Chapter 373: Shouldn’t Have Done That
Yuche heard the road break long before he saw how it happened.
The sound came from beneath Rouxi’s feet, a deep crack that travelled through the pavement and up his legs. She stood less than ten metres away with her knife clenched in one hand, still smiling at the enormous zombie as though it had stepped into the street solely for her entertainment.
Then the ground beneath her lifted.
Metal tore free from the abandoned cars before Yuche had fully formed the command. Doors ripped from their hinges, strips peeled away from crushed frames, and every loose piece shot toward Rouxi. They flattened beneath her boots just as the pavement exploded upward.
The zombie came out of the road like it had been fired from beneath the earth.
Its stone-covered shoulder struck the metal platform hard enough to fold one side. Rouxi was thrown into the air, and Yuche crossed the distance before she could hit the ground. He caught her around the waist, turned with the impact, and landed with her against his chest while broken asphalt rained around them.
Rouxi’s knife scraped across his arm as she shoved herself upright. "Put me down."
Yuche did, but he kept one hand at her waist until he was certain her legs were steady.
Her glare landed on him first.
The zombie barely received a glance.
That told him more than anything she could have said.
"I had it," she snapped.
"You were in the air," he pointed out, his voice soft like he was dealing with a skittish kitten.
"I was adjusting my balance," she shrugged in response like that was an acceptable excuse. But Yuche knew better.
"You froze," he said, his voice still soft, but there was an edge of steel under his words. He saw her froze, she knew she did, and that was rubbing both of them the wrong way.
Her eyes narrowed on his face, and the smile she had worn before the attack returned so quickly that anyone who didn’t know her would have believed it.
But Yuche knew better.
Rouxi smiled when she was amused, when she was angry, and when she was deciding exactly how much pain someone deserved. This smile was too wide and arrived too fast. It sat on her face like a weapon she had drawn because she didn’t want anyone to notice her hand shaking around the knife.
The giant zombie dragged the rest of its body from the shattered road. Stone and concrete clung to its shoulders and chest, shifting over one another as it straightened. The green light inside the cracks pulsed brighter, then dimmed beneath another layer of pavement that crawled up its side.
Rouxi stepped away from Yuche and rolled her shoulders. "Well, that officially makes things interesting."
Her voice was louder than it needed to be.
Lingyun came up on her other side with fire moving between his fingers. "Interesting is one word for it."
"You wanted to kill it before it reached me," Rouxi reminded him. "You’re falling behind."
Lingyun’s grin returned immediately, but Yuche saw his eyes drop to the hand still clenched around her knife. He had noticed too.
But the brief bit of lull that the zombie had granted them to collect themselves was over. It slammed both fists into the road, its mouth open in a roar.
Yuche was expecting another shockwave, but instead, the creature had completely disappeared.
The pavement folded inward beneath it, swallowing the massive body in seconds. Dirt and stone rolled over the opening until only a rough crater remained.
Rouxi’s roots drove into the ground at once.
They spread beneath the road, splitting into thinner strands as they searched, but the zombie was already moving. Yuche could hear it beneath them, tearing through packed earth and broken foundations while the surface bulged in its wake.
Rouxi turned sharply toward the sound just as the ground burst open behind Chenghai.
He threw himself forward as the zombie’s arm punched through the road where his legs had been, barely getting out of the way before he was hurt. Zhenlan struck it with lightning before it could climb out, but its stone skin seemed to have absorbed most of the charge. The creature dropped back beneath the surface, taking the lightning charge with it.
Not willing to let the thing escape, Rouxi sent even more roots after the creature.
But it was no use. They only hit empty ground.
Her smile never shifted, but Yuche saw the pause before she redirected them. It was barely there, no more than a breath, yet he remembered another place where the ground had moved around her while he stood too far away to reach her.
He remembered hearing her scream.
That sound had never left him.
Yuche forced the memory down and moved closer. He didn’t go in front of her, and definitely not close enough to block her view or make her think he was trying to take over. Instead, he stayed half a step behind her left shoulder, where he could reach her before the earth did.
Rouxi noticed, because as much as they were always tracking her, she was always tracking them. "Stop following me," she called out, the smile still there, still faking it until she made it.
"I’m not following you," Yuche replied. "I’m just standing here."
"You’re doing it too close to me."
"Then feel free to move yourself," he shrugged in return.
She looked over her shoulder at him, clearly offended by the suggestion, but another crack split the road before she could answer.
This time the zombie surfaced farther away. Its upper body broke through beside an abandoned truck, and Rouxi reacted immediately. Vines wrapped around its neck while roots caught both arms, pulling in opposite directions.
For a moment, the creature stopped.
Then the stone across its body thickened.
Concrete tore free from the road and slammed over its shoulders, crushing the vines between the new layers. The zombie twisted once, snapping three roots, and disappeared underground again before Rouxi could replace them.
Her jaw tightened.
She spread her power farther, sending roots through the entire street and into the soil beneath the houses. Yuche felt them pass under his boots, countless strands searching every direction at once.
The zombie moved beneath them.
Rouxi turned toward the left.
The ground broke on the right.
Yuche threw a wall of metal between her and the eruption. The zombie’s fist struck it hard enough to dent the centre inward, but the barrier held long enough for Rouxi to send a root around its wrist.
Then she pulled hard.
The arm came farther out of the ground, dragging part of the shoulder with it, but the zombie tore free by leaving a layer of stone behind. The broken armour, that Yuche had originally thought was the creature’s skin, crumbled between the roots while the creature vanished again.
Rouxi laughed.
The sound was sharp enough to cut through the groans of the smaller zombies still struggling at the edges of the road.
"It’s learning," she murmured.
Yuche looked at her profile. "So are you."
"I already know what I’m doing."
"Then stop chasing the noise."
Her head snapped toward him.
He held her gaze, knowing she would hate the words but needing her to hear them. "You’re reacting after it moves. Feel where it’s going."
The false smile thinned, and for one second, anger replaced whatever she had been hiding.
Yuche almost welcomed it. Anger belonged to her. It meant she was here, on this road, with four men close enough to reach her.
Then the earth rolled beneath them again.
Rouxi closed her eyes.
The roots stopped racing blindly and spread deeper instead, sinking through soil and stone until they went still. Her breathing slowed. The knife lowered at her side while her attention turned inward.
Yuche watched the tension move through her shoulders as the zombie circled beneath them.
She felt it this time.
Her eyes opened, and she turned before the road cracked.
Roots burst upward in a tight knot, forcing the zombie away from Rouxi and into the open. Half its body cleared the pavement before Yuche’s metal wrapped around its throat and Zhenlan’s lightning struck the exposed cracks along its chest.
The creature roared and threw itself backward. The ground gave beneath its weight, allowing it to sink before Rouxi could close the opening.
Her smile flickered.
She had been right.
She had found it.
That should have helped.
Instead, the next underground movement made her entire body go rigid.
Yuche heard it too late.
A stone-covered hand broke through the road directly beneath Rouxi and closed around her ankle.
Her smile disappeared.... But only for a single heartbeat.
Then Rouxi looked down at the fingers locked around her leg, and something cold settled across her face as her plants surged beneath the ground.
"You really shouldn’t have done that."