Chapter 152: Sniper Xia Qing

Though the sky was only just beginning to brighten, Xia Qing, a visual evolver, had no need for a flashlight while walking within her own territory.

Two solar panels were broken, and the diesel generator hadn't been delivered yet, so electricity had to be conserved wherever possible.

By the time she reached the northern isolation belt of her territory, the people sent by Territory Seven had already arrived.

The one who came was a man in camouflage, over a hundred and ninety centimeters tall. Though he carried no weapon and didn't assume an attacking stance, he gave off a very formidable air.

Xia Qing stopped, not stepping out of her territory's buffer forest.

This wasn't the first time Xia Qing had seen this man. A few days earlier, he had gone with Zhang San to search Territory Nine. Back then, he had been standing beside Ji Li, shouldering a light mortar.

Territory Seven has light mortars!

Xia Qing called out first. "Hello, Territory Three, Two-Five-Eight."

"Territory Seven, Three-Seven-Six. Thank you."

The other's voice sounded friendly, and Xia Qing breathed a sigh of relief. She walked out, handed him the sealed bag, and immediately retreated back into her territory.

On her way back home, Xia Qing discovered the weasel had already left, and the two injured wolves were eating.

Seeing Xia Qing return, the injured wolf with the broken leg guarded its food and bared bloodstained fangs at her. The brain-domain evolved wolf glanced up at Xia Qing, then lowered its head and continued eating.

Even dogs raised by humans guard their food, let alone wolves. Xia Qing had timed her return carefully, but she hadn't expected them to still be eating.

She stayed as far from the two feeding wolves as possible and greeted the head wolf. "My lord, I'm back. After dawn I'll leave the territory to go hunting. Two people will come to look after the territory for me, and they won't enter the village."

The head wolf seemed very tired today. It had been lying on the ground when Xia Qing left, and it was still lying on the ground now. It showed no reaction to Xia Qing's words.

It was still early, and with nothing to do, Xia Qing simply turned on the light in the first-floor tool room and continued digging the cellar.

In three days' time, Xia Qing had broken through the cement floor inside the house, dug a cellar one meter in diameter and three meters deep, and even dug a storage hole at the bottom of the cellar. After bustling up and down for a while, she finally moved all the excavated soil out and piled it in the courtyard.

She was lucky. Digging a cellar over three meters deep had brought no water seepage, and the house hadn't collapsed. Next came building walls to reinforce the cellar, and taking care of pest control, moisture-proofing, and ventilation.

There was no time for that today, because the sky had already brightened, and she needed to prepare her equipment for the mission.

Although the recent downpour wasn't an Evolved Rain, the creatures in the evolved forest, nourished by the rain, would certainly become more active and more dangerous.

Gun, knife, rope, sealed bags, medicine... Xia Qing carefully inspected every single piece of equipment, confirming there were no problems before placing them into a sturdy backpack.

After eating, Xia Qing put the chickens in the coop, told Sheep Boss to feed the fish, asked Xiao Jiang and Guan Tong to help watch the territory, shouldered her large backpack, and hurried to the entrance of Mountain Forty-Nine at the northwest of Territory One to rendezvous with Beard Feng's squad.

"Sister Qing!" Shi Du, who had already arrived, waved his arm vigorously to greet Xia Qing.

Once Beard Feng's squad of eight, plus Shi Du and Xia Qing—a total of ten people—had assembled, they entered Mountain Forty-Nine.

After over a month of clearing by the Green Dragon Battle Team, although Mountain Forty-Nine still fell within the evolved forest, the dangerous evolved creatures at the mountain pass had been cleared out, making the mountain path feel particularly safe.

Beard Feng introduced the day's mission location and content as they walked. "The location is in a swamp between the northern part of Mountain Forty-Nine and Mountain Fifty-Two. The mission is to clear out the evolved pythons, small evolved venomous snakes, evolved venomous spiders, and evolved muskrats there. Pay special attention to attacks from evolved leeches and evolved nematodes. Everyone check your protective suits in a moment, and make sure there are no tears before we go in."

A swamp?

