124: Annihilate the zombie horde

Lujiang Base, Command Center.

Jiang Xin's tall, upright figure stood before the radar map, his deep gaze locked onto the real-time footage displayed on the screen—the Zombie Horde was in chaos, having lost its unified will, bumping into and biting each other like a swarm of headless flies.

"Report, Commander! Officer Zhang Lei has sent word that the Corpse King has been slain!" The communications soldier's voice rang out clearly in the command room, laced with excitement.

"Understood." Jiang Xin nodded slightly, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold arc, as if he had anticipated this. He slowly raised his hand and tapped his knuckles three times against the cold alloy command console—tap, tap, tap. The sound was soft, yet carried the resolve of a heavy burden about to be lifted. "The Corpse King is dead; there is no need to hold back." His voice was steady and powerful, cutting through the tense atmosphere of the command room. "Transmit the orders!"

"Zhang Long!" Jiang Xin's gaze, sharp as a hawk's, swept toward his adjutant, Zhang Long, who stood at attention beside him.

"Present, Commander!" Zhang Long immediately straightened his back, his eyes burning with the desire for battle.

"Missile units, target the rear cluster of the Zombie Tide. Load thermobaric bombs and fire immediately!"

"All Air Force units, take off! Once the missile units finish their bombardment, lock onto the target—the central connection area of the Zombie Tide—and cut off their reinforcements completely!"

"All tanks and armored personnel carriers, move out of the city to engage! Crush the remaining enemies outside the walls!"

"War Bear Squad (including Bear One and Bear Two, totaling 12, all promoted to hero units—10 Tier 1, 2 Tier 2), the hero-level Military Dog squad (11, excluding Howling Heaven), and the entire Mecha Unit—move out!" Jiang Xin pointed heavily at the location of the Zombie Tide on the map, his tone decisive. "I want this battle finished before sunset!"

"Execute the orders!"

"Yes, Commander!" Zhang Long's voice was loud, carrying the resolve of an iron-blooded soldier. He immediately turned and issued clear, urgent commands over the communication channel. The entire command system instantly sprang into high-speed operation, like a precision war machine.

The moment the orders were given, the entire base roared like a steel behemoth awakening!

"Commander, I want to go to the front lines to fight, too!" Jiang Feifei squeezed Jiang Xin's shoulder and whispered.

"What are you going there to cause trouble for?" Jiang Xin glared at Jiang Feifei.

"I'm a Tier 1 Evolver now, how am I causing trouble!" Jiang Feifei puffed up her cheeks and squeezed Jiang Xin's shoulder hard.

"Fine! I'll go with you; it's a good chance to stretch my limbs!" Jiang Xin agreed helplessly, drew his starfall longsword, and took Jiang Feifei toward the front lines at the east wall.

Missile Positions:

Twenty menacing v3 rocket launcher vehicles simultaneously raised their steel heads, their tails spewing dazzling, scorching white flames. The piercing shrieks of air being torn apart coalesced into a tide of death! "Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!" Twenty missiles carrying heavy thermobaric bombs, trailing long plumes of smoke, tore through the dusky sky and slammed precisely into the rear of the Zombie Tide in four directions!

"Boom—!" A sound more terrifying than thunder exploded in succession! A blinding white light suddenly illuminated the world, only to be swallowed by rolling, expanding orange-red fireballs! The horrific shockwaves, like invisible giant hands, instantly ground tens of thousands of crowded zombies and everything on the ground into dust. A massive mushroom cloud, mixed with acrid black smoke, shot straight into the sky! That area instantly turned into a purgatory of fire!

The roar of engines approached from the distance! All the base's armed helicopters—the hind—swept across the battlefield like a bloodthirsty swarm of steel bees. The pilots' eyes were cold as they locked onto the central cluster of the Zombie Tide, which was swarming like an ant colony below.

"Fire!"

The autocannons spat out deadly tongues of fire, high-explosive rockets poured down like rain, and anti-tank missiles trailing white smoke precisely drilled into the massive mutants within the horde! The ground seemed to catch fire; continuous explosions flashed one after another, throwing severed limbs and debris high into the air. A bloody, mangled gap was forcibly blasted through the middle of the Zombie Tide!

