Chapter 206: Mother and Daughter!
Yue Zhong looked at Juan Zi coldly and said, "Where's the Divine Spring Tea? Bring me to it and I will spare your life, but you'd better get lost from Tooth Village."
"Is that for real?" Juan Zi's eyes flashed with anticipation- nobody would want to die if given the choice.
White Bones retracted his Bone Spear and Juan Zi immediately fell from the wall. She looked at White Bones, which was capable of shooting such sharp spears, and her eyes had a hint of fear.
Yue Zhong coldly called out, "Lead on!"
Juan Zi gazed once more at the both of them and started to lead the way with big strides.
"It is this type of tea!" Juan Zi brought Yue Zhong along many turns before arriving at a burial site; right behind, there grew a small tea tree of not more than 30 cm tall with 7 forked branches, each branch growing 10 green tea leaves.
Yue Zhong walked towards the tea tree and an exotic fragrance wafted through the air, that was precisely the same fragrance as that of the Divine Spring Tea he had drunk before.
He pondered for a while before suddenly asking, "Are there many (zombie) corpses buried under here?"
Juan Zi's eyes flashed with surprise, "That's right! There are indeed many corpses buried here, how did you know that?"
Previously, the Lifesaver Grass, which had contributed to the recovery of many subordinates under Yue Zhong, was also discovered near a burial site. In the process of cultivating the Lifesaver Grass, Yue Zhong found out that the meat of Mutant Beasts and also zombie corpses, basically diseased meat, acted as a sort of effective fertilizer for the Lifesaver Grass, encouraging its growth. If it did not have any nourishment from the meat of zombies or mutant beasts, its growth was unbearably slow. It was because of this that Yue Zhong came to the conclusion that the Divine Spring Tea was likely of the same circumstances, growing on top of corpses.
Yue Zhong ordered White Bones, "Dig it out, be careful not to damage the roots."
Upon receiving the order, White Bones bent its frame, 10 fingers pierced into the earth and it began digging frenzily.
With White Bones' efforts, the Divine Spring Tea tree that could strengthen one's body was dug up together with a sizeable amount of soil, before being wrapped in a big piece of cloth.
Juan Zi saw that White Bones had finished its task and asked meekly, "Can I go now?"
She was not willing to stay with Yue Zhong or White Bones for a moment longer than necessary- after all, she had wanted to kill them earlier. Being by their side was extremely stressful.
Yue Zhong glanced at the vicious woman and blandly said, "I promised you before and I won't go back on my word. Go back first!"
Juan Zi saw that Yue Zhong had no intentions of killing her and could not help but heave a sigh of relief. Her eyes flashed as she quietly walked behind Yue Zhong.
Upon returning to the village, Liu Erhei and the rest had recovered their mobility. However, they still remained in the room where Ma Zhengming had been hacked to death.
Tooth Village was very small, so Liu Erhei and the rest did not know where else they could turn to. Prior to this, their leader was Ma Zhengming, yet he had been killed. For the time being, they could only stay in the room blankly, with their hearts full of fear and unease over how Yue Zhong was going to deal with them.
Seeing that Yue Zhong's party of three had come back into the house, their heartbeats accelerated, not knowing how Yue Zhong would deal with them.
"Since I promised you that you can live after helping to find the Divine Spring Tea, I naturally would not go back on my words." Yue Zhong looked at Juan Zi and spoke slowly.
Hearing Yue Zhong's words, Juan Zi's originally pale face regained some of its color.
At that moment, a cold glint flashed in Yue Zhong's eyes as he took one swipe with his sword down towards Juan Zi's shoulder, cleanly dismembering her entire right arm.
"However, while I did promise you're leaving alive, I did not say you would be leaving in one piece."
"AH!!!!!" Juan Zi screamed in a miserable voice, crying loudly as the stump of her shoulder bled profusely.
Yue Zhong coldly barked, "Get lost immediately! Otherwise I'll kill you!"
With regards to those who had intended to harm him, Yue Zhong was never lenient. This time, if it was not for the location of the Divine Spring Tea, he would not have left Juan Zi alive.
The outside world was now filled with zombies and mutant beasts everywhere. For someone as ordinary as Juan Zi, unless some fortunate incident were to occur, she would either starve to death or be eaten by the zombies and mutant beasts.
With the words from Yue Zhong, Juan Zi glared at him with venomous hatred, before gritting her teeth and rushing out of the garden towards the outside world.
Seeing this scene, Liu Erhei's party of 5 could not help but tremble, their faces pale as they looked at Yue Zhong and awaited their fate.
Yue Zhong eyed the 5 of them and coldly said, "From now on, Tooth Village belongs to me! All the people are my personal belongings. You are all my property. Are there any objections?"
With Ma Zhengming's death, Yue Zhong harbored the intention to possess Tooth Village. The village had over 50 survivors, and in the current circumstances where the human populace was dwindling, it was considered a decent treasure.
White Bones was also hoisting its White Bone Axe on its shoulders, staring at the 5 of them; if any of them dared to make a move, it would not hesitate to kill them.
