Chapter 216

Chapter 216

10 p.m.

The Thunderfire on Cheng Jing's body finally receded completely, leaving him naked on the ground.

Jiang Nian took out a thin blanket and draped it over him before scooping him up and carrying him back to his own tent.

"Wow! Brother Nian’s got some serious boyfriend strength!"

Tang Ji raised his thumb in amazement.

Jiang Nian replied modestly,

"Hey, I’m 6 feet tall, awakened my Superpower, and trained diligently. Shouldn’t I be able to carry my own boyfriend?"

Though not as effortlessly as when Brother Jing carried him, he had no problem walking a short distance like this—just the normal strength of a grown man.

"Stepdad’s a beast!"

Liao Yu also raised his thumb, then glanced silently at Zhao Lei, mentally sizing himself up before shaking his head.

No contest.

Cheng Jing’s body was scorching hot, his eyelids fluttering slightly. After Jiang Nian withdrew his Superpower, he fell into unconsciousness, now drifting in and out of consciousness.

Jiang Nian cooled him down with ice water and changed him into baggy, comfy clothes before calling his teammates in.

"Brother Jing..."

"Cheng!"

"Cheng Jing—"

"..."

Cheng Jing felt as if he were burning from the inside out—his skin, blood, nerves, even his brain felt fried...

The cool water was a relief to the scorching heat.

In his daze, he heard Jiang Nian and his teammates calling his name, but he couldn’t respond.

Forcing his heavy eyelids open, he saw Jiang Nian gripping his hand, beaming at him.

Then the others approached, but his blurry vision turned them into overlapping shadows.

Yet, when he caught sight of Gao Xuyang’s stiff, pale face, a sudden, unexplainable fear gripped Cheng Jing.

His consciousness sharpened, but his body refused to obey. In the next blink, they’d all morphed into grotesque zombies, lunging at him, snarling.

His lover’s happy voice turned panicked, almost tearful, then morphed into blood-curdling screams.

When he tried blinking again to regain clarity, everything just got fuzzier.

At some point, the tent was gone, replaced by a basement. Jiang Nian was no longer holding him but lay gaunt and writhing in pain on a metal-framed bed.

Before he could process it, the staccato bursts of gunfire and bone-chilling growls grew louder, getting closer by the second...

Cheng Jing knew he was either dreaming or hallucinating, stuck in sleep paralysis, unable to wake up no matter how loudly he screamed or struggled.

When he witnessed a horde of stench-ridden zombies charging into the basement and lunging at Jiang Nian, a sharp pain pierced his mind, dragging his consciousness into an even deeper nightmare.

It was like dreaming inside a dream.

"..."

Inside the tent, Jiang Nian and the others watched as Cheng Jing closed his eyes again and fell back asleep, thinking he’d be fine after sleeping it off.

But they soon realized his fever hadn’t subsided even after a long time. Though he wasn’t literally smoking or burning, his fever held at a dangerous 44°C.

He kept sweating, his face twisted in agony as if trapped in a nightmare, experiencing something terrifying. No matter how hard they tried to rouse him, he wouldn’t wake—meds and shots did nothing.

Even Zhou Rongbin and Gao Xuyang’s attempts to intervene with their mental-type superpowers failed.

Occasionally, he’d mumble Jiang Nian’s name in a slurred voice, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes.

With no other options, Liao Yu could only surround him with ice to lower his temperature.

Jiang Nian knew Bro Jing would pull through, but it pained him to see the man worrying about him even in his dreams.

Until Tang Ji made a casual comment:

"Could it be that Cheng is dreaming of Brother Nian getting hurt while he couldn’t do a damn thing…?"

"..."

Yang Kai and Chu Yi furrowed their brows—even they couldn’t assist him in this state.

But Jiang Nian, Zhao Lei, and the others had a sinking feeling, inexplicably recalling Chen Yue’s awakening to memories of his past life.

Nightmares foretelling the apocalypse, memories from a past life resurfacing… It’d happened before—it didn’t mean there couldn’t be another. What if…?

After a moment, Huang Qian quietly proposed that, aside from Yang Kai, their team take shifts watching over Cheng Jing—just in case.

After all, Bro Kai had to take care of Gao Xuyang, while Chu Yi and Tang Ji were responsible for the military group and other survivors. It was the logical move.

If his teammates could think of it, Jiang Nian naturally understood too. He fully supported Sister Qian’s plan—if Bro Jing started babbling weird stuff, at least they wouldn’t have to worry.

Yang Kai had already contacted the base to send a plane, which would likely arrive by early morning.

Chu Yi’s spatial storage was needed to accommodate the military group and the supplies they’d gathered here.

Plus, they hadn’t expected to encounter pregnant women during this mission, and now with Cheng Jing’s condition, calling in a plane was their only safe bet.

The fuel alone cost a fortune—it couldn’t be deployed unless absolutely necessary.

Meanwhile, the base’s intelligence department had also responded to their earlier inquiry about the situation near Guan Shan Prison.

Using special channels, the Southern City Base had urgently gathered intel from various sources, backing up their hunch:

Since the apocalypse began, Guan Shan Prison had descended into chaos, requesting reinforcements but receiving no response. Later, rumors spread that it had been converted into a shelter, but they’d ghosted all official contact.

Before Gao Xuyang lost control, Second Brother Qi and his men had been free to come and go—

Using superpowered teams, impersonating official rescue squads nearby, posing as survivor groups… They established footholds in the area to recruit other survivors, only to lead them into Guan Shan Prison to be killed and looted.

"You can’t teach a bad dog new tricks—scum will always be scum!"

Yang Kai ground his teeth and spat out a curse.

After the world fell into chaos, many prisoners in various prisons cooperated with officials to maintain order, developing superpowers to help civilians.

But he would never believe that Second Brother Qi could truly reform.

Anyone who deals in that filth is rotten through and through!

Yang Kai itched to drag Second Brother Qi out and make an example of him right then and there. Biting back his fury, he fished out a cigarette and walked aside.

He had just lit it and taken a puff when Gao Xuyang reached over, took it away, and placed it on a nearby rock, speaking in a negotiating tone:

"Could you quit... please?"

Ever since turning into one of the undead, his human senses—like taste—had weakened to the point of being nearly nonexistent. Now, only fresh blood and crystal cores could stir him.

But the jumbled thoughts in his head and some long-forgotten "instincts" drove him to dislike Yang Kai smoking frequently.

"..."

Yang Kai hesitated, then exhaled and nodded:

"Yeah, alright."

He’d only started chain-smoking after losing him, chain-smoking through sleepless nights of longing.

Now, it really was time to quit.

"..."

The night stretched on. Chu Yi had gotten the survivors squared away, but not a single member of their team slept.

Cheng Jing was stuck in a feverish limbo—no longer talking in his sleep or showing pain, but still unconscious.

Jiang Nian urged his teammates to rest in their tents. In case Brother Jing’s powers flared up during his dreams, he even snagged a power-dampening collar from Chu Yi to temporarily place on him.

That eased their worries.

Lying down beside Cheng Jing, Jiang Nian stared at the tent ceiling, a gnawing dread settled in his chest.