Outside the ring of fire, the insectoids' screams of agony filled the air. Driven by the wind, the flames burned ever brighter, but no one gave up. After nearly ten minutes, not a single insectoid dared to cross the wall of fire.
It is difficult for any animal to go against its nature. Insects are most afraid of fire, and since they can only climb but cannot fly, this five-meter-high wall of fire made it difficult for them to break through for a while.
The girl surnamed Gao was standing next to Xiao Lou. Xiao Lou had a pretty good impression of her. Seeing her staring at the ring of fire with a serious expression, Xiao Lou turned around and asked, "What's going on with you? How did you suddenly get chased by the Zerg army?"
Gao Xiaoyi explained, "At first, five Zerglings broke into our temporary factory, probably the vanguard. We took them out, and we just breathed a sigh of relief when we heard the commotion of the Zerg army… The five Zerglings made a sharp cry before they died, and we couldn't understand their language. I think they were probably calling for their comrades."
The bespectacled man next to him added, "We escaped as a group using the [ Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell ] card, but this card only allows the entire team to teleport one kilometer, and the Zerg quickly caught up with us."
Xiao Lou thought about it carefully. When they took out those five vanguard Zerg, they also heard a piercing scream. Maybe those Zerg had also notified their comrades in the rear.
He turned to look at Yu Hanjiang, who was also glancing at him. The two communicated through the Telepathic Connection. Xiao Lou said, "If what she said is true, and the Zerg sent a signal before they died, there should be another wave of Zerg coming to wipe us out."
Yu Hanjiang said, "We'll see how things go. Be prepared to evacuate at any time."
Just then, the two heard Ye Qi suddenly ask, "After you were surrounded by the Zerg, there were many ways to escape. Why did you run towards our warehouse? Did your captain tell you to?
His gaze was fixed on Cheng Ziyang, who was not far away.
Cheng Ziyang smiled slightly and said, "That's right. I thought that since the Zerg were attacking the East City District, you would definitely be in danger, so I notified you to evacuate as soon as possible. Gao Xiaoyi even used a megaphone to shout 'Run!' and told the surrounding Challengers to evacuate as well."
Everyone saw Gao Xiaoyi's loudspeaker. The loudspeaker card she was holding was probably a card that could amplify sound effects. Everyone could hear her voice very clearly from a distance, much like the kind of announcements you hear in subway stations or airports.
The fact that Gao Xiaoyi was using a loudspeaker from so far away to warn everyone to evacuate immediately shows that she was genuinely trying to alert them. Ye Qi trusted this girl, but he didn't trust Cheng Ziyang, given Cheng Ziyang's past betrayal.
The scene of Cheng Ziyang stabbing Ye Qi in the chest in his dream replayed in his mind. Ye Qi felt uneasy. Could this senior Cheng have thought the Zerg army was too difficult to deal with and deliberately lured them here to trap them? Would he really be so kind as to simply notify them to evacuate?
However, Cheng Ziyang's reasoning was not refuted on the surface, and Ye Qi couldn't say much more.
With a formidable enemy at hand, internal strife within the Challenger team was not an option, so Ye Qi temporarily put his unease aside.
Snow was still falling from the sky, but the raging fire instantly melted the snowflakes, creating a ring of fire that seemed to form a natural barrier, blocking the Zerg's path. Just then, Liu Qiao suddenly flew over and whispered, "Another large group of Zerg is coming from behind!"
At this moment, Xiao, Yu, Shao, Ye, and the people from Distant Place Association stood in front to defend against the Zerg, while Mo, Long, Qu, and Liu the Fourth were sent by Xiao Lou to the back of the warehouse, firstly to prevent the Zerg from attacking from behind, and secondly to guard the escape route behind the warehouse.
Although the gasoline fire circle surrounded the warehouse 360 degrees, leaving no gap for the Zerg to squeeze in, they still had to guard against a sneak attack from the rear.
Upon hearing Liu Qiao's voice, Yu Hanjiang's expression changed slightly: "What's going on?"
Liu Qiao whispered, "Old Mo threw the eavesdropping device onto a tree some distance away, and we heard the sound of a large number of Zerg crawling this way."
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance—just as expected.
The Five Insect Vanguard Team from the Distant Place Association lured a group of Zerg to surround them. The vanguard team, wiped out by Xiao Lou and his group at the warehouse, also sent a signal before their deaths, indicating that a Zerg army was behind each vanguard team. Since Cheng Ziyang led his team to the warehouse, they were now forced to face attacks from both sides of the Zerg!
Yu Hanjiang turned to Cheng Ziyang and said, "A large number of Zerg are coming soon. Take out your cards and get ready. Don't let the Zerg get into the fire!"
