Chapter 40 Battle and Ransom

The wind whipped up by Wang Tao was so strong Lian Hua couldn’t keep his eyes open. To combat this issue he just created a water wall and quarantined himself inside.

At this point Wang Tao’s eyes were red. His composure was completely gone, especially because of the bird poop on his head. Lian Hua found the whole look hilarious. Don’t play cool if you don’t want to get sh*t on.

“Go to hell, all of you!” Wang Tao shouted. Wind blades flew through the sky. Hurriedly, Lian Hua planted a circle of vines to protect them. It was quite a pain to be injured by wind blades.

“Big brother, this guy is crazy.” He Yu shouted at He Xu as she ducked from the blades.

“Just ignore him. Crazy people are crazy people, even if they look upstanding at first.” He Xu was calm.

“Haha, you idiot. How’s the taste of our sparrow’s poop? You can have more if you want.” Zhao Xiaolong laughed out loud, only to receive more wind in his direction.

“Hey, they insulted you too. Why are you only picking on me?” He ducked the blades, rolling around on the ground.

His expression remaining unchanged, Lian Hua sat on a chair woven from vines, chomping down on an apple. In his hands he held seeds that were prepared to retaliate if needed.

Each of them taking turns taunting, the kids managed to force Wang Tao into a shouting frenzy. His hands kept moving the whole time. The kids were so quick that not even the corners of their clothes were caught by the wind. Watching them go, Lian Hua admired their form. These kids were quite poison tongued. He Xu was usually quiet, but when he did speak it was incredibly infuriating.

Lian Hua couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief that they never used this skill on him before.

“Dammit, you all go to hell, go to hell!” Wang Tao’s hair was in a mess, his shirt torn up. He was dizzied, cutting himself in the whirlwind. What a sad sight.

Swallowing a mouthful of water, Lian Hua marked the kids’ battling skills a level higher in his heart.

The three kids kept the man busy while Lian Yu and the sparrow each sat on one of Lian Hua’s shoulders, watching.

“See how strong Yu is, Master? Each time he’s about to attack she interrupts his thoughts. Look at how that guy is so mad his eyes are bulging.”

Lian Hua nodded. “She knows how to use words to incite her enemy’s emotions, not bad. But this move won’t work on a rational enemy. This guy must be extremely smug.” He commented.

“Yep, Xu is doing well too. Those mutated insects have bitten the guy several times now. Too bad he’s so mad he didn’t notice he’s poisoned.”

“When he levels up, he’ll be able to switch to a stronger bug, perhaps even a beast.”

“At level two, it’s impressive enough they can get mixed up with someone at level three now.” Lian Yu wasn’t satisfied by Lian Hua saying the kids were at a low level.

“Yes, Zhao Xiaolong is doing a good job too, stealing Wang Tao’s abilities.”

“They need more energy.”

“Indeed. Looks like we’ll have to find more crystals for them.” Lian Hua agreed.

“Master, you said you were going to cultivate them and then you stopped my food for how long? Since we’re not going to the base, please just give me the rest of the crystal nucleuses.” Lian Yu leapt onto his head, jumping up and down.

Lian Hua: “…”

“Let’s talk about this problem later.” He faked a cough.

“Dammit!” Lian Yu bumped into his head hard. “You’re just toying with me. I’m living such a hard life! Not enough food to eat, not enough time to rest. What a hard life…” Rolling around wildly, Lian Yu turned Lian Hua’s head into a messy nest.

“All right, all right, just let me go!” Lian Hua begged for mercy, grabbing Lian Yu out of his hair. “We’re going to go to a small town next for corpse crystals, how about that?”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Lian Yu stopped rolling around immediately, spectating the fight happily again.

Lian Hua: … He couldn’t help but feel like he was being played.

“Chirp chirp chirp…” The sparrow, who had been quiet this whole time, finally made a sound.

“What? You want a crystal nucleus too?” Lian Hua looked at it with disbelief.

“Chirp chirp!” Stamping on his shoulder and then on his head, the sparrow flapped its wings to show that it couldn’t be ignored.

“Thump thump thump.” The vines from the cage knocked against the ground too, showing that it didn’t deserve to be left out either.

