Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 476 – Mention it again, and I’ll twist your head off

The two ate their rations in silence.

The setting sun dragged one last band of orange-red light across the horizon, gilding this barren wasteland—where not even a blade of grass could survive under the radiation of Rift energy—with a warm glow.

In the distance, the Spatial Rift continued its low-frequency pulsation, its blue light flickering dim and bright by turns.

Wang Shan, leading three hundred Puppet Soldiers, was sweeping the perimeter of the Rift in search of any remaining survivor outposts.

This once-arrogant leader of the Federation’s compromise faction now lived like a dog on a leash—obedient to Zhu Yan’s every command, fawning before Lu Yuan, and throwing himself into the dirtiest, hardest work with more enthusiasm than anyone else.

Chu Chen’s transport convoy was already en route, estimated to arrive in two hours. At that point, the three thousand three hundred survivors gathered from this area would be loaded up and flown to the Western Sichuan base, then transferred through the Spatial Rift to Azurewood City in one unified operation.

Five days. Forty-seven Rifts. Over two hundred thousand survivors relocated in total.

Those numbers, spoken aloud, would be enough to make anyone’s jaw drop.

But Lu Yuan knew that at least half of that credit belonged to Chu Chen.

That man with dark circles under his eyes, squatting on a chair and gnawing on a lollipop—the coordination ability he’d displayed since his brain was unsealed was frankly terrifying.

Not only had he calculated the optimal route for every advance with precision, but by taking over the Federation’s residual communications network, he’d also learned the troop rotation cycle of every Rift garrison in advance.

Every time Lu Yuan and Zhu Yan arrived at a target point, they were facing the narrowest window of weakest defense.

That was what a brain could do.

“Lu Yuan.”

Zhu Yan suddenly spoke.

Lu Yuan turned his head. “Hm?”

Zhu Yan kept her head lowered, her gaze fixed on her own outstretched palm.

From palm to back of hand, fine dark-gold Dragon Scales covered roughly a third of the surface. When she’d first left the Black Palace five days ago, the scales had only extended to her wrist.

But as combat intensity increased and the Dragon Bloodline remained persistently active, the scale coverage was visibly expanding.

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Not just her hands.

The sides of her neck, below her collarbones, even the outer edges of her calves—flecks of dark-gold scale patterns were beginning to appear everywhere.

“Do you think…” Zhu Yan’s voice was very soft, carrying a deliberately restrained calm. “That I’m still… human?”

Lu Yuan was taken aback.

He looked at the scales on Zhu Yan’s palm glinting coldly in the sunset, then at the pair of curved dark-gold Dragon horns on her forehead.

Five days of constant proximity—he’d actually noticed long ago.

Every day, when she had a moment alone, Zhu Yan would secretly check how far the scales had spread.

She thought she was being subtle, but a Light-attribute Ability User’s visual acuity far exceeded that of ordinary people.

She was afraid.

This woman who could shatter a peak sixth-tier Dragon Clan member’s skull with a single punch was afraid of turning into a dragon herself.

“That’s a pretty stupid question,” Lu Yuan said.

Zhu Yan’s hand tightened.

“Whether you’re human or not—is that something scales and horns can decide?” Lu Yuan stretched lazily, his tone as casual as if he were discussing the weather. “Big Sister has way more stuff on her than you do. Dragon, fox, dinosaur—you ever see her agonizing over that question?”

“She’s different from me.” Zhu Yan shook her head. “She… she’s perfect. But I…”

She stopped.

“But you had it forcibly shoved into you, right?” Lu Yuan finished for her.

Zhu Yan didn’t deny it.

A few seconds of silence.

Lu Yuan fished a crumpled cigarette out of his pocket and lit it.

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“I’ll tell you something.” He exhaled a plume of smoke. “Right when the apocalypse first broke out, I was still on the Shanghai defense line. There was an old soldier, surname Zhang, in his forties. He swallowed a Crystal and mutated. From the elbow down, his left arm grew into an entire lizard’s forelimb—green, covered in bumps.”

Zhu Yan watched him.

“He felt just like you do now—like he wasn’t human anymore. Every day he’d hide that arm in his sleeve, terrified of anyone seeing it. One night during guard duty, he told me in secret that he wanted to chop it off.”

“What happened to him?”

“What happened?” Lu Yuan flicked his ash. “Then the tidal wave of beasts came. He drove that lizard arm straight into the skull of a tier-three Mutated Beast and saved an entire squad of new recruits.”

