Card Room (Rebirth)
chapter-218

Outside the fire circle, the screams of the bugs continued endlessly. Thanks to the wind, the flames kept becoming stronger but no one dared to slack off. They waited nearly 10 minutes but none of the bugs dared to cross the wall of fire.

It was difficult for any animal to violate its nature. The bugs were most afraid of fire. They could climb but they couldn’t fly. This five metre high wall of fire made it difficult for them to break through.

The girl surnamed Gao was standing next to Xiao Lou. Xiao Lou had a good impression of this girl. He saw her staring at the ring of fire with a serious face and asked her, “What is your situation? Why were you suddenly pursued by the bug army?”

Gao Xiaoyi explained, “In the beginning, five bugs broke into the factory building where we were temporarily staying. They were probably the vanguard and they were solved by us. The moment we were sighing with relief, we heard the movements of the bug army… the five bugs made a sharp cry before we died. We can’t understand the bug language but I think it is likely they were calling for their companions.”

The glasses man next to her added, “We escaped collectively with the Golden Cicada Shell card but this card can only move the entire team one kilometre. The bugs soon caught up with us.”

Xiao Lou thought carefully. There had been a piercing cry when they killed the five vanguard bugs. Could they have also notified those in the rear?

He looked over at Yu Hanjiang, who also happened to be looking back at him. The two of them communicated using the heart channel. “If it is really as she said then the bugs sent a signal before death. There should be another batch of bugs coming to destroy us.”

Yu Hanjiang told him, “Look at the situation and be ready to evacuate.”

Just then, the two of them heard Ye Qi ask a question. “After you were surrounded by the bugs, there should be many directions to escape in. Why come to us? Why run in the direction of the warehouse? Did your captain say so?”

His eyes were fixed on Cheng Ziyang.

Cheng Ziyang smiled slightly. “Yes. since the bugs are attacking the east of the city, you will definitely be in danger. I wanted to notify you to evacuate as soon as much. Gao Xiaoyi also shouted with her horn while running the entire way to reach any challengers so they can quickly withdraw.”

Everyone had seen Gao Xiaoyi’s horn. The Horn card in her hand should be a card that could amplify sound. Everyone could hear her voice very clearly from a long distance. It was similar to the broadcasts at subway stations and airports.

It could be seen from Gao Xiaoyi using the horn that she really wanted to report it to let everyone evacuate. Ye Qi believed in this girl but he didn’t believe in Cheng Ziyang. After all, Cheng Ziyang had betrayed him.

The plot of being stabbed in the chest by Cheng Ziyang in the dream played back again in his mind and Ye Qi was uneasy. Could it be that this senior surnamed Cheng found it too hard to deal with the bug army so he deliberately attracted the bugs to pit them? Would he be so kind to notify others to evacuate?

However, Cheng Ziyang’s reasons on the surface couldn’t be refuted and Ye Qi didn’t say much. At present, there was the enemy around them and it wasn’t suitable for infighting. Ye Qi temporarily put this anxiety behind him.

Snow was still falling from the sky and the raging fire instantly melted the snowflakes. The circle of fire formed a natural barrier that blocked the path of the bugs. Suddenly, Liu Qiao flew over and whispered, “There are a large number of bugs in the rear!”

At this time, the four people of Xiao, Yu, Shao and Ye and the members of the Distant Association were standing in front of the building to defend against the bugs. Mo, Long, Qu and Liu had been sent by Xiao Lou to the rear of the warehouse to prevent the bugs from sneaking in behind them and to guard the escape route behind the warehouse.

The gasoline ring might be surrounding the warehouse so that the bugs had no gap to enter but it was always necessary to prevent sneak attacks from the rear.

Yu Hanjiang’s face changed slightly when he heard Liu Qiao’s voice. “What is the situation?”

Liu Qiao whispered, “Old Mo threw a bug on a tree in the distance and heard a large number of bugs crawling to this side.”

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other. It really was the case.

The five pioneers killed by the Distant Guild led a group of bugs to surround them. The pioneers who came to the warehouse and were destroyed by Xiao Lou’s group also sent a signal before dying. It seemed that there was a bug army behind every pioneer team. Since Cheng Ziyang brought his team to the warehouse, they would be forced to face the siege of two bug armies!

Yu Hanjiang looked at Cheng Ziyang. “There are also a large number of bugs coming from the rear. Take out your cards to prepare and don’t let the bugs enter the circle of fire!”

