Chapter Eighty-Four: Rescue of Xiao Han

Seeing the man speak with such gravity, Xiao Yang understood at once that the matter could not be simple. The box, though no larger than a match case, had an air of exquisite craftsmanship about it.

After settling their bill, he and Wu Jue left the tavern and returned to their lodgings.

Once the door was closed, they took the box out and examined it closely. They soon discovered a place on its underside marked with a strange symbol. After rubbing it gently a few times, a mass of images suddenly projected from within.

It turned out to be a projection device of alien technology. The footage explained a secret concerning the Heaven Punishment Clan. As an image appeared, like cell division under a microscope, a voice from beyond the frame said, "Hello, unknown friend. If you are seeing this recording, do not be alarmed. This is a high-tech imaging device we seized from the Heaven Punishment Clan. Inside it are some records of the terrible enemy that has invaded our Earth. Please listen carefully as I explain."

"The history of the Heaven Punishment Clan is probably related to a mutation of alien viruses. As for where the earliest members came from, we can no longer know. But from the information we have now, the so-called Heaven Punishment Clan are specialized viruses that infect humans and other living things."

"Once these viruses take over a host, they stimulate mutation within it, creating dreadful transformations. The host may even lose its original reason and become wholly controlled by the virus. It is likely that the earliest Heaven Punishment Clan first occupied certain alien races, then mutated into a new intelligent virus, and thus gave birth to such a terrifying species."

"According to the intelligence and infiltration we have gathered over these days, we have learned that the Heaven Punishment Clan is divided from top to bottom into three major ranks: senior leaders, middle-ranked officers, and lower-ranked soldiers, making up a total of ten classes. The lowest rank, those who infect humans and turn into zombies, are the weakest soldiers of the Heaven Punishment Clan, possessing no special abilities at all and standing at the very bottom of the food chain."

"This kind of virus exists in enormous numbers and can replicate itself. Earth is currently the main battlefield, and at least hundreds of millions of its kind have already multiplied here. From the intelligence we obtained, their legion on Earth is the Seventy-seventh Legion, divided across five continents into more than sixty squads. At present, the main force in the Central Kingdom is Squads Ten through Twenty-five."

"What you need to know is that the composition of a Heaven Punishment Clan squad is usually one main warship, two fortresses, plus a supply warehouse and an experimental site. The leaders are one or two middle-ranked officers, two or three high-ranked soldiers, and the rest are low-ranked soldiers, numbering anywhere from several thousand to over ten thousand."

Hearing this, both Wu Jue and Xiao Yang drew a sharp breath. This was the first time they had ever come into such close contact with the core secrets of the Heaven Punishment Clan, and they could not help committing every word to memory.

The recording went on to reveal even more secrets about the Heaven Punishment Clan, including the fact that its laboratories studied the peoples of various planets, extracting the genes of those with special abilities in order to create soldiers with extraordinary powers.

It seemed that the creatures imprisoned in the fortress that time had been experimental subjects used to create soldiers.

Thinking of this, Wu Jue grew even more worried for Xiao Han. Right now, Xiao Han's safety was the most important thing of all; he absolutely could not be allowed to come to harm. Wu Jue felt it was his duty to protect Xiao Han.

At this point, the recording finally began to mention the most crucial information: the situation of the Heaven Punishment Clan near City C. During the invasion of Earth, they had encountered resistance from those who fought back, and the squad responsible for seizing the city had its system damaged. A batch of their viruses exploded when entering the atmosphere.

Thus City C had narrowly escaped disaster. On top of that, the nearby squads had also met fierce resistance, so organizing new personnel for the occupation had been delayed.

But the cunning Heaven Punishment Clan had not given up on the place. Under the planning of the Nineteenth Squad, which oversaw this war zone, a secret infiltration plan came into being.

Some second-rank soldiers who were skilled in disguise began waiting for opportunities to slip into the vicinity of City C, while secretly abducting those with special powers and continuing their research.

The hotel where Wu Jue and the others had stayed was one of these spies' contact points. The organization had once sent an assassin to lie low there, but unfortunately Wu Jue had interfered and ruined the plan.

That was why the female assassin had given Wu Jue a "greeting gift."

But now, for the sake of their shared interests, the two sides seemed bound to walk the same road. Wu Jue understood that the other side had already extended an olive branch; the question was how he would respond.

