Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

Zhang Renfeng recalled that when he was a child, he also poured water on ant nests, and the situation was similar to that now.

Miners who have already gone down into the mine have almost no chance of survival. The water flow will fill the cavities inside the cave at extremely high speed, forming a vortex-like current that will pull people in directly. So many bodies would probably block the caverns completely, and needless to say, the situation would be horrific.

“Let’s go back.” Otto glanced at the flooded mine, his tone complicated. “It’s no longer our business.”

"Wait, Mr. Otto!" Ali seemed to wake from a nightmare, turning around rapidly with an almost obsessive expression, pleading, "Please, at least try it a little..."

“We are Raiders of Lamoon, not Rescuers of Lamoon,” Otto said calmly. “Besides, there’s no one here who needs rescuing—with such a massive outflow of water, do you think those who went down into the mine have any chance of survival?”

Ali looked as if he had been struck by lightning, and stood there stunned. The shock was so great that he began to lose control of some of his muscles, and his upper and lower jaws began to chatter.

"But...but..."

“The current is swift, and I cannot allow my men to risk their lives for something that yields no benefit. So, I’m sorry, child.” Otto patted his shoulder, his tone calm despite his regret, revealing little genuine remorse. “Take care.”

……

"Over there!" Nina suddenly pointed in a certain direction on the water and exclaimed, "There's someone there!"

"Are you sure?" Zhang Renfeng took out an electric lamp, the only light shining into the turbulent water, but all he saw was a murky mess.

"I'm sure!" For some reason, the girl, who had been somewhat timid throughout the journey, spoke with unusual firmness at this moment. "I saw several pairs of hands, but they sank quickly."

"?!" Ali hadn't drowned, but at that moment, as if grasping at a straw, he instantly turned around, stood on tiptoe, and looked in the direction Nina was pointing. His eyes were wide open, trying to see even the slightest sign of life in the churning water.

“It’s too far.” Otto didn’t intend to linger. But before leaving, he said to Zhang Renfeng, who was still standing there watching, with a puzzled look, “You’re not planning to go into the water, are you? It’s such a long distance, and the current is so strong. Once you’re in, you won’t even be able to tell which way is which. Even if you manage to swim to them, two or three people hanging on you could drag you down into the water.”

"..." Zhang Renfeng's expression was solemn, his brows were furrowed, and he remained silent, as if he were thinking about something.

"Face reality, Red Center, you're not omnipotent after all." Alto turned and left. "This place is beyond saving."

----

"My son! It's him, I see him, Roddy! My son is alive!" A hoarse shout suddenly rang out from the crowd on the shore, a joyful surprise that had finally been regained after a deathly silence and utter despair.

However, this glimmer of hope will soon be extinguished completely by the ups and downs of the hands.

"Oh...God...please, help my son! Anyone will do!" The voice was like a mournful whistle, "Anyone will do—!!"

……

"Hoo—" After exhaling a deep breath, Zhang Renfeng said in a deep voice, "Don't leave."

"What?" Otto stopped in his tracks.

"I said, until I'm done... none of your men are allowed to leave!"

After saying that, Zhang Renfeng lowered his body and sprinted back towards the woods he had come from. Otto was unsure what he was going to do until he saw Zhang Renfeng rush like a rainbow to a tall poplar tree, roll up his sleeves, half-squat down, and wrap his arms around the lower part of the trunk.

An idea that seemed absurd to most people popped into his head.

"No, that can't be." His lips were stiff, as if trying to convince himself, he muttered to himself, "No matter what, he's just a person, just like us, a mortal with flesh and blood, how could he possibly do something like this..."

"ah------!!!!"

The roar of the wildfire instantly drowned out the raging torrent, giving everyone present, especially Otto, a jolt.

The overflowing water moistened the soil, causing the roots to grow less densely. Objectively, this reduced the difficulty of the process.

Nevertheless, this action still made the hearts of all the onlookers pause for a moment.

"boom---!!!"

The ultimate in human resources.

Extreme bravery.

He uprooted a large, leafy poplar tree from the ground, soil and roots with his bare hands!

Chapter 490: Red Center is Here

“Mr. Otto, this guy… no… he, He just said…” When his underlings saw this, for a moment, they didn’t know what pronoun to use to describe Zhang Renfeng.

Seeing this, it would be somewhat impolite to treat him like a human being.

"Should we still retreat?"

