Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Fortunately, Jiang Nian had been prepared. Mentally focusing, he used his purification superpower to stay lucid. As soon as Cheng Jing and Huang Qian succumbed, he quickly slapped them awake.

Transferring his blue-white superpower through his palms into their bodies, their fogged minds cleared instantly.

Once recovered, Huang Qian instantly lashed the woman with vines.

Her bare right hand was missing a chunk of flesh. The exposed skin had already rotted, and the blood oozing from the wound had begun to darken.

Clearly, she was infected.

At the same time, blood gushed from her eyes, nose, and mouth—leaving her a grotesque, bloodied mess.

Yet, the woman’s superpower exhaustion wasn’t caused by Cheng Jing and the others—it was from controlling her zombified husband earlier.

After dealing with the woman, Huang Qian turned her attention to the half-rotten face of the man who had turned into a zombie. His original appearance was long gone, and there was no discernible difference between him and other zombies.

The woman’s actions made no sense to her.

As the zombie roared and tried to use his power again, Huang Qian drove a vine through his skull without hesitation, wrapping his head in a cocoon of vines.

“No! Don’t kill him!”

Seeing her zombified husband killed, the woman wailed like a wounded animal, tears of blood streaking her face.

The room was barely warmer than the freezing outside, yet her bloody tears soon froze into red crusts across her eyes and cheeks.

Only after confirming that the couple could no longer pose a threat did the trio take a closer look at the room, which triggered instant nausea:

The spacious master bedroom contained only a single bed, heaped with bricks and junk.

The zombie was strapped to a specially reinforced chair, connected to the weight of the bed.

Bloodied cables zigzagged wildly between the bed and the chair—clearly meant to prevent him from misusing his power instead of using chains.

The walls and floor were splattered with dried, blackened bloodstains.

In the corner stood two large plastic containers, neatly packed with segmented chunks of meat—their origin obvious.

Beside them sat a stainless steel basin filled with crushed medications mixed into powder.

A blood-caked chunk of meat lay inside, gnawed once, bearing a vicious bite mark.

The empty pill packets nearby revealed sedatives—some ordinary health supplements, others strictly controlled substances.

“You fed him meat laced with sedatives!”

Jiang Nian gritted his teeth in fury, recalling how the woman had earlier claimed she needed medication due to anxiety-induced insomnia. He’d actually felt sorry for her—until now, realizing the drugs fed her zombie husband.

Medicine, human flesh—though it was unclear whether this truly slowed the infection, she’d desperately tried to keep her husband “alive.”

All to commit atrocities, disregarding even her terrified daughter.

Indeed, human cruelty had no limits. Even the weakest-seeming people could be monsters.

“Hmph!”

Spent from sobbing, the woman went limp. Her pretty face was now a frozen mask of blood and tears, contorted in agony.

"So what? I was prepared when I killed the Night Watch!"

A simple "so what" left them speechless.

So what? In this world, death's the worst that can happen—no one's gonna waste time judging her.

"How did you kill 14 superpowered individuals?"

Huang Qian asked, though she already guessed, she still wanted to hear it from the woman herself.

The woman didn’t hold back. Tilting her head slightly as she recalled, she spoke slowly:

"Xiao Ya was against me killing people, but she always helped bring them back. So, after my husband… ate, I’d dispose of the 'trash' late at night."

"That night, when I went downstairs to throw out the trash, the bag tore. One squad noticed the bloodstained clothes inside… They came looking…"

Cheng Jing clenched his fists in anger:

"Go on!"

The woman swayed slightly—the power drain making it hard for her. After a pause, she continued:

"I used my power to compel them into the room. Once I got their unlocked phones, I killed them. Then I used their chat logs to bait the others—rinse and repeat. Finally, I had Xiao Ya use her teleportation ability to take them to the basement… to be taken apart."

"How could you make a child do something like this?!"

Cheng Jing was furious, practically seeing red, wishing he could smash her skull in.

"Xiao Ya is kind. She always listens. I told her it would help cure her father, so even if she was scared and upset, she’d still help me..."

The woman started sobbing again, tears streaming down her face:

"I know she was afraid… After her father lost his mind, she never entered this room again. She begged me not to kill, saying Dad couldn’t be cured… But I had to try… I had to…"

"Even a child understood, yet you refused to see reason!"

As a woman herself, Huang Qian wanted to split her head open to see what was inside.

*Clang!*

Jiang Nian kicked over the basin of medicinal powder, fuming:

"Do you have any idea how much damage you've done to Xiao Ya? She couldn't save her father, and now she’s helped you kill so many people! How’s she supposed to live with herself?!"

"……"

Breathing in the heavy scent of medicine, the woman turned her head weakly toward Jiang Nian:

"Right… That day, you gave her a piece of candy. She told you to stay away… She even begged me not to hurt you… She kept wanting to reach out… But how could I let her… Sobbed."

After crying for a while, she muttered to herself:

"I was planning to turn her tonight… But you came too soon. Since it’s like this, you’ll have to look after her now. As for the pain I caused… She’s on her own now. I failed her."

"You think 'sorry' cuts it? She’ll be haunted by this forever! How can you be so selfish?"

Huang Qian gritted her teeth, her vision blurred with tears. The scars family leaves never truly fade—she knew that better than anyone.

*Hack… wheeze…*

The woman coughed up a mouthful of dark red blood, her voice ragged with hysteria as she demanded:

"What else could I have done? I just wanted our family to be okay..."

She broke into hysterical laughter between sobs until more and more blood poured from her mouth, its color deepening into blackness and giving off a rotting stench. Finally, she let out a long sigh:

"There's no saving me now... Just do it—I deserve to die. Please take care of Xiao Ya. You’re good people. If she asks, tell her directly that I became like her father and can't be with her anymore. She knew I was infected at dinner—she'll understand."

"..."

The three looked at each other. Jiang Nian drew a shaky breath and stepped forward.

"Is there anything else you want to say to Xiao Ya?"

"..."

After a long silence, the woman slowly shook her head, dazed.

"No... I've already told her everything these past few days... I let her down, and I let her father down too. He only wanted to bring back the last of our supplies before leaving, but I held him back against his will—and this is what happened..."

Her husband had asked her to stay alive and care for their daughter, but the grief was too much. She knew she was selfish, knew she was wrong—but regret? Not for a second.