Gao Xiaoyi and the others nodded, their faces pale as they held the cards in their hands.
The situation ahead is currently relatively optimistic. The Zerg are being burned to death. Humans naturally have oil in their bodies, and low-level Zerg like to live in groups. With so many humanoid creatures crammed together, a single fire can burn a large number of them!
Of course, upon seeing the flames, the Zerg will spontaneously merge and upgrade. The upgraded Zerg will be faster and can crawl like the wind to avoid the damage from the flames, but they still cannot directly break through the fire circle.
Xiao Lou looked at Yu Hanjiang and thought to himself, "Letter by carrier pigeon."
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "Okay."
He glanced at Shao Qingge, then leaned close to CEO Shao's ear and whispered, " Xiao Lou will summon Li Qingzhao. CEO Shao, make a copy. We'll ignite the fire so the Zerg behind can't catch up."
Shao Qingge understood and immediately used [ Rich and Willful ] to copy the card when Xiao Lou summoned Li Qingzhao.
Who sends a letter from the clouds? (Li Qingzhao's poem)
The "Pigeon Messenger" skill was originally for exchanging messages, but the skill also includes a description that allows pigeons to carry items weighing up to 100kg to a designated location, similar to "Pigeon Express".
When Yu Hanjiang and his group went to the gas station to move gasoline, they buried a large amount of gasoline around the area and left several barrels in the bus for emergencies. The weight of those gasoline barrels was kept under 100 kg. Finding gasoline and setting up an ambush was Yu Hanjiang's idea, but it was Xiao Lou's idea to use Li Qingzhao's carrier pigeon to send messages to the insect swarm.
Now, the time is almost right.
While Shao Qingge was copying the card, Ye Qi had already cleverly run back to the bus and used the teleportation card to bring over two cans of gasoline.
Upon seeing the gasoline can, Gao Xiaoyi said worriedly, "If we pour gasoline now, what if it catches fire and we get burned? This is gasoline, it can explode!"
Xiao Lou said, "Don't worry, that won't happen."
The next moment, two pigeons suddenly appeared in front of them. They looked no different from ordinary homing pigeons and were quite cute. However, they actually lifted the gasoline can with their claws with ease!
The members of the Distant Place Association stared wide-eyed.
The boy wearing glasses almost lost his glasses. He couldn't help but exclaim, "This card for moving things is really useful... but why is it a pigeon?"
Someone nearby guessed, "Is it based on the principle of carrier pigeons?"
Xiao Lou drilled a hole in the gasoline drum. To prevent the fire wall from directly killing the pigeons, he controlled the pigeons to fly several meters above the fire wall. One pigeon flew forward quickly. Because the gasoline drum it was carrying was leaking, it sprayed gasoline downwards as it flew, causing the already raging flames to spread rapidly along with the gasoline!
Meanwhile, the Zerg army soon arrived behind the warehouse.
Using the same method, Xiao Lou had another pigeon cloned by Shao Qingge fly towards the swarm of insects with the leaking oil bucket. A few seconds later, a deafening scream came from behind!
Old Mo shouted, "A bunch of them were killed in the bombing, and they can't get through for the time being!"
Gao Xiaoyi from the Distant Place Association gave a thumbs-up in admiration: "That's brilliant, that's a great idea." She looked at the short-haired girl standing next to her and said, " Xue Qing, quick, you can use your chemicals like this too."
The short-haired girl took out a card, and as the card was activated, bottles of clear liquid appeared in her hand.
Ye Qi asked curiously, "Can the stuff in this bottle keep being produced? What is it?"
The girl named Xue Qing smiled shyly and said, "This is ethanol, which is the component of alcohol that we commonly use. Maybe because I'm a chemistry student, I only drew chemical reagent cards, like sulfuric acid, nitric acid, potassium permanganate, and sodium chloride..."
A row of ethanol bottles quickly appeared at her feet. Xiao Lou thought to himself, with this chemistry major in the Distant Place Association, clearing Spade 8 Secret Chamber will be much easier, since she can produce alcohol indefinitely, which is perfect for dealing with the Zerg.
Xue Qing frowned slightly and said, "It's difficult to throw this alcohol into the swarm; it will be blocked by the fire wall."
Xiao Lou said, "It's okay, keep it as a backup."
It would be very difficult to throw alcohol over a five-meter-high wall of fire unless it was thrown from a great height.
Just then, Long Sen suddenly ran over and said, "I have a solution! My badminton card has been upgraded. Before, I could only play badminton, but now I have a second skill that allows me to hit other things far away, just like throwing a shot put. The farthest throw is 100 meters!"
