THIP Chapter 41

As evening approached, Mu Liuyin drove into a small village they passed along the road and found an empty house to stay in for the night.

The village was eerily deserted, though a few vehicles could still be seen scattered about—clearly from other groups who had stopped here to rest, not locals.

The house had two bedrooms and a kitchen stocked with some rice and flour. The cluttered furnishings and dried bloodstains were the only signs that something had once happened here.

Jieyin used her ability to clean away the blood, then tidied up one of the bedrooms. By the time she came out, Mu Liuyin had already made dinner—two bowls of noodles sat on the table, each topped with a perfectly fried egg. Steam rose in gentle swirls from the hot broth.

It was the first hot meal Jieyin had eaten since she woke up, and it was both fragrant and delicious—you could tell the cook had skill.

After dinner, the two of them returned to their rooms.

“Jieyin, stay alert while you sleep. We’re not the only outsiders in this village,” Mu Liuyin said just as Jieyin was about to shut her door. “Good night.”

Jieyin pressed her lips together, nodded slightly, and responded in a quiet voice, “You too.”

Mu Liuyin smiled faintly as she closed her door. Was that a point gained in the favorability meter?

She took off her mask and looked at her young, handsome face in the mirror with a helpless sigh.

Wearing a mask all day was uncomfortable, but in case anything happened… she rubbed her face, then reluctantly put it back on.

She was woken up by Xiao Jiu in the middle of the night. Just as Mu Liuyin had expected, someone was trying to attack them.

But the man outside had barely pushed open the door when he was smacked in the head by an ice baton Mu Liuyin had quickly conjured.

The man hadn’t been on guard at all—he collapsed instantly.

Then Jieyin emerged from her room, dragging a scrawny man behind her.

She tossed him to the ground, and Mu Liuyin was startled at first glance. Half of the man’s hair was already gray, and his face, hands, and every bit of exposed skin were deeply wrinkled. He looked like someone well into middle age.

But according to Xiao Jiu’s description, the man should’ve only been in his twenties.

Jieyin looked drained from using her ability—her voice was lazy and tinged with fatigue. She frowned and said, “It’s my first time using my ability on a person. I didn’t control it well. And… this guy’s probably just an ordinary person.”

If he were an ability user, there’s no way she could’ve stripped away nearly a third of his life force in one go.

Mu Liuyin’s lips twitched. Jieyin’s power was only at mid-tier level two, yet she could drain this much life from a regular person?

That ability… kind of brutal.

From Xiao Jiu, Mu Liuyin had already learned that the man she knocked out was a level-one wood-type ability user. She had originally planned to have Jieyin take his ability.

But now, after witnessing how vicious Jieyin’s power could be, Mu Liuyin imagined what might happen if Jieyin ever discovered her secret, and suddenly got cold feet.

Was it wise to nurture such a dangerous weapon?

Unaware of Mu Liuyin’s internal conflict, Jieyin told her to interrogate the two men, then yawned lazily and turned to head back to bed.

“Wait.” Mu Liuyin sighed, calling out to Jieyin. She nudged the unconscious man with her foot and said, “He has a wood-type ability.”

At the time she said this, Mu Liuyin didn’t know that this first ability she helped Jieyin take would one day be used against her.

Otherwise, she would’ve never said a word.

Upon hearing that, Jieyin’s sleep-heavy eyes brightened. She crouched beside the man. Having already drained some of her energy, this second extraction took more effort.

About ten minutes later, Jieyin stood up. A slender, dark green vine unfurled slowly from her fingertip.

Success.

But in less than thirty seconds, the vine faded and vanished. Jieyin’s body swayed, and Mu Liuyin caught her just in time before she hit the ground.

“You okay?” Mu Liuyin asked, glancing down to see Jieyin’s pale face coated in a light sheen of sweat.

Jieyin’s eyes fluttered half-shut. After a moment, she whispered, “I’m fine. Just overused my ability.”

She tried to push herself up, but Mu Liuyin helped her back into her room to rest. Then she returned to deal with the two captives.

Wearing her black clothes and half-silver mask, she looked downright sinister as she woke them. The sight made both men jump in fright.

“You came here to rob and kill?” Mu Liuyin asked coldly, eyes narrowed.

The truth was, these two had been in the village for several days already, hiding out and targeting travelers who stopped here to rest. By sheer luck, they hadn’t run into any powerful ability users before, and most of their victims had been killed after being robbed.

Xiao Jiu had told Mu Liuyin everything. That was why she had no qualms about having Jieyin strip one of them of his ability.

Now, faced with Mu Liuyin’s question and realizing they’d messed with the wrong people, the two men immediately started begging for mercy.

