Chapter 161: Unforeseen surprise
Surrounded by undead, the driver of the black Land Rover remains expressionless, as though they are a lifeless puppet. In the backseat of this vehicle is He Lianming and Ah Si.
"Ming, see? Are you seeing this? Haha…no matter how capable Long Zhanye and his soldiers are, no matter how strong their artillery barrage is, the amount of zombies we have is enormous! This safe zone will be overwhelmed sooner or later!!" Ah Si says, a near fanatical expression on his face.
"Indeed." He Lianming hums, face so bland that one cannot make out what is running through his mind.
"Ming, I will exact revenge on your behalf. Watch me, I will definitely force Long Zhanye on his knees before you…make him kneel and beg for forgiveness."
"Is that so? I will have to thank you properly when you make it come true." He Lianming smirks faintly, then slowly draws closer to Ah Si. As slender hands settle on the other"s hips, he drags his lips over Ah Si"s, initiating a deep and hard kiss.
In the period between their first time together and right now, the two men are more than familiar with each other"s body. Hence, this one kiss is enough to fan the spark and set their pa.s.sions ablaze.
Ah Si"s aggression rises and he easily dominates He Lianming, all but mauling the latter"s lips before moving down his fair neck to the collarbone. However, as he lost himself in a haze of l.u.s.t, he never expected the hands wandering up his waist and chest to suddenly chop down on the back of his neck.
A flare of pain erupts, causing Ah Si to freeze. Bewildered gaze meeting the seductively smiling commander, his jaw works but nothing comes out of his mouth. In the next second, he blacks out.
Catching Ah Si"s limp body and laying him back onto the seat, He Lianming tugs a pair of gloves on before reaching into the unconscious man"s clothes. From within the breast pocket of Ah Si"s shirt, He Lianming removes a talisman emitting rays of black light.
Boom! Blam!
Following the sudden loud noise, the car"s door is abruptly pulled open. A second later, the expressionless man in the driver"s seat is dragged out and tossed away. An individual clad in black clothes appear in the newly-vacated seat.
"Lord Commander He, everything is ready. Ah Jue and the others have transmitted the information back to the safe zone. We can leave now. After that Ah Si lost consciousness, all the zombies stopped moving."
"Un." He Lianming"s eyes narrow lightly as a pleased smile pulls at the corners of his mouth.
A tornado abruptly bursts into existence around the Land Rover. Slowly, the vehicle rises, gently lifted by the roaring winds and speeding towards the direction of A City.
~~~
Safe zone - Northern city wall
In a flicker of shadows, a person clad in a military uniform appears beside Long Zhanye.
"Emergency report. "His" plan is a success. "He" is now on the way back."
"Emergency report from the watchtower. The tidal wave of zombies has suddenly stopped!"
"That b.a.s.t.a.r.d did a great job!" Hearing the good news, Long Zhanye smiles faintly, fingers moving through a series of signs.
After, a voice comes through the loudspeaker. "All units, cease fire!"
The sounds of gunfire and artillery immediately cease. After three days of continuous barrage, a heavy silence settles over the frontlines.
"Boss!!" A soldier rushes up to Long Zhanye, handing a pair of binoculars over.
Looking through the binoculars towards the direction the soldier is pointing at. Long Zhanye"s smile instantly disappears. Shoving the binoculars in the soldier"s hands, he leaps up onto the low merlon.
"Ability Users, move out!"
Before the other soldiers can react, Long Zhanye has already jumped down the city wall, closely followed by every Ability Users present.
At the other end of the northern wall, Huo Zaiyuan is sitting in meditation with the other Master Taoist priests when he hears the yells of the people along this three hundred meter stretch. He lifts his head just in time to see Long Zhanye stepping off.
"Something"s wrong!" Huo Zaiyuan shouts and scrambles to his feet and jumps off as well without hesitation.
"Junior Martial Brother!"
Long Zhanye and He Lianming. These two men are A military base"s legendary figures, gifted in both physical ability and intelligence. The tidal wave of zombies this time was an attack planned between them. Besides using this chance to dig out the mysterious ‘Sorceror"s cult’, it is also a good way to reduce the number of zombies on this land.
However, there are some obvious flaws in the plan that weren"t taken into account as both men never expected He Lianming"s ability to be exhausted so quickly. At the same time, amongst the sea of common undead that has ceased moving forwards, a few extremely fast figures dash out. No doubt, these are evolved zombies.
Without the tornado lifting the Land Rover up, the car falls heavily to the ground. In a blink of an eye, the evolved undead at the head of the small group leaps onto the roof of the vehicle.
Leading the charge, Long Zhanye fires his rifle from the hip at the zombie on the roof, leaving the other evolved undead to the Ability Users on his heels.
Having gone through top-notch modification, the rifle"s penetration power is very powerful. Coupled with Long Zhanye"s excellent marksmanship, the three fired shots pierces through the target"s chest and kneecaps, causing the undead to fall off the roof and onto the ground.
Screeching to a halt beside Long Zhanye, the Land Rover"s backseat window winds down and out pops He Lianming"s handsome face, which is full of amazement.
