Chapter 343: Anyone Else Using It?
I made it three steps toward the mansion before stopping again.
Right. The house was still burning behind me, and so were Wang Lei and Liu Fang.
There was contaminated soil beneath the road, an exposed path through my defenses, and the possibility that microscopic assholes were crawling toward my water supply, but none of that changed the fact that Yuche and Zhenlan were already occupied. Yuche had sealed an entire house behind thick metal panels while keeping the smaller barrier around the cart closed, and Zhenlan was holding the air around both fires in place so smoke, ash, parasites, or whatever else tried to escape had nowhere to go.
Asking either of them to start another job now would divide their attention and possibly weaken their control while dealing with these stupid parasites.
I was done, not stupid, so I folded my arms and waited.
Lingyun continued feeding fire into the house until the remaining walls collapsed inward. The roof had already disappeared, leaving burning beams piled across what used to be the living room, and every time another section of the structure fell, sparks rushed upward before Zhenlan’s wind caught them and forced them back into the flames.
The metal panels surrounding the house glowed red as heat rolled across the yard in waves strong enough to make Old Chen and the workers retreat farther down the road. No one spoke, and even the plants stayed quiet, gathered near the safe edge of the cul-de-sac while they watched the fire finish what I had started.
I didn’t look toward Old Chen. He had made his opinion clear, and so had I.
Lingyun lifted one hand, causing the fire around the cart to rise higher. The metal barrier hid most of what was happening inside, but nothing struck the walls anymore, and the screaming had already stopped.
Good.
The only sounds left were burning wood, twisting metal, and the occasional crack as another part of the house gave way.
Yuche glanced down at me. Soot darkened one side of his face, and sweat had dampened the hair near his temples. "You were walking away."
"I changed my mind."
His eyes moved briefly toward the mansion road. "About leaving?"
"About leaving before I know the house is empty."
He studied me for a second before the corner of his mouth shifted slightly. "I didn’t think you’d changed your mind about the other part."
"No. They’re still dead."
"I noticed."
I stared at the burning ruins. "I’m not asking you or Zhenlan to do anything else until this is finished."
The faint amusement disappeared from his face. He didn’t thank me for being considerate, which was probably for the best because I would’ve had to deny it. Instead, he looked toward the glowing panels surrounding the house and gave one short nod.
"It won’t be long."
Lingyun heard him and immediately made the fire hotter.
"Not everything is a challenge," I told him with a sigh, although the faint smile pulling at my lips probably ruined the effect.
He turned his head just enough to grin at me. "That sounds made up."
"Keep burning."
"That part sounds real."
The last section of the upper floor collapsed, and the flames swallowed it before the debris had even settled. Broken boards, furniture, bodies, and whatever else remained inside disappeared into the same blackened mass while Zhenlan kept the air locked around the property until the fire no longer had anything recognizable left to consume.
Only then did Lingyun begin lowering the heat. The white center of the flames faded to orange, and the metal surrounding the house slowly darkened from red to black, although the air above it continued to ripple.
We waited longer because I wasn’t trusting a quiet pile of ashes simply because it looked harmless. The last quiet patch of dirt had tried to crawl beneath my defenses.
By the time Lingyun finally allowed the remaining flames to die, nothing resembling a house remained. The walls, furniture, and bodies were gone, leaving only a wide bed of glowing ash surrounded by scorched earth and warped metal.
The cart had fared no better. Yuche’s smaller enclosure sat several metres away, blackened from the fire and partially sunk into the road. Smoke curled through the narrow gaps near its base, but nothing moved inside.
Zhenlan gradually lowered his hand, allowing the air around the property to move naturally again. For several seconds, everything remained still before the first thin stream of smoke rose from the ruins.
Nothing followed it.
Yuche lifted one hand, and the panels around the house peeled away one at a time. Instead of dropping them, he kept each sheet suspended above the yard while inspecting the ground hidden behind it.
Ash shifted beneath the movement, exposing melted pipes, blackened stone, and pieces of metal that had once belonged to the house, but no pale shapes crawled free and no lines travelled beneath the surface.
Once every panel had been removed, Yuche formed several thinner blades and swept them through the ash. They passed from one side of the property to the other, turning over the burned remains and cutting through anything that might still be hidden underneath.
Nothing moved.
He repeated the process around the cart, opening the metal barrier to reveal a blackened depression in the road. Lingyun had burned hot enough that the cart, bottles, bodies, and supplies had collapsed into one fused mass.
Yuche pulled the remaining metal apart and searched beneath it, but there was still no movement.
"Clear?" I asked.
"As far as I can tell," he replied.
Zhenlan stepped closer without crossing into the yard. A narrow current of air moved through the ash, lifting the lighter pieces while keeping them trapped over the burned property. He watched the movement carefully before allowing everything to settle again.
"Nothing is trying to leave."
That was the closest thing to certainty we were going to get.
I turned toward the road leading back to the mansion. The burned trench waited around the bend, along with the damp soil the parasites had used to escape Lingyun’s fire. The plants still refused to cross the bare section, and I had no intention of waiting until something started moving again before dealing with it.
"Yuche."
He looked at me.
"I need metal rods driven through every part of the contaminated ground. Make as many as you can and put them as deep as they’ll go."
His eyes shifted toward the road as he understood what I wanted. "How wide?"
"From the burned house to the last place the plants pulled away. Include the trench, the road, the yards, and anything connected beneath them."
"That’s a large area."
"Yup."
"I’ll need more metal."
I pointed toward the abandoned houses. "Take it from there."
Old Chen finally looked back at me. "From all of them?"
"Do you see anyone else using them?"
His gaze moved toward the ruined house before dropping to the ground. "No."