Chapter 1388: Recognized

Speed is Xia Qing's weakness; in close combat against a high-level speed evolver, she has almost no chance of winning. But Xia Qing didn't jump out of the sniper cave and charge into the valley toward the cave where the enemy was hiding just to match this high-level speed evolver in close combat.

Charging forward, Xia Qing understood that the enemy was also afraid of triggering a Calamity Explosion, so after not daring to use a bomb, she holstered her pistol back into the gun case at her waist and kept charging forward with her sniper rifle.

Perhaps seeing that Xia Qing's speed wasn't fast enough, and trusting their high-level speed evolver companion's close-combat ability, the people in the cave didn't take any opportunistic shots at Xia Qing when the two charged at each other.

Xia Qing seized the opportunity, charging forward at full speed while monitoring the distance between the enemy's high-level speed evolver and herself.

When the distance between the two sides closed to 150 meters, Xia Qing was 300 meters from the enemy's cave. She had to close another 150 meters to have a sure-win grip. So what she needed to do now was fight the high-level evolver while continuing to advance, getting closer to the enemy's cave.

This mission was extremely difficult, but the more critical the moment, the calmer and more decisive Xia Qing became.

She activated her soft-body shield; the 30-centimeter-tall transparent shield that popped out not only fully covered Xia Qing behind it, but also allowed her to fire outward through the holes in the shield.

This was the folding sniper shield that Xia Qing had Lord Huo Lei custom-make for her after exchanging for high-grade materials from her idol following her battle with Phantom, the top sniper of Hui Five's Black Panther Squad, on Hui Three's Number Nineteen Mountain.

This kind of shield and combat style was only suitable for strength-evolution snipers. Even Xia Qing's master Luo Pei couldn't hang a shield weighing over twenty jin on her left arm while still bracing a 44-jin CM82 sniper rifle with both hands and shoulder to accurately hit high-speed moving targets.

"Bang! Bang! Bang…"

Realizing that no matter which way he dodged, the opponent's bullets could accurately hit his shield—and even the impact points were identical—the enemy's high-level speed evolver immediately confirmed that the shorty in the special protective suit facing him was Xia Qing, Hui Three's newly risen top sniper.

What should you do when facing a top sniper with a sniper rifle? Of course, run immediately.

No matter how sturdy a soft-body shield was, it couldn't withstand armor-piercing sniper rounds pounding the same spot. One more second of hesitation, and the opponent's bullets would pierce the thickened soft-body shield and shatter his bones!

Seeing the enemy retreat, Xia Qing didn't linger in battle either, charging forward at full speed to quickly close the distance to the enemy's cave.

The people in the cave also confirmed Xia Qing's identity through this astonishing bullet hit rate. "His grandma's, get the rocket launcher and blast her to death, cut off her head and go collect… no, wait, quick…"

The man shouting in the cave quickly fell silent and collapsed to the ground. The high-level speed evolver who was about to crawl into the cave also sensed his stamina rapidly draining and his five senses growing dull; he immediately realized he'd been poisoned, dropped his shield, and sped away.

"Bang!"

Before the shield even hit the ground, the enemy's high-level speed evolver was hit in the thigh by a bullet; his thigh bone was shattered and his soft tissue was torn apart catastrophically. With his evolution ability crippled, his psychological defense completely collapsed, and his body plummeted into the Calamity Grass, slamming into the sharp wooden-thorn wall.

The smell of blood spread, and countless Snow Hoppers along with other out-of-control insects and small animals immediately rushed over, devouring the dripping fresh blood and burrowing through the bullet holes to tear at his flesh.

Enduring the pain of a thousand needles stabbing her brow, Xia Qing stepped forward and fired another shot to finish off the enemy, then quickly crawled to the cave where the wanderers were hiding.

Raising her shield and turning on the high-beam flashlight, Xia Qing confirmed the cave had only this one exit. She then set down her shield, quickly tied up the six people inside who had fallen into deep coma, blocked the cave entrance with large rocks, cleared the bugs off the four corpses outside, sealed the bodies in body bags, and buried them in the Calamity Snow.

Finally, Xia Qing crawled up the slope, pulled out a crowbar, and quickly pried loose several large rocks to bury the animal corpses and aggressive Calamity Grass down the mountain, then placed Yi Stone granules on top to isolate the Calamity element in this area and prevent the highly evolved anaerobic bacteria in the soil beneath the rocks from continuing to multiply rapidly.

The situation was urgent now, so she could only handle it this way for now; she'd bring a team back to clean up this area after the Calamity Snow ended. Cleanup fee? If Old Five Mangy wouldn't pay, then she'd deduct it from this mission's haul. After deducting, she'd split the remaining supplies and points with Broken-Waist Wolf according to mission contribution.

Now, she had to rendezvous with Broken-Waist Wolf as soon as possible to eliminate the hidden danger of the beast tide.

The continuously falling Calamity Snow hadn't yet fully covered the tracks of the animals chasing the domesticated beast. Xia Qing first dug out the collar she'd shot off, sealed it, and tossed it to the cave entrance, then followed the tracks in pursuit.

At her speed, she definitely couldn't catch up to the domesticated beast that had already fled for over ten minutes; that wasn't her target either. Her goal was to get out of the signal-blocking range and contact her teammates as soon as possible.

"Aowu?"

Xia Qing, who was sprinting through the snow, heard her teammate's inquiry through her earpiece-style walkie-talkie, immediately stopped to answer, "Broken-Waist, all ten bad guys hiding in the cave have been dealt with. Are you and the wolf pack and Blind-Eye Tiger okay?"

"Ao."

"Where are you now? Can you see me?"

"Ao."

"Can you come over and rendezvous with me?"

"Ao!"

Broken-Waist Wolf quickly charged to Xia Qing's side and sniffed her protective suit.

"It's the bad guys' blood, I'm not hurt, don't worry." After cleaning the scene, Xia Qing had rolled around in the Calamity Snow several times and sprayed odor-isolating agent, but still couldn't completely mask the blood smell on her suit. Not just Broken-Waist Wolf—the Snow Hoppers and other insects constantly crashing into Xia Qing were also attracted by the blood smell.

Fortunately, the medium and large animals in the vicinity had all chased after the domesticated wolf-beast; otherwise Xia Qing would have been besieged by even more animals. "Broken-Waist, did the Western Wolf King go chase that wolf-family domesticated beast?"

Broken-Waist Wolf nodded.

"That domesticated beast definitely has beast-luring powder hanging on it or stuck to it. If it runs around in the Evolution Forest, it'll trigger a beast tide. Take this packet of powder, go find the Western Wolf King, pin down that domesticated beast, take off the beast-luring powder bag from its body, put it in this packaging bag and seal it, then sprinkle this packet of agent on it. Rub it in with your paws like this, and the scent will be suppressed."

Xia Qing rubbed Broken-Waist Wolf's protective suit a few times before packing the agent into the packaging bag, stuffing it into the side pocket of its protective suit, and solemnly instructed, "Don't tear the agent packet with your mouth. That domesticated wolf-family animal is in your hands now. Come find me at that cave over there when you're done; I'm going to sort the supplies. The signal blocking over there is still active, so phones and walkie-talkies won't work."

After Broken-Waist Wolf bumped Xia Qing's protective mask with its head and disappeared into the vast snowy expanse with the agent, Xia Qing took out her phone to contact Yang Jin.