"Why did you run all the way out here?!"
"Exchange ah! Exchange! I"ll leave the safe zone in your hands! Go!" Saying thus, he whips around and pulls the trigger two more times, putting an end to the crippled undead trying to crawl towards the vehicle.
The Land Rover"s engine revs loudly and the driver steps on the accelerator before speeding away. He Lianming"s departing yell of "be careful" is nearly drowned out by the wind.
As the car pulls away, another zombie pounces towards Long Zhanye, only for a streak of silver light to intercept it. The explosion that follows sends the creature flying.
"Zhanye!" Huo Zaiyuan calls out as he sprints up to his lover.
"I"m fine," Long Zhanye says as he shoots him a smile.
"That zombie"s yours. I"ve got arrays to lay." Waving his left hand, six peach wood tiles appear.
Even though the common zombies are no longer trying to lay siege to the city, there is no telling when they might suddenly start moving again. In order no to be caught off-guard and land the safe zone in a perilous situation, Huo Zaiyuan decides to lay some barriers around here to block the undead.
"All right!" Slinging his rifle onto his back, Long Zhanye unsheathes the steel military dagger tucked in his belt.
When confronting an evolved undead that possesses high speed and fast reflexes, no matter how accurate one is or how powerful the bullet"s penetration, one will only be wasting ammunition if every shot is dodged. Attacking with a blade would, in fact, place him in a more advantageous position.
With more Ability Users compared to evolved zombies, the humans aren"t experiencing too much pressure on their side. Tossing the wooden tiles into the air, Huo Zaiyuan begins setting down the array. Six Divine Amplification Charm are linked together to form a Heaven Concealing Array. Silver, translucent runes flow out from the tiles, filling the s.p.a.ces between each talisman. Able to defend and attack, don"t say common zombies, even Rank 3 evolved ones would be hard pressed to rip through this barrier.
Once the barrier is completed, Huo Zaiyuan also enters the fray. One by one, the zombies are picked off, their corpses consumed by golden flames.
Seeing that defeat is at hand, the figure hiding in the dim corner on the city wall begins to transform. Strange, crimson liquid seeps into his eyes, completely obscuring the dark pupils even as fair skin changes to a cracked, purplish-green.
"Rarrghhh - !!"
Face to the sky, the mouth full of shark-like teeth splits open, a thunderous roar ripping through the air. A large, invisible pressure crashes down on the frightened soldiers lining the entire stretch of wall, forcing them flat to the ground. Before anyone can struggle to their feet, a shadow leaps down, streaking towards where Long Zhanye and his party are.
Although none of the soldiers knows what happened exactly, but as soon as the pressure eases and the shadow rushes towards the group down below, they rush to the edge of the wall and yell, "Boss! Danger!!"
A blast of fire, a lightning bolt, a shower of ice spikes and finally, a horizontal swing of a dagger. The last evolved undead is reduced to a headless pile of rotten minced meat. A flick of Huo Zaiyuan"s fingers and the remains are reduced to nothingness.
The sudden, loud, panicked yell from the wall has Long Zhanye turning to look over his shoulder. His vision blurs, and the next thing he knows, the Ability Users around him are torn to shreds. When he finally registers the enemy, he sees razor-sharp, foot-length claws aiming for Huo Zaiyuan"s back.
"Little Yuan!!" Long Zhanye cries out in alarm, instinctively throwing himself between his lover and the enemy.
Blinding, intense pain erupts as five claws pierce right through flesh and bones.
"Zhanye!!" Huo Zaiyuan spins around as soon as he heard Long Zhanye"s shout, but he is too slow to do anything. His eyes widen in dread and shock. Opaque crimson eyes without pupils, a mouthful of shark-like teeth, cracked purplish-red skin, the evolved zombie"s long, black claws skewer clean through Long Zhanye"s left shoulder and chest.
Staring at Huo Zaiyuan"s fearful face, Long Zhanye"s lips move, but is unable to choke out a single word. Instead, blood bubbles out of his mouth and down his chin, staining his collar.
"Heehee…Taoist, the first one I should have torn to shreds is you! However…since I successfully captured this man, I suppose it"s adequate compensation. He will become the strongest zombie in the world," the undead rasps in triumph. Withdrawing its claws, the creature seizes Long Zhanye by the back of his uniform and dashes off, tearing through the array like it is made out of paper.
The common zombies begin to move once more, gathering together and shamble towards the city.
The rumbling of countless shuffling feet, the chorus of low growls…all are drowned out as the atmospheric pressure becomes heavier and heavier. An invisible wind kicks up around Huo Zaiyuan, causing his hair and clothes to billow out. Intense rays of silver light bursts from his entire body.
"Return Zhanye to me!!"
Following this roar of anguish and fury, Huo Zaiyuan disappears in a flash of light, charging directly into the ma.s.s of undead. Every zombie the silver light touches instantly dissolves into dust. Like this, he leaves a trail of destruction behind as he chases after the evolved zombie.
(Translator’s note: I think the author forgot that He Lianming was given power over water, not wind. Or maybe they forgot to mention he had dual-abilities…? Ah well…)