Chapter 1678: Unease After a Staged Victory

Nice!

Tang Huai gripped a sniper rifle identical to the top-tier sniper's, searching for targets with full concentration. The Alliance Leader had shown herself, so he had to follow closely—even if he couldn't produce impressive results, he absolutely could not embarrass himself!

"Well done!" Commander Gao Ying responded, also won over by Xia Qing's crisp, clean sniping ability, then ordered, "It must be someone in the shadows who discovered the infiltration squad lost contact, so they sent out a trained bird to scout for news. Azure Dragon Squad Three, Aurora Squad Two, speed up the search of the target area; Special Ops Group One, capture the evolved macaque for interrogation, watch out for bombs. Azure Dragon Squad Six, Aurora Squad Three, move forward and fill the defensive positions of Azure Dragon Squad Three and Aurora Squad Two."

No matter which organization they belonged to, the team members sent out to carry out infiltration missions all understood the danger of such missions, and had made preparations to commit suicide when exposed with no chance of escape.

Five minutes later, Special Ops Group One reported, "Captain Gao, the evolved macaque had just passed out from the tranquilizer dart when the bomb on its body detonated. We failed to capture it alive. We've examined and confirmed its severed limbs and blood contain no toxins."

Tang Huai frowned. A speed-evolved macaque, and it just blew up like that—these people are really ruthless!

Xia Qing hadn't heard the explosion, so either the amount of explosives on that macaque was small, or the distance was too far. Lao Si hadn't contacted her in the group chat either, which meant Zhang Shi and Ye Yiyi hadn't been affected by the bomb.

Gao Ying ordered, "Recover the body, continue searching for the infiltrators."

Five minutes later, the search teams still hadn't found the infiltrators. Yan Long, sitting beside Tang Huai, stood up, "Alliance Squad One's Deng Yan requests to descend and execute the search mission, Commander's approval requested."

Gao Ying immediately agreed. Yan Long was a level-nine olfactory evolver, and also the member of the task force with the richest combat experience in the Evolution Forest, so she was the perfect choice to carry out the search mission.

Yan Long fastened her rappelling rope, glanced at Tang Huai lying inside the helicopter executing the sniping mission, then looked at Gao Ying, who gave an understanding nod.

After rappelling down, Yan Long linked up with Azure Dragon Squad Three to execute the search mission.

In the library office of Hui-5 Base, an intelligence officer who had made contact with the Aurora Squad's covert line reported, "Director Liu, half an hour ago, the experimental tiger on Hui-3 Mountain Thirty-One was defeated by an evolved tiger and fled wounded toward Mountain Twenty-One in the southwest."

The fatty beside Liu Yin was surprised, "What a coincidence?"

Qu Fangzhou looked up at the map on the big screen. Intelligence analysts never believed in coincidences, but she didn't speak, because Liu Yin didn't trust her.

Liu Yin asked, "What kind of beast of prey's territory is Hui-3 Mountain Twenty-One?"

The intelligence analyst immediately answered, "Previously it was a pack of hyenas' territory. A few days ago the hyena pack was defeated by the southern wolf pack of Hui-3 and withdrew from Mountain Twenty-One. Now it's the outer territory of the southern wolf pack."

A defeated tiger, voluntarily entering the wolf pack's territory?

Li Yanuo looked at Qu Fangzhou. After Qu Fangzhou gave her a slight nod, Li Yanuo spoke up to ask, "Immediately confirm the position of Hui-3's top-tier sniper Xia Qing."

"Yes."

After the intelligence officer contacted the Aurora mole again, she reported, "Xia Qing is executing a covert sniping mission; the Aurora team members don't know her exact position. Just now, Xia Qing shot down the trained bird sent out by Squad Six's Second Group. Based on the gunshot, the Aurora team members judge that Xia Qing's position should be in the southwest of Mountain Thirty-One and the northeast of Mountain Twenty-One."

The intelligence officer responsible for terrain analysis immediately reported, "The terrain in the area where Xia Qing is located is extremely complex; it's the area most likely for infiltrators to hide in, as reported by the beast war squads."

Qu Fangzhou wrote down "Xia Qing" and "experimental tiger" in her notebook, then drew a question mark.

