2026-08-23 12:27:30"Open the gate, you bastards! Open it!" Wu Chen screamed at the top of his lungs, slamming his right hand against the cold iron bars of the gate.
Behind the sturdy iron bars, a group of wealthy merchants in luxurious silk robes screamed hysterically from behind a barricade of mounted soldiers. Their faces were twisted with disgusting fear. "Don't open it! Never open it!" shrieked a fat merchant with a thin mustache. "They're all plague carriers! If even one of those filth gets inside, our businesses in the Merchant District will be ruined! Lieutenant! Fire your arrows at all of them! Quickly!" "Yeah! Kill anyone who approaches the gate! Our lives are worth more than those plague-ridden rats!" another merchant shouted beside him, further inciting the soldiers. Wu Chen spat harshly onto the ground. "You fucking cowards! You're only brave enough to scream from behind an iron fence!" "B-Big Brother... they're... they're pointing their bows at us!" Xiao Yu cried, her voice trembling violently as she pointed toward the top of the gate wall. Atop the eight-meter-high gate watchtower, dozens of royal archers were already standing in orderly formation, their bowstrings drawn taut. Among them stood a middle-aged man wearing spotless, gleaming silver armor and a dark blue military cloak fluttering in the wind. Lieutenant Zhao. He was a mid-ranking military officer assigned to secure the barrier gate. Unlike the ordinary soldiers who were panicking, Zhao's eyes were unnervingly calm, sharp, and calculating. From atop the tower, he carefully observed every movement below, especially Wu Chen's tactical movements after he had just escaped the zombies with blood soaking his shoulder. "Interesting," Lieutenant Zhao murmured, the corner of his lips curling into a faint smile. "Lieutenant Zhao! Should we execute them all?" an officer beside him asked, preparing to give the order to the archers. "Of course. The imperial order is absolute: eliminate them without leaving a trace to prevent the infection from spreading into the Merchant District," Lieutenant Zhao replied in an eerily calm yet cold voice. "But look at that young man in the torn shirt down there. He's fighting without functioning meridians, yet his movements... are extremely efficient. He isn't panicking. He's using the ruins to restrict the monsters' movements." "Could he be a cultivator in disguise, Lieutenant?" "Perhaps. He could be a valuable subject for experimentation... or a dangerous variable that must be eliminated immediately," Lieutenant Zhao muttered, his eyes narrowing viciously. "Soldiers! Don't let him get near the gate. Fire at him now!" "Yes, Lieutenant! Archers, aim!" the officer shouted. Whoosh! The bowstrings were released simultaneously. Hundreds of arrows streaked down from the night sky like a deadly rain of iron thorns, targeting everyone standing before the dead-end gate. "Watch out, Xiao Yu! Hide under that cart!" Wu Chen shouted, immediately shoving Xiao Yu's small body beneath an abandoned wooden merchant cart near the gate. Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! The arrows slammed into the muddy ground and pierced the bodies of dozens of refugees who had failed to escape in time. Cries of pain and mournful screams once again erupted across the gate square. At the same time, more than a dozen hungry zombies began advancing from the alley, ready to claw at Wu Chen's exposed back. "Damn it! They're trying to kill me from both sides?!" Wu Chen cursed furiously. A zombie with glowing red eyes suddenly lunged at him from the side. Wu Chen did not dodge. Ignoring the excruciating pain throbbing through his injured left shoulder, he surged forward and seized both of the zombie's wrists. With a rough jerk combined with an old mafia throwing technique, Wu Chen twisted the zombie's body and hoisted it over his head. "Come on, you filthy bastard! Be my shield!" Wu Chen roared, his eyes gleaming with ruthless determination. Thud! Thud! Thud! Three arrows fired from the tower struck the back of the zombie Wu Chen was using as a human shield. The stench of black blood burst into the air, but Wu Chen did not care in the slightest. He carried out the brutal act without hesitation, driven purely by his determination to survive. "B-Big Brother... he... he's using it as a shield?" Xiao Yu murmured from beneath the cart, staring in horror at Wu Chen standing firmly in the middle of the arrow storm, gripping the zombie's corpse. "Shut up! At a time like this, there's no difference between a corpse and a shield!" Wu Chen snapped harshly, breathing heavily. "Do you want to live or die?!" From atop the watchtower, Lieutenant Zhao frowned as he watched the brutal scene unfold. "He's using a monster's corpse as a flesh shield without the slightest hesitation," Lieutenant Zhao murmured, his eyes flashing with interest and heightened caution. "That young man truly has no moral empathy. He acts purely on a cold survival instinct. Someone like that... is far too dangerous to be allowed to live." "Lieutenant! The zombie horde from the main alley is getting larger! They're beginning to pile up in front of the gate!" a soldier reported in panic. "Enough watching the show." Lieutenant Zhao casually waved his hand. "Clear the area beneath the gate. We don't have time to play around anymore." "Prepare the kerosene!" the officer ordered. Several soldiers atop the gate wall immediately began hauling large barrels filled with thick, black liquid that reeked of an overpowering stench. They tilted the barrels, preparing to pour the contents down beneath the gate. "Oil?" Wu Chen, who was holding a second zombie as a shield, immediately realized the new danger from above. The pungent smell of kerosene grew stronger as it carried through the night wind. "Damn it... they're going to burn all of us alive?!" Lieutenant Zhao stepped toward the edge of the tower, gazing down at Wu Chen with an extremely faint, cold smile. He took a burning torch from the tower wall. "Burn them all to ash," Lieutenant Zhao ordered coldly, then prepared to throw the flaming torch down onto the ground beneath the gate, already soaked in kerosene.
