“No—!!!”
“Zombie outbreak! The Command Center has a zombie outbreak!”
“Protect the Commander! Protect Lord Chu Hang!”
The deathly silence was utterly shattered! Desperate screams! Terrified roars! The click-clack of firearms being cocked! Instantly filled the entire Command Center! Order… completely collapsed!
The white holy light of Rule Judgment… like a flame thrown into a muddy swamp… intensely… fluctuated! The light instantly dimmed!
The rule will that purifies everything… upon encountering the source of pollution, which permeated the Command Center's interior, also originated from dragon blood, and was even more violent due to its close-range explosion… not only failed to purify it… but instead… was like being doused with gasoline!
The reverse scale pendant was also a rule-type spiritual artifact, but its tier was as high as Tier 7, while Chu Hang had only just broken through the Spirit Awakening Tier (Tier 1) and barely reached the Energy Condensation Tier.
“Roar—!!!”
“Ugh ah—!!!”
One after another, miserable howls and roars erupted! Two more staff members close to the infection source convulsed violently! Their skin turned ashen! Bloodlust gleamed in their eyes! They instantly transformed into zombies! Madly pouncing on their companions!
Chaos! Like a plague… in the fortress’s core brain… instantly erupted!
“Damn it!” Qin Weiguo's eyes were bloodshot! He suddenly drew the pistol from his waist! His movements were as fast as lightning!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three crisp gunshots! Incredibly precise! Three bullets, carrying scorching airflow, instantly pierced through the heads of three zombies that had just transformed! Red and white matter exploded! The corpses crashed to the ground!
But… more chaos spread! Panic infected like a virus! Staff members screamed and scattered, pushing each other! They knocked over control panels! Instrument alarms shrieked even more frantically!
The pure white rule power at Chu Hang's fingertips… like a flickering candle in the wind… swayed violently! His pupils beneath his mask… suddenly contracted! An indescribable… backlash force! Like a cold, poisonous needle! Sharply pierced his spiritual core!
The rule… was contaminated!
The rule power he attempted to use to purify the plague… upon contact with the violent dragon blood pollution source… not only was ineffective… but was instead… reverse-corroded by the trace of will contained within the pollution source!
Like the most vicious curse! Following the connection of the rule power… it fiercely backfired!
“Pfft—!”
Chu Hang's body trembled violently! Under his mask… a trickle of dark red blood… uncontrollably… overflowed from the corner of his mouth! Dripping onto the front of his pure white uniform! Like a strange plum blossom… blooming on snow!
The white holy light at his fingertips… instantly extinguished!
Rule Judgment… failed!
“Chu Hang!” Qin Weiguo saw blood spilling from Chu Hang’s mouth, and a hint of horror flashed in his eyes! Even the rules… had failed?!
“Lock down the Command Center! Everyone! Don’t move! Disobeyers… will be killed without mercy!” Qin Weiguo roared sternly! His voice carried the iron-blooded Commander’s resolve! The muzzle of his gun coldly swept over the chaotic crowd.
“Medics! Immediately conduct blood tests on everyone! Discover any infected… and execute them on the spot!”
The cold muzzles and Qin Weiguo’s murderous gaze temporarily suppressed the chaos. But panic… like palpable frost… froze everyone’s hearts.
The Command Center… the brain of this fortress… was already… infected!
Outside the special isolation ward.
The thick alloy door groaned under the violent impacts, unable to bear the strain!
Deep claw marks and dents, like hideous scars, covered the door! Outside… over a dozen rampaging zombies, contaminated by dragon blood, their crimson eyes burning with a mad craving for pure life essence, tirelessly slammed and clawed!
Each impact made the door tremble violently!
Each clawing brought forth an ear-piercing metallic screech and… flying sparks!
Inside the door.
Chen Xue leaned against the cold alloy door, her slender body trembling constantly from the immense impact. Her face was ashen, and sweat soaked the hair on her forehead, clinging to her skin.
She bit her lower lip so hard that it bled, yet she didn't seem to notice. Her
In her palms, a soft silver light, like a burning flame of life, furiously gushed forth! Forming a thin, silver shield in front of her, rippling violently like water waves!
The shield’s light flickered erratically under the zombies’ frenzied assault, like a candle in a storm!
With each impact, the shield fluctuated violently, its light dimming a little! Chen Xue’s body also trembled intensely, and blood constantly overflowed from the corners of her mouth! Her mental energy and ability… were being rapidly drained! Overdrawn!
“Get away! Get away!”
Chen Xue let out a crying roar, but her voice was drowned out by the zombies' roars and impacts outside the door.
