Chapter 305 - 278: Human Demons

"Five hundred meters? Boss, do we really need to burn that far? How about we just clear a hundred meters?" one of his men hesitated.

Yang Long frowned. He turned his head and stared at the man. "Are you questioning me?"

"N-no, Brother Long, I just thought..."

SLAP!

Yang Long retracted his right hand. "You dare talk back to me!"

The man clutched his face, not daring to look up.

Yang Long’s voice was sharp. "I’m doing this for our future! You all know exactly what kind of people are in that building! And at a time like this, you’re still thinking we can get lucky! Being merciful to them is being cruel to ourselves. Now get moving."

"Yes, Brother Long!"

After his men left, Yang Long looked up again, his gaze fixed on the top of the building.

Through the windows and gaping holes in the facade, he could see faces both familiar and foreign.

Yang Long’s expression darkened. ’Once the bow is drawn, the arrow cannot be recalled.’

’Living on the same island as all of you... I just can’t feel safe.’

’So, it’s better if you all just die.’

"Whatever they’re planning, we can’t let them succeed," Mei Yuqing said decisively. "And if they really do clear the forest, the area around us will be completely exposed. We won’t have anywhere to hide if we need to get out."

"Su Xiao, come with me. We’re going to talk to the floor leaders downstairs."

...

"You’re right, Sister Mei. They’re definitely up to something. Maybe they want to burn down the forest to make it easier to bring in heavy weapons."

"What? You need us to send people? Sister Mei, you’re putting me in a tough spot. The guys from the second, third, and fourth floors were just up here and took a whole batch of our people. We’re really short-handed now."

"Why don’t you go ask the floors below?"

"Ask? Ask my ass! I just came all the way down from the thirty-second floor, and everyone said they have no one to spare! Li Zecheng, don’t forget I helped you get to where you are today."

"Sister Mei, let’s be clear. I acknowledge the favor I owe you, but I really don’t have anyone." Midway through his sentence, Li Zecheng’s eyes narrowed. He gave her a subtle once-over, then leaned in closer and whispered, "Sister Mei, I just got my hands on two bottles of red wine yesterday. Care to join me in my room for a tasting?"

Mei Yuqing gave a cold laugh. "You dare to mess with the boss’s woman? The punishment for that is three stabs and six holes, remember?"

"Tsk, Sister Mei, don’t be like that. Why talk about three stabs and six holes? I only want the one on you..."

Su Xiao’s eyes blazed with fury. He took a step forward, his right hand moving to the small of his back.

The threat sobered Li Zecheng instantly. He scrambled back two steps as two of his men moved to flank him protectively.

"Ahem, Sister Mei, I really don’t have anyone. Why don’t you ask downstairs? Or... how about this? I’ll give you the ten men I sent to the lower floors. You can go pick them up from down there." Li Zecheng waved his hands dismissively, as if shooing away a bad omen, then turned and ducked into his Home.

Mei Yuqing spat on the ground as she watched Li Zecheng’s retreating back.

"That damn pervert."

Li Zecheng might have looked like a respectable gentleman, but in private, his favorite delicacy was pan-fried nipples. He wasn’t picky about gender, either.

And yet, he insisted on wearing suits and glasses in public—a true beast in a scholar’s robes.

Of course, the other floor leaders weren’t much better.

The leader of the twenty-third floor, Xie Tingyun, was a ravenous pervert. His depravities were numerous, from raping women in front of their husbands to keeping a stable of pregnant women for his own amusement.

Wu Wei, the leader of the twenty-second floor, was even more notorious. He was famous for being indiscriminate with his partners, male or female. And not just in bed—he was indiscriminate with his meals, too.

She had no choice but to be cautious when dealing with these demons in human skin.

For this trip downstairs, she had brought more than a dozen of her own bodyguards, with Su Xiao himself as her personal protector.

But the results were disappointing. The floor leaders all passed the buck. By the time she reached the lowest three floors, she had only managed to secure seven people.

The ground floor of Hongding Mansion was an empty lobby; no one lived there. The official residential areas started on the second floor.

Therefore, the second, third, and fourth floors constituted the three lowest occupied levels.

