Chapter 135
Chapter 135: I Like You, I Love You—But I’m Going to Kill You
Whistle—whistle—whistle!
Five masked Insect Clan operatives circled Jiang Tea Tea, firing tranquilizer darts in nonstop volleys.
She was wrapped tight in a black net. She couldn’t tell what it was made of, but electricity raced through it, shocking her over and over until her patience finally snapped.
Jiang Tea Tea sat down cross-legged inside the net and drew a slow breath, forcing the irritation down. Magic power surged from her core, wrapping her in a tight, transparent barrier.
Every dart slammed into the barrier and ricocheted—hard—whipping back the way it came.
The five operatives jolted, alarm flashing in their eyes. They dodged their own shots and sped up, firing faster, faster, faster.
Another storm screamed toward her.
And then—
Jiang Tea Tea’s hands shifted, fingers sharpening into claw-like points. Ignoring the net’s current, she tore it open like rotten cloth.
For a heartbeat, the world stopped.
The darts froze midair around her. The operatives froze too, bodies locked in the act of firing.
Jiang Tea Tea rose, calm as a predator standing up from a nap. Right in front of their unmoving eyes, she reached out and rotated the darts—one by one—until every needle pointed back at its owner.
Then she let go.
All at once, the darts shot forward.
They punched into the five operatives, dead center.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Five bodies hit the ground, unconscious—taken out by their own attack.
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t waste a second. She snatched one operative’s dart gun and calmly put extra shots into all five, making sure none of them woke at the wrong time.
Then she stripped the other guns from their hands, pivoted, and aimed into the sky.
A flower dragon. A blue dragon. A white dragon. A black dragon.
Her aim was merciless.
She didn’t miss.
Each dragon took at least three darts. No matter how massive they were, the tranquilizers sank deep and worked fast.
One by one, the dragons lost control and dropped out of the air, smashing into the ground in heavy, unconscious heaps.
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t admire her work. She dashed to the masked operatives, yanked every storage button off their wrists, and pocketed them.
Then she sprinted toward Sui Xuan Chu.
He dropped from the air, shifted back into human form, and hit the ground on one knee.
His school uniform hung in tatters. His face was still swollen from her earlier slaps, puffed up like a steamed bun. Blood coated him so thoroughly he looked like he’d been dragged out of a vat of gore.
Jiang Tea Tea reached him, tossed him a dart gun, and planted her palm on top of his head.
Magic power poured into him—steady, forceful, relentless.
She didn’t bother hiding her disgust. “I killed one Insect Clan operative and took down seven more. You fought a few dragons and got injured this badly?”
“You’re pathetic.”
Sui Xuan Chu tried to stand, but the power rushing through him pinned him in place. Still kneeling, he wiped blood from his mouth and forced a grin through the pain. “Who can compare to you? You’ve got the strength of two people.”
Jiang Tea Tea blinked.
Two?
If he knew the truth, he’d choke.
She wasn’t saying a damn word. The cubs in her belly were hers. No one was taking them.
She cut the topic off hard. “I can hear aberrant beasts from the back mountain pushing toward the rear gate. I can also hear dragons roaring and classmates screaming.”
“And your uncle—Chong Ming, that old loach—what is he doing? We were almost killed. He still hasn’t shown up.”
Sui Xuan Chu fell back on his usual defense. “He believes in us. He’s testing us. He wants us to treat this like a small scene—something we can handle without him.”
Compared to the wars his uncle had fought, a dozen Insect Clan operatives, a thousand enraged dragons, and an aberrant-beast invasion really did count as “small.”
His uncle hadn’t appeared yet because he believed they could handle it—and because he wanted them to rack up an impressive record.
Jiang Tea Tea scoffed. “You really are his cub. You’ll take his side every time.”
Sui Xuan Chu’s grin returned, brighter now that the pain was fading. “When you give birth, I’ll help you raise them. I’ll even help hatch them. I guarantee their elbows will bend toward you.”
Jiang Tea Tea spat in disgust. “Dream on.”
She nodded toward the storage buttons. “Check them. See what we can use.”
Five storage buttons clinked onto the ground in front of him.
He grabbed them, cracked them open, dumped everything out, and whistled. “Damn.”
