With Chu Xuan's words, a nearly four-meter-tall humanoid robot materialized beside him. This machine had been standing silently in the darkness until Chu Xuan spoke, whereupon its eyes suddenly lit up, and it stepped forward, faint lights beginning to pulse across its frame.

The robot stamped a foot heavily, leaping nearly ten meters into the air. With a backward flip of its body, its entire chassis began to rotate and reshape from the back. In less than a second, the robot had completely transformed into a space fighter. Its fuselage was flattened, its shell streamlined—a vision of undeniable sleekness and might.

An excited whoop echoed from the aircraft, followed by two streams of blue energy erupting from its rear nozzles. The plane dove rapidly toward the weapons testing facility. As it closed within a hundred meters of the base, several micro-homing missiles streaked out from the aircraft’s wings. These projectiles bombarded the perimeter wall from above, resulting in several tremendous explosions. The power of these few micro-missiles proved immense, obliterating the concrete exterior wall of the base in gouts of flame. Another burst of wild, youthful cheering erupted from the plane. Amidst the firelight, the aircraft flipped backward mid-air; upon landing, it had morphed into something resembling a colossal motorcycle.

“It’s less a fighter jet and more of a space shuttle, really. Its maneuverability, the speed enhanced by modifying the electrical discharge system, and the ample energy supplied by converting internal power—this combat robot, after its upgrades, can basically rival a Class B or even Class A combat machine. Its only limitation is finite ammunition. It can only sustain one small engagement, like the base attack and defense scenario before us. With the Dragon Crystal Necklace embedded in its shell, it becomes the ace of high-tech warfare, the trump card of our Zhongzhou Team,” Chu Xuan stated calmly to the others, watching the distant, spreading firelight.

Everyone watched the unfolding battle in the distance. The robot incessantly cycled through its three forms, recklessly unleashing its powerful arsenal. For a time, the entire perimeter of the base was engulfed in a sea of fire, and several newly raised machine gun turrets were blasted into ruin. It wasn't until the robot shifted back to its humanoid configuration that it summoned a massive electric trident. This exaggerated weapon, nearly three meters long, hummed menacingly as the robot used it to cleave into the facility’s outer steel wall, immediately showering sparks. The machine brutally carved a gaping hole right through the alloy barrier, then, without hesitation, fired several micro-missiles inside.

From their vantage point, Chu Xuan and the others clearly saw the action. Overlord and Wang Xia bolted toward the breach first, closely followed by Chu Xuan, Zhao Yingkong, Cheng Xiao, and Zhang Heng. Zero Point and Zhan Lan remained in place.

“Luo Gandao, Zero Point, you hold this position. Shoot down any reinforcement helicopters or fighter jets that approach. Luo Gandao, expand the area of destruction; ideally, patrol the skies as a shuttle. If you spot any bombers or missiles, neutralize them first. Zero Point, provide fire support for Luo Gandao. The rest of you proceed according to the original plan…” As he spoke, Chu Xuan flicked his wrists, and two Gauss pistols materialized in his hands.

Meanwhile, a fierce battle between humans and monsters erupted deep within the research facility.

As reinforcements for the weapons testing base arrived, every hall and defensible area became choked with security guards. Clad in armor resembling bio-suits and wielding heavy military firearms, these guards formed a solid wall of firepower. Under this concentrated assault, the Death Legion monsters, which relied solely on melee combat, were finally halted. Before this, at least several hundred guards had already fallen to the monsters' bizarrely shaped long blades. These Death Legion creatures were now only two transfer halls away from the central atrium.

A security captain peered at the thick layer of sand piled up near a corridor turn, speaking into his communicator: “Target area is clear. Squad Two is on alert…”

“...Maintain vigilance. We must stop those monsters outside the central atrium!”

In the surveillance room, several men in black suits continuously received the same reports: under the intense barrage, countless Death Legion monsters were being reduced to dust. The number of these creatures eliminated surpassed a thousand, regardless of their combat effectiveness. However, hundreds of security personnel had indeed died.

“What about the G-Virus carrier? Why can’t we locate him?”

Just as the men in black suits were celebrating the repulsion of the monstrous horde, one of them suddenly cried out in alarm. The group frantically manipulated their remote controls, switching between surveillance feeds, but Zheng Zha was nowhere to be found across any of the monitored sectors; he had vanished completely from view.

