Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Lin Feihu's left arm was stained with blood, hastily bandaged with a strip of cloth. They had eliminated about a hundred enemies so far, moving from the outer perimeter into the mid-layer of the base. But according to Feng Xia's intel, her little snake Little Black had detected roughly eight hundred people inside here. Yuan Biao and Lin Feihu dared not let their guard down—one wrong move here and this could become a deadly burial ground.

Just now, a Vanguard soldier moved too slowly, exposing their position. The enemy had ample ammunition, and was now stubbornly holding a line with sheer firepower. Yuan Biao's team couldn't advance an inch and had to temporarily take cover.

Lin Feihu was sweating heavily. His left hand had taken a bullet to save that exposed Vanguard soldier. This veteran had a strong will, gritting his teeth without a sound. He crouched beside Yuan Biao, occasionally popping out to take a shot at the enemy. His marksmanship was deadly accurate, and with the help of a suppressor, he was even more lethal—almost every bullet took down an enemy.

Suddenly, a soft touch fell upon Lin Feihu's wound. He spun around sharply, then let out a long sigh, speaking familiarly: "You damn girl, you scared me to death."

Feng Xia frowned as she sprinkled some medicine powder on his wound: "Deputy Lin, that's not good. You're already injured. Looks like you need to step up your training from now on!"

Lin Feihu nearly cried out from the way Feng Xia treated his wound. The medicine was good, but this girl had quite the grip—Lin Feihu felt like his arm was about to break.

"What're you talking about? My hand's fine, just grazed by a bullet. When we get back, I'm not making you any extra meals." Lin Feihu kept shooting with a straight face, still managing a retort.

Feng Xia was speechless at his remark. On the battlefield, don't ever say that!

He had a good temperament usually. Since Feng Xia joined the team, he'd been taking care of her—adding extra portions, applying for uniforms, all the little chores. In her post-apocalyptic terms, he was a nurturing "male mother." They had the closest bond in the team.

She was always unrestrained; whoever treated her well, she treated them well in return. That was her way.

Now, for her own people, she was generous with the medicine powder. She applied it generously over Lin Feihu's arm, stopping the bleeding and easing the pain. Feng Xia said casually, "I just made a trip to their senior officers. About ten of them, all killed. They were planning to return to their country tomorrow. Not anymore."

She said it lightly, like she'd just killed a chicken. Yuan Biao and Lin Feihu stared at her, then asked her to confirm. Feng Xia roughly described their shoulder patches and uniforms—all high-ranking officers. Everyone around was amazed at her ruthlessness. Yuan Biao even clapped Feng Xia on the shoulder, suppressing his excitement and praising: "Well done, kid!"

The enemy's fire gradually died down, but Feng Xia's expression turned serious. Something was wrong. Very wrong. She had sabotaged the tanks—those tanks shouldn't be able to move. So what trump card did the enemy have left? What was waiting for them?

Feng Xia climbed the wall, found a hidden corner, and peered inside. Sure enough, a crate of grenades was in position. Those were extremely lethal, beyond what the Vanguard soldiers could handle. They needed reinforcements.

A brilliant signal flare burst in the sky. The troops a kilometer away immediately moved, marching at full speed. Their comrades were calling for support.

Feng Xia's voice carried some urgency: "You all fall back. Retreat now. They're bringing out grenades."

The Vanguard soldiers had brought grenades too, but not many. They were like an advance unit, like scouts—light, agile, and swift.

Yuan Biao didn't argue. He trusted Feng Xia's judgment. He ordered the Vanguard soldiers to withdraw first, staying behind to cover the retreat. Orders were orders; the Vanguard soldiers swiftly retreated in an orderly fashion. They had just killed about another hundred people, bringing the Cherry Blossom Country's casualties to around 250–300. That meant there were still at least five hundred in the base—still a lot. While not overwhelming, this was the enemy's home ground, and they had far superior firearms. But the Vanguard squad had done perfectly. The main force still needed to coordinate their attack; there was no reason for a thirty-man squad to single-handedly take down an entire base.

Yuan Biao stayed behind as rearguard, a machine gun in hand, like one man holding off a thousand. Lin Feihu didn't leave either. They had a tacit understanding, covering each other, forming a line of fire. The Cherry Blossom grenades weren't thrown accurately, and most were dodged by the two. Still, both sustained injuries—some were minor, some were serious.

