Chapter 1022: Rescue on Hill Forty-Nine

According to the day’s plan, this morning, two Magnetic Sense Evolvers from the Ninth Center went to Section Three of the North to investigate offensive Devastation Evolution plants, escorted by the Ninth Center Security and the Section Three Inspection Team.

After Ma Xiaoyin disappeared from the Safe Zone, the Ninth Center tightened security, doubling the number of guards and weapons. They even added ten more members from the Inspection Team. With protection this strong, no one expected anyone would still dare make a move against them.

Once she confirmed the enemy’s numbers, strength and weaponry, Xia Qing ended the call and immediately contacted Hu Zifeng. “Captain Hu, where are you… Get in touch with Huo Zhun, Jing Kuan, and Peng Jian right now. I want everyone at the helipad on the summit of Hill Forty-Nine in five minutes. We’re heading for the ruins three kilometers north of Section Three of the North to rescue the Ninth Center’s mission team. I’m on the north side of Hill Forty-Nine—I’ll be there soon.”

“Roger that!”

Time was tight. Hu Zifeng didn’t have a second to call Huo Zhun and the others. He raced up the mountain, using the lord communicator as he ran. “Huo Zhun, you there?”

“Here.” Huo Zhun, who was in the fields picking mung bean pods, responded instantly.

“The Ninth Center mission team is under attack. Xia Qing’s putting a rescue team together. If you can make it, get to the helipad on First Peak of Hill Forty-Nine in five minutes. Azure Dragon Squad will provide weapons and ammo.”

“On it! I’ll head straight over from Territory One!” Dropping his bundle, Huo Zhun dashed out of the greenhouse, made two quick leaps, and landed at the northwest corner of Territory Eight. After confirming with Hu Zifeng, he jumped into Territory One and shot straight for First Peak on Hill Forty-Nine.

Tan Junjie came online too. “Hu Zifeng, the Inspection Team is assembled. We’re en route to the scene for rescue. Let’s keep in touch.”

“Copy that.” After replying, Hu Zifeng immediately signaled two team members and sprinted uphill.

Tang Huai cursed over the lords’ channel. “Who the hell do these bastards think they are? Coming after our Magnetic Sense Evolvers! Take ’em all out—let’s make sure Section One of the North gets a reputation!”

“Absolutely!” Wen Nengjie echoed right behind.

Yuan Yan, a Magnetic Sense Evolver from Territory Five, gritted her teeth. From Territory Six, Zhu Li joined her. “Sister Qing, we’re on standby and ready to move out.”

Shi Du chimed in right away. “Yeah, Sister Qing, just say the word.”

Magnetic Sense Evolvers are the nemesis of offensive Devastation Evolution plants, the protectors of the fields. Every lord has a duty to keep them safe.

A sudden roar echoed from the Evolved Forest in the north of Hill Forty-Nine as a personal flight device shot up into the air, heading straight for the summit of First Peak.

Once Huo Zhun reached the summit, he dove straight into the helicopter, grabbing the cabin door with one hand, spun himself smoothly inside and landed right in the pilot’s seat. One push of the control lever and they took off.

From above, Xia Qing dove right into the cabin. Huo Zhun swung the helicopter around, whirring through the air toward Section Three of the North, arriving at the scene before even the patrol truck from Section One could.

Still in constant contact with Guo Chongjun, Xia Qing glanced at the wrecked Ninth Center vehicle on the ground. It didn’t take her long to find their hiding spot in the small building. She gave a calm order:

“They’re inside that half-collapsed brick-red house, five hundred meters north of the tallest building at eleven o’clock. The enemy’s heavy firepower squad is in a two-story building two hundred meters further north. Take out that squad first. Huo, full speed ahead—altitude two thousand, one hundred meters.”

At two thousand, one hundred meters up, they’re out of range of enemy rocket launchers and grenade launchers.

“Copy!” Huo Zhun locked onto the target and plunged straight toward it, hand pressed on the controls.

