Volume One, Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Attack

“Just joking, just joking—I would never take money from Menghan, it was all in good fun.” The little girl with the side ponytail sitting at the edge of the kang immediately changed her tune and surrendered, declaring that her winnings didn’t count.

Du Shaokang, the third player at the table, quickly echoed her words. A little gambling is just for fun—talking about money ruins everything.

After all, both of them had been outwitted by Zhou Meiqiong more than once. They knew perfectly well she was cheating, but even if they stared until their eyes hurt, they could never catch her at it. All they could do was graciously accept defeat when it came to playing cards with her.

“Ai Keke, don’t think I don’t know—you were probably the one who organized this card game, weren’t you?” Zhou Meiqiong fixed her gaze on the little girl who had tried to make peace first.

“Qiong-jie, don’t be mad! We know we were wrong, we all know we were wrong!” Hiding behind Wu Menghan, the little girl blinked her big, watery eyes and apologized pitifully.

“Meiqiong-jie…” Even Wu Menghan, seeing Ai Keke’s meek appearance, couldn’t help but intercede for her.

“If there’s a next time, hmph!” Zhou Meiqiong no longer looked at Ai Keke’s pleading, and instead exchanged a glance with Chen Luoluo before clearing her throat. “Alright, now let’s tell everyone what the two of us found out earlier. Rou Rou, wake Spring Breeze up.”

Zhong Rou, the bespectacled girl in the kang, roused Yi Chunfeng, who was still fast asleep. Immediately, everyone in the room turned to look at Zhou Meiqiong.

At this point, except for the team leader Luo Qinghe and the stone-faced Ling Ziqian, all eight other members of the expedition team were gathered.

“So, they’re from the Chamber of Commerce—no wonder they have such sway in the village,” said the blond youth, Yu Cheng, his eyes lighting up with envy.

“Seems like something’s changed with the lunar tides outside the village. Normally, no ordinary event could reach us here, let alone alarm anyone from the Chamber of Commerce,” Yi Chunfeng yawned, leaning lazily against Zhong Rou.

“We need to prepare, even if the villagers still don’t trust us,” Zhou Meiqiong nodded. “Yu Cheng, go tell the team leader about the current situation. Tell him to slow down with sorting the research materials, or he’ll end up locked up in the house, missing everything when the fighting starts.”

“Got it.” The blond youth made an ‘okay’ gesture and accepted the task.

Chen Luoluo turned her head toward the rooms where the first group of guests was staying, her gentle smile undisturbed.

Those rooms still had their curtains drawn and doors shut, just like the day they first arrived in Dongsha Village.

...

With Cuihua no longer visiting, the little house returned to just the two of them. Taking advantage of the quiet, Modeh resumed using his abilities—Bronze Light and Black Fire—to continue purifying the large amounts of metal they’d collected from the ruins. Meanwhile, Mu Qing asked him for a piece of exotic metal to amuse herself.

Black Fire coiled and steamed, gradually altering the fundamental structure and properties of the metal core. The silvery-white impurities steadily diminished, replaced by a growing golden sheen.

To avoid crushing the earthen kang, Modeh divided the metal stock into dozens of small blocks, refining only a ten-centimeter square brick at a time. After the Black Fire’s intense burning and compression, the metal’s volume was greatly reduced. With fewer silvery impurities, its conductivity for anomalous energy improved noticeably.

Mu Qing, on the other side, lay on her stomach on the kang, rump raised, completely absorbed in playing with her toy.

Her slender fingers plucked off a bit of metal, pressing it between her palms. With a few quick motions, a fine metal needle took shape. She inserted the thicker end of the needle into a prepared base, and slowly, a metal hedgehog began to take form.

The tough, resilient exotic metal was like putty in Mu Qing’s hands—easily flattened, rolled, and shaped into whatever she imagined.

Over the next two days, patrols in Dongsha Village increased significantly. Even the guest area to the east saw patrol teams passing by in twos and threes.

During this time, Modeh refined most of his metal stock, not only gaining a substantial amount of higher-quality exotic metal, but also making his metal manipulation and fire control skills ever smoother.

Mu Qing’s collection of metal figurines also grew to three: after the first hedgehog, Master Mu unveiled a collaboration piece—the metal armadillo and the metal pangolin.

Just as the two thought their peaceful days would last a while longer, an unexpected upheaval struck.

On the morning of October 14th, the usual warm, gentle sunrise was shrouded by swirling yellow sand. The howling wind drove sand particles hard against the walls of the houses. That day’s meal was no longer the customary fare—just plain water and dry rations.

For the frontlines had erupted in battle.

