Chapter 1940: Azure Dragon Squad's Third-Ranked Combat Power

"Report the capture situation." After the blue whale had safely submerged, today's mission leader Xie Yu asked about the combat situation in the Evolution Forest.

Azure Dragon Team Three reported, "Sister Qing sniped one enemy sniper and wounded one enemy spotter. We are using the positions of these two as a central point to search for other intruders."

The mangrove protection belt guarded by the Azure Dragon Squad is the section with the most sea beasts and the heaviest defensive mission. Without the Azure Dragon Squad's permission, anyone entering this section of mangroves is considered an intruder.

In principle, those hiding in the mangroves should be a complete squad of 6-10 people, meaning at least four more intruders are hidden in the forest.

Eryong in the air reported, "The helicopter monitoring equipment has not detected other intruders and is continuing to explore."

"Copy that."

Xie Yu replied, "Team Three, send me your location. I'll come meet up with you to capture the intruders. The aerial squad continues the search mission. Sister Qing, this is very likely Blue Blood's sniper squad—don't let a single one escape."

"Copy that." Xia Qing in the air activated her full visual evolution ability. After calmly responding, she watched Xie Yu lead two squad members into the mangroves at a running speed close to that of a level-five-and-a-half evolver.

Azure Dragon Squad's third-ranked combatant and level-three Category-C brain-domain evolver Xie Yu is often stationed at the Azure Dragon Squad headquarters and the safe zone, so outsiders consider him the weakest of the Azure Dragon Squad's three captains. Some even say his third-place ranking comes from his brains, not his combat ability.

During this period, because Luo Pei went out on a mission and Yang Jin was injured and stationed at Azure Dragon Squad headquarters, Xie Yu had to go out on missions. The Azure Dragon Squad's enemies all want to seize this opportunity to capture or kill this vice captain known as the Azure Dragon Squad's "brain," so every time Xie Yu goes out during this period, he encounters all kinds of "accidents."

Xia Qing had never seen Xie Yu fight and didn't know his true strength. But just from his current running speed and aura, Xia Qing knew he definitely wasn't weak.

However, even if he wasn't weak, charging in like this was somewhat abnormal.

Unless either he or one of the two Azure Dragon squad members behind him was a Category-C magnetic-sense evolver who could sense intruders' magnetic fields.

Xia Qing quickly gathered her focus, concentrating fully on searching for intruders hidden in the Evolution Forest.

After Xie Yu's three-person team charged into the mangroves and ran forward along the tree trunks for over 200 meters, they stopped and cautiously advanced in a different direction.

It seemed they had found the intruders. Xia Qing added a few more points of possibility to her earlier guess.

Because the tide was rising now, the sound of waves in their mangrove area was very loud, and the air was filled with the scent of seawater. Under these circumstances, both auditory and olfactory reconnaissance abilities would be limited. Their going over with such a clear target should be because they were using magnetic sense.

Down in the Evolution Forest, Xie Yu led his team to stop in front of a patch of dense trees, drew the long blade from his back, and forcefully thrust it into the mud and water beneath the mangroves. Then he pulled the blade out and stabbed a second time, a third time...

Although she couldn't see the intruders from the air, based on Xie Yu's movements, Xia Qing guessed that the intruder hidden underwater should be able to swim or crawl within a small range underwater.

Xie Yu couldn't kill it with one stab, which meant the underwater intruder wasn't slow, and also meant Xie Yu wasn't a Category-C magnetic-sense evolver—he was locking onto the intruder's position based on reminders from the person behind him.

Of course, it couldn't be ruled out that Xie Yu was deliberately doing this to hide his hidden ability.

On the fourth stab, Xie Yu struck an aggressive evolved mangrove vine plant—fish vine.

The evolved fish vine, its vines nearly as thick as a forearm, lashed out and viciously whipped toward Xie Yu, but was shot and severed by an Azure Dragon Team Three member behind him. The severed vine, having lost its nutrient supply, fell onto the mud, water, and trees, twitching like a sea snake.