She looked back at Ling Chen, who was still “unconscious” on the hospital bed, her eyes filled with despair and… a nearly obsessive determination!
“Ling Chen… don’t be afraid… I will… hold on…” She murmured, her voice weak but carrying an undeniable resolve. The silver light shield glowed again! Forcefully withstanding another violent Impact!
The cost was… she suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood! Her body slumped softly along the door, sliding to the ground!
The silver light shield… instantly dimmed to the point of almost extinguishing!
Overuse of her ability led to a backlash.
The zombies outside seemed to sense the shield's weakening! Their impacts became even more frenzied! The alloy door emitted a grating, twisting sound! At the lock… it had already begun to deform!
On the hospital bed.
Beneath Ling Chen’s “tightly shut” eyelids, the Soul Jade Physique’s cold will, like an invisible radar, scanned Chen Xue’s near-collapse state outside the door and… the violent energy fluctuations of the zombies outside the door.
Hmm, this state of being unable to act is sufficient.
His thoughts stirred slightly. An extremely subtle, yet absolutely commanding will fluctuation, like an invisible thread, instantly penetrated the door and connected to the soul cores of the dozen or so rampaging zombies outside!
Forced command:
Stop attacking the ward!
Turn! Attack… the approaching… Medical Center zombie horde… at the end of the corridor!
Command issued!
The violent impacts outside the door… instantly ceased!
The dozen or so crimson-eyed zombies suddenly froze! They were like statues, maintaining their attacking or clawing poses, completely motionless!
In their crimson eyes, the mad, bloodthirsty gleam was instantly replaced by a… deep-seated, irresistible… fear and… absolute obedience!
The next second!
“Roar—!!!”
They suddenly turned around! Abandoning the “delicious” prey that was so close!
Their crimson eyes fixed on the end of the corridor! There… a larger, more chaotic zombie aura… was surging like a tide! That was the zombie horde that had rushed out of the Medical Center!
The dozen or so zombies controlled by Ling Chen, like the most loyal guards, let out deafening roars! With a furious momentum! They charged forward! Instantly colliding fiercely with the surging zombie horde!
Pfft! Crack! Hiss—!!!
The sound of bones shattering! The sound of flesh tearing! The sound of mad roaring! Instantly erupted in the corridor! A bloody civil war… between zombies! Suddenly broke out!
Inside the door.
Chen Xue slumped by the door, breathing heavily, blood still on her lips. She looked blankly at the door that had suddenly stopped being impacted, listening to the even more intense but oppositely directed sounds of fighting from outside, her eyes filled with unbelievable… confusion and… a hint of dazedness… after surviving a catastrophe.
“Wha… what’s going on?” She murmured weakly.
On the hospital bed. Ling Chen was still “unconscious.”
Only the cold will of the Soul Jade Physique knew that the sudden zombie infighting outside the door was merely a bloody drama… he had orchestrated with a flick of his finger.
To… preserve this chess piece.
Lower Level of the Fortress · D-Zone Soldier Dormitory.
Here… had completely become a bloody slaughterhouse!
A suffocatingly strong smell of blood mixed with the stench of corpses, forming a nauseating, almost palpable, viscous aura.
On the ground, viscous blood mixed with shattered organs and brain matter, pooling into dark red puddles. On the walls and ceiling, splattered blood and minced flesh.
Hundreds of soldiers who had just finished their shifts, caught off guard, now… most of them had turned into… hideous zombies!
Their skin was ashen, covered with rough cuticles, their eyes crimson, and their fangs exposed! In the narrow passages and dormitories, they frantically pounced on and tore at… their comrades who had not yet been infected, or were in the process of mutating!
“Ugh ah—!! Help!”
“Shoot! Shoot! Kill them!”
“No! Don’t bite me! Ah—!”
Screams, wails, gunshots, zombie roars, the sound of bones shattering… intertwined into a mad and desperate symphony of death! Limbs and severed arms flew everywhere! Intestines and internal organs dragged across the floor!
The entire dormitory area… was like it had been thrown into a meat grinder!
Even more terrifying was… these zombies contaminated by dragon qi! Their
Their strength, speed, and defense… far surpassed ordinary zombies! Ordinary bullets striking them, unless they were precise headshots, would only leave shallow bullet holes and were utterly unable to stop their frenzied advance!
They even… exhibited some… bizarre characteristics!
One zombie was hit in the chest by several bullets, staggering backward, but from the wound… not much blood flowed out, instead… a grayish-white, bone-like substance quickly solidified!
Its aura… even grew a little stronger!
Another zombie was thrown by the impact of a grenade explosion, crashing heavily against the wall! But it shook its head, and its broken bone spurs actually regrew at a visible speed… becoming even sharper!