Gao Xiaoyi and the others nodded and held their cards with pale faces.

The situation in front was still optimistic. The bugs were constantly being burned to death by fire. There was oil on the human body and the low level bugs liked to live in groups. So many people were crowded together and burning one would burn a lot!

Of course, the bugs also spontaneously merged and upgraded after seeing the fire. The upgraded version would become faster and crawl like the wind to avoid the damage of the flames, but they still couldn’t directly break through the fire circle.

Xiao Lou stared at Yu Hanjiang and spoke in his mind. “The flying pigeon.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Okay.”

He glanced at Shao Qingge and whispered in Shao Qingge’s ear. “Xiao Lou will summon Li Qingzhao. Please make a copy. We will set a fire so that the bugs in the rear can’t get through.”

Shao Qingge understood the meaning. The moment Xiao Lou summoned Li Qingzhao, he immediately used Rich and Willfull to copy the card.

Who Sent the Brocade from Beyond the Clouds? Li Qingzhao’s flying pigeon letter skill was originally to pass messages to each other but there was also a description in the skill. All flying pigeons could carry items up to 100kg in weight and deliver it to a designated location, similar to a flying pigeon express.

Last time, Yu Hanjiang and the others went to the gas station to grab gasoline. In addition to burying a large amount of gasoline around them, they kept a few barriers in the bus for emergencies. It was Yu Hanjiang’s idea to control the weight of these gasoline barrels to within 100kg but it was Xiao Lou’s idea to use Li Qingzhao’s flying pigeon to transfer the gasoline barrels to the bugs.

Now it was time for it to be used. As Shao Qingge copied the card, Ye Qi cleverly ran to the bus and brought two barrels of gasoline over with his teleportation card.

Seeing the gasoline barrels, Gao Xiaoyi couldn’t help worrying. “If we pour the gasoline now, what if the fire hits us? This is gasoline. It will explore!”

Xiao Lou told her, “Don’t worry. This type of thing won’t happen.”

The next moment, she saw two pigeons appear in front of her. They looked no different from ordinary homing pigeons. They were quite cute but they actually easily lifted the gasoline barrels?!

The people from the Distant Association had wide eyes.

The boy wearing glasses almost lost his glasses. He couldn’t help praising, “This card for moving things is really good… but why pigeons?”

Someone next to him speculated. “It is probably the principle of the flying pigeon letter?”

Xiao Lou drilled a hole in the gasoline barrel. In order to avoid the fire wall from directly killing the pigeon, he controlled a pigeon to fly several metres above the fire wall. The pigeon flew forward quickly and the gasoline it was carrying splashed downwards, causing the flames that were already burning to spread rapidly.

Behind the warehouse, the bug army quickly arrived. Xiao Lou used the same method to have the other pigeon copied by Shao Qingge fly toward the army with a leaking barrel. Within seconds, deafening screams were heard!

Old Mo shouted, “A large number of them were killed! They won’t be able to get through it for the time being!”

Gao Xiaoyi gave a thumbs up in admiration. “Too good, this method is too good.” She looked at the short-haired girl standing next to her. “Xue Qing, your chemicals can also be used this way.”

The short-haired girl took out a card and activated it. Bottle after bottle of transparent liquid appeared in her hands.

Ye Qi asked curiously, “Can the things in your bottle keep being produced? What is it?”

The girl called Xue Qing smiled shyly. “This is ethanol which is a component of the alcohol we commonly used. It might be because I am a chemistry student. All my cards are chemical reagent cards such as sulfuric acid, nitric acid, potassium permanganate, sodium chloride etc…”

A row of ethanol bottles was quickly placed at her feet. Xiao Lou thought to himself that the Distant Association had this girl from the chemistry department and the difficulty of 8 of Spades would be reduced. After all, she could produce alcohol in an unlimited manner to deal with the bugs.

Xue frowned. “It is hard to throw these alcohol bottles at the bugs. It will be blocked by the fire wall.”

Xiao Lou told her, “It’s okay. We can keep them for later use.”

The fire wall was five metres high. It was really hard to throw the alcohol unless it was from the air.

Just then, Long Sen ran over. “I have a way. My Badminton card has upgraded. Previously, I could only play badminton but now I have a second skill that can hit other things far away. I can hit them up to 100 metres away!”

