CH 137

Chapter 137: Zombie assault

The few of them held a long discussion, only dispersing when it neared midnight. As Long Hongjian and his team accumulated enough stress and exhaustion this day, Long Zhanye permits them to take a rest, leaving Huo Zaiyuan and him to keep night vigil.

With senior officer Long keeping watch, the others are naturally reassured. Long Hongjian doesn't protest either, pulling An Mingxi along to a two-seater sofa to sleep. Ah Gong and Ah Shou occupy a single-seater sofa each, curling up on top of it to rest.

"Are you still thinking about that black talisman?" Walking into the room, Long Zhanye sees Huo Zaiyuan sitting on a rocking chair and staring into the distance.

"Un, I keep feeling that there is more hidden in the talisman than merely being able to control zombies," Huo Zaiyuan admits with a soft sigh.

Crouching down beside Huo Zaiyuan, Long Zhanye rubs his long hair and says gently, "Don't give yourself so much pressure. We will go for a drive around the northern district tomorrow, then return to A City as quickly as possible. Leave this matter to the Head priest."

"Un." Lightly shaking his head to dispel his heavy thoughts, Huo Zaiyuan smiles at Long Zhanye. "Surprisingly, you are sitting rather comfortably on the title of senior officer ah. No need to worry about anything."

"It's not that I don't worry over matters. Rather, I don't wish to express it. Furthermore, this kind of problem cannot be solved by being constantly stressed out by it. As long as it is caused by humans, sooner or later, there will be ways to overcome it." Standing up from his crouch, Long Zhanye stoops a little and lifts Huo Zaiyuan up in a princess carry.

"Ahh - you…what are you doing?" Startled by the unexpected movement, both hands come up to grip the stiff collar of Long Zhanye's military coat.

"I've never sat in a rocking chair before, so let's sit on it together." Cradling Huo Zaiyuan close, Long Zhanye grins unrepentantly before sitting himself comfortably in the chair.

"You…" Wrapping his arms around the older man's neck, Huo Zaiyuan blushes faintly as he stares at the handsome face so close to his own. "If you like this rocking chair so much, we can take it with us before we leave this house…" Implying "if you want to sit on this chair, I'll take it out of the space whenever you wish", but naturally…Huo Zaiyuan has just developed a liking for this rocking chair too.

"Okay, we'll take it with us. That way, we can sit on it together anytime we want." Smiling, Long Zhanye closes the distance between them and kisses him softly.

An affectionate silence settles around the couple. As the clock ticks past midnight, not the slightest sound can be heard, and the pair eventually has enough of sitting in the rocking chair.

Getting to their feet, Huo Zaiyuan sends it into his space in a flash of silver. Just as they turn around, preparing to return to the hall, a sudden loud howl like that of a ferocious wild beast shatters the tranquil atmosphere.

Greatly alarmed by the roar, Long Zhanye and Huo Zaiyuan instantly dashes for the balcony at the second-storey. This house has a rather effective anti-theft system. Starting from below the balcony, a near-invisible security net is installed all around the second level. In addition to the protective array in the courtyard, one doesn't have to worry about zombies leaping up to attack the second floor.

Arriving at the balcony, the two men gaze in the direction of the main street only to see an endless line of dark shadows making their way towards this house.

"The zombies are coming in this direction!" Long Zhanye's expression hardens, and immediately addresses Huo Zaiyuan. "Little Yuan, grenades, machine guns and sniper rifles. I'll wake the others."

Confronted by a situation like this, Long Zhanye doesn't stop to think about what questions might arise later regarding their large arsenal of weapons. Since Huo Zaiyuan has the equipment they need, hesitating now would mean possibly giving up their lives.

Just as Huo Zaiyuan removes the objects Long Zhanye requests, Long Hongjian and the others rush over even before Long Zhanye yells for them to get up. Needless to say, none of them could sleep through that bone-chilling sound.

"What's happening? What was that sound just now? Is it zombies?" Long Hongjian frowns, clearly not expecting something like this to happen.

He knows what undead sounds like. Has heard more than his fair share from the numerous trips out of the safe zone. But the howl just now is too horrifying, very much unlike the low rumbling growl of the average zombie.

"It is zombies. A large swarm of them are heading in our direction. Little Yuan's barrier is our first line of defence. We cannot let them breach it or else we will be in for a lot of trouble tonight." Stuffing a machine gun in Long Hongjian and Ah Gong's hands, he gives the box of grenades to Ah Shou and picks up a sniper rifle for himself.

"What are you planning to do?" Long Hongjian asks as he swiftly snaps in a fully-loaded magazine and cocks the lever, resting the handguard on the balcony's railing.

