In the beginning, one could only obtain power transcending the ordinary by consuming Forbidden Fruit.
Back then, Transcendents were like superheroes or supervillains, staging dazzling battles again and again in a world predominantly inhabited by ordinary mortals.
Yet with the emergence of transcendent beasts, that balance was shattered.
Many villages were effortlessly destroyed by transcendent beasts; tens of thousands of people, young and old alike, were slaughtered and preyed upon overnight.
Armies were deployed and militias mobilized, yet casualties continued to mount. Humanity no longer sat at the peak of the pyramid; transcendent beasts multiplied far too rapidly.
In just a few months, a beast could birth a litter of cubs, and in a mere two years, those cubs would grow into invulnerable monsters that devoured humans.
Humanity's sphere of activity shrank continuously; hiking mountains or strolling through the countryside became perilous ventures.
At this juncture, Xingtian warriors were born.
Scores of armed police officers injected with Xingtian's Blood were dispatched to every corner of the country, wielding sharp axes to battle all manner of transcendent beasts while executing every Transcendent who committed wicked deeds.
No one knew the origins of the Xingtian warriors, nor where they trained day to day, but whenever transcendent forces invaded, the Xingtian warriors would appear.
Back then, Xingtian warriors represented hope. They represented the light.
Yet...
Behind this peace lay young lives fading away one after another.
The average lifespan of a Xingtian warrior was only two years. After death, they could fight on for humanity for another three years, until the Xingtian's Blood within them was completely exhausted and they died once and for all.
Zhou Shaoyang had been born into the era of peace protected by Xingtian warriors. His greatest ambition upon enlisting had been to become a Xingtian warrior himself.
Yet through a twist of fate, he became a commander instead.
Though deceased Xingtian warriors could fight on for three years, without a commander, they were nothing more than monsters of indiscriminate slaughter.
Therefore, from the day one became a Xingtian warrior, aside from combat, they had to undergo continuous self-hypnosis and mental conditioning aided by specialized equipment, establishing guiding principles of conduct and branding those tenets into every single cell of their bodies.
This way, after death, commanders could direct the Xingtian warriors using specific verbal commands, controlling them to fight on rather than allowing them to turn into monstrous scourges.
"Zhang Sencheng, Serial Number 7323, attention!"
"Bai Hexi, Serial Number 6557, attention!"
"Gu Yuetao, Serial Number 5244, attention!"
"Tang Wenhua, Serial Number 2288, attention!"
"Guan Yulin, Serial Number 6699, attention!"
Under Zhou Shaoyang's command were five Xingtian warriors, safeguarding the peace of Silver City.
Only on the day he became a commander did he learn the secret of the Xingtian warriors. He admitted that he had shrunk back in that moment; he was still young and did not want to die in his youth.
Now, as a commander, he could still safeguard the people's safety, and he was quite content with that.
What he did most each day was use commands to direct the Xingtian warriors on patrol, day in and day out, year after year, from age eighteen to twenty.
But in his twenty-first year, the Xingtian warriors under his command ceased to move as their Xingtian's Blood ran dry.
That very same year, assigned new Xingtian warriors, he took part in the "Blood Sea Campaign." In that battle, he witnessed countless Xingtian warriors fighting without fear of death. The warriors under his command were replaced batch after batch; even after death, they continued fighting, never resting until both body and soul were utterly destroyed.
What shook him most was that several comrades who were also commanders resolutely volunteered to become Xingtian warriors during the campaign. After fighting for less than a month, they ended up as soldiers under his command.
They had fallen in battle, yet even in death they fought on.
The Blood Sea Campaign lasted nine months, sacrificing hundreds of thousands of warriors before finally crushing the evil organization "Eye of the Blood Sea."
Zhou Shaoyang returned to Silver City leading Xingtian warriors who were missing arms, legs, eyes, or ears.
A month later, having burned through too much Xingtian's Blood in combat, every last one of the Xingtian warriors under his control passed away completely.
Half a month after that, he submitted his application to become a Xingtian warrior.
He would never forget the answer his fellow commanders gave when he had frantically tracked them down back then to ask why.
Times were hard, and countless people were silently dedicating their young lives in the shadows to protect this peace. Their thinking had been simple: their best comrades had already sacrificed themselves, and countless more were still laying down their lives in the fight.
If they offered themselves up and sacrificed first, perhaps they could spare one or two others from making that ultimate sacrifice.
And now, it was his turn.
He hoped that somewhere out there, some child might never have to sacrifice, never have to fight, because he had sacrificed in their place.
...
...
Returning to the present, the battle below raged on.
The Xingtian zombie king forced Yu Lie back with a swipe of its axe, and in the next instant sent Cheng Caitian, the Director of the Drug R&D Division, flying with a single punch.
Boom!
Cheng Caitian slammed into the ground, instantly blasting open a massive crater.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, he hastily struck the ground with his right palm and flipped through the air. The Xingtian zombie king's axe cleaved down by a hair's breadth, splitting the entire crater in two.
Having missed its strike, and seeing Cheng Caitian tumble to its right flank, the Xingtian zombie king fluidly followed through with an agile kick, sending Cheng Caitian flying before he could even touch the ground.
"The Lunar Bow of Guanghan above;
One arrow pierces the ninefold skies!"
Hua Qiang stood in the distance, instantly loosing beams of icy radiance one after another.
Intending to pursue Cheng Caitian, the Xingtian zombie king rapidly dodged aside. A dense volley of arrows struck the ground, turning the earth into a glacier in the blink of an eye.
"I'll gather the moon from heaven above,
And bend it to form my bow!"
Hua Qiang drew his longbow into the shape of a full moon and unleashed another arrow.
This time, however, the Xingtian zombie king had already locked onto Hua Qiang. With a single chop of its axe, it shattered the arrow, bursting out from the terrifying white flames. In just a few strides, as if teleporting, it arrived before Hua Qiang, bringing its axe down in a devastating overhead cleave meant to split Mount Hua in two.
Suddenly, a ray of golden light shot toward the Xingtian zombie king, attempting to relieve the pressure on Hua Qiang.
Yet the Xingtian zombie king seemed to have anticipated it. Fluidly spinning its massive body, it circled from Hua Qiang's front around to his back, the momentum of the axe unabated.
Not good!
Yu Lie had not expected the Xingtian zombie king to remain vigilant against his Heavenly Eye all along.
Just then, Yu Xian snapped his eyes open up above. Seeing this scene, he bellowed, "Zhou Shaoyang, Serial Number 7623, attention!"
In truth, the speed of sound could never have caught up to the Xingtian zombie king. Fortunately, Yu Xian's bubble was concealed within Hua Qiang's ear; the voice traversed the bubble, ringing out directly beside the Xingtian zombie king's ear.
Boom!
The axe stopped just one centimeter above Hua Qiang's head, yet the resulting blast of wind sliced open his scalp, sending blood trickling down his crown.
The Xingtian zombie king's eyeballs trembled frantically, its body shuddering with resistance, yet no matter how desperately it struggled, its body refused to move.
Then, acting independently of the zombie's will, the body began to move, slowly raising its head, thrusting out its chest, and snapping into a ramrod-straight stance.
This was no spell or incantation; it was an eternal, unyielding conviction of steel—never faltering in obedience to orders, fighting for the nation, fighting for the people.
Zhou Shaoyang, Serial Number 7623, attention!
Chapter 101