Chapter 264: Dynamiting Fish

Chapter 264: Fried Fish

At 2,500 meters above the earth, within the cramped cockpit of a Mosquito bomber.

Leijie huddled in the unair‑conditioned cabin, shivering, and could not help but mutter:

“This contraption can only fly in summer! It’s freezing!”

“Next time we go up, we’ll need at least an electric heater—my feet are turning to ice!”

As the words fell, a voice crackled over the radio, Chen Jian asking:

“Do you want to turn back now? We still have time!”

“Hypothermia will be fatal; you lack a life‑support monitor, so you can’t gauge your own condition!”

“No need!”

Leijie shook his head instinctively, then said:

“I know where I stand! The core temperature holds, only my hands and feet are numb.”

“My navigation data is drifting; can you see my exact position?”

“The Doppler fix is accurate—120 km from the target; we can start descending.”

Chen Jian continued:

“The terrain map has been sent to your PDA; you can run visual matching.”

“Understood, preparing visual match.”

Leijie’s words hung in the air as a three‑dimensional map flickered onto his smart visor.

He eased the control stick to lose altitude; once the aircraft slipped beneath the clouds, the visor’s live feed streamed to the PDA, where graphic‑matching calculations began.

Deprived of Fuxi’s aid, the process crawled under the limited computing power.

Yet eventually Leijie fixed his bearings.

At that moment he was less than 110 km in a straight line from Hanwater City, with the unmistakable White Lotus River reservoir sprawled below.

Using the inflow of the Xishui River into the reservoir as a reference, he nudged his flight path, pulling the stick to the right.

The frightfully light aircraft responded deftly, arcing gently to the right before Leijie leveled it again.

He plotted a straight shot over the Huangzhou ruins, the shortest route straight into the skies above Hanwater City.

“Are the target’s characteristics clear?”

Leijie shouted the question; moments later Chen Jian’s voice crackled back through the headset.

“No need to shout; the helmet’s noise‑cancellation is excellent.”

“The target comprises three Level‑Four monsters and one Level‑Three creature.”

“The Level‑Four beasts are of unknown make, save for a single Blade‑Armored Beast whose traits are known.”

“The Level‑Three monster is an approximately 16‑meter‑tall aberration, currently prowling the Yangtze waters east of Hanwater City.”

“The river is spewing countless bubbles; nearby personnel are suffocating—presumably the creature is exhaling copious carbon dioxide.”

“This thing resembles the monster we met back in Xiamatown; it could be the very same!”

“Xiamatown?”

Leijie stared, stunned.

To him, the name Xiamatown was already a distant memory.

He recalled that it was there they first clashed head‑on with the Mechanical Cult.

The aftermath saw some townsfolk perish in the monster‑generated “CO₂ leakage lake,” while others were seized and processed by the Holy‑Blooded in a peculiar fashion.

My most vivid memory of that town isn’t the lake monster, but the miners whose mouths sprouted tentacle‑like breathing organs.

Yet now that same creature has surfaced in Hanwater City?

Leijie's brow furrowed.

He silently calculated the distances in his mind.

From Xiamatown to Hanwater City is roughly 180 km in a straight line; less than two weeks have passed since the beast tide swelled, and the Level‑Three monster was sighted in Hanwater a week ago.

That means the vast majority of the massive beasts have likely completed their migration toward Jinling City and its environs.

The true beast tide is about to be unleashed.

His heart leapt, and after he relayed his assessment to Chen Jian, the latter replied without delay:

“This matches the clues gathered by the reconnaissance balloons.” “We have little time left—perhaps a week or two at most.”

“But worry not; the Imperial Capital’s citizens arrive tomorrow, and once our manpower is on site, construction will finish swiftly.”

“Focus on the present—eliminate this monster first!”

“Understood.”

Leijie answered in a low voice, and at that moment his Mosquito bomber had already swept over Hanwater City, reaching the skies above the Yangtze.

He pressed the stick once more, guiding the aircraft lower.

On the ground, people moved like ants, inching away from Hanwater City; Leijie could see they were fleeing for safety.

Further north, three Level‑Four monsters were locked in brutal combat with the city’s Guard‑Clerics and hired mercenaries.

A barrage of artillery belched greenish smoke, shrouding the expansive battlefield.

Gunfire and cannon blasts were drowned by the roar of propellers, and Leijie felt as though he were watching a silent mime.

Yet even so, he could sense the ferocity of the clash.

A Level‑Four beast surged through the gauntlet, lunging at the densest artillery cluster; several shells, trailing white smoke, struck its massive frame and knocked it back, yet its rolling bulk still crushed a dozen forward‑positioned Guard‑Clerics meant to block it.

The lightning‑fast Holy‑Blooded swooped in from both flanks, employing every trick to draw the monster’s gaze.

Incendiary rounds were hurled one after another, brief flashes of flame, yet those sparks seemed trivial before the beast.

The Hanwater City defenders’ line was on the brink of collapse.

But Leijie possessed only two air‑to‑ground missiles.

Which to strike first?!

He could not turn to the rear for counsel; no one could see the battlefield’s layout clearer than he.

Leijie circled the creature overhead; the defenders, their attention captured, looked up, raising both hands as if in devout prayer.

—

What time is it already?!

Take up your guns!

Leijie muttered a curse under his breath, and at that instant the river surface erupted in massive bubbles.

The Level‑Three monster!

As the bubbles burst, a torrent of carbon dioxide surged forth.

Heavier than air, a suffocating gas streamed along the terrain; wherever it passed, flames were snuffed out, and the troops were forced to fall back.

The formation was shattered once again, and this time even the artillery line could not be withdrawn in time!

We have to take it down first!

Lejie drew a deep breath, pressed the left side of the control stick to swing the aircraft, then swiftly employed the smart visor to calibrate the flight direction, and after computing altitude and speed, projected the bombing reticle before his eyes.

It was a makeshift solution, a temporary substitute for a proper bombing sight, lacking precision, yet at ultra‑low altitude it was sufficient to blast a monster ten‑something meters tall.

The bomber suddenly dove, and the instant the creature's body broke the water's surface, Lejie pulled the trigger, the bomb rack loosened, and the ordnance was dropped.

At that moment, the nose was less than five hundred meters from the beast.

That already matched the performance of specially‑designed dive‑bombers!

Bearing the risk that his wings might tear, Lejie gently hauled back the stick.

Accompanied by an unsettling “creak”, the plane finally withstood the strain and began to climb once more.

Behind it, the bomb that had been released detonated the instant it struck the monster's broad back.

A 250‑kilogram bomb could inflict a lethal radius of up to three hundred meters against unarmored targets.

If slammed into the ground, the crater would be a staggering three meters deep and ten meters wide.

No carbon‑based creature could survive such a close‑range blast.

And this bomb was placed with uncanny precision on the creature's back.

“Boom!”

A tremendous explosion roared.

The monster, whose spine had just broken the water, was cleaved in two in an instant.

When Lejie turned the aircraft around to return, the murky river already bore the monster’s corpse floating on the surface.

It lay there like a huge fish.

“Holy shit.”

Lejie gasped, lowered the control lever, and then said:

“Contact the garrison at Hanshui City and tell them to run as far as they can.”

“I still have one more round!”

(End of chapter)