Ashen God
Chapter 73: Annihilating the Tide of Corpses

Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Annihilating the Tide of Corpses

Zhang Yanhang’s Limitless Universe Skill had after all been upgraded to the Seventh Layer, so even though he still couldn’t achieve true detachment of Spiritual Energy from the body, his techniques had become increasingly varied. This time, he was merely trying it out, yet all it amounted to was blowing up an unprotected brain. Had it hit the Lickers’ flesh, such a small amount of Spiritual Power would hardly have caused significant damage.

Honestly, if it wasn’t necessary, Zhang Yanhang didn’t really want to consume Spiritual Power, because compared to the slow recovery of his Energy Value, using his fists would at most just waste a bit of his Physical Strength. Even after fighting for nearly four hours, his stamina was still quite abundant, and he could definitely last another all-nighter without any issues.

This time, aside from wanting to experiment, another reason was that his waist was entangled by the tongues of three Lickers, and his body was also covered in Zombie Dogs, making it difficult to exert force with his fists. Therefore, he reluctantly used the Spiritual Power to blast the heads.

After dealing with the Lickers, Zhang Yanhang instantly expanded his Energy Shield and flung off all the Zombie Dogs that had been biting at him relentlessly.

Ratatat—

As Zhang Yanhang swung his gun around, a stream of bullets flew out, and the few Zombie Dogs that had been acting imperiously on top of him were instantly killed.

[Successfully killed a First Tier One Star Monster ’Doberman Zombie (Common)’ ×1, Soul points +3.]

[Successfully killed a First Tier One Star Monster ’Alaskan Dog Zombie (Common)’ ×1, Soul points +3.]

[Successfully killed a First Tier One Star Monster ’German Shepherd Zombie (Common)’ ×1, Soul points +3.]

...

After hearing a series of kill notifications, Zhang Yanhang nodded in satisfaction, then took aim once again at the Zombies at the entrance of the alley, "Why do I suddenly feel like I’m playing some sort of tower defense game? It must be an illusion, right?"

After wiping out the Lickers and Zombie Dogs, Zhang Yanhang began to calmly handle the Zombies at the entrance of the alley. He stood expressionless inside the Energy Shield, firing in bursts at the advancing horde of undead.

He had only recently acquired the Energy Shield, so he wasn’t too familiar with it. However, despite his lack of familiarity, he had still learned some small manipulation techniques.

For example, he learned to control the Shield’s external manifestation shape. Initially, the outward state took the form of an eggshell-like oval dome, securely protecting Zhang Yanhang within. But this form was only suitable for ranged output and greatly limited his close-quarters combat, not to mention it was also quite cumbersome to move around in.

Thus, Zhang Yanhang reconfigured the default shape of the external state to closely hug his body, similar to its dormant state, no longer hindering his melee combat and much easier to move in.

At the same time, apart from the ability to contract, the Energy Shield could also expand outwards. Currently, the maximum exaggerated limit was two meters, which was exactly the feature Zhang Yanhang used to catapult the Zombie Dogs that had been clinging to him.

Ratatat—

Bullets continued to fire, the barrel of the M4A1 turned scorching hot due to the inability to dissipate heat, while at the alley entrance, the corpses of the zombies gradually piled up into a macabre wall of flesh and blood that could easily cause human physiological discomfort.

Of course, the interior of the alley wasn’t much better, also filled to the brim with the bodies of Lickers, Zombie Dogs, and a portion of other zombies, with only the area protected by Zhang Yanhang’s Energy Shield remaining somewhat clean.

"The magazine is empty. Do I have to start manually loading bullets again?"

Zhang Yanhang glanced at the various spare magazines in his Waist Bag—all were empty. Mainly because he hadn’t loaded any bullets for a long time before coming here, and now he had encountered a siege by a horde, which completely exhausted his already limited supply of magazines.

"Besides, there’s not much time left before the next wave of Lickers comes. Should I escape? No, escaping is impossible. Without a Tyrant, why should I escape?"

In fact, Zhang Yanhang didn’t necessarily have to escape when facing a Tyrant now. He really feared being overwhelmed if he got tied up by creatures like Lickers, then the Tyrant took the opportunity to unleash a barrage on him—that would be extremely unpleasant.

And when facing a group of Tyrants, his current Energy Shield’s defensive power barely made him immune to attacks from Lickers. But up against the stronger Tyrants, he didn’t even need to think about it to know that his Shield would certainly be breached. Therefore, if he were surrounded by Tyrants, even with a Shield, he might not last long, and depending on the situation, he may have to resort to a blood-selling strategy.

"Alas, although I don’t want to load bullets at a time like this, there’s no choice since the magazines are all empty," sighed Zhang Yanhang as he pulled out a large box of ammunition from his Waist Bag, which contained several thousand 5.56mm caliber bullets. He also took out a manual loading machine.

The principle behind this manual loader was quite simple: align the magazine entrance with the slot, place bullets into the loading port, and once full, push them all into the magazine at once, which was indeed much more convenient than pressing each bullet into the magazine one by one.

Because it was a manual loader, Zhang Yanhang could utilize his quick hands to perfection. Others might need more than half a minute to load a magazine, but with a manual loader, he could finish in just a few seconds.

As Zhang Yanhang loaded the magazine, some zombies that hadn’t been eliminated earlier slowly approached him after crawling over the flesh wall at the alley entrance. However, due to the ground being littered with corpses and slippery with blood, these sluggish zombies with clumsy limbs would often fall after a few steps, then land face-first with ’thumps’.

As the surrounding zombies gradually increased, this continuous ’thumping’ even began to sound rhythmically intriguing.

But Zhang Yanhang had too many empty magazines on hand, including the unconventional Beta C-Mag that could load a hundred rounds. So, while he had hardly filled many, his surroundings were already swarming with zombies. However, these weak creatures, even when he first entered the Ashen World, could not breach his defense, let alone now.

Furthermore, Zhang Yanhang continuously kept his Energy Shield in expansion mode. Most of the encircling zombies were fruitlessly pounding on the Shield with their hands in impotent rage, while a few tried biting it with their teeth. Regardless, neither method could breach the Shield.

Inside the spherical space supported by the Energy Shield, Zhang Yanhang comfortably loaded his bullets. Occasionally, when he found the background noise around him a bit piercing, he would fire randomly, taking out a batch of lucky spectators, then resume loading bullets.