Liu Erhei and the rest of them could feel the thick killing intent from White Bones- if they disagreed, the person in black robes would not spare them.
Liu Erhei immediately called out loudly, "I have no problems. From now on, Boss Yue is the Village's Head. If anyone dares to not comply, I will punish that person myself!"
"Boss Yue, I'll listen to you!"
"Boss Yue, whatever you ask of me from now on, I'll do it!"
The rest all chimed in one after another. In the current world, following someone was not just following; instead, it ensured survival if the person was a strong evolver. As long as Yue Zhong did not ask of things that crossed their bottom line, they would be willing to work for him.
Yue Zhong continued to say, "Very good! Who knows the way to Chen Village?"
"I know!"
"......." All of them rushed to answer.
"Liu Erhei, you go back and prepare, tomorrow you shall lead the way. Cai Wen, when I'm gone, you will be the temporary leader. Gather everyone to go fish. I will come back to bring you all away after some time. Disperse!"
After giving a number of orders, Yue Zhong finally dismissed the members.
"Boss Yue, what about us?" After a little hesitation, the pretty wife of Ma Zhengming walked to Yue Zhong's side and asked uneasily.
The rest of the ladies all looked towards Yue Zhong. If he wanted them to sleep with him, they would definitely not resist. Before this, they had followed Ma Zhengming so that they could eat their fill; as for feelings, it was basically zilch. If Yue Zhong wanted them, they would not mind changing to serve another man.
"Go back to your rooms and rest!"
Yue Zhong waved his hands after taking a look at them. Although he was not someone virtuous, he was used to the likes of Ji Qingwu, Guo Yu, Lu Wen and Zhang Jingqiao, the rest of these women basically could not hold a candle to them.
(TN: Zhang Jingqiao is the rebel girl who hasn't appeared for a while. Also, here's the real question: what has happened to the tea that was stored in White Bones, who transformed his body into a cup to hold it?)
The next morning, Yue Zhong brought Liu Erhei and left Tooth Village, towards the direction of Chen Village.
In a certain location at the top of a 3-storey building in Chen Village, having starved for 6 days, Zhuo Yatong was looking at her frail-looking daughter Yun Caiwei, her eyes gleaming with a strange light. Her stomach was growling like crazy, her hunger enveloping her entire body and slowly eroding her sense of reason and energy.
The amount of food in the room had already mostly been consumed 3 weeks ago, and during the span of these 3 weeks, Zhuo Yatong and her daughter Yun Caiwei had eaten very sparingly, taking small mouthfuls of food each day and limiting their movements as much as possible. However, 6 days ago, they had finally wiped their food clean. In these 6 days, Zhuo Yatong was constantly tortured by hunger to the extent that she almost wanted to die: at the same time, under that immense hunger, a crazy thought had blossomed in her mind: "Eat her!!"
"No! She's my daughter. My precious daughter!" (TN: SMEAGOLLLL! Divinecelestialbeinglol: Kun, I'm scared of you now.)
"Eat her!!"
Under the intense moral conflict, Zhuo Yatong seemed to have been driven mad by torture. The look in her eyes as she gazed at her daughter changed, as though she had just seen a roasted turkey.
Under the state where her mind was half collapsed, she subconsciously got closer to her daughter, her hands stretching out to Yun Caiwei's neck.
Yun Caiwei opened her loveable eyes, rubbing them gently, and pulled out a piece of chocolate not even as big as a fingernail from her right pocket. She broke it into half and handed one half to Zhuo Yatong, saying,"Mummy, time to eat!"
(TN: Yea it was almost dinner time and you were the course, little girl, *shudder* really makes one realize how fortunate most of us are now.)
Upon hearing her daughter's voice, Zhuo Yatong regained her senses and saw her own hands on her daughter's neck. A chilling sense of fear rise in her heart. If she had really killed her own daughter, she would break down and become insane.
Zhuo Yatong hugged Yun Caiwei tightly as she bawled, "Caiwei, you eat, you eat!"
Yun Caiwei continued on very sensibly, "Mummy, eat! Only when you eat, will you have energy."
Zhuo Yatong released her hug and smiled sadly, before taking the bigger piece and pushing it into her daughter's mouth as she took the smaller half and ate it.
"Little Wei, you stay here okay, mummy will go look for some food." Zhuo Yatong instructed Yun Cai Wei to stay as she got up shakily, walking towards the kitchen.
The kitchen was already swept clean of all edible items: even salt, soy sauce and items like vinegar were all eaten by the mother and daughter pair.
However, her aim was not these items- rather, it was a vegetable knife. She feared that she would commit something unthinkable under her frenzy, so her heart was dead-set.
She picked up the knife, her eyes empty; as her hands trembled uncontrollably, her heart also beat with fear and unease.
"If only someone could save us right now, I would agree to whatever he wants." Zhuo Yatong laughed bitterly before killing off that hope, closing her eyes as she swung the knife down towards her left hand.
(TN: Is that you, Zeff from One Piece?)