After they packed up their belongings, Ji Mengyao carried the still unconscious Wu Di on her back.
She refused help from Ning Yu and Shen Yiyue, as her own body had been enhanced after awakening.
Besides, Wu Di wasn't particularly bulky, and in his current weakened, unconscious state, he appeared more like the young man he truly was.
So carrying him wasn't too strenuous for her.
Shen Yiyue helped drag Wan Heng's corpse, which had been set aside before the battle with the Wrath, when they had planned to abandon it and flee.
Now that it was dead, they could take Wan Heng's body back with them.
The group planned to leave the industrial park and find a working vehicle to drive back to their base.
......
30 minutes later.
They found an ordinary van outside the park, and finally began driving back to their base.
Ji Mengyao, who had used her ability many times earlier and was severely affected by hallucinations, had been pushing herself hard. She now sat in the back seat.
She stayed beside Wu Di, her pretty face bearing a faint worried expression as she seemed lost in thought.
In her hand was a ladies' cigarette that Ning Yu had given her earlier, and the wind from outside carried away the smoke she exhaled.
Shen Yiyue sat in the passenger seat, while Ning Yu focused on driving.
The silence in the car was eventually broken by Ning Yu.
She was curious about Wu Di's condition:
"Why didn't you want Wu Di to use his ability back then? Does his awakened power have some kind of side effect?"
Ji Mengyao's eyes flickered as the ember at the end of her cigarette brightened again.
"Yeah, by the way, what's your relationship with Wu Di? I'm kind of curious..."
Shen Yiyue had started to gossip, but was quickly silenced by a glare from Ning Yu.
That look seemed to say "don't ask unnecessary personal questions," and Shen Yiyue immediately stuck out her tongue playfully and apologetically.
"Actually, we've known each other since we were children."
Ji Mengyao turned her head toward the window, as if recalling some distant memory, and began to speak.
"I mentioned before that I was born without the ability to feel pain, and I was bullied a lot because of it."
She flicked some ash out the window.
"My mother raised me alone, and I was already discriminated against at school for being from a single-parent family."
"They would take away my textbooks, put insects in my pencil case, and later it got worse - they started putting nails in my shoes."
"Heh, just a bunch of stupid kids."
Ji Mengyao spoke as if it wasn't a big deal, but for her younger self, these were very real forms of hurt.
Hearing this, Ning Yu and Shen Yiyue understood - being from a single-parent family and experiencing school bullying must have made her childhood incredibly dark.
"That time, I only realized my feet were covered in blood when I got home. The bottom of my feet were completely torn up."
"My mom held me and cried for a long time, saying she wanted to transfer me to another school, but I refused - we couldn't afford it."
"I could only endure it silently."
She lit another cigarette, now opening up more.
"It was after that incident that they discovered I couldn't feel pain. I thought they might stop after seeing me miss school for three days due to injuries, but instead, they became even more vicious."
Ji Mengyao bit her lower lip, recalling some unpleasant memories.
She didn't elaborate on the specific bullying she endured, but it must have been worse than putting nails in her shoes.
"That's when I met him."
At this point, the gloom on Ji Mengyao's face seemed to suddenly disappear as she patted the still unconscious Wu Di's shoulder.
"He was also ostracized in class. Once when his book was torn up by others, I lent him mine to share."
"After that, we started staying together more often, two outcasts rejected by the class."
"He used to silently endure bullying just like me, but after we became friends, he took it upon himself to protect me."
The hallucinations seemed to have eased somewhat as Ji Mengyao slowly leaned her head back against the seat, watching the smoke drift past her eyes.
"Couldn't stop him, what a fool."
"But one time things went wrong. I was cornered after school, and some girls had called in reinforcements to 'teach me a lesson.'"
"He protected me again, but in the chaos, he was hit in the head and bled a lot."
Ji Mengyao reached out her hand and gently stroked the back of Wu Di's head, seemingly where he had been injured back then.
"I cried as we went to the hospital together, and I had to leave when his family arrived."
"He changed after that day. He used to be someone who loved to laugh, was optimistic, and would tell me corny jokes."
"But from that day on, he only had one expression. It must have been because of the serious brain injury he suffered while protecting me."
"When I asked him about it, he didn't explain much, but it seemed similar to something called 'alexithymia.'"
"From what I could tell, he could no longer express his emotions properly, like someone who had lost the ability to convey feelings."
"But after that incident, he seemed to become incredibly strong, and those who bullied us couldn't beat him anymore."
Ning Yu found this description familiar and asked:
"Could that have been when he awakened?"
Ji Mengyao extinguished another cigarette and threw the butt out the window:
"I guess so."
"Also after that incident, communicating with him became difficult. He no longer expressed his joy, anger, sadness, or happiness, and showed no expressions - like a robot."
"Only one thing remained unchanged - he still stayed by my side to protect me, like a shadow."
She first chuckled, then furrowed her brows, seeming somewhat sad as she looked down at Wu Di.
"After the apocalypse came, we continued to stay together."
"His awakened ability could be used further, with effects you've all seen - it gives him terrifying strength."
"Once when we were in extreme danger, he used this ability, and it truly frightened me. He literally crushed a mutant zombie to pieces with his bare hands."
"Then, just like today, he fell unconscious."
Ning Yu felt a chill in her heart - indeed, all these awakened abilities came with a price, without exception.
Was this what they called equivalent exchange?
"After he woke up that time, I could clearly feel that his emotional barriers had become even more severe."
"I used to be able to detect some basic facial expressions and emotional expression from him, but after he used that ability, I could hardly sense any expressions or emotions from him at all."
"It scared me, so I made him promise never to use that ability again."
She gently poked Wu Di, as if reproaching him.
But her eyes were dim, with mysterious emotions flowing within:
"Ever since that first time he was injured protecting me, I felt like the distance between us started growing."
"I'm afraid that one day he'll no longer want to stay by my side, becoming someone completely devoid of emotions."
"Sometimes I even think about leaving the exploration team altogether..."
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
