Metallic vanadium is innovatively introduced for a superior aqueous zinc-ion battery cathode material, which is activated through in situ dissolution-deposition transition to amorphous V2O5·3H2O and delivers an excellent capacity of 610 mA h g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 and remarkable capacity retention rate of 80.3% after 1000 cycles at 1 A g-1.