Chapter 142: For Everyone’s Sake
Xue Qi froze on the spot—what was going on?
Wu Heng kept increasing the pressure in his palm, but he knew Jiang Yi wouldn’t suffocate because of it. Underground was, after all, a more suitable environment for plants to take root and survive.
He yanked Jiang Yi up in one motion, forcing him to meet his gaze.
Jiang Yi looked at Wu Heng with a baffled, incomprehensible expression. “I advise you to stay rational. We don’t have many people left now.”
“But if you’re acting like this because you’re overwhelmed with grief, I can understand that. Still, we have to get moving.”
Wu Heng merely looked at him in silence.
Jiang Yi could only say, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Shen Ping’an stood behind Wu Heng, replaying the entire sequence of the accident in his mind. He couldn’t think of anything particularly strange about it—except that everything had happened far too quickly and smoothly. And yet, any real accident should be riddled with flaws.
But unlike Wu Heng, he couldn’t identify the instigator so swiftly.
In fact, he suspected that even Wu Heng himself wasn’t entirely certain.
So who was bluffing?
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” Wu Heng narrowed his eyes. “The movement of the mountain mass is extremely slow. Even if we stayed here for half a month, the canyon and the wetland could never have switched places. A plant network does exist, but the nearby plants only grew gigantic because geomagnetic forces caused the earth’s core energy to leak out. They haven’t developed self-awareness—I just confirmed that. They’re still in a state where they can be manipulated.”
“So tell me—before I made my move, who was the first to manipulate it, link it into a network, and drag people underground?”
“That’s just your speculation.” Jiang Yi raised a hand and grabbed Wu Heng’s wrist, trying to pry it away, but failed.
The boy only looked light and unassuming.
“I have no reason to do something like that,” Jiang Yi said at last. “Even if I lost control, even if my body were taken over, I’d still have no reason to slaughter my teammates.”
“When did I ever say you killed them?” Wu Heng asked, puzzled.
Jiang Yi knelt on the ground and let out a soft laugh. “This has nothing to do with me.”
Wu Heng’s fingers slowly tightened. “Whether it has anything to do with you or not—kill you, and we’ll find out, won’t we?”
“Wu Heng! Wu Heng!” Seeing Jiang Yi’s face flushing red, Yang Xiaoyun scrambled over and wrapped his arms around Wu Heng’s arm. “Don’t! Don’t! What if it’s a misunderstanding—”
“Relax,” Wu Heng shot Yang Xiaoyun a glance. “You’re next.”
Yang Xiaoyun felt as if his entire body had been frozen solid. He thought of Xie Chongyi’s warnings before they had set out from Jingzhou.
- Even if you end up eating and sleeping together, don’t assume he’ll remember you, care about you, or value your life.
- Which is why—don’t try to bind him or persuade him with emotions, let alone morality.
- In emergencies, good food works better than any other method—but only on the condition that he’s in a good mood, or at least not in a terrible one.
- At any time, don’t touch the ones called Lin Mengzhi and Wu Zhi~.
Final note: all interpretation rights belong to Wu Heng; Xie Chongyi bears no responsibility.
The elephant ear plant was poisonous. Wu Heng increasingly felt a needle-like pain stabbing into his palm. A bluish-purple color spread from his fingertips into his palm, then up his arm.
“Wu Heng,” Shen Ping’an called softly from behind him.
Killing someone without any evidence—and not an ordinary person at that—would never be ignored by Jingzhou. Wu Heng held no title, no authority, and more importantly, he didn’t have sufficiently convincing proof.
Jiang Yi all but looked down on Wu Heng. Even if his neck were snapped, it wouldn’t affect him much.
But Wu Heng wasn’t paying attention to what emotion Jiang Yi’s gaze was trying to convey.
What he saw instead was his past—Lin Mengzhi getting his first paycheck and treating him and Wu Zhi to steak, then flamboyantly buying himself a new backpack and a dress for Wu Zhi.
Even stranger was that the memories surfacing weren’t limited to Lin Mengzhi alone.
There was also the look Xue Shen gave him after catching Xue Qi—and even Ying Liuquan, that useless teacher who was always crying, ‘I’m so scared.’
Wu Heng sent the vine straight into Jiang Yi’s throat and neck. In that instant, Jiang Yi stiffened, his neck locked as if he were suffocating.
“If it wasn’t you, you won’t die.” Wu Heng was already using the gentlest method possible.
A single plant was a universe in itself; when all plants were linked together, they formed another universe altogether.
Wu Heng found Jiang Yi’s pathways and brushed against them. Once the connection was established, the plants formed a third space independent of both of them. Within that space, Wu Heng searched for anything useful.
In a city reduced to nothing but broken walls and ruins, soldiers in camouflage moved through the most dangerous areas. The zombies in the city seemed endless, never fully eradicated.
“Captain, a beehive has been discovered inside the tower—we need support!”
“We’ve arrived at the mission location, target confirmed, preparing to land!”
“The 1,367th zombie tide will reach Fengzhou in two hours. Everyone, take your positions!”
“Report—twenty personnel were supposed to be present. One is actually here!”
“Captain Jiang, we didn’t find your father, but there’s a letter he left for you.”
“It’s fine. The living will always matter more than the dead.”
If Wu Heng hadn’t seen Jiang Yi curled up on a sofa, crying, within that third space, he probably wouldn’t have noticed the restrained tremor in Jiang Yi’s voice when he answered his teammates.
Through Jiang Yi’s perspective, Wu Heng saw more dead people than he had seen in his entire life combined—hundreds of times more.
He also saw the handwritten letter from Jiang Yi’s father, made up of only a few brief lines.
