Free Web NovelChapter 138: Chapter 137: Spoils of War
"Stamina?"
Fu Juemin was slightly taken aback and couldn’t help but ask, "You think you can outlast it?"
Xu Hengjiang paused but didn’t explain. "You’ll see in a moment," he said.
At that moment, gunfire began to rise from the open field below as the Ghost Camp men, who had been lying in ambush in the snow, started getting up one after another.
This group was extremely coordinated, their movements showing a deep-seated, instinctual understanding of one another.
Advancing, providing cover, flanking... they were adept at all sorts of tactics. At first glance, the entire squad might have looked a bit messy, but in reality, they were relaxed yet cohesive, seemingly disorganized but never in chaos.
Each man fired two shots at most. If both missed, they immediately stopped shooting.
They never wasted a bullet, nor did they get greedy and recklessly push forward.
If someone accidentally drew too much of the Demon Boar’s ire and found themselves targeted, a comrade nearby would immediately open fire to draw its attention away. If that didn’t work, several men acting as "live bait" would jump out, using the scent of the Corpse Oil on their bodies to help pull its focus.
Their marksmanship was incredibly precise. They must have known long ago that ordinary rifle bullets couldn’t penetrate the Demon Boar’s hide, so they focused exclusively on its soft, weak points like the eye sockets, mouth, nose, and ear canals.
They were exceptionally conservative with their ammunition, never wasting bullets on pointless probing shots.
As a result, the gunfire across the fields maintained a restrained and precise rhythm. It wasn’t intense at all. If an onlooker couldn’t see the massive, stinking thing in the middle and only heard the sounds, they might have thought it was some kind of target practice.
Compared to Fu Juemin’s previous experiences besieging demons, where gunfire and cannonades raged intensely from start to finish, the difference in skill was starkly apparent.
The Ghost Camp crew toyed with the Demon Boar as if it were a stupid dog. They were just short of making clicking sounds with their tongues to taunt it.
If the Demon Boar had an Anger Value bar, it would have been skyrocketing straight through the roof right about now.
This situation continued for some time. Then, at a certain moment, all the Ghost Camp men suddenly scattered outward and quickly dropped to the ground.
In the next instant, the Demon Boar in the open field froze abruptly, then began to tremble violently.
A murky, dark-yellow ring of mist rapidly spread out from beneath its body, followed by a torrent of black bone spikes shooting out like a torrential downpour.
SWOOSH—
The sharp sound of something slicing through the air echoed across the plains. For a moment, it was as if someone had blown hundreds of shrill whistles across the fields!
"Fall back!"
Xu Hengjiang barked, taking the lead in retreating behind the earthen slope.
Fu Juemin initially thought he meant to dodge the black bone spikes. ’Isn’t this warning a little late?’ he wondered.
But he quickly realized he was mistaken. A foul stench, many times stronger than before, drifted over with the wind. Even though he had been holding a handkerchief over his nose and mouth, he still inhaled a good amount. The smell hit him so hard his vision went black and his stomach churned.
A few of the Qinglian Gang men who were slightly slower to retreat were even knocked unconscious by the stench, collapsing to the ground.
"Don’t worry, the smoke isn’t poisonous."
Xu Hengjiang’s voice was cold and hard. "The bone spikes, on the other hand, are extremely toxic. A single touch means death. Fortunately, their range isn’t too great."
Fu Juemin waved for his men to drag away the few unconscious Qinglian Gang members. A strange glint flashed in his eyes as he looked at Xu Hengjiang and remarked with feeling, "You guys are some expert raiders..."
"Raiders?"
Xu Hengjiang frowned. "What does that mean?"
Fu Juemin shook his head and said no more, walking back up the slope to look down below.
He saw that after the Demon Boar had maxed out its "Anger Value" and unleashed its "Big Move," the "live bait" among the Ghost Camp team all got up. They once again stripped off their warm outer clothes and sprinted in the same direction.
The already enraged Demon Boar let out a low growl and lumbered after them without a second thought. After releasing that volley of bone spikes and yellow smoke, its entire body had visibly shrunk by a size, and its movements had become much more agile.
The "live bait" ran for their lives, but the distance between them and the Demon Boar continued to shrink.
