Chapter 21
Chapter 21: The Aberrant Beasts Are Coming for You—If You Won’t Fight, Are We Just Cannon Fodder?
Aberrant beasts underground?
Jiang Tea Tea’s words hit like a muffled thunderclap. Everyone except Chong Ming jerked their attention to the ground, eyes scanning wildly, trying to spot something that wasn’t visible.
Where? Where were they?
Chong Ming’s gaze didn’t follow theirs. It settled on the back of Jiang Tea Tea’s head instead. His voice was low and even, almost emotionless. “Cadet Jiang Tea Tea. What kind of aberrant beast is underground?”
Jiang Tea Tea tugged Huang Da Zhuang closer, staying within the tightest part of the protection ring. Her eyes remained on the paving stones as she answered, “Bugs. Mutant insects.”
Damn it. Even as a great demon, her true form was still a tree—and trees hated bugs more than anything.
And it wasn’t one or two.
Beneath the stone, there was a dense, crawling mass. Countless insects packed together, straining upward, eager to break through.
Huang Da Zhuang’s knees nearly buckled. If Jiang Tea Tea hadn’t been holding him up, he would’ve dropped to the ground and bowed until his forehead cracked. She was talking to Chong Ming like that, and her voice didn’t even tremble.
Gunfire cracked through the chaos.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Several Level 7 mutant rats were shot clean through the head. Brains splattered. Limbs twitched. Blood ran across the stone.
The cadets being chased by the mutant rats were so terrified they seemed to forget they had abilities at all. They didn’t fight back. They only screamed and ran.
Meanwhile, campus security and the A-rank and S-rank cadets were locked in brutal combat with mutant foxes, mutant cheetahs, and mutant tigers—yet still had to spare attention to keep fleeing classmates from getting bitten.
There were too many mutant rats. As far as the eye could see, they swarmed. The heat-sensor alarms stopped sounding altogether—either overwhelmed or pointless. No one could even guess how many aberrant beasts were inside the academy anymore.
Principal Wu and the rest of the leadership threw themselves into the fight as well. Wind users blasted mutant rats away in violent gusts. Ice users froze them solid, then smashed the brittle bodies with clubs.
Frozen rats shattered into chunks with a single hit, pieces scattering across the ground in gruesome piles.
The panicking cadets who’d fled the buildings were herded together and shielded behind the leadership.
“They’re coming up,” Jiang Tea Tea said.
With one arm, she snagged Lu Ling Er and Lin Feng Feng—who were stumbling, wide-eyed with panic—and dragged them closer. “The mutant insects underground are surfacing.”
Her words had barely left her mouth when the stone beneath their feet made a sickening sound.
Crack.
A slab split down the middle.
Then another.
Two became three, three became dozens—countless paving stones fracturing and lifting as something underneath pressed upward.
The floor turned unstable, buckling in waves. Even with masses of cadets and staff standing there, they couldn’t keep the ground from loosening.
A slab flipped.
From beneath it burst a hornet the size of a clenched fist.
A tea king hornet.
Its belly was pale, its back and wings a slick black. A mutated strain of the Huan Hu Yellow Hornet. It laid eggs underground, grew underground, and when it matured, it broke through stone and soil alike—devouring anything it encountered, leaving ruin behind like a plague of locusts.
Bang.
The first hornet was shot out of the air, blown apart.
A second rose.
Then a third. A fourth.
Then a wave—tea king hornets pouring out like smoke.
Even if every bullet hit, even if every shooter had perfect aim, there were too few guns and too many targets. They couldn’t kill them all.
“Jiang Tea Tea,” Lu Ling Er whispered, voice shaking. “I’m scared.”
She clung to Jiang Tea Tea’s arm as if it was the only solid thing in the world. “My mom said if a tea king hornet stings you, you die. My jumping ability can’t protect me at all. What do I do?”
“What do I do? Am I going to die here?”
“I’m scared too,” Lin Feng Feng choked out, pressing close beside her. Tears were already in her voice. “Jiang Tea Tea, you were right. My C-rank wind ability is basically a fan. I don’t have any attack power.”
“What if a tea king hornet touches me? Or a mutant rat? Am I going to die? Wuwuwu—I don’t want to die, I still haven’t even gotten close to my male idol—”
“Both of you,” Jiang Tea Tea snapped, yanking her arm free. “Shut up.”
They were loud enough to give her a headache.
“Use your brains for once,” she said, ruthless. “You’re standing this close to Chong Ming—the Commander-in-Chief and Prince Regent. Do you really think he’d let you die?”
Lu Ling Er went still.
Lin Feng Feng blinked hard.
Huang Da Zhuang made a strangled sound, like someone had slapped him awake.
Right. They were inside the protection ring. The male idol himself was here. If anyone was going to survive, it was them.
Chong Ming’s golden eyes deepened slightly as he looked down at Jiang Tea Tea—this fierce, short little thing who reached only his chin, scolding people without fear.
He tried again to sense his aura on her, the faint dragon scent he could always detect when his bloodline brushed another.
Nothing.
No trace of him. No ability fluctuations. Nothing at all.
And yet she trusted him. Completely.
“Shit,” Huang Da Zhuang breathed.
He pointed, frantic. “Sister Tea, the tea king hornets are coming right at us! It’s a swarm. They’re going to eat us!”
Jiang Tea Tea’s tone stayed eerily calm. “Not just tea king hornets.”
Her gaze flicked across the battlefield. “Every aberrant beast that shows up is pushing toward us. All of them. If people weren’t blocking them—killing them—they’d already be charging this way.”
Even the massive ones, even the smaller ones. Their purpose was singular: push toward this direction.
A mutant tiger, several tons of wounded rage, dragged its bleeding body forward anyway—eyes locked on them.
But the defenses around Chong Ming were tight. Any aberrant beast that got too close was either shot cleanly through the head or shredded by abilities. None broke through.
The cadets crowded within the ring stayed safe under the escort guards’ protection—an iron fortress.
Huang Da Zhuang’s brain apparently misfired. He blurted, “What’s here that makes all these aberrant beasts and mutant insects rush over?!”
Jiang Tea Tea looked at him like he was beyond saving. “Huang Big Dog, you’re a dog-type beastfolk, not a pig. Use your head. Who do you think they’re coming for?”
Huang Da Zhuang froze, then gaped. “They’re… not coming for you, are they?”
Jiang Tea Tea pinched the bridge of her nose. “You idiot—”
“They’re coming for me,” Chong Ming said.
His voice was low and unhurried, calm enough to be maddening. It rolled right over Jiang Tea Tea’s insult like it didn’t exist. “Cadet Huang Big Dog.”
Huang Da Zhuang nearly exploded. His name wasn’t Huang Big Dog. His name was Da Zhuang. Da Zhuang!
Why was his male idol giving him random nicknames too?!
Jiang Tea Tea shot Chong Ming a look. “If you know they’re after you, why aren’t you dealing with it already?”
Chong Ming met her eyes, composed. “No rush. The country allocates the Royal Military Academy a great deal of budget every year. An invasion of this scale is rare—once in a century, perhaps.”
“Consider it a convenient test,” he continued, as if discussing a training drill. “The academy’s response time. The faculty’s competence. The cadets’ individual ability and team combat readiness.”