Dragon Transformation in the Apocalypse

Chapter 97 Trial Ends (Part 2)

Li Chenglong's troops followed behind the central army. Because there were few vehicles, they advanced primarily on foot, which explained why the previous 900-plus kilometers had taken so many days to cover. After traveling 20 kilometers, Li Chenglong greeted the troops ahead and then led his forces to split up. At this point, they were about 50 kilometers from the ruins, but they couldn't move yet. They had to wait until the battle began and the zombie horde's attention was diverted before they could directly attack the zombie stronghold. During a previous meeting, Li Chenglong had stated that they should try to hold out for at least three days. Including travel time, their unit had at most two days of combat time.

Two days may seem like a long time, but it was actually quite tense. According to previous reconnaissance, the ruins covered a vast area, and there were many unpredictable events along the way. As soon as the troops separated from the central army, they advanced at top speed. Since the three armies had already drawn the attention of the zombie horde, they did not encounter any large-scale zombie groups along the way, only a small group of about two thousand zombies, which Li Chenglong and Zhao Rui dealt with in a few moves.

On the night of September 12th, the troops were stationed in the mountains 15 kilometers from the ruins. Li Chenglong and a few others were eating dinner around a campfire. Zhao Rui said, "Captain Li, the more I think about it, the more something seems off. Our intelligence previously indicated that the ruins were in the sea, but now they've moved rapidly and are bordering the land. Could it be alive?" Zhao Liying said, "It's not necessarily alive, but I don't think this is a ruin; it's a mobile fortress, or even a mobile castle. Because according to reconnaissance, the zombie army all comes from there. Think about it, even if each zombie wave has a million zombies, this kingdom has already experienced several waves of zombies. How many would that total be?" Han Xiaoling also said, "I've seen in movies that some people build laboratories or something to mass-produce zombies. Could that ruin be something like that?"

Wang Bing scratched his head: "Anyway, there's definitely something fishy going on. We have to be careful." Li Chenglong looked at the campfire in front of him, the flickering flames reflecting in his eyes. After a while, he said, "This operation definitely won't go smoothly. I roughly know what that place is. Everyone should know that the zombie virus in our world leaked from some machinery inside a fireball that fell from the sky, and the Jin sisters said that this ruin also fell from the sky. It seems that the causes of the zombie outbreaks in our two worlds are quite similar." The group chatted for a while longer before going to sleep.

At 5:00 AM the next morning, the army set off. Their plan was a 15-kilometer surprise attack, heading straight for the ruins. Just as they were preparing to depart, Liang Zhenye suddenly handed them a report and exclaimed, "It's terrible! The Eastern Route Army has been scattered!" Zhao Rui exclaimed in surprise, "What? The Eastern Route Army has 450,000 men! How long has it been? Probably only fifteen hours, and they've already been scattered? Even if all 450,000 men lay there being bitten by zombies, it couldn't have happened this quickly!" Liang Zhenye angrily replied, "After encountering the zombie horde, they initially offered only token resistance for a few hours. Then some of them secretly slipped away, creating gaps in the army. The zombie horde tore them apart through these gaps, and the army immediately scattered and fled. Even worse, some zombies seem to have discovered us and are retreating. If we can't deal with the zombie problem in time, once those zombies retreat, we'll be surrounded by a horde dozens of times our size."

Li Chenglong gritted his teeth and looked at Liang Zhenye, saying, "Old Liang, why don't you quickly lead the brothers to retreat? If we retreat now and rejoin the central army, you'll still have a chance to survive." Liang Zhenye glanced at Li Chenglong and the others, "What about you? Why don't you retreat together? We'll gather our forces later." Li Chenglong shook his head, "We can't retreat. If we leave, we'll never have this chance again." Liang Zhenye threw his backpack on the ground and said to his adjutant, "Tell the brothers that those who are willing to come with me to raid the zombies' lair should discard unnecessary supplies. We'll launch a surprise attack. Those who aren't willing can go back now. I guarantee that even if we escape now, we won't cause trouble later." The three adjutants saluted in unison, "We are willing to live and die with our commander!" Following the lead of their commander, the soldiers behind responded one after another. Of the five thousand men, more than four thousand remained. This was almost a certain death battle. Even if they managed to raid the zombies' lair, they would still encounter hundreds of thousands of zombies returning to reinforce it when they came out.

Li Chenglong's eyes also reddened: "Alright, let's go!" The army immediately abandoned all their supplies, carrying only weapons and some dry rations, and rode at full speed towards the ruins. More than an hour later, the more than four thousand men finally arrived at the outer perimeter of the ruins. Only then could Li Chenglong get a good look at the ruins. To the naked eye, they were indeed very unusual. Li Chenglong was now 100% certain that these ruins were a large-scale zombie production factory. The factory must have a control room. If they could take down the control room, or better yet, blow up the factory, then the problem would be solved.

