Chapter 53: The Explosion Is So Beautiful!

Team Five’s leader, Guozhang Cheng, walked over and asked, “Old Xu, what’s going on with the catapult?”
Heng Xu glanced at him and replied, “You should ask whoever came up with that dumb idea. The catapult’s range is barely over three hundred meters—are we playing games here?”
After a night of hard work, everyone was full of complaints.
Not to mention, he’d nearly been sniped because of that catapult.
But recalling what Yongpeng Fu had said before he left, Heng Xu patted Guozhang Cheng’s shoulder and said, “Old Cheng, I’m going to get some sleep. Do as you please.”
Cheng glanced at the people preparing explosives and asked, “And what’s going on here?”
Xu replied, “Since we can’t bring down Villa 36, we’ll blow up the two villas next to it first.”
It seemed reasonable enough.
Cheng followed along.
Xu asked, “Why are you coming with me?”
Cheng said, “To sleep, of course. If we can’t blow up Villa 36, what’s the point of staying up?”
Xu looked at his old friend—he had a point.
…
Bang!
Miao Su fired.
The bullet seemed to miss, failing to hit the explosive pack.
Two stacked bundles of explosives whistled through the air, slamming into the villa east of number 36. With a thunderous boom, the ground shook violently.
The lavishly decorated villa burst apart, debris flying, dust billowing skyward.
Miao Su felt Villa 36 itself tremble.
The wave of dust spread, further obscuring her already poor line of sight for shooting.
Seconds later, two more explosive packs came flying, demolishing another villa ahead.
“Ah! Ah!”
“Help, help! Somebody save me!”
“Mommy! Mommy!”
“Run! Hurry!”
“Don’t stop me!”
…
There were still many survivors hiding in that villa.
Like those in the other destroyed buildings, these were refugees who had escaped control during Miao Su’s annihilation of Xi Yan’s team.
With a landslide hemming them in on one side and the notorious “Butcher Witch” Miao Su attracting all the enemy’s fire from the rear, they hadn’t tried to run, choosing instead to stay hidden in the villa.
After all, outside the rainstorm was torrential. Even if they wanted to escape, there was nowhere to go.
Worse yet, the rain was getting colder due to dropping temperatures. Anyone caught outside too long risked dying of exposure.
So, even now, with the storm momentarily abated, they dared not leave.
Still, they never imagined their own shelter would be targeted so mercilessly once the attackers realized Villa 36 was out of reach.

Cries, screams, wails, and desperate calls for loved ones mingled in the air.
Those who survived rushed outside.
Even as some were knocked down and trampled, no one dared stop moving.
At that moment, the other refugees hiding in neighboring villas no longer dared to stay—they all fled outside, terrified they would be next.
From the two blasted villas, fires blazed furiously.
Miao Su maintained her magical barrier, blocking the flying shrapnel, glass, and shockwaves. Someday, she thought, she’d return the favor.
The wind fanned the flames, thickening the smoke and dispersing the dust enough to give Miao Su a faint window for another shot.
Calculating the previous bullet’s trajectory, she adjusted her M416 rifle slightly.
The attackers were lighting fresh explosive charges.
They seemed pleased with their success—even if they hadn’t hit Villa 36, the blast, shrapnel, and glass might still affect Miao Su.
That was enough to satisfy them.
This time, they decided to increase the payload.
On one catapult, they loaded ten bundles of high explosive, each weighing twenty kilograms, and lit the fuse.
The adjacent catapult was loaded the same way.
They intended to blow every reachable villa sky high.
“Damn, we didn’t even demolish one villa last time! That was disappointing.”
“They’re all reinforced concrete—this time we’ll bring them down!”
“All right, light it up, fire!”
A charge had just launched.
Bang!
Miao Su’s bullet struck the explosive pack dead-on.
At that moment, the pack was five meters above the catapult, eight meters off to the side.
It exploded in midair, the searing gases expanding rapidly, sending a devastating shockwave outward.
Several team members standing by the catapult were instantly killed, and the machine itself split apart.
The explosive on the other catapult detonated simultaneously.
Every squad member and expendable refugee at the scene was sent flying; who might survive, no one could say.
Watching the twin explosions light up the night, Miao Su quickly withdrew her M416 and crouched, shivering, below the window.
She’d hit the charge—that explosion was spectacular!
Xiao’an Xia stole a glance outside—Sister Miao Su was amazing!
She saw flames from the blast streaking up the mountain, like shooting stars, incredibly beautiful.
…
Heng Xu had been heading off to sleep.
So had Guozhang Cheng.
But neither had gone far before a tremendous explosion rocked the air behind them, the ground quaking with terrifying force.

What now?
Xu turned and saw flames shooting up from the catapult site.
Against that inferno, the fires in the landslide area’s villas looked insignificant.
“Damn!”
Xu sprinted for the catapult field.
Cheng hurried after him.
When they arrived, they found the vast area nearly devoid of survivors.
Constructing the catapults had required many expendable refugees, and to keep them in line, nearly thirty squad members were assigned as guards, including one team leader.
But after this blast, only two who had slipped away remained unscathed.
Eight were lightly wounded, six gravely injured, the rest wiped out.
Among the dead were two squad leaders.
The six who were gravely wounded would likely die as well—there was no saving them.
As for the expendable refugees, their lives didn’t count in the reckoning.
Even so, seeing the rain-soaked ground stained red with blood and littered with corpses, the scale of the loss was obvious.
Xu’s face went deathly pale—the casualties were enormous.
“What the hell happened?”
He grabbed a lightly wounded squad member by the collar and demanded an answer.
“Leader Xu, they were launching explosives with the catapult, but the charge exploded just after launch, setting off the rest as well.”
“I heard a single gunshot before the blast, sounded like it was that Butcher Witch.”
Blood streamed down the man’s face as he spoke.
He was deeply thankful he hadn’t insisted on staying to watch the villa blow—he’d gone to the toilet instead and narrowly escaped death.
“Old Xu, with so many dead, how are we supposed to answer to the boss?”
Cheng’s scalp tingled with fear.
Xu replied, “If you’re asking me, who am I supposed to ask?”
He looked toward Villa 36, illuminated by the fires across the landslide zone, a nameless dread rising in his heart.
Cheng clenched his jaw and whispered, “Should we gather the team and run?”
Xu shot him a glance, saying nothing.
Idiot!
Was this the place to say such things?
A gunshot rang out. Cheng’s eyes widened as he collapsed, warm blood splattering Xu’s face.
Out of the darkness, someone approached, smiling. “Leader Xu, the boss wants to see you.”
Xu swallowed hard. “All right.”