But the one who had been drained of his power tried to discreetly move his hands behind his back, clearly preparing a sneak attack.

Mu Liuyin watched him with a mocking expression. He finally realized in horror that his powers no longer worked—and then caught sight of his partner’s aged, shriveled appearance.

Terror filled his eyes as he looked at Mu Liuyin. He opened his mouth to say something, but before a word escaped, an ice spike shot through his throat. The same happened to the scrawny man beside him.

After asking Xiao Jiu and confirming that no one else was left in the village, Mu Liuyin disdainfully dragged the two corpses outside and then returned to the room to sleep.

It was a dreamless night.

The next morning, when Jieyin woke up, she was greeted by the smell of delicious food.

There was a basin of clean water in the bathroom that Mu Liuyin had prepared earlier using her ability.

After washing up, she found two dishes already laid out on the table: stir-fried tomatoes with eggs and shredded potatoes.

Then she saw Mu Liuyin bring over two bowls of rice porridge and set them on the table. Seeing Jieyin’s eyes light up at the sight of the dishes, Mu Liuyin smiled and said, “Come eat.”

“Your cooking is amazing,” Jieyin said with genuine appreciation. Ever since the apocalypse, aside from the two meals Mu Liuyin had cooked, she hadn’t had anything this tasty.

Flustered by Jieyin’s straightforward compliment, a blush crept up Mu Liuyin’s face, and even her ears turned slightly red. She curled her lips proudly. “As long as you like it.”

But she knew that after they left this village, it might be a long time before they had another hot meal—they still had a lot of traveling to do.

When they left, Jieyin didn’t ask about what had happened to the two men who ambushed them last night. But judging by the dried bloodstains that still lingered faintly in the house, she had a pretty good idea.

They traveled for over two weeks straight. Along the way, several reckless people tried to rob or kill them, thinking it would be easy with only two people in the car—but without exception, every one of them ended up dead. Jieyin also stripped three more powers during this time.

Including the wood-type ability she took in the village, she now had five abilities in total:

Wood, fire, and water—three useful elemental types—along with a poison-type ability, and her own innate ability to strip powers.

The poison ability wasn’t especially lethal, but it was perfect for crowd control and ambushes. It could paralyze the nervous system and slow down a target’s reaction time. According to Xiao Jiu, once it evolved to a high level, even a tiny touch could be fatal, making it nearly impossible to defend against.

Of course, as long as the opponent wasn’t vastly more powerful than Jieyin, no ability could truly stand against her power-stripping ability.

Thinking about how strong Jieyin could become in the future made Mu Liuyin shudder inwardly. If her true identity as a scumbag boyfriend was ever revealed… she’d be doomed.

…

That night, Mu Liuyin and Jieyin sat beside a campfire in an open clearing. Mu Liuyin was rotating a skewer carved from a branch—on it was a mutant rabbit they had hunted earlier. The meat sizzled and crackled as it roasted, and she sprinkled some seasoning over it before handing it to Jieyin. Then she took the chicken skewer from Jieyin and continued roasting.

Since they hadn’t found a place to stay nearby, they’d gone into the woods, hunted two mutant beasts, and decided to cook and eat before resting in the car.

Of course, only Mu Liuyin was doing the cooking.

Jieyin was completely useless in that department!

Watching Jieyin munch happily on the roasted rabbit, Mu Liuyin was once again convinced she had picked up a little tyrant. She even seriously suspected that, without her around in the story, Jieyin probably lived off instant food every day.

Since the chicken wasn’t ready yet, Jieyin, feeling a bit guilty, tore off a piece of rabbit meat and fed it to Mu Liuyin. Then she asked, “How much longer until we reach the Central Base?”

“About two weeks,” Mu Liuyin replied. “But we’ll probably reach Zhu’an Base tomorrow. Do you want to stay there for a few days?”

They hadn’t been traveling aimlessly—along the way, they had been gathering information, so Jieyin already knew that Zhu’an Base was on the way to the Central Base. She nodded. “Sure.”

She wasn’t in a hurry for revenge. After all, she had only just reached early-stage Tier 3. Back when she hadn’t even awakened her power, Xu Chi already had mid-stage Tier 2 strength. With his talent, he was probably at mid-stage Tier 3 by now.

Although she was confident in her abilities, after spending time with Feng Yan, Jieyin had come to understand that life wasn’t only about revenge. Besides, with her power, it was only a matter of time before she avenged herself.

What remained unknown was how Jieyin would react when she eventually discovered that Feng Yan—the person who had stayed by her side all this time—was her scumbag ex-boyfriend Xu Chi.

After all, when the person you loathe most and the one you’re growing fond of turn out to be the same… that feeling isn’t exactly pleasant.