While Feng Jun and Li Lu were chatting, they could clearly feel the storm cloud floating high in the sky slowly sinking. When Feng Jun was in college, he had taken meteorology as an elective and knew a little about meteorological knowledge. This continuously descending storm cloud should be called a supercell storm cloud in meteorology. Supercell storm clouds are a special type of thunderstorm that possess a deep, continuously rotating updraft called a mesocyclone. This rotating updraft helps the storm cloud reach extreme heights. At these heights, the overshooting top of the storm cloud can even penetrate the tropopause and enter the lower stratosphere.
Such clouds should appear at the top of the troposphere, in areas more than ten kilometers above the ground, and because they have continuously rising cyclones inside them, supercell storm clouds sometimes even climb above the stratosphere and continue to rise. However, although the storm cloud in front of them continuously had updrafts from its bottom carrying the cloud mass upwards, this cloud mass was continuously descending, showing a strong tendency to approach the ground.
Looking at the sky around them, it was no longer the clear sky of sunrise. Many clouds had gathered in the sky, but some sunlight still scattered down, illuminating the strange storm cloud.
Song Zhan happened to be standing nearby. He also took off his Power Armor helmet and stood in the sunlight, enjoying the warmth. "The weather is so nice today, even the constant northwest wind has stopped."
Upon hearing Song Peng say this, Feng Jun immediately realized something was wrong. Since the beginning of winter, the temperature in the Doomsday had plummeted to below -20°C, and cold northeast winds often blew. If one stood in the cold wind without Power Armor or thermal equipment, frostbite would likely appear within twenty minutes. But now, this bone-chilling cold wind had actually stopped. Although the temperature was still around -20°C, without the biting cold wind, the air felt much warmer.
Li Lu stood on a lookout platform, using binoculars to observe the storm cloud's trajectory. Based on the speed at which this storm cloud was descending and its current position, if nothing unexpected happened, this strange storm cloud would engulf the entire Shangqing City after noon today.
Feng Jun asked Li Lu, "Have you seen this kind of meteorological phenomenon before?"
Li Lu shook her head, "No, in these few years of the Doomsday, I have never heard of or seen such a situation. It feels very strange, as if there is some kind of creature within the cloud mass, which makes me feel very oppressed."
Feng Jun also nodded after hearing this. It seemed he wasn't the only one who felt that way. There must be something unknown or some abnormal natural phenomenon within this strange cloud layer; otherwise, the cloud mass, which should have been continuously rising, would not exhibit this counter-intuitive downward sinking phenomenon.
At this moment, Huai City presented a different scene. The Zombie Tide surging from all directions had already broken through the last outer defense line of Huai City. It was currently attacking the last city wall of Huai City.
Countless UAV swarms and blood ravens chased and fought each other in the sky, with countless wrecks falling from the sky every second. Numerous anti-aircraft weapons in the city fired with full force at the blood raven swarm in the sky. Gauss weapons and laser cannons fired in turns, but they could not clear the blood raven swarm circling above.
Various firepower on the city wall opened fire with full force on the zombie horde outside the city. Various kinetic weapons and energy weapons were fired into the zombie horde as if they were free. A plasma shell shot from inside the city wall directly hit a Roadblock over fifteen meters tall. This high-level Mutant, which had just arrived at the front line of combat with humans, was burned and melted into a pile of gray-black residue by the plasma before it could even unleash its power.
This battle had lasted for a day and a night. Huai City was impacted by the Zombie Tide earlier than Longmen Town, and what it faced was the main force of the Zombie Tide. Standing on the city wall, there were more than ten large Mutants visible to the naked eye, including powerful Mutants like Roadblock and Scale Armor Corpse.
Jiang Si Yuan stood on the city wall, responsible for commanding the defense of the northern part of Huai City. Watching the dense blood ravens fly overhead, his expression was solemn as he looked at the scene outside the city wall. Three large Mutants stood in the distance, looking towards them, surrounded by countless high-level Mutants. Since the zombie horde launched a large-scale assault three hours ago, they had temporarily stopped sending high-level Mutants to attack, instead continuously sending low-level zombies, interspersed with a large number of high-level Mutants, cooperating with the blood ravens in the air to continuously assault Huai City's defenses.
"Damn bastards, they're getting smarter and smarter," Jiang Si Yuan cursed inwardly.
These zombies did not send out high-level Mutants and Mutants, but instead used low-level cannon fodder to continuously attack the human defenses, consuming the soldiers' ammunition and energy. It seemed they wanted to wear down all humans through attrition.
