CHAPTER 197: CHAPTER 157: BOMBARDMENT OF THE FORBIDDEN ZONE_2

Zhang Ji, upon witnessing this scene, quickly thanked everyone and then led the convoy along the highway towards Small Phoenix Mountain.

In the blink of an eye, almost two hours had passed.

Ye Feng checked the time and then took flight towards Small Phoenix Mountain, possessing the Mutated Parrot.

"Every time I have to control the Mutated Parrot to fly back and forth, I wonder if I should contract another Mutated Parrot so I don’t have to run around like this," Ye Feng couldn’t help but mutter.

However, this thought had only just sprung up before he quashed it himself.

That was because establishing a contract with other animals, especially when their Loyalty reached 100%, would make the bond between them very close.

Ye Feng could even sense the emotional fluctuations of the Contracted Animals.

In the vast majority of cases, perceiving these animals’ emotions wasn’t a bad thing; sometimes he could even use it as a medium to transmit messages.

For instance, if a Contracted Animal encountered a crisis and sent out emotions of tension and fear, he could discover it immediately.

But being able to sense their emotions wasn’t always a good thing.

For example, when they were eating, Ye Feng could sense what they were eating and the resulting pleasurable emotions.

With carnivorous animals like Big Yellow Dog, it was merely about which meats tasted good.

But with something like the Mutated Parrot, it would be about which bugs tasted delicious, and that was kind of disgusting.

Of course, what Ye Feng found most unbearable was when these animals were in heat or mating.

That’s why Ye Feng, despite having many contract slots available, didn’t fill them all up; he kept just enough to meet his needs.

Ye Feng shook his head to rid himself of those distracting thoughts. With the speed of a Third Order Mutated Parrot, it only took him a few minutes to arrive over Small Phoenix Mountain.

Looking down, he saw that 10 missile carriers had already stopped on the highway about 1 kilometer away from Small Phoenix Mountain.

Undoubtedly, these must be the Thermostatic Shells that had been transported here.

The military, as a precaution to prevent missiles from exploding in transit due to collisions with unaware Mutated Birds, had deliberately moved them this close.

Otherwise, with the range of these missiles, they could have easily been launched directly from within Yang City.

He continued to look forward.

By now, the outskirts of Small Phoenix Mountain had become a large, treeless separation zone.

This had been prepared to prevent the Devour Zone from continuing to expand and consume these plants.

Although it was only Zhang Ji’s conjecture, with no confirmation, extra preparations against such an unpredictable entity as the Devour Zone definitely weren’t a mistake.

Flapping his wings, he quickly found a group of military officers and landed among them.

This operation was regarded with great importance by the Yang City military, and not just Zhang Ji—Bai Yinghui, the division commander, had also arrived in person.

At that moment, Bai Yinghui and the others felt an inexplicable relief when they saw the Mutated Parrot descend from the sky.

Honestly, there was an uncomfortable feeling lingering over them while they were waiting there.

Although the Mutated Beings from Dragon Hall would not attack them, due to the lack of communication, an inevitable sense of gloom and oppression filled the atmosphere.

Now, seeing a communicable Mutated Parrot arrive, they felt an especially warm sense of kinship.

"Time is almost up; how are the preparations on your end?" Ye Feng asked immediately after landing.

"We don’t have much to prepare, just positioning the troops at the attack sites. It’s actually more taxing for you at Dragon Hall," Bai Yinghui said with a smile.

His words were no mere pleasantry, as the most arduous step of these activities was actually creating the isolation belt.

This had required cutting down many trees, and moving them was an extremely troublesome matter.

The military had originally planned to call in no fewer than 10 engineering battalions to do the job.

However, Bai Yinghui hadn’t even issued the order when he saw the Mutated Wolf King commanding a horde of Mutated Beings to start knocking down trees and then dragging away the branches.

With the combined efforts of the numerous Mutated Beings, a 50-meter-wide isolation belt was formed in nearly three hours.

"Since that’s the case, let’s take action! Everything before was just speculation, whether we can contain the expansion of the restricted area or not will depend on the upcoming bombardment." Ye Feng said.

Bai Yinghui nodded, "Then I will give the order. We move in 5 minutes."

Orders swiftly spread out from the temporary command center.

The artillery squads scattered around Small Phoenix Mountain immediately got ready.

According to the plan, they would first fire a round of incendiary grenades to burn as much of the vegetation in the restricted area as possible, then they would release the thermostatic shells.

While the military squads were acting, Ye Feng also switched to avatar status, possessing the Mutated Wolf King, and ordered the nearby mutated beings to start retreating.

On the one hand, it was to avoid any sudden incidents in the restricted area, and on the other hand, to avoid interfering with the military’s operation.

After all, once the shells really began to explode, it was possible to startle the mutated beings and then lose control. Although the possibility was small, the necessary preparations still had to be made.

The 5 minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

Over at Bai Yinghui’s position, he also received reports that all squads were ready.

"All artillery squads, receive the order, aim at the target area, fire at will."

Boom boom boom!

The intense roar quickly resounded, and the flames released by the incendiary grenades rapidly enveloped all of Small Phoenix Mountain and the surrounding woods.

Of course, due to yesterday’s bombardment, only a small portion of the plants remained within the restricted area, so the bombardment this time did not last long, stopping after only 10 minutes.

Furthermore, that corrosive energy within the restricted area retracted back below the ground at the fifth minute of the bombardment.

"I estimate it will take about half an hour." Bai Yinghui spoke up.

The military had troops left here, and the troops stationed here were not idle, continuously studying the restricted area.

In this process, naturally, multiple bombardments on the restricted area had taken place.

Then they were astonished to discover that the restricted area continuously adjusted itself against such harassing bombardment, eventually forming a response strategy.

For instance, now, as long as the bombardment continued for more than five minutes, they would retract the corrosive energy beneath the ground, only to re-emerge after a period.

This duration was generally about half an hour.

"Then just right, in about half an hour, the trees here should be burned down for the most part. Then we can directly see the effects of the thermostatic shell." Ye Feng said.

"Right! I was thinking the same thing. But for the next bombardment with thermostatic shells, there are two plans, and I want to hear your opinion," Bai Yinghui said.

Ye Feng, somewhat curious, looked over and asked, "What plans?"

Bai Yinghui gestured to his aide-de-camp, who quickly handed over a tablet. After opening it, a tactical diagram was displayed.

"The first plan is saturation bombardment. According to our calculations, to cover the entire restricted area at once, it would require a full 8 thermostatic shells, and many areas would be hit repeatedly."

"The second plan aims to maximize the yield of the bombardment by using 4 thermostatic shells to cover about 70% of the restricted area. If we bombard twice, it would be like covering 140% of the area," Bai Yinghui explained, looking at the Mutated Parrot.

After pondering for a moment, Ye Feng said, "I lean more toward the second plan because this equates to a war of attrition, and we don’t know how long it will need to last."

He was somewhat concerned that excessive ammunition consumption would be too much for the military to endure.

"Actually, I also prefer the second plan. I was just worried about its impact on the results. Now that you say the same, I’m reassured," Bai Yinghui said with a smile.

After the two finished discussing, the half-hour quickly went by.

At this moment within the entire restricted area, except for two deliberately preserved places as observation zones, almost all the other flora had been burned to ashes.

At that time, the corrosive energy also re-emerged from within the earth, beginning to draw in and absorb the spiritual energy from the air.

Bai Yinghui did not hesitate; he immediately gave the order to attack.

The missile trucks that were ready in the distance slowly raised the medium missiles fixed atop the vehicles.

"Lock on the target, start the countdown, 3, 2, 1, launch!"