Chapter 269: Containment
"Retract it," Cres hissed angrily.
Xie Ning immediately retracted her projected spiritual power, and waves of dizziness washed over her.
She quickly pulled a bottle of Energy Water from her bag and downed more than half of it before her head started to feel better.
"What’s wrong?" Song Youxuan, Zhu Yong, and the others had no idea what was going on.
Xie Ning pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her head. "It’s nothing. I’m just a little tired. I’ll take a quick nap."
’The Beast Taming Superpower User’s spiritual power is very strong.’
Xie Ning frowned slightly, leaning against the window and closing her eyes to feign sleep. Inwardly, however, she was silently calculating how to deal with this little nuisance.
’It wasn’t that she wanted to give Lin Yiyi a hard time.’
’A little psycho like her, who uses her mutation to summon zombie animals for indiscriminate attacks on humans, really didn’t need to be kept alive.’
’With her immature mentality, if she was allowed to continue developing, she would only become more and more depraved.’
Li Dawei, who was driving, slammed on the brakes. He stuck his head out the window and yelled at Zhuang Lei from the Swift Leopard Team behind them, "What are you doing?"
Zhuang Lei furiously slammed his car door shut and got out. Pointing at the barely breathing people who had been run over on the ground, he roared, "They jumped from your truck! Are you a pig? How could you not know a thing?"
Li Dawei quickly jumped down from the high truck steps. Li Xiang followed him for a look, then immediately ran to the side of the road and retched.
It was a truly gruesome sight.
Four bodies were piled together, mangled by the wheels. It was sickening.
Li Dawei turned to look for Xie Ning’s group’s vehicles.
The minivan, along with the pickup and cargo truck, had all vanished without a trace.
Li Dawei let out a howl. "Xie Ning’s gone! Hurry up! We still have to go get our Contribution Points transferred!"
He didn’t have time to waste on a few dead bodies.
"Bai Liang! Bai Liang, come on, burn them," Li Dawei said, gesturing at the bodies on the ground.
If they weren’t burned to ash, there was no telling if they would reanimate as zombies.
Meanwhile, Da Hei was howling fretfully, baring its teeth in an aggressive posture.
Lin Yiyi, trembling fearfully, jumped down from the truck. She ran straight to the person who looked the most approachable—the Holy Mother, Xu Yu—and grabbed the hem of her clothes, crying, "Sister, Sister, please save me! Save Da Hei!"
"Someone’s trying to kill us! It’s a Spiritual Ability User! It has to be the Spiritual Ability User from Xie Ning’s team!"
"It’s him—that foreign boy who could see the capacity of Zhao Jian’s Space! He’s a Spiritual Ability User! It must have been him! He secretly attacked us and used his Spiritual Ability to force Yan Zhong, Zhao Jian, and the others to jump from the truck!"
"Don’t be afraid, child." Xu Yu quickly wrapped her arms around Lin Yiyi, comforting her in a low voice. "Don’t worry, you’re a good girl. Stay with me. I won’t let anyone hurt you again."
Tears and snot streamed down Lin Yiyi’s face as she buried her head in Xu Yu’s embrace, sobbing quietly. "Thank you, Sister. You’re such a good person. Can I stay with you from now on?"
Xu Yu nodded without hesitation. "Of course. From now on, you can stay with me. I’ll be sure to protect you."
Zhuang Lei, Zhuang Jia, and the others all frowned. They glanced at Lin Yiyi huddled in Xu Yu’s arms and opened their mouths as if to speak, but then stopped. Ultimately, they held their tongues to save face, not wanting to argue with a little girl.
Luo Yanan, however, looked grim and spoke bluntly. "Xu Yu, did you ask the captain about this? Why are you always making decisions on your own? Don’t you realize how many people this girl just got killed by summoning those Zombie Cats?"
The man let out a ragged, speechless breath. "I can’t stay on this team. Now I finally get why Da Xiong and Ah Liang were so determined to leave."
"Heh. I really... I really can’t take this."
Concerned for her brother Zhuang Lei’s pride, Zhuang Jia quickly reached out and tugged on her husband’s sleeve.
The expression on Zhuang Lei’s face was dark.
Lin Yiyi sobbed, wiping away her tears. "I’m sorry... I’m sorry, everyone. I... I was forced to do it, WAHHH."
"Yan Zhong and Zhao Jian... they forced me. I... I didn’t actually want Da Ju... want Da Ju to summon all those stray Zombie Cats to attack everyone. I... I didn’t know something so terrible would happen, WAHHHH."
"Now Da Ju is dead too. I know he deserved it, so please, can’t we just say he atoned for his sins? Please, everyone, don’t blame me anymore, WAHHHH."
Xu Yu turned to Luo Yanan and stamped her foot. "What is wrong with you! Why are you so petty? She’s just a child! Why are you being so harsh on her? What does a kid know?"
"A child is a blank slate; they become whatever you paint them as. She was just being used as a pawn by Captain Yan and his men."
"If she stays with us, I can slowly teach her right from wrong and how to see the bigger picture. I’m sure she’ll gradually become a better, more well-behaved person."
"Do you really need to get so worked up over a child?"
Luo Yanan was so angry he could have died. He wished he could just raise his fist and punch this fucking idiot of a woman.
"Fine! You’re taking her in? Then I’m leaving!"
"Hey, honey! Honey!" Zhuang Jia, both anxious and angry, hurried forward to grab her husband. "Honey, what are you doing? We can talk about this calmly."
Lin Yiyi lowered her head, still crying, her face a tear-streaked mess.
She huddled in Xu Yu’s arms, but a venomous, resentful glint flashed in her eyes.
’These people... they were all treacherous villains, every single one of them targeting her, Lin Yiyi.’
’Damn them. Damn them all. They all deserve to die!’
"Captain," the other members of the Swift Leopard Team said, looking at their leader, Zhuang Lei, with disapproval. "Don’t you have anything to say?"
"She may be young, but she summoned those Zombie Cats and got a lot of people killed. How is taking her in any different from taking in a viper?"
A look of awkwardness flickered across Zhuang Lei’s face.
’He didn’t really approve of Xu Yu taking in Lin Yiyi on her own authority either.’
’But for his own teammate to dress down and contradict his woman right in front of him... that was a direct show of disrespect to him, Zhuang Lei.’
’The more they did this, the more he wanted to do the exact opposite!’
"Brother Lei," Xu Yu said, turning to tug on Zhuang Lei’s sleeve and pleading in a soft, gentle voice. "Brother Lei, can we please take Yiyi in? I promise she’s a good kid. As long as we treat her with kindness, Yiyi will definitely become a strong asset to our team."
Lin Yiyi was quick-witted. With a THUD, she dropped to her knees, wiping her tear-streaked face as she wailed, "Captain Zhuang, please take me in, Captain Zhuang! My mommy and daddy died while we were trying to escape. They were eaten by zombies!"
"Captain Yan and his men took me in, that’s the only reason I’m still alive. I thought if I did what they asked, they’d give me food. I didn’t know... I didn’t know the things they had me do were wrong."
"Captain Zhuang, I’m begging you. I’ll turn over a new leaf. I’ll never make a mistake like that again."
Zhuang Lei nodded and looked at the other members of his team. "Lin Yiyi may have made mistakes, but she’s still just a kid. We just need to correct her path in time."
"Besides, she’s a rare Beast Taming Superpower User. She’ll be a great help to our team in the future."