The four city gates:

The base's heavy alloy gates slowly lifted (guillotine-style, hanging from above, not split-opening, as split-opening is easily breached; it was a single-piece integrated gate raised and lowered)! Over a hundred armored personnel carriers surged forward like a steel torrent, their engines roaring like beasts. Their treads crushed through the ruins while vehicle-mounted autocannons fired wildly, weaving a dense net of firepower. Forty main battle tanks, like mobile steel fortresses, roared with every blast from their thick barrels, accompanied by deafening booms and areas being cleared. The high-explosive shells fired from smoothbore cannons exploded within the horde, their power in no way inferior to the aerial strikes. Under such multi-dimensional, saturated firepower coverage, the number of zombies was decreasing rapidly at a visible rate!

Just as the steel torrent crushed the horde, an even more shocking sight appeared on the battlefield!

"Roar—!" A roar that shook the earth rang out!

Twelve figures of breathtaking size charged into the battlefield like prehistoric behemoths! Leading them was Bear One, a Tier 2 Earth War Bear, standing at a terrifying height of six meters! Every heavy step it took made the ground tremble. With a casual wave of its massive paw, covered in rock-like armor, it swatted a dozen ordinary zombies into meat paste as if they were flies! A four-meter-tall Tier 2 Fatty Zombie roared as it charged, but in front of Bear One, it was like a ridiculous toy; it was grabbed by one claw and torn in two as easily as ripping a rag doll! Even more terrifying was Bear One's "Meteor Summoning." It roared at the sky, and suddenly, burning boulders appeared in the air, crashing down with the momentum of wind and thunder! The world-destroying shockwave instantly cleared a large area, its power comparable to a volley of large-caliber heavy artillery!

Bear Two was equally fierce! Its six-meter-tall body rampaged across the battlefield, and wherever it passed, zombies fell like wheat stalks. Most striking of all were its huge bear eyes! At this moment, they no longer held simple-mindedness, but were filled with destructive energy—two bowl-thick, scorching crimson laser beams that emitted a shrill hum shot out! Wherever the lasers touched, whether it was sturdy bone armor or tough muscle, it was instantly melted and severed like a hot knife through butter! High-tier zombies attempting to block it were cut in half before they could even let out a wail!

Following closely behind were ten Tier 1 War Bears and ten Tier 1 Military Dogs led by the Storm War Dog—Earthsplitter (Howling Heaven did not participate), who also displayed terrifying combat power. Earthsplitter moved like the wind, its agile body weaving through the horde, each pounce accompanied by invisible wind blades that whistled out, precisely severing gruesome heads! The Military Dogs' cooperative combat ability was even more astonishing, forming an invincible biochemical assault group in coordination with the War Bears!

These scenes, broadcast in real-time to the command centers of major bases across the country, drew gasps of shock from everyone. Such a large-scale, powerful, and well-coordinated biochemical unit was simply unheard of! The strength of Lujiang Base once again left everyone feeling deeply shocked and wary.

The situation on the battlefield was settled, and the Evolvers joined the reaping with renewed fervor.

Jiang Xin charged into the fray, his eyes indifferent. He didn't hold his sword; he simply moved his mind.

"Hum—!" The starfall longsword hovering beside him let out a clear, ringing chime, instantly turning into a streak of light too fast for the naked eye to capture as it shot out! The longsword traced a lethal trajectory in the air, instantly piercing through the heads of dozens of zombies attempting to approach, like skewering candied hawthorns! An invisible, overwhelming, and terrifying psychic power erupted from Jiang Xin, covering a radius of ten meters—this was the effect of the Kings Domain!

"Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft—!" It was as if an invisible giant hand had clenched down hard! Within the ten-meter radius, whether they were ordinary zombies or slightly stronger mutants, their bodies collapsed and twisted inward strangely. The sound of bones shattering rang out as densely as popping beans, and in an instant, they were crushed into sticky, unrecognizable meat patties! This silent slaughter was more chilling than any roar.

