Chapter 17: CH 10

The door to the new world

The girl with fire ability blew a loud whistle using her fingers. A few seconds later, a small black spot appeared in the sky. As it got closer, they could see that it was a huge mutant bird.

This is a hideous looking huge bird, with wings about six or seven metres long. The ash grey eyes brimming with killing intent. The plumage on the head has fallen off [1], looks very similar to a vulture, the rest of the body is covered with black and hard feathers. The bird’s beak is curved and powerful and its claws are sharp, with a flash of cold light.

The bird shows off the power of third level mutant animals, scaring a bunch of low-level zombies to the point of being unsteady. Compared with the ability user, the aura of mutant animals is more cruel [2] and tyrannical. As soon as the huge bird approaches the battlefield, most low-level zombies instinctively tremble.

The bird spread its pitch-black wings and roared down like a dark cloud, rushing to the top of the two girls’ heads with enormous pressure. The wind howled, the few zombies who had just climbed up the roof were immediately swept down the roof by the wind.

The two girls reach out to grab the bird’s claws, they then climb towards the bird’s wide back. The bird first contracted and curled its sharp claws to prevent accidentally hurting the two girls. It suddenly shook its wings, flew high into the air and gradually disappeared from the ability user team’s member’s eye sight. Before leaving, the female water ability user turned around and glanced at the direction of the first team.

“The look in her eyes when she looked back… If I’m not mistaken, she is despising us, despising us, despising us, right!”[3] The captain said as he turned his head.

Everyone, “…………”

When they landed in a place where zombies were scarce, Shen Qingjia threw some good quality zombie crystal cores she brought back with and fed them to “Heise”[3] as a reward. Heise moves surprisingly fast. Its body is obviously huge, but even on the ground it is very fast and agile. When it moves around, it makes loud noises like wind and thunder.

Heise was the name Shen Qingjia gave to this mutant bird, a huge monster that she successfully controlled when she first practised her Imperial Beast Master ability more than two months ago. No one expected it to survive such a serious injury but who knew that it not only survived but also found them following the spiritual imprint Shen Qingjia left on it. It is precisely because of Heise that Shen Qingjia and Co have the confidence to fish for zombie crystal cores from the zombie pile.

Shen Qingjia has been feeding it zombie crystal cores for the past two months. Finally it made it to the third level a few days ago. After breaking through, Heise is still as ugly as before but the body has grown a little.

Zhu Ai killed the zombies quietly, occasionally raising her head to look at Shen Qingjia who was currently playing with Heise like someone would feed a puppy. When dealing with Shen Qingjia, Zhu Ai always seemed to be gentle and tolerant, she didn’t even express contempt for Shen Qingjia’s poor naming skill… [5]

After eating, Heise spread its wings and flew not far away to hunt for food. Perhaps because he was injured by Zhu Ai, Heise never dared to get close to her for a long time. Shen Qingjia came back in high spirits. It seemed she didn’t realise the fact that her pet was stronger than her.

“Heise moves so fast, I threw four nuclei in all different directions, but they were able to catch them all.” Shen Qingjia looked at Zhu Ai curiously, “Do you think Heise is a wind ability mutant animal?”

Zhu Ai shook her head, “While in early stage, the mutant animals usually rely on instinct to fight and rarely their abilities show up. However…the energy fluctuations coming from Heise’s body seem to be more similar to the space ability.”

The sound made by Heise just now attracted more than twenty zombies that pop out one after another. Zhu Ai spread out her hands and a water ball the size of a human head appeared in her palm. The water ball started to spin, then it turned into a sharp arrow that she threw toward the zombies.

More than twenty zombies immediately melted to the point where only the crystal core was left.  Shen Qingjia held on to pale Zhu Ai, “Are you alright?”

Zhu Ai gently pushed her away and stood firm, “After experimenting a few more times, this move should consume less energy and mental power.”

Shen Qingjia angrily grabbed the hands of the stubborn Greatest Villain, “You can’t do experiments while surrounded by zombies!”

She stood in front of Zhu Ai, the fireballs in her hands flew towards the zombies in the distance one by one, pressed her lips, “You always think that no matter what you have to stand in front of me, Zhu Ai, I wants you to know, I, Shen Qingjia is not a useless vase that can’t do anything.”

Zhu Ai looked at her back, a slight smile appeared on her lips, as clear and beautiful as begonia petals dipped in morning dew.

The zombie wave lasted all night and the next day it finally ended. Perhaps this zombie wave was a disaster for others but for the two of them, it was a “Harvest Day” for them to harvest crystal cores.

After annihilating the zombies, the sky turned white, the two sat on Heise’s back and flew across the sky.

Shen Qingjia opened her arms and half-closed her eyes, enjoying the refreshing feeling of the strong wind touching her skin, “I really didn’t expect that at the end of the world, we can still live so happily.”

