Chapter 318: Lord
Li Xinlong’s head instantly broke out in a fine layer of sweat beads.
Jiang Rong’s complexion changed behind him. Just as she was about to explain, she saw He Jie step forward and say in a deep voice.
“The zombie tide’s intensity has dropped. After fighting, we haven’t seen many Tier 2 zombies. I suspect there’s something fishy here!”
Su Huan glanced at He Jie with waning interest, his eyes turning as he took in the entire situation inside the Iron Wall. Although there were many corpses, they numbered only about twenty to thirty thousand, with eleven Tier 2 zombies and just over a hundred Tier 1.
Outside, this was a terrifying wave, but in a big city like Zhijin, it was just a drop in the bucket.
lv9 “General Energy Perception” naturally expanded. A faint, primal general energy spread out at a terrifying speed, instantly covering the ground within a radius of more than ten kilometers, then expanding while extending upward into the space above.
Forming a three-dimensional detection that carried back intense general energy fluctuations from the surroundings.
In the instant the information feedback arrived, Su Huan suddenly looked up, his pitch-black eyes seeming to pierce through the Iron Wall.
One kilometer away, three hundred Tier 2 zombies stood neatly in formation.
This distance was practically right in their faces!
Given the zombies’ craving for human flesh and blood and general energy, there was only one possibility for them to stay put so obediently!
That was being restrained by a more powerful existence!
Su Huan’s mouth corner curved up slightly.
No wonder Black Kite was furtively setting up some base city here. They really didn’t learn their lesson…
Three hundred Tier 2 zombies were strong, but not enough to take him down.
Although he appeared lethargic every day, his evolution speed was still incredibly fast. To prevent his body’s energy from exceeding his manipulation limits, he had to suppress his evolution speed, but the two skills needed for promotion to Tier 3, “Energy Repulsion” and “General Energy Perception,” had long since emerged.
“General Energy Perception” went without saying—it was a skill awakened at Tier 1 and had now reached lv9, while the requirement for promotion to Tier 4 “Energy Devouring Engine” was only lv6.
“Energy Repulsion” was only lv3, but having it at all was enough.
Conditions for promotion to Tier 3 “Fusion Furnace”: Tier 3 “Energy Storage Core” + Tier 2 “Circulating Vortex” + lv1 “Energy Repulsion” + lv1 “General Energy Perception”.
Plus a special minor condition: an unstable high-energy environment.
Like some falling little boy or little fatty or whatever.
When he first saw this recipe, Su Huan hesitated for a long time.
But before he could decide whether to curse, the other party had already kicked the bucket.
If everything went according to the Mechanical God Cult’s madmen’s plan, as long as you didn’t die, you would smoothly promote to Tier 3 “Fusion Furnace”.
And this was the pinnacle for the vast majority of evolvers.
Upon stepping into Tier 3, the evolver themselves became a threat more terrifying than firearms.
For example, Tier 3 “Fusion Furnace” could manually trigger nuclear fusion.
To manually trigger nuclear fusion, first endure nuclear fusion… It fit Su Huan’s stereotype of those Mechanical God Cult people perfectly.
Utterly speechless.
Perhaps that group never even considered these issues.
But this special condition could be erased for Su Huan. His current gene activity level had already exceeded the species limit, so he didn’t need overly intense stimulation.
The side effect was rapidly consumed vitality.
His current lifespan was around twenty years. There were fresh pears and vitality potions on the train, enough for him to go wild one more time.
“The situation is bad?”
Seeing Su Huan lost in thought, He Jie couldn’t help but frown and ask.
While manipulating “General Energy Perception” to continue extending forward, Su Huan casually said, “The numbers are a bit high.”
“How many Tier 2 zombies are there?”
He Jie asked in a deep voice. Ordinary zombies and Tier 1 were minor issues; what truly decided victory or defeat was high-end combat power like Tier 2.
With the Armed Corps’ current strength, if Tier 2 got in their faces, they could barely handle between ten and twenty.
“Three hundred… five hundred…… Huh, there are more behind!”
Su Huan spread his perception backward, his tone rising slightly.
And accompanying the change in his tone were the crowd’s rapidly shifting complexions.
Even He Jie felt a chill, biting his cigar in half. “Tier 2, Tier 2, not Tier 1!”
Su Huan came back to his senses, his narrow eyes staring straight at him, mouth corner curving up. “Of course, and we’re surrounded too.”
With that, Su Huan ignored the crowd’s stiff complexions and placed one hand on Li Xinlong’s shoulder.
“Let’s go. How about coming up with me to take a look?”