Lian Hua was about to black out. So many gluttons waiting to be fed! Just thinking about it was enough for him to want to vomit blood.

“Haha, Master, you know how much trouble you’re in now, right?” Lian Yu was feeling immense schadenfreude.

Grabbing Lian Yu, Lian Hua encased his hands together tightly.

“Ow, that hurts! Let me go, let me go, Master.”

“Chirp chirp…”

“Thump thump…”

Lian Hua didn’t want to pay attention to these living comedy acts. Instead he turned his attention back to the fight.

“Master, the idiot’s subordinates are coming down.” Lian Yu suddenly snapped back into a serious mood.

“How much longer until they get here?”

“About five minutes. They’re driving.”

“Hey, kids, resolve this battle within five minutes.” Lian Hua called out.

“Five minutes? No problem!” Zhao Xiaolong struck a cool pose and was immediately kicked aside by He Xu and dodged a wind blade before hitting the ground face first.

“Dammit, He Xu, was that a revenge shot at me?” Zhao Xiaolong clambered up again, cursing to himself.

“Focus.” He Xu left him with nothing but a cool silhouette.

“Damn.” Wiping the dust on his face, he spat out sand.

Wang Tao seemed like he’d completely lost his rationality, issuing his special ability without pause. His hands were completely dark, clearly poisoned thoroughly, and his stamina was starting to wear down too.

“It’s the end.” He Xu unrolled a strand of grass from his hair, gesturing with his fingers. At least a hundred little black bugs emerged from the ground, clambering all over Wang Tao’s body.

“Aaaah!” He started to howl, ignoring the kids as he rolled around on the ground.

“You’re so cool.” He Yu looked at He Xu with stars in her eyes.

He flashed her a cool silhouette.

“What a show-off.” Zhao Xiaolong snorted, walking over to Wang Tao and kicking him on the ground.

Wang Tao’s body was covered in mutated ants the size of thumbs. It looked quite terrifying.

“All right, it’s over. You can come back now.” Lian Hua said, tying up Wang Tao with vines and suspending him upside down. “Prepare to receive our guests.”

The kids returned to his side, each of them filthier than the last. Lian Hua separated his water wall into three, allowing them to splash around and clean themselves.

When they were finished, they sat down on their chairs which were protected perfectly by Lian Hua.

Lian Hua picked up the cups made from leaves, fed the children honey water and planted a sunflower.

Together, everyone drank water and snacked on sunflower seeds.

Wang Bin walked out of the car and arrived at the scene of three kids, one adult having a nice day out. It would be pleasant if his nephew weren’t hanging upside down there.

He chuckled bitterly. If he hadn’t received word from his subordinates that his nephew was messing with special ability users, he wouldn’t have hurried over either. His nephew was spoiled rotten from a young age by his sister and developed an awful, arrogant temperament. Now he was suffering, maybe he’d finally realize the world didn’t revolve around him.

“Boys and girls, my name is Wang Bin and I’m the owner of the Huayang base. My nephew has caused trouble for you. I was hoping you could please have mercy and overlook what he’s done this once.” Wang Bin put his hands together. Although he was lowering himself to say this, he retained a powerful dignity. Lian Hua could tell this guy was a decent person.

“Sir, your nephew was the one who came to challenge us first. We just helped you educate him a bit. You don’t have to thank us for that.” Zhao Xiaolong said aggressively.

Wang Bin’s smile almost failed. Were they really calling this education?

“Thank you then.” He forced a smile.

“Mr. Wang, is it? Your nephew definitely deserved a proper education so he doesn’t lose his life.” Lian Hua stated. “You don’t know what he did, am I correct? Or why he came to challenge us in the first place? Mr. Wang, you can take a look yourself.”

Lian Hua released a water mirror that honestly recorded everything going on in Wang Tao’s room. The girl who was tormented horribly was displayed clearly before his eyes.

Wang Bin’s face went ashen, as did his subordinates. They only knew their leader’s nephew was spoiled, not that he would do something like this in private.

Before the apocalypse Wang Bin was a captain completing a mission here. That’s when the apocalypse suddenly descended. He cleared up the zombies in this area with his men and founded a base here, but couldn’t establish a connection with his commanders, so he became leader of the land.

