Chapter 31: CH 24

Threat from Zhu Family

“So, you are now level 4?”

“Otherwise with only the power of level 3 I can’t stop the self-destruction. It is estimated that the total energy of the level 4 mutant animal’s self-destruction has reached the level 5.”

Shen Qingjia gave her a blank look, “You make it sound so easy to rise to the level 4, you must have been specially sent by Heavens to despise me.”

Having said that, her right hand tightly grasped Zhu Ai’s fingers. Zhu Ai holds Shen Qingjia’s hand, smiles, closes her eyes and senses the direction of water molecules in the air for a moment and identifies the direction. “There is an exit here.”

The cave was dark. Anyway, the only big boos [1] already being taken care of by the Greatest Villain. A flame bursts from Shen Qingjia’s palm; she uses her supernatural power to illuminate the cave.

The lights flickered and shadows started dancing on the walls. Shen Qingjia held Zhu Ai’s hand and walked in the dimly lit cave. The road ahead became wider and wider. She suddenly remembered when she and Zhu Ai met for the first time, when she and Zhu Ai were still very weak and panicky avoiding zombies in the sewers, at that time they also helped each other in the darkness. At that time she would be scared half to death hearing Zhu Ai’s name.

Now Shen Qingjia is thinking that even if this is how she and Zhu Ai spend the rest of their life, it doesn’t matter.

After this incident, Shen Qingjia was even more convinced that nothing in the world could separate the two of them, even life and death, even fate.

At this time, she didn’t quite know why her feelings of not wanting to leave Zhu Ai were so strong and why she really wanted to live together with Zhu Ai. Her mind was in chaos and she didn’t want to think about the real reasons, but she believed in her feelings for no reason.

They will stay together and never be apart.

Yes, that is how it should be, if not for what happen after this… [2]

Halfway through the journey, Zhu Ai stopped. She has no choice because the road ahead has disappeared.

It is not accurate to say that it disappeared, in fact, it was not originally an exit; it was an artificially created cliff. A huge opening, about ten metres long and wide, blasted out of the weak point of the cave halfway up the mountain, resembles a hideous beast rising upright and opening its huge bloody mouth!

The sound of violent winds blowing in mid-air, Shen Qingjia looked down and saw half of the Secret Forest beneath her feet, so small and dangerous that all she could see was the sky that seemed to be within reach and the earth that was out of reach.

Instantly, Shen Qingjia understood that someone had blasted an open hole here, causing the airflow to circulate, making Zhu Ai think this was the exit and make them walk step by step to a trap.

The person who set up this trap must have been preparing for this for many days and they knew very well Zhu Ai’s ability and fighting style, which means… These days, the two of them are being watched by countless enemies!

Suddenly hearing the sound of orderly footsteps behind her, Shen Qingjia frowned and turned then almost froze in place.

These people, they can’t be good people!

There were more than 20 young men dressed in black. In her perception, at least 20 of them had the same aura as Zhu Ai. That is to say, there were at least 20 level 4 on the other side!

20 level 4, what that means, it means when these 20 people are attacking with full power, they can turn dozens of aeroplanes into ashes in an instant! [3]

Shen Qingjia considered the grenade and gun explosives in Zhu Ai’s spatial ring, and then frowned; she was afraid that these ordinary technological weapons could not even break the defence of these level 4 experts.

The leader had long hair, rarely seen on a man in the 21st century, spreading messily to his waist. His face was beautiful and pale, but under his eyes there were heavy dark circles, as if he had not closed his eyes for more than ten days. He was dressed in an ancient style of black robe, painted with an unknown pattern of gold [4], it is a majestic costume but around his neck he wore something like a dog collar, tightly bound to the flesh of his neck, with the other end of the chain wrapped around his right hand, giving the first impression that he was “a psychopath”. This feeling is even more prominent as soon as he opens his mouth.

“Great Lord…” The man in the robe knelt down in the direction of Zhu Ai, “This humble one finally found you!” [5]

It was kneeling in the true sense, with all four limbs on the ground, even his forehead clinging to the ground respectfully and he kowtowed three times, until blood oozed from his forehead before he stood up again.

“This person, is he crazy?” Shen Qingjia was a little confused.

Zhu Ai didn’t say a word with a cold face, only then did Shen Qingjia realise something weird was going on.

Although Zhu Ai usually has a cold face in daily life, it is completely different from this time. This kind of hatred that seeped down to bone marrow, where one can’t wait to slash the opponent, there is not only hatred, but also disgust and murderous intent… Shen Qingjia got close and she saw her hand holding the sword, trembling slightly because of this hatred.

While the hatred on Zhu Ai’s side was overwhelming, the man in the long robe was laughing out loud with joy. It wasn’t a sinister smile that was the result of a successful scheme, the man across from him grinned like a child with a purely happy smile. If not for Zhu Ai’s gloomy expression, Shen Qingjia might have thought it was a joyful reunion of two friends who hadn’t seen each other for years.

“Zhu Ming.” Zhu Ai’s voice was cold and she spoke clearly and calmly, “It’s really you.” [6]

“Oh oh oh!! I didn’t expect you to remember such a humble and unworthy name.” The robe man’s face was a little distorted with excitement, he kept rubbing his messy long hair, almost moved to tears, “Daren, I’m so happy!!!” [7]

The assessment is complete, this person is really a psychopath! Shen Qingjia silently spat out in her heart.