The men in black exchanged grim looks. Before they could even reach for their communicators, a shriek erupted from a nearby transfer hall. Zheng Zha had emerged from an overhead ventilation duct, dropping directly into the midst of the guards. Before the security detail could react, the Hupo Blade in Zheng Zha’s hand swept out in a wide arc. With a series of sharp swish sounds, at least a hundred guards around him stared in stunned silence as they were cleanly sliced in half. A gruesome mist of blood permeated the area within a ten-meter radius of him; every guard was bisected.

There were at least two hundred guards in that hall. Zheng Zha’s landing spot was perfectly chosen, right in the densest cluster of personnel. A single circular sweep of the Hupo Blade instantly cut down a hundred guards at the waist. Except for the guards still moving, the upper halves of the others began to slide to the floor, while their lower bodies remained standing motionlessly.

Zheng Zha didn’t hesitate. He stomped down, launching himself several meters into the air, landing heavily on the head of one guard. Before that guard’s upper torso could slide away, he used the upward force to spring toward the remaining intact guards. Only then did the guards whose upper bodies now lay on the ground begin to roar in desperate frenzy. Though their hands still clutched firearms, they realized with horror that only their lower halves remained, and the hall erupted in a chaotic spray of gunfire as these maimed soldiers blindly pulled their triggers in despair.

Exploiting the chaos, Zheng Zha leaped and brought his blade down savagely from above. Within ten meters in front of him, anything blocking his path was severed. More than a dozen guards were either wounded or killed, and the ground beneath the Hupo Blade’s arc was deeply gashed. As he landed, he pushed off again. The guards before him didn't even have time to raise their weapons before he surged into their ranks, and the Hupo Blade swung horizontally once more…

The men in the monitoring room felt a chilling dread spread through them. In under thirty seconds, all two hundred-plus fully armed guards in one hall had been slaughtered, and in the most gruesome manner imaginable—cut in half at the waist. Those bisected guards suffered the worst; their upper halves lay writhing on the floor, groaning, destined to bleed out and die in agonizing minutes—a fate worse than immediate death.

More terrifying than the slaughter itself was Zheng Zha’s combat efficiency. Killing over two hundred armed guards in under thirty seconds while remaining completely unharmed—such horrific power was chilling. If the Umbrella Corporation had known the extent of his capabilities earlier, they would never have treated him as they did, certainly not allowing him to remain in the research facility unprepared.

Zheng Zha retrieved a communicator from the pool of blood. He heard the static hiss of an active connection, gave it no thought, and snarled into the device, “Wash your necks clean and wait for me. Every single one of you will die!” Then, he squeezed his hand shut, and the communicator instantly crushed into dust.

A man in a black suit in the monitoring room shouted into his own device, “Stop destroying the research facility! There are evolved Crawlers frozen beneath us! Hey…”

The man next to him clapped him on the shoulder. “It can’t be helped. Send the Stalkers after him. We just need to stall him for ten minutes. Activate the base self-destruct sequence. The micro-nukes inside are enough to wipe out the entire research base and every evolved Crawler…”

“Leave? Go where? This base holds so much crucial material, nearly all of the company’s evolved Crawlers. If all that is destroyed, even if we escape, the Company will likely eliminate us… Where can we go?” another man in black roared in frustration, his eyes bloodshot, whether from fear or rage, it was impossible to tell.

“For now, start the self-destruct and head to the top floor for the helicopters… Dying by bullets is better than dying by a Crawler’s claws.”

Zheng Zha was unaware that his terrifying combat prowess had instilled fear in the Umbrella executives. He continued his destruction, pressing toward the central atrium. He had intended to summon the Death Legion one more time, but that previous summoning had already expended the bloodline energy from one charged Mithril Ring. If he wanted to use the ‘Instant Annihilation’ state again, he couldn't afford another Death Legion call. Furthermore, given the intensity of the fighting, the base reinforcements seemed to have arrived; the dense formation of firearms was certainly capable of suppressing melee-focused Death Legion monsters. Thus, another summoning held little value; it was better to conserve the bloodline energy for the ‘Instant Annihilation’ state.

(This means I’ve drawn most of their military strength away. The situation at the weapons testing facility should be safe now. I’ll leave that to you all…)

Zheng Zha mused internally as he sprinted towards the central atrium. Just as he rounded a corridor corner, four micro-homing missiles shot toward him. These four missiles moved with blinding speed. Before he could react, the missiles slammed hard into his body, detonating violently right beside him…