CH 145

Chapter 145: Devil ants

The silver jian meets the zombie's attack, blade clashing with claws, momentarily allowing the three men to escape danger. Just when their feet settles firmly back on the ground, another two malicious-looking undead rushes out of the swamp, leaping towards them.

In unison, Long Zhanye and You Nuandong open fire at one undead each as Huo Zaiyuan throws up two protective screens to block the clawed strikes. The trio retreats steadily while keeping up the stream of bullets and barriers.

Although the speed of bullets spat out from rifles are extremely fast, these zombies are pretty swift too. Dodging to the left and right, twisting their bodies to evade, swiftly sidestepping at the last second. No matter how sharp a marksmen these two soldiers are, none of their shots hit their intended targets.

"Fuck!" It is extremely rare for this cool-headed individual to burst out cursing in frustration. "Don't bother trying to aim for the head!" Long Zhanye yells before continuing to pull the trigger.

This time, he scores three consecutive hits as the undead fails to dodge completely. One in the shoulder, the second at the waist and the third in the middle of its thigh. If these bullets were ordinary ones, perhaps the undead would have been able to shrug it off and charge again. With explosive rounds, however…a hole is blown in its left shoulder, right waist and right thigh, effectively crippling it. The zombie flops to the ground, struggling to crawl forward with its remaining arm and leg. A yellow paper drops on its back and it disappears in a blaze of golden fire.

The moment You Nuandong hears his Boss shouting not to bother aiming for the head, the right-hand man immediately shifts his aim downwards. The first bullet pierces his target's abdomen, the second in the thigh, the third and fourth missing their mark. Even so, the explosion from the first shot successfully rips the zombie horizontally in two.

Halting in their retreat as soon as both undead are dealt with, the three men turn to the final zombie currently locked in battle with Liu Ying. As this silver sword is a spirit in its alternate form, the blade possesses a large reservoir of pure, potent spiritual energy, making it extremely effective in dealing with demonic beings. Although the opponent is a Rank 3 undead, the jian isn't a flesh and blood being. Hence it is completely fearless, weaving and ducking craftily around its foe. In this short exchange, the undead is already sporting more than a few deep wounds, consequently allowing the humans to slay it easily.

Another three more crystals in hand, none of them dare to relax the slightest bit. Because according to the survivor's reports, there should be an undead capable of tearing through Taoist barriers and arrays lurking around this village. The zombies they have eliminated so far are mere Rank 3s.

This battle wasted quite a bit of time. Huo Zaiyuan must seal this poisonous swamp away before the runes on Long Zhanye and You Nuandong's bodies lose their effectiveness.

"Little Yuan." Long Zhanye reaches out to clasp his hand, expression solemn.

Seeing that grave look, Huo Zaiyuan is naturally aware of Long Zhanye's thoughts. Smiling faintly, he says, "Don't worry. Although this swamp is larger than the previous one, my inner reserve is now bigger than it was a few months ago. I will not exhaust all my power this time around."

When he first encountered the poisonous swamp, it was so sudden that he panicked. On top of that, he used up quite a bit of power during the battle with the demonic Banyan tree, resulting in him losing conscious after sealing the swamp. The present him, however, is still running on high reserves and a larger pool of energy. While this swamp may be bigger, it wouldn't exhaust him too much to seal it away.

"Un." Long Zhanye eventually consents, letting go of his hand.

Fingers of his right hand gesturing, the white jade brush appears mid-air, rising higher to the sky with a flick of his index finger. Placing his hands flat together in a prayer-like gesture before his chest, his mouth moves in a silent chant. Drawing on Huo Zaiyuan's inner energy, the Holy Dragon Bone Brush begins to move on its own, drawing rune after rune in the air.

A light step forward and the first layer of characters settle around the edges of the swamp. Mouth chanting unceasingly, the Eight Trigrams form and commences its slow rotation clockwise. Silver rays of light cut through the haze of purple evil energy and dance around the slim youth, replacing the gloomy and sinister atmosphere with one of serenity and warmth.

The sealing process advances smoothly. In a short while, Huo Zaiyuan has completed more than half, quickly reaching the tail end of the ritual.

Another rumble suddenly causes the swamp to bubble again, and a shadow pounces out of its murky depths towards Huo Zaiyuan. Razor-sharp claws slice through the silver light, bringing with it a chilly air.

With the sealing nearing completion, Huo Zaiyuan absolutely cannot stop. Or else everything will be in vain. Besides, abruptly breaking off the ritual before it is done will result in a severe backlash that will harm his body, something he wants to avoid even more than wasting his efforts.

