The Evil in Human Nature Knows No Bounds

Fortunately, Jiang Nian had come prepared. He used his Purification Ability to keep himself clearheaded and, when Cheng Jing and Huang Qian fell under its influence, promptly raised a hand and patted them.

He channeled the blue-white glow of his ability into them through his palm, instantly restoring their dulled senses. At the same time, he realized that the woman's ability seemed to be at a higher level than theirs.

Once she was clearheaded again, Huang Qian controlled her vines to bind the woman.

But she discovered that a chunk of flesh had been bitten from the woman's right palm, which was now ungloved. The exposed flesh had already decayed, and the blood flowing from the wound had begun to change color.

She was clearly infected.

At the same time, blood streamed from the woman's eyes, nose, and mouth because she had overused her ability, giving her a ghastly, terrifying appearance.

However, the woman hadn't overexerted her ability because of Cheng Jing and the others. She had done so earlier to control her zombified husband.

After dealing with the woman, Huang Qian looked at the man who had become a zombie. Half his face had rotted away, leaving no trace of his original appearance, and she couldn't see how he differed from any other zombie.

She couldn't understand the woman's behavior at all.

When she saw him roar and try to use his ability again, Huang Qian drove a vine through his head without hesitation, then bound him inside a cocoon of vines.

"No! Don't kill him!"

Seeing that Huang Qian had dealt with her zombified husband, the woman began sobbing her heart out nearby, her face blurred with bloody tears.

Although the room was warmer than outside, it wasn't long before her bloody tears froze into ice crystals that clung to her eyes and face.

After making sure the couple could no longer pose a threat, the three finally surveyed the room that filled them with intense physical revulsion:

There was only one bed in the enormous master bedroom, piled high with bricks and heavy miscellaneous objects.

The man who had become a zombie was bound to a specially reinforced chair, which was secured to the weighted-down bed.

Wrist-thick cables covered in blood crisscrossed between the bed and the chair. Clearly, no chains had been used to keep him from losing control and using his ability indiscriminately.

Darkened bloodstains were splattered all over the walls and floor.

In addition, two large plastic boxes sat in a corner, neatly packed with cut-up chunks of meat. There was no need to say what kind of meat it was.

Beside the boxes was a stainless steel basin containing a powder made from various medications ground together.

A chunk of meat with congealed blood on it had been tossed into the basin. Someone had taken a bite out of it, leaving a gruesome set of tooth marks.

Judging from the discarded medicine packaging nearby, the basin contained calming and sedative drugs, including both ordinary supplements and specially controlled medications.

"You coated the meat in sedatives and fed it to him!"

Jiang Nian gritted his teeth in fury. He remembered the woman saying earlier that she was too anxious to sleep and needed medicine. He hadn't been able to help feeling sorry for her, never expecting this was what she had used it for.

Medicine and human flesh. Though they didn't know whether this really slowed the infection, she had put great care into feeding her husband.

And to do so, she had committed the most inhumane acts, ignoring even how badly frightened her daughter was.

Sure enough, there were no bounds to the evil in human nature. Someone who looked so pitiful and weak could be hateful enough to make one's blood boil!

"Hmph!"

The woman had cried herself out and stopped struggling. Her face, which would have been pretty under normal circumstances, was now smeared with bloody tears and twisted into a sickly expression:

"So what? I was prepared for this when I killed the night patrol team!"

Those words, "So what?" actually left them unable to argue.

What of it? In a world like this, all she faced was death, and even the voices condemning her wouldn't last long.

"..."

"How did you kill fourteen ability users?"

Huang Qian asked. Although she had already guessed, she still wanted to hear it from the woman herself.

The woman didn't hold back. She tilted her head up slightly and thought back for a moment before answering:

"The same way I killed the other people living alone... My daughter's ability is teleportation. She brought people home, and I used my ability to control and deal with them."

"How could you make a child do something like that!"

Huang Qian ground her teeth!

A sickly expression twisted the woman's face:

"She's weak-willed. At first, I told her bringing people back could save her dad... She cried as she helped me bring one back... But after she saw me feed him to her dad, she refused to do it again!"