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Ch 84. The Undead King
The sight was enough to freeze the blood of anyone on the battlefield who still possessed a shred of sanity.Through the billowing dust and smoke left behind by the earlier explosion, Wei Kang strode forward with absolute arrogance. The First Mutant was no ordinary oversized zombie. He was the apocalypse given breath and flesh.Standing over five meters tall, he towered above the battlefield, blocking out the light of dawn. His entire body was covered in swollen, necrotic muscles as hard as solid steel, while clusters of dark purple meridian spikes protruded from his flesh, pulsing continuously as they radiated a poisonous aura.Every time his massive feet struck the ground, the earth before the South Gate of the Core City shook violently."Dear God... What kind of monster is that?" San whispered, his knees trembling so violently that he nearly dropped his machete. "Boss, that's no ordinary mutant! It's as tall as the gate walls!""Shut up, San! Keep a firm grip on your weapon!" Wu Ch
Ch 83. The Last Shield Wall
The blood-red dawn illuminated the endless sea of death stretching across Lantern Sector. Beneath the shadow of the Inner City's colossal steel Southern Gate, thousands of regular Tingzhao soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder in a tight phalanx formation. Together, they formed a massive wall of interlocking steel shields, with thousands of long spears jutting outward like a deadly forest of thorns.Atop an emergency command tower assembled from wooden beams and stone in the center of the formation, General Han Rui stood rigidly in his black armor, already soaked with dew and blood. His sharp eyes caught sight of the ragged troops emerging from the drainage trench on the left flank.The general gave Wu Chen a stiff nod. A silent acknowledgment of their tactical alliance.“We take the left flank!” Wu Chen roared, driving his wooden cane into the mud. “That area has the thinnest defenses! If the left flank breaks, Han Rui's shield formation will be rolled up from the side!”“Understood, B
Ch 82. The War Drums of Lantern Sector
Filthy dust rained down from the stone ceiling of the water prison, settling on the shoulders of refugees huddled together in terror.Thud. Thud. Thud.The sound was no ordinary earthquake. It was the synchronized march of tens of thousands of living dead advancing across the surface of Lantern Sector, directly above their heads. The vibrations were so powerful that puddles on the stone floor rippled violently, while the walls of the water prison groaned as though they were about to collapse.“An apocalypse... This is a goddamn apocalypse!” one of the clan's young men wailed, clutching his trembling head. “There’s no end to those monsters! The ceiling could cave in at any moment!”“Doctor, what are we supposed to do?! My baby won’t stop crying because of that noise!” a woman screamed, clutching her infant with a deathly pale face.Mass panic began spreading like a deadly poison throughout the underground stronghold. A dozen clan loyalists who had been standing at attention moments ear
Ch 81. The Giant Shadow Behind the Fog
The night sky above the Lantern Sector looked as though it were bleeding. Fiery red and sickly green light from the exploding lantern oil facility billowed high into the sky, driving back the thick storm clouds and casting a flickering glow across the muddy pools below.The tremors from the explosion had not yet fully subsided. The air still vibrated with residual force. But amid the swirling dust, an incredibly deep and deafening roar tore through the silence of the night.HRAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!The sound was nothing like a human or an ordinary zombie.Its frequency was ancient, savage, and filled with such overwhelming dominance that it seemed capable of paralyzing reason itself.Wu Chen, who had only just dragged himself out of the muddy lake, froze where he stood. His dragon cane slipped from his hand. His left hand clutched his chest, which was covered by mutated leather armor. His heart pounded wildly, sending sharp waves of pain through him as the remnants of the Primordial Ser
Ch 80. The Birth of the Monster King
“Cough! Cough! Gahk!”Murky lake water mixed with thick mud surged from Wu Chen’s throat. The former mafia king crawled with great difficulty through the icy shallows toward the shore. His trembling fingers clawed into the roots of dead mangrove trees, dragging his battered body out of the filthy water.His breathing came in harsh, ragged gasps, painfully loud in the middle of the night. His left leg, still stiff from the lingering paralysis, dragged helplessly through the mud.Behind him, Jiao, San, and three other clan loyalists crawled onto dry land. They coughed violently, vomiting up lake water and the remnants of the acidic gas they had inhaled. Their clothes were torn to shreds, their bodies covered in horrific burns and bruises.But they had made it out alive.“Boss... we made it, Boss,” Jiao groaned, collapsing onto his back in the wild grass, his chest heaving. Tears of relief streamed down his soot-streaked face. “We really made it out of hell.”Wu Chen did not answer. With
Ch 79. Escaping Through the Eye of a Needle
“Everyone, run for the drainage chute!”Wu Chen’s roar thundered through the facility, tearing through the shrill decompression alarms screaming throughout the steel corridors.The floor beneath their boots shook violently, as if struck by a tectonic earthquake. The reactor engines in the chamber behind them, already beginning to overload, sounded like metal being ripped apart by invisible blades. Blood-red emergency lights flashed aggressively, illuminating the absolute panic that had seized the hellish facility.Jiao, San, and the remaining clan loyalists stationed at the intersection immediately ran after Wu Chen. Their faces were deathly pale, covered in cold sweat and soot.“Boss! Is the reactor really about to blow?!” Jiao shouted between ragged breaths as he ran alongside Wu Chen.“We’ve got less than a minute before this place turns into an ash crater! Keep running. Nobody stops to catch their breath!” Wu Chen roared.The left side of his chest, now covered in mutated black ar
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