"You can't, can you?"
Lu Heng offered a smile, though it held a hint of mockery.
When he had first opened the large door, they had already tried. Machine guns had fired at him simultaneously, yet he remained unharmed, the bullets even rebounding and injuring some of their own men with stray shots.
"What do you mean?" Old Wang voiced the question on everyone's minds.
"Exactly what I said! Have you all gone stupid from staying here too long? I'd imagine anyone who can be a soldier, and has reached this unit, wouldn't have a low level of education."
"Are the zombies like you?"
"Bingo!"
"Humans without special abilities are useless against zombies, even with all these guns and cannons you possess."
Lu Heng raised his left hand. A massive ice blade materialized in his grip, and with a sweep of his arm, he brought it down onto the ground.
With a "boom," the concrete surface cracked deeply from the impact of the ice.
"Damn! What the hell did you just create?"
"An ice blade. Go on, try it. But you'd better put something underneath before you touch it; I'm afraid you'll lose your hand."
Lu Heng tossed the ice blade towards them. It struck the ground with a crisp sound, yet the blade remained completely intact.
The ice constructs Lu Heng created not only possessed an extremely low temperature but were also as hard as metal, far beyond ordinary ice.
Even before touching the ice blade, the men within the mountain base felt a chilling cold permeate the air.
Old Wang didn't dare to touch the ice blade. From the biting cold emanating from it, he knew he couldn't. Even with layers of padding, he would still suffer frostbite.
"Let me show you something else."
With his hands held up as if to support something, a ball of red flame appeared in Lu Heng's left hand, while his right hand held a large sphere of purple lightning, crackling ominously.
"The flame in my left hand is incredibly hot and can melt all the metal here. The lightning in my right hand can kill all of you."
The lightning sphere floated upwards, instantly splitting into dozens of smaller lightning orbs that hovered above the soldiers' heads, awaiting Lu Heng's command.
"You can control multiple natural elements?" Commander Sun took a few steps forward. He now fully understood how vulnerable humans were in the face of ability users. Yet, despite this, he stepped forward.
"Normally, ability users only evolve one ability. But I'm a genius, the defying-heaven kind." Lu Heng boasted again.
"Then how can you help us improve our levels, or rather, what do we have to pay to get those crystals from you?"
He also understood that without the crystals, they would be confined to this place until they died of old age, or until a zombie attack turned them into the very creatures they feared.
Their only way out was the person before them, this Lu Heng, who could lead them out into the sunlight. But there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world; they would have to offer something precious in return.
"You don't need to worry too much. I've already taken in a whole regiment. There are only thirty of you left here, and frankly, I don't care much for you. If I were to kill you all, all the items here would still be mine."
Lu Heng spoke the truth. Before him, they were like ants. Everything they had once been was now completely reversed.
"Alright, tell us what you want. Everyone here listens to me, and I can make the decisions."
Commander Sun spoke again. His soldiers did not voice any dissent, indicating that his words were indeed true.
"Good, you're willing to listen. I want all the ammunition and supplies here. I also like soldiers, though there are some disobedient ones among them, but I have my ways of identifying them. For now, you all seem fine."
"Wuuu wuuu wuuu..." The person who had been tied to the ground earlier made a sound.
"However, this one truly refuses to obey, doesn't he? How about I get rid of this useless subordinate for you?"
Lu Heng manipulated the ice blade, which had been thrown onto the ground, and dragged it towards the person lying there. The ice blade made a grating sound on the floor.
"No!" Commander Sun quickly interjected.
The dragging of the ice blade paused. The young man on the ground stopped struggling, his eyes wide with fear as he stared at the ice blade.
"Hmm, alright."
The ice blade hovered not too far from the man, its chilling aura causing him to flinch.
"We are already here. According to you, you can take our lives at any moment, so we have no trump cards left. Believe it or not, our fate now rests entirely on your will."
"Hmm, but I don't know much about these missiles. Can the missiles here be relocated?"
"No, there are about a hundred missile launch silos buried in this mountain. They are fixed structures and cannot be moved," Commander Sun shook his head.
"Then can you show me how you control the missile launches? Also, how far can these missiles strike?"
"Yes, I can take you to see. You few, put away your weapons and quickly tend to the injured." Commander Sun, seeing that an agreement had been reached and sensing a willingness to pledge allegiance, instructed the others.
"Which ones are injured? Your medical kits have treated people, but these gunshot wounds will probably take a long time to heal."
"Can you make them heal faster?"
"Heh heh, won't we know if we try? My abilities aren't just limited to killing."
Soon, four injured men were brought over. One of them had already fallen unconscious.
Lu Heng examined the unconscious man first. A bullet had struck his chest, seemingly grazing his heart as it passed through, making him the most severely wounded.
"Oh dear, after talking for so long, he's still not dead. If I don't save him, he probably won't make it through the night."
Even with a full set of medical equipment, such a severe injury would be difficult to survive, relying entirely on fate.
"How will you save him?"
Commander Sun was also getting anxious. He had been confronting Lu Heng, and his men hadn't mentioned the severity of this person's injury. At the time, they had all been scattered and hiding behind cover.
"I can bring the dead back to life and mend bones."
As he spoke, Lu Heng roughly tore open the man's shirt, exposing the wound on his chest. He then placed his right hand below the injured spot on the man's chest.
Lu Heng channeled the energy within his body, utilizing the wound-healing ability he had obtained from Lin Xue. In front of everyone's watchful eyes, he made the bullet wound on the man's chest visibly recover.
First, the bullet lodged in the chest was slowly pushed out of the wound, sliding from the chest to the ground. Then, the wound rapidly healed, leaving not even a scar.