Hu Zifeng and Peng Jian, stationed at the machine guns, radioed in. “Sister Qing, should we strafe them with the machine gun?”

“I’ll use grenades to blow them out first, then you shoot. The machine gun might not pierce the two-story building, but Xin Yu’s special grenades will. Grenades are cheaper and work better for this job.”

The helicopter roared over the two-story building. Xia Qing dropped two grenades.

“Boom!”

“Boom!”

The grenades hit dead on, explosions billowing up plumes of smoke and blinding the enemy. Using radar, Huo Zhun locked onto targets escaping the smoke. “Northwest and southwest of the building, two escaping—one with Elasticity and one Speed Evolver!”

“Copy.” Both Hu Zifeng and Jing Kuan on the machine guns responded at once.

“Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat!”

From the air, they had total control. The machine guns spat fire and mowed down the targets in no time.

Two more grenades followed. When no one else got out, Xia Qing ordered sniper Peng Jian, the fifth-level Visual Evolver, to keep the building covered. Her sniper rifle and both machine guns turned on the other enemy squad nearby and wiped them out.

Inside the brick house, members of the Ninth Center Security and Section Three Inspection Team used the air support to charge the enemy.

“Bang!” With another shot, Xia Qing took out an enemy who’d just poked his head out from behind cover on the east side of the house. She activated her enhanced vision, scanning for any hidden sniper.

Huo Zhun checked, “Sister Qing, the patrol truck from Section One is three hundred meters out. Open up a path with the machine gun?”

“Go for it.” The patrol truck Tan Junjie’s team was using was old and wouldn’t survive a landmine.

Blazing a path with the machine gun, Tan Junjie’s squad crashed into the house and quickly linked up with the Ninth Center mission team, starting rescue efforts for the wounded.

After confirming that the three wounded from the Ninth Center weren’t critically injured, Xia Qing and Tan Junjie made a plan for a joint air and ground sweep of the rest of the enemy.

Whoever these bastards were, blowing up cars and trying to snatch away the Ninth Center’s Magnetic Sense Evolvers, they wouldn’t be leaving alive. And those hiding in the shadows, waiting to move the Evolvers out, weren’t getting away either!

After finishing his call with Tan Junjie, Hu Zifeng reported to Xia Qing, “Sister Qing, Captain Tan captured an enemy member alive. He confessed that their support team has fourteen people hiding somewhere in Hill Forty-Eight. But since they only had one-way contact, he doesn’t know where exactly they’re holed up.”

Xia Qing quickly outlined the next steps. “We’ll land first, get the wounded back to Section One of the North, then head to Hill Forty-Eight to hunt down the rest.”

With the Ninth Center’s vehicle blown up, Tan Junjie’s patrol truck couldn’t fit everyone.

“Copy.” Huo Zhun lowered altitude and set the helicopter down next to the house.

Seeing Xia Qing jump down from the helicopter, the staff from the Ninth Center were overwhelmed with emotion.

Guo Chongjun stepped forward and asked, “…Director, can I bring my brother’s body back?”

Xia Qing nodded. “The rest, get on the helicopter first. Guo Chongjun, take three people to gather the bodies of our security team. Tie them to the car with ropes and bring them back. Su Sibao, take two people with me to sweep the building to the north. Huo, I need your help too.”

“Sure.” Seventh-rank Strength Evolver Huo Zhun jumped out of the helicopter and followed Xia Qing north.

They’d only just started forward when Xia Qing suddenly raised her sniper rifle.

“Bang!”

From 2,100 meters away, on top of the ruins, a sniper in a gray-green ghillie suit was taken out by Xia Qing with a single headshot.

Lowering her gun, Xia Qing said coolly, “Su Sibao, go recover that sniper rifle and their gear.”

“On it!” Su Sibao, captain of Security Team One at the Ninth Center and a level-four Speed Evolver, bolted out at once.