Chapter Twenty-Two: Dearest, Save Me (Part Two)

“Enemy attack!”

Lei Dong shouted with thunderous force. As his body touched the ground, his hands pressed against the sand, and with a twist and bend, he moved like a fish swimming through water, swiftly “gliding” over the scorching sand for more than ten meters!

Bullets fired from various directions chased his body, their “thud thud” sounds constantly reaching his ears.

Almost simultaneously, Wu Yun and Bei Shiliang’s startled cries echoed nearby.

“Sniper!”

“Booby trap!”

Two deafening explosions thundered—the distinctive blasts of Type 99 anti-personnel mines!

“Damn!” Wu Yun’s voice rang out, both frustrated and unwilling. The relentless gunfire followed, merging into a torrential downpour that swept over the oasis, transforming the small patch of green into a battlefield fraught with peril and death.

Lei Dong exerted every ounce of energy, darting and weaving across the sand, his movements leaving fleeting afterimages. Each shift took less than a tenth of a second. Bullets whistled after his body, “thud thud” sounds in pursuit, raising clouds of sand, yet never landing a hit!

In his rapid flight, Lei Dong reached the edge of the oasis. Ahead lay a low thicket. He summoned his strength; a series of sharp snaps rang out as the straps—bearing a ton of supplies—snapped and tore apart. Instantly, bags and packs, like a small mountain, tumbled to the ground.

But before they could hit the sand, Lei Dong, using both hands and feet, hurled them with force—four thunderous blasts as the hundred-kilogram packs shot out like arrows. With four muffled thumps, clouds of sand rose in the distance. Apart from Wu Yun and Bei Shiliang, marked as casualties with red smoke, every team member found a pack landing before them, shielding their rolling bodies—at the hair’s breadth of danger, on the vast, golden desert, Lei Dong had created makeshift cover for each comrade.

At this moment, neither Huang Xiwen, nor Lang Tianyu, nor Luo Haoran or Song Jingang could raise their heads under the barrage. They could only twist and dodge across the sand, using every ounce of their strength and practiced instinct to evade. Still, Lang Tianyu and Song Jingang already bore wisps of white smoke, signs of minor wounds.

Lei Dong’s airborne cover gave them a moment to breathe. Without pause, the concentrated gunfire began anew, and they returned fire!

Meanwhile, Lei Dong seized the moment—the four packs momentarily distracted the enemy. He straightened his waist, flipped his hands, and two guns leveled at the direction of incoming bullets, unleashing furious fire.

“Thudthudthudthudthudthudthudthud…”

In his left hand, a six-barrel Vulcan cannon roared, firing at 6,000 rounds per minute, sending a continuous storm of bullets. In an instant, the weapon blanketed a hundred-meter front, four hundred meters away.

In his right, a 12.7mm heavy sniper rifle launched three shots at a distant dune a thousand meters away. A plume of red smoke erupted and swiftly shrouded the sand.

Most astonishing of all: despite the weight of the guns and their brutal recoil, Lei Dong’s hands did not tremble. He aimed and fired with pinpoint precision. While holding and firing two heavy weapons, maneuvering with lightning speed across the sand, his form in the muzzle flashes resembled a war god.

As both sides fired and evaded, more than twenty figures appeared in the distance, advancing in the dispersed formation typical of special operations.

…

The battle did not last long. When only Lei Dong, lightly wounded, and Huang Xiwen, seriously injured, remained in the third squad, and fewer than ten men survived across all three squads, the ambush was declared over. The final verdict: a draw.

Facing a force three times their number, in the open desert with no cover, and losing two teammates at the outset, such an outcome was more than satisfactory. Considering that over half the third squad were rookies just starting basic training, and their teamwork was still developing—while their opponents were seasoned veterans, the most elite fighters—the fact that they held their ground and inflicted heavy losses was nearly miraculous.

But as the “enemy” withdrew and the squad regrouped, Lei Dong knew things were far from over.

“Well done, well done, very impressive!” Huang Xiwen still smiled, but the veins bulging at his temples and the fury in his gaze at Wu Yun and Bei Shiliang told everyone just how angry he was.

The next moment, Huang Xiwen exploded.

“Are you pigs?!” He leapt with rage. “How many times have I told you? When you finally reach your destination, exhausted and worn out, the first thing you must do is not rest, not relax, not put down your weapons! The first thing is to grip your weapon tighter, open your eyes wider! Be careful, careful, and more careful! Every place you reach could be a trap! There may be deadly enemies lying in wait for the moment you let your guard down, when your body is most fatigued and your mind at ease, to launch the most fatal attack!”

