Chapter 1657: The Wounded Little Scarface Wolf

Xie Yu led five team members, and before being attacked by the wolf pack, boarded the helicopter carrying all the "captured" supplies, corpses, and prisoners, successfully "escaping." Then, the helicopter accelerated toward the mountain peak 2,000 meters ahead. Xie Yu immediately gave the order, "Use glow sticks to disrupt the wolves' line of sight, deploy the rappel ropes!"

After two members of Cheng Yao's squad boarded the helicopter using the rappel ropes, bringing along the two "tongues" they had captured, the helicopter turned northwest. The helicopter turned northwest; Cheng Yao, the senior elastic evolver responsible for drawing the wolves' attention, bounced rapidly between the trees, while the missing-eared wolf with its thick black-gray fur led four evolved wolves in close pursuit.

The roar of the helicopter drew near from afar; only then did the missing-eared wolf let out a howl, leading its companions to evade the human firepower attack from the helicopter.

The wolf pack retreated, and the helicopter's altitude dropped. Cheng Yao seized this chance to leap high, pressed the button on his grapnel gun, and fired the grapnel at the stone wall, then used the rope to swing to a safe height. The helicopter immediately lowered its altitude, picked him up, then climbed again, hurrying to retrieve their last companion.

"Awoo—woo—"

"Awoo—woo—"

Seeing Cheng Yao board the helicopter, the former wolf king of the southern pack, Fourth, scaled the mountain peak as swift as lightning and let out a long howl; the pack members followed closely behind.

Immediately after, howls from evolved wolves rang out from Hui One Mountain No. 29, Hui Three Mountain No. 22, and Hui Three Mountain No. 24 within the wolves' territory.

The southern wolf pack was expressing its anger at the intruders, declaring that it possessed the strength to defend its territory.

The surrounding beasts were startled, letting out howls one after another.

"Holy crap! The Blue Dragon Squad is fighting the wolf pack—what do we do, Brother Sang?" Sang Chenglin's squad scout at Outpost Three on the outskirts of Southern Evolution Forest Mountain No. 22 reported the emergency over the walkie-talkie.

The comms officer followed up immediately, "Brother Sang, the Blue Dragon Squad's senior sniper is surrounded by the wolf pack; they're about to clash directly with the wolves. The squad alliance called to notify us to pull out of the outpost immediately."

This wasn't them voluntarily abandoning the mission, but the Blue Dragon Squad clashing with the wolf pack; to avoid expanding a local conflict, they had no choice but to withdraw. Already scared stiff, Sang Chenglin steadied himself, silently counted to two, then spoke in a composed voice, "Report to the alliance: the Beast Sang Chenglin Squad's full team moves 5 kilometers north to standby, ready to provide support to the Blue Dragon Squad at any time."

The chance that the Blue Dragon Squad needed their support was very low; Sang Chenglin did this to hitch a ride on the Blue Dragon Squad's helicopter back to the territory.

This place was over a hundred li from the safe zone—anyone who had a helicopter and didn't hitch a ride was a fool!

"Awoo—woo——"

The helicopter circled overhead; the wolf pack members within Evolution Forest Mountain No. 21 rapidly repositioned, howling in fury.

The "sacrificed" sniper Bai Liang, waiting to be rescued, felt his throat itch and asked softly, "Sister Qing, won't you howl a couple of times?"

Xia Qing, wearing a protective mask, shook her head. Her wolf language was like English to her—reading and listening were passable, but speaking failed. In her ear, the phone's voice broadcast sounded: the helicopter was about to deploy repulsion grenades.

Having received the message, Bai Liang couldn't help asking again, "Sister Qing, don't we need to tell Fourth Brother?"

This was live-combat drill; what they wanted was realism. Xia Qing raised a hand to pat the bulging pocket of her protective suit, soothing the companion in her pocket, and reminded the enemy sniper she had "killed" but who couldn't stop talking in excitement, "No need. Get ready to retreat; don't get bitten by the wolves."