Over a dozen real sea snakes and large numbers of fish, shrimp, and crabs scurried quickly through the trees and mud-water to dodge the attack. Seabirds flapped their wings over and seized the opportunity to hunt.

Xie Yu continued stabbing into the mud one strike at a time, searching for the intruder. One by one, aggressive evolved trees were triggered and began releasing their physical or chemical attack methods.

The Azure Dragon Team Three members—one wielding a blade, one using a gun—flanked Xie Yu, who was searching for the intruder, protecting him on the left and right.

After the twenty-fifth stab, Xie Yu stopped. He bent down, reached out, and pulled a mud-covered person out of the mud beneath the seawater, tossing them onto a tree branch.

Xia Qing saw that this mud-covered person's neck was twisted at an unnatural angle—in other words, when Xie Yu had just bent down, he had cleanly snapped the person's neck.

Xie Yu washed the mud off his protective gloves with seawater, drew his long blade from the mud, and continued searching for intruders.

When the sky darkened, the Azure Dragon Squad's aerial and ground forces cooperated, using the magnetic-sense evolver's ability to conduct a carpet search of the mangroves within a five-kilometer radius around the sniper. They captured a total of 7 intruders, and the fishing mission ended.

Xia Qing killed two, wounded one, Xie Yu killed two, and the other squad members killed two.

The helicopter landed again on the open ground in the center of the 回-shaped building. When Xia Qing jumped down from the helicopter and looked at Xie Yu ahead, whose smile was even more brilliant than his golden curly hair, she understood why Xin Yu was unwilling to deal with Xie Yu.

In the twelfth year of the Calamity, Xia Qing had personally killed many people and had seen others kill as well.

She never used whether or not someone had killed to judge their character, but she would judge a person's danger level based on their state when killing.

People who killed because they had no choice for survival, when they acted, sometimes revealed a heaviness born from within, sometimes revealed a desperation of perishing together.

Even if such people stabbed the dead full of holes, Xia Qing didn't feel they were very dangerous.

What made her feel dangerous were people like Xie Yu. When they killed, their entire being radiated an excitement that Xia Qing couldn't put into words.

For such people, killing is a form of enjoyment.

When encountering such people, Xia Qing would stay as far away as possible.

Someone like Xie Yu, who gets excited when killing and then smiles at you looking harmless after it's done—Xia Qing wished she could kick him back to the Azure Dragon base with one foot.

But that was just a thought.

When Xie Yu cheerfully asked if she wanted to come inside and rest for a while, Xia Qing calmly shook her head. "I'm going to check the seaside."

The ore transported by the blue whale was on the riverbed in the nearshore area and needed to be salvaged as soon as possible. Xia Qing was a strength evolver with decent swimming ability. After the sniping mission was temporarily over, she was going to work. Guan Tong, the strength evolver from Beard Feng's squad, was also here to work.

"Alright, Sister Qing, stay safe, and come back early for dinner after you're done." After watching Xia Qing leave, Xie Yu raised his hand and put on a black fisherman's hat, pressing down his golden curly hair, and turned to walk toward the room where the intruder they had just captured was being held.

He had to dig all the intelligence out of this guy's brain before Xia Qing came back, then throw him into the sea to feed the fish.

Xia Qing boarded the salvage vessel, entered the operating room, and saw Huo Zhun and Wang Man, whom she hadn't seen for many days.

Wang Man nodded at her with a gleeful, schadenfreude-filled smile. Huo Zhun, his face full of flesh, greeted her looking utterly dejected. "Sister Qing."

Xia Qing smiled. "Brother Huo received the study materials?"

To help his son pass the junior high school graduation exam this year, Lord Huo Lei had specifically borrowed from Zhu Li the study materials she had bought last year, asking Huo Zhun to find time to review them.

"Yeah, I got them." Huo Zhun raised his hand to scratch his damp, thick short hair, as if using the motion to shake off the exam pressure, then cheerfully asked about what he cared about most. "Sister Qing, did Guagua and Bai Yan's chicks hatch?"