Chapter 99: Fire Attack

Seven people remained at the residence: the little girl, the twin sisters, Dr. Jiang, An Qingyu, and the two young women who cooked.

Meanwhile, Fang Xia led Liu Rui, Bai Xing, and Li Xiaochun back to the center of the territory.

They were the main force in this battle, so there was no way they could hide in the rear.

Just like those men now shivering in the biting wind. Many of them would have liked to find somewhere to cower, but they could not. Their families were behind them; if they would not fight with all they had, then their wives and children would have to.

“Liu Rui, go check again and make sure every unit is in position.”

“Li Xiaochun, take the team straight to the front. Remember: if it cannot be done, retreat first.”

“Bai Xing, I won’t assign you anything. If you find that fifth-tier zombie, don’t rush in alone. Tell me immediately.”

The three women left separately. Fang Xia took a cigarette from his space, lit it, drew in a deep breath, and slowly exhaled toward the sky.

Nine o’clock at night.

Under the glare of the lights, the entire Dawn City was brightly lit, bright as day.

So far, there had been no movement indicating a zombie assault, but no one dared to let their guard down.

Eleven o’clock at night.

Many people began to yawn, drowsy and freezing in the winter night.

Midnight.

This should have been the time when the zombie rain appeared.

But tonight, the sky remained completely still. The rift that had lasted fourteen days simply vanished.

Fang Xia showed no surprise. He merely lit another cigarette. It was already the seventeenth Heaven Leaf cigarette he had smoked that night.

Not only Fang Xia.

Chen Gang and Zhuge in the west of the city were also watching the sky; the Lone Wolf Brigade in the east, White Robe in the south—at this moment, the majority of Dawn City had their faces lifted toward the heavens.

Seeing that the zombie rain had not fallen, everyone let out a breath of relief, only to tense up again at once.

If the zombie rain did not fall, then the zombie assault would come instead.

12:15 a.m.

Fang Xia suddenly crushed out the cigarette in his hand. A fierce unease surged through him, and he had a premonition.

It was coming.

“Go. Put everyone on high alert.”

He said this to the young woman beside him. She immediately ran forward at top speed, notifying everyone one by one.

Not long after, Liu Rui and Bai Xing appeared behind Fang Xia at the same time.

The time was exactly 12:30 a.m.

The first fire came from the rear of Fang Xia’s territory.

Because the area had been filled with flammable materials, the flames spread at once.

Behind Li Qianwan stood thirty-four gas cylinders lined up in neat rows.

Two of the young women had already lifted one each, using all their strength to hurl them toward the middle of the bridge.

The other two stood in front of Li Qianwan with battle sabers in hand. If any zombie broke through the defensive line, they would strike immediately so as not to interfere with her.

“You two can’t throw them like that. You need to aim for the same point.”

After the two young women had thrown three or four each, Li Qianwan began to direct them.

If they threw them like this and still failed to blow apart the bridge in the end, it would be troublesome.

“Watch the spot. Throw them all to where the last one landed.”

The two young women quickly understood and began aiming one after another before throwing. There were still some deviations, but it was far better than before.

“Keep it up, faster, just throw like that.”

As technology advanced, the quality of gas cylinders improved as well.

Even after catching fire, they would not easily explode unless they were subjected to violent impact and the surrounding temperature kept rising.

The violent impact was already there; the rise in temperature just needed a little more time.

So, after the two young women had thrown all thirty-four gas cylinders, the first explosion finally came.

Then, as though a chain reaction had been triggered, a succession of explosions rang out, and flesh and blood flew across the entire bridge.

This spectacle continued for nearly three minutes. At last, the bridge could no longer withstand the pressure and snapped.

Zombies could not swim, and what lay beneath was no mere pond or stream. It was a tributary of the Yangtze River.

Countless zombies fell in, but before the ones behind could even drop down, the ones in front had already been swept away. There was no need to worry about it being filled to capacity.

Seeing the bridge finally break, Li Qianwan also let out a breath of relief.

The mission had been completed perfectly.

Of course, if it had not been completed, she likely would not have been able to get away.

The two young women in front of Li Qianwan also finished off the last few zombies that had somehow managed to charge through, and the five of them hurried back toward the territory.

The thunderous explosions spread far through the night—so far that Fang Xia could hear them.

“It’s started.”

Liu Rui and Bai Xing behind him could not help tightening their grips on their weapons.

The violent explosions seemed like some kind of signal.

Immediately afterward, raging fires rose in the other three directions of Dawn City, dyeing half the sky red.

“Brother Fang, there are zombies massing south of Dawn City—so many I can’t even count them.”

“Brother Fang, the west is the same.”

“Brother Fang, the Lone Wolf Brigade in the east was about to charge up and engage the zombies, but after seeing how many there were, they retreated in a swarm.”

These were the young women Fang Xia had stationed to observe the other three directions, and now they all rushed back with reports.

The flames grew larger and larger, accompanied by the sounds of heavy objects crashing to the ground.

Chen Gang had also gone all in this time, preparing extremely thoroughly. At the same time, the Blood Robe Brigade and the Lone Wolf Brigade had contributed a great deal of supplies.

Fang Xia did not take part himself. He simply said one sentence: as long as not a single zombie appeared in the north of the city, the other three would all shut up.

Yet inwardly, each of them was making his own calculations, none of them knowing what means Fang Xia was hiding.

Twenty minutes had already passed when Li Qianwan returned to Fang Xia’s side.

“Don’t worry. When this is over, I’ll definitely reward you. Just ask for whatever you want.”

Li Qianwan was satisfied. As long as she survived the coming battle, she would never again have to endure a life of eating rice balls every day.

Thinking of the hot pot she had secretly shared on the second floor last time, she knew it was somewhat out of place, yet the corners of her mouth still betrayed her with unshed tears.

“Notify everyone. Prepare for battle.”

It had already been half an hour since the zombie assault began. Even without looking, Fang Xia knew how dire Dawn City must be right now.

Two more young women ran up at high speed.

“Commander, the first wave of fire attacks and the second wave of airborne projectiles caused the zombies enormous losses, but there are simply too many of them. The ones in front are already engaged with several brigades.”

Even with mental preparation, this was the first time they had ever seen so many zombies charging straight at them. The bolder ones could still resist normally, but the more timid ones had hands shaking around their weapons, able to do little more than fight back under duress.

Especially on the Lone Wolf Brigade’s side, it was practically a total collapse on first impact.

The people they had recruited were uneven in quality to begin with. Even with a force of a hundred thousand, they were still nothing more than a rabble, utterly incapable of withstanding the test of war.