As soon as the army approached, a large number of zombies emerged from several doors. Li Chenglong looked at the only door in the middle that hadn't seen any zombies coming out and said to Zhao Rui, "Let's work together to blow it down, then go in first." Liang Zhenye shouted to Li Chenglong, "You guys go quickly, I'll lead the brothers to hold them off here." Li Chenglong nodded and immediately rushed forward with Zhao Rui and the others, the sounds of gunfire from Liang Zhenye and his men repelling the zombie horde echoing behind them.

As Zhao Rui ran, his figure gradually grew larger. Li Chenglong also took out the Dragon Emperor Sword from his storage space and began to infuse it with his supernatural power. "Mighty Vajra Fist!" "Sky-Splitting Dragon-Phoenix Slash!" Li Chenglong first unleashed a full-force attack, followed by Zhao Rui's punch, which caused the door to collapse. The group didn't have time to look closely and rushed inside. As soon as they entered, Li Chenglong and the others saw a dense, honeycomb-like structure. Each cultivation tank was nurturing zombies. They conservatively estimated that there were at least tens of thousands of zombies here. This was only the first level; there were still dozens of levels to go. The sheer number of zombies was unimaginable.

After they entered, some of the culture tanks opened immediately, releasing a pale green liquid. Soon after, zombies emerged from them. Li Chenglong, watching the culture tanks open one after another, said, "Hurry, we can't waste time here. Get inside quickly." The group fought off the zombies blocking their path as they rushed inside. Although they were fast, they ran for half an hour without finding the control room. Zhao Rui, running, said, "Captain Li, something's wrong. Are we lost? How come we haven't reached any control room after all this time?" Zhao Liying, panting, said, "We're not lost. I leave a mental marker at every place I visit, but we haven't revisited any places yet."

Li Chenglong stopped in his tracks: "No need to search anymore. Even if we search further, we won't find the control room." Zhao Liying asked, "Why? Is there no control room in here at all?" Li Chenglong drew his Dragon Emperor Sword, unleashing its full power: "Because the control room isn't on the ground!" He then slashed at the sky. Following the sword's edge, everyone saw the dark dome shatter as it was struck, revealing dozens of enormous computer mainframes and monitors. Zhao Rui exclaimed in surprise, "So this rooftop was fake!" Li Chenglong continued to swing his sword, each strike delivered with all his might. The computers were then chopped into pieces, falling to the ground and smashing the rows of incubation tanks.

Then a mechanical female voice suddenly announced, "Congratulations on completing this trial. The results are currently being tallied." With the voice, the five people arrived at the trial grounds they had entered when they first entered the trial scroll. The mechanical female voice spoke emotionlessly: "This trial took you a total of 44 days. The five of you killed 320,000 zombies, recaptured 14 out of 18 states, and had 4 states defect. Mission completion rate: 85%, overall rating: A. Rewards are as follows: Li Chenglong unlocked 12 main meridians and leveled up to 7. Zhao Rui leveled up to 6 and received a level 6 bound weapon, the Mountain-Breaking Axe. Zhao Liying leveled up to 5 and received a level 5 bound weapon, the Shadow Twin Blades. Wang Bing leveled up to 6 and received a set of reflective armor, capable of reflecting elemental attacks of the same level. Han Xiaoling leveled up to 5 and received a 100-cubic-meter storage space, which cannot be upgraded. The results are complete. You will be automatically transported out of the trial grounds in five minutes. The next trial grounds will have a 30-day cooldown."

Because of the suppression from the Trial Grounds, even Li Chenglong, an SS-level Dragon-Phoenix Physique Awakener, didn't experience much progress in leveling up. The five were overjoyed and began checking their rewards. Li Chenglong then asked, "What will happen to the place we trained in before?" The others listened curiously, as they had developed a bond after spending so many days together, especially Han Xiaoling and the Jin sisters, and Li Chenglong and Jin Hai, who had become good friends. The mechanical female voice said, "This trial map will be deleted from the Trial Grounds map, and all data will be deleted as well." Li Chenglong felt a pang of regret, but knew there was nothing he could do about it.

Five minutes later, Li Chenglong and his group were teleported out of the trial grounds. The trial scroll then closed, indicating it would reopen in 30 days. He put the scroll into his storage space, looked around, and found that apart from Alice and the four people who had been teleported out with him, there was no one else. He had thought he would be welcomed by everyone, but it seemed he had been overthinking it. Alice woke up the other computers and some humanoid robots in the calculation room, poured them coffee, and even some pastries that had just been microwaved. Alice said, "Congratulations on your victorious return. It's one in the morning, so no one's around. If you're hungry, you can eat something first, and if you're thirsty, there's coffee." Zhao Liying was still playing with the foot-long Shadow Twin Blades in her hands: "These are really good blades, and they're even bound to me. With these blades, I've leveled up to level five, and finally I have some combat power."

