Qin Dynasty: They've all turned into zombies, what's there to fear about a rebellion?

Su Ming's boastful words about "going to the grasslands for a barbecue" were still echoing in the main hall when a scorching wave of heat slammed into the back of his head.

It wasn't the warm, cozy kind of heat; it was the scorching heat that made your eyebrows curl and your back instantly soaked with sweat.

"Sizzle—"

A sickeningly loud bang echoed through the air, as if something had cracked under high pressure.

Su Ming turned around stiffly, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

Just moments ago, Yan Lingji was only emitting flames from her fingertips, but now she had transformed into a human walking torch. The original charm in her water-blue eyes had been replaced by an almost manic excitement, clearly interpreting Su Ming's "warm-up" as "full power."

"Master, do you think this temperature is high enough to roast a whole lamb?"

Yan Lingji lightly touched the black iron floor beneath her bare feet, which instantly turned red-hot and emitted a hissing sound. Her fiery red hair danced wildly in the heat, each strand like flowing lava.

Beside her were piles of more than a dozen barrels of freshly refined, yet-to-be-sealed, high-purity corpse oil.

That's a highly flammable and explosive substance!

"Screw you! Stop your magic right now!"

Su Ming's voice cracked from shouting. This wasn't a warm-up; it was arson! "That's fuel! Not for you to burn as firewood!"

Unfortunately, it's too late.

To show off in front of Honglian, Yanlingji set off the fire quite casually. A crimson fire lotus floated lightly onto a barrel of corpse oil.

"boom--!!!"

With a deafening roar, the main hall of Youdu instantly transformed into a steel furnace.

The towering flames, mixed with thick black smoke, blackened the newly replaced voice-activated light. The intense heat instantly engulfed the previously eerie and ghostly space, transforming it into a raging inferno.

"My blueprints! My detailed blueprints!"

From the corner came Gongshu Chou's heart-wrenching screams.

The old man, clutching a pile of newly drawn "Star Destroyer" sketches, was rolling around on the ground in the heat, half his beard singed, looking like an old man who had just finished popping popcorn. "Grand Master! Put out the fire! This is the future of our Great Qin!"

"Serves you right for showing off! Serves you right for playing with fire!"

Seeing this, Honglian immediately perked up. She felt this was a good opportunity to suppress the newcomer. With a flick of her wrist, the Crimson Soft Sword swirled up a dark red poisonous flame, intending to fight fire with fire and suppress Yan Lingji's arrogance.

"Behold the Crimson Flame of Poison!"

"Don't make things worse!" Su Ming shouted.

However, Honglian wouldn't listen to reason. The poisonous fire clashed with the strange fire, not only failing to extinguish it but also acting as if water had been poured into a pot of boiling oil.

"Bang!"

Two flames with drastically different properties underwent a violent chemical reaction in mid-air, exploding into a mushroom cloud. The shockwave swept out, sending the previously gloating Crimson Lotus flying and slamming her against the wall like a New Year's painting.

"..."

Shao Siming stood to the side, her brows furrowed.

As the only "calm person" here, she felt it necessary to step in and save the precarious laboratory.

She formed hand seals, and countless emerald green leaves appeared out of thin air, quickly condensing into water vapor and transforming into a green water dragon that swept towards the center of the fire.

"Ten Thousand Leaves Flying Like Flowers - Watery Embankment!"

Upon seeing this, Su Ming closed his eyes in despair.

"It's over, it's all over."

"Sister, that's corpse oil on fire! You can't put water on a corpse oil fire! That's common sense!"

as predicted.

As the water jets sprayed, the corpse oil floating on the surface exploded instantly, scattering flames everywhere. What was originally a localized fire had now become a full-screen area-of-effect (AOE) attack.

Sparks flew everywhere, even the Ironclad soldiers on guard duty were injured. Although they weren't in pain, the engine oil on their bodies caught fire, turning them into human torches, and they just stood there blankly spinning in circles.

The entire hall was in complete chaos.

Screams, explosions, Gongshu Chou's cries, and Yan Lingji's carefree laughter mingled together.

"Giggle, giggle, it's so much fun! It's much more lively than back in Baiyue."

Yan Lingji stood in the middle of the sea of ​​fire like a goddess bathed in holy light, completely unaware of the magnitude of the disaster she had caused.

"Fun my ass!"

Su Ming was furious.

He's a researcher, and what he hates most are these naughty kids who don't follow lab safety regulations!

"System! Grant me root access!"

Su Ming ripped off his smoldering cloak, revealing a bomb suit covered in talismans underneath. He stomped his foot and charged into the inferno like a cannonball.

"Corpse Ancestor's Aura - Absolute Zero!"

"Buzz—"

A terrifying chill originating from the depths of his soul erupted instantly from Su Ming's body.