Huang Xiwen glared at Wu Yun, trembling with anger. “You—do you remember how many times you’ve ‘died’ these three months? Why don’t you learn from it? You only remember the joys, not the pain!”

The team stood in a line, listening quietly—even Wu Yun, usually quick with quips and retorts, stayed silent.

They truly had relaxed too much this time; there was nothing to say in their defense.

In fact, for this training, Huang Xiwen and Wu Yun were “reliving hardship, suffering twice.” For these veterans who had completed basic training, their main task was to impart their combat experience in varied terrain to the new recruits and to hone the squad’s formation for greater cohesion. Lei Dong, though experienced and having passed Tiger Squad’s selection, still had much to learn before meeting the standards of Dragon Squad—especially since Tiger Squad lacked desert and high-altitude training, focusing on mountains and plains.

Carelessness on one side, inexperience on the other—so despite months of battles and ambushes, unexpected incidents continued to arise.

But then again, after two days and nights running through the desert, who could resist the joy at seeing an oasis? Who wouldn’t let their guard down, even for a moment?

Blame those who chose to ambush at just this place and time! It’s like finally marrying after seven or eight years, just as you’re about to consummate, pants halfway down, when some random guy kicks you in the rear! Wouldn’t you be frustrated, infuriated, driven mad?

“Could they be any more shameless?” Lei Dong grumbled inwardly.

Huang Xiwen’s gaze finally shifted from Wu Yun to Lei Dong. His eyes, usually large as oxen, narrowed to slits. After a long silence, he spoke, “You’re not bad—smart, quick-witted, adaptable. In such a sudden situation, you responded correctly…”

Lei Dong stood tall, inwardly proud yet slightly puzzled, and more than a little uneasy—this man wasn’t known for compliments; who knew what trick was behind such praise?

“But,” Huang Xiwen continued, his rage flaring again, “if you’d been a little more alert, with your skills, you would’ve noticed something was off from hundreds of meters away! What were you thinking? Did your pig’s brain get scrambled by sand scorpions? If you zone out again during training, I’ll make you carry a helicopter across the ends of the earth! Understood?”

“Yes, Captain!” Lei Dong answered loudly, though he muttered to himself, “No need to shout so much, surely? You look gentle, scholarly, but you’ve got quite the temper. Next time I’ll be more careful… This time was just bad luck. Damn…”

But Lei Dong soon found his chance for payback.

That very night, after being thoroughly scolded, they returned to the simple base on the desert’s edge. As everyone slipped into dreams, Lei Dong began inspecting each teammate’s cultivation progress, lamenting that he not only suffered abuse by day, but had to play nanny by night.

Suddenly, his eyes sharpened. He discovered that Huang Xiwen’s internal energy was surprisingly robust, showing signs of breaking into the Qi Refining stage!

Except for Wu Yun, who was nearing the Foundation Establishment stage, Huang Xiwen was the first among the Dragon Squad to show such progress.

Ever since Lei Dong had taught them the Chaos Technique, he watched their cultivation closely, giving them weekly “checkups.” Though everyone improved rapidly, he hadn’t expected that in just three months, Huang Xiwen would reach such a level!

Huang Xiwen lay asleep in bed, but thanks to innate talent and the special workings of the Primordial Technique, his cultivation only slowed, never halted. With each breath, his internal energy flowed silently through every meridian and muscle, nourishing and strengthening him without his awareness.

Lei Dong noticed that Huang Xiwen’s energy did not follow the usual path through the meridians, but instead streamed from the dantian, traversing the eight extraordinary channels, and gradually converging on the Ren and Du meridians. Then, along these two robust, expanded channels, the energy surged upward, bit by bit. At the apex, the Baihui point atop the skull, the streams seemed to encounter resistance and halted, while more energy continued to rise—was this the precursor to a breakthrough? Lei Dong felt a subtle worry. Breaking through unconsciously during sleep was something even he had never experienced; if it failed, it might set him back for a long time, and sow a “barrier” of doubt in his future cultivation.

But waking Huang Xiwen now might disrupt his spirit, possibly causing energy turmoil and even deviation.

“Hold on!” Lei Dong silently urged, his spiritual senses monitoring every shift in Huang Xiwen’s internal energy.