my mom from my past life, while the other one was Tai Wen’s wife. She was a round-faced, sweet lady, and her name was even Yu Tian, tranquil jade.

After noticing the two men, the group immediately fixed their eyes on them. They gradually relaxed after Tai Wen made some unknown gestures at them. He was clearly trying to calm them down. Someone had even sat straight down on the ground, evidently with no plans on leaving.

With a wave of my hand, I cut holes in several of the ice fences. Then, small ice thorns gathered around the hole to form a continuous road which led toward the back entrance. However, nobody dared to move.

Cain roared, “Get lost! You’ve only got ten minutes. If you don’t leave now, you’ll never get the chance to leave again!”

The civilians were still paralyzed with fear. Less than a minute after, however, another broadcast came from outside the wall, relaying all kinds of tempting information, like that their location was safe and under military safeguards, etc, etc. Someone gave in on the spot. Some middle-aged men were the first ones to make a break for it.

Since our men had turned a blind eye to those leaving, the civilians grew courageous and finally got moving.

“You have seven more minutes.” After Cain delivered this warning, they ran away even faster.

Setting a time limit of ten minutes was a good idea. I wouldn’t want the Shangguan family to take advantage of the situation and come running in here through the back door.

“Is it possible for us to stay behind?” An old man came over and asked nervously, leading a child by the hand.

Slightly stunned, I recognized the old man as Elder Li. Before, he had been pestering us for a talk with me… The last I heard, he had a pair of good-for-nothing children, a son and a daughter, in his family—

“Dad! What are you talking about?!” A woman protested in a shrill voice, “We don’t want to stay here! They’re cold-blooded demons…”

She suddenly paused, noticing that everyone was watching her with a horrified expression. It suddenly dawned on her that she had called us “cold-blooded demons” right in our faces. She looked at me and Cain with terrified eyes, and all she could stammer was “I” for a long time, but she didn’t finish and went straight to hiding behind her father’s back.

Elder Li ignored his daughter. He tightly held onto his grandchild’s hand and asked again, “Sir, we would like to stay behind. Is that possible? Is there no other choice but to go?”

Cain shot me a glance. This Elder Li seems quite interesting. I nodded my head and said, “You can stay.”

Cain wore a helpless expression, looking like he really didn’t want these two to stay behind. He cooperated and said, “As stated by him, the ones who want to stay can stay. Just remember this: If you don’t leave now, you’ll be heading to the afterlife if you try to leave after this! Got that?!”

“Yes, yes. We’ll never ask to leave again.”

Elder Li tightened his grip on his five year-old grandson’s hand. Determined not to leave, he was unmoved by his children’s outburst. In the end, the son-daughter pair abandoned their elderly father and young child. Following the crowd, they left without even looking back.

Eventually, only a few more than sixty people stayed behind. If I wasn’t mistaken, most of them were from Guan Weijun’s group. However, they were fewer in number than before, so it wasn’t like no one from their group had left. It was just that Tai Wen seemed fairly calm about the situation. The ones who had run away probably hadn’t been out of his expectations.

Among those who had stayed behind, the ones whom Wen Jianuo had brought included Elder Li with his grandson, Auntie Wang with the brother and sister, and a few more who I didn’t recognize, numbering about ten people.

Heh, from two hundred to only ten people left. These guys have given my squad leader a really hard slap in the face.

“Why didn’t you leave?”

Despite my cold and indifferent demeanor, I couldn’t refrain from asking Elder Li for his reasoning. I didn’t have a good impression of him at first, so I was very surprised when he chose to stay behind. If he was alone, then it would be understandable for him to give up on living and wait for his death. But it was a different story when he had a child with him.

Elder Li lowered his eyes and said, “Sir, we are grandparent and grandson—the old one is getting on in years, while the young one is under age. No matter how much we run, how far can we go? As for which place is good and which people are good, I’ve seen enough in my old age to be able to tell.”

At this point, he couldn’t help turning to look in the direction his son and daughter had coldly left in. Immediately, tears coursed down the old man’s cheeks. He might have been trying to put on an act, but that look of soul-deep sorrow couldn’t be feigned.

“I’ve grown too old. I no longer have the energy to take care of so many immature children. But this grandson of mine is a really, really good kid! I’m willing to do anything for him. I beg of you, sir, please help me protect him. His name is Li Yu. He’s been very obedient since he was young. He’s nothing like his father and aunt who I spoiled rotten—I know it’s my fault, I did this to myself!”