As a soldier, he naturally had the pride and dignity of a military man. That’s why the rules in the base were so strict: he didn’t wish that people underneath him do something terrible. So when his sister brought her illegitimate son to find him, he made sure everyone had to follow the rules, and that nobody could do anything bad under his name.

Who knew that his sister and nephew would agree to this on the surface but go around and stab him in the back? How would the survivors think of him now? Was his reputation ruined? Wang Bin felt a chill down his spine.

Seeing the sad state of that girl and the fact that there was a little girl among this group, how could he not understand what Wang Tao was planning?

“Apologies, it’s my fault for not educating him properly.” Wang Bin sighed, his tone becoming sincere. Thinking back to his sister, he realized no matter how much he disliked his nephew he still needed to guarantee his survival.

“I’m not sure how I can compensate you. Please let him live.” He closed his hands together.

“Hey, your nephew did so much bad stuff. Are you still going to cover for him?” Zhao Xiaolong yelled.

“I’ll keep a closer eye on him in the future. My sister loves him dearly, and I wouldn’t want her to be sad.” He smiled bitterly.

Zhao Xiaolong was going to say something else but Lian Hua stopped him. “Then let’s talk about the ransom.”

Wang Bin choked back his words as he could only wait to be butchered by this group. Lian Hua said a lot of things, especially asking for a lot of crystals. Just consider this a punishment for not disciplining this kid properly, Lian Hua thought to himself.

Negotiating the terms, Wang Bin found himself glancing over at the upside down suspended figure and hesitating. Lian Hua let him down quickly. “Don’t worry, he’s still alive.” The corners of Wang Bin’s mouth twitched as he muttered to his subordinates to get him.

“Lian, are you really going to let this degenerate go so easily?” Zhao Xiaolong said, kicking his feet.

“What do you think?” Lian Hua smiled mysteriously.

“Quickly, do it.” He stated, seeing that Wang Bin wasn’t watching them.

“Oh…” The three kids immediately understood and rubbed their hands together. Watching the kids move quickly like that, Lian Hua felt his own mouth tightening. When this guy woke up, who knew if he had the bravery to keep living. Sometimes keeping someone alive was worse than killing him.

Everything Lian Hua wanted was packed onto a truck along with a driver, who seemed like a low level soldier.

“You’re really willing to come to the capital base with us?” Lian Hua had to clarify.

“Yes, my family is there. I want to go back.” The young man was determined. Only then was Lian Hua satisfied.

The group got into the car. The kids were overjoyed that they no longer had to walk.

“Mr. Soldier, what’s your name?” Lian Hua asked.

The soldier started the ignition, and the car roared to life. “My name is Lian Xia.” He smiled, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.

Lian Xia, Lian Xia, Lian Xia, these words keep refreshing in Lian Hua’s mind. It felt like he was choking on his own spit.

The three kids snorted with laughter.

“Haha, master, the real master is here, you should back down.” Lian Yu rolled around laughing on Lian Hua’s legs.

“Shut up!” Lian Hua smashed Lian Yu against the car window in anger.

Not knowing what they were laughing at, Lian Xia had to chuckle along. Exasperated, Lian Hua introduced everyone.

“Your last name is Lian too?” Lian Xia was excited. “Maybe we’re related.”

“Maybe.” Lian Hua said drippily.

Now their goal was the nearest natural protection zone, no need to specifically seek out crystals anymore.

…

“Mom, mom, you have to stand up for me! Uncle isn’t going to take vengeance for me.” Wang Tao woke up and immediately latched onto his mother, weeping.

His mother teared up too. Her precious baby son had been humiliated by a few lowly citizens. This was unbearable.

“Don’t worry, son. Your uncle just scolded me and he’s no longer reliable. We’ll go find your father at the capital. When he recognizes you you’ll be royalty and you can do whatever you want with those people.” She hated her brother, who not only wouldn’t take vengeance on her son’s behalf, but even imprisoned him at home.

“Dad?” Wang Tao’s swollen eyes shone.

Poor Wang Tao hadn’t yet realized his manhood was completely unusable and his special abilities were left at level one. Lian Hua wanted to retain the knowledge that Zhao Xiaolong could take away someone’s abilities forever, which is the only reason he was left with even one level.