Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 318; Lu Yuze & Shuyin 7

She gave him a look that was pure Shuyin, cold, controlled, utterly refusing to acknowledge weakness. "I healed a mermaid this morning. I can climb a trellis."

Despite everything, he almost smiled.

They climbed. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Every grip sent jolts of pain through Shuyin’s burned hands. The trellis creaked ominously under their combined weight. Behind them, through the broken window, they could hear the creatures growing bolder, testing the fading light.

Halfway down, Lu Yuze’s foot slipped. He caught himself, but not before dislodging several pieces of trellis that clattered to the ground below.

From inside the mansion, an answering shriek rose. Then another. And another.

The creatures had heard.

They were coming.

Lu Yuze and Shuyin dropped the last six feet, landing hard on the garden path. Shuyin’s ankle buckled and she bit back a cry of pain. Lu Yuze steadied her, and together they ran.

The east wing. They had to reach the east wing.

Behind them, the mansion was alive with movement. Shadows flickered in windows. The wet sounds of slithering bodies grew louder. And through it all, that horrible shrieking, dozens of voices raised in a hunting cry.

They rounded the corner of the mansion and nearly collided with a cluster of servants who were herding Yuyan and the other children toward the reinforced doors of the east wing.

"Mama!" Yuyan’s small voice cut through the chaos. The little girl broke free from her caretaker and ran toward them.

Shuyin caught her, pulling her close despite the pain in her body. "Inside. Everyone inside. Now."

The group rushed through the doors. Lu Yuze slammed them shut and threw the heavy bolt. For a moment, there was only the sound of panicked breathing, children crying softly, servants murmuring prayers.

Then a wet thud hit the door from the outside.

Then another.

And another.

Through the decorative window in the door, Shuyin could see them. Dozens of Leviathan Spawn, their bodies writhing in the fading light, waiting for the sun to set completely.

She counted them. Thirty. Forty. More are emerging every moment from various parts of the mansion.

They had minutes at best.

Shuyin set Yuyan down gently and turned to face the assembled group. Servants, children, Lu Yuze. All looking at her with varying degrees of fear and desperate hope.

She was exhausted. Magically depleted. Injured. But she was also Shuyin, calculating, strategic, utterly refusing to lose.

"Listen to me very carefully," she said, her voice cutting through the panic with absolute authority. "We’re going to survive this. But I need everyone to do exactly as I say."

She looked at Lu Yuze. Despite everything, the burns, the near-death experience, the horror of the last fifteen minutes, his eyes were steady. Trusting.

"What do you need?" he asked simply.

Shuyin’s mind was already working, calculating, planning. The creatures were photosensitive. They fed on magic. They spread through water. They hunted in packs with terrifying intelligence.

But every creature had weaknesses.

And Shuyin had spent a lifetime exploiting weaknesses.

"I need salt," she said. "As much as we can find. Blessed or consecrated if we have it, but regular salt will do in a pinch. I need fire, torches, lamps, anything that burns hot and bright. And I need to know where every water source in the east wing is located. Every sink, every toilet, every decorative fountain."

A senior servant stepped forward. "The kitchens are in this wing, Miss. We have salt in bulk. And there’s a storage room with oil lamps and fuel."

"Good. Get them. Now." She turned to another servant. "You, seal every drain you can find. Towels, cloth, anything. They can compress their bodies to fit through surprisingly small spaces."

The servants scattered to follow her orders.

Shuyin kissed Yuyan’s forehead and stood, turning to face the reinforced doors where the creatures were gathering. The sun was nearly gone now. She could see their bioluminescent bodies glowing brighter in the growing darkness, sense their anticipation.

They thought they had her trapped.

They thought she was helpless.

They were wrong.

Lu Yuze moved to her side, a heavy candlestick in one hand, a makeshift weapon. "What’s the plan?"

Shuyin allowed herself a small, cold smile. The kind of smile that had made her enemies in the business world very, very nervous.

"We turn the east wing into a fortress. And then, when they come through that door, we teach these parasites why they should have stayed in whatever dark hole spawned them."

The last ray of sunlight faded.

The creatures surged forward.

And the real battle began.

The doors shuddered under the first impact.

Then the second.

On the third, something cracked, a hairline fracture in the wood that spread like a spiderweb.

"Back! Everyone back!" Lu Yuze shouted, positioning himself between the door and the huddled group of servants and children.

Through the decorative window, they could see them. Dozens of Leviathan Spawn, their translucent bodies writhing in the fading light, waiting. The sun had fully set now, and the creatures were emboldened, their bioluminescent veins pulsing with hungry anticipation.

A wet, slithering sound came from above.

Everyone’s heads snapped up toward the ventilation grates.

"They’re in the vents," Shuyin said, her voice tight. She could feel them now, crawling through the ductwork, finding every entrance, every weakness. The east wing wasn’t a fortress. It was a trap.

A grate in the ceiling rattled. Then fell with a metallic clang.

A Leviathan Spawn dropped into the room, landing with a wet slap on the marble floor. It was massive, nearly six feet long, bloated with the magic it had consumed from the sitting room. The creature’s eyeless head swiveled, sensory pits glowing as it locked onto Shuyin.

Then another dropped. And another.

More were forcing their way through the broken door, squeezing through the cracks in coordinated waves. The east wing was being overrun.

"We need to go! Now!" Lu Yuze grabbed a heavy candlestick, positioning himself defensively.

But there were too many. They were coming from every direction, the vents, the door, even emerging from the bathroom drains. The wet sounds of their bodies slithering across marble filled the air, punctuated by those horrible ultrasonic shrieks.