Yuan Biao's leg was shattered by a blast, now hanging limply, bloody and mangled. But this special forces captain seemed unaffected, as if that injured leg wasn't his own, still operating the machine gun and sweeping fire across the area. Feng Xia was even bolder. With a Tang saber, she infiltrated deep into enemy territory, hidden in the shadows, cutting down enemies one by one.

The blood of the Cherry Blossom "dwarfs" almost dyed the blade red. Feng Xia's clothes were soaked through with blood. The overwhelming smell of blood even made Little Black uneasy, but it dared not move. Its owner had become a killing machine in this bloodbath, becoming increasingly frenzied. The southeast side was nearly wiped clean by Feng Xia. The Cherry Blossom soldiers didn't even dare step into this blood-soaked area. The white snow had turned bright red, yet they hadn't even seen their hunter's figure. This was a hell on earth, a forbidden zone.

Perhaps broken by the onslaught, quite a few Cherry Blossom soldiers chose to surrender. They threw down their weapons, holding up ridiculous white flags. The Flower Kingdom had never killed prisoners since ancient times. Lin Feihu herded them to one side. Steady, heavy footsteps approached. Lin Feihu and Yuan Biao exchanged a glance—their reinforcements had arrived.

Soldiers in green uniforms flooded into the base in the blink of an eye, seizing control of every stronghold. Perhaps seeing their leaders dead, or having lost their will to fight, the remaining two to three hundred chose to surrender. Dejected and unwilling but helpless, they were handcuffed one by one by the Flower Kingdom soldiers and lined up to await judgment.

Yuan Biao had been taken away for treatment.

In the southeast corner, moonlight couldn't penetrate this dark corner. The ground was covered in bodies, not a trace of white, only vivid red. Feng Xia stood with her Tang saber, its blade resting on the ground. The slender girl held the hilt, only her eyes visible in the moonlight—like a pool of water in a frozen wasteland, chilling to the bone.

The Flower Kingdom soldiers gazed at the girl with involuntary awe. Such a strong person deserved their respect.

Feng Xia rested for a moment, suppressing the urge to kill. She sheathed her sword cleanly, nodded to the green-uniformed soldiers, and walked deeper into the shadows.

The soldiers cleaned up the battlefield. They were even more astonished to find that almost all the fatal wounds on the bodies were a single cut across the neck—one strike, one kill. Terrifying skill. Thinking of that figure, everyone felt a chill, followed by intense excitement and reverence. That little girl was terrifyingly strong!

Meanwhile, a few prisoners stood near Lin Feihu. One of them, hunched over, had a glint of cold malice in his eyes, staring at Lin Feihu's back from the darkness.

Feng Xia came over. They were talking when she suddenly felt an extremely vicious stare fixed on her and Lin Feihu. Feng Xia's instincts screamed danger.

She walked up to that Japanese man: "You. Take off your clothes."

The Japanese man looked deeply humiliated. Feng Xia had spoken in Japanese, and he understood perfectly. His fingers turned white from tension as he slowly unbuttoned his clothes. He had opened it halfway when suddenly he lunged with force toward Feng Xia and Lin Feihu. By then, Feng Xia had already seen the mines strapped all over his body.

The wind, voices—everything faded away. The world lost its color, leaving only black and white. She saw Lin Feihu shield her behind him; heard the green-uniformed soldiers shouting. Feng Xia's muscle memory moved faster than her mind. With 2400 jin (over 2600 pounds) of force concentrated in her wrist, she didn't know how heavy the short man was. She just used all her strength to hurl this human bomb into the air. She threw so fast it made a loud whoosh.

How high the human bomb flew, she didn't know. She hurled Lin Feihu away from her with all her might. She estimated she might have dislocated his arm.

Then Feng Xia quickly dropped to the ground, covering her head. A fiery explosion shot into the sky, a deafening roar. Almost everyone saw the brilliant burst of fire in the night sky. They stared blankly.

Until the night fell silent.

Lin Feihu, ignoring his own burn injuries from the blast, scrambled toward the explosion center. Tears streamed down his face. He screamed:

"Feng Xia!"