Chapter 177: Mother
The castle had collapsed. The lights specially lit for the celebration had all gone out, and even the distant sound of gongs and drums from the playground had vanished. The surroundings sank into complete silence.
Bang!
A gray shadow rolled out of the ruins. Chunks of concrete scattered everywhere. The gray bird, with a human head clamped in its beak, tumbled across the ground a few times. In a hurry, it swallowed what was in its mouth before taking flight.
Everyone watched as its massive gray form faded into the night. Before they could even figure out where such an enormous bird had been hiding earlier, it came back.
Its murderous red eyes looked like two rapidly approaching fireballs in the darkness.
It was even bigger than before!
The ability users on the ground hurled countless attacks at it. The bird ignored them all, taking every strike head-on without suffering the slightest injury. Only bursts of sparks flew off, illuminating its steel-like feathers with a dazzling shine.
It flew straight toward Wu Heng. Compared with its enormous body, the humans on the ground looked pitifully small.
The bearded man and his group broke into a cold sweat for Wu Heng.
Why isn’t he dodging?
But the closer the bird came, the more familiar it began to look.
As it approached Wu Heng, the mutated bird’s wings stirred up a fierce gust of wind across the ground, nearly forcing everyone to shut their eyes.
At that moment, it stretched out its talons and landed steadily behind Wu Heng. Its head jerked from side to side as if skipping frames, vigilantly scanning the surroundings.
“Whoa!!!” the bearded man suddenly shouted. “That’s the parrot you raised!”
“Interesting.”
The one who reacted was actually Ning Bizhen. A faint red glow flickered in his eyes.
The bearded man’s cheek twitched. Sensing something, he turned toward Ning Bizhen in terror, his eyes filled with pleading.
The next instant, the bearded man’s body collapsed to the ground in a twisted posture, wailing in agony. His companions retreated in fear, yet within the crowd, two or three people were moving forward instead.
“What’s going on?” Dou Lu tightly gripped Ruan Silian’s arm.
“Ning Bizhen has activated the gu worms inside their bodies.”
Dou Lu swallowed hard and took half a step back. A hazy golden beam of light flowed from her palm. From beneath the ground, Yang Ao, Yang Yu, and the child in Yang Yu’s arms were pulled out by her ability.
Still covered in dust and dirt, Yang Ao and Yang Yu had yet to recover from the chaotic fight. By the time they regained their senses, they and Ruan Silian were already enclosed within a dome of shimmering blue light.
“I don’t believe anyone here can break through my defense.”
With that, Dou Lu kicked the light shield up into the air and darted to Wu Heng’s left side.
At this moment, the bearded man’s screams had already grown unbearably shrill, yet Ning Bizhen still seemed unsatisfied. Suddenly, a reddish insect leg pierced out from the bearded man’s abdomen. Clutching his stomach, the veins on the man’s face bulged violently.
“Wu Heng, we have to—” Dou Lu couldn’t bear to watch any longer—
Before she could even finish speaking, a soft, inconspicuous vine thread crawled out from the exact same spot in the bearded man’s abdomen, wrapping itself around the insect leg.
Immediately afterward, with two puff sounds, two more insect legs burst through the bearded man’s body. This time, their target was not to punish him, but the mutated plant that had somehow parasitized them.
The two creatures turned the bearded man’s body into a battlefield, tearing into each other.
Lying flat on the ground, the bearded man struggled to raise his neck. Seeing the mess that his upper body had become, he gasped, “M-mother of mercy…”
Ning Bizhen tilted his head, a trace of confusion appearing in his eyes.
“That’s…” Dou Lu recognized her own vine. “Wu Heng, when did you put that inside their bodies?”
“Last night, during dinner.”
Back when these ability users had been invited over, Wu Heng had already felt that something was off. If the rumors were true—that Ning Bizhen possessed an inhuman level of possessiveness toward Shen Miao—then why would he bring Shen Miao to such a crowded event? But if the goal was truly to make the birthday celebration grand, then why not invite the entire city?
