Chapter 73: Closure?
The next second, countless ice crystals erupted from beneath their feet. One after another, the attackers were frozen solid. Ni Mengxue didn’t stop.
Anyone who tried to block her path was immediately frozen. Her ice ability consumed energy at an alarming rate, but she continued until nearly half of her energy had been depleted.
Finally, the path was clear. And just as she expected... Lu Yucai appeared in front of Cai Shu.
Cai Shu had been watching the battle from behind her people. For a brief moment, delight flashed through her eyes.
But the moment Lu Yucai entered her field of vision, that delight disappeared. Her expression turned dark. She immediately pulled out a dagger and lunged at him.
Lu Yucai moved effortlessly. He caught her wrist, twisted it, and locked her arm behind her back. The dagger fell from her hand.
Ni Mengxue narrowed her eyes. She immediately activated her ice ability. Cai Shu’s body froze. So did several of the people surrounding her.
Their expressions changed as they realized they could no longer move.
"You bitch!" Cai Shu screamed. "Let me go!"
"Show your gratitude to Lu Yucai, otherwise I would have frozen you stiff and killed you." Ni Mengxue replied while fighting another man.
"You! Say something to her!" Cai Shu shouted at Lu Yucai.
Lu Yucai didn’t respond immediately. He simply stared at her. Then, in a voice filled with certainty, he said, "You are my mother."
Cai Shu froze. Her eyes widened in disbelief.
"How...?"
She stopped herself halfway through the question. Then hatred replaced the shock in her eyes. "So you knew."
Her voice became filled with venom. "And yet you’re still here to fight us?"
She laughed bitterly. "If you had even an ounce of shame, you would let us go and allow us to kill you all!"
Lu Yucai stared at her; his voice was softer than a whisper. "Why?"
Yet Cai Shu heard him. Perhaps she had been waiting all these years for him to ask that question. "What should I do then?!"
Her voice exploded across the battlefield. "You are a jinx!"
She struggled against Lu Yucai’s grip.
"Because of you, I lost so much! Do you know how much the quality of the husbands I could marry dropped because of your birth?!"
Her face twisted with resentment. "I was injured in the womb and couldn’t have children anymore! So many excellent men stopped pursuing me!"
She stared at him with hatred. "You! You are the reason my life was ruined!"
Lu Yucai’s fingers tightened around his sword. At that moment, one of Cai Shu’s subordinates suddenly broke free from Ni Mengxue’s ice and rushed toward him.
Lu Yucai swung his sword without even looking. The attacker was sent flying. His movements were faster and more precise than before.
His sensory vision and hearing had improved tremendously. Even without looking, he could sense every movement around him.
Cai Shu’s eyes widened slightly, then she noticed something else. "Wait..."
Her gaze fell on his legs, and disbelief filled her eyes. "How can you walk? How is this possible? Aren’t you a cripple?"
Lu Yucai smiled faintly. "So you noticed? I thought you wouldn’t."
He stared directly at her. "Why, Mother? Why did you abandon me just because I was a jinx? Did you ever consider that I might not be one? That perhaps the fortune teller was lying all along?"
Cai Shu suddenly laughed like she had heard the most ridiculous joke. "I witnessed it myself, Lu Yucai! You were only a child, but I noticed everything!"
Her expression became twisted. "The kind uncle who used to hold you and sing lullabies to you died while protecting me!"
She pointed at him. "And you were perfectly safe the entire time!"
Her eyes widened with madness. "Nothing happened to you! Isn’t that strange? Isn’t it proof that you’re a jinx?"
Lu Yucai’s expression froze. He slowly closed his eyes. Cai Shu continued shouting. "I thought you were a girl! If I had known you were a boy, I would have aborted you long ago!"
Her words echoed across the battlefield. For a moment, a few of the soldiers couldn’t help but look over.
Lu Yucai slowly opened his eyes. "After abandoning me... Why didn’t you simply leave me alone? Why did you continue making things difficult for me even in the base?"
Cai Shu laughed again, as though she had gone mad. "Should I have left you alone?"
Her voice was filled with hatred. "You ruined my life! You practically made me infertile, and you expect me to calm my anger simply because I abandoned you? I didn’t abandon you."
Her lips curled into a cruel smile. "I threw you out to die."
Lu Yucai’s pupils contracted.
"But you survived anyway." Cai Shu glared at him. "You are a jinx who survives by stealing other people’s luck! You are a parasite! You should have been killed long ago!"
Lu Yucai’s eyes slowly opened. There was no anger in them anymore, only a deep, frightening calm, and he even let out a smile.
"Then I have no regrets."
He lifted his sword. Cai Shu’s expression changed. "You dare?! Lu Yucai, you dare?! You owe me! You owe me for letting you live! You owe me for everything I lost! You owe me for making me infertile! Have some shame!"
Lu Yucai froze. For one brief moment, his heart fluttered. Those words still had the power to hurt him.
But before he could react... ROAR! A tremendous roar suddenly echoed across the open ground.
The zombie horde had arrived. The countless zombies that had been approaching from every direction finally reached them.
Level Four and Level Three zombies surged forward like a black tide. The entire group was instantly surrounded. Ni Mengxue’s expression changed.
"This is getting too much."
She looked toward the distance. If they continued fighting here, they would inevitably attract Level Five zombies. And once that happened, the situation would become much more troublesome.