He turned to look at Zhu Yan.

“After that, every one of those recruits called him ‘Brother Zhang’ whenever they saw him—they’d have worshipped him if they could. That lizard arm of his became the most popular thing on the whole defense line. Every new recruit wanted to touch it for good luck.”

The corner of Zhu Yan’s mouth twitched, but she didn’t laugh.

“That’s a pretty poorly cooked piece of chicken soup.”

“It was never meant to be chicken soup.” Lu Yuan shrugged. “I’m just making a point—what does it matter if you’ve got scales on your hands or flower petals? You can sit here eating compressed rations with me, you can mourn fallen comrades, you chose to self-destruct rather than become lab material. Those are the things that make you human.”

He patted his own face.

“Now, some things that wear human faces—like that piece of work Wang Shan—do you think he counts as human?”

Zhu Yan was silent for a long time.

The sun had fully set, leaving only a thin layer of pale purple afterglow on the horizon.

“…You can actually talk like a human being sometimes.”

“What do you mean ‘sometimes’? I’m always serious, alright?”

Zhu Yan ignored him.

She raised a hand to touch the Dragon horns on her forehead, her fingertip lingering at the tip for a second.

Then she lowered it.

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She stood up and brushed the dust off her combat pants.

“Let’s go. We’ve eaten—time to move. Don’t waste any more time.”

“Hold on.” Lu Yuan stood up too, pulling something from the side pocket of his backpack and handing it over.

A black hair tie.

Zhu Yan glanced down at it.

“The one in your hair is about to snap.” Lu Yuan pointed at the back of her head. “I saw it during the fight earlier. One more hard tug and it’ll come apart. This one I grabbed from the supply pile at the survivor outpost—decent quality.”

Zhu Yan took the hair tie and held it in her hand.

Ordinary elastic fabric, nothing special about it. But it was noticeably thicker than the one she was currently using.

“…Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Lu Yuan had already turned and started walking ahead, waving as he went. “If your hair comes loose, it’ll get in the way during a fight. And if the Dragon Clan grabs you by the ends and yanks, I’d have to come back and save you. Too much trouble.”

Zhu Yan stood there, clutching the hair tie.

She watched Lu Yuan’s retreating back, her mouth opening slightly.

Words hovered at the tip of her tongue.

Like how, after every battle over these past five days, he would casually position himself beside her, blocking the others’ view, giving her time to retract the Dragon Scales that had been exposed in the heat of combat.

Like how, every time they passed a water source, he would find some excuse to linger there a little longer, letting her wash the blood and grime from her scales.

For instance, every time he slept, he chose the spot closest to her tent, claiming it was convenient for taking turns on watch duty—but his light-based perception range didn’t require him to be anywhere near that close.

He thought she didn’t notice.

But she saw everything.

“Lu Yuan.”

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The figure ahead stopped and turned around.

“What now?”

Zhu Yan took a deep breath.

Her fingers tightened around the hair tie.

“I—”

“Oh, right!” Lu Yuan suddenly slapped his forehead, cutting her off. “I almost forgot to tell you something! Do you know why Big Sister’s socks can boost a person’s strength?”

Zhu Yan’s words caught in her throat.

“Chu Chen told me.” Lu Yuan leaned in excitedly, lowering his voice. “Big Sister’s body has already evolved into a perfect energy-circulating form—even her sweat carries high-purity Spirit Energy.”

Zhu Yan felt her temples throbbing.

“Shut up.”

“No, no, no, let me finish! Here’s the key part!” Lu Yuan gestured wildly with both hands, completely oblivious to the fact that Zhu Yan’s face was darkening at a visible rate. “Basically, anything that comes off Big Sister’s body—”

Bam.

Zhu Yan’s fist flew past Lu Yuan’s right ear with pinpoint accuracy, and the force of her strike snapped a dead tree behind him clean in half.

Lu Yuan stood frozen mid-sentence, a strand of hair drifting down from the top of his head.

“I said it before.” Zhu Yan spoke each word slowly and deliberately. “If you bring this up again, I’ll twist your head off and use it as a soccer ball.”

“Fine, fine, fine, I won’t bring it up anymore!” Lu Yuan raised both hands and backed away. “Girl, this temper of yours—”

“Call me Zhu Yan!”

“Zhu Yan! Zhu Yan, Zhu Yan, Zhu Yan! Happy now?”