Chapter 926: Azure Dragon Night Heron

Fifteen minutes ago, Xia Qing was still shucking corn in her own courtyard; now she was sitting in a helicopter wearing a Level-4 field protection suit, flying toward the evolution forest in southern Hui Three.

Sea beasts and raptors had been locked in fierce battle at Gui Three for three days, and finally, this morning, a victor emerged—over a thousand raptors abandoned their territory and fled in search of new land.

Among the three bases—Gui Five to the southwest of Gui Three, Gui Two to the east, and Hui Five to the north—the one with the weakest air defense, Hui Five, became the main direction of the raptors' escape.

Therefore, Hui One to the northwest-by-south of Hui Five and Hui Three to the northwest-by-north were also urgently gathering troops and squads to kill any raptors that might flee over from Hui Five.

This call from Luo Pei was made while he was leading his team from Gui Five heading toward Hui Five.

At first Xia Qing thought Luo Pei wanted her help protecting Territory One, but instead he was assigning her a mission.

Xia Qing's first reaction was to refuse, because she was neither a soldier nor a squad member. Her primary identity was a lord, her secondary identity was the director of the Ninth Planting Center, so her duty was farming and protecting Territory Three and the Ninth Center.

"To deal with the possible bird tide, our base has already deployed ground radar and anti-air missiles in the evolution forest between Northern Zone One and Northern Zone Three, which can kill any raptor entering the territory's airspace at any altitude. Zhang Ling and four members of Beard Feng's squad are stationed in your territory, more than enough to ensure its safety."

Luo Pei knew his disciple very well; only after putting her mind at ease did he bring up the purpose of the call and the mission reward.

"The two brain-domain and speed dual-evolution giant eagles fleeing toward our base are both on Gui Five's bounty mission board, six thousand points each. Even if you fail this mission, the Azure Dragon Squad will still reward you with 66 sniper rounds."

Sixty-six rounds doesn't sound like much, but converted into points it's— even at a ten percent discount it's still. No need to ask, that round number with nothing left over sounds like a refusal to haggle—definitely Yang Jin's decision.

The points were indeed tempting, but with the bird tide coming, Zhang Ling and the others could protect her territory, yet couldn't give her companions a sense of security. Unless necessary, Xia Qing didn't want to leave the territory.

Brother Luo wasn't the type to force people; if he called, it meant he thought only she could handle this mission. Xia Qing asked, "Brother Luo, since both eagles are brain-domain evolved animals, how did they end up on the bounty board?"

Outside the Carnage Rain season, no evolved animal, however powerful, could withstand human thermal weapons, so clever animals in the evolution forest rarely provoked humans. These two brain-domain evolved eagles had made it onto Gui Five's bounty board with a bounty of 120,000—clearly no simple reason.

"Because these two giant eagles like to feed on the brains of large animals, especially monkeys and humans. They carry eight human lives on them; the youngest child they tortured to death wasn't even a year old."

Luo Pei stressed the danger of these two giant eagles to Xia Qing, "If we let these two eagles hide in our base's evolution forest and hatch more offspring, the consequences would be unthinkable. I can't make it back in time—you're the sniper most likely to hunt them down within the base."

There are no monkeys in Hui Three base's evolution forest, only humans going out on missions!

Beyond her first two identities, Xia Qing was also a senior evolved person at Hui Three base and one of only two top snipers. She now enjoyed senior evolved person benefits and was a base cadre drawing a regular salary. With raptors invading the base and Luo Pei out on a mission, she had both the responsibility and the duty to step up, kill the raptors, and protect the base.

So Xia Qing spent ten minutes arranging things for Wolf Lao Er and Shi Zhu, swapped identities with Zhang Ling, boarded the helicopter, and headed for the evolution forest in southern Hui Three.

After the helicopter lifted off, Xia Qing, who had been weaving a blind spot out of dead branches and grass rope, looked down through the window at the territory where she had lived for a year and a half.

Last August, when raptors attacked this area, the defensive force was still mainly investigation teams and lords; this July, the base's ground radar and anti-air missiles already covered this arable land.

This showed that in the second year after the territory policy was issued, the base leadership was also actively deploying, striving to protect this land.

Arable land is the basic guarantee for humanity to continue surviving and reproducing on this mad Blue Star.

An hour and a half later, the helicopter reached the target location. Xia Qing pulled up her black face mask that only exposed her eyes, put on her protective mask, greeted Eryong who was piloting the helicopter, shouldered her huge backpack, grabbed the rappel rope, and descended onto the tallest stone pillar in the stone pillar forest deep in the evolution forest of southern Hui Three.

This place, deep in the evolution forest of southern Hui Three, was a raptor's paradise—and possibly the new territory the two giant eagles from Gui Three might choose.

Even if the giant eagles didn't choose this spot, as long as they lowered their flight speed and altitude to observe the area, human snipers would have a chance to kill them.

When Xia Qing stood atop the stone pillar, she discovered that the saplings that had looked like three weeds from the air were all over ten meters tall, and damn it, two of them were aggressive Carnage-evolved plants.

But she didn't even have time to complain. She quickly went to the only normal large pine tree, scrambled up to beneath the huge bird's nest, pulled out the woven dead branches and weeds from her backpack, and camouflaged the blind spot to look like part of the nest.

What Xia Qing had brought wasn't dead branches for firewood, but building materials she'd taken from the nest of a flightless eagle in Territory Eight—materials perfectly suited to eagle aesthetics.

An eagle that has lost the ability to flight still yearns for the sky—the female eagles that fly past.

This fellow had carefully picked building materials within Territory Eight, built a luxurious nest over three meters tall, and every day after eating its fill, with nothing to do, would squat in the nest calling out to its kind searching for food high in the sky, hoping they would stop by its nest for a rest.

Unfortunately, after a year of effort, not a single eagle had landed.

After the sniper position was set up, Xia Qing, lying inside it, pressed the walkie-talkie button. "Azure Dragon Night Heron, has arrived at Stone Pillar One, Mountain Seven."

Besides Xia Qing, the Falcon Squad had six other senior snipers, all hidden in this stone pillar forest area where the chaotic magnetic field limited radar detection.

"Night Heron at Stone Pillar One, this is Zhang Jingwu, commander of the southern sector of the first anti-bird defense line. The golden eagle lured away from Stone Pillar One is about to return to its nest—stay hidden."

"Night Heron copies, entering silent mode from now on."

Although compared to its vision, the golden eagle's hearing and smell weren't outstanding, it wasn't deaf. Xia Qing talking while lying beneath its nest tested not its hearing, but its IQ.

Xia Qing tried to ignore the aggressive magnetic fields released by the two large pine trees, and calmly, intently stared at the southeastern sky.

This sniper position was very well chosen, with a wide enough field of view to give Xia Qing the feeling of lying atop Jin Zita.

Soon, an eagle whose head and the feathers on the back of its neck reflected a metallic sheen in the sunlight spread its two-meter-plus wings and flew toward Xia Qing.

When it stretched out its strong, powerful golden talons, Xia Qing, hidden among the dead branches, felt her heart clench sharply.

Truly worthy of being the king of the sky—handsome enough, domineering enough!

The golden eagle circled its big tree several times, refusing to land, as if sensing something was wrong.

Just as Xia Qing's heart was hanging in suspense, Zhang Jingwu's deep voice came through her earpiece walkie-talkie: "First flock of raptors spotted 30 kilometers to the southwest, the giant eagles are not among them. Falcon Squad, do not engage—stay hidden."

Xia Qing, who couldn't see a thing, quietly let out a breath. What she couldn't see didn't mean the golden eagle couldn't—because this fellow's visual range reached an astonishing 36 kilometers!

Seeing the flock flying in, what would this lord of the sky do?