"Understood!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Three repulsion grenades landed, rapidly billowing thick fog; along with the fog spread a gas with strong irritating effects on vision and scent. The evolved wolves surrounding Bai Liang quickly withdrew, letting out furious howls on the outer edge of the smoke.

"Awoo-woo—" Fourth ran swiftly while ordering the wolf pack to ambush Bai Liang.

The thick fog, the helicopter's roar, and the wolf howls not only disrupted the evolved wolves' vision, hearing, and sense of smell, but also interfered with the humans in the same way.

Although Xia Qing could understand Fourth ordering a wolf to ambush Bai Liang, she couldn't tell which wolf it was, nor find where that wolf was hiding.

"Bai Liang, eleven o'clock, prepare to break out at full speed." Xie Yu issued the order over the walkie-talkie.

"Copy!" Bai Liang, crouching on a rock, immediately got ready.

"Three!" Xie Yu began the countdown.

"Bang!" The helicopter dropped another repulsion grenade, clearing an escape route for the teammate being rescued.

"Two!"

"Bang!"

"One!"

The moment Xie Yu's order was given, Bai Liang sprinted at top speed toward the slope at eleven o'clock. At the same time, an evolved wolf hidden in the snow darted out, viciously snapping at Bai Liang's leg!

"Rat-a-tat-tat—"

The machine gunner on the helicopter hit the big tree and rocks beside the evolved wolf, buying his teammate the chance to escape. If this were real combat, this evolved wolf that darted out to ambush would already have been hit and wounded or killed.

But in real combat, the already "dead" Bai Liang would have had no chance to escape, and the helicopter overhead wouldn't dare lower its altitude to fifty meters.

Because the enemy's top sniper was hiding on the mountain peak.

She could accurately hit the control linkage rods and hydraulic line bundle area beneath the helicopter's cockpit, destroying the helicopter's operating system; she could also hit the main rotor hub above the helicopter, causing the rotor to lose balance or control.

Last May, the military helicopter Hui Six sent to capture the greedy little bear lost its balance after Xia Qing hit its main rotor hub and had to make an emergency landing on the treetops.

After the Blue Dragon Squad's helicopter flew away, Xia Qing crawled out from beneath the stone wall, patted the snow off herself, and ran to the side of the little scarred-face wolf that had ambushed Bai Liang. "Scarface, are you hurt?"

The little scarred-face wolf turned its body sideways to let Xia Qing see its right hind leg.

Shrapnel from a machine gun bullet hitting a rock had grazed its hind leg; it was bleeding.

Xia Qing carefully examined the wound and was relieved. "No damage to tendon or bone, no treatment needed. Scarface, if this were a real battle, the moment you darted out to attack that human, you would have been shot dead."

The little scarred-face wolf, taking part in a live-combat drill for the first time, looked very solemn. Fourth, who had run over, licked the little scarred-face wolf, then nuzzled Xia Qing, letting out a few low woofs.

In this drill, both Xia Qing, who had captured the enemy sniper alive, and the little scarred-face wolf, who had endured the repulsion grenade's irritation and leapt out to attack Bai Liang, received commendation.

Xia Qing raised a hand to pat the little Feimao curled up in a ball in her pocket, likewise using the gesture to express encouragement to her companion.

The drill was over; real combat was about to begin.

The missing-eared wolf led the team to stay and guard Mountain No. 21. Xia Qing rode the giant gray wolf, returning to Mountain No. 22 together with the other members of the southern wolf pack.

The smoke and strong irritating smell released by the repulsion grenades covered up the traces of the southern wolf pack ambushing human intruders here; the fierce clash between the Blue Dragon Squad and the southern wolf pack forced the human squads stationed at Outposts Two and Three on the edge of the southern wolf pack's territory to pull back at least 5 kilometers, clearing a passage for Zhang Shi and the medical equipment to be transferred.

Xia Qing had to transfer Zhang Shi, Ye Yiyi, and the medical equipment before these people returned to the outpost.