Chapter 252

Chapter 252: Kill Yourself and Die with Me

Jiang Tea Tea stared at the huge, rotten yellow dragon, disbelief cracking her voice.

“What? That stinking yellow dragon is Chong Xing Qi?”

Sui Xuan Chu nodded so fast he nearly snapped his neck. “Yes—yes! I’ve seen his beast form. His yellow tail has a gold sheen under light!”

Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes narrowed with sudden understanding. And then she opened her mouth and swore.

“Then Chong Ming really is useless.”

Sui Xuan Chu flinched. “What—why are you cursing the Commander-in-Chief? This is Chong Xing Qi—what does it have to do with him?”

Why was she suddenly yelling at his uncle?

Had his uncle offended her?

Jiang Tea Tea snapped her flame staff into her hand. “How does it not have to do with him? This is the military department. It’s his territory.”

“Chong Xing Qi was in his interrogation room, under heavy guard, and he still got infected and turned. If that isn’t useless, what is?”

Sui Xuan Chu felt like he’d been stabbed in the heart.

And worse—she was right.

If the Commander-in-Chief was useless, then what were they?

Huang Da Zhuang and Cheng Xiao Ting didn’t dare speak. One was their distant male idol. The other was their goddess in front of their eyes. Offending either one was a terrible idea.

The zombie dragon roared.

Nearly a hundred meters long, it twisted in the air, caught the scent of Sui Xuan Chu and the others, and lunged—its mouth split wide, rotted flesh and saliva dripping.

Jiang Tea Tea swung her flame staff and planted herself between it and her friends.

“Run! Find cover! Don’t let its blood or saliva splash you!”

The six of them didn’t need telling twice. Against regular enemies they could fight. Against a supervirus zombie dragon?

No chance.

They sprinted like their lives depended on it—because they did.

Sui Xuan Chu and Cheng Lin Yue, the two who knew Jiang Tea Tea’s condition, shouted as they ran.

“Sister Tea—roommate! Be careful! If you can’t win, don’t force it. Your body matters!”

“Remember—danger belongs to other people. Don’t get infected. We’ll be nearby!”

Jiang Tea Tea’s magic power wrapped around her like a protective membrane. Her flame staff expanded, thicker and longer, and slammed straight into the zombie dragon’s mouth.

Teeth snapped. Rotten tongue tore. Spittle, blood, and chunks of decayed flesh rained down.

Elsewhere, Chong Ming received the report: Chong Xing Qi had awakened a spatial ability. He’d hidden it from his maternal grandfather; only his grandparents and parents knew.

After interrogation, Chong Xing Qi had been held in solitary confinement. In just a few hours, no one knew what went through his head—but he pulled superviruses from his space and injected them into himself.

Three superviruses.

The moment his mind still existed, he transformed into dragon form.

He didn’t break out upward. He drilled down, layer by layer, into the earth. By the time anyone noticed, there was already a massive hole underground.

Chong Ming’s face went iron-gray. With the ground trembling from violent ability fluctuations, he leapt out the window and sprinted toward the source.

The military department’s guards mobilized—protective suits, mechs, rifles, cannons. When they arrived, they saw Jiang Tea Tea alone, swinging her staff at a giant, rotting yellow dragon.

No one dared fire. No one dared shoot. They could only form a surrounding line and wait.

Jiang Tea Tea spotted Chong Ming and, while dodging and swinging, still had the leisure to needle him.

“Your Highness, this is the ‘impregnable’ military department you sit in? Tsk. Not quite there, is it?”

Chong Ming looked up at her. “It is indeed not quite there. Get farther away.”

Jiang Tea Tea flipped midair and landed on a tree branch to the side.

The zombie dragon chased her like a starving beast, as if she were its antidote. Its candy. Its food.

Three thunderclaps tore through the sky.

Lightning struck the yellow dragon mid-chase. It crashed from the air and slammed into the ground with a bone-shaking boom.

As it hit, its flesh and scales began sloughing off like dead skin and dandruff—shedding in a flurry.

Sui Xuan Chu and the others had run far, but they still put up shields and pulled on protective suits, terrified of being splashed.

The dragon tried to rise. Its claws were stripped to bone, no flesh left. It didn’t feel pain—only hunger. It strained toward Jiang Tea Tea again.

Lightning struck again.

Once. Twice. Three, five—

The zombie dragon finally collapsed, unable to move, whining in agony across the wide clearing.

Jiang Tea Tea leapt down from the tree, heading toward it, looking for a zombie core—if a newly turned one even had one.

She hadn’t landed yet when a red shadow shot forward, faster than her, and dropped beside Chong Xing Qi.

Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes narrowed. Her flame staff struck the ground. Fire rolled out, burning a safe landing spot for her.

The red shadow was Reboot.

She barely resembled a person anymore—hair tangled, neck broken, limbs torn, a body held together by spite and scraps. Somehow, she’d escaped the Flame Halo Ring.

Chong Ming landed beside Jiang Tea Tea in a single jump.

Jiang Tea Tea cut her eyes toward him. “Your Highness, if people find out your military department got taken by a zombie dragon and an experimental subject like this, right under your nose… where are you going to put your face?”

Chong Ming’s golden eyes met hers, gentle for a heartbeat.

Then he lifted his gaze and swept it across the surrounding troops.

The temperature dropped.

His eyes were frost and ice. “You’re right. I have no face left.”

Even inside protective suits and mechs, the soldiers shuddered.

A living-dead zombie dragon—who had ever seen one? No one. Not until today. Not inside the military department. It drilled through earth. It carried three superviruses. One splash meant infection.

They wanted to fight. They were soldiers. They weren’t afraid of dying.

They were afraid of dying like this—helpless and useless.

“Dad… Dad… does it hurt, Dad…?” Reboot sobbed, reaching out with a broken hand held on by a strip of skin to touch the dragon’s head.

Chong Xing Qi could only groan, trying with all his remaining strength to lift a claw and touch her back.

Reboot’s fingers brushed his head. “Dad, I love you. I love you most. I listen to you best.”

“You said kill someone—I’ll kill them. Chong Ming—if I kill him, will you live? Will you get up and play with me?”

“Is it him? Dad, is it—”

Chong Xing Qi exhaled, weak as smoke. His claw lifted, barely touched Reboot, and then fell.

His huge dragon body tore and shifted, transforming into a broken, bloodied human form.

Reboot stopped mid-attack. Joy flooded her face. She hugged him tight.

“Dad! I’m here, I’m here—Dad!”

Lightning had beaten some brief clarity back into Chong Xing Qi. With a skeletal hand, he touched her ruined face. Blood tears rolled down his clouded eyes.

“Reboot,” he whispered, voice holding onto the last thread of sanity, “Dad orders you… kill Dad.”

“Then kill yourself. Die with Dad.”