"She even said she'd call the police and have the officers take care of it. I had to keep part of my attention on controlling her every day! It used up too much mental power and made me very anxious. Whenever I let my guard down, she'd come to her senses for a little while... Heh heh..."

"..."

At her words, all three of them sucked in a sharp breath. How could a mother do something like that!

A person acting on instructions under mental control was still conscious deep down. Without someone's help, they simply couldn't resist or break free. It was easy to imagine their despair.

The woman paid them no attention and continued:

"She was so scared that she'd instinctively resist the calming effect of my ability and often cry and make a fuss. She just wouldn't run outside... To avoid upsetting her so much, I dealt with the garbage in the middle of the night after my husband ate."

"That night, the bag broke when I went downstairs to throw out the garbage. One of the groups found the bloodstained clothes in the garbage bag... They came upstairs looking."

Cheng Jing clenched his fists in anger:

"Go on!"

"They knocked on the door, and I used my ability to control them and bring them into the room. After getting their unlocked phones, I killed them. Then I used the messages and saved contact names on their phones to trick the other groups into coming over, cough, cough, cough..."

The woman shook her head as she spoke. Overexerting her ability had left her feeling awful. Only after catching her breath did she finish:

"I did the same thing to them... Finally, I used Xiao Ya's ability to take them to the basement... and dismember them."

"You deserve to die!"

Cheng Jing was beside himself with rage and wanted nothing more than to slap her dead.

"Even a child understands that, but you still refuse to see reason. You even controlled her!"

As a woman herself, Huang Qian wanted to crack the woman's skull open on the spot and see what was inside.

Clang!

Jiang Nian kicked over the stainless steel basin, spilling the powder. He was beside himself with anger:

"Do you have any idea how much harm this will do to Xiao Ya? She was conscious. She knows she couldn't save her dad, and that she helped you commit evil and kill all those people! What is she supposed to do with the rest of her life!"

"..."

Smelling the strong medicinal odor in the air, the woman laboriously turned her head toward Jiang Nian:

"That's right. You gave her a piece of candy that day. She came to her senses for a moment and warned you not to come back. She always couldn't help wanting to ask other people for help... But how could I allow that? Boo-hoo..."

After crying for a while, she muttered to herself:

"I was planning to let her get infected too, after tonight... I never expected you to find us so quickly. Since things have come to this, please take her away. It's all my fault... I'm sorry, Xiao Ya."

"You controlled her and made her help kill so many innocent people, and you think a simple apology settles it? The victims' families and your daughter have had their lives ruined! How can you be so selfish! Even if she lives, her life won't be easy!"

Huang Qian trembled with anger, her eyes aching terribly. The trauma inflicted by one's closest family followed a person for life. She knew that all too well!

"Cough, cough, cough..."

The woman spat out a mouthful of dark red blood and demanded hoarsely, looking half-mad:

"Then tell me, what else could I have done? I just wanted our family to be all right together. That was her dad, who loved her more than anyone. He only went out that day because she said she wanted candy. She was in the wrong first... She should have worked with me!"

Then she laughed and cried until she was spitting up more and more blood. Its color grew darker and darker, and it gave off a rotting stench. Only then did she let out a long sigh:

"It doesn't matter anymore... Go ahead. I deserve to die. You're good people. If Xiao Ya asks, just tell her I became like her dad and won't ever control her into doing things she doesn't like again."

"..."

The three looked at one another. This woman really had gone mad, blaming a child for the wrongs she herself had committed! Huang Qian drew a breath, stepped forward, and asked:

"Is there anything else you want to say to Xiao Ya?"

"..."

After thinking for a long time, the woman shook her head blankly:

"No. She hates me and thinks I've gone mad... I'm sorry to her and to her dad. He only wanted to retrieve the last of the supplies and leave, but I used my ability to force him to stay, and that's how things ended up like this..."

Her husband had told her to live well and take care of their daughter, but she was in too much pain. She couldn't bear to let him go.

It hurt her too, seeing the puppet-like look in her daughter's eyes every day. She knew her daughter was suffering and hated her. She knew she was selfish, and she knew she was wrong, but she didn't regret it.