Zhao Rui, holding a 7-meter-long mountain-breaking axe, said, "This axe is very good, but I don't have the storage space like Captain Li, which is very inconvenient." Han Xiaoling playfully said, "Brother Zhao, why don't you put the axe here? I have storage space now." Zhao Rui waved his hand, "No, I'll keep it myself, hahaha." The reflective armor that Wang Bing obtained wasn't plate armor or chainmail, but leather armor. As for what kind of leather it was made of, it was impossible to tell, but it could reflect elemental attacks of the same or lower level, which was already very powerful.

Li Chenglong said, "It's only one in the morning, we can't just sit here. Xiaoling, take Zhao Liying to your room on the seventh floor, take a good shower and get a good night's sleep. You'll have a day off tomorrow." Han Xiaoling nodded and pulled Zhao Liying out. He then looked at Wang Bing and Zhao Rui: "You two are really hard to arrange, haha." Wang Bing laughed and said, "Captain Li, you forgot my dormitory is right next to the Dawn Building. I'll take Zhao Rui to my place for the night." Then the two of them also left. After the four of them left, Alice said, "This time your 12 main meridians have been fully activated and have even reached level 7, but I hope you won't be arrogant, because as your strength increases, the systems set up by the Kiel aliens will also automatically activate, releasing even stronger enemies. But you don't need to worry too much."

Li Chenglong asked, "Can you tell me about your planet Meral?" Alice slowly replied, "Actually, I don't know much either. I was created at the very end, so I don't have many memories of Meral. The Dragon Spirit and Little Phoenix you met before were actually a type of computer, but their computers are different from the computers you're familiar with. Because our Meral is a planet where both magic and science are highly developed, some things can't be explained simply by scientific theories. What you call superpowers are called magic on our planet. The Dragon Spirit and Little Phoenix can be considered magical spirits." Li Chenglong chatted with Alice for a long time and learned quite a bit about Meral.

Looking at his watch, it was 2 AM. After saying goodbye, Li Chenglong returned to his house. He quietly opened the door and went to the living room. Then, he tiptoed into the bedroom, where he saw Yunlan fast asleep, with a little drool at the corner of her mouth. Li Chenglong was amused by the sight and took a picture of Yunlan with his phone. Although the phone didn't have internet access, it could still be charged, so taking pictures was still possible. Moreover, if the phone was connected to the Crystal Computer via a data cable, it could even make calls to other phones connected to the Crystal Computer.

He gently pinched Yunlan's nose, and she quickly came to her senses. In her sleep, Yunlan first felt a surge of heat, actually due to Li Chenglong's level-up, which slightly increased her attributes. However, because she had been too busy during the day and slept so soundly, she hadn't noticed the increase. A while later, she felt someone touching her. Yunlan immediately woke up and unleashed her powers, shouting, "Who's there?" Li Chenglong used his powers to suppress Yunlan's aura, preventing damage to the furniture, and then smiled, saying, "It's me, I'm back! Yunlan." Yunlan rubbed her eyes. Li Chenglong had already turned on the light. Seeing his tired but smiling face, Yunlan rushed over and hugged him tightly, then kissed him on the lips. Li Chenglong was slightly taken aback before responding.

Three minutes later, the kissing couple separated. Yunlan excitedly said, "Didn't you say it would take 12 days? It's only the ninth day, and you're back already!" Li Chenglong said, "Okay, I'll go wash up first, then I'll tell you." After saying that, he went to the bathroom to wash up. While showering, Li Chenglong checked himself. He hadn't properly checked himself since reaching level seven: Li Chenglong, SS level seven Dragon-Phoenix Body Awakener, attributes: Strength 355, Constitution 350, Spirit 345, Agility 352. His attributes already far surpassed those of the level seven Dane alien he had encountered. Dragon Emperor Sword level 7, Sky-Splitting Dragon-Phoenix Slash level 5, All Weapon Mastery, True Dragon Eye, Galaxy Starburst level 7 (max level 10), Dragon-Phoenix Body, Spatial Movement, Dragon-Phoenix Heavenly Shock Fist, Storage Space level 6 (max level 10). This time, the 12 main meridians were not displayed. Alice also said that the 12 main meridians would become part of the body in the future and would no longer be displayed, but new main meridians would continue to open as the level increased.

This main vein is also a concept from the planet Merar. According to Alice, it's like a magic transport highway. Those who have opened the main vein will have a much faster magic transport and condensation speed than ordinary awakened beings. Currently, Li Chenglong not only has three times the energy reserves of other ability users of the same level, but his recovery speed is also significantly faster. Reaching level 7 didn't grant him any new skills, but his teleportation has become spatial teleportation, which is a significant improvement. While teleportation still involves moving within the same space, spatial teleportation allows Li Chenglong to temporarily travel to other dimensions, making it much easier to dodge attacks. However, his current spatial teleportation distance is relatively short, within 100 meters, and he can only stay in the interdimensional space for a maximum of 10 seconds.