Chapter 315: Still Breathing
The moment I gave the command, the very ground beneath the intruders feet rushed to obey me.
Roots rose beneath the road and twisted through the wreckage, locking the trucks together while thick vines dropped from the trees. The men who had followed the vehicle spun around as the greenery sealed the opening, separating them from everyone still trapped outside.
Suddenly, the cheering stopped.
Zhou Chenghai walked into the corridor they had created.
The reinforced vehicle accelerated toward him, its driver apparently convinced that anything could be crushed if the vehicle was heavy enough.
He planted both feet and caught the front of it with his hands.
The impact pushed him backward across the pavement a few feet, carving two long marks beneath his boots, but he didn’t release the frame. Metal bent beneath his fingers as the engine roared and the tires spun uselessly against the ground.
Then he casually lifted the truck like it was nothing but a piece of paper.
The front wheels rose first, the vehicle tilting until the men inside fell against one another. When they were completely off balance, Zhou Chenghai shoved it onto its side with enough force to shake the porch beneath my feet.
Yuche was already waiting when the rear doors burst open.
The first man tried to crawl out, only for the metal bat to connect with his jaw and send him back inside. Yuche reached through the doorway, grabbed another attacker by the front of his coat, and dragged him onto the pavement before driving the end of the bat into his throat.
He didn’t rush.
He didn’t need to.
Every weapon inside the vehicle bent away from the hands trying to use it, leaving the trapped men to climb over one another while Yuche decided who came out next.
The plants crowded around the opening, eager to help him out in whatever way he wanted.
And across the road, one of Gu Han’s observers lowered his binoculars long enough to wipe his face. The vine curled around his window tapped the glass until he raised them again.
I smiled and gave him a little finger wave. He didn’t get to look away now. Not after we went through so much trouble to put on a little show for him and his friends.
The woman with the shaved head pulled against the vine holding her wrist, but it tightened every time she moved. "You think this proves something?"
"It proves several things," I replied, nodding my head as I got more comfortable. "You’re just having trouble keeping up."
"We’ll keep coming," she hissed like that threat was enough to stop everything. But it was too late to stop it now. They came here, we didn’t invite them, we didn’t steal from them or anything like that. They came asking for trouble.
And now they were upset when they got it.
"I know," I replied, because what else was there to say?
Her eyes moved toward the eastern road, perhaps expecting to see another line of vehicles arriving to save her. Instead, a low roll of thunder moved through the neighborhood.
The men nearest the corner turned toward the sound.
Xu Zhenlan stepped into view from the direction of Old Chen’s house.
Wind pulled at his coat and carried dust around his feet, while thin lines of lightning moved across one hand. He stopped when he saw the attackers blocking the road between him and the mansion.
Then his gaze lifted toward the porch and found me.
The tension in his face loosened the moment he confirmed that I was unharmed. It only lasted for a second before his attention returned to the people standing in his way.
He could have stayed inside Old Chen’s house and waited for the fighting to end. He could have taken another road or allowed the others to clear this one for him.
Instead, he had come straight home.
Something warm settled beneath my ribs before I could stop it.
One of the attackers raised his rifle. "Stay back!"
Xu Zhenlan glanced at the distance between them, then toward the mansion behind them. "You’re blocking my way home."
Instead of doing the smart thing, the man fired.
In response, lightning struck the rifle before the bullet even managed to clear the barrel. The result was that the weapon exploded inside his hands. Wind followed a heartbeat later, slamming into the rest of the group and throwing them across the road.
Xu Zhenlan continued walking while the men around him struggled to stand.
Lingyun noticed him through the flames and lifted one burning hand. "There you are! We thought you found better company."
"I was gone for an hour," Xu Zhenlan replied, stepping over a body without slowing. "I honestly didn’t expect there to be a full blown war out front of the house in that time. I don’t know if I should be impressed or upset."
"Impressed," smiled Lingyun. "After all, we didn’t even have to leave the house to start this war. It came to us."
I narrowed my eyes at Lingyun but he simply grinned and turned back toward the men burning in front of him before I could decide whether to feed him to the plants too.
By the time Xu Zhenlan reached the others, the attackers had been trapped between the storm behind them, the plants on either side, and the three men waiting between them and the porch.
The woman with the shaved head looked around slowly as the last possible escape route disappeared.
"What do you want?" she demanded. Seriously. Why was she now acting like the victim in all this?
I looked toward the workers’ houses, where Gu Han’s men remained pressed against the windows.
"For them to keep watching."
The vines pulled the curtains a little farther open. Gu Han had wanted to teach me why I needed him. Instead, he was going to watch everyone he used against my home disappear without any of us breaking a sweat.
"You are the lesson, and we aren’t nearly done yet. Not while you are still breathing."