He picked up a bottle of alcohol from the ground and looked at Xue Qing. “I’ll try it.”

Xue Qing nodded immediately. “Yes, feel free to take it.”

The enemy was present and they were forced to join forces to deal with two batches of bugs. The screams from the outside bugs made their scalps numb and there was no need to hide from each other at this time. Good cards had to be used.

Long Sen picked up a bottle of alcohol and hit it hard with his badminton racket.

He chose a landing place 100 metres away and the alcohol made a perfect parabola in the air. Yu Hanjiang flew up to take a look and nodded at Long Sen. “Yes, it spilled on the bugs in the distance. Continue.”

Long Sen was very excited. This high altitude badminton racket skill was very good to use.

He hit the bottles of alcohol made by Xue Qing one after another.

Thanks to the help of various fuels, the fire showed no signs of going on. The bugs outside were burned to death one after another. Later, they probably couldn’t stand the flames and their screams were much quieter. Liu Qiao flew into the sky to take a look and exclaimed with joy, “They seem to have decided to retreat! The bugs who haven’t been burned are escaping in different directions!”

Yu Hanjiang also flew up to take a look.

There were charred bodies everywhere. This scene was like purgatory on earth and it was miserable to see. The fire had spread for hundreds of metres and a large number of bugs were burned to death. The unburned bugs in the distance were fleeing quickly in the other direction.

Behind the warehouse, the deaths and injuries of the second group of bugs weren’t as heavy as the first group. After all, they had seen the fire from a distance and weren’t stupid enough to hit the fire. This was unlike the first group who were caught off guard by the explosion of the gasoline barrels.

Most of the second batch of bugs had stopped. If it wasn’t for Xiao Lou suddenly pouring gasoline on them using the flying pigeons, they might not be as miserable. Nearly half of them were killed and the other half quickly retreated from the flames.

The cries had become weaker and weaker. Soon, calm was restored to the surroundings.

The time for the invincibility of Xiao Lou’s Compass circle was over. The burning smell mixed with the smoke caused everyone to cover their mouths and noses. It was unknown how much time passed but there were no movements from outside and everyone finally sighed with relief.

The snow was still falling. Fire lit up the sky, making the snowflakes gain a layer of golden red as they fell.

Gao Xiaoyi sighed with relief. “It seems that… the bugs are gone?”

Cheng Ziyang gave a thumbs up and smiled at Xiao Lou. “Everyone is really amazing. There were so many bugs but they could be driven away by you.”

Xiao Lou replied lightly, “Thank you.”

He didn’t want to talk to this Cheng Ziyang. Seeing this person reminded him of when he first met Ye Qi in 3 of Spades. Ye Qi was dressed up as a garbage collector and hiding in the middle of the night to eat biscuits. Although Cheng Ziyang hadn’t killed Ye Qi directly, his actions led to Ye Qi’s death. Everyone naturally didn’t like him. It was just that they couldn’t drive people away when surrounded by bugs. It would be even more difficult if they started fighting at this time.

Cheng Ziyang found that Xiao Lou’s attitude toward him was very different from that of Gao Xiaoyi, Xue Qing and the others. He stopped talking to Xiao Lou and turned back to chat with his teammates.

Ye Qi threw the bug into the distance and listened for a long time. Then he said, “There are no movements. Did they really withdraw?”

Xiao Lou said, “They are really afraid of fire and can’t break through the circle of fire.”

Just as everyone was relaxing, Ye Qi suddenly opened his mouth. “There seems to be something wrong?” He walked to Xiao Lou and gave the other end of the bug to Xiao Lou.

Ye Qi could throw out three bugs at the same time. One was hidden in the snowman, Old Mo had placed one to guard the rear and Ye Qi used the remaining one in the direction the bugs had retreated. Xiao Lou took it and listened carefully.

The sound was strange. It wasn’t like the squeaky footsteps of stepping on snow. It was like a small animal doing something at night. The sound was so weak that it was really hard to notice if they didn’t listen carefully.

Xiao Lou couldn’t judge what it was and handed the bug to Yu Hanjiang to let him see. Yu Hanjiang heard it and immediately frowned. “It sounds like a mouse making a hole in the wall. They are drilling into the ground.”

The faces of the group changed dramatically.

Ye Qi reacted with a white face. “They can’t fly but they can drill into the ground?!”