Chapter 196: Five-Element Combat
Gu Qingji stepped over and grabbed Gu Qingyue tightly, commanding the mutated ivy to fight even more fiercely. Unfortunately, the zombies in front of him were fire types, so the ability wasn’t very effective.
Lu Weiyi stood on a slightly higher position, overseeing the whole situation. He occasionally controlled the small green branch or directly used his ability to assist those on the ground who couldn’t react in time.
Gu Qingyue and Gu Qingji, the brothers, were facing several fire-type zombies, with a metal-type zombie mixed in; Xiong Jie, Liu Rui, and Xu Sa confronted water-type and wood-type zombies; Antonio, Li Dongsheng, and Bai Miao faced fire-type and water-type zombies; while Li Zhuang and Ning Yuan mostly faced wood-type zombies.
The Five Elements interact through mutual generation and restriction, and most of the zombies they faced were on the “restricting” side of their element, putting them at a severe disadvantage. Especially since the zombies outnumbered them by several times. Within just a short time, some of their people were injured, and the blood smell made the hundreds of zombies even more ferocious.
“Everyone, listen to my orders,” Lu Weiyi took a megaphone and shouted loudly. Facing B-level zombies from all directions, they could no longer worry about attracting more zombies. Besides, having so many B-level zombies in such a small area was likely because the villagers’ crystal cores had accumulated here.
Lu Weiyi shouted, “Li Zhuang, Wu Yue, Xiong Jie, collapse all the walls around the government building!”
With that, the three of them went all out, flattening everything within sight. This widened their line of vision but also accelerated the zombies’ approach.
“Move to your positions according to the roll call. The government building is the center: Antonio to the north, Liu Rui to the south, Gu Qingyue, Gu Qingji, and Xiong Jie to the west, and Li Dongsheng, Bai Miao, Ning Yuan, and Li Zhuang to the east.”
The best arrangement was according to the Five Elements positions, but since the squad only had one metal-type and one fire-type user each, they stood at different points, with other element users filling the remaining positions.
Everyone immediately began moving into position. During the movement, zombies occasionally attacked but were blocked by Lu Weiyi’s mental barrier at the perimeter. Within less than a minute, everyone was in place.
Lu Weiyi said, “According to the Five Elements restrictions: metal attacks wood, wood attacks earth, earth attacks water, water attacks fire, and fire attacks metal. Everyone attack zombies corresponding to your element.” The plan was made like this, but their levels differed, so it couldn’t be perfect, especially Gu Qingyue and Xiong Jie on the east side. “Xu Sa, support Gu Qingyue and Xiong Jie’s positions.”
As for other weaknesses, Lu Weiyi would have to make up for them.
Water restrains fire, so the small green branch helped Liu Rui defend against water-type zombies, while his mental power helped Antonio defend against fire-type zombies.
With this arrangement, the situation immediately improved. Flying plants swirled around with flying blades, leaves fluttered everywhere; earth walls and spikes were pierced and loosened by emerging green grass; water and ice arrows were countered and nullified by earth abilities, doing no damage; fireballs were extinguished by water balls, rendering them useless.
Zombies were occasionally knocked down by ability attacks. Combined with four snipers on the rooftop attacking stealthily, more than half the zombies gradually fell, but the remaining ones were almost all B-level zombies, making the battle even more intense, especially as everyone’s powers were heavily drained.
At this point, it was a pure test of strength. Lu Weiyi’s oversight was no longer useful, so he leapt directly into the zombie horde, protected by a mental barrier. In one hand, he wielded a large watermelon knife, cutting through zombies with his powers.
The mental blade and small green branch attacked zombies all around simultaneously. A-level abilities suppressed B-level zombies easily, and since zombies had no brains or tactics, the invisible mental blade nearly landed a hit on every strike.
The strikes were precisely aimed at the crystal cores, and each time one was hit, a zombie fell at his feet. Before long, a circle of zombie corpses surrounded him.
“Lu Xiaoyi, my power is almost drained,” Xu Sa shouted while cooperating with Gu Qingyue—one sprinkling water everywhere, the other using lightning to conduct electricity through the water, attacking indiscriminately. But Xu Sa’s power level was low, so his lightning couldn’t directly kill B-level zombies, only stun them briefly.
At that moment, Xiong Jie’s earth spikes would follow up and finish off a line of zombies. But no matter how well they coordinated, their powers were limited. After a while, the three were struggling to hold on, especially Xu Sa, the weakest, who was ready to stab a zombie with a knife himself.
Lu Weiyi kicked away an incoming zombie, used mental power to bounce a fireball into another zombie, and fiercely swung his watermelon knife to cut through blocking zombies. He quickly moved toward Xu Sa’s position, took a gun from his space, and threw it to Xu Sa.
A quick glance revealed everyone was wounded. Most were slower in reaction and movement. Li Dongsheng and Bai Miao could barely hold on, relying on support from Antonio and Li Zhuang. Meanwhile, they still faced over fifty zombies…
“Ten minutes. Kill all the zombies with full force,” Lu Weiyi shouted, building a mental barrier that surrounded everyone.
