Chapter 141: Feng Sanpao's Desperate Counterattack

"Clap! Clap! Clap!"

At this moment, everyone, including Chang Yu, raised their hands in unison. Palms facing one another, they brought their hands together, frantically swatting at the mosquitoes swarming their faces. The sound of palms clapping echoed around them in a rhythmic, almost layered cadence that was strange and difficult to describe.

Katerina finally realized where that familiar yet bizarre slapping sound had come from. It was just the sound of Chang Yu and the others swatting mosquitoes.

"We look like a bunch of bickering middle-aged aunties," Feng Sanpao remarked, his brain momentarily short-circuiting as he began to act foolishly.

Chang Yu heard this and felt that Feng Sanpao was actually spot on. With their constant clapping and foot-stomping, they looked exactly like the viral videos of quarreling women that often trended online. Their intensity and the frequency of their stomping were, quite frankly... professional. They had truly captured the essence of those aunties.

"Ouch!"

Suddenly, Feng Sanpao let out a shrill howl and quickly retreated. A mosquito larger than a cockroach was circling his head. It was a valiant, aggressive creature with a sturdy body, a sharp proboscis glinting with a cold light, and beautiful, artistic patterns covering its entire frame.

It bit Feng Sanpao just once, and his head swelled to double its size in the blink of an eye. His once slender, narrow face instantly transformed into the flushed, thick-necked visage of a frantic cook, red and swollen as if he had been slapped hundreds of times. More importantly, Feng Sanpao looked as though he were drunk, his head heavy and his feet light, swaying dizzily. The creature’s proboscis seemed to carry a hallucinogenic venom; one sting was enough to send a person drifting into the clouds.

"Be careful! Don't let these mosquitoes bite you, or you'll be sucked dry into a mummy," Chang Yu shouted. "A bite from the smaller ones is like being stung by a horsefly—mostly just irritating. But if one of these cockroach-sized ones gets you, it’s like a Red Cross blood drive; they start by taking 500cc. If they swarm you, they can turn you into a dried husk in seconds. Those poor souls in the cave were turned into mummies by exactly these things!"

The memory sent a shiver down Chang Yu’s spine. These giant mosquitoes were the leaders of the swarm, and there were plenty of them scattered throughout the mass. If one had to use a gaming analogy, they were the elite monsters, dealing massive damage.

"It’s over! It’s over!" Feng Sanpao wailed in terror. "I’m done for! I’m going to meet my maker!"

Hearing Chang Yu’s vivid description of the victims, Feng Sanpao was gripped by pure panic. Although he was wearing full armor—the best protection among them—he hadn't brought a helmet.

"Mosquitoes of this size seem to exceed the boundaries of natural biology," Katerina said, her expression grave. "The large ones must be Calamities. I can smell their ominous aura from a distance. As for the smaller ones, they should just be ordinary mosquitoes, gathered here for some unknown reason."

Looking at the fairy wand in Feng Sanpao’s hand, it had been buzzing incessantly like a pager ever since the swarm appeared.

"There are too many! We can't keep up, and there are so many mosquito-type Calamities hidden in the mix. It's impossible to defend against them all," Shi Chengjin shouted, swinging his slippers with such force they whistled through the air.

Wherever his slippers landed, swarms of mosquitoes were swatted, raining down from the sky. Yet, even so, he was overwhelmed, surrounded by mosquitoes pouring in from every direction. Before he knew it, he had several red, swollen lumps on his body. He finally understood how Chang Yu had gotten all those bumps; he must have fought a desperate battle against these swarms while in the underground shelter. He also understood why Chang Yu had urged everyone to evacuate the moment he escaped the tree hole.

If it were a standard Calamity, Shi Chengjin was confident he could knock it out with a single punch. He was a master of hand-to-hand combat; he had never feared a one-on-one fight. But the problem was that these were mosquitoes—tiny targets appearing in massive numbers. Fighting them with his fists was like trying to use a cannon to swat flies; he would be exhausted to death before killing more than a few.

"Think of something!" Shi Chengjin yelled, unable to bear it any longer.

Chang Yu looked around, searching for a way to break the deadlock. Suddenly, he saw Katerina pull the pistol tucked into her waistband, aiming it at the chaotic swarm.