This chill didn't have any physical cooling effect; instead, it acted directly on the energy itself. The raging flames seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand, their flames instantly wilting, their color changing from crimson to a pale, dark red.

Yan Lingji felt her whole body stiffen, and the flow of spiritual energy within her body was instantly cut off.

She opened her mouth in surprise, but before she could say anything, she saw Su Ming appear in front of her with a dark expression.

He was also holding a huge, grayish rag of unknown material.

[Extra Large Asbestos Fireproof Shroud]

"Behave yourself!"

Su Ming had no intention of showing any mercy to the woman; he simply draped the fireproof cloth over her head with the practiced ease of a man packing up a disobedient corpse.

"Ugh! What are you doing..."

Just as Yan Lingji tried to struggle, Su Ming wrapped her up tightly, limbs and all, leaving only her beautiful head exposed.

"receive!"

Su Ming found a piece of cowhide rope and quickly tied knots around her waist, legs, and shoulders, turning the arsonist into a giant, dusty, gray dumpling in the blink of an eye.

With the source of the fire cut off, the surrounding flames were finally extinguished thanks to Shao Siming's belated intervention.

The main hall was in a mess.

Everywhere there were charred marks, and the air was filled with a suffocating, acrid smell.

Gongshu Chou lay on the ground, holding half a charred drawing, on the verge of tears; Honglian, covered in soot, crawled up from the corner, her hair disheveled; Shao Siming's skirt had a hole burned in it, and she was touching it with heartache.

Su Ming wiped the soot off his face and looked at the "zongzi" he was carrying on his shoulder, which was still wriggling restlessly, and he was furious.

"Snapped!"

Without any hesitation, he slapped Yan Lingji's tightly wrapped buttocks.

"Behave yourself!"

Su Ming slammed her down on the ground, pointed to the table next to him that had a burnt corner, and roared in anguish:

"Look what you've done! Do you even know what this is?"

"This is thousand-year-old submerged wood! It's a top-quality piece dug out of an ancient tomb from the Warring States period! For this little bit of wood, Meng Tian even dug up someone's ancestral grave! And you, you just set it on fire!"

"Can you afford to pay for it? Even selling yourself wouldn't be enough to cover the cost of a table leg!"

Yan Lingji blinked her big, watery eyes, looking completely innocent and aggrieved.

"Master... I didn't mean to."

"Besides, it was the woman in red who started it; the other party was just trying to... act in self-defense."

She twisted her body slightly, trying to break free from the tight asbestos fabric, her voice so soft and sweet it seemed to drip with moisture:

"And... Master, you're binding me too tightly, it hurts so much~"

Normally, Su Ming would feel his bones melt at the sound of such a voice.

But now he is in the extreme heartache of "financial loss", and his straight-laced male traits have fully erupted.

"It hurts? That's good!"

Su Ming sneered, squatted down, and grabbed Yan Lingji's chin, forcing her to look at him. "Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you're good-looking. Damaging public property in Qin is a criminal offense!"

"I need to examine your internal structure right now to see how you can explode like a gas cylinder at any moment!"

Su Ming placed his fingers on Yan Lingji's pulse point, and the system scan was instantly activated.

however.

The moment the data panel popped up, Su Ming's angry expression suddenly froze.

His fingers felt an extremely abnormal, even terrifying, heat current surging wildly through Yan Lingji's meridians. It was not controlled internal energy at all, but a kind of... out-of-control riot.

[Beep! Warning!]

[The fire element within the experimental subject "Yan Ling Ji" is detected to be extremely unstable!]

[Energy Core Overload! Witchcraft Backlash is Occurring!]

[If this organism is not released in time, it will self-destruct within thirty minutes, with a destructive force equivalent to... a small tactical nuclear bomb.]

Su Ming's hand suddenly trembled.

He looked at the woman in front of him who was still flirting with him, completely unaware that he was about to explode, and cold sweat instantly broke out on his back.

How can this be considered arson?

This is a human-shaped nuclear reactor!

And it was the kind of reactor core that was about to melt down!

"Have you...have you been feeling like there's a fire burning inside you lately? And it's getting hotter and hotter?" Su Ming's voice trembled slightly.

"yes."

Yan Lingji licked her lips and looked at Su Ming with dreamy eyes. "Master, you're so smart. I'm so hot right now... my whole body is burning up. Master, will you help me?"

She thought it was flirting.

Su Ming knew, however, that this was a countdown to his doom.

"Help! We must help!"

Su Ming abruptly stood up, hoisted the "time bomb" back onto his shoulder, and roared at the bewildered crowd:

"Don't just stand there! Level one alert!"

"Gongshu Chou! Go and bring me that abandoned alchemy furnace! The biggest one! The thickest one!"

"Hurry! Otherwise we'll all turn into roast suckling pigs!"