Chapter 253

Chapter 253: Here’s a Zombie Core—Bury Us Together. What Tribulation?

Reboot’s face had been ruined when she fought to break free of the Flame Halo Ring. The skin was rotting, the features barely recognizable.

She didn’t care.

Her eyes held only Chong Xing Qi.

For the first time, she resisted a command.

“No. I can’t kill Dad. Reboot likes Dad. Reboot can kill Chong Ming. Reboot can die. But Reboot can’t kill Dad.”

“You can,” Chong Xing Qi rasped. His hand on her face clenched, desperate and furious. “You can kill Dad.”

“Reboot. Be good. Kill Dad, then kill yourself. Hurry. Hurry!”

His sanity was almost gone.

He’d injected three viruses to gain strength, to find Reboot and kill her—to free her from the fate of being dissected and studied forever.

But somehow he’d smelled Jiang Tea Tea instead. He’d come for her instead, hungry to consume her.

It was lucky Reboot heard him and came.

Her Yellow Dragon Clan genes had been extracted from him. He’d raised her, trained her, studied her. She was, in every way that mattered, his child.

He knew what it meant to be a laboratory subject—cut open, sliced, examined.

If he killed her and died with her, she wouldn’t suffer that again.

He and his family had already failed the Yellow Dragon Clan. He couldn’t fail Reboot too.

“No…” Reboot shook her head, tears falling. “Dad, from little to big, you never taught me to kill you. You never—”

Chong Xing Qi cut her off with a cold, cruel threat.

“Reboot. If you don’t kill me… I won’t like you anymore.”

Those six words hit Reboot like a blade through the heart.

She froze.

Then she broke.

“No, no—Dad likes me most. Dad can’t stop liking me. I’ll listen. I’ll kill Dad—”

Chong Xing Qi smiled.

Reboot screamed, raw and shattering. Her broken hand transformed into a claw—sharp, lethal—and she drove it into Chong Xing Qi’s chest.

Even if he couldn’t feel pain anymore, the moment she seized his heart, his entire body convulsed.

His head jerked back. His eyes drifted to Chong Ming. His lips moved—maybe apologizing, maybe thanking him for not stopping them.

Reboot ripped his heart out.

She crushed it.

She licked it.

She tore his body apart with her claws.

Chong Xing Qi—living-dead zombie or not—finally died. No breath. No movement. Gone.

Bright lights. Pale moon. A slow night wind.

The entire military department reeked of rot and blood.

Reboot turned to Chong Ming, her voice steady with a child’s stubborn hatred.

“Chong Ming, Brother. You’ll never be as good as my Dad.”

“I can’t beat you. I can’t kill you. Only because I haven’t grown up.”

“But I’ll never grow up now.”

“I’m going to be with my Dad. I like my Dad. My Dad is the best.”

Chong Ming watched her, silent. He didn’t stop her.

Reboot’s mouth twisted. Her gaze slid to Jiang Tea Tea.

She didn’t speak to Jiang Tea Tea. She raised her claws and severed the last strip of flesh holding her head to her neck.

Her head and body separated.

Then she dug into her own chest and pulled out a blood-soaked crystal.

She threw it toward Jiang Tea Tea.

Jiang Tea Tea stepped forward and caught it. She looked at Reboot and said clearly, “I’ll burn you both and bury you together.”

It was as if Reboot had been waiting for that promise.

Her headless body collapsed into the shredded remains of Chong Xing Qi.

Her Yellow Dragon genes had come from him. Now she fell into his ruined flesh—returning to him, becoming one with him. Never separated again.

Jiang Tea Tea opened her hand.

A quail-egg-sized, blood-red zombie core lay in her palm.

Chong Ming pulled disinfectant from a storage button and snapped, “Jiang Tea Tea—wash your hands.”

Jiang Tea Tea held her hands out. Disinfectant poured over her skin, rinsing away the blood.

The zombie core gleamed redder, clearer, almost jewel-like.

Chong Ming noticed residue under her nails and reached out.

Jiang Tea Tea curled her fingers, holding the core down at her side. “Relax. My skin isn’t broken. I’m not infected.”

Chong Ming’s golden eyes narrowed. “Still. Be careful.”

Jiang Tea Tea changed the subject. “Do you need tissue samples from Chong Xing Qi and Reboot? If you want any, get people here now. If you don’t, I’ll burn everything. I promised Reboot.”

Chong Ming answered immediately. “I need samples. I’ll send people.”

The collection team arrived quickly—fully armored, sealed in protective suits. They took what they needed, sealed the samples away.

Jiang Tea Tea watched from a distance. When they finished, she looked at Chong Ming again.

“Order everyone to clear out from every place they stayed. I’m going to burn everything—where they were and where the bodies are.”

Chong Ming issued another series of orders.

On this terrifying night, the entire military department stayed awake. Every nerve taut.

Jiang Tea Tea traced a line with her flame staff. Fire flared and dropped onto the shredded bodies.

More fire followed their footprints, burning in a long trail—huge flames that consumed only what they touched, leaving everything else untouched.

The sight shook everyone present. It wasn’t just that Jiang Tea Tea was strong. It was the kind of control that made them question what they thought they knew about power.

The trail burned quickly—less than half an hour.

The bodies burned slower. It took an hour to reduce them fully to ash.

Huang Da Zhuang offered her a broom. They’d wanted to help collect the ashes, but she didn’t need it.

They handed her the broom anyway. Under Chong Ming’s gaze, Jiang Tea Tea swept the ashes into a box, slowly, carefully.

She hugged the box against her chest. “I’m going to bury them. The antidote can wait until tomorrow.”

“You…” Jiang Tea Tea lifted her chin, eyes sharp. “Your military department was supposed to be sealed tight, layered security, systems so strict even I couldn’t sneak in. Yet a prisoner escaped and turned into a zombie right under your eyes. Cameras, security, guards—like nobody noticed. That’s a major failure.”

Chong Ming nodded. “I know. I’ll reinforce everything. I’ll have Sui Xuan Chu and the others go with you. I’ll feel better.”

“I don’t need—”

A heavy boom rolled through the sky.

Then lightning split the night.

In a clear sky with a high moon and scattered stars, thunder cracked like a hammer. Lightning flashed like a blade.

It was like sudden storm in bright sun.

Jiang Tea Tea’s refusal died in her throat. She snapped her head toward the lightning’s direction.

Her mountain.

The mountain she’d bought—the place Jin Lin was digesting the Yellow Dragon Clan’s family of four.

This wasn’t ordinary thunder.

This was tribulation lightning.

A tribulation aimed at Jin Lin.

Jiang Tea Tea shoved the box of ashes into her storage button in one swift motion and looked at Chong Ming.

“I’ll bury them quickly. Don’t worry about me—”

She vanished before the last word finished.

Thunder roared again in the distance, louder each time. Lightning grew brighter, clouds rising like a curtain across the sky.

Even Chong Ming and his soldiers felt it—something was wrong. Something unnatural.

Chong Ming thought for a moment, boarded his warship, and ordered it toward the storm while he continued working remotely.