"Watch me!" A crisp, sweet cry came.

Beside Jiang Xin, Jiang Feifei could no longer hold back. A soft yet incredibly holy white light suddenly shone around her, and white wings unfurled from her back with a "swish," every feather flowing with sacred radiance. Holding a longsword burning with raging flames, she lightly tapped her toes against the ground and flew elegantly into the air, like a true angel descending to the mortal world. Her posture was graceful yet carried a stern murderous intent as she dived lightly into the chaotic horde!

"Flame Sword!" Jiang Feifei shouted, her flaming longsword casting out arcs of scorching fire. The flames contained the dual power of purification and destruction. Wherever they passed, zombies were like dry grass thrown into a furnace, ignited, incinerated, and decapitated in swathes! As her white wings flapped, specks of light occasionally fell, and when they landed on the zombies, they even burned with sizzling white smoke.

Public areas across the base:

The battlefield footage was once again broadcast onto the giant public screens.

When the figure of Jiang Feifei—holy, flawless, with wings of light on her back and a flaming longsword in hand—appeared, the crowds in the shelters and streets instantly erupted into mountain-shaking, sea-roaring screams and exclamations!

"Oh my god! Look! It's the Adjutant! She... she's turned into an angel!" A young girl covered her mouth, her eyes full of awe and adoration.

"So beautiful! It's like she walked straight out of a myth! Even more sacred than the Valkyries in Norse mythology!" A bespectacled young man watched, mesmerized, muttering to himself.

"Look! She's fighting side-by-side with the Commander! One in the sky, one on the ground; one holy, one majestic... they're such a perfect match! I ship them so hard!" A few female students jumped up excitedly, pointing at the screen and screaming.

"Waaah... why can't such a perfect goddess belong to me!" A young man covered his face, wailing half-jokingly.

"Pfft! Stop daydreaming! Look at who she's with!" Someone nearby immediately retorted ruthlessly.

"Can't I even imagine it?"

"What kind of ability is the Commander using? Telekinetic sword control? And that invisible power... is it a domain? So cool!" The topic quickly shifted to Jiang Xin's miraculous telekinetic control, and exclamations of wonder rose one after another.

The intensity of the battle rapidly decreased following the annihilation of the Zombie Tide's main force.

The Red Alert Legion's steel torrent, air power, biochemical behemoths, and powerful Evolvers, like efficient reaping machines, completely swept the remaining zombies outside Lujiang Base clean in the afterglow of the sunset.

When the last trace of the setting sun sank below the horizon, the despair-inducing crimson spots on the radar map that once represented the Zombie Tide were finally reduced to a few scattered points, like a candle in the wind, posing no further threat.

The base's heavy alloy gates opened again, and uniquely shaped armed ore refinery vehicles drove out, roaring. Like diligent scavengers, their massive mechanical arms flexibly grabbed piles of zombie remains from the ground and deposited them into the rear processing bins. Even more surprisingly, their built-in precision sorting system could automatically strip precious metal jewelry (gold and silver) from the corpses, adding it to the system's capital reserves. The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder, blood, and burnt matter, but more than that, it was the feeling of dust settling after a great victory.

In the command room, Jiang Xin's tense nerves finally relaxed a little. He let out a soft breath, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.

This battle's harvest far exceeded expectations: a massive quantity of zombie crystal cores would become the cornerstone for cultivating future Evolvers for the base; the gold collected by the armed ore refinery vehicles would be converted into valuable capital; and most importantly—having lost the Corpse King as its core rallying point, and having almost exhausted all its usable strength in this battle, the large-scale Zombie Horde entrenched in the Old City District of Lujiang had been completely annihilated!

The subsequent work of reclaiming the city would no longer be a bloody battle fraught with thorns, but a relatively easy "cleanup." This once-fallen city finally saw the dawn of truly returning to human control! Jiang Xin did not feel complacent; he knew that the era belonging to the Red Alert Legion had only just begun.