Was it intentional bait?Lu Yin narrowed his eyes, hoping he was just overthinking it.
After the incident with Kang Dafeng, everyone was on edge.
A day later, the convoy stopped beside an abandoned toll station. Their mission began—the route had been damaged and needed repair.
"Report! A battle has been detected five li away. Five evolvers are under siege by mutant beasts," a soldier reported.
Lu Yin ordered a rescue.
Half an hour later, the five evolvers were brought back. They were all men, each looking utterly disheveled, clothes in tatters, and clearly starving.
Lu Yin didn't have anyone offer them food. If they dared venture into the wilderness to hunt mutant beasts, they needed to be prepared to die. Lu Yin wasn't a saint, and the military's food wasn't free. Worst-case scenario, there were plenty of mutant rats around—they could eat those.
The five evolvers were quarantined outside the toll station, their eyes fixed hungrily on the military's supplies. Not long after, one of them asked to see Lu Yin.
Lu Yin stood on the roof of the toll station, surveying the surroundings.
Below, the evolver looked pale and haggard. "Sir, could you please spare us some food? We can trade it for information."
Lu Yin looked at the man. "Speak."
"If I tell you, will you give us food?" the evolver asked hopefully.
Lu Yin's voice turned cold. "Are you bargaining with me?"
The evolver's expression changed, fear overtaking him. "No, no!" he said hastily. He swallowed, his throat dry, then continued, "We actually brought enough food when we set out, but yesterday it was stolen—by a sky-level powerhouse in a silver-white battle suit."
Lu Yin's eyes flickered. "Go on."
The evolver swallowed again. "As far as we know, the only sky-level powerhouse around Jinling is Lord Xing Sheng Zhoushan. But that person could fly—probably because of that suit. After robbing us, he seemed about to kill us to silence us. But then he started mumbling like a lunatic and flew east, looking excited."
Lu Yin knew they had run into Orton. Mumbling to himself? That was likely a personal terminal link—was he in contact with other landed students? That would be bad. It was already impressive that Zhoushan managed to fend off Orton; if more students intervened, Zhoushan might not hold out.
"Give them some food," Lu Yin ordered, then sat down and looked up at the starry sky.
What exactly was he worried about? Jinling? The survivors? In the end, he was still an outsider—not a native of Earth. Truthfully, he was no different from people like Yasta. But living on Earth had gradually made him accept this new identity.
He only had two and a half years of memory. Everything before that was blank. And most of those two and a half years were spent on Earth. Earth… could be considered his home.
Lu Yin took a deep breath. Unfortunately, he wasn't strong enough to save Earth. But within his limits, he could save some people.
With that thought, he connected to Zhoushan's communicator and shared his suspicions about Orton.
Zhoushan replied gravely, "Understood. Repair the line as fast as possible. I need to know what happened to the others—those students are not simple."
Lu Yin disconnected. The others? The other Six Saints?
"Hope Liu Shaoge doesn't die. Otherwise… who am I supposed to take revenge on?" Lu Yin murmured coldly.
That night, the sky was covered with dark clouds—no stars in sight.
Lu Yin was a little disappointed and slept inside the armored vehicle.
In the middle of the night, a loud cry woke everyone.
"Boss! Corpse tide! A corpse tide's coming!" Xu San shouted urgently.
Lu Yin stepped out of the armored vehicle and leapt onto the toll station roof. Looking out, he saw the dark earth swarming with zombies from all directions.
"All units, activate defenses! Light up the fire and throw it out!" Luo Yun shouted.
Soon, the corpse tide surged toward the toll station. The ground blazed as flaming objects were hurled outward, igniting the land. Flames roared and a wave of heat swept over them.
"Be careful! Don't let the fire near the toll station, or you'll all burn!" Luo Yun shouted.
Machine guns roared in every direction, shattering the night's silence with a thunderous racket.
Nearly ten thousand soldiers were slaughtering zombies on the outermost perimeter. Machine gun bullets were spent, leaving only steel blades. From time to time, a soldier would be scratched or even dragged into the zombie horde, vanishing in an instant. The five rescued Evolvers watched in horror—this was real military combat, far bloodier than they had ever imagined.
