Chapter 893: Sniping Failure

After killing Jiang Xiong, Xia Qing gave She Xing a hand signal, indicating she should wait in place, while she herself continued forward.

After arranging Jiang Xiong and Qi San's corpses into the postures of sentries still crouched behind cover, She Xing lowered her voice and issued orders over the walkie-talkie: "Western hidden sentries eliminated. The enemy still has at least nine people. Our sniper has gone to deal with their sniper. Have the Liang Qing and Beast squads assembled?"

"Copy that. The Liang Qing rescue squad is fully assembled," replied a Tier-3 speed evolver from the Liang Qing squad.

"Copy that. The Beast rescue squad is fully assembled," replied the captain of the Beast squad.

She Xing gave the order: "Good. Both squads, push west 1,500 meters immediately."

The now-complete fifteen-person rescue squad began advancing toward the wasteland village from the west side.

Using the cover of ruins and trees, Xia Qing crawled forward and quickly arrived beneath the tallest tree in the area. After switching to cat-claw shoes, she swiftly climbed up.

But no sooner had she climbed halfway than an unexpected situation arose. A questioning voice came through Jiang Xiong's walkie-talkie: "Brother Xiong, everything alright on the west side?"

"Enemies are approaching. Take cover in place." After having the rescue squad halt their advance, Xia Qing pressed the talk button on Jiang Xiong's walkie-talkie while on the tree trunk and tapped it lightly five times in a rhythmic pattern with her finger.

Boom, boom-boom-boom, boom.

The person asking was also a member of the Dong Yang squad, and an auditory evolver at that. What Xia Qing tapped was the Dong Yang squad's contact code, and this code meant everything was normal.

If these people hadn't changed their code, she should be able to bluff her way through.

The other party indeed noticed nothing amiss: "Alright then, you and Sanzi hold out a bit longer. I don't know what the hell I ate wrong, but my stomach's acting up. I'm going to squat for a bit."

Having bluffed her way through, Xia Qing tapped the walkie-talkie twice more, signaling agreement.

Based on the conversation just now, the enemy's shift change was approaching, and the one coming to relieve the west side was an auditory evolver with the best nighttime reconnaissance ability.

She had to take out their sniper before this person finished his business.

The more critical the moment, the calmer one must be.

Xia Qing had observed in advance and locked down three possible hiding spots for the sniper. Climbing this large tree would give her a view of all three sniper points.

In other words, the upper part of this large tree was definitely within the enemy sniper's field of fire, so Xia Qing had to move carefully. If she moved too much and caused the tree's branches to shake abnormally, she could be spotted by the enemy sniper.

After climbing to a suitable position, Xia Qing steadied her breathing and heartbeat, and slowly peered through the dense branches and leaves to search for the enemy sniper.

First sniper point: no one.

Second sniper point: one person.

Third sniper point: no one.

Two hidden sentries on the north side, one hidden sentry visible on the east side.

Search complete. Xia Qing decisively pulled the trigger, one shot breaking the neck of the sniper lying atop ruins over 1,400 meters away, then fired three more shots before pressing the walkie-talkie button to report: "Enemy sniper and one hidden sentry on the north side, one hidden sentry on the east side have been eliminated. Rescue squad may advance at full speed."

"Copy that."

"Copy that."

Hearing that the Qing Long's sniper had taken out three of the enemy in one go, the rescue squad's confidence soared. They rose and charged forward.

"Pew pew!"

Two bullets, trailing a streak of light, shot straight at the large tree where Xia Qing was hiding from ruins 500 meters away. The enemy had another sniper—and this sniper had already aimed at Xia Qing!

One bullet pierced through the half-meter-thick tree trunk. Had Xia Qing not dodged quickly, this bullet would have hit her abdomen.

Although the bullet couldn't penetrate her snakeskin jacket and special protective suit, getting hit would still hurt quite a bit. The bullet grazed above Xia Qing's protective mask, producing a piercing screech.

