Chapter Thirty-Nine: Bloody Battle

The multi-ton cluster missile launcher barreled forward like a roaring steel beast, crashing mercilessly into the corpse king, Jiang Chen.

Yet Jiang Chen's gaze turned cold once more. He made no attempt to dodge—instead, he stepped forward.

A thunderous boom erupted as the armored vehicle, carrying the force to crush anything in its path, slammed into his body. Under the impact, steel bent and shattered instantly, bulletproof glass exploded, the hardened cockpit was flattened, and the whole truck was reduced to a heap of mangled metal in a heartbeat.

A violent explosion burst forth, transforming the wreckage into a blazing fireball.

Situ Hong and the remaining veterans, guns in hand, stared in shock at the scene before them.

“Old Wu!” Situ Hong suddenly cried out.

But—

Amidst the flames came the sound of rending steel. A figure began to emerge slowly from the fireball.

The corpse king—Jiang Chen.

His massive, decaying body showed not the slightest trace of injury. For a moment, all the veterans and Situ Hong were filled with disbelief.

“This guy…”

“He took a truck head-on and didn’t even flinch?”

“What kind of enemy is this?!”

His physique was beyond their wildest imagination. He had withstood a direct hit from a multi-ton missile-launching truck without so much as a scratch on his skin!

This was an enemy unlike any they had ever encountered.

Watching the corpse king stride through the flames towards them, even these battle-hardened veterans found their fingers trembling. It was the instinctive human response to the unknown.

But in the next instant, as though understanding something, those trembling men spun and dashed toward the rear.

“Stand down! All of you, stand down! That’s an order!” Situ Hong shouted, suddenly realizing what they intended.

They weren’t trying to run.

They meant…to follow Old Wu’s example, to block this monster with the trucks!

“Boss Hong,” one veteran called out, his voice shaking, “we might not be able to hurt him, but we can slow him down! Get the workers out of here!”

Situ Hong stood frozen as her subordinates, driven like racers, sprinted madly toward the remaining armored vehicles.

Because it happened so quickly, only thirty trucks had been mobilized.

This was a race for their lives. Whoever reached a truck first had a chance to fight. Whoever ran fast enough was running to die.

Yet none of the veterans hesitated. One middle-aged man laughed at the comrade chasing after him, “Ha! Old Hei, give it up! Didn’t you know I was the national military exercise champion? This one’s mine!”

The man behind him, his eyes brimming with tears, shouted, “Damn you, slow down!”

“Give it up, Old Hei, you can’t catch me!” The man in front ran like the wind. “You have a wife and kids. I’m just a bachelor with an old mother at home.”

With that, the man in front leapt into the driver’s seat, and without hesitation, kicked the other man away.

The door slammed shut and locked.

“Take care of my mother!” the middle-aged man shouted, firing up the engine as he bellowed out the window.

The engine roared. He floored the accelerator and the brake. The dry tires spun in place, billowing white smoke and shrieking with friction.

“Come on, you bastard!” he yelled, gripping the wheel, eyes bloodshot as he stared at the flaming, relentless corpse king advancing step by step. “I’m Wang Haihu, Special Forces Unit One—fighting for my country!”

All thirty armored vehicles locked their doors and let out a furious roar.

“I’m Liu Fei, Special Forces Unit One—fighting for my country!”

“I’m Li Dawei, Special Forces Unit One—fighting for my country!”

Their roars merged into one, drowning out even the engines.

“For our country!”

With a thunderous crash, they released the brakes. The tires, spinning at terrifying speeds, gripped the earth, and thirty armored vehicles surged forward like a steel dragon.

Situ Hong stood, trembling, watching the thirty trucks hurtling away.

The first armored vehicle shattered instantly, yet the corpse king, Jiang Chen, stood unmoved, even as his body was nearly embedded in the wrecked cab. The terrifying impact seemed to mean nothing to him. The steel, mighty enough to crush anything, was as brittle as tofu before his flesh.

Expressionless, Jiang Chen extricated himself from the mangled cab, seized the twisted remains of the vehicle with one hand, and hurled it aside.

But—

“Come on!” someone shouted.

Another crash. The second armored vehicle slammed into Jiang Chen, hurling colossal force at his body. He was driven back into the cab again.

Before he could break free—

“I’m next!”

Another crash, the third vehicle struck home.

And then the fourth.

The supposedly unstoppable corpse king, Jiang Chen, was finally forced to retreat under the relentless onslaught.

One step.

Two steps.

Thirty impacts in all.

He was driven back a full hundred meters, and from afar the line of crushed, mangled trucks looked like a dragon, its head pressed against a single figure.

That figure was already down on one knee.

These Da Xia soldiers had traded their lives for these blows; even the corpse king, Jiang Chen, could not withstand them unscathed. He was panting for breath.

Situ Hong and the other veterans watched the row of ruined trucks with red-rimmed eyes.

But—

In the next moment—

A furious roar ripped through the air!

The lead armored vehicle was flung aside.

The second followed.

Like a beast pushed past its limits, the corpse king began to hurl the wrecked trucks aside, one after another.

Finally, the last armored vehicle was slammed violently to the ground.

At the same moment, the massive figure charged at Situ Hong with a furious roar.

“Four minutes and two seconds!” Situ Hong, wild-eyed, tossed aside her empty gun, drew her dagger, and charged forward, shouting, “Hold on for fifty-eight more seconds! With your lives—hold him for fifty-eight more seconds!”

Situ Hong lunged forward.

But just then, a hand grabbed her shoulder and threw her to the ground.

“Heh, the grappling technique you taught me is really something,” a veteran laughed, darting past her, “but this time, you’d best step aside!”

The remaining two hundred and seventy veterans let out a roar and hurled themselves at the massive, decaying figure.

The corpse king, Jiang Chen, now thoroughly enraged, didn’t even bother to convert these bold humans into more of his own kind. Instead, he struck directly.

A mighty blow shattered the ground and splintered bone. The first soldier to reach him was smashed into the earth, his uniform soaked in blood that seeped into the soil.

“Pitiful ants! How dare you wage war against me!”

Another blow—another soldier was shattered by a single punch.

Yet the two hundred and seventy veterans charged on like a pack of wolves, using their bodies as weapons, throwing themselves at the unstoppable corpse king.

And Jiang Chen, as though crushing chicks in his hands, snuffed out their lives one by one.

Still, not a single veteran retreated.

Watching this, Situ Hong’s eyes filled with tears.

Every one of these soldiers was handpicked, trained, and had followed her through countless battles.

She got up from the ground, seized her combat knife, and charged at the one who dared kill Da Xia’s soldiers.

At that moment, an unfamiliar energy surged through her.