So this banquet might indeed have been a birthday party…
—or it might have been a hunt prepared for their entire group.
However, it had only been a guess. So the previous night, he had only planted poppy vines inside the bodies of those who had shared that dinner. No matter what the true nature of the banquet was, a clash with Ning Bizhen was almost inevitable. If these ability users were all followers of the mother parasite, then when conflict broke out, the poppy vines inside their bodies could at least serve as a form of protection.
“So do these people all—”
“No.”
As soon as the word fell, the people who had been walking forward finally stepped out of the crowd. They raised their energy blades and slashed toward the bearded man.
A fiery red shadow shot out from beneath the ruins like a projectile. Seeing this, Wu Heng glanced behind him and simply sat down on the railing.
A streak of fire flashed beneath Lin Mengzhi’s feet. With a single kick, he knocked three people over and stood in front of the bearded man, shielding him.
Within the crowd, pairs of insect-like eyes lit up one after another—except for the few who had shared dinner with them the previous night. Those few clearly had no idea what was happening, nor why they themselves were not being affected by the mother parasite.
Crack.
The crisp sound came from inside the bearded man’s stomach. The insect legs had shriveled; the vines snapped them off and devoured them. The vines then crawled back into the bearded man’s belly and even helped him to his feet.
But the bearded man was obviously bewildered. Like the others, he had no idea what had just happened.
After a long silence, Ning Bizhen finally looked directly at the boy who seemed detached from everything.
“It was you,” he murmured.
—
Xie Chongyi walked along with a dog on a leash, humming a tune. The same figure strolled down many different streets at once.
Long, black insects with sharp, streamlined bodies crawled into every corner of Hanzhou. No one was better at finding their own kind than they were.
They grew stronger along with Xie Chongyi’s power. Some of them would even politely knock on doors. When a human opened the door, the insect would rise upright; the long feather on its head would droop down, pointing straight at the person’s pupil.
The parasitic gu worm would reveal its true form.
Under the blade of the source of all evil, it had no power to resist at all—its only fate was to exist as food.
“Old Xie, not bad,” Xue Shen flashed over from another street. “Zero casualties.”
Xie Chongyi said nothing, only smiling as he looked at Xue Shen.
At once, it felt as if a stone were lodged in Xue Shen’s throat. His gaze turned cold. “You’re not Xie Chongyi.”
The other still said nothing.
Whether it was survival or destruction, Xie Chongyi had already made his choice. He chose to protect the ability users of this city. Under the surge of immense power, the impurities within that power were also multiplying severalfold.
Behind the countless panes of glass in the buildings lining both sides of the street, shadows flickered—black insect forms swinging their scythe-like limbs as they slaughtered. In the middle of the road, their leader was absorbing and digesting the nourishment they provided.
Xue Shen took a deep breath. A slender water whip formed in his hand and lashed straight toward Xie Chongyi.
The other made no attempt to resist. His neck was bound, and he was dragged along the ground.
But in the next instant, the whip struck empty air.
Xie Chongyi’s smiling face appeared behind Xue Shen, and with a heavy kick, he sent him flying a hundred meters away.
Without the slightest pause, Xue Shen scrambled back up. Within half a second, he was already in front of Xie Chongyi again. This time, he chose to personally seize the opponent’s throat—only to see the figure struggle, its human form gradually twisting into a pitch-black insect.
“What are you supposed to be, daring to pretend to be human in front of me?” Xue Shen tightened his grip, and the black insect’s head was torn from its body.
“Tsk, that was a bit too harsh, wasn’t it?”
From above, Xie Chongyi sat on a balcony. “You’d go for the kill even against a brother—what if that had really been me?”
“If it wasn’t you, then it deserved it.” Xue Shen returned a polite smile, but it vanished just as quickly. He turned to look toward the direction of the school. “I wonder how Wu Heng and the others are doing.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a blinding beam of light shot from the ground straight into the sky. The entire city was plunged into daylight for an instant—then, as the beam vanished, darkness returned just as suddenly.
“It’s from the school.” Xue Shen’s expression changed.
