Chapter 833: The Sniper in the Trees

In the blink of an eye Xia Qing climbed thirty meters up, steadying herself among the branches. Using the cover, she peered out and immediately spotted three people approaching from her ten o’clock—all with bulky weapons strapped to their backs. Damn, even if those things were burnt to ashes, she’d still recognize them!

Blazing Fire’s poison gas guns.

Xia Qing quickly steadied her emotions, glancing at her target—a thick patch of brown fur and the swipe of a bear paw visible just ahead. She instantly ordered Xin Yu to push forward by thirty meters, keeping her within both Xin Yu’s protection zone and the range of her magnetic sense.

Those three poachers raised their guns toward the Evolved Bear, completely exposing themselves within Xia Qing’s firing range. Calmly, without hesitation, she squeezed the trigger in rapid succession.

“Pfft!”

“Pfft!”

“Pfft!”

…

“Aaaah—”

Remembering her last lesson all too well, Xia Qing fired six consecutive shots, disabling both arms of each poacher so they couldn’t use their weapons—choosing not to kill them outright.

Who the hell knew if any of these poachers had truly powerful backers? Leaving them to the authorities or Yang Jin was way less trouble than outright killing them.

Xin Yu reported, “All four targets are retreating. The one at twelve o’clock is the fastest—already out of scouting range.”

The three moving slowly were the ones hit in both shoulders.

“Leave it to me.” Xia Qing shot upward again using her cat’s claw climbing shoes, swiftly scaling to fifty meters before spotting the figure at twelve o’clock—now six hundred meters away with a poison gas gun slung on his back.

Anyone who could cover five hundred meters in just seconds had to be a Level 5 or 6 Speed Evolver. The guy was skilled, weaving through the trees and boulders in a zigzag to avoid pursuit.

It was a smart trick against most snipers, but this time their pursuer was top class. Six hundred meters? He could’ve run sixteen hundred and it wouldn’t matter. Xia Qing’s range had increased by a hundred meters since the ambush on the Blazing Fire Squad in January—now matching Luo Pei’s two thousand meters.

With her Level 9 Vision Evolution powers, Xia Qing tracked the poacher’s movements, coldly pulling the trigger. The first shot hit the base of his thigh, and before he even stumbled she fired again, nailing his right shoulder—making sure he couldn’t shoot any poison bombs.

All four targets were down. Xia Qing quickly removed her protective mask, lowered her facemask, and descended the tree to join Xin Yu—who had already put on her one-way protective mask. Together, they rounded up the four wounded poachers, then headed to where the action had started at ten o’clock.

Staring at the brown bear on the ground, Xin Yu asked, “That’s a giant bear, right? Is the creature next to it some kind of monkey or ape?”

“It’s either a regular brown bear or a giant bear that hasn’t fully matured. Adult giant bears are much bigger than this one. As for that… it’s a white-faced mangabey.” Compared to the massive three or four hundred kilo bear, the nearby ten-odd kilo white-faced mangabey looked completely harmless.

Alpha and Crippled Wolf had focused their research on Mandrills and macaques, not mangabeys. Guess they figured this little guy wasn’t much of a threat?

Still, Xia Qing found the mangabey’s big, oddly comical face—which always seemed to make Crippled Wolf laugh—downright creepy. Seeing that strange face lying next to a brown bear made it even weirder.

Was this mangabey, like the python, actually the bear’s ally?

Did the brown bear pick this white-faced mangabey for some unique ability?

Hiding a head full of questions, Xia Qing stepped forward to check on the bear and the mangabey. Satisfied they still had heartbeat and breath, she quickly drew blood samples for accelerated evolution testing.

Her current crew included senior experts, and her medical kit had only the best tech inside. One minute later, seeing the result, Xia Qing was furious. “The bear’s body has way too much painkiller in it—dangerous levels, with huge potential risks. This could trigger serious complications—it needs immediate treatment. Xin Yu, get in touch with Yang Jin: send him pics of the poachers, tell him to send backup ASAP. I’ll contact Third Brother.”

If this bear died and the Brain-Evolved Bear from Hill Sixty-One found out humans were responsible, there’d be hell to pay.

The poachers’ signal jammers were off, their trackers smashed—but they could use their phones again now.

Xin Yu sent the photos to Yang Jin, then called him to explain everything. Compared with the Inspection Team, members of the Azure Dragon Squad at Territory One and Hill Forty-Nine were much stronger and better equipped. Plus, Xia Qing and Xin Yu didn’t want to blow their cover; someone from the Azure Dragon Squad would have to handle the rest.

Yang Jin was decisive: “Send me your location, I’ll dispatch support immediately. And if there’s any danger, forget those four—just carry the bear and run. Xia Qing, you can carry it, right?”

Xin Yu eyed the brown bear on the ground. “She can.”

On Xia Qing’s end, her contact provided more orders based on her updates: “Report your location. I’ll send a helicopter with Zhang Song and the others right away. First, inject the bear with thirty milliliters of SE, and two milliliters for the monkey.”

“Understood. Sending now. I only have twenty milliliters of SE…”

“Give it all to the bear.”

“Yes!” After sending their location to her Idol, Xia Qing finished administering the medicine to the bear—when suddenly, she heard the sound of helicopter rotors.

Her Idol couldn’t have arrived this fast. Worse yet, it was coming from the wrong direction—that had to be the poachers’ helicopter.

“Move!”

Xia Qing snatched up her backpack, slung the sniper rifle over her back, and threw the four-hundred-something pound bear over her shoulders. Xin Yu scooped up the white-faced mangabey.

For Xia Qing—a Level Six-and-a-half Strength Evolver—four hundred pounds was barely half her max load. She actually ran ahead of Xin Yu, leading their dash through the Evolved Forest. Xia Qing had already picked out a perfect hiding spot—an enclosed space formed by two giant fallen rocks, five hundred meters away.

One of the most basic survival skills in the Evolved Forest was keeping track of your surroundings and always being ready to hide or run at the first sign of trouble. Xia Qing had spotted this hideout on her way over.

Of course, she wasn’t the only one to notice such a good spot. But before Xia Qing even had to do anything, the bear’s scent had already scared away a whole family of porcupines hiding there.

Once Xin Yu and the animals were concealed, Xia Qing sprinted another five hundred meters up the mountainside to her best sniping position, preparing for combat.

When the helicopter was still two thousand meters off, Xia Qing studied its silhouette: a UH-60 medium helicopter, maximum takeoff weight ten tons, armed with machine guns but no missiles or rocket pods.

No missiles or rockets? That made this a lot easier. Xia Qing drew a breath, aimed, and set her finger on the trigger.

“Bang!”

The gunshot rang out. Instantly, Xia Qing ducked, rolling away and swapping positions. A storm of heavy machine gun fire shredded the boulder she’d just used for cover, smashing it to pieces and sending chunks scattering.

The machine gunner on the helicopter had excellent aim, raining fire from above.

Reaching her second sniping spot, Xia Qing immediately scrapped the plan to pop up again. She grabbed the rope she’d anchored in advance, sliding down fast—right as the helicopter began to rake the area with more fire.

They were good, no doubt. But they were out of chances.

Because Xia Qing’s single shot had struck the helicopter’s rotor. Now the aircraft was spiraling out of control. The thick tree cover below would probably cushion the crash, preventing a wildfire—but the poachers weren’t escaping by air anymore.

Even if the gunner survived and could still fight, losing air superiority meant he wasn’t guaranteed to win against Xia Qing on the ground. In any case, Xia Qing’s real goal wasn’t to win the fight—it was just to buy time.