A top-tier sniper lying low in a terrain-complex area to execute precision sniping is very reasonable. A wounded evolved tiger hiding in a terrain-complex area is also reasonable.

But the possible connection between the two still cannot be ruled out.

Qu Fangzhou wrote the two words "wolf pack" after it. Is there some connection between Xia Qing, the wolf pack, and the experimental tiger?

Another participant at the Hui-5 Blue Blood Alliance branch consulted with Director Liu Yin, "The experimental tiger was wounded and withdrew from its territory, so it must have been spotted by Hui-3's warplanes. It may have already lost mobility from its injuries, and even using medicinal powder to trigger a beast tide probably won't lure it out to be killed. Director, should we report the situation upward?"

The core members of the Hui-5 Alliance branch had gathered in this secret room to kill the experimental tiger in "Hui-3 Mountain Thirty-One" and take the medicine from the target tree.

The target tiger voluntarily left its designated activity area and entered the top-tier sniper's firing range, so they couldn't complete the mission, which was understandable.

Liu Yin felt a little more at ease, "Have the Second Group hold position in place, I'll immediately request instructions from above."

"Boom! Boom!"

Two consecutive violent explosions rang out in the northwest of Mountain Thirty-One. They sounded very distant, but Zhang Shi and Ye Yiyi felt the cliff trembling.

Yiyi, who had just witnessed the ferocity of the tiger fight up close and whose mental state had not yet fully recovered, hugged her aunt with one arm and gripped the black-tailed wolf's fur with one small hand, struggling to adjust her breathing rhythm.

"Roar!!!"

The Western Tiger King, who had just seized this territory, let out a tiger roar no weaker than the explosions and went sprinting north.

"Awoo—oooo————"

"Awooooo————oooo————"

The southern wolf pack let out howl after howl. From the angry wolf howls, Xia Qing, with her auditory evolution, identified Lao Si's long, undulating tone.

The Southern Wolf King, using his companions' cover, was transmitting important information: Stop, come back!

In the cave beneath the mountain peak where Xia Qing was located, the Piece Tiger, which was licking its wounds, raised its big head; the Western Tiger King, sprinting northwest, stopped, climbed onto the snow peak, and let out a furious roar toward the direction of the explosions.

The raptors in the northwest were startled, crying out as they took flight and circled at high altitude.

Immediately after, the western wolf pack, southern hyena pack, northern wolf pack, and northern bear pack all began to roar.

The northern wolf pack didn't just howl—the pack's Number Two leader also @'d Xia Qing in the Blue Star Alliance group chat and sent a system-built-in question mark emoji.

Xia Qing was executing a mission and it wasn't convenient to type, so she replied by voice directly: The human squad that infiltrated Mountain Thirty-One and their speed-evolved macaque tamed beast, unable to escape, detonated their bombs. We're currently checking whether the explosives contain poison.

Soon, Azure Dragon Squad's Xie Yu reported that the explosives contained no poison. Gao Ying ordered them to thoroughly clean up the battlefield and continue searching for infiltrators. Xia Qing also reported the latest situation in the group chat.

Amid the tiger roars and wolf howls, the Azure Dragon and Aurora squads reported that the signal-blocking zone had been thoroughly checked. Gao Ying ordered the signal blocking lifted. Zhang Shi quickly came online and reported he was safe in the group chat.

The infiltrators had been eliminated, and the Piece Tiger had smoothly entered the target cave. Xia Qing only needed to hold this mountain. When the experts came to investigate tomorrow, the Piece Tiger would walk out of the cave for a stroll and be discovered by the experts, and then it could legitimately and freely move into Mountain Fifty for detoxification.

Everything was going smoothly. Logically, she could come down and rest for a while now, but Xia Qing felt deeply uneasy—if there really was a connection between the Piece Tiger's poisoning and Wu Chengyu's cancer, then the Blue Blood people couldn't have retreated so easily.

They must be plotting something big!

What kind of big move could ensure that these people thoroughly destroy all evidence of their illegal experiments using the beasts of prey in the Evolution Forest, within the dragnet they had laid across Hui-3 Base?