"Get out of here my ass! Damn it!" Otto instinctively cursed, then immediately covered his mouth, looking somewhat terrified, afraid that if he showed any disrespect, a bolt of lightning would strike him down from the sky and burn him to ashes.

Myths are full of miracles, but no matter how many you hear about them, nothing beats seeing them with your own eyes.

Having witnessed the miracle, Otto seemed like a different person. He hurriedly urged his subordinates, "No, you...you go back to the cave right now and get the kerosene lamps and torches. I need them to light up Hongzhong! Bring any other usable items you can find. Hurry! Go now!"

……

"Thump—!!"

On the other side, Zhang Renfeng paid no attention to the change in the crowd's attitude and casually tossed the uprooted poplar tree aside.

"No, it's too short..."

He compared the length of the tree to the current and threw it into the flooded mining camp. It would be washed away quickly. The camp was located in a very low-lying area, and the current was so strong that this single piece of driftwood would not be enough to hold the area in place or achieve the effect he wanted.

Helpless, Zhang Renfeng repeated the same method, without even letting his body rest. Under everyone's shocked gaze, he squatted down again, gripped the tree trunk with both hands, and straightened up! As if it were an assembly line operation, he pulled up another tree in an unremarkable manner.

A mature poplar tree weighs approximately 300 kg. However, this weight is far from enough to trigger his instinctive reaction, a fact Zhang Renfeng was well aware of, which is why he dared to uproot it so recklessly.

But to the crowd behind him, it looked like he had uprooted two trees, each over ten meters tall, in a minute, as if pulling up scallions.

"That's not enough. We need to find something to connect them... Ah! I've got it!"

This was a mining camp, and what it had in abundance was all sorts of mining equipment. As everyone screamed and fled for their lives, many tools were scattered on the ground, and no one paid them any attention. In the muddy ground not far away, Zhang Renfeng spotted a classic-shaped miner's pickaxe, and his eyes lit up.

"That's it!"

He took three steps in two, grabbed the miner's pickaxe, held the wooden handle with one hand and the curved shaft with the other, and slammed it down hard on his knee!

"Boom!"

The wooden handle immediately snapped into two ends, separating from the arc-shaped pickaxe body.

"It's a lie..." Otto muttered.

However, he realized the next second that he had surprised too soon.

"Thump—!!!"

Zhang Renfeng gripped the pickaxe in the back of his hand, stacked two large-leaved poplar branches together, and smashed them down hard at the point where they overlapped.

With a loud crash, the iron pickaxe pierced through the two pieces of wood. In that instant, Zhang Renfeng was like a carpenter, wedging a nail between the two pieces of wood. However, the "nail" and "wooden plank" in his hands were of unimaginable weight.

"No, not enough!" Zhang Renfeng gritted his teeth, then stood up and shouted to the crowd, "Hand picks! Do you have any more hand picks? Quickly—!!"

……

People who practice martial arts naturally speak with a strong voice, and even from twenty meters away, their voices are clearly heard by everyone.

At that moment, his words were like a royal decree. Chaos erupted immediately. Fortunately, this was a mining area; food and drink were scarce, but iron pickaxes were plentiful. After all, no matter how much the company skimped on supplies, they wouldn't skimp on this. Without pickaxes, they couldn't be expected to mine with their bare hands.

In no time, someone rushed to Zhang Renfeng with several iron pickaxes, delivering them at top speed. Without hesitation, he took the pickaxes, used his palms as knives, and chopped off the wooden handles in a few strokes. He then hammered the remaining pickaxe heads into the overlapping sections of two large-leaved poplar trees.

Without a hammer, Zhang Renfeng clenched his right fist and slammed it down on the pickaxe.

"when!"

"when!"

"when!"

What could better demonstrate a sense of power than this scene before us?

Like a blacksmith swinging a sledgehammer, the crescent-shaped pickaxe head was driven directly between the two pieces of wood, making them fit together.

What kind of force could possibly accomplish this? Why isn't his hand damaged when he directly strikes an iron pickaxe with his bare hand?

There's no time to think about these things.

In the next instant, Zhang Renfeng half-squatted down, grabbed the middle section of the log with both hands again, lowered his legs, and used his waist to lift the piece of wood that was pieced together! You can imagine how terrifying the visual impact would be.

Otto swallowed hard. Just this morning, he had intercepted this man's convoy on horseback. Thinking about it now, a cold sweat broke out on his back, and his underwear was almost soaked.

With his head still on his neck, he could only be described as blessed by God.

