Chapter 98: Jealousy
Though she said that, seeing how the others looked frustrated but still unwilling to admit defeat, Xu Zhi remembered what Zhong Lingfan had told her—to make them completely submit.
“Alright,” she said, compromising. “Just don’t say I’m bullying you.”
As soon as those words left her mouth, the remaining three grew alert—clearly, she was about to use her extraordinary ability.
But the next second, a dull gray moth appeared in their vision. It looked like an ordinary moth, yet it somehow completely captured their attention.
Their thoughts scattered, and they couldn’t even remember what they were supposed to be doing—only staring intently at that moth.
It was as if something had clouded their eyes and bewitched their minds. They couldn’t even hear the sounds around them.
The next thing they knew, a sharp snap of fingers rang by their ears, followed by a girl’s voice:
“Hey, wake up.”
“If you don’t, you might just lose your heads~”
The moth in their eyes vanished instantly. Their minds snapped back from the chaos, absorbing the surrounding stimuli again, and rationality returned. It was only then they realized—with a cold sweat down their backs—that they had just been completely at her mercy.
Looking at Xu Zhi standing there with a bright, friendly smile, they finally understood: if she had really wanted to kill them, it would’ve been effortless.
“Still want to fight?” Xu Zhi asked. The three, clearly demoralized, were no longer worth toying with.
“No, no, no,” they all shook their heads frantically.
“So… do you concede?”
“Yes! Yes!” More frantic nodding.
Xu Zhi hummed in satisfaction. “Be sure to report in tomorrow. Work hard. Got it?”
More vigorous nodding.
To Xu Zhi, this whole fight was merely a warm-up, but it gave her a clearer understanding of the gap between herself and other extraordinary beings.
It wasn’t that none could threaten her. This team, for instance, had a well-thought-out configuration. If they had been a little stronger, they might actually have had a chance at killing her.
After all, paralysis from lightning, slowing from “Winter,” and the strange power of “Heart” could combine into a decent combo.
They’d be quite useful as part of the management system.
Xu Zhi left the basketball court, casually twirling her wooden sword before storing it away. The move was something she had specifically learned from Shen Jinwen—not for any reason other than it just looked cool!
The crowd of extraordinary individuals watching her began to look at her differently. Xu Zhi couldn’t deny she liked those gazes. After all, even someone like her wasn’t immune to a bit of vanity.
But that was all it was—a small dessert, nothing that truly mattered.
Returning to the central villa, Xu Zhi had planned to take Yu Shenwei—if she still hadn’t woken up—to clean up the plantation. But when she opened the door, she saw Yu Shenwei already awake and quietly seated on the couch.
Xu Zhi wasn’t sure whether anything about Yu Shenwei had changed after waking up. She didn’t approach right away and instead teased her from the doorway:
“Her Holiness the Saintess, finally awake?”
Yu Shenwei turned to look at her. As her red eyes met Xu Zhi’s, the initial dead stillness and faint killing intent in them softened slightly.
She nodded, but didn’t speak.
Xu Zhi raised an eyebrow. “You can’t talk again?”
Yu Shenwei shook her head.
Her organs had been sacrificed and hadn’t returned to her body. The temporary vocal organ Xu Zhi had given her had a short lifespan and no longer worked—she remained a hollow shell.
Xu Zhi seemed to realize this too, rubbing her temple in mild frustration. “You’re not so weak you can’t even walk, right?”
Yu Shenwei first shook her head, then appeared thoughtful—apparently trying to figure out how to prove she was fine. After a moment, she decisively extended her left hand and snapped her right index finger.
The sound of the bone breaking made Xu Zhi wince. Just as she was about to ask what the hell she was doing, she saw—less than three seconds later—Yu Shenwei’s broken finger had fully healed.
Xu Zhi blinked. Yu Shenwei held up her good-as-new right hand to show her.
“Already healed?”
Yu Shenwei nodded.
That healing ability… was a little overpowered, wasn’t it?
Unless someone dismembered her instantly, killing her now would be nearly impossible.
Seeing Yu Shenwei didn’t seem hostile, Xu Zhi finally sat beside her. “You can’t keep going like this. Those low-tier cultist vocal organs suck. Come with me—we’ll go find a higher-level cultist.”
“We’ll use their parts instead. Like your current pair of eyes.”
It sounded cruel, but Yu Shenwei simply nodded. To a devout cultist, a comrade’s life meant nothing.
Since she couldn’t speak, Xu Zhi handed her pen and paper. “Can you tell me if anything’s changed since you woke up?”
That question made Yu Shenwei visibly conflicted.
Inside her, two voices fought: one said she mustn’t tell Xu Zhi—it was a secret. The other said, it’s fine to tell her, right?
The second voice offered no logic or reason—just a deep, inexplicable instinct that she should tell Xu Zhi.
She didn’t take the pen and paper, but also didn’t refuse outright. Clearly, she was still torn.
Xu Zhi noticed and calmly took the paper back. “If you don’t want to say now, that’s fine. We can talk later.”
Yu Shenwei breathed a silent sigh of relief—and strangely, a trace of guilt stirred in her heart.
Guilt? But why?
Wasn’t it right not to tell Xu Zhi?
Yu Shenwei didn’t understand. She defaulted to her usual coping mechanism—playing ostrich and avoiding the thought.
She didn’t even realize how completely non-hostile she had become toward Xu Zhi. This wasn’t normal. Every cultist should feel strong hatred and killing intent toward extraordinary beings. Yet she could sit here with Xu Zhi in peace.
She hadn’t even thought of escaping.
“You should go wash up and change,” Xu Zhi said, picking up her walkie-talkie and contacting Zhong Lingfan.
“Can you send me some clothes in your size?”
Zhong Lingfan didn’t ask why, only said someone would deliver it soon.
Hearing this, Yu Shenwei felt a strange ripple of emotion rise in her chest.
It wasn’t rejection toward Xu Zhi.
It was rejection toward the other person speaking with Xu Zhi.
She thought, maybe it was just because the other woman was also an extraordinary being.
It made sense for a cultist like her to feel repulsed by that.
But when the doorbell rang and Xu Zhi stepped outside to receive the clothes, Yu Shenwei felt another faint, hard-to-place emotion stir.
She wasn’t a child—she knew what it was.
Jealousy.
But… how could that be?
Why would she feel jealous of someone getting close to Xu Zhi?
That made no sense. She had no emotional connection to Xu Zhi. They weren’t even friends. And it wasn’t a feeling from her rational mind—it felt more like…
Her extraordinary ability reacting.
This jealousy—wasn’t human.
It was pure, instinctive, irrational Jealousy.
Too strange. She wasn’t jealous.
But her power was jealous… for her?