—
Dou Lu returned from outside the school walls to Wu Heng’s side. “They’ve all been blocked. They can’t get in.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. There’s no ability user in Area A with a higher rank than me.”
Ning Bizhen didn’t need to act personally at all. Aside from the few who had been “turned” by Wu Heng, every ability user would stand in front of him—including those from Area A, the closest to Area S.
But now, all the Area A ability users had been blocked outside the magnetic barrier. Once Xie Chongyi finished “cleansing” his way to them, the mother parasite’s control over them would vanish.
However, right now, there were still nearly a hundred ability users personally invited by Ning Bizhen—and since this had been carefully arranged, none of them were weak.
And Ning Bizhen could tell that, aside from Wu Heng, the others simply couldn’t bring themselves to kill those being controlled. They still clung to that last line they refused to cross.
Lin Mengzhi was sent flying when an old woman pretending to be pitiful suddenly slashed at him with her claws. Blood poured from his neck.
“Damn it, this old hag acting like my grandma!” He scrambled back to his feet near Wu Heng, clutching his neck. As he spoke, he noticed Wu Heng staring at him with a completely emotionless gaze. “Y-you… why aren’t you fighting?”
“I’ll fight after you all get yourselves killed.”
Lin Mengzhi blinked, then seemed to realize something. He let out a snort. “I plan to live a long life, you’re just trying to slack off.”
With that, he dove back into the crowd. Flames burst from his palm, instantly igniting four or five ability users. Their screams rang sharply in everyone’s ears. Seizing the opportunity, Dou Lu followed up from behind and shattered all of their energy cores in one go.
Ning Bizhen frowned again.
But there was a constant buzzing whisper in his ears.
He looked toward the source—not far away. Among them, the black-haired young man, the one they called “Teacher,” was kneeling on the ground, drenched in sweat, praying fervently.
A believer? Of what faith?
Ning Bizhen raised his hand toward where Ying Liuquan stood and gave a slight twist. Several nearby ability users abruptly turned around and charged at the defenseless target with incredible speed.
At that moment, a beam of light descended from above, illuminating everything.
Ying Liuquan lifted his eyes. The energies—whose destructive force was impossible to gauge—suddenly changed direction, shooting outward in all directions.
Several screams rang out. Every strike hit Ning Bizhen’s people—even Ning Bizhen himself, who tried to block in time, had a deep cut opened across his face.
Seeing that people had died, Ying Liuquan collapsed onto the ground, drenched in cold sweat, wailing, “Wu Heng, Wu Heng, come protect your teacher!”
Dou Lu raised her hand to block a massive chunk of earth hurled by a soil-type ability user. Amid the swirling dust, she heard Ying Liuquan’s cry for help and rushed over—only to find that he had already killed more people than she had.
Compared to them, Xue Zhi’s methods were truly ruthless. She didn’t waste time on direct confrontation—if she could kill in one strike, she would never drag things out. Having never been protected and always being the one protecting others, even her killing followed a certain logic of her own: those who relied on their hands were the first to lose them; for beast-symbiosis types, she targeted eyes and limbs first; fire-type ability users she left to Lin Mengzhi; she herself focused on earth and water types.
Wu Heng, however, had not participated at all—just like Ning Bizhen, who also hadn’t truly taken action from beginning to end. Wu Heng simply pulled out a specially made lollipop that Dou Lu and the others had brought him from Jingzhou long ago and popped it into his mouth.
Hidden from view, Ning Bizhen’s fingers slowly clenched.
The surroundings had grown eerily quiet.
Something was wrong. Why was it so silent? Why couldn’t the ability users across the entire city be mobilized?
No—not that they couldn’t be mobilized.
Ning Bizhen quickly realized what was happening. The tens of thousands of larval parasites he had planted inside those ability users… seemed to have disappeared.
Disappeared.
At that realization, the corner of Ning Bizhen’s eye twitched twice. The calm expression he had maintained from the very beginning finally cracked beyond repair.
Wu Heng bit down on his lollipop, observing Ning Bizhen’s reaction while also staying alert to the movement behind him.