“They… they’re evolving?! They can’t be killed?!”
An old soldier, who had luckily hidden behind an overturned iron bed, looked at the nightmarish scene before him, his eyes filled with desperate fear!
“The mutant’s blood, there’s mutant’s blood in the water!”
A soldier whose arm had been bitten, was convulsing violently, and whose skin was starting to turn ashen, seemed to remember something and let out a shrill roar.
“Drinking the water…will…turn…into…a…monster…” His voice cut off abruptly! His pupils were completely covered in crimson! He lunged at his terrified companion!
Panic…spread like a plague! Despair…choked the throats of every survivor!
Panshi Fortress, Underground Seventh Floor, Central Water Purification Hub.
Beneath the massive alloy dome, it was…as silent as a tomb.
The purification equipment, which had been roaring, had long since stopped working. The thick pipes hung like stiff, dead pythons, cold and lifeless. The air was filled with a strong smell of ozone, blood, and a…heart-pounding…energy fluctuation, like the low growl of a dragon.
Inside the control room.
Several technicians in white uniforms…had become corpses. They lay in front of the control console, their deaths gruesome!
On the holographic screen, the waterfall of water quality monitoring data had turned into a blinding blood-red! PH value: Strong acid! Turbidity: Off the charts! Residual chlorine content: 0! Heavy metal ion concentration: 1000 times over! Microbial indicators: Unknown lethal pathogen! Pollutant source concentration: Continuously soaring! Dragon energy signature: Confirmed!
In the core area of the water purification hub—within the Central Purification Reactor, which resembled a giant heart.
In the viscous, turbid, foul-smelling wastewater…countless dark red, living-like micro-particles…were frantically…proliferating! Squirming! Converging!
“Chen Xue.”
Inside the special care ward, Ling Chen suddenly opened his eyes, a faint smile on his face.
“Do you know about dragons?”
Chen Xue was startled. She didn’t understand why Ling Chen had suddenly woken up to ask her this question, and Ling Chen didn’t seem to expect her to answer.
“Dragons, by nature, are stubborn and irritable creatures. In fact, with even a trace of vitality, they will expand wildly, ultimately…reborn.”
Ling Chen said with a smile, as if welcoming a grand resurrection ceremony, and he was like a 13th-century vampire duke, raising a goblet full of blood to salute the reborn in the coffin.
Inside the water purification hub, they absorbed energy from the wastewater! Devouring residual organic matter! Even…merging and devouring each other! Forming larger, tumor-like dark red aggregates!
On the surface of these aggregates…extremely fine, scale-like patterns began to emerge! Inside…faint, heart-like pulsations could be heard!
A…more violent, colder, and more destructive…dragon's might…was slowly brewing in this filthy breeding ground!
The life source of Panshi Fortress…had completely…transformed into…the mother nest for the dragon disaster!
The reverse scale pendant, the reverse scale pendant, was genuinely made by Qin Shihuang from a reverse scale he pried off a true dragon. This scale fused all of that dragon's origin, including…eternal resentment!
Actually, that drop of blood was originally Ling Chen's, but after two hours of being released, Ling Chen could no longer feel its presence. It must have been assimilated by the dragon's aura.
Command Center.
The chaos was temporarily suppressed. But the panic and scent of blood lingering in the air were like maggots on bone, impossible to shake off. On the ground lay several headless ghoul corpses, dark red blood still slowly flowing.
The surviving staff members were pale, like startled birds, huddled in a corner, looking at Qin Weiguo and Chu Hang in terror.
Qin Weiguo's face was ashen, his chest heaving violently.
The muzzle of his gun was still emitting faint wisps of smoke. Chu Hang still stood there, a few dark red bloodstains on his pure white mask, like red plum blossoms on snow, shocking to behold.
Under his mask, the dark red bloodstain on the corner of his mouth had dried, but in his bottomless eyes, the cold anger and…a barely perceptible…dread…were even more intense.
“Commander…the contamination…is out of control…”
A staff member reported with a trembling voice.
“The lower levels…the middle levels…even…here…have infection sources! The water supply system…is completely paralyzed! The dragon contamination index…is still soaring! We…we are surrounded!”
Qin Weiguo clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles white from the force. Surrounded?
In his own fortress?! By a group of…monsters who turned after drinking water?!
For a moment, he even wanted to use nuclear weapons to flatten this hell.
Absurd! Humiliation! Raging fury burned in his chest! Almost consuming him!
“Chu Hang!” Qin Weiguo's voice was squeezed out from between his teeth, with a nearly insane determination, “Can your rules…still be used?!”