The grandson huddled in his grandpa’s arms. It was a stark contrast to when his own father left—he didn’t even react much. It probably didn’t make much difference to him whether that father was present or not. The child clumsily comforted, “Grandpa, don’t cry. Xiao Yu will behave.”

I looked at the kid. Contrary to that slightly chubby man and woman, he was very skinny. No wonder Elder Li couldn’t help choosing him. Otherwise, this grandchild wouldn’t have been able to grow any further.

Elder Li was deeply moved after seeing how caring the child was toward him. He pleaded again, “Sir, he has always been a good kid. He’ll definitely be loyal toward you—”

“Children must be prioritized.”

I suddenly cut him off. This “carefully nurtured into obedience” kind of thing—these weren’t the ancient times where we needed to raise imperial bodyguards and expendable soldiers. A modern person like me has no interest in something so tyrannical and rigid!

Elder Li stared blankly for a while before beaming with joy. His tone became more sincere.

“Sir, you are absolutely right. Children are the future.”

All of a sudden, the sound of gunshots could be heard from the walls. Our soldiers had opened fire. Wen Jianuo then loudly shouted at us, explaining:

“There’s enemies coming from the back entrance. We have forced them back.”

We had clearly secured an old soldier with a chest decorated full of badges with us, yet those guys didn’t show the slightest qualms. They didn’t even try to negotiate about getting him back! This Shangguan Chenhong was truly cold-hearted. We absolutely can’t let the base fall into the hands of this kind of guy!

I turned around and said to the other person, “Tai Wen, bring the people who stayed into the mansion to get them out of the crossfire.”

Tai Wen and Zhang Jing seemed more than eager to lead them into the mansion. After all, the people who stayed behind had mostly been brought here by them. They immediately gathered everyone up to take cover in the mansion.

Hearing that they could enter the mansion, their faces lit up with joy, clearly happy with the decisions they made to stay.

Cain finally dropped his act after all of the outsiders left. He bluntly said, “Thank god those civilians left. They’re lazy, disobedient, and even turned out to be a bunch of immature ingrates. Compared to Xiao Guan’s group, they’re a whole lot worse.”

Wen Jianuo would probably be in an awkward position if he were to hear this, right?

“It won’t take long for those people to wallow in self-pity.” Cain gleefully said, “How many rations could those soldiers even bring around? There’s no way they can distribute them among two hundred people. We’ve also searched the town so many times already. Not a lot of supplies are left at all, especially food.”

It’s more appropriate to say “you reap what you sow,” but it’s true that they’ll wallow in self-pity.

“If those ungrateful bastards come back to beg, don’t let them back in.” Cain rolled his eyes at me and couldn’t help saying, “I’m really in awe of your soft-heartedness, O Great Saint. When the time comes, why don’t you hide and look away, so you don’t let women and children right in when you see them? How about that?”

“Sure!” I nodded in agreement. Inwardly, I felt deeply wronged and misunderstood.

I wasn’t some saint. I just knew how small the population would be in ten years and how poor humanity’s situation would become. Women and children didn’t have it easy surviving in the apocalypse in the first place, but the former could bear children, and the latter would grow. If we didn’t protect them well, we’d end up with a bunch of guys. Don’t tell me that after this generation, mankind would simply go extinct?

Forget it, I better hurry and finish constructing the base. After acquiring both strength and supplies and eliminating all other concerns, who will be able to stop me then from taking in all the women and children I want?

In order to take in lots of women and children, I had to steel myself, kill the invading enemies, and force them to retreat. Ancestors above, please look after me. Seeing as I’m contributing to the continuation of mankind, please bless me so I don’t end up killing Wei Xiaogē…

Cain suddenly patted me on the shoulder to point me in a certain direction, only for me to see Xiao Sha walking over. He was even pulling along an old soldier bound by an ice chain. After handing the guy over to the soldier guarding the mansion gates, Xiao Sha strode over to report to me.

“This veteran is a subordinate of Shangguan Chenhong’s father when he served in the army. Because he has made several great contributions, he has stayed in the army this entire time and was promoted to major general. He’s the Shangguan family’s military veteran. Later on, Shangguan Chenhong was also sent to his army for him to look after.”

After saying all that, Xiao Sha honestly said, “It won’t be easy to get him to betray the Shangguan family. His entire family lives at the Shangguan’s base.”