Luo Yun wielded her steel blade. As an Earth-level Evolver, her power was far beyond that of ordinary Evolvers. Each swing of her blade unleashed a fierce energy that could tear through over a dozen zombies. Though timid in nature, she was fierce in battle.
Lu Yin also charged into the horde, swinging his iron rod, each strike clearing out swaths of zombies.
The best way to handle this kind of corpse tide was actually with thermal weapons. Unfortunately, Jinling had too few remaining weapons. If the armories hadn't been destroyed, waves of missiles could have wiped out countless zombies.
As Lu Yin slaughtered zombies, the walkie-talkie on his waist crackled with a panicked voice: "Boss, the southwest is about to collapse!"
Startled, Lu Yin leaped into the air, stepping on the zombies' heads as he rushed toward the southwest. Sure enough, countless soldiers there were being massacred. What was going on?
"Boss, there's a strange zombie over there—it's strong! Even a Human-level captain couldn't stop it," reported Xu San, who had been observing from a high vantage point.
Lu Yin landed, aimed at the junction of soldiers and zombies, and slashed down with his iron rod. A visible slash tore through the air, ripping open the ground and killing dozens of zombies in one blow. A clear dividing line formed on the ground.
Inside the line, countless soldiers retreated, staring ahead in fear. Moments ago, more than fifty of them had died.
Clang! Lu Yin's iron rod broke in half.
With his growing strength, the rod could no longer withstand his power.
"Centurion, watch out!" someone cried.
From all around, waves of zombies surged forth—uncountable in number, at least a hundred thousand, covering the mountains and fields.
Lu Yin activated his Heavenly Star Technique, and the star energy exploded in a shockwave around him. Within a ten-meter radius, no zombies could approach—all were forced back. Only one long-haired zombie withstood the energy blast, standing firmly on the ground and glaring at Lu Yin.
"Boss, that's him! He's killed a lot of our soldiers!" Xu San's voice came through the walkie-talkie.
Lu Yin stared at the zombie in astonishment. This was no ordinary zombie—it had intelligence.
A zombie developing intelligence was unheard of, yet it was happening now.
The long-haired zombie stood just two meters away, and its crimson eyes didn't look vacant—they looked calculating. It was thinking.
Before Lu Yin could ponder further, the long-haired zombie suddenly charged, claws reaching for him.
Lu Yin dodged, the claw wind slicing through zombies ten meters away.
Earth-level strength, far beyond Kang Dafeng and Luo Yun, on par with Zhao Yu.
Lu Yin focused on the zombie's attack pattern—it had structure. Chaotic, yet tight and precise. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he'd never believe this was a zombie attacking him.
After several failed attacks, the zombie let out a low growl and suddenly turned to flee.
Lu Yin's eyes narrowed at the white thread on its back—was that spider silk? Suddenly, he recalled his earlier guess—it was this zombie that lured Kang Dafeng into the building. This zombie definitely had intelligence.
There was no time to think. Lu Yin hurled the broken iron rod with all his might. It pierced the air and stabbed into the long-haired zombie's abdomen.
The zombie roared, turned back to glare at Lu Yin, and then fled southward.
Around them, the zombie horde suddenly roared in frenzy, blocking Lu Yin's path as if driven by instinct.
Lu Yin shouted, "Xu San, give me its location!"
Xu San responded through the walkie-talkie, "Boss, it just turned a hundred meters out—headed west, back the way we came!"
Lu Yin tensed his leg muscles and vanished on the spot. A moment later, a faint afterimage was swallowed by the horde.
Xu San watched in shock. Is that a combat technique? Incredible.
Lu Yin charged at full speed, breaking through the horde and pursuing down the road they had traveled. But there was no trace of the long-haired zombie.
"Boss, I can't see it anymore," Xu San said.
Lu Yin stopped and turned his back to the toll station. He took out his personal terminal and scanned for combat power. Signals flickered continuously—mostly nearby mutant beasts—but one stood out. Its combat power was 990, reaching the peak of the Earth-level. It had to be that long-haired zombie.
Following the direction indicated by the terminal, Lu Yin chased after it. As long as he killed that zombie, the corpse tide should end. If his guess was right, that zombie was a Corpse King—it was the one commanding the horde, and the one targeting his army. Kang Dafeng had been its first victim.