*Girl, are you serious about shooting mosquitoes with a pistol?*

Chang Yu sighed and rubbed his forehead. He had forgotten that this perpetually serious girl had no other way to attack. His skin burned and itched maddeningly where he had been bitten, with blisters forming in some spots. Watching the stalemate, Chang Yu knew that if this dragged on, they would be wiped out. At the very least, Katerina, who had no physical combat skills, would be the first to fall.

"Feng Sanpao! Stop hiding and use your ultimate move!" A flash of inspiration crossed Chang Yu’s mind. Since none of the three of them had a way to deal with the swarm, why not let that idiot Feng Sanpao try?

"What did you say?" Feng Sanpao was curled up, covering his head and dodging the swarm, and hadn't heard him clearly.

"I said..." Chang Yu cleared his throat, "use your Air Cannon!"

Almost as soon as Chang Yu finished speaking, a cyan light ignited in Feng Sanpao’s hand. A spark the size of a soybean rapidly expanded until it was the size of a ping-pong ball.

"And then what?" Feng Sanpao actually had the leisure to shout back.

"Are you stupid?" Chang Yu roared. "Aim at the swarm and fire it! Do I have to teach you everything?"

"Oh, right!" Feng Sanpao seemed to wake from a dream, raising his right hand—the one he had kept single for eighteen years—high into the air.

"Prepare to die, you scum!" he bellowed, shouting a line from some anime, and whipped the ping-pong ball of energy into the sky. A projectile trailing a long, brilliant cyan light streaked toward the thick, black cloud of mosquitoes. The radiance was blinding, no less impressive than a missile launch.

"Get down!" Chang Yu knew the power of Feng Sanpao’s Air Cannon and dove to the ground without a second thought. Katerina followed suit, immediately dropping to the ground with her hands out. As for Shi Chengjin, his reaction was even faster; experienced as he was, he had already hit the dirt before Chang Yu even finished speaking.

The only one left standing was the idiot Feng Sanpao.

"That guy..." Chang Yu thought silently, "doesn't he realize he doesn't get immunity just because he fired the shot?"

*BOOM!*

The explosion of the Air Cannon was comparable to a high-explosive grenade. A brilliant cyan light erupted, engulfing the mosquito swarm. A violent gale carrying grit and leaves lashed out, stinging their faces. All other sounds vanished, leaving only the whistling of the wind. They instinctively closed their eyes and held their breath, waiting for the dust to settle.

Before closing his eyes, Chang Yu saw a sight: poor Feng Sanpao, slow to react, had been blasted away by his own ultimate move. Imagine a man in heavy armor being launched three or four meters by the shockwave of an explosion—he looked just like a flying 'Iron Man.'

It began to rain black in the sky, burying the three people on the ground. The carcasses of dead mosquitoes fell in heaps, mixed with detached legs and wings.

"Ugh!"

Covered in the charred, foul-smelling remains of the insects, Chang Yu, who already had a phobia of bugs, retched on the spot. Goosebumps erupted across his exposed skin. Forcing himself to ignore the revulsion, he climbed up. Looking around, the ground was littered with indescribable black debris. Stepping on it felt soft and mushy, making his skin crawl.

The swarm had finally vanished; clearly, they had all been wiped out by Feng Sanpao’s blast. Katerina moved slightly, then stood up, brushing off her clothes. Her movements were fluid; clearly, she hadn't been hurt in the blast.

"Is that guy okay?" Shi Chengjin stood up as if it were nothing, ignoring the 'unidentified objects' stuck to his hair and body. He looked at Feng Sanpao, who was plastered against a large willow tree in an 'X' shape—the result of being thrown there by the shockwave.

"Not at all. I think I’m dying," Feng Sanpao moaned from the tree, unable to move. He felt limp, his strength drained, as if his bones were about to fall apart. If not for his pseudo-Qin Dynasty armor absorbing part of the blast, he wouldn't even have the strength to moan.

"Who told you not to listen to me?" Chang Yu said, exasperated. "If you had hit the ground in time, you’d be fine."

"Who knew this thing was so powerful?" Feng Sanpao countered. "Next time, I’ll throw it further away. I’ve realized that using this thing at close range is no different from suicide."

"Are the mosquitoes all gone?" Katerina asked, scanning the surroundings.