Shi Du couldn't help shivering and looked at Xia Qing. Seeing that Xia Qing's eyes behind the protective mask were still calm, Shi Du also forced himself to calm down.

The ten-person squad circled around the peak of Mountain Forty-Nine from the west side and reached the mission location on the north side of the peak an hour later.

Beard Feng assigned the clearing tasks. "Chen Cheng, Er Yong, Dajiang, Shi Du, and I make up Group One; Chen Zheng, Jing Kuan, Peng Jian, Liang Zi, and Xia Qing make up Group Two. Group One is led by me, and I'll serve as sniper. Group Two is led by Chen Zheng, with Peng Jian as sniper and Xia Qing as assistant sniper."

Shi Du looked at Xia Qing in surprise.

Xia Qing being able to serve as assistant sniper for Group Two meant that while her sniper accuracy couldn't match that of Peng Jian, a fifth-level visual evolver, she was better than Chen Zheng and the other two in Group Two.

So that sniper rifle of hers wasn't being carried for someone on Beard Feng's battle team—it was her own weapon?

How was that possible!

Shi Du stared at Xia Qing carrying the old backpack she'd used for years, gripping her sniper rifle and standing on either side of Group Two with Peng Jian, still unable to believe his eyes and ears.

"Shi Du."

As Beard Feng led Group One forward, he noticed Shi Du still standing there in a daze and called out to him.

"Here, coming." Shi Du immediately took his place and began executing his mission—his unofficial logistics mission.

Although it was Shi Du's first time seeing it, this wasn't Xia Qing's first sniper mission. Skillfully, she and Peng Jian divided up their respective sniper zones, stood back-to-back, and prepared to snipe.

"Bang!"

Xia Qing dropped a large spider that had leapt from a distant tree with one shot, startling several birds into flight. Then she immediately turned her rifle forty-five degrees and aimed at an evolved muskrat poking its head out of the swamp fifty meters away.

A rat's head bigger than a palm at fifty meters posed no challenge whatsoever for Xia Qing, a ninth-level visual evolver.

"Bang."

Watching Xia Qing's practiced movements and the evolved animals being dropped one after another, Shi Du, who was sealing up the prey, finally believed that Xia Qing had truly become a sniper.

An hour later, the battle team paused to rest, and it was Shi Du's busiest time.

After he sealed up several small venomous snakes and turned to stuff them into his backpack, he noticed Xia Qing was still executing her sniper mission, while the sealing and clearing of prey was being handled by the others in Group Two.

Once the prey were dealt with, the clearing mission continued.

During the sealing of prey after the second round of combat, Beard Feng suddenly called out, "There's a group of goslings in the bushes two hundred meters out at nine o'clock. Xia Qing, Peng Jian, cover us. Jing Kuan, Er Yong, come with me to catch them—we want them alive!"

"Yes!"

The team members were all excited. Two speed evolvers ran after Beard Feng toward where the goslings were hiding, while Xia Qing and Peng Jian fired intermittently, dropping the evolved animals that leapt out to attack the gosling-catching team.

Soon, Er Yong came back grinning, carrying a bag. "The big goose disappeared somewhere, but we caught fifteen goslings!"

Chen Zheng pulled the bag open for a look and was puzzled. "These goslings only hatched about half a month ago. By rights, there should be a big goose protecting them."

The coloring of this group of goslings was definitely the same breed as the one she had just traded to Territory Seven that morning. Most likely the parents of this brood were the ones killed by the wolf pack this morning or yesterday. Xia Qing got excited. "The big goose is probably already dead. Don't let the goslings suffocate. Let's take them back and test the evolved element content. We might be able to raise them for eggs."

The odds were slim, but Beard Feng was also harboring hopeful expectations. "Take them back. If they're edible, Little Five is in for a treat."

Watching Beard Feng unable to resist showing off, Xia Qing muttered to herself:

So what if you have a cat? I've got wolves and sheep. Several wolves, and the sheep is even a Green Light!

After finishing with the captured venomous snakes, Shi Du pointed at a large patch of lush green plants not far away. "Captain Hu, that patch over there looks like water caltrops."