Li Xinlong looked at the young face in front of him, momentarily dazed, and nodded as if possessed.
The two young men walked shoulder to shoulder like brothers. Under Jiang Rong’s worried gaze, they stepped deep and shallow through the corpses toward the Iron Wall. Behind them, metallic color emerged in Xiao Ba’s eyes, the Iron Wall metal slid down, instantly forming a staircase straight to the peak extending to their feet.
“Oh, right.” Su Huan suddenly turned his head back, his gaze warm yet serious. “Tell Wen Biao not to let those spoils of war behind us get away.”
With that, he stepped onto the staircase, arm around Li Xinlong’s shoulder.
Everyone’s gazes fell on He Jie, the battlefield’s overall commander.
He Jie subconsciously glanced toward a certain window on the train, where a pair of eyes full of concern were watching him.
‘Su Huan, you bastard…’
Cursing inwardly, he bellowed, “Goat, go relay the order. Yu Yue, notify the armored train to enter combat readiness!”
“Xiao Ba, raise another defense line on the inner wall and position the train sideways up there.”
“Xiao San, if you keep hiding up there watching the show, I’ll skin you alive!”
Under He Jie’s irritable urging, everyone sprang into action like spinning tops.
Goat passed through the Iron Wall and was instantly stunned by the convoy following behind the train.
The convoy was vast and motley, mostly modified off-road vehicles and SUVs in front, with everything behind—buses, sedans, motorcycles…… and even two riding dogs.
Reinforcements?
At the front off-road vehicle stood a man with dragon and tiger tattoos on his head—Wen Biao. Seeing Goat run out, he jumped down hurriedly. “Goat Adjutant, it’s me, A Biao. Did the train conductor send orders?”
The battle had already started behind him. Goat looked at the motley scavengers and suddenly thought, ‘These people might be the spoils of war the train conductor mentioned. Can’t scare them off.’
Organizing his words, he said tactfully, “The upcoming battle will be intense. The train won’t provide you weapons, nor force you to the front lines as cannon fodder. You just need to wait quietly for the war to end.”
With that, he leaned in and whispered, “The train conductor instructed you to watch his spoils of war.”
“Spoils of war?”
Wen Biao was stunned. The train conductor hadn’t told him to guard any spoils of war.
Once Goat left, Jin Feng Chamber of Commerce’s president and vice president, along with Tiejian City’s remaining leader, gathered with various force leaders, eyes full of expectation.
Jinfeng President and Old Xie’s eyes were bloodshot. Though they luckily escaped the zombie tide, the chamber lost its most elite vanguard, over half its central army, and didn’t even get a sip of soup. The two were now like gamblers who had lost most of their fortune, eyes red, hoping to recoup by following the train.
Old Xie asked, “What does the armored train want us to do?”
“What does this armored train mean? Why won’t they let us in?!”
Hearing this, everyone turned to look.
Seeing it was Tiejian City’s leader with bloodshot eyeballs, they immediately shut up.
Among the Four Greats, Black Kite had vanished, Fu Yuan Convoy was wiped out—Tiejian City suffered the worst.
The elder brother of the Dragon-Tiger Brothers had brought over three thousand in, but the people didn’t return—the zombie tide arrived first. Tiejian City’s survivors couldn’t hold and fled outward, their half-year territory all taken by zombies.
As the force with the most elderly, women, and children, they now had only a scant three hundred left.
Fallen in one morning— “tragic” couldn’t even describe it.
Although Fu Yuan Convoy was annihilated, their Fuyuan county main base was still there. After recuperating, they could rise again, just under a new name.
But Tiejian City might vanish completely after today.
With him leading, leaders of smaller forces that suffered losses immediately chimed in, “Zhijin has so many zombies. We won’t take his spoils of war—just give back the zombies we killed before…”
“We don’t want much, just our own share.”
“Right, compensate us with general energy crystals if needed.”
“They can’t leave us without even a sip of soup, right?”
“That’s too domineering.”
“…”
Around a hundred thousand scavengers followed the armored train, with forces large and small as numerous as cows’ hairs. One sentence per person, and the scene instantly grew noisy. Wen Biao’s younger brothers didn’t dare act rashly.
But this gave Wen Biao a reminder—what else could the spoils of war be? Weren’t these hundred thousand the best spoils?
Could the train conductor be planning to absorb them all?
Wen Biao’s heart raced. As the first to submit, wouldn’t his status rise?
No, no, that wasn’t secure enough.
He needed to make a contribution—a big one!
Looking at the increasingly urgent leaders around him, Wen Biao felt a flash of inspiration in his muddled brain after decades.