Guns. Darts. Nets. Electric batons. Drugs. Contraband stacked on contraband.
He sorted with practiced speed, and as Jiang Tea Tea’s healing finished, the swelling in his face and the ragged injuries across his body faded away, leaving him looking sharper by the second.
Jiang Tea Tea, meanwhile, pulled out dragon blood.
Chong Ming had given her six bottles. She’d already used two earlier.
She downed the remaining four in one go, then layered magic power over her abdomen again and again, as if building walls no one could see.
Sui Xuan Chu pointed at the pile he’d arranged. “All right. These guns and darts are usable. This stack is yours. This stack is mine.”
Jiang Tea Tea swept her share into a storage button. “Let’s go hunt dragons.”
“Charge—” Sui Xuan Chu started, rising—
Jiang Tea Tea was already moving.
They ran toward the loudest cluster of roars. Halfway there, Huang Da Zhuang and Cheng Lin Yue barreled toward them carrying more tranquilizer supplies.
Behind them came teachers from the Medical Department, each hauling a massive tranquilizer rifle like a heavy sniper weapon. They ran hard, breathing rough, moving like trained soldiers.
The academy was enormous, and every hovercar and bike was dead. There was nothing to do but run on foot.
They reached the densest knot of dragon roars, raised the rifles, and fired.
When a dragon fell, they sprinted to the next spot. Another volley. Another fall.
They changed locations five times in a row.
Over a hundred dragons went down.
Then the academy’s sharp alarm blared across the night.
It screamed for three full minutes.
After that, the principal’s strained voice came through the campus system. “Classmates, our Royal Military Academy has been poisoned by the Insect Clan with the forbidden drug dragon-luring agent. All dragon clan members under thirty have gone berserk.”
“Back-mountain primeval forest aberrant beasts—from Level 1 to Level 10—have been awakened and are moving toward the school.”
“Strong classmates, pick up any weapons you can find. Protect yourselves. Protect the academy. Weaker students, find the nearest shelter rooms. Do not add chaos. Preserve yourselves.”
“I will stand with you. I will protect—”
“Move!” Jiang Tea Tea snapped, grabbing Sui Xuan Chu’s wrist. “You’re coming with me. We’re going to the rear gate to block the aberrant beasts.”
She looked at Huang Da Zhuang. “Protect Cheng Lin Yue. If you can’t, find shelter and hide.”
Sui Xuan Chu nodded. “Got it.”
He shifted, a red-black dragon surging into the night, and Jiang Tea Tea climbed onto his back.
Huang Da Zhuang and Cheng Lin Yue tried to follow, but they didn’t even get the chance.
Above them, enraged dragons spotted movement. They whipped their tails, roared, and charged.
Jiang Tea Tea raised her tranquilizer rifle and fired without pause. A single rifle held dozens of darts, and her aim was ruthless.
Sui Xuan Chu’s flight was just as brutal—sharp dodges, tight turns, perfect positioning.
They moved like they’d been partnered for years.
Every flying dragon that came at them went down.
Some were ten meters long. Some were dozens. Some were so massive they blotted out the sky.
When they fell, they smashed roofs and infrastructure, crushed hovercars, and cratered the ground. A few lay so limp they looked dead at first glance.
Sui Xuan Chu roared in victory, carrying Jiang Tea Tea toward the rear gate—
And the moment they neared it, the primeval forest sent another wave.
Bats. Owls. Giant flies. Giant mosquitoes.
Mutant bats, black as tar and each larger than an owl, poured in like a living cloud. The academy’s protective shield might as well not have existed; winged things slipped through without resistance and flooded the campus.
They carried bacteria and viruses. They bit. They stung. They swarmed.
Students ran for classrooms, dorms, shelters—any enclosed space they could reach. The winged pests smashed into walls and doors, circling and crashing, searching for people like they’d lost their minds.
Jiang Tea Tea expanded a transparent barrier around herself and Sui Xuan Chu. Only then did they slip through the swarm unharmed.
At the rear gate, her heart sank.
The gate was already open.
Mutant rats and crawling black insects poured into the school like an endless tide spilling through a breach.