The two men flanking Huo Zaiyuan react in an instant, firing at the shadow as soon as it is airborne. Half of the zombie's head disappears in a small bang. A shoulder is blown off, holes appearing in its chest and stomach. But it doesn't stop its frantic forward charge, determined to take the Taoist down…

A stream of silver light flickers forth, cleanly separating the undead's head from its neck just as Huo Zaiyuan sets down the last rune. Resplendent rays of light emit from the completed seal, finally scattering the last of the purple fog. Long Zhanye dashes forward, curls an arm around Huo Zaiyuan waist and drags him backwards. The headless corpse collapses heavily on the ground where Huo Zaiyuan stood a mere second ago in a pile of rotting flesh.

Huo Zaiyuan's face drains of colour as he stares at the mangled pile of flesh and bones. If Zhanye had not reacted so quickly and pulled him away in time, that would have ended up all over him. Just the thought alone is enough to make him shudder…

["Little Yuan, older brother Long, older brother You, be careful! The scanner is showing a large group of living beings coming towards you!!"] Li Qing's tense voice rings out.

They can't see anything moving on the monitors, but a large amount of red dots suddenly appeared on the scanner's screen. It's too peculiar.

At the same time Li Qing's warning comes, the headless zombie's corpse jerks. Then countless scarlet devil ants break forth from the rotting pile of flesh and surge forward.

"What…what is this?!"

"Run! Quickly run! Leave this place!!" Shoving the frozen You Nuandong to get him moving, Huo Zaiyuan yells, face hardening as his gaze tracks the huge wave of devil ants emerging from the soil around the sealed swamp.

Although You Nuandong doesn't know what's so scary about these tiny red ants, a single glance at Huo Zaiyuan's face is enough to suppress any further questions he has. Turning, he sprints towards the entrance of the village.

While Long Zhanye has never seen this type of ants before, he is aware that Huo Zaiyuan died under the mandibles of these insects in his previous life. Thus, he has a fair idea of how big a danger they are.

Throwing Huo Zaiyuan over a shoulder, Long Zhanye dashes back to where their armoured car is parked. From his present position, Huo Zaiyuan tosses explosive talismans into the swarm behind in order to slow the ants down. More than a few devil ants are sent flying, but it doesn't serve to hinder their mad pursuit. Instead, their speed seems to increase.

Even though Huo Zaiyuan has a lot of peach wood and yellow paper talismans, each one of them requires a bit of energy to activate. After tossing who knows how many explosives into the midst of the scarlet swarm, it is still insufficient. When his pool of energy is near exhaustion, it is Liu Ying to the rescue again, striking vengefully down in the middle of the ant wave. A small explosion blasts more insects into the air and the silver jian removes itself from the soil, slashing at the ants in front to help stop their rapid advance.

Carrying Huo Zaiyuan, Long Zhanye arrives first in front of the armoured car, with You Nuandong close on his heels. The side door of the vehicle opens immediately, the members within gazing out with worried expressions.

"All right, all right. Put me down!" Huo Zaiyuan signals the other to set him down by patting his shoulder.

Liu Ying is an incredibly powerful weapon, able to hold back the tide of ants. Although it will require quite a bit of energy for him to do this, Huo Zaiyuan must add another layer to the seal now that he realises the first layer cannot stop these ants from crawling up to the surface. If he doesn't do this, it will give rise to unending trouble in the future.

Long Zhanye sets Huo Zaiyuan back on his feet before gesturing to Zuo Hanyang to get in the driver's seat. This way, at the first sign of trouble, Long Zhanye can carry Huo Zaiyuan and jump into the car, and Zuo Hanyang can drive off immediately.

As everyone else takes up their optimal position, Huo Zaiyuan throws both hands out. Four wooden tiles appear and shoot off in different directions, hovering high above in the air. Once the tiles are in position and facing north, south, east and west, another nine tiles materialise.

Following his murmured incantations, silver light streaks out of the four tiles, creating a square. Immediately after, a nonagon forms as the nine tiles link together as well. Slowly, these two overlapping formations drift towards the centre of the village.

Huo Zaiyuan's palms glow silver, the scattered wisps of light gradually gathering into a single sphere. As everyone else is busy staring at the formation in the sky, no one notices the swarm of red ants covering every inch of the village ground suddenly burst into golden flames, leaving behind a huge pile of tiny red crystals.

Eventually, when the double formation in the sky aligns with the sealed swamp on the ground below, the complex sealing is thus completed. Quiet tranquillity finally settles in this fringe village.