Chapter 35: Chapter 34: Vigilance, Ambush, Slap, and Revenge
The range of the shotgun’s pellets is at most thirty or forty meters; beyond that, the trajectory drifts.
The pellets grazed Ding Yi’s shield, and having been prepared, she merely had her arm scratched, a narrow escape.
In fact, she was the first to sense something was wrong.
Even before the mission set out, Ding Yi was constantly worried about Qi Mountain and his group’s attack.
However, while tracking the wolf pack, Chen Shanshan comforted her, saying that the important thing now was to deal with the Desert Wolf Pack, and at most, Qi Mountain’s group might intercept them on the way.
Worrying about things that haven’t happened yet would only distract her and ruin the upcoming wolf hunt.
But even so...
Ding Yi’s inner anxiety did not diminish in the slightest.
She was the one who knew Qi Mountain best in the team.
Chen Shanshan’s view on human nature was somewhat naive, and Lin Feng only carried the hatred from their first encounter after awakening.
The only one who truly understood Qi Mountain was herself.
Not to mention his insidious and cunning nature, his biggest trait was never doing things without certainty.
In the past, he openly betrayed the team, taking away most members, using wave after wave of tactics to exploit Chen Shanshan’s weak disposition, using threats and bribes to split all the resources with everyone.
If he wasn’t confident about the current ambush, he might back off, but if he were, he’d relentlessly pursue and then strike at the opportune moment.
Especially when all team members were off guard...
Qi Mountain would approach like a cold venomous snake, silently closing in through disguise, ready to strike accurately!
As the battle was coming to an end, Lin Feng intended to spectate, Chen Shanshan chose to lend a hand, and the Liu Family siblings were already collecting wolf corpses...
Only Ding Yi didn’t let her guard down.
The only other person sharing her thoughts was Jiang Zhuo, the team’s sole outsider.
He understood Qi Mountain’s methods even better than Ding Yi.
As the wolf hunt was nearing its end, Jiang Zhuo knew it was time for him to act.
So from beginning to end, he was always holding the Iron Shield, standing beside Lin Feng, while protecting him and observing the entrance and exit behind them, as well as the surrounding slopes.
As for Qi Mountain and the others launching the sneak attack, they had just arrived not long ago.
Riding bicycles and leaving the main force, they entered the left side of the wilderness along the avenue, waiting to rendezvous with Zhang Dezhu and his Deserted Village Squad before setting off together...
So they spent more time on the road.
Fortunately, the group of ten quickly found tire tracks on the ground and inquired with nearby Deserters to learn the direction of the strangely designed armored tricycle.
The oddly shaped iron lump was so conspicuous on the wilderness that passersby who saw it all had a deep impression.
Following the tire tracks on the ground and the directions from passersby, the group quickly caught up to the deserted camp attacked by the wolf pack.
They saw dozens of plump Scavenger Vultures feasting on human remains.
Li Chengwu immediately started retching.
They had seen many corpses and mummies before, but such fresh, fragmented corpses, scattered in such a state, was a first.
Holding back nausea, Qi Mountain stepped forward to scare away the Scavenger Vultures and found tire tracks stained with blood:
"This must be the work of the Desert Wolf Pack not long ago. They followed closely, seeming to intend to wipe out the others in this day and night."
"Let’s go, we pursue!"
And so the ten set off again, relying on the food and water Li Chengwu brought for the long journey.
For this interception, to seize the wolf corpses needed to exchange for the Evolution Agent, he spared no expense.
If they failed...no, they must succeed!
Quickly, the group tightly followed and reached the other side of a hillside, where they saw a group of vehicles maintaining a steady pace on the vast plain not far beyond the hill.
Qi Mountain halted their steps:
"Carefully, don’t get discovered. We must wait for them to go far, engage in conflict with the Desert Wolf Pack, before taking action."
Beside him, Li Chengwu frowned slightly:
"How much longer? We’ve been rushing continuously. The food and water we brought won’t last us two days."
Qi Mountain squinted his eyes and peeked out, spotting the distant convoy entering a valley surrounded by three mountain rings. On the mountain slopes, there were a few moving black dots...
His mouth curved into a cold smile as he murmured, "Truly, it’s heaven aiding us. Li, your Evolution Agent is already calling out to you!"
Shortly after Chen Shanshan and the others entered the valley, a series of gunshots echoed.
Qi Mountain immediately led his people, sprinting toward a gap in the valley a kilometer away.
At the entrance of the valley, they abandoned their bicycles. Qi Mountain took an old single-shot shotgun and five thumb-thick slugs from Li Chengwu.
To ensure power, each was loaded with a single 15mm lead ball, with an effective range of thirty to forty meters, becoming more powerful up close.
The leading three, including Qi Mountain, were all Late-stage Enhanced People.
They carefully hugged the stone walls on both sides, stealthily making their way into the valley.
Soon, through a corner gap, they saw the others fighting with the Desert Wolf Pack in the distance.
At this time, Chen Shanshan wielded a Titanium Gun, battling a Desert Wolf three meters tall.
While the man named Lin Feng held a gun, watching from the side.
Apparently, the gunshots just now were fired by him.
Now standing still, it was likely that he had exhausted his precious bullets, leaving Chen Shanshan and the others to wrap things up.
As for the muscular bald guy Li Chengwu mentioned, he was entangled with a group of Giant Wolves, while his team members were either dead or injured...
Already trapped in a deadly fight and desperate.
Li Chengwu’s eyes glowed upon seeing the ground filled with wolf corpses!
He raised his shotgun, ready to surprise them with an unexpected sneak attack!
But Qi Mountain stopped him, whispering a reminder:
"That short woman fighting with the long spear, she’s an early Superpower awakener with a certain Perception Ability. In battle, her perception weakens due to concentration, but you mustn’t get within thirty meters of her."
