252: Chapter 252 The Birdman Awakens, the Miracle of Wancheng Shatters

At the foot of Wan City.

The Zombie Horde stopped outside the abandoned overpass.

A vast, dark mass, yet they did not swarm chaotically.

At the top of the broadcast tower at the old TV center, a white light shone once again.

A children's choir flowed out from loudspeakers across the city.

The sound was very pure.

So pure that several new recruits on the front line subconsciously held their breath.

Captain Han Xue stood in front of the formation, her muzzle pointed downward.

"Put on your earplugs."

"Watch for hand signals."

Zhao Dingshan's unit completed the blockade from the southeast.

Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng led the fire support team to suppress the old interchange.

Feng Sanhai's convoy blocked the southwest line.

Wan City felt as if it had been covered by a white bowl.

Liu Qing projected the energy ripples onto the command vehicle's screen.

"Master, the force field's range is centered on the old TV center, covering the entire Wan City."

"After Superpower fluctuations enter, they will experience varying degrees of attenuation."

Lin Motong held her teddy bear and stood beside Lin Yuan.

She stared at the white light.

"Daddy, they don't like it inside."

The Zombie Horde growled beneath the overpass.

It was not fear.

It was disgust.

A low-level zombie, pushed by the horde behind it, accidentally entered the field and actually began to kneel and sing.

But its rotted throat made the sound it produced muddled and unclear.

Wang Ya raised her hand.

A wisp of water was drawn from the air and pierced the edge of the force field.

The water line sank a bit.

Wang Ya retracted her hand.

"Water-type power suppressed by thirty percent."

Grandmaster Ling Suzhen and Qin Yumo stepped out simultaneously.

The two of them cut into the edge of the white light through the gaps between abandoned cars.

As soon as they stepped in, the sound of the hymn felt like it was right against their ears.

Outside the old TV center, a squad of white-armored figures rushed out.

They wore modified armor, with cross-shaped crystal core pendants hanging on their chests.

Their eyes were vacant.

But their movements were uniform.

Templar Knights.

Grandmaster Ling Suzhen struck first, her short blade slashing into one person's shoulder.

The blade cut through the armor, and blood flowed out.

The person did not retreat.

He grabbed Grandmaster Ling Suzhen's wrist with a backhand, and with his other hand, swung an axe toward her face.

Grandmaster Ling Suzhen used a knee strike to push him away.

"No sense of pain."

On the other side.

Qin Yumo slashed repeatedly with her dual blades.

Just as Wild Resonance was ignited by pain, the hymn suddenly rose in volume.

Her burst slowed by half a beat.

Two knights seized the opportunity to press forward.

Blades and shields clashed.

Qin Yumo took a step back.

From the broadcast tower, a man's voice rang out.

"The blades of heretics will grow dull."

"The fires of heretics will be extinguished."

"This is God's punishment."

The children's hymn immediately grew louder.

Several survivors on the edge of Wan City fell to their knees in the snow.

Their faces were smeared with tears and snot.

"God has not abandoned us!"

On the broadcast, the man continued.

"Lin Yuan."

"Your stubbornness will cause more people to die."

"Those who lay down their weapons may enter Heaven."

"Those who follow the tyrant deserve only to rot within the Zombie Horde."

"You can't even protect a guard dog, yet you dare to call yourself a king?"

Tang Qiqi cursed over the channel.

"Does the Heaven this guy is talking about include social security and benefits?"

"Our Dragon Kingdom is under the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Court; we don't have a department called Heaven."

Lin Yuan looked at the broadcast tower.

"Are you Trump? How do you speak Chinese so well?"

The broadcast paused for half a second.

The man's voice deepened.

"I am the Eastern Pope of the Sacred Shelter, Donald."

"I carry the sacred fire of Western civilization."

"The lighthouse of the old world has not been extinguished."

Tang Qiqi sneered.

"So it's just a fake foreigner."

"Back then they fawned over Korea and Japan, now they fawn over America, why not fawn over Harbin?"

"At least it could freeze you awake."

Someone on the front line couldn't help it and let out a short laugh.

The tense formation relaxed a little.

In the white light, Grandmaster Ling Suzhen was surrounded by three knights.

Her shoulder was bleeding.

Qin Yumo held off two heavy shields with her dual blades, her expression as cold as iron.

They could still fight.

But there was no need to hand the tempo over to the enemy.

Lin Yuan spoke.

"Retreat."

Qin Yumo gritted her teeth.

"Master, in two more minutes I can kill these two tin men."

"Retreat."

The second order fell.

Qin Yumo retreated.

Grandmaster Ling Suzhen swept her short blade horizontally, forcing back the attackers, and vaulted out of the edge of the force field.

The two returned to the front line.

The Templar Knights did not pursue them out of the white light.