While sliding down, Xia Qing decisively grabbed the rope and climbed up a few steps, then used her cat-claw shoes to grip the tree trunk tightly. Holding her gun with both hands, she quickly leaned out to the left and fired a shot trailing flames, counterattacking the enemy sniper.

"Clang!"

The bullet had actually struck a steel plate, producing a metallic clang. This was ruins that had been searched by humans countless times over eleven years; materials like steel plates had long been dismantled and traded for points.

So it could be confirmed that the enemy sniper was hiding behind a bulletproof steel plate, which was why he couldn't be picked up by Xia Qing's night-vision goggles!

"Bang!"

Another bullet trailing light pierced another hole in the large tree where Xia Qing was hiding. This also confirmed one thing for Xia Qing: the enemy sniper's steel plate could stop bullets, but it also restricted his mobility.

This made things easier!

After quickly climbing to a suitable height, Xia Qing took a grenade from her pack and threw it over, then a second, a third...

Five hundred meters was beyond the attack range of grenades and hand grenades, which was why the sniper protected by the steel plate dared to stay put and trade shots with Xia Qing—he must have realized Xia Qing had no long-range heavy firepower.

But who said grenades could only be thrown a few dozen meters!

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Xia Qing threw out scatter grenades one after another, blowing the enemy sniper's hiding spot to pieces, making him cower and not dare to show his head at all.

Normal hand grenades and grenades indeed couldn't be thrown 500 meters, but what Xia Qing was throwing were the heavy-duty, high-powered rocket grenades specially made for her by Xin Yu. The rocket propulsion device installed on the grenade significantly increased throwing range—as long as you had the aim, targets within 600 meters could be blown flat!

"Rat-a-tat-tat—"

No sooner had Xia Qing used grenades to suppress the enemy sniper than the enemy machine gunner turned his gun on her.

Xia Qing didn't even bother dodging the machine gun fire. After throwing another grenade, she directly raised her sniper rifle to counterattack the enemy machine gunner: "Bang!"

Because she relied on her sharp hearing to determine that the enemy was using a light machine gun with an effective range of only 800 meters. Firing a light machine gun at an auditory-evolving sniper 1,300 meters away wasn't counterattack—it was suicide.

"Boom!"

After confirming the sniper bullet had penetrated the cover and killed the enemy machine gunner, Xia Qing continued throwing grenades at the enemy sniper, and reported over the walkie-talkie: "One enemy machine gunner eliminated. Enemy sniper suppressed."

"Copy that!" The sixteen-person rescue squad's morale soared as they charged into the ruins where Chen Dongyang was hiding.

How to rescue the person from Chen Dongyang's hands was now the rescue squad's business. Sniper Xia Qing's only remaining task was to go head-to-head with the tin-sheet sniper on the frame building across the way.

She ran quickly while accurately throwing grenades to suppress the enemy sniper.

Her pack still held over thirty grenades and twenty hand grenades—standard equipment she brought every time she left the territory. Once she reached the first sniper point across the way, the enemy sniper hiding between the ruins and the tin sheets would be a done deal!

That tin-sheet sniper clearly didn't want to go head-to-head with Xia Qing. Upon realizing she had ample equipment and high-level sniping skills, he immediately crawled out from behind the steel plate and fled at top speed.

Inside the ruins, fighting and gunfire raged fiercely; outside the ruins, only the wind remained and the flash of gunpowder smoke in the night-vision goggles.

Kneeling on one knee behind cover at the first sniper point, Xia Qing aimed her sniper rifle forward, waiting for the fleeing sniper to think he had escaped effective range and stand up to sprint—then she pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

The bullet grazed past the protective mask worn by the target like a shooting star, the sparks it struck off flaring into a bright flash under the night-vision goggles. The target darted forward a few times and vanished from sight.

At a distance of 2,030 meters, Xia Qing's sniping failed and her opponent escaped.

Xia Qing turned her head, looking toward a pair of blue wolf-eyes glowing on the distant Shanfeng peak to the west. The moment her gaze fell upon them, those wolf-eyes vanished at once.