Zhu Ai pointed the handle of the unsheathed sword at the man in the long robe, “I know it. How is it possible that a level 4 mutant animal can’t protect its own children? It’s you who are playing tricks in the dark!”

“Master [8] said that you must go all out in the face of your Lordship, using all available personnel and calculating any small surprises that may occur.” Zhu Ming smiled gently, “You don’t even know how happy Master was to learn of your news, Master even had us prepare for quite a while when they found out you were coming to explore the secret realm.”

Zhu Ai was silent for a moment, “Master? Has Zhu Hui successfully usurped the throne? She asked you to take me back to Zhu’s house for punishment?”

“No!!!” Zhu Ming screamed.

Irritated and frenzied, he drew his long, thin dagger from his belt and stabbed the man in black beside him in the gut!

“How could you think that?! How can you think like that?! How could you think this way ……” with every word he said he jabbed the dagger hard into the lower abdomen of the man in black until blood was spilled and the man in black was poked into a sieve before his rage was relieved. Putting down the body of the man in black, he once again gave Zhu Ai that clean, pure smile akin to that of a child, “It is clear that both Master and the Zhu Family are looking forward to your return.”

Of course, what shocked her most was not Zhu Ming’s public display of madness, but the calmness of the men in black behind him, not resisting, not stopping, not even saying a word or making a face.

The man who was killed acted as if the one who was pierced by the dagger was not himself and the rest of the 20 men in black looked as if they had watched Zhu Ming kill an ant.

It was only at this point that Shen Qingjia truly understood the words Zhu Miao had spoken that day.

“In the Zhu family, there are no normal people left.”

Zhu Ai [9] clenched the long sword in her hand. Her eyes were as cold as ten thousand years old ice. “What do you need me to do? Do you need me to replace two-thirds of my body with a steel machine?”

Zhu Ming scratched his messy hair and cried bitterly, almost exaggeratedly, “How could you not understand the thoughts of the Master?”

He collected his pained expression and tears in an instant and his cold, eerie gaze looked towards Shen Qingjia, “With your Lordship’s wisdom and intelligence how could you not understand the Master? It must be that some despicable and shameless villain is deceiving you with cunning words!”

With a momentary murderous fury on his innocent smiling face, Zhu Ming flung his hand and the dagger flew towards Shen Qingjia with lightning speed.

“It is this humble one’s duty to rid you of those who are dishonest and cunning!”

It was a full strike from a level 4 expert. The dagger’s trajectory was so fast that Shen Qingjia could barely catch it with her eyes and before she could react, the sharp dagger was already in front of her cheek.

The long sword in her hand was sheathed with a sharp cracking sound, hitting the dagger with a furious bang.

The sword and the dagger fell to the ground with a clang, and Zhu Ai pulled Shen Qingjia to her back, her aura was even stronger without her weapon. Her hair danced like a waterfall without wind and her murderous intent surged out!

“Damned bastards!!!”

Translator’s notes :

[1] 反正唯一的大boos都被魔王陛下解决了; so yeah, that is what author wrote. Again, I know the English is wrong, but just take it as the character’s quirk? If it is something that really needs to be corrected I will change it but well, I think keeping this, again, makes it sound better? Let me know your opinion in the comment.

[2] Yeah, prepared for the heartbreak part…

[3] 飞机; it is a real aeroplane. Dunno why authors use that for comparison.

[4]  probably looks like this, just imagine the gold pattern yourself.

[5] 至高无上的大人哟; alright so honestly I have no idea how to translate this into English. I mean, I don’t know how high Zhu Ai’s position is in Zhu’s family since I haven’t read until the end and these words mean something like, a really high position. So direct translation is ‘Supreme Master’ but this can also means ‘Your Excellency/My Lord’ and the way this ZM talk, he refer to himself as [卑微] which means ‘humble/lowly’ seriously the Zhu’s family give me a cult vibe. Also, later ZM will said [家主大人] which means ‘Master of the House’ when refer to someone else that I presumed, the bad guy? Anyway, this ZM will also refer to ZA with [大人] and I have read enough CN to see that sometimes translator keep the ‘Daren’ so yeah, I will use ‘Great Lord’ just for this one and when ZM use ‘Daren’ or something familiar I will keep it that way. Again, comments are appreciated.

[6] This person was first mentioned in chapter 18.

[7] See long notes at [5]

[8] Again see notes at [5], I decided to keep it short by just using ‘Master’ since I feel making it ‘Master’ will give it a different feeling compared to ‘Great Lord’. Also, some translation I got is ‘Lord Patriarch’ but next we will see that this person is a ‘she’ so well, my basic Mandarin is not high enough to understand this stuff so yeah, I decided to play safe and just use ‘Master’. Again, comments are appreciated.

[9] 祝明握紧了手中长剑; the raw said Zhu Ming but I am sure this is Zhu Ai so yeah, as I said, if the error is noticeable I will change it otherwise I will keep it and gives it a note. Anyway I might or might not give notes in the future when I change stuff like this from the raw since you know, typing too many notes is not exactly what I want to do.