A loud explosion shook the village.
The shield shattered.
The alien flew across the open ground and crashed into the mud wall surrounding the village.
The wall collapsed on top of him.
Lu Zhen looked at his fist.
"Twenty percent suppression is not enough."
A laugh came from beneath the debris.
The alien commander stood.
Part of his armour had cracked, but he did not seem seriously injured.
"You are also stronger than recorded."
"Again, thank you."
The commander stopped smiling.
His armour opened along the back.
Four thin metallic limbs emerged and stabbed into the ground.
The suppression field became stronger.
Leng Pan felt her connection with the water molecules around her weaken.
Lu Hao’s lightning flickered.
Silk’s threads became thinner.
Even Lu Zhen’s flames lost some of their intensity.
The aliens immediately gained the advantage.
One soldier fired towards Ouyang Jin.
He moved aside, but the beam grazed his shoulder and burned through his protective clothing.
Another soldier tried to enter the house where the villagers were hiding.
Shade lunged from the doorway.
The wolf struck the alien’s chest and pushed him backwards.
Its claws scraped across the silver armour but did not break through.
The soldier raised his weapon.
Shade disappeared before he could fire.
It reappeared behind him and bit the gap between his helmet and armour.
The soldier screamed.
"Good boy!" Lu Tao shouted from inside the house.
Shade threw the alien against a wall.
The alien commander glanced towards the houses.
"Secondary organisms detected."
"Begin collection."
The soldiers changed their formation.
Half continued fighting while the others moved towards the villagers.
Leng Pan’s expression cooled.
"They are not taking anyone."
She reached into her space and absorbed several crystal cores.
The new energy entered her body.
Her mist thickened again, pushing against the suppression field.
The alien commander looked surprised.
"That should not be possible."
"Your information seems outdated."
Leng Pan gathered water from the underground stream, the well, and the moisture in the air.
A wave rose behind her.
It did not spread across the whole village. Instead, it separated into narrow streams that moved between the houses.
Each stream wrapped around an alien soldier.
The water hardened, trapping them inside transparent spheres.
The soldiers fired their weapons, but the beams could not break through.
Lu Zhen released a flame towards each sphere.
The water did not extinguish it.
Instead, steam filled the prisons.
The soldiers’ armour could block energy attacks, but it could not protect them from the heat building inside.
One by one, they collapsed.
Leng Pan released the spheres before their equipment could be damaged.
Ouyang Jin and Blaze immediately collected their weapons.
The alien commander stared at his fallen soldiers.
"You combined opposing elements."
"Did your records forget that too?"
The commander raised both hands.
The suppression field reached its maximum strength.
Leng Pan’s water fell to the ground.
Lu Zhen’s flames disappeared.
For several seconds, every ability in the village stopped working.
Chief Gao’s mist barrier vanished.
He looked around in shock before turning to run.
Old Chen stepped out from the nearest house and struck him with a wooden stool.
Chief Gao fell face-first into the dirt.
"You are not going anywhere," Old Chen said.
Chief Gao groaned.
The alien commander smiled.
"Now you are ordinary humans."
Lu Zhen flexed his fingers.
"Do you think I need fire to beat you?"
His physical strength had improved alongside his superpower.
Even without his flames, he was far from ordinary.
He rushed forward.
Ouyang Jin, Blaze, Sonny, and Vanish followed him.
The alien soldiers had relied too heavily on their armour and energy weapons.
In close combat, they could not match people who had fought zombies and mutated creatures almost every day for more than a year.
Lu Zhen grabbed one soldier’s arm and twisted it.
The weapon fell.
He used the soldier as a shield when another alien fired.
The beam struck the silver armour and sent both of them backwards.
Lu Zhen landed on his feet.
The alien did not.
Nearby, Ouyang Jin attacked the gaps between the armour plates.
Sonny moved through the battlefield so quietly that the aliens often noticed him only after he had already struck.
Vanish could not become invisible, but he still knew how to fight.
He ducked beneath an alien’s arm and drove his blade into the exposed section behind its knee.
The younger members watched from the houses.
They wanted to join, but protecting the villagers remained more important.
Leng Pan looked at Little Vine.
The suppression field had affected it, but not completely.
Little Vine was a living creature rather than a pure ability.
It had returned to bracelet form, but it could still move.
"Can you reach the four metal limbs behind that commander?"
Little Vine slid down her arm.
It travelled across the ground, hiding beneath broken stones.
The alien commander was too focused on Lu Zhen to notice it.
Little Vine reached the first metallic limb.
It wrapped around the base and pulled.
Nothing happened.
The vine added more tendrils.
The metal creaked.
The commander turned, but he was too late.
The first limb broke.
The suppression field flickered.
Leng Pan felt a small part of her ability return.
Little Vine moved to the second limb.
The commander tried to kick it away.
A fireball struck his chest.
The flames were weak, but they gave Little Vine enough time.
The second limb snapped.
Half the suppression disappeared.
Lu Hao released lightning.
It struck the third limb and overloaded it.
The final one retracted into the commander’s armour.
Abilities returned throughout the village.
Lu Zhen’s flames surrounded his hands again.
He smiled.
"That trick was useful."
The alien commander stepped backwards.
For the first time, uncertainty appeared on his face.
"You cannot keep the purification core," he said.
"You came all this way for a stone?" Leng Pan asked.
"It does not belong to humans."
"It fell on our planet."
"It was sent here for the experiment."
Leng Pan’s gaze changed.
The blue crystal had not arrived by accident.
The aliens had deliberately sent it to Blue Star.
"What about the other meteorites?" she asked. "Did you send those too?"
The commander did not answer.
The large aircraft above them began descending.
Its lower hatch opened.
A beam of white light surrounded the commander.
"He is trying to escape!" Lu Tao shouted.
Lu Zhen released a wall of fire above him.
The white beam flickered but did not disappear.
The alien commander’s body began rising.
Leng Pan formed a water whip and wrapped it around his ankle.
"You haven’t answered my question."
The commander looked down at her.
"You will find the answer in Tayi City."
"What’s in Tayi City?"
The alien smiled.
"Your future."
A blast came from the aircraft.
Leng Pan’s water whip broke.
The commander shot into the air and disappeared through the hatch.
The remaining aliens tried to follow, but Lu Zhen blocked their escape.
Only the largest aircraft rose.
The other two remained in the air without pilots.
The silver craft turned towards Tayi City.
Before it could disappear, a blue light flashed from its side.
A holographic image appeared above the village.
It showed a map.
Several red points were scattered across the country. One was marked at the village, while a much larger cluster appeared beneath Tayi City.
Another image replaced the map.
Thousands of zombies stood inside an underground facility.
None moved.
They were waiting.
At the centre of the horde stood several human figures wearing military uniforms.
The image vanished.
The aircraft shot towards the horizon.
Silence fell over the village.
Lu Tao stepped outside and looked at the two abandoned aircraft still hovering above them.
"Does anyone know how to land those?"
Everyone looked at him.
"What?" he asked. "We agreed not to destroy all of them."
Leng Pan turned towards the direction of Tayi City.
The alien commander had escaped, but he had left them with more questions.
The most urgent one was why humans in military uniforms were standing beside an alien-controlled zombie army.
Then one of the captured alien weapons activated on its own.
A mechanical voice came from it.
[Experiment site compromised.]
[All nearby units redirect to Tayi City.]
[Army deployment will begin in seventy-two hours.]
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter