Chapter 1942: A Message from Old Four

Xie Yu took the mission and left the safe zone, using herself as bait inside the mangrove forest protection belt. Xia Qing was the one holding the net to scoop up fish.

Over the course of one night, they worked together to capture and shoot dead three squads totaling nineteen intruders—a number so high even Xie Yu found it abnormal. "The squad yesterday afternoon was sent by Blue Blood, and the squad that came after eleven at night was sent by the White Sturgeon Squad. Their target was me. But the equipment of this squad before dawn looks more like they were out sampling and hunting in the Evolution Forest. Why did they break into the mangrove forest protection belt?"

Xie Yu couldn't figure it out, but Xia Qing had a vague idea. "Could they have stumbled in by accident?"

Stumbled in from where, and why?

Xie Yu's highly evolved brain domain spun rapidly, and she understood what Xia Qing meant. Her eyes lit up at once. "The third squad—is it connected to the fight between the jackal pack and the wild dog pack in the eastern Evolution Forest the night before last? Sister Qing, where did they come from? Blue Blood? Who drove them into the mangrove forest—the jackals, the wild dogs, or the wolves?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "I'm only guessing. I don't have any solid information."

Xia Qing didn't want to say more, and Xie Yu tactfully didn't press, beginning to arrange the return trip. "Mm, I'll turn these corpses over and confirm their identities through official channels. Sister Qing, shall I see you back?"

The night before, Xie Yu had interrogated the spotter from the Blue Blood squad and learned that the Blue Blood Alliance's high command had issued a kill order on Xia Qing.

The squad lying in ambush in the mangrove forest yesterday had come for Xia Qing from the start.

They had infiltrated from the Evolution Forest of Hui Base 5 into the Evolution Forest of Hui Base 3, sneaking all the way to Mountain 48 in northern Hui 3. Finding they couldn't break through the defense line set up by the troops dispatched by the Sanjidi Sect and the mountain guards of the Azure Dragon Squad to reach the outer perimeter of Northern Zone 1, they set up an ambush to snipe Xia Qing.

After this squad reported the situation upward, their superiors changed the mission content, ordering them to lie in ambush inside the mangrove forest protection belt. Combined with the covert operations of moles inside Hui 3's safe zone, they pushed Xie Yu to leave the safe zone and carry out a mission inside the mangrove forest protection belt, creating the conditions for this squad to capture Xie Yu alive.

Blue Blood wanted to capture Xie Yu alive to extract intelligence from her.

They wanted to kill Xia Qing because Professor Fu Tianfeng and Wu Chengyu—two top national talents who publicly opposed Blue Blood—had gathered around Xia Qing and sparked a wave of public resistance against Blue Blood within the domestic research community. If they didn't kill Xia Qing and break up her alliance with Fu Tianfeng and Wu Chengyu, Blue Blood's position would only grow more unfavorable.

Therefore, Xia Qing's situation was even more dangerous than Xie Yu's. With just the combat strength and equipment of the three-person Beard Edge Squad, they could no longer guarantee Xia Qing's safety.

Xia Qing shook her head. "You came out on a mission and can't leave the mangrove forest. Outsiders don't know I've left the territory—they think this helicopter is just here to pick up shells. The odds of me running into danger on the way back are low."

Another reason Xia Qing didn't need Xie Yu to escort her was that she had multiple life-saving measures at her disposal.

Without needing to obtain Blue Blood's internal intelligence, Xia Qing knew that she, her idol, and Big Brother Wu had all become thorns in Blue Blood Alliance's side.

So now, every time she left the territory, she carried plenty of life-saving potions and equipment on her person:

The special protective suit she wore looked no different from anyone else's, but her protective mask, neck guard, and boots had all been modified by Big Brother Wu—two protection grades higher than the official special protective suit.

On her left wrist she wore an upgraded gas anesthetic specially made for self-defense by her idol. Hit the button in a dangerous situation, and within a dozen seconds every breathing creature within two hundred meters of her would drop.

On her right wrist she wore a sonic resonator developed by Big Brother Wu, capable of firing directional ultrasonic waves to disrupt the enemy's inner-ear vestibular system, robbing them of their sense of direction and inducing vomiting and loss of balance—achieving the effect of sowing chaos or silently disabling them.

In the satchel on her left hip, she carried four two-centimeter micro mechanical crawlers and one fist-sized mechanical spider. The crawlers' and spider's eyes were micro cameras, and their bellies held lethal poison prepared by her idol. They could carry out covert reconnaissance or assassination missions autonomously or under Xia Qing's control.

What if the enemy used the above micro-mechanical devices against her? They couldn't. What she wore on her left arm was an environmental monitor jointly developed for her by the two big shots—an upgraded air-toxin detector. This device could monitor human infrared signals, electromagnetic radiation, sound spectrum, and chemical agents within a 200-meter radius in real time, vibrating or flashing a warning the instant it detected anything abnormal.

In the satchel on her right hip, she carried the various life-saving potions her idol had prepared for her.

In her backpack, she carried an electromagnetic decoy designed by Big Brother Wu. Once deployed, it could simulate Xia Qing's heat signature and electronic signal characteristics, drawing the enemy's fire and attention away from her. This thing worked even better paired with the omnidirectional smoke grenades Seeing Xin Yu had made for her.

Besides these, her backpack also held high-explosive bombs, a folding electromagnetic crossbow, a color-shifting shield barrier, and other weapons and gear.

So Xia Qing's current carry weight was over thirty jin heavier than before—every ounce of it brimming with a sense of security. Add to that her own advanced vision and hearing, and even if Blue Blood sent a killer of Yan Long's caliber after her, they wouldn't be able to succeed.

Send a sniper? Heh, sorry—I'm a top-tier sniper myself. Unless the enemy sends Nie Hong, the very pinnacle of Huaguo's sniper pyramid.

Confirming that Xia Qing truly didn't need her escort, Xie Yu could only watch with regret as Xia Qing boarded the helicopter under the protection of the three-person Beard Edge Squad.

Di Ming and Wu Lianmin were staying by the sea to harvest crabs and shellfish for several days. The territory alliance's organic fertilizer plant produced crab-shell fertilizer that was exceptionally effective at suppressing anaerobic bacterial activity in soil, and demand far outstripped supply. They had to seize this golden opportunity to scale up production and earn more points.

When the helicopter flew over Mountain Zone 15 of the eastern Evolution Forest, Xia Qing's Bluetooth earpiece chimed with the phone's smart voice announcement: "Master, your friend Old Four has sent you a picture."

Old Four contacting her at this moment was entirely within Xia Qing's expectations. She pulled out her phone, glanced at the picture of the mountain peak Old Four had sent, looked down, and then replied: Old Four, do you need me to land here?

Old Four replied: Yes. Treatment.

Xia Qing replied: Okay.

"Captain Hu, turn to eleven o'clock and hover over that mountain peak sixteen hundred meters ahead. I'm going down." With a wolf paying, Xia Qing could of course go down and earn those points, and at the same time find out why the fierce beasts in the eastern Evolution Forest had been fighting.

"Copy that. Sister Qing, do you need Er Yong to go down with you?" The Beard Edge Squad's mission was to protect Xia Qing, but whether in sniping or close-quarters combat, Xia Qing had already surpassed them. So among the three people on the helicopter, only Er Yong's speed-evolution ability was still of some use to Xia Qing.

Xia Qing appreciated Beard Edge's kind offer, but she decided to go down alone. "No need. Old Four is waiting for me down below."

Old Four was a high-level speed evolver.