The Sprout pursuit convoy wheeled around and fled.
Kelte's eyes flickered. He gave the order. "Fire for effect. Wipe them all out."
His adjutant caught the implication. His heart clenched, but he relayed the command swiftly, marking the strike zone.
The vehicles equipped with honeycomb missile launchers rolled forward. "Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh"—a swarm of short-range rockets lit up the sky.
The edge of the blast zone? It swallowed the black truck whole.
The Bureau 13 operatives caught it instantly. Fury and dread flooded their faces.
The adjutant rushed to explain. "Range miscalculation. Terrible mistake."
That excuse might fool a child. Intent never lies. Qi Baijia erupted. "Kelte! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Kelte offered no reply. His face was stone, but a chill flickered in his eyes. "Blame yourselves for not being Hai Xia."
The rocket trails seared into Li Yalin's retinas—beautiful and merciless. "They're trying to blow us sky-high too?!"
"The bastards did it on purpose!" Zhang Wei's rage was volcanic.
They'd known joint ops meant dealing with foreign hostility. But actually following through? In the field? That took balls. And if they died? "Friendly fire" would bury it all.
Only radicals played this dirty. Sacrifice allies without a second thought.
Sprout was the common enemy—all six nations agreed on that. But allies? Hardly. Friction was constant. The higher-ups smiled to each other's faces while sharpening knives behind their backs. On the ground? You were just pawns in their game.
Xiao Han's eyes locked. "Nitrous! Now!"
Li Yalin punched it. Blue flame roared from the exhaust. The truck lurched forward like a rhino possessed. The sudden G-force pinned her to the seat, immobile.
The rocket volley descended. Three hundred metres. Two hundred. One hundred. Fifty!
"BOOM—"
Scorching wind hurled mushroom clouds of dust into the air. Plumes of fire bloomed across the plain. For one terrible moment, the world went silent—decibels beyond human tolerance. The explosion became a mute film, only raging light swelling, climbing, setting the entire night sky ablaze.
Everything in the kill zone—vehicles, men—was shredded into nothing.
Three full seconds passed before sound came rushing back.
The Bureau 13 agents burned with fury.
Di Susu's eyes brimmed with grief and murderous intent. Faint cyan aura flickered around her.
"Whoosh—"
The black truck burst through the smoke, limping out on fire, the rear of the cargo hold blown half away. Scattered equipment and parts lay mangled.
"They're alive!"
Relief swept through the Bureau 13 team.
Li Yalin's heart hammered. A few dozen metres. That was all that separated them from incineration. Without the nitrous? Ash.
Xiao Han coughed up blood. He wasn't unscathed. The shockwave had slammed into him—two hundred HP gone. Then his back smashed into the cabin wall. Another fifty. His vision swam. "That bastard..."
The nitrous spent, the truck's engine seized. It rolled to a stop right in front of the Hai Xia forces, then died completely.
The soldiers stared at the vehicle up close. Countless bullet holes riddled its frame. A chill ran down their spines. "What kind of hellish fight was that? It's practically a sieve."
"Pity. Didn't finish them." Kelte's brow twitched. Disappointment flickered across his face.
Xiao Han and the others climbed out. The Bureau 13 operatives swarmed them. Qi Baijia, drenched in cold sweat, finally exhaled when he saw Xiao Han intact. "Thank god you're alright."
Then Kelte approached. The Bureau 13 team glared murder at him. Zhang Wei, teeth gritted, took a step forward in his armour. Instantly, soldiers raised their rifles. The adjutant barked, "What do you think you're doing? Back off!"
"I want an explanation!" Zhang Wei roared.
Explanation? Don't be naive.
Kelte ignored him. His gaze slid to Xiao Han. "The prisoners you mentioned?"
"…Dead."
Kelte's early assault had endangered him. It had cost him the two captives he'd fought to secure. And this bastard had just tried to blow him up. On purpose. No question.
Xiao Han lowered his gaze, hiding the ice in his eyes.
"So no evidence, then?" Kelte's brow furrowed with displeasure. His attitude only stoked the Bureau 13 agents' fury, but reason held them back. They were on Hai Xia turf. A confrontation here meant certain death.