Their proximity to the ground floor made them ideal for transport, so many of the "Home" structures, like the Blacksmith Shop and the Carpenter’s workshop, were located there. In the past, the defensive capabilities and overall strength of these three floors were second only to the top floor within the Blood Words.

But when they heard Mei Yuqing’s request, the leaders of the three lowest floors refused.

"Sister Mei, it’s not that we’re unwilling," one said. "But sending people out now would be a senseless waste of manpower. Too few would be useless, and too many would be walking right into an ambush. We have the home-field advantage here in the mansion; there’s no reason to go out."

"That’s right. If the leaders on the upper floors want to send people, we’ll support them. But our three floors need to defend the ground level. What if the enemy breaks in?"

She looked at the three men, their faces masks of self-righteousness.

Mei Yuqing felt a pang of disappointment. When Liu Ze was still alive, these three had been his staunchest supporters. They had been close with her, too, always calling her "Sister Mei" so affectionately.

Back then, she only had to say the word, and the three of them would bend over backward to get her whatever she wanted.

’How quickly things change. It’s the old story: the tea grows cold the moment you walk away. Liu Ze’s body probably isn’t even cold yet.’

She asked, "Once they’ve set their fires, it’ll be difficult for us to get food. What if they adopt a scorched-earth policy and try to starve us out?"

The leader of the third floor suddenly smiled. In the dim light of the hallway, his teeth looked exceptionally grim. "Don’t worry, Sister Mei. You won’t starve. Brother Ze took good care of us, so we won’t let you go hungry."

Mei Yuqing’s expression darkened.

"Sister Mei, you were the one who came up with the name ’Crispy Golden Claw,’ weren’t you?" the fourth-floor leader said with a sinister drawl. "The hand of an eighteen-year-old girl, roasted until the skin is crisp and the inside is tender, the fat rendered a beautiful golden-red... You always did have a talent for names."

"Enough!" Mei Yuqing took a sharp breath, her chest rising and falling violently.

Her face an icy mask, she turned and walked away.

There were things she wanted to forget, but these people kept reminding her, dragging her memory back to a cold, snowy night.

’As a woman, just to survive, to fit in with these demons in human form, to climb high enough that no one could hurt her...’

’She had stopped at nothing. She had fought with all her might, becoming more vicious than the villains, more shameless than the whores, more insane than the madmen.’

’She had backed Liu Ze in the early days, before he rose to power.’

’She clawed her way through those dark days, finally becoming the matriarch of the Blood Words.’

’She had climbed to this position just so she could finally put on the guise of a human being and live like one.’

"What’s this, Sister Mei? Too good for eating meat now?" a voice called after her. "You were the one who chopped off that girl’s hand. You roasted it yourself, right in front of everyone. You seemed to enjoy it quite a bit back then."

"I heard she was her best friend, too."

The voices of the second and fourth-floor leaders drifted from behind her.

"My Lady, shall I..." Su Xiao asked in a low voice.

Mei Yuqing shook her head slightly. Now wasn’t the time to make a move. She still needed them to act as a bulwark on the lower floors.

As she rounded a corner in the stairwell, her pace slowed. Her right hand reached inside her shirt and closed around a necklace.

A single, yellowed finger bone was strung on it.

Seeing the bone, Mei Yuqing felt a storm of emotions, but regret was not one of them.

She lifted the bone to her lips and touched it gently.

Then, a string of low, inscrutable chuckles escaped her throat. "Hehehe..."

...

Outside the mansion, the glow of fire filled the air.

Swathes of trees had been burned to the ground.

Although the flames didn’t spread easily and would typically burn themselves out after consuming a patch of vegetation, they were setting more than enough fires to compensate.

Patches of fire spread through the forest, and a thick pall of black smoke drifted over the island.

Qin Ziwen lowered the telescope and handed it to Qin Ziwu beside him.

"Interesting. Even with all this, the people in the building won’t come out. Are they the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or something?"

"President, I think our Crossbow Cannons scared the hell out of them. They’re probably just planning to hide in the mansion and use its defensive advantages."

"No rush," Qin Ziwen said calmly. "I’ve already sent the Beaked Eagle back with a message for Li Yue and his team to start building Catapults. Once they’re ready, we’ll give our friends in there a little surprise."

...

...