Among the three large Mutants standing in the distance, two were Roadblocks over ten meters tall, which were the easiest to deal with; they could be taken out with a single laser cannon or plasma cannon shot once they got close. The other humanoid Mutant had always stood at the very back of the zombie horde, with a physique almost identical to a human's, but it had four arms, a green face, and tusks. It was like a legendary Yasha Mutant. This zombie had been standing quietly at the very back since it arrived on the battlefield and never participated in any offensive actions. Jiang Si Yuan had often aimed the electromagnetic railgun at this Mutant, but it always sensed it. As soon as the muzzle aimed in its direction, the Yasha Mutant would turn and retreat, only to reappear after the electromagnetic cannon system went offline.
"These damned zombies must be planning something," Jiang Si Yuan thought.
In fact, his idea was to retreat. In his eyes, whether it was the Mutants entrenched in the city ruins or the Mutants evolved from animals, they were all just mutated low-level organisms. Especially the Zombie Tide in winter, they were nothing more than a group of hungry beasts. There was no need to engage in fierce confrontation with such creatures; it would be better to hide directly in the underground Refuge and wait for the Zombie Tide to recede on its own.
Originally, according to Jiang Si Yuan's plan, he had already prepared to retreat to the underground Refuge, unlike several other factions. The Red Hand Mercenary Group's main base was established outside Huai City, in a hidden underground Refuge in the wasteland. Jiang Si Yuan had already intended to set off, but the zombies did not give him this opportunity.
The Zombie Tide directly circled from the north, and for some unknown reason, the UAVs and early warning robots used for vigilance did not issue an alarm. This allowed Huai City to be caught off guard by the zombies at the very beginning, losing all its outer defenses.
Watching the corpses outside the city wall pile higher and higher, already exceeding half the height of the city wall, Jiang Si Yuan pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, lit one with a lighter, and took a deep drag. The scent of the cigarette filled his lungs.
"It's indeed a good thing, but it's too much trouble to clean the lungs every time after dilution," Jiang Si Yuan waved to his adjutant, who immediately understood what he wanted to do.
Soon after, a group of exceptionally tall, helmeted, and tube-covered fat men walked onto the city wall. These fat men were all over two meters tall, a bit taller than most Power Armor.
They carried a huge backpack on their backs, a head taller than themselves, with two tubes connecting to the launchers held in their hands.
These large fat men stood on the city wall, extended their hands, and pressed switches. A pungent, bright yellow liquid sprayed directly from the launchers in their hands, landing on the piled zombie corpses on the ground.
The sound of flesh being corroded immediately came. The zombie corpses, originally piled several meters high, were instantly corroded. The zombies outside the city wall also avoided this, as even a little contact would corrode half their body. In a short while, the corpses piled under the city wall were corroded into a puddle of liquid. The terrifying corrosiveness made even zombies retreat three paces, but fortunately, this liquid did not corrode cement or soil, otherwise the city wall would have been in trouble.
After clearing the corpses near the city wall, this group of fat men stopped their sprayers and instead used the two shoulder cannons on their shoulders. Yellow ammunition landed in the distant zombie horde, and upon exploding, immediately began to corrode the surrounding zombies and the corpses on the ground.
These strange fat soldiers were Chen Zhiyuan's biochemical cleanup unit, skilled in using strong acid as a weapon. They were perfect for clearing the corpses piled outside the city wall.
Soon, a large empty area was cleared outside the city wall. Even the zombies, fearing the extremely corrosive strong acid, temporarily ceased their attack. This group of strange fat men reorganized their formation and then left the city wall in single file. Jiang Si Yuan had been tense until these fat men left the city wall he was defending, and then he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Almost all of Fang Xinglong's subordinates were soldiers who had undergone mythological modifications. Those fat men were nicknamed "Flesh Scavengers," but even so, no one wanted to be with them. Their obese bodies and backpacks were filled with various strong acid compounds. Once they were blown up in combat, they would explode directly, and nearby teammates would be corroded. Jiang Si Yuan did not want any accidents to happen to these fat men under his command, and besides, he had always distrusted Fang Xinglong.
"Cleanup finished, prepare to continue fighting." The soldiers on the city wall had all rushed to the back earlier, fearing contact with the Flesh Scavengers. However, when they returned to their positions on the city wall, they found that the zombies that had originally surrounded the city wall began to scatter backward, and even one Mutant that had been standing in the distance had disappeared at some unknown time.
"Officer, the Zombie Tide has receded," a military officer reported to Jiang Si Yuan.
Jiang Si Yuan, somewhat disbelieving, came to the edge of the city wall to see for himself. Except for a few low-level zombies still lingering, all sorts of Mutants and Mutants began to retreat, and the original three Mutants had long since disappeared.
A disbelieving Jiang Si Yuan contacted the leaders of the other several merchant associations, and the results were surprisingly consistent: "The Zombie Tide has retreated on its own."