Seeing Qin Yumo and Grandmaster Ling Suzhen return, the front-line soldiers slowly took their tense fingers off the triggers.

Su Xiaonuan immediately marked it.

[Templar Knights are restricted by the force field boundary.]

Lin Yuan sat inside the command vehicle.

"He wants me to force my way in."

"Then I won't force it."

Lin Yuan's fingers lightly brushed against the seam of his trousers.

"Liu Qing."

"Master, I am here."

"Notify Feng Sanhai and Zhao Dingshan."

Lin Yuan's voice was cold and without a hint of fluctuation, "Use artillery shells to smash their force field. Do not conserve ammunition; artillery is not meant to be left to gather mold."

"Understood."

Zhao Dingshan stood inside the temporary command post, looking at the red command lighting up on the big screen, and pulled down his helmet visor heavily.

"Heavy artillery regiment, lock coordinates, with the old TV center as the center, conduct saturation bombardment!"

"Fire!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Twenty-four 152mm towed howitzers roared simultaneously, and the ground shook violently.

Almost at the same moment, beside the Zhe City convoy in the southwest direction, Feng Sanhai stepped on the tire of a rocket launcher vehicle, his eyes fierce.

"Get all those Katyushas out of the warehouse! Mr. Lin wants to hear some noise!"

Dozens of multiple rocket launchers fired in unison.

The sky was torn apart by fire, and countless orange-red exhaust trails swept across the city sky like a meteor shower, bringing with them ear-piercing shrieks, slamming head-on toward the old TV center in Wan City.

Rumble!!

The dense explosions merged into one over Wan City.

The white force field barrier that the Pope had painstakingly maintained had a strong suppression effect against Espers, but facing this kind of purely physical torrent of steel, the force field only lasted less than three seconds.

Crack.

A crisp shattering sound spread throughout the city.

The huge white hemispherical shield collapsed inch by inch like fragile glass, and the violent shockwave overturned more than a dozen defensive fortifications on the periphery.

A large number of white-armored Templar Knights were swallowed by the firelight before they could even react.

The survivors inside Wan City let out desperate cries.

"The miracle is broken! The defense line has collapsed!"

"Pope! Why doesn't the Lord protect us?!"

Amidst the crying and screaming, all the broadcast loudspeakers at the old TV center emitted a harsh microphone feedback sound.

"Master, I have taken over thirty percent of the broadcast nodes in Wan City."

"Play the recording."

Immediately after, the hymn and choir were forcibly cut off.

Liu Qing's calm operational command broadcast the recording of Chen Mo before his death into every still-functioning speaker in the city at maximum power.

"The apocalypse is not a natural disaster... it is the Scissor Plan..."

Chen Mo's hoarse, blood-flecked gasping sounded exceptionally clear in the gaps between the artillery fire, piercing sharply into everyone's ears.

"For civilization to continue... the population must be cut... the zombie virus is that pair of scissors... and it is the tacit approval of the global elite..."

"We... are just the excess population being cleared out."

The entire Wan City fell into a deathly silence.

Those survivors who had just been kneeling in the ruins to pray froze.

At the top of the broadcast tower, the white light expanded violently.

The Pope's voice carried anger for the first time.

"Forgery!"

"The heretics are polluting!"

"Kneel!"

The Templar Knights began to drive the believers.

The white-armored figures pressed several people who looked up to the ground.

The cross-shaped crystal core pendants lit up.

The children's choir filled the channel again.

A woman threw herself at the feet of a Templar Knight.

"Where is my son?"

"You said he joined the choir!"

"Where is he?"

"I want him to return to my side."

The Templar Knight paused.

The crystal core pendant on his chest flashed twice.

The light was unstable.

The Pope's voice cracked.

"Execute the waverers!"

The white-armored figure raised his blade.

But the blade fell half a beat too slow.

More people tore off their white cloth strips.

Some dared not stand up, only lifting their heads slightly from the snow.

That was enough.

The cracks had already appeared.

Lin Yuan did not order an immediate attack.

"Let the fire burn for a while longer."

Captain Han Xue maintained discipline on the front line.

Zhao Dingshan and Lieutenant Colonel Liu Zheng controlled the southeast fire support points.

Feng Sanhai blocked the southwest.

Lin Motong had the Zombie Horde retreat to a safe distance.

The Wan City hymn was still playing.

But this time, the singing was mixed with crying and questioning.

Just then.

Liu Qing's voice suddenly paused.

"A new signal has appeared at the base of the broadcast tower."

The screen zoomed in.

Beneath the old TV center, a circle of colorful patterns lit up.

The teddy bear in Lin Motong's arms fell to the ground.

She looked up, her black and red pupils constricting.

"Daddy."

"Something inside has woken up."

"It seems to be a, quite pretty, birdman."