Chapter 19: Explosion

Within a hundred paces outside the village, Meng Yifan led people to bury three ceramic jars in the ground, filled with Black Powder mixed according to the most scientific ratio.

When filling them, Meng Yifan would pack a layer of gunpowder, then sprinkle a layer of white sugar, and then sprinkle some iron shards.

To increase the lethality, he also had people coat all these iron shards with poison; as long as the skin was scratched by a shard, one would be poisoned, and if not killed, one would at least become dizzy and foam at the mouth, with combat effectiveness dropping significantly.

"Sss, sss, sss..."

The fuse was lit, and then it quickly burned toward the explosive charges buried underground.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" A few seconds later, the three ceramic jars filled with gunpowder outside the village were detonated almost simultaneously.

The moment the Black Powder exploded, fire splashed everywhere, and the ground trembled as if an earthquake had occurred.

Meng Yifan timed the detonation perfectly; when the three ceramic jars exploded, the Wild Boar King was exactly at the center of the blast, and it felt the ground beneath it shake violently as a powerful shockwave erupted from underground, lifting it into the air.

"I'm flying." The Wild Boar King was dumbfounded; it had once longed to grow wings like the Flying Tiger Demon and soar freely in the sky, but not by being blown up like this.

The Wild Boar King felt heart-wrenching pain in its body, and when it looked down, it discovered its belly had been completely torn open, with its internal organs, including its intestines, blown into fragments.

"Hmph!" The Wild Boar King let out a heart-wrenching roar, just like the miserable squeals of ordinary pigs when they are slaughtered for the New Year.

The Wild Boar King died while still in mid-air; until its death, it never understood why there was a sudden explosion underground, and it died with great resentment.

The three ceramic jars exploded almost simultaneously, forming three blast centers; the beasts located at the centers were blown away directly, and many beasts had their bodies torn to pieces in mid-air, causing a rain of blood to fall from the sky, mixed with the severed limbs of the beasts, looking extremely terrifying.

The beasts that were not killed directly by the blast had no time to rejoice before they saw dense iron shards and ceramic fragments flying out from the blast centers; driven by the force of the explosion, these fragments were like shrapnel, with immense power, and many beasts were turned into sieves.

"Awoo!" Some beasts were pierced in vital spots by the fragments and died instantly; others had many fragments stuck in their bodies but did not hit vital spots, and they felt intense pain, letting out bursts of miserable cries, but before they could cry out many times, the poison on the fragments took effect, their bodies convulsed, they foamed at the mouth, bled from their seven orifices, and died from the poison shortly after.

The three ceramic jars sprayed out hundreds of fragments, which looked like three blooming flowers of death outside the village; the beasts within a hundred paces of the village were either blown to death or poisoned to death by the poison on the iron shards, and the scene looked very spectacular.

The wild boars led by the Wild Boar King were all blown to death, and the leader of the Green Yellow-Ringed Snakes was also blown to death, with eight other Green Yellow-Ringed Snakes remaining alive.

Although they were also scratched by the fragments, they were inherently poisonous and had resistance to toxins, so the poison on the fragments could not take their little lives.

"Ding! Team hunt of a Level One Low-Grade Beast successful, gained 3 points of Experience Value."

"Ding! Team hunt of a Level One Mid-Grade Beast successful, gained 10 points of Experience Value."

"Ding! Team hunt of a Level One High-Grade Beast successful, gained 20 points of Experience Value."

………………

The prompt sounds of the Game Panel rang continuously in Meng Yifan's mind, which made him feel very satisfied; just from this wave of explosions, he had gained 125 points of Experience Value, and if he did this two more times, he could break through to a Second Grade Middle Stage Martial Artist.

The Flying Tiger Demon was very cautious; when it saw that Qinghe Village had a Cannon and that it might threaten its life, it flew high in the sky, commanding its army of beasts to launch an attack.

At this very moment, seeing the tragic state on the ground, the Flying Tiger Demon gasped; such terrifying explosive power would mean that even if it went down, it would be injured if not killed.

After detonating the ceramic jars, Meng Yifan turned and ran; the Flying Tiger Demon hesitated for a moment, then roared a few times in the sky, commanding the beast army to continue the attack.

The first line of defense Meng Yifan and his group set up was at the village entrance, the second line of defense was in the middle of the village, and the third line of defense was near Meng Yifan's home.

At the second line of defense, Meng Yifan met up with Meng Dayong, and large numbers of beasts were swarming toward the two entrances of the village.

This time, the Flying Tiger Demon adjusted its tactics; it brought in a large number of rats to lead the charge.

The Rat King leading the rat army was half a meter tall, many times larger than the rats usually seen in homes, and its sharp claws could easily slit a human's throat.

Although the Rat King had been enlightened by demon arts, its strength was only First Grade Lower Tier, making it very inconspicuous among the beast army, but the number of ordinary rats commanded by the Rat King was terrifyingly large.

These rats had also mutated, each the size of a watermelon; although their individual strength was average—not even counting as Level One Low-Grade Beasts, and a normal human with a weapon could fight a dozen of them—their numbers reached over a thousand.

"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!" The Rat King issued an order, and over a thousand large rats rushed over like a black tide.

The Flying Tiger Demon was wary of the humans' Cannon and explosives, so it ordered the large rats to lead the charge, intending to consume the humans' gunpowder.

Once the humans' gunpowder was exhausted, it would be time for it to step in and wipe out all the humans; within the range of Jiguan Mountain, all humans who dared to resist it would be suppressed in blood.

Rats are the animals with the fastest reproductive rate and strongest survival ability among animals, capable of giving birth in all four seasons. Moreover, the gestation period is very short, only about 21 days.

A mother rat can give birth to 5-10 pups in one litter and 6-8 litters a year, meaning one mother rat can give birth to up to 80 pups in a year.

The rats on Jiguan Mountain, catalyzed by demon arts, had an even more astonishing birth rate, with one mother rat giving birth to over a hundred pups a year.

If it weren't for the lack of food and the Flying Tiger Demon controlling the number of rats, the entire Jiguan Mountain would have been filled with rats long ago.

The number of other beasts on Jiguan Mountain was limited, but there were as many rats as one could want; even if the thousand-plus large rats present all died, the Flying Tiger Demon would not feel a pang of regret.

"Oh no!" Meng Yifan frowned as he looked at the dense mass of rats.

Meng Yifan had also buried explosives outside the second line of defense, which had great lethality, but using explosives to blow up these Unranked rats was like using an anti-aircraft gun to hit a fly, a pure waste.

The gunpowder Meng Yifan had prepared was not abundant, and he dared not waste it casually; he had to save enough gunpowder to deal with the Third Grade Demon Beast, the Flying Tiger Demon.

However, if the large rats wanted to attack Meng Yifan and the others, they first had to pass through the traps and mechanisms.