Ah, I’ve guessed that already. Can you guys please stop assuming that I’ll take in everyone I see? I’m not obsessed with collecting people!

So far, I’ve only taken in… Guan Weijun’s group and Wen Jianuo’s group.

It seems that I was the one who took in everyone besides the JDT. I was immediately speechless. Who instantly slaps themselves in the face like this?

Only after explaining that the other person wouldn’t surrender did Xiao Sha dare to divulge the old soldier’s power.

“His power is body double. He can use anything as a substitute for the real person. The two can switch on command, or they can passively switch the moment contact happens. It’s a life-saving skill! The drawback is the limited number of attempts and the short distance. At present, the body double has to be within a radius of ten meters, and lasts only a short duration of time. It has to be set up again after ten minutes. Also, no matter how many crystals he eats, he’s still unable to lengthen the duration. Only the distance gradually increased. In the beginning, he could only do one meter.”

Cain sighed, “The limit of ten minutes and ten meters is a pity. If only the duration and distance could be increased, this power would be incredible!”

I shook my head and said, “It might be possible to increase the duration. He may just need to surpass a certain threshold, such as by advancing in tier.”

Not only could this power save lives, it would also be quite the crafty power on the battlefield. However, with the old soldier as this power’s user, it was hard to say if it would be useful. He was old, and had a bunch of subordinates protecting him. He probably wouldn’t personally take part on the battlefield. Otherwise, if this power were strengthened, he could set up body double after body double. He would practically be an undying cockroach that could teleport. Who would want to fight him?

“He actually explained it so thoroughly?” I was a bit puzzled.

Xiao Sha honestly explained, “We had Su Ying read his mind first to find some of it out. With my understanding of the Shangguan family on top of that, we were finally able to trick him into revealing it all.”

I see. Before the apocalypse, Su Ying’s power would be rule defying, but in the apocalypse, it was difficult to assess it. At the present time, it wasn’t very useful against aberrants. Current aberrants only had thoughts of eating and more eating.

The power would be much more useful against people, but not only would other people be afraid of it, you would also need to depend on others’ protection. Without meeting decent people, the outcome would be disastrous.

Xiao Sha glanced at the nearby old soldier and said, “I’m afraid he may still have abilities he didn’t tell us about, so I had to bring him over to prevent him from running away—”

“Guys, come look at this!” Wen Jianuo suddenly shouted anxiously from on top of the wall, “Something’s wrong!”

I immediately shouted, “Front or back entrance?”

“Just come here!”

I exchanged glances with Cain and Xiao Sha and then rushed up the wall.

Wen Jianuo didn’t say a single word. He only gestured for us to look in a certain direction.

Looking as far as I could see, nothing seemed to be wrong. There was just some smoke and dust on the ground far off in the distance. However, we all knew that Wen Jianuo wouldn’t speak without thinking, so we stared fixedly at the dust. As time passed, the dust didn’t dissipate. Instead, it continued to balloon in size.

This has to be a huge number of things surging our way!

Cain blurted, “Maybe it’s the boss bringing people back to help us out?”

“Impossible.” Xiao Sha refuted, “There’s way too many people. If he really could find that many reinforcements, Leader wouldn’t be returning to the base so quickly. The more people there are, the slower the troops advance.”

Wen Jianuo solemnly asked, “Could it be the Shangguan family’s reinforcements?”

All three people’s faces fell.

This scenario was really familiar. An alarm went off in my heart. I squinted, wanting to see a bit farther…

A few rays of sunlight pierced through the dust, illuminating the entities below it. There were all kinds of gigantic bodies!

“Aberrant tide!”

I blurted out in shock. These were the things that destroyed the shelter that year, the source of dread for all bases for several years to come!

Everyone looked over and confusedly asked, “Aberrant tide? What’s that?”

I anxiously explained, “Sometimes, aberrants will team up to look for ‘food.’ They appear just like a tidal wave. There’s usually a powerful, high-tier aberrant leader among them, or even more than one!”

A moment ago, I was worried that the Shangguan’s shelter would be destroyed by the aberrant tide and that nobody would go to save Wei Xiaogē. But who would have thought that we would end up facing an aberrant tide too?

Or could it be… this was the aberrant tide my past life’s Guan Weijun first encountered at the shelter?

The Shangguan family’s advance attracted too much attention, causing the aberrant tide to change its course from the Shangguan’s shelter to our Zhanjiang Garrison! This was very possible!