According to the message, there was an abandoned factory in the northern suburbs of City C, which was a temporary laboratory of the Heaven Punishment Clan. As for whether the information was true, Wu Jue and the others would have to judge for themselves.

The recording ended there, and the imaging device self-destructed in a burst of flame.

Wu Jue and Xiao Yang exchanged a glance, and with perfect understanding began gathering their things before setting out for the northern suburbs to see for themselves.

"Should we call An Yi?" Xiao Yang asked as he sorted his armor and equipped his weapons.

Wu Jue said, "Didn’t she and the others already go off to clear their heads today? We’ll handle this ourselves."

He strapped on several handguns and slung a bag of ammunition over his back, then pushed the door open and stepped out. For now, it would be best not to provoke the two sisters, Lily and her younger sister, to avoid stirring up more trouble.

The two of them hurried from the room and made their way toward the northern suburbs. Xiao Yang had searched the map in advance and memorized the route, so from the city center they simply took a taxi straight to their destination.

The driver said, "You two must be newcomers. Let me tell you, this kind of thing only exists here. In normal places, you’d never even see a taxi in times like these. Sit tight."

The driver was cheerful and talked all the way about a great many scandals in City C. When they arrived, he even knocked a bit off the fare, leaving Xiao Yang speechless.

After getting out, the two cautiously approached the factory. The place seemed rather eerie, so Wu Jue asked Xiao Yang what it had been used for before.

"Looks like it used to make toys. Maybe counterfeit ones?" Xiao Yang put on his infrared glasses. After a scan, he found that there were people patrolling the factory. He signaled to Wu Jue, and the two flanked it from both sides and slipped directly inside.

Scaling the wall with ease, Xiao Yang suddenly had an image flash through his mind. He adjusted his glasses and said, "Well, I really did play the part of Brother Ma this time!"

Wu Jue had sharp ears and heard him from over there. "Who’s Brother Ma? A great hero?"

Just then, a patrolman spotted the two of them breaking in and raised his weapon, but did not know which one to aim at.

Xiao Yang fired cleanly and shouted, "Of course I mean 'A Better Tomorrow'!"

The man was hit at once and fell to the ground. Before he could even fire, Wu Jue shot twice in quick succession and knocked the machine gun from his hands. "Then let’s be heroes today, too."

Bang, bang, bang. The two of them fired in rapid succession, killing their way forward.

The guards outside were truly mediocre, only a dozen or so. They were easily dealt with, and Wu Jue and Xiao Yang charged straight in, storming into the factory. Xiao Yang began searching carefully for Xiao Han's possible whereabouts.

Wu Jue grabbed one of the men and interrogated him. "Where are the humans you’re holding?"

The other man shook his head hard. "There are no humans. You’re seeking death. We are..."

Without another word, Wu Jue struck him with the butt of his gun and asked again, "Any more nonsense?"

A row of teeth was knocked loose from the man’s mouth. He mumbled indistinctly, "They’re all in the warehouse, being experimented on."

Wu Jue heard this and knew there was no time to lose. He rushed inside, just in time to see someone come out onto the roof and raise a gun to shoot at him. Wu Jue quickly lifted his own weapon and fired.

"I’ll cover you. Get in there now!"

Facing the enemies surging out in waves, Xiao Yang fired left and right, taking them down one after another and giving Wu Jue the chance to push deeper inside.

Wu Jue charged in at once. Along the way he encountered many more enemies who rushed out to attack him furiously, but each of them was blown through the head one by one.

Leaving more than a dozen corpses behind, he finally found the warehouse. Inside, several men were operating machinery to dissect a person.

The scalpel had already been raised, just one cut away from opening the body. Wu Jue saw that the situation was hanging by a thread and, without a second thought, fired a shot. It struck the scalpel squarely, startling the man holding it.

The other man touched the bloody line that had been cut across his face, then suddenly lunged forward and in an instant transformed into a leopard, fierce beyond measure.

From the information he had learned before, Wu Jue knew this was a third-rank low-level soldier of the Heaven Punishment Clan, a fellow who had absorbed the genes of multiple species and possessed the ability to transform.

Without hesitation, he lashed out with a flying kick, clamping down directly on the man's head, twisting hard, and slamming him viciously to the ground.

The End of Chapter Eighty-Four: Rescue Xiao Han