He turned his head. Aside from a field of blooming poppies and the lake shimmering under the moonlight, there was nothing unusual.
A layer of gold spread over the gray-green of his eyes. Activating his ability, Wu Heng looked directly beneath the lake’s surface—
Crocodiles.
One after another, they were swimming toward the shore.
Wu Heng withdrew his gaze, turned back, and patted X. “There are crocodiles.”
X immediately lowered its head and shoved it hard into the hollow of Wu Heng’s neck.
“…”
Wu Heng couldn’t be bothered to lecture it—nor would the bird listen anyway. He stood up, grabbed X by the neck, and flung it forward. Behind it, a massive, blood-filled maw opened at just the right moment.
“Mom! Mom!!”
X shrieked in terror. It rolled across the ground several times, then scrambled up. Flying low, it slashed out with its iron-like claws, tearing straight through the mutated crocodile’s armor-like hide and ripping it in half.
Wu Heng and Ning Bizhen stared at each other from afar. Wu Heng slowly crunched the lollipop in his mouth. Behind Ning Bizhen, on the back hill, all kinds of plants were being stirred by ability—vines mixed among them, writhing in the air like a swarm of snakes.
Sensing the disturbance, Ning Bizhen slowly turned his head.
There was no fear in his eyes. Instead, he suddenly began striding across the ruins. In the end, he found Shen Miao in a corner and pulled him into a tight embrace.
“It’s good that you’re still here.”
Shen Ping’an stepped out from behind Shen Miao. Mao Fengying and Shen Ruyi, who had been hiding behind Shen Ping’an, immediately cried out.
“What are you going to do?”
Ning Bizhen pulled Shen Miao to his feet. “You wouldn’t betray me, would you?”
The mother parasite’s greatest—and most useful—ability was to drive the larval parasites to act on its behalf. Without that ability, the mother parasite was utterly vulnerable.
“I wouldn’t.”
As soon as Shen Ping’an said this, the blade in his hand turned—and plunged straight into Ning Bizhen’s chest.
His strike was clean, and the withdrawal even cleaner. Blood burst from the wound, splattering onto the people in front of him. In his final moments, Ning Bizhen let out a low, chilling laugh.
Shen Miao caught Ning Bizhen as he fell. His expression was extremely complicated—there was sorrow, and disbelief as well. He looked back at Shen Ping’an.
“You betrayed Ning Bizhen too?”
With his black hair shadowing his eyes, Shen Ping’an stepped down from the ruins, his back straight and cold as a blade.
“I was never loyal to him. How could it be called betrayal?”
With that, he walked toward Wu Heng’s direction.
Shen Miao lowered his head, lost in thought.
Wu Heng only glanced at Shen Ping’an for a few seconds before shifting his gaze to Ning Bizhen’s now motionless body.
Dead. Definitely dead. This was indeed Ning Bizhen.
But why—
Wu Heng turned to look around. The ability users who had been implanted with larval parasites hadn’t stopped attacking. Meanwhile, more and more crocodiles were crawling up from beneath the lake.
Very quickly, Wu Heng realized—
Ning Bizhen was dead, but the mother parasite was not.
It wasn’t inside Ning Bizhen’s body.
Wu Heng’s expression changed. He jumped down from the railing—and saw Mao Fengying behind Shen Ping’an, raising a kitchen cleaver.
With one strike, Mao Fengying split open Shen Ping’an’s back. Amid the mangled flesh and blood, his energy core glimmered faintly.
The boy caught Shen Ping’an as he fell forward. Without hesitation, he slit Mao Fengying’s throat.
Shen Ruyi watched the scene with wide eyes and let out a heart-wrenching scream. “Mom!”
But soon, Mao Fengying’s headless body staggered back to its feet, swinging the cleaver wildly and aimlessly.
Irritated, Wu Heng raised his hand. A flash of intense light—
Mao Fengying instantly turned into a handful of ash, drifting to the ground.
As the final speck of ash settled, Wu Heng suddenly looked toward Shen Miao.