Cain scratched his head and asked, “What should we do now? Should we keep defending? Or actually flee for our lives?”

If the destroyed shelter in my past life was originally the Shangguan family’s base—despite their military forces, soldiers and firearms, they still end up getting breached…

I shook my head and said, “Considering our small number of men, I’m afraid we won’t be able to maintain our defense.”

Cain tsk-ed, clicking his tongue with frustration. He then said, “Even with the best laid plans, we’re still ending up fleeing. Change really is the only constant in the apocalypse.”

Isn’t that obvious? I’d initially planned to hide away in the suburbs and slowly level up, but I got carried into the city by the carrion-bloom bird. If that hadn’t happened—when the Ice Emperor came, we would still be at our house, awaiting the arrival of a second Dàgē.

Sigh. Just the thought of it makes me feel like coughing up blood. Dàgē was right to kill Chen Qianru. This is a blood feud!

Suddenly, a commotion sounded from outside. The Shangguan family also seemed to notice something was amiss. As the approaching noise of the colony of aberrants grew louder, the silhouettes enshrouded in the smoke grew clearer, creeping closer to the outskirts of Old Town.

“It’s moving way too fast.” Wen Jianuo’s face darkened, and he said, “Considering how fast it is, it doesn’t seem possible for us to run away from it, not to mention the civilians.”

That’s true. We won’t be able to outmatch that speed even with a car. Besides, the roads aren’t maintained and there’s a lot of on-road obstacles, so cars can’t move very fast. We might even end up getting stuck on the road.

If it’s just the few of us, then we may have a chance of escaping. But the average civilian will definitely end up dead.

We couldn’t maintain a stout defense and couldn’t run fast enough to escape either.

The three of us had a gloomy expression across our faces. I said through gritted teeth, “Until Dàgē returns, we defend to the death!”

The two nodded in agreement. It was our only option anyway.

“Open the gates! Hurry up and let us in! You can’t just leave us to die like this!”

The voice of a panicked broadcast announcer could be heard from outside. It was Shangguan Chenhong.

I gritted my teeth. Now is not the time to be acting like a saint. Even if there are children among the civilians that just left, I still can’t…

“Please let them in.” Wen Jianuo suddenly said, “We’re lacking in manpower and firepower. We have to work together.”

Cain made a sound of “mm” and helplessly said, “Goddamnit! We just became sworn enemies, but now we gotta make them our allies. I wanna see those bastards suffer, but now everyone has to suffer together! Xiao Sha, you move fast. Go get the loudspeaker for me. I’ve gotta declare that we’ll be temporary allies.”

After receiving the order, Xiao Sha jumped straight down from the wall. Utilizing his wind power to slow down his descent, he landed in a roll, neutralizing the rest of the impact’s force. Then, he bolted straight toward the mansion.

I asked with some hesitation, “But they will try to take over this place after we let them in, right?”

The two looked at each other, reaching a tacit agreement before turning to look at me.

“Of course they will. When that happens, we’ll be counting on you.” Cain replied in a matter-of-fact voice.

“Huh?” Bewildered, I then asked, “You want me to kill Shangguan Chenhong?”

Wen Jianuo helplessly said, “No. If you kill him, we’ll end up fighting each other. At that time, both sides will get eaten by the aberrants outside.”

“So what do you want me to do? Spit it out already. Those aberrants are almost at our doorstep!”

Wen Jianuo explained in detail, “The moment Shangguan Chenhong makes a move, you have to instantly stun them with your powers.”

Hearing this, I easily agreed, “No problem.”

Wen Jianuo didn’t appear relieved, and added, “You have to appear dangerous to them, so terrifying that no one dares to be defiant. Act like someone who plays by his own rules; you don’t obey our orders, either.”

“So, I’m the bad cop, and you’re the good cops?” I asked after I understood.

Wen Jianuo nodded his head, looking satisfied with his lecture.

“So!” Cain grinned, and said with a smile, “Let’s pick a code name. We can’t go around calling you ‘Shuyu,’ or else all that effort of wearing a mask would go to waste.”

Call me the Ice Emperor! But I’m not shameless enough to call myself by this name…

I replied coldly, “No idea.” So, you better think of a code name for me.

Wen Jianuo and Cain exchanged glances again. Since when did you guys get along so well? Quit sneaking glances like you can read each other’s minds! I’ll ship the two of you together! And what happened to liking Su Ying?

They even gave me the same code name, at the same time, in two different voices! I couldn’t help but agree.