A pack of sand jackals, using the cover of the sandstorm, launched relentless attacks on the western side of the village. Other beast packs, driven by the ferocious jackals, were herded toward the northern defenses. From that day, the entire population of Dongsha Village mobilized for war, leaving no time for the warm hospitality previously extended to guests.

The “Changlong” expedition team, all ten members, quickly assembled. Zhou Meiqiong grabbed team leader Luo Qinghe by his collar to keep him from burying himself in research files amidst the chaos.

Yu Cheng and Zhong Rou scrambled to gather documents from all over the house, while Du Shaokang took supplies out of his storage ring and began inventorying them with Yi Chunfeng.

Chen Luoluo sat sideways by the window, gazing through the glass and sandstorm toward Modeh and Mu Qing’s small house.

As expected, the two of them had already been invited by the villagers to help defend the settlement.

“Forget your precious research report! If you don’t pack up now and something happens, you’ll have no one but yourself to blame if your files get damaged!” Zhou Meiqiong’s shout finally jolted Luo Qinghe out of his academic trance.

Taking off his glasses and carefully putting them away, Luo Qinghe stretched with a groan—almost throwing out his back in the process.

“Xiao Zhou, isn’t it safe enough here on the village’s east side? Why do we have to get involved in all this fighting? We’re all just scholars…” he grumbled, rubbing his back.

“The only frail scholar here is you. The rest of us aren’t.” Zhou Meiqiong curled her lip, shoving a submachine gun into his hands. “You know how to use this?”

“I do, I do! Back in college, I took live-fire training. Uh… is there a manual?”

“I knew it—you always skipped the team’s firearms training. Rou Rou, show him the basics,” Zhou Meiqiong said, massaging her brow wearily.

As both team leader and acting deputy, she had all the responsibility—and it was exhausting.

“Check everything—make sure there are no accidental discharges!” The nine members all armed themselves, except for Chen Luoluo, who remained by the window.

“Let’s go, Deputy Leader.” Zhou Meiqiong called to Chen Luoluo, who quietly put on her shoes and followed the others out into the sandstorm, heading northwest.

As an expedition team tasked with traversing mountains and ruins, their first line of safety was a storage ring packed with firearms and ammunition.

The second was the strength of the team members themselves. Still, it was better to talk than to fight—why use fists when a gun would do?

Upon reaching the battle lines, Zhou Meiqiong negotiated with the village chief, Shang Qingwen, and the “Changlong” team was assigned their own section of the defenses, freeing up local villagers to reinforce elsewhere.

“Shoot carefully and avoid friendly fire. There are some experts moving around the battlefield to support different fronts—don’t hit them by mistake.” With this order, Zhou Meiqiong led the other eight members forward, pushing the line ahead to minimize the sandstorm’s impact on their visibility.

Blond Wu Menghan was left behind to protect Luo Qinghe—and more importantly, to guard their precious research files.

As the eight surged into the storm, the sharp crack of gunfire rang out. Wild boars and giant lizards were picked off with headshots. The petite, side-ponytailed Ai Keke even demonstrated “gun kata” moves she’d learned from novels, her figure darting gracefully, muzzle flashing like fireworks.

Hearing the gunshots in the distance, Modeh looked over in surprise, but the sandstorm limited his view.

Behind him, Mu Qing adjusted her black mask and tea-colored sunglasses, using the enhanced vision they provided to see through the storm and identify the source of the gunfire.

“It’s that expedition team. Didn’t expect them to be so well armed,” she remarked, tapping her nose.

Wielding twin short blades and a scabbard, Modeh dodged a sand jackal’s lunge—the blade piercing the beast’s skull from the side in a single, deadly blow. With a full sweep of his scabbard, he drew a crescent arc and brought it down, crushing the skull of another jackal that had tried to ambush Mu Qing.

With the sandstorm as cover, they no longer needed to hold back against these cunning creatures. Modeh strode forward to meet another jackal charging at them.

Meanwhile, Mu Qing continued scanning the battlefield with her vision. The two had already agreed that, for this mission, her anomalous ability would be officially described as “photon sensing”—allowing her to provide reconnaissance and support. This way, she wouldn’t be left behind and kept off the battlefield.

When they first arrived at the village defenses, Chief Shang Qingwen had personally asked Modeh and Mu Qing to assist. Unlike most villagers, who were assigned to hold the lines, their task—like a handful of other village experts—was to roam the battlefield, eliminating as many beasts as possible and reducing pressure on the defenders.

With Mu Qing’s map-like vision, Modeh could swiftly move across the battlefield, rescuing villagers beset by jackals.

Again they reached a section of the defenses where the jackals’ numbers had split up and pinned down the villagers, while another small group was about to breach the line and enter the village.

“Die, you beasts!” With a fierce shout, a large, burly figure wielding a slaughtering knife came charging to the rescue from the distance.