He picked up a bottle of alcohol from the ground and looked at Xue Qing: "I'll give it a try."
Xue Qing nodded immediately: "Okay, take whatever you like."
With a formidable enemy at hand, everyone was forced to join forces to deal with two waves of Zerg. The howling of the Zerg swarms outside was terrifying. At this point, there was no need to hide anything from each other; all the best cards had to be used.
Long Sen picked up a bottle of alcohol and forcefully hit it away with a badminton racket!
He chose a landing point a hundred meters away; the alcohol traced a perfect parabola in the air. ( Yu Hanjiang) Lightness Skill flew up, glanced at it, and nodded to Long Sen, saying, "Okay, it's been splashed on the Zerg in the distance. Continue."
Long Sen was extremely excited; this high-altitude badminton racket throwing technique was quite useful.
He pumped out bottle after bottle of the alcohol that Xue Qing had made.
With the help of various fuels, the fire showed no signs of going out. Waves of Zerg outside were burned to death. Eventually, they could no longer withstand the scorching flames, and their cries subsided. Liu Qiao flew high into the sky and exclaimed with delight, "It seems they have decided to retreat. The Zerg that were not burned to death in the distance have all fled in other directions!"
Yu Hanjiang also flew up and took a look.
Ahead, there were charred corpses everywhere, a scene like a living hell, too gruesome to bear.
The fire spread for hundreds of meters, and a large number of the Zerg were burned to death.
The Zerg that hadn't been burned were fleeing rapidly in another direction.
Behind the warehouse, the second batch of Zerg, which was stopped by the flames as soon as they arrived, did not suffer as many casualties as the first batch. After all, they saw the fire from afar and were not foolish enough to run into it, unlike the first batch, who were caught off guard by the explosion when they got close to the gasoline drums.
The second wave of Zerg mostly stopped advancing. If Xiao Lou hadn't suddenly used a carrier pigeon to pour gasoline and set the area on fire, they might not have suffered such a terrible fate. Nearly half of them died, while the other half quickly retreated away from the scorching flames.
The cries grew weaker and weaker, and soon, the surroundings returned to calm.
Xiao Lou's invincible Compass timer has ended, and the smell of burning and thick smoke is choking everyone.
They instinctively covered their mouths and noses. After what seemed like an eternity, with no sound from outside, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The heavy snow was still falling, and the firelight illuminated the sky. The snowflakes looked as if they were tinged with a golden-red hue from the flames, fluttering down in a flurry.
Gao Xiaoyi exhaled and said, "It seems... the Zerg have retreated?"
Cheng Ziyang gave a thumbs up and smiled at Xiao Lou, saying, "You guys are really amazing. You managed to chase away so many bugs."
Xiao Lou replied calmly, "You flatter me."
He didn't want to say another word to Cheng Ziyang. Seeing this person reminded him of the first time he met Ye Qi in Spade 3, when the poor little guy dressed up as a garbage collector and secretly hid in the middle of the night to eat cookies.
Although Cheng Ziyang didn't kill Ye Qi directly, he almost caused Ye Qi's death, so naturally everyone disliked him.
However, surrounded by the Zerg, they couldn't easily drive the people away, nor could they afford to start an internal conflict at this time.
Cheng Ziyang noticed that Xiao Lou's attitude towards him was completely different from his attitude towards Gao Xiaoyi, Xue Qing, and others, so he stopped trying to embarrass himself and turned back to give his teammates some instructions.
Ye Qi tossed the eavesdropping device a short distance away, listened for a while, and said, "No movement. Did they really retreat?"
Xiao Lou said, "They are indeed very afraid of fire and cannot break through the fire circle."
Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Ye Qi suddenly said, "Something seems off." He walked up to Xiao Lou with a serious expression and handed the other end of the eavesdropping device to Xiao Lou.
Ye Qi's eavesdropping device can be deployed three times at the same time. One is hidden inside the Yeti, one is given to Lao Mo to guard the rear, and Ye Qi drops the other at the location where the Zerg army is retreating. Xiao Lou takes it and listens carefully...
The sound was strange; it didn't sound like the crunching of footsteps on snow. It was a rustling sound, like small animals rummaging through something in the middle of the night, and it was so faint that it was hard to hear unless you listened carefully.
Unable to determine what it was, Xiao Lou handed the eavesdropping device to Yu Hanjiang so he could listen to it.
Upon hearing this, Yu Hanjiang immediately frowned and said, "It sounds like mice digging holes—they're burrowing underground."
The expressions on everyone's faces suddenly changed.
Ye Qi realized what was happening and said with a pale face, "They can't fly, but they can burrow underground?!"
******