Zhu Ai sat still, grabbing the hard feathers on Heise’s back with one hand, the other hand holding Shen Qingjia’s waist to prevent her from accidentally falling. The strong wind was blowing but her heart was calm and steady.

Since the end of the world, blood and death can be seen everywhere and she has to fight against zombies all the time. Many times, Zhu Ai has a brush with death [6] but she doesn’t feel life is hard. Somehow, she felt that, as long as Shen Qingjia was by her side, whether she was alive or dead was just a small matter. That is how much she feels at ease with her.

“To me, the days before the end of the world are more like the Apocalypse.” Shen Qingjia heard the people behind her say this.

Shen Qingjia immediately pricked up her ears. By the time she heard about Zhu Ai’s name in her previous life, she was already the famous Greatest Villain. People feared her, respected her, hated her and they didn’t care about her rough experiences in her early years. The past of Greatest Villain is like a fog, no one knows and no one dares to investigate. Shen Qingjia at that time is just another passers-by, her general understanding of her, is that she have high-end aura and high level ability, basically she is Long Aotian. [7]

Zhu Ai’s chin rested on her shoulder, “At that time, although there were no zombies in the Zhu family, the things I saw were more terrifying than zombies… Zombies only wanted me to die but those people wanted me to live a fate worse than death.”

“The Zhu family can’t be called a family, it is a slaughterhouse. There are countless people who die every day. The weak are the slaughtered livestock and the strong are the butchers swinging the cleaver. Those who survive still need to go through many experiments, unknown genetic agents injected into blood vessels, the brain cracked open and tubes inserted… A week before the end of the world, they even wanted to replace half of my flesh and blood with steel, they thought it would make my killing power increase by 20%.”

“Those delusional people want to remove mortal’s weak genes and they want to create artificial gods. They have been experimenting for nearly a hundred years but they didn’t expect a meteor shower to do better.”

“In the Zhu family, normal people no longer exist.”

Shen Qingjia took Zhu Ai’s palm on her waist and Zhu Ai let out a low voice behind her, as if she was laughing.

“Even with so many deaths in the Zhu family, there are more people joining the Zhu family all the time. There are too many geniuses, monsters and lunatics in the Zhu family. Even if there is no meteorite rain from the sky, I think the world will be destroyed by them sooner or later.”

Shen Qingjia was silent momentarily, “Where’s your mother?”

“Mother died when I was very young.”

“Then…what about your father?”

“He had many children with many women, some now dead and some still alive. I haven’t seen him for many years…I don’t remember what he looks like now.”

Zhu Ai had never said so many words before, Shen Qingjia’s eyes and nose were sour, she turned around and hugged her slender and soft waist.

Their secret base can already be seen not far away, Heise’s wings stopped above the ground. Zhu Ai slides down with Shen Qingjia in her arms..

“I’m telling you this, not because I want you to pity and feel sorry for me, I just want you to know the real Zhu Ai.” Zhu Ai’s voice is clear and bright.

Shen Qingjia hugged her tighter, after a while, she said in a low voice, “How could I not feel bad…”

She raised her head, her eyes were slightly moist and her voice was not small, “In this vast sea of people, I managed to meet you. You and I are depending on each other. When I see your fingers get cut and you bleed a little, I feel pain! How can I not feel bad right now!”

Zhu Ai was stunned, looking at the girl who was crying for her. Something broke through the soil [8] in her heart. That feeling of being filled to the brim that she had felt before once again overflowed her chest.

What are these feelings, as if an unknown and taboo door appeared in front of her, behind the door was a brand new world, whether it is heaven or hell [9], Zhu Ai doesn’t know.

Zhu Ai’s eyes were complicated and confused, her palms touched Shen Qingjia’s beautiful cheeks, as if she was about to push a door open.

“Qingjia…”

Translator notes:

[1] 脑袋上的羽毛掉了个干净; I check multiple times but the sentence really said that the bird from chapter 5 have now become bald. Poor bird

[2] 血腥; word is bloody but I decided cruel is better

[3] 鄙视; used 3 times

[4] 黑色; this means black. I decided to use the pinyin since I don’t want to get confused because Heise has black feathers and who knows in the future I might have to type Heise’s black feather or something like that. Imagine if I use ‘Black’s black feather’.

[5] I swear, every MC seems to have poor naming skills…

[6] 祝哀都闻得到死神袍角的味道; literally means can smell Death God’s robes

[7] 就是狂拽酷炫龙傲天; pull cool Long Aotian; slang for Overpowered char [satire]

[8] 汉英大词典; imagine a bamboo shoot breaking through the earth

[9] 那世界是五彩斑斓还是万箭穿心万劫不复; whether it is a world full of colour or it is a world where thousands of arrow will pierce the heart and bring eternal sorrow