Chapter 316: Beating Them at Their Own Game

The man suddenly grew agitated, his eyes bloodshot as he roared, "Then why should I tell you? You’re not going to let me go anyway."

"You can choose not to talk." Xie Ning gave him a disarmingly innocent smile. "Ever heard of lingchi? In simple terms, it’s the punishment of death by a thousand cuts."

"You make a total of three thousand, three hundred and fifty-seven cuts on a person’s body. Only the very last cut is what finally kills them."

The man trembled like a leaf. "You’re not a First-rank Gold Ability User at all. Your Gold Ability... Third Rank? It’s Third Rank, right? You’ve been deceiving us this whole time."

"Right back at you." With a single motion, Xie Ning sliced a piece of flesh from the man’s arm.

No matter how the man howled in pain, Xie Ning remained completely unmoved.

The soundproofing in these luxury homes was no joke. Other than the two of them, no one knew the short man was enduring a hellish nightmare.

"Are you... Are you trying to avenge those people? Who were they to you... AHH!" A few more slashes sent his entire body into painful convulsions.

"I’m no Judge, and I have no interest in avenging the dead. I’m doing this purely on a whim. Because... I want to. That’s all."

The short man shrieked in terror just as the girl raised her knife again. "I’ll talk, I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Yes, Ma planned to trick you into going to Chaoyang Base. A-aren’t you that Miss Huang, the daughter of Chairman Huang?"

"As long as Chaoyang Base has you, they’ll have another bargaining chip. That Captain Zuo from Golden City Base... h-he’d probably be forced to tread carefully, right?"

Xie Ning raised an eyebrow. "Captain Zuo? Chaoyang Base."

’In this life, I urged Zuo Li to take her soldiers to Barbarian Base to scavenge for supplies. Could it be that Chaoyang Base has made their move earlier as well?’

’In my last life, Chaoyang Base took advantage of the chaos to seize the entire Barbarian Base. That was a truly glorious achievement for them.’

’So now... is Chaoyang Base in a standoff with Zuo Li?’

Frowning at the possibility, Xie Ning kicked the man hard and demanded, "Where are Captain Zuo and her people now?"

"They’re... in a standoff inside Barbarian Base. Chaoyang Base is holding its fire and hasn’t directly engaged Captain Zuo’s group, hoping to prioritize negotiations."

"But the roads are blocked by the hail, aren’t they? It’s hard to transport supplies and leave, so both sides are probably still locked in negotiations."

The man gasped in pain. "Miss Huang, I’ve told you everything. Please, spare me. It was Ma’s decision to capture you two for Chaoyang Base, it had nothing to do with me! I swear, if I ever see you again, I’ll make sure to steer clear."

Xie Ning waited for him to finish his plea before sending him on his way with a single slash.

Beichen saw this and rolled his eyes, speechless.

’So polite, but not by much!’

Xie Ning pulled out a wet wipe to clean her hands, then turned to glance at Beichen, offering a bright smile. "It’s not that I refused to spare him. They were just too vile. They crossed a line for me."

"You don’t have to explain." Beichen turned to walk back into the room, then paused. "That meat porridge from this morning..."

’God knows how much strength it took to keep himself from gagging!’

And Xie Ning had somehow still had an appetite, even downing three bowls of plain congee—half a bowl more than he had.

Xie Ning, who was busy collecting the red wine from a glass display case, glanced at him and nodded. "It’s exactly what you’re thinking."

She watched, expressionless, as the young man ran to the bathroom to throw up.

’Holy crap, he’s only thinking to vomit now? Isn’t he a bit slow on the uptake?’

And... Xie Ning ran to the bathroom door and knocked. KNOCK KNOCK. "Hey, stop throwing up! Don’t waste food! You’ll just be hungry again after you’re done. Can’t you hold it in?"

’What a horrible woman!’ Beichen’s stomach churned even more violently. He desperately wanted to puke all over her face.

Xie Ning’s haul for the day was massive. Ignoring Beichen’s vehement protests, she skipped lunch and spent the entire afternoon dragging him around to wander through half of the residential complex.

Most of the houses in Kowloon Warehouse Mansion were newly renovated and uninhabited. Operating under the noble principle of leaving no stone unturned, Xie Ning stripped them all of their appliances and furniture...

Two giant mountains of goods were now piled up in the villa’s courtyard, and Xie Ning planned to continue her "shopping" trip tomorrow.

Of course, she was ever so considerate. After looting a house, she would seal the door shut again, even reinforcing the metal security doors to make them stronger than before and prevent Martin’s crew from finding a way in.

「Night fell.」

Martin paced anxiously inside the room with his daughter, Ma Xiaotian, along with Chai Lei and Gong Pingfan.

"Anything?" A woman in her fifties with drooping, triangular eyes looked away from the window and shook her head. "I looked all around but couldn’t find him. Do you think he’s gone invisible again?"

Ma Xiaotian drew in a sharp breath. "Don’t tell me Old Ghost was discovered by that bitch."

"Impossible." Chai Lei, a woman with short, curly hair, shook her head and scoffed. "Old Ghost is a Second-order Invisibility Superpower User. How could he possibly slip up in front of a mere First-stage Superpower User?"

"Then what’s going on?" Martin felt a growing sense of unease, as if something had spun completely out of his control.

"This is so frustrating! Why don’t we just tie them up and hand them over to Chaoyang Base tomorrow? Get it done with."

"Exactly, Dad! That bitch’s pathetic Gold Ability is so weak she can barely open a door. She’s useless. Let’s just hand them over and get our supplies!"

With a cold expression, Martin shook his head. "It’s not time yet."

He refused to believe their terrible luck. They had broken into four or five empty houses in a row today, and it was enough to drive him mad.

"Tomorrow, we’ll try the villa district over there."

"There?" Chai Lei couldn’t help but clench her fists. "But didn’t Ms. Hao say the villa district has a lot of zombies?"

"Yes," the woman with the drooping, triangular eyes nodded. "In the first two-story building on the north side, there are at least a dozen of them clustered together."

Martin gritted his teeth. "If we’re going to move to Chaoyang Base, we can’t hit the road without proper gear. Even if we Superpower Users can manage, the ordinary people won’t last long without winter clothes."

Gong Pingfan couldn’t help but chime in. "I just don’t get it. We’re doing fine here, aren’t we? Why do we have to copy everyone else and move to a base? Is Chaoyang Base really going to give us special treatment?"

"What do you know?" Martin shot him a glare. "I’ve already made a deal with Teng Hongming, the Vice-Director of Chaoyang Base. He won’t go back on his word. Besides, we have Miss Huang as our trump card now. We’re guaranteed to get even more special treatment."

"We might be getting by day-to-day here at the CityArrow Club, but you saw what happened today. We searched several residences, and they were all brand new. Aside from some furniture and appliances, there was basically no food or water."

"If this continues, we’ll eventually run out of supplies and have nothing left."

"And by then, it’ll be too late to leave."

"I think Ma has a point," Chai Lei nodded. "Let’s do it. We should send a few more people out to look for Old Ghost. That guy’s probably hiding somewhere and drinking again."