Qi Baijia choked down his rage. "You can expect an inquiry from Bureau 13 over this!"
Kelte couldn't care less. Bureau 13 had no authority over him. This was just a "mistake." Without proof, the worst he'd face was some diplomatic posturing—annoying, but harmless.
Once Raven Valley fell, he'd bag a fat stack of merit. With his backers pulling strings, that would cement his place among the Hawks. No matter how creatively Bureau 13 protested, Hai Xia high command would swat it away.
Kelte's gaze landed on Xiao Han, who looked the worst. "Take him to the medics. Get him checked out."
Xiao Han's face revealed nothing. He followed a medic to the logistics vehicle. His injuries were just soft tissue damage—with his endurance, rest would sort them out. He dismissed the medic.
The vehicle rumbled to life as the Hai Xia forces pressed on.
Xiao Han lay back on the cot, eyes closing.
He hadn't slept since yesterday. Now was as good a time as any.
---
Gunfire pulled Xiao Han from sleep. He'd been dozing lightly. He stepped out of the vehicle. Dawn was breaking—around three or four in the morning.
The Hai Xia army had reached the Raven Valley, the security perimeter. The front line was hot. Raven Valley's six-layer security perimeter wasn't just patrols and sentries; it was a buffer zone against large-scale assault. Bunkers and pillboxes dotted the area. Now, all were manned, bristling with defenders. Before the Hai Xia forces could breach the base itself, they'd have to crack this six-layer defensive ring.
Through the forest, Hai Xia troops engaged the fortifications. Pillboxes, bunkers—they pushed forward methodically, guided by Ye Fan's intel.
Xiao Han was with the logistics unit, safely back from the fighting.
Two soldiers had been shadowing him. He asked casually, "How's it looking out there?"
One soldier replied, "Smooth sailing. We've pushed through to the fourth outer layer."
Xiao Han nodded and made to move forward. The two soldiers blocked his path.
"The colonel wants you here. Recovering."
Xiao Han got it immediately. Kelte had him under house arrest. He frowned. "And my people?"
"Your commanding officer also instructed us to keep you put. Rest easy."
Xiao Han's eyes flickered. Qi Baijia's play was obvious—keep him out of danger. That near-miss with the rocket barrage had spooked him. No way he'd let Xiao Han anywhere near the front again.
"Works for my plan," Xiao Han murmured to himself.
He spotted the black truck nearby, under tow. The chase had wrecked it. Without a full overhaul, it was scrap.
Xiao Han's eyes lit up. He headed for the truck.
The two minders didn't stop him. As long as he stayed in the logistics zone, they didn't care.
Inside the cargo hold, everything was still there. The prisoners' bodies were gone—already dealt with. Xiao Han grabbed the comms gear from a crate and patched into Lin Yao's frequency.
"Lin Yao. You still alive?"
"Unfortunately." Lin Yao's voice was flat with annoyance. "Still here."
"Status?"
"About to pull out. The base bigwigs say the outer defence forces are fully deployed—holding back the Hai Xia push. We haven't got the evacuation route yet, though. Looks like we'll have to follow them out to find out. Oh, and I dug up that false intel Ye Fan got. Thefortification layouts and defence strength for the third to sixth defence layers? Solid. But the inner first and second layers? Completely different. If Hai Xia fights using that intel, they're walking into a meat grinder."
"Did you warn them?"
"Nah. You're the first person I've contacted."
"Good. Keep it that way. Don't tell the Hai Xia lot."
Lin Yao sounded confused. "Why not?"
Xiao Han ran through the rocket barrage incident. Lin Yao's voice went hot with rage. "Those bastards!"
Kelte had shown his hand—willing to kill. Bureau 13 owed its forces nothing now.
Xiao Han's intel-sharing had a purpose: mission completion. To max that out, he needed Pan Kuang, Ji Jie, and the other core players dead. Kelte saw him as a tool. Fine. Xiao Han saw Kelte the same way. Take my intel, use your army. Mutual exploitation.
As long as the Hai Xia forces executed the mission according to his intel, he didn't care how many of them died.
Kelte's sudden murderousness, though—that was unexpected.
"Time to tweak the plan."
Xiao Han's eyes gleamed.