The black bats were each as large as a human, but their wingspan made them seem multiple times larger. There were so many of them that they covered heaven and earth, screeching in the evening light that was now completely obscured from sight. Their eyes were blood-red.
Zhang Lie frowned. "Are these genetic lifeforms?"
The old man tugged on Zhang Lie with a hand. "Follow me."
Zhang Lie discovered that the residents of the village had all returned to their houses. With his dragon's pupils, he saw that they were all sheltering in underground cellars.
"What's going on?"
"There's no time to talk—the demonic bats are almost here!" The old man was surprisingly strong; he dragged Zhang Lie into his house.
"Help me!" he shouted, motioning to the other side of the stove. Zhang Lie lifted it up and moved it aside to reveal a wooden trapdoor. "Quick, hurry and go on in!" The old man beckoned.
The two of them headed into the narrow and cramped cellar, which was about five people wide. It was filled with stockpiled food.
The old man sighed in relief. "Lad, you look thin, but you're surprisingly strong!"
Zhang Lie asked, "Sir, just what's happening outside?"
"From time to time, those demonic bats will fly out of their caves in the evening to attack nearby settlements. They're very strong, and they seek out prey not by relying on their eyes.
"Unless you hide in an underground cellar, they'll be able to find you. I used to have a kid around your age, but his ankle was wounded and he was too slow to join me in the cellar. In the end, he was captured by the bats." The old man's voice suddenly became upset.
Zhang Lie was just about to ask where he was again when crying noises could be heard from outside.
"Let me go!"
The old man's body shuddered. "That brat—it's that brat's voice! He must have been out playing when the bats came!"
The boy's cries were heartwrenching; they pierced through the walls of the cellar. The old man fretted. No one in the village could take down such a large swarm of beasts—no one in the past, that was.
.
As Zhang Lie made to rush outside, the old man held him back. He cried out, "Lad, what are you doing?!"
"Stay here. I'll have a look at how strong these bats are for myself."
The old man tried to drag him back. "No, don't! You'll just lose your life like this!"
"There's nothing to worry about—I don't believe there are any genetic lifeforms that can kill me around here!"
Zhang Lie strode boldly outward to see a monkey-like alien child whose shoulders were clamped tightly by a bat's claws. As he was dragged up into the sky, he shouted, "Let go of me! Save me, please!"
The boy continued to struggle, but he was unable to overcome the bat's strength.
Zhang Lie noted to his surprise that the bats were intelligent enough to use such a tactic rather than to eat him up immediately. They were trying to take advantage of his cries to lure his relatives and kin into helping him, the most effective bait they could come up with.
However, none of the villagers from the village rushed out to help. Clearly, this wasn't the first time this tactic had been tried on them.
Unfortunately for the bats, their opponent was Zhang Lie.
The moment they discovered Zhang Lie, they pounced on him with mocking laughter, as though they were surprised that someone was still falling for their trap after so long. The bats whirled around him like a tornado.
With a snap of his fingers, Zhang Lie caused heaven and earth to shake. A wave of energy emanated from him and shredded the black tornado, sending a rain of blood toward the ground.
A barrier of genetic energy protected Zhang Lie from any of the remnants of his attack. Standing in the blood, he looked like a demonic god who had descended onto the realm.
The third realm was far more stable than the second, as though its structural integrity were reinforced with some formless strength. In the second realm, if he needed to, Zhang Lie could crack the sky with a snap of his fingers, but in the third, all it had done was clear out an entire wave of bats.
It wasn't that Zhang Lie had gotten weaker; the world had simply gotten stronger, as had the lifeforms within. ?If the second realm were a piece of wood, then the third was a bar of steel. Zhang Lie could easily smash apart a piece of wood with a hammer, but not a bar of steel.
Zhang Lie had appeared to be stronger in the second realm because he could manipulate space and time within it. In the third realm, however, these options were currently locked to him.
Another wave of bats approached. Zhang Lie leapt up toward the sky like a loosed arrow.
This time, he punched forward with a fist.
The bats disintegrated before they could draw close, exploding in showers of blood in mid-air. Zhang Lie's gaze landed on the child still struggling and shouting. A gigantic bat suddenly flew before Zhang Lie, blocking his path forward.
It was two or three times larger than the other bats. Its eyes shone with a purplish-red glow. It let out a shrill screech that hurt Zhang Lie's head.
Was this how strong a mutated-grade lifeform in the third realm was? A regular human would have burst from the inside out if they were in close proximity to the bat.
"Scram!" Zhang Lie thundered, roaring like a black dragon. The bat, struck dumb by his aura, suddenly went mute in mid-air.
As Zhang Lie approached, the bat tried to run off.
"[Rune: Gravity]!" With a manifestation of his will, Zhang Lie summoned a dragonturtle tablet, one that crashed down on the bats still in the air.
They fell like rain, thudding on the huts and houses of the village. They screeched as they landed on the ground, but were unable to break free due to the massively increased force of gravity.
Zhang Lie caught the alien boy in his arms. He landed on the ground and released him, but the boy seemed so afraid of the bats still lying and screeching on the ground that he clutched onto Zhang Lie tightly, unwilling to let go.
Zhang Lie's eyes glimmered with rainbow mist, creating a fog that spread throughout the village, and the bats' eyes glazed over with a rainbow sheen.
With a snap of his fingers, the tablet vanished. The bats began to fly into the sky and beyond the horizon.
Zhang Lie clapped his palms. "I've taken care of the bats. You can all come out now!" contemporary romance
His voice resounded for quite a while throughout the village before there was any movement. The first to emerge was the old man who had been with him...
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