This time, however, the other Ghost Camp men didn’t step in to help. After getting up from the ground, they actually continued to retreat even farther away.
Just as the "live bait" were about to be caught...
BOOM! With a tremendous crash, the ground beneath the charging Demon Boar suddenly collapsed without any warning.
At the same time, the "live bait" reached a mound of earth that showed clear signs of digging and, without hesitation, tumbled inside to take cover.
The next second—
BOOM—
An earth-shattering explosion erupted!
Fu Juemin felt the earthen slope beneath his feet tremble violently.
It was as if an invisible giant had stomped furiously on the ground, causing the entire field to shudder!
A Chi-colored pillar of fire, over ten feet tall, visibly shot out from the pit the Demon Boar had fallen into. Before black smoke could even rise, it was followed by a series of deafening explosions.
BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!!!
Chain explosions followed one after another! Each one deeper and more violent than the last!
In his field of vision, the deep pit and the ground in a thirty-foot radius around it were like a block of tofu struck by a giant hammer. The earth violently buckled upward, shattered, and was then pulverized into dust!
Countless fragments—a mixture of dirt, gravel, flames, thick smoke, and the Demon Boar’s remains—were hurled dozens of feet into the air by the violent blast wave, then scattered everywhere. It was like a small volcanic eruption.
Even Fu Juemin experienced a moment of tinnitus. Looking around, almost everyone, including Big Cat and Kitty, was stunned by the terrifying chain explosions, their expressions frozen.
Only Xu Hengjiang remained completely unfazed.
The aftershock of the blast shook the slope beneath them, causing dirt to trickle down.
As the echoes of the explosions gradually faded across the open field, the Ghost Camp men rose from their cover and cautiously advanced toward the pit trap, rifles at the ready.
At this point, Xu Hengjiang finally spoke again, his voice as steady as if he were recounting some mundane, everyday event:
"...We reinforced the surface of the pit. Four or five ordinary people could walk over it without issue, but it couldn’t bear the Demon Boar’s weight.
I buried three layers of gunpowder at the bottom. The weight triggers the detonation, setting them off layer by layer.
When I said we’d wear down its stamina, I didn’t mean running it until it was tired. The goal was to make it expel the evil energy accumulated inside its body, to soften and loosen up its belly... Otherwise, even three layers of gunpowder might not have been enough.
As for the plan you first proposed..."
Xu Hengjiang shook his head and added, "Completely unworkable.
This Demon Boar’s hide is too thick and tough. If you don’t detonate the explosives right against its belly, even twice the amount would, at best, only half-kill it. And it would easily escape..."
"Incredible."
Fu Juemin clapped lightly, his admiration unconcealed. "One last question—I’m just too curious. To develop such a brilliant battle plan, during your preliminary drills... just how many men did you lose?"
Xu Hengjiang didn’t speak.
After a moment, he met Fu Juemin’s gaze, each word seemingly ground out from his chest. "Perhaps in the eyes of someone like you, the lives of my men are as cheap as straw.
But in my eyes... the life of every single one of my brothers is more precious than yours.
I, Xu Hengjiang, would never let them die in vain for a bit of hazard pay."
"Insolence!"
Several Qinglian Gang men at his side paled with anger, viciously drawing their guns and pressing them to the back of Xu Hengjiang’s head. "How dare you speak to our Young Master like that?!"
Fu Juemin, however, waved his hand dismissively, ordering them to lower their weapons. He then smiled at Xu Hengjiang, patted his shoulder, and said softly, "You’re wrong.
In my eyes, the lives of you and your men are far more ’valuable’ than you can imagine."
After speaking, Fu Juemin paid no mind to Xu Hengjiang’s reaction and led his men straight toward the crater.
Ever since he had come into contact with the world’s Extraordinary secrets and started hunting the Demon Race and other evils, this siege of the Iron-Maned Demon Boar was by far the smoothest and most uneventful.
The entire process was under complete control, with no unexpected incidents. Watching it from start to finish was even oddly satisfying.
The battle was handled by his subordinates, while he only needed to step forward and calmly collect the "spoils of war" once the dust had settled—
’This is exactly how I always hoped it would be.’