Standing on the off-road vehicle, he roared, “The train conductor said the armored train will shelter us, but only those who contribute! After the train withstands the first wave of zombie tide, those who dare counterattack with the train are our own people! After taking Zhijin, as long as you’re here, at minimum you’ll get a chance to become an evolver!”
Though his words weren’t eloquent, the key information made everyone’s eyes light up.
For heads like Jin Feng Chamber of Commerce, they heard that the train would take the first wave of zombie tide, then lead them in the charge.
If the train made them cannon fodder or contributed nothing, they’d be uneasy. But now, avoiding the biggest danger while contributing was just right.
It proved the train planned to share with them.
Old Xie and the president exchanged a glance. “Gamble or not?”
The president’s complexion was gloomy. “What role did Black Kite really play here?”
“Those bastards probably sensed something wrong and ran! Forget them—just ask about this wave from the train. Do we follow?”
The president sighed deeply. “We have no way out.”
……
The sun had fully set.
Chenxi Plaza had entered the beautiful blue hour, all things hiding under this melancholic blue, even the corpses no longer grotesque.
Behind the Iron Wall, a taller “Iron Wall” rose. The armored train climbed onto a six-meter-high steel base, stretching from east to west across the entire Chenxi Plaza, head to tail connected, a full 1.5 kilometers—14-meter-high walls built in an instant. Xiao Ba was exhausted from the workload and carried back into the train.
Electromagnetic armor activated to maximum, with faint blue electric light flashing occasionally on the tracks.
Orders from the loudspeaker pierced the metal cabin walls. Cannon turret hydraulic sounds “clicked” into place. The black barrel of the 125mm smoothbore cannon slowly lifted, aiming at the twisted city silhouette on the horizon. The railgun charged faintly, and the 12.7mm caliber heavy machine gun loaded ammunition belts with a clatter under the auto-loader.
And this was merely an insignificant part of Black Kite’s “gift.”
It was also Su Huan’s confidence for diving in despite knowing there was a trap.
At this moment, the two young men sat atop the train, their faces flickering in the gunfire light.
The terrifying zombie tide loomed vaguely in the firelight.
The 1.5 kilometers of heavy machine guns fired simultaneously, and the entire world seemed to fall into utter silence.
The ground shattered into puddles of mud mixed with bone and flesh, then filled by one iron-gray figure after another. They didn’t even seem to be attacking—more like consuming numbers to make space for the main force behind.
Li Xinlong watched the scene before him, night wind whipping, heart surging.
“She’s afraid.”
The faint voice reached Li Xinlong’s ears. He turned to see Su Huan sitting cross-legged on the roof.
Perhaps from the gunfire reflection or the rooftop searchlight, the train conductor’s eyes were no longer pitch black but held bright, dancing colors, reflecting everything happening at this moment.
Zombie tide, soldiers, scavengers…… and in the corner, things he didn’t understand—thin, intertwining threads.
Li Xinlong instinctively looked behind. Jiang Rong stood far away, too far for him to see her figure.
But he could still feel that thick worry.
Li Xinlong moved his lips, unsure how to respond to the faint statement.
“Do you have an ideal?”
Finally hearing a clear question, Li Xinlong started to answer, but the usual phrases on his tongue vanished, leaving only Jiang Rong’s worried eyes.
“……Want to provide for my mom in old age.”
Li Xinlong felt a bit useless.
But the surrounding gunfire was too loud, buzzing his head. He really couldn’t think of anything else.
The train conductor didn’t respond. He didn’t know if Su Huan heard, with the gunfire so loud it echoed through all of Zhijin.
But he saw Su Huan seem to nod slightly, like a barely perceptible tremor.
Or maybe it was his illusion, because the electromagnetic railgun had just fired a shot. The cannonball streaked through the sky, leaving a faint blue light trail with scattering electric light, drawing open tonight’s grand curtain.
Before he could react, a massive, overly slender creature emerged from the darkness.
Its body mostly a non-reflective black, like someone tearing an elegant lady’s silhouette from canvas and stretching it longer. Under the electromagnetic railgun’s light, countless writhing threads behind its head instantly turned the same faint blue, weaving into a massive jellyfish-like crown at the back.
Its face wore a plain white porcelain mask, eyes like clear rubies coldly regarding the wall formed by the armored train.
Its entire body only vaguely retained human female features in the upper half.
The lower body was a thick snake tail, standing in a bizarre posture amid the zombie horde, with Tier 2 Butchers acting as “coolies” underfoot.
Terrifying aura spread like tides, making every word from Li Xinlong’s mouth extremely difficult.
“What is that?”
“Lord.”