Shen Miao was loosely holding Ning Bizhen. He couldn’t quite bring himself to cry. It was true that Ning Bizhen had protected him for months—but he had never needed that protection. Without it, there would have been no imprisonment or humiliation that came along with it.
Just as he was lost in that complicated grief, a chill suddenly ran down his spine.
He snapped back to awareness—
The owner of those deathly eyes was already standing right in front of him.
In the next instant, his body was lifted into the air. His throat was gripped tightly, leaving only a sliver of space to breathe.
At the same moment Shen Miao’s neck was seized, the sounds of battle behind him—and even the crocodiles lunging—vanished completely.
Wu Heng slowly raised his eyes.
“So you’re the mother parasite.”
Shen Miao shook his head, struggling to speak.
“The mother parasite… is inside me. But I… can’t control it.”
Shen Ruyi was crying so hard he was nearly delirious, yet he still crawled over from the other side to explain on behalf of the mother parasite.
“It’s true that Ning Bizhen was a symbiotic host of the mutated gu worms—but he wasn’t the mother parasite!”
“Ning Bizhen was always just a host of the larval parasites. He was the one controlling them. He saw Mr. Shen as his life itself, so he kept the mother parasite inside Mr. Shen’s body. The larvae’s dependence on the mother parasite is just like his dependence on Mr. Shen’s life. He only carried over his admiration for Mr. Shen from when he was human into the world of the gu worms. Mr. Shen is innocent—he hasn’t done anything!”
A vine silently emerged from beneath the ruins and lifted Shen Ruyi’s chin. Through tear-blurred eyes, he looked up at that strikingly beautiful face above him, momentarily dazed.
Wu Heng said, “Then tell me, what you’re saying now to defend Shen Miao, is it coming from your human side, or from the larval parasite?”
Shen Ruyi froze. Even his chin trembled.
But soon, suppressing the immense grief of losing his mother, his urge to defend Shen Miao overwhelmed everything else.
“But Mr. Shen really, truly hasn’t done anything! He shouldn’t have had to bear the mental and physical dependence of so many of us larvae in the first place. If he really could control all of us, then why wouldn’t he have made Ning Bizhen let him go? Why would he have been imprisoned here?”
“The mother parasite hasn’t mutated—it’s still the same as before the apocalypse. Mr. Shen can’t do anything at all. It was Ning Bizhen who kept using him to pacify us.”
“The one driving the larvae has always been the mother parasite. If you don’t believe it, you can take it out of Mr. Shen’s body and see whether it can control the larvae.”
Shen Miao lowered his eyes.
He looked at the courtyard strewn with bodies. He looked at the ability users whose larval parasites would continue carrying out Ning Bizhen’s commands as long as he remained alive.
If that continued, Wu Heng and the others would surely slaughter every last one of them.
“Let me borrow your knife,” Shen Miao said, extending his right hand. He forced a faint smile at Wu Heng. “I can take the mother parasite out myself.”
Wu Heng wasn’t worried that Shen Miao might try anything against him. He placed a dagger into Shen Miao’s palm.
“The mother parasite is near my heart… but a little higher than the exact spot.” Shen Miao’s hand trembled. His face was pale—whether from lack of oxygen or fear, it was hard to tell.
He tried several times before finally aligning the tip of the blade.
Then, without hesitation, he drove it into the spot above his heart.
The blade trembled. His wrist trembled with it. There really did seem to be something inside. Sweat poured down from Shen Miao’s temples in large drops. Gritting his teeth, he switched to gripping the handle with both hands and pushed it deeper.
Suddenly, Shen Miao spat out a mouthful of blood. His lips and teeth were stained red, his words slurred, yet he wore a faint smile.
“There’s a secret… the mother parasite… can’t be taken out. If I die… it dies too.”
Wu Heng reacted even faster than the larval parasites.
So Shen Miao wasn’t trying to remove the mother parasite—
He was trying to die together with it.
—————————————————————
Author’s Note:
Class rep: Wu Heng, there are so many of your husbands out on the street.