Chu Hang slowly raised his head. His gaze from beneath the mask coldly swept over Qin Weiguo, then over the surging sea of blood on the holographic sand table.
The stinging sensation of the rule judgment being backlashed by the contamination still echoed in his mental core. But…how could a protagonist…be defeated by a plague?!
“Rules…need…a stage.” Chu Hang’s voice was cold and hoarse, with a strange rhythm, “Chaos…is the stage for plague. Order…is the foundation of rules.”
He slowly raised his hand. At his fingertips, a more condensed, purer white light…lit up again! This time…in the light…there seemed to be a hint of…cold…metallic texture!
“Clear…the chaos. Rebuild…the order.” Chu Hang’s voice was like a cold pronouncement, “Rules…restart!”
Buzz—!!!
A more massive, more condensed rule will, even greater than before, erupted again! But this time…the target…was no longer the pervasive source of contamination! But…the entire Panshi Fortress’s…chaotic…“order” itself!
New directive:
All uninfected humans → Forced into “Absolute Calm” state (emotional stripping)
All infected/mutants → Forced into “Rigid” state (nerve freezing)
All energy systems within the fortress → Forced into “Overload” state (clear pathogen breeding ground)
Directive issued!
An invisible, extremely cold force of rules, like an invisible ice storm, instantly swept through the entire fortress!
In the D-block dormitory, the ghouls frantically tearing at each other…suddenly froze! As if a pause button had been pressed! Their crimson eyes were full of frenzy, but their bodies could not move an inch!
The terror on the faces of the desperately resisting soldiers…instantly vanished! Their eyes became hollow and numb! As if their souls had been extracted! Mechanically, they raised their weapons, aimed at the rigid ghoul heads…and pulled the trigger!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunshots rang out again! But…they were perfectly synchronized! Cold and merciless!
In the Medical Center corridor, the ghoul horde fighting among themselves…instantly froze! The ghouls blocked by Chen Xue’s silver light shield…also solidified like statues!
Chen Xue looked blankly at the ghouls outside the door that had suddenly stopped, and then felt within herself…the fear and worry that had been extinguished as if by ice water…leaving only a…cold…hollow feeling…
Ling Chen had calmed down again, as if those words had merely been an illusion.
Inside the Command Center.
The terror on the faces of the surviving staff members instantly faded, their eyes becoming as cold as machines.
They silently returned to their control consoles and began…methodically…executing orders! As if the chaos and death from moments before…had never happened!
At the same time!
Inside the fortress! All lights instantly brightened to their maximum! Emitting dazzling white light! The hum of the energy shield suddenly intensified!
The ventilation system went into full power! Emitting a deafening roar! Even…the purification equipment in the water purification hub, which had long since stopped, began to vibrate and hum wildly! Emitting groans of unbearable strain!
Overload! A complete overload of the energy system! Like a…fortress-wide…energy storm!
Chu Hang…was using the power of rules! Forcibly stripping emotions! Freezing chaos! Using an energy storm…indiscriminately…to cleanse the entire fortress! Using the most extreme method…to rebuild…the “order” stage he needed!
The cost…was the foundation of the fortress! It was countless survivors who might be caught in the crossfire! It was…a…cold…purge!
Qin Weiguo looked at the Command Center, which had instantly become “orderly” yet cold and silent like a tomb, and at the ghoul light points on the holographic screen that were forcibly frozen by the rules and then headshotted one by one by the “calm” soldiers…In his eyes…there was no joy…only a…bottomless…chill.
Is this…the power of rules? Is this…the protagonist’s…salvation?
He slowly turned his head, his gaze piercing through the thick alloy walls, as if looking towards…the special care ward.
Then…to be able to survive this level of rule power…Ling Chen…what…exactly…are you?
Inside the ward.
Ling Chen was still “unconscious.”
But the cold will of the Soul Jade Physique, like a cold star suspended above the nine heavens, clearly “saw” everything happening within the fortress.
Chu Hang’s rule restart…the cold rebuilding of order…the frantic overload of the energy system…
The corner of his mouth, hidden by the oxygen mask, curved upward into an extremely subtle…cold arc.
And his blood…that drop of dragon blood integrated into the fortress’s life source…at this moment…was like the most deadly ink…accelerating its spread! Permeating! Brewing…a deeper…catastrophe…in the energy storm Chu Hang forcibly unleashed!
The stage was set. That dragonkin, after absorbing so much flesh and blood, should be fully hatched in about another hour.
Very good, the stage of life and death is complete. Now it's time for the "protagonist" and "side characters" to play their game.
Only…who is the protagonist? And who is the side character?