It was a long while before Cao Sha finally spoke hoarsely:
"I know... but Captain, I can't just watch them starve to death... They're people too. They haven't done anything wrong! They just wanted to enjoy their vacation peacefully by the sea, like us... Those children, they don't even understand what's happening!
Phoenix blood can save those children's lives. What does it matter if I risk mine?"
Xia Simeng frowned deeply. "Even if you wanted to do this, why didn't you tell me? What am I, your captain, in your eyes?"
Cao Sha smiled helplessly. "Captain, don't I know you well enough...? If I'd told you, would bloodletting have been left to me? No matter what, I, Cao Sha, am the only man in the Phoenix Squad. At a time like this, of course I have to step forward... just like Senior Kong Shang did back then."
At the mention of Kong Shang, Xia Simeng's pupils contracted slightly.
"You men... I have no idea where you get this sense of duty! What, do you think women are supposed to hide behind men?" Xia Simeng fiercely pinched Cao Sha's shoulder, making him bare his teeth in pain.
Having vented her anger, Xia Simeng sat up straight again. Her gaze swept across the ground around her before she somehow found a battered plastic basin used for building sandcastles on the beach.
She rolled up her sleeves, revealing arms covered in vicious scars, then forcefully sliced across her wrist with her fingertip!
Scarlet blood immediately gushed out.
"Captain! You..."
"What are you shouting for?" Xia Simeng shot him a glance. "I'm the captain of the Phoenix Squad, and Athena's proxy, the Goddess of War. When it comes to blood production and the concentration of phoenix blood, I leave you lot a hundred streets