Now he understands why his older cousin chose this two-storey house instead of the other high buildings in the vicinity. The front and back doors of this house are very close to the fences surrounding it, and the building itself is sitting directly in front of the main street. Although there is no escape route when faced with danger, if one can adequately defend this place, they will definitely not die here.

"That roar is definitely not from a common zombie. On top of that, it sounded like either a summoning or a command. The fact that this horde assembled together and are looking to lay siege to us is because they are being controlled. I want to find that evolved zombie and shoot it dead," Long Zhanye replies as he swiftly assembles the sniper rifle.

"But eldest brother Long, if you kill that zombie when it is in the middle of the horde, wouldn't your effort go to waste if other zombies eat the corpse of the evolved one?" An Mingxi questions as he assists Huo Zaiyuan in preparing a few other talismans for offence and defence.

Collecting crystals and burning corpses to prevent more evolved zombies from emerging is the main duty of every Taoist priest.

If the undead controlling these zombies is shot dead but not burned and is eaten by a few other common zombies, the common ones will then undergo evolution. When that happens, they will still be unable to escape this siege.

"Zhanye and I have already thought of a countermeasure earlier," Huo Zaiyuan says, taking out a steel box from the inner pocket of his camouflage jacket and handing it over to Long Zhanye.

"Are those bullets?" Having followed the gun-nut Long Hongjian for a while now, he has seen quite a few steel boxes like this use to hold ammunition.

"Un, special bullets. We can use this opportunity to test the results," Huo Zaiyuan answers, nodding.

Everyone present is rendered momentarily silent after hearing his words. Under this sort of circumstances, he dares to use his life to test experimental goods. Is this person too brazen or too cool-headed?

In fact, neither of these guesses are accurate. Huo Zaiyuan is not brazen, and definitely not too cool-headed. Having experienced death once before, he is more afraid of it than anyone else. Therefore, while he treasures his second chance, his faith in Long Zhanye is greater.

The case he handed over to Long Zhanye contains bullets soaked for a period of time in the Holy Nine Dragons Spring Pool’s water. Over that stretch of time, he can distinctly sense the metal slowly absorbing the spiritual energy from the water.

Thus, he speculates that if one can use the spring water as ink for talismans, the bullets that absorbed spiritual energy should have the same effect.

Although Long Zhanye doesn't understand how to utilise one's inner spiritual energy and inject in into inanimate objects, pure spiritual energy will not need prompting to eliminate evil energy when the two come into contact. So he decides to take a gamble. If he wins, everyone will be safe.

Slotting the bullets into the empty clip, Long Zhanye readies the sniper rifle just as the first of the undead army arrives. Huo Zaiyuan and An Mingxi activate the secondary protection array to reinforce the barrier around the garden in order to prevent the horde from breaching it. Aiming down the scope of their respective machine guns, Long Hongjian and Ah Gong spray into the crowd below. Being expert marksmen in the military, the two drop undead after undead with every squeeze of the trigger. But each fallen one is instantly replaced with another. Ah Shou tosses a couple of grenades over the balcony railing, contributing in eliminating handfuls with each explosion.

Under the intense attack from the several defenders in the balcony, a silhouette abruptly pounces out from amongst the horde, aiming for the humans up on the second floor. Standing off to the side in preparation of an event like this, Long Zhanye immediately raises the sniper rifle, bracing the butt against his shoulder, aim down the sight in one fluid motion and pulls the trigger.

A soft "pew" rings out. The figure freezes midair as golden flames burst from the bullet hole in its head, enveloping the corpse as it falls to the ground.

"The bullet is effective!" Huo Zaiyuan can't help exclaiming in exultation.

"Since it's effective, then let's amp up the intensity of our attack. I'll take any given openings to look for the evolved controlling this horde," Long Zhanye says.

Because the higher level zombies able to control ordinary undead have a little bit more intelligence, it will definitely not charge forward to its death. Only by rapidly reducing the number of ordinary zombies can they expose this evolved. Long Zhanye will only get one chance at picking it off.

The gunfire from the balcony raining down becomes more ferocious. Even Huo Zaiyuan eventually contributes to it by throwing out a few explosive talismans.

Zombies fall like flies, piling up against the barrier around the building. An Mingxi ignites a fire talisman, flinging it into the growing mound of bodies. As though doused in kerosene, the golden blaze spreads in a matter of seconds, illuminating a small patch of the sky above.

Ordinary zombies fear spiritual fire, therefore the surge of undead breaks before the golden flames, gradually dispersing. For the moment, the danger of the barrier being breached is averted.

Taking this opportunity, Huo Zaiyuan uses another two talismans to patch up any weakened areas. Eyes sweeping across the scattered group of undead still lingering below, he suddenly spots a zombie retreating far away from the fire, movements very much unlike the staggering gait of its other low-level kin.

"Zhanye! Over there! That one is the high-level zombie controlling the horde!"