“Jiang Yi, I don’t really understand superpowers, but you have to cherish them. Don’t become complacent or arrogant. Don’t look down on people, don’t b*lly others. Use them in the right way, on the right people—to save lives, not to harm them. This is a chaotic era, a trial for humanity, and we’re going to face enormous challenges.
Jiang Yi, no matter what, you must never forget that you are human. You must protect humanity, care for your companions, and defend our homeland. And—let your dad nag a bit more—you need to eat three proper meals a day. You must eat breakfast. You don’t need to come looking for me on purpose; you just need to remember that your mom and dad will always be by your side.”
Wu Heng still hadn’t found what he was looking for. His probing continued deeper along the pathways, going straight into the very depths—to the heart.
On the surface of Jiang Yi’s body, bluish veins bulged visibly. He looked at Wu Heng, hatred spilling out of his eyes.
Xue Qi was so worried he didn’t even know where to look anymore, when suddenly, a corpse behind him took a deep breath.
Wang Ruixiang sat up, his face full of confusion as he looked at Wu Heng and Jiang Yi. “What… what are you two doing?”
Footsteps sounded. Jiang Xun crawled out from a patch of bushes. “I—what the hell? No—wait? I found the road? Then why are you—where’s the captain?!”
Wen Yuan’s body was gone. At the same time, missing were Xue Shen from Xue Qi’s leg, Teacher Ying, Lin Mengzhi, Ruan Silian, and the three people who had been standing nearby like good-luck mascots—Wang Meixia and the others. Even Doctor Chen, who had been doing nothing but burying his head in food, had vanished without a trace.
“Brother? Where’s my brother? Wu Heng, my brother’s gone! Everyone’s gone—Ruan Silian is gone too!” Xue Qi clawed at the ground, digging out a huge pit.
Behind him, those who should have been dead—Wen Yuan’s people—appeared one by one, wearing the same expressions of terror and bewilderment.
Yang Xiaoyun spotted Chen Qiong. “Holy shit—didn’t you just fire a shot straight into your own head? You’re fine?”
Chen Qiong looked baffled. “When did I shoot myself in the head? If anything, I should’ve shot you in the head.”
Jiang Xun said, “Yang Xiaoyun, why are you lying on the ground like that? Your ass itching or something?”
Yang Xiaoyun’s awkward position on the ground was, of course, because he’d lost his lower leg. He tried to show Jiang Xun his severed leg—but when he sat up, he discovered that his calf was unmistakably right there below his knee.
He sprang to his feet in shock, already understanding what had happened, and rushed to Jiang Yi’s side. “Jiang Yi—what did you do?!”
“Jiang Yi? What does this have to do with Jiang Yi?” Jiang Xun was still completely in the dark.
Wu Heng abruptly let go of Jiang Yi and walked around the area. He found that the corpses of the insects were still there, and so was the body of the leopard. Their positions hadn’t changed.
It was just that some of their people had vanished from this spot. Or perhaps, under Jiang Yi’s influence, they had been obscured like Jiang Xun and the others—blocked from sight? Trapped? Or… dead?
Wu Heng returned behind Jiang Yi and kicked him to the ground. “Jiang Yi. Can you answer honestly now?”
“Jiang Yi, why did you do this?” Wen Yuan’s fate was unknown, and so was that of the kids. Yang Xiaoyun’s anger flared.
Jiang Yi slowly pushed himself up, brushed the dirt off his clothes, and stood.
“Would I really harm you?” he asked softly. “If I sensed I was losing control, I would deal with myself first. I wouldn’t drag anyone else down with me.”
“And how do you know you didn’t lose control?” Wu Heng asked, his hands tucked into his pockets.
X had nowhere else to crouch. It carefully perched on his shoulder and quietly chimed in, “Exactly.”
“Wouldn’t I know whether I lost control or not?” Jiang Yi’s face was deathly pale. His body had just been completely penetrated, stripped apart layer by layer.
Every tendon and bone in the young man’s body was screaming in pain, yet even so, the thought of revenge or harming others had never crossed his mind. How could he possibly have lost control?
Hearing this, Yang Xiaoyun lowered his head in thought. Jiang Yi wasn’t wrong.
Back in Jingzhou, the few who had lost control showed it very clearly—their thoughts grew more and more extreme, darker and darker, until in the end, they became nothing more than foolish villains.
“You’ve killed people,” Wu Heng said. Seeing the shock and confusion on the others’ faces, he adjusted his words. “You’ve killed before. Quite a few.”
“Jiang Yi?” No matter what, Jiang Xun trusted her own people more. But at this moment, even she wasn’t so sure anymore. Wu Heng wouldn’t accuse someone without reason… no—this wasn’t about Wu Heng. It was about the others disappearing. Just now, she herself had even… she didn’t know where she had just gone. She had lost the memory of everything after the swarm was driven back.
If it had been a mutated creature, she might already be dead. If it had been Wu Heng—then what reason would he have to toy with them like this? Wu Heng’s goal was only Siwangzhidi.
Jiang Yi took a few steps forward, his narrow eyes filled with confusion. “If you kill someone in order to save people, does that still count as killing?”
Wu Heng didn’t understand how Jiang Yi could think that way.
“Even if you kill one person to save thousands or tens of thousands, it’s still killing.”
“I saw it—you killed teammates who slowed the group down. You killed elderly people and the wounded whom you thought were just wasting food and medical supplies by staying alive.”
“And now, you want to keep most of us penned up in what you believe is the safest place—your hometown, Shenjian.”
The others weren’t just shocked that Jiang Yi’s loss of control might have shown signs long ago; they were also shocked that Wu Heng could know all of this.
As for Jiang Yi, faced with the accusations, he simply spread his hands. “I did it for everyone’s sake. What’s wrong with that?”