"Get out of the way! Everyone get out of the way—!!"

Lifting a 600-kilogram weight, Zhang Renfeng still had the energy to shout loudly, his voice steady and powerful, showing no sign of strain. In fact, he didn't even need to say it; any normal person, even seeing someone swinging a shot put outdoors, would instinctively keep their distance—a survival instinct honed over millions of years of human evolution. Let alone him carrying a 600-kilogram log, who would dare stand in his way? That would be a miracle.

People scattered like birds and beasts, running to both sides. Just then, the henchman who had been ordered by Otto to fetch the lighting equipment had also made his round trip.

Kerosene lamps and torches, though not very bright, were better than complete darkness.

The warm firelight flickered on the shore, and the once dim and chaotic water could now be seen more clearly.

"Thump—!!"

"Thump—!!"

"Thump—!!"

……

His footsteps were incredibly heavy, like deep, powerful drumbeats striking the earth, invigorating everyone's spirits. Bathed in light, Zhang Renfeng appeared like a god descending from the heavens, carrying a giant log, and charged towards the rushing water. With each step, he left a somewhat terrifying footprint on the ground.

"With that weight, can you still move freely...?"

Otto couldn't even imagine what would happen if he tried to charge a fortress with such a log in during wartime. How many fortress gates could withstand such a devastating impact?

"If the number of people is less than 20, I usually don't make any plans, I just go for it..."

……

During the lesson just now, Zhang Renfeng did say that. Otto thought it was some kind of rhetoric, smiled, and let it pass without saying anything.

Now it seems this wasn't just rhetoric! In fact, that's a rather conservative estimate... Whether it's 20 people or 200, seeing this scene would be incredibly demoralizing! And this is just him sprinting while carrying the log; what if he were to swing it around?!

……

"There!" Nina, her eyes fixed on the water, pointed a finger, providing precise navigation for Zhang Renfeng. "They drifted in that direction with the current!"

----

There's an idiom called "throwing a whip to stop a flowing river," and tonight, Zhang Renfeng performed its upgraded version.

"boom------!!!"

He hurled a 600-kilogram log like a javelin!

The water surface churned, resembling layers upon layers of giant waves.

Those unlucky souls drifting downstream finally bumped into something to grab onto in the rapids, clenched onto a branch, and gasped for breath.

The people on the shore erupted in a thunderous cheer.

Chapter 492: The Dolphin Princess

"This is bad, it's drifting further and further away..."

Zhang Renfeng picked up the electric lamp and looked at the log floating on the water in the distance, his eyebrows furrowing. Although the water surface seemed calm, there were turbulent undercurrents beneath their sight. He could only watch helplessly as the massive poplar log was gradually pushed away from the shore, despite his immense strength.

Those few survivors who managed to cling to the tree branches had already exhausted all their strength in the repeated ups and downs and struggles.

It's impossible to expect them to swim to shore on their own.

Just a minute ago, Zhang Renfeng's mind was preoccupied with throwing out this buoyant contraption, so that at least they would have something to hold onto while on the water. But now, the most pressing issue was how to retrieve the two sections of the large poplar tree nailed together.

"lasso!"

The only clumsy method he could think of was to tie the log to a few strong enough ropes and then pull it out of the water by his own strength. This method was not very sophisticated and looked quite crude, but it worked well enough.

……

"You should be grateful if you run into us... The Union Army would never wear this thing; they've long since abandoned our glory and history. And the Confederate Rangers were originally cowboys. When you're charging at close range and you've run out of ammunition, you'll realize how useful this old buddy is."

Otto took a bundle of whip-like lassos from his belt and stroked its surface with some reluctance.

For the old cowboy, the lasso itself, like the revolver, cowboy hat, and spurs, is a symbol of a certain condensed culture. When he handed it over, he hesitated for a moment, but the next second, Zhang Renfeng grabbed both ends of the lasso with both hands and pulled it, almost scaring Otto so much that his heart stopped.

These hands can uproot trees from the ground, and if they really put in the effort... they could probably tear their precious lasso in two with just one pull.

Fortunately, his purpose was not to destroy it, but to test the rope's strength and whether it could be used as a rescue tool. Seeing Otto do this, his other men naturally followed suit and contributed their lassos as well.

“What’s next?” Otto asked. “Are you going to swim over alone and tie the rope to the log?”

Zhang Renfeng gripped the rope in one hand, staring at the dark, rushing water below, and fell into a rare silence.