"We must kill her first, or else we risk exposure too early."
Having been with Chen Shanshan for a long time, Qi Mountain, as deputy leader, was well aware of this leader’s abilities. At the moment, he just wanted to quickly eliminate the trouble of Chen Shanshan’s group:
"She’s farther from the crowd, Li, your shooting is better than mine. You aim at her, I’ll take care of the guy with the gun."
"Take out those two, then let the remaining men charge in."
"We’ll reload and provide long-range support from the rear!"
Li Chengwu squinted his eyes slightly and nodded:
"Alright, let’s do it your way!"
Under Qi Mountain’s lead, with two people behind him and seven knife-wielding underlings, they cautiously advanced forward.
When they were thirty meters away from Lin Feng and the others, Qi Mountain signaled with a wave, and Li Chengwu immediately raised his gun to aim.
They hid behind the rocky wall, exposing only part of their bodies.
One aimed at the distant Chen Shanshan, while the other aimed at Lin Feng, who was watching the scene unfold.
However, at the moment they exposed part of their bodies, Jiang Zhuo, who had been watching and observing in the rear, noticed something was amiss.
He quickly raised his shield, but unfortunately, due to exhaustion, he couldn’t quite manage to position the hundred-plus pound iron shield in front of him in time, leaving half of his body exposed.
Eventually, his right shoulder was hit by a bullet.
On the other side, because Li Chengwu had to aim at the constantly moving Chen Shanshan, he was half a beat slow in firing...
But Ding Yi, who had discovered them, had already raised a shield in time to protect the captain.
Bang! Bang!
After two shots, in the next moment, Lin Feng turned around, and his gun was already aimed at Qi Mountain and Li Chengwu.
They hadn’t had time to hide and were each precisely hit in the exposed half of their shoulders by two bullets.
In their agony, their shotguns, which hadn’t been reloaded yet, fell to the ground.
Lin Feng took the shield from Jiang Zhuo’s hand and directly charged into the entrance.
Realizing the situation had changed, Li Chengwu was the first to react. Enduring the excruciating pain, he kicked Qi Mountain aside and then dragged Zhang Dezhu behind him as well.
As a person who had long achieved Level 9 enhancement, Li Chengwu’s greatest skill for survival was escaping.
He wasn’t one of the first generation of Deserters but was born into the Li Family, one of the Three Major Clans on the Oasis, though he was from a branch family. He grew up in their Nongzhuang Village.
Due to poor academic performance and laziness in work, he was sent to the Fifth Village after turning thirty, using his Li Family background to serve as Lord Wang’s steward.
If not for this connection, he would have been taken on missions by Lord Wang and died eight hundred times over.
Of course, living a life of luxury, his life force was incredibly resilient. A bullet hit to the arm wasn’t enough to claim his life.
After bypassing the minor underlings, Li Chengwu reached the road, mounted a bicycle with one hand, and rode away.
By now, the people behind him had already fallen under Lin Feng’s gunfire and Chen Shanshan’s spear.
Seeing Jiang Zhuo lying motionless on the ground and Ding Yi narrowly avoiding a bullet, Chen Shanshan was plunged into deep self-blame:
"It’s my fault, all my fault. I was the one who should’ve been alert. I should have noticed them in advance."
Lin Feng approached, holding a gun.
An utterly terrified Qi Mountain lay on the ground, his face contorted in painful anguish.
Lin Feng didn’t kill him directly.
Both of Qi Mountain’s knee joints had been shattered, his lower legs dangled broken on the ground, connected by a mere stretch of sinew, and it only took one more bullet to turn him into a human swine.
But Lin Feng was no longer interested in wasting time here.
Looking ahead, Lin Feng saw the residual wolf pack, initially entangled with Li Hu’s group, quickly break free and flee for their lives under the pack leader’s howls amidst the sudden commotion.
Looking back, there was still a gun-wielding ambusher on a bicycle, already a few hundred meters away.
Chasing either one required a choice.
Calmly, Lin Feng walked up to Chen Shanshan, who was still immersed in her self-reproach. He slowly raised his hand...
And gave her a slap.
Smack!
The crisp sound seemed louder than a gunshot.
The instant redness on her cheek, the burning pain left Chen Shanshan’s mind blank.
Then she heard Lin Feng’s voice,
coming out steady but undeniable:
"There’s still an ambusher alive, a Level 9 Enhanced Person. You go after him. That guy has a gun; he must be from the Desert Hunting Team of the Evolvers. We absolutely can’t let him get away!"
"You, kill him for me!"
With that, Lin Feng ran straight into the valley.
The confusion in Chen Shanshan’s eyes gradually turned into firm anger as she picked up the Armor-Piercing Horn Bow and pursued Li Chengwu.
In her eyes, a hint of unprecedented ferocity emerged.
Lin Feng chose to move forward, pausing by the fallen Jiang Zhuo:
"Qi Mountain still has a few minutes left; he’s yours."
Hearing these words, Jiang Zhuo, who had intended to die, gritted his teeth and stood up slowly, cradling his bullet-ridden arm, limping towards the entrance.
Seeing the barely breathing but still alive Qi Mountain,
meeting again, Jiang Zhuo ground his teeth, showing a sinister yet relieved smile.
Kneeling beside Qi Mountain, aiming at his neck,
he slowly opened his mouth.
Crunch.
Lin Feng passed by the armored trike, glanced at Liu Qian, then gradually accelerated his pace.
Transitioning from a brisk walk to a slow run, from a jog to a full sprint...
He turned on the vents of his combat suit, adjusting his breathing.
Chasing after Li Hu, who was already climbing the mountain.
The fleeing pack leader was a Level 9 Desolate Wolf.
It was also the last one left alive, yet to be hunted down.