Jiang Tea Tea jumped off Sui Xuan Chu’s back, set her rifle to a heavier setting, and swept the muzzle across the swarm.
It didn’t matter. There were too many. Rats came in waves. The crawling insects moved like a living carpet.
She didn’t waste effort on what had already entered.
Instead, she stepped into the opening and raised a massive ice wall.
The moment it formed, something smashed into it.
A giant mutant leopard—black fur glossy, body easily hundreds of pounds—rammed the wall so hard its head split open, blood spraying.
It didn’t stop. It hit again.
Sui Xuan Chu landed on top of the ice wall, raised his gun, and fired.
Bang.
Headshot.
Another leopard surged forward. Another shot.
When the numbers became too much, he called lightning down and fried several at once.
Jiang Tea Tea was just about to call lightning herself when the sky over the academy suddenly flared with blinding brightness.
Night turned into day for a thousand miles.
She and Sui Xuan Chu looked up together.
Flyers and small warcraft streaked in, engines screaming. A Police Bureau siren wailed across the sky as countless ships charged into the academy airspace.
Sui Xuan Chu elbowed Jiang Tea Tea. “Look. My uncle’s guard team finally showed up.”
Jiang Tea Tea snorted. “A late hero.”
Sui Xuan Chu opened his mouth to argue—
Then stopped and pointed, voice sharp with urgency. “Roommate—look! Overlord Wang Die. He’s a confidant of the Insect Royal Family. His phosphor dust can induce hallucinations. He’s scattering it over the entire forest. He’s trying to drive every beast in the primeval forest insane.”
Jiang Tea Tea followed his finger.
A massive butterfly—so large it dwarfed the treetops—fluttered through the air, fearless of flyers and warcraft. Its wings were mesmerizing, radiant, deadly. Glittering powder rained from it in a constant shower.
Jiang Tea Tea snapped, “What are you waiting for? Move!”
Sui Xuan Chu dug out two gas masks and shoved one at her. “Strictly speaking, we’re beasts too. We can get hit by phosphor dust. Put it on—don’t get hypnotized.”
“Annoying,” Jiang Tea Tea muttered.
She held her breath, launched onto the treetops, and sprinted as if the branches were a road.
Sui Xuan Chu stared. “What the—”
No mask. No protection.
The butterfly turned as if teasing her, flapped its dazzling wings, and shot deeper into the forest.
Jiang Tea Tea used Shrink the Earth to an Inch, reappearing right in its path. She blocked it with a cold smile.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Overlord Wang Die froze.
Then, in a flash of shimmering light, he transformed.
A youth stood in the air—beautiful in a way that felt wrong, neck patterned with iridescent markings, face androgynous enough to confuse the eye. Behind him, enormous radiant wings beat slowly.
His eyes glittered like priceless gems, shifting through impossible colors. His lips parted—red, soft—and his voice ran clear as spring water. “Jiang Tea Tea. I’m not running. I was waiting for you.”
He tilted his head. “Am I beautiful?”
Jiang Tea Tea’s vision swam. Dizziness hit her like a wave. Her gaze blurred, locking onto him as if the rest of the world had vanished.
“You’re beautiful,” she murmured. “Very beautiful.”
The youth drifted closer, circling her in a slow, hypnotic dance. “You think I’m beautiful. I think you’re beautiful too.”
“Do you like me?” he asked softly. “Do you love me?”
Jiang Tea Tea swayed with him. “Yes. I like you. I love you. Don’t spin… don’t fly around… I’m dizzy.”
The youth stopped directly in front of her.
Jiang Tea Tea drifted closer, lifting a hand to touch his face.
He smiled, radiant and inviting. “Come closer. Touch me. If you touch me, I’ll like you too. I’ll love you too…”
His words died.
His eyes widened.
Slowly, he lowered his gaze.
Jiang Tea Tea’s hand had transformed into a tea branch.
It had speared straight through his ribs.
Her branch-fingers clenched around his beating heart.
When she spoke, every trace of haze was gone, her voice sharp enough to cut stone.
“Little butterfly. That pathetic illusion was supposed to fool me?”
“And that ugly face was supposed to make me like you? Love you?”
She smiled, cold and murderous. “You’re delusional.”