Though invisible, the energy fluctuations were palpable. Even more incredible, the zombies’ mental attacks were directly blocked. The dozen or so people were stunned for a moment, then launched a furious assault on the zombies before them.
Various abilities attacked recklessly. When the last zombie fell, Lu Weiyi’s mental barrier instantly dissipated. Some sat, some stood, staring blankly at the circle of zombie corpses. After a while, they burst out laughing.
“I thought we were going to die here,” Ning Yuan lay flat on the ground, gasping, “At least a hundred B-level zombies. We’re really something.”
“Survived a disaster, fortune will follow,” Xu Sa laughed, reaching out to Liu Rui. Liu Rui came to pull him up but was pulled down himself after Xu Sa gave a strong tug.
Gu Qingji carefully checked Gu Qingyue’s injuries. Li Dongsheng and Bai Miao leaned on each other, recovering from exhaustion. Li Zhuang looked around, smiled, pulled out a cigarette, and put it in his mouth. Antonio looked up to the rooftop, found Dean, waved to him, and Xiong Jie waved back from the rooftop.
Lu Weiyi lay exhausted on the ground, the headache from his depleted powers exploding in his head. He held a crystal core, absorbing it, and looked toward the rooftop where Zhuang Mingxu supported himself.
Zhuang Mingxu’s forearm muscles tensed as he anxiously scanned around, then gave Lu Weiyi a thumbs-up from afar.
After all, it was New Year’s Day. Although interrupted briefly by zombies, it didn’t dampen the festive atmosphere for the group.
Lu Weiyi finished patrolling the village and returned. Xi Shi had already prepared all the dishes, each covered with bowls and plates to keep warm. He was making dumplings with Xiong Jie, Gu Qingyue, and Lin Yimu. Even Zhuang Mingxu had gotten the hang of it.
In the center of the hall, two office desks had been pushed together to form a dining table. On it lay dumpling wrappers, with rows of plump dumplings that looked delicious.
“You’re finally back. If you’d been later, I would have called for you,” Xi Shi said with a smile, showing the demeanor of the head of the family. The way he held a dumpling while talking somehow reminded Lu Weiyi of scenes from movies he’d seen before the apocalypse.
During the New Year, grandmothers would say, “We’ve been waiting for you for so long.” Lu Weiyi had never experienced that growing up, but now, seeing this man gave him a similar feeling. It seemed funny but… kind of nice.
“Oh, there was so much stuff along the way. No one even touched those shops’ goods. If it weren’t for nightfall, we wouldn’t have wanted to leave,” Xu Sa said, taking the basin Lu Xi handed him to wash his hands.
“No danger, right?” Zhuang Mingxu asked, putting down a dumpling with thick skin and little filling.
Lu Weiyi pursed his lips, about to shake his head, but then heard Xu Sa say, “You can’t imagine what we saw. Mutations…”
Lu Weiyi glanced at him. Xu Sa suddenly felt that the word was inappropriate to say now, especially with the table full of food and everyone waiting to eat. Usually, Xu Sa was very blunt, but today he decided not to spoil the mood.
Clearing his throat, Xu Sa said casually, “Anyway, it was disgusting stuff, so I won’t say more.”
Zhuang Mingxu instantly lost curiosity. He glanced at the other four inexplicable people, then looked at Xu Sa, Liu Rui, and Lu Weiyi in turn. “No one got hurt, right?”
Lu Weiyi shook his head, took a towel handed over by Zhuang Ai Yi to dry his hands, patted his head, and replied, “No.”
His lack of curiosity didn’t mean everyone else wasn’t curious. Ning Yuan looked around and pressed, “What exactly was it? Something you encountered before? Why didn’t we know?”
“You want to know?” Xu Sa inwardly wished someone would share the disgusting details with him already, though he pretended not to care, secretly hoping for questions.
“Go ahead, how bad could it be? I’ve seen plenty of nasty things,” Ning Yuan said without hesitation. Being a part of the field forces, he was mentally tough.
“Then come closer,” Xu Sa said reluctantly, taking a few steps toward the door.
Ning Yuan immediately followed. Bai Miao, curious and bouncing, followed as well. Dean wanted to join the fun but was stopped by Antonio. Most others were power users, and actually, the distance wasn’t far—everyone could hear if they tried. Xu Sa leaned in mysteriously and whispered a few words, then, quite shamelessly, went into graphic detail.
“…” Ning Yuan just twitched his mouth, no other reaction.
Bai Miao froze for a moment, seemingly imagining the scene, and immediately felt nauseous, running out quickly. Xu Sa stood at the door laughing loudly.
In the hall, most who wanted to listen had already heard. Some looked uncomfortable, but most tried not to listen and focused on the food. Finally, Xu Sa reminded them again, “From now on, when we search houses, we have to be extra careful around freezers with frozen meat or corpses.”
That was basically a blunt warning. The others silently gave him a look at his twisted sense of humor and turned away, ignoring him.
