True enough, the railway tracks appeared after twenty-five kilometres. Due to the lack of care, the tracks were covered with a thick layer of dead leaves and raging vines. It stretched forward with no immediate end in sight.
The veteran soldiers recruited by the Relief Society stepped onto the abandoned railway and began to pick up speed. Everyone was jogging. They had only a few tens of hours to complete a distance of more than a hundred kilometres, running was a must if they wished to reach the gathering point before sunrise.
Xia Lei began to run with Shentu Tianyin over his back. His long legs strode across each heavy plank used on the tracks, causing Shentu Tianyin to bounce on his back. She went up, down, up, down with alternating steps. With that motion, her soft breasts were forced to make contact with his back…
The four female knights wanted to help Xia Lei out. But as soon as they noticed that Xia Lei’s performance was not affected by the additional load, they dismissed the thought. The man was not panting at all! If he had no issues, why the need for help then?
Shentu Tianyin was surprised by his strength. She thought, “How is he so strong? Is this caused by those rumoured capsules and evolution? His children were already able to speak at two months old and their brains were developed a few years beyond their age. They must’ve inherited his genes. If our children too had inherited his genes, would they become as strong and smart as their father?”
Thinking of children, Shentu Tianyin couldn’t help but feel giddy. After all, there was a chance that half of her child was still in Xia Lei’s lower half and there was only one way to make a baby.
Excitement was a drug that elicited certain responses from the human body and her manifestation of that was felt by Xia Lei’s palm. Anyway, this was a vicious cycle drenched in pink.
Twenty kilometres later, an abandoned building on the side of the railway was seen.
Giovanna, who was in the front of the formation, suddenly paused and raised a palm to stop everyone else. Despite their numbers, the soldiers came to a stop without further noise. While some expertly laid flat on the tracks, some of the others went into hiding inside the jungle on both sides. From the looks of it, the Relief Society soldiers were trained well.
Xia Lei placed Shentu Tianyin down. “Stay here. Don’t move around, okay?”
Shentu Tianyin nodded.
Crouching his torso, he went over to Giovanna. Just as she was about to send someone over to scout the area, he stopped her. “Send me there instead.”
“But master…” How could Giovanna bear to send Xia Lei out to scout?
Xia Lei insisted, “Do as I say.”
“Alright.” Xia Lei was persistent so Giovanna gave in. She pretended to gesture a little and let Xia Lei out to check the building ahead.
The man had volunteered to do so because he had long detected the oddities in the building. The building that was about two hundred metres away was probably the repair and supply station back then. It had two floors; there were four men in a room on the bottom floor and there were two more of them on the roof. Though he was separated by two-hundred-metre distance and compromised by the dark, Xia Lei had long spotted the observer on the roof from a mile away. It was through his X-ray vision that he found the four men in the bottom room.
There were six men in the building. Though they weren’t dressed uniformly, they were all armed with long and short weapons like the AK47. One of them was even holding an old Soviet-made RPG rocket launcher. These armed members were evidently not from the American Delta Forces but from the Boko Haram armed group. Perhaps they were the patrolling members that Qian Jun had mentioned earlier.
For the Boko Haram members to be aware of this railroad was to be expected. After all, some of the members could’ve been recruited around the area. They were well-versed with the environment, which was why they were tasked to watch the tracks in order to stop anyone from getting close to the Alliance Mine.
Xia Lei left the tracks and dove into the jungle on the right. As he stealthily made his way over, he produced his Viper pistol and put on its silencer.
The forest foliage was dense with trees and creeping vines, but that did not stop Xia Lei from closing in onto the building. He was fast, his steps almost as if he was a monkey or even a panther. His speed was not human-like at all.
In a matter of seconds, Xia Lei sprinted through a distance of more than a hundred metres. He began to slow down about fifty metres away from the building. He wasn’t exactly worried about getting spotted by the rooftop observers. There was a chance that the Boko Haram armed members had planted landmines around the area.
Scanning through the ground, Xia Lei took note of all the landmines buried underground. There were a total of twelve mines, all of which were powerful anti-infantry landmines made by the Americans.
If Giovanna had sent over someone else, they too would’ve chosen to go near the building through the jungle. In that case, they would be forced to get past this area filled with landmines. To bury twelve landmines in such a small area would’ve rendered even the strongest veteran vulnerable as they could not see what was beneath the surface. As soon as the Relief Society’s soldiers stepped on it, the mines would be triggered and an explosion would play out. And that would expose their operation entirely. The Boko Haram group and the Delta Forces would rush here very soon, and things would take a terrible turn for everyone.
With ease, Xia Lei avoided the mines and slowly closed the distance. Forty metres … Thirty metres… Twenty metres…
On the roof, a Boko Haram armed member brought out a pack of cigarettes and passed one stick to his comrade. His comrade hovered a lighter over and lit its tip.
“There are no women around this fucking place. How much longer do we need to stay here for?”
“I don’t know. I fucking hate this place man.”
“I’m sure no one would even think of using the rail---” A bullet flew in through the window and exited his right socket clean, effectively silencing the man for eternity.
Less than a second later, another bullet went through the other’s left socket. Everything had happened so quickly that the man died without a sound.
After taking out two of the observers within a second, Xia Lei resumed his journey towards the abandoned building.
In the run-down building with no windows or doors, four Boko Haram armed members were snoozing away. In the centre of the room was a pile of charcoal- a sign that a fire was made in this place.
Poof! Poof! Poof!
Three bullets, three split skulls and three lifeless bodies. The last armed member jolted awake by the odd noise and reflectively reached down for his AK47 rifle. Right at the moment, he saw someone with a silenced pistol at the window.
Poof!
A bullet was shot into the last member’s arm, causing the AK47 rifle to clatter onto the ground This time, the man did not reach for the rifle. He suppressed his dire urge to scream for help. The man was clear about this- He was alive only because the person decided to spare him.
Xia Lei leapt through the window and pointed his gun at the man. Weirdly, Xia Lei had not intended to interrogate him.
The last armed member watched him closely, beads of cold sweat forming across his forehead. He had expected to be interrogated but after an extended silence, he realized that it wasn’t going to happen. Xia Lei merely stared at him coldly, eyes moving like spiralling abysses that brought nothing but fear.
There was no need for Xia Lei to ask anything. As soon as he entered the building, the mysterious energy was already activated and doing its job. His energy field had captured the terrorist’s brainwaves, biological energy and thoughts as he moved closer. At that moment, his energy had infiltrated the man’s brain and began reading through the information inside.
The last armed member’s mind was filled to the brim with outrageous memories. The Quran, bombs, decapitation and women… All sorts of vile things were ignored right away by Xia Lei’s brain. After he had combed through a mountain of useless information, Xia Lei was now presented with the things he wanted------ The Boko Haram personnel who had reached a deal with the American Special Force was Lamara. This time, the Boko Haram group had used one thousand armed members for the operation. Three hundred fighters were stationed on both sides of the road, one hundred of them were patrolling the jungles and another two hundred members were at the back area of the Alliance Mines. The remaining four hundred fighters were positioned around the Alliance Mine to act as human shields for the American soldiers!
It was confirmed that the Americans had brought out their Delta Forces and Navy SEAL to Nigeria, both of which were elite soldiers. It was not difficult to tell how much the Americans had prioritized the newly-discovered rare metals!
“Hey, what do you want to know?” The last armed member in the building attempted to break the tense silence. “Come on, you can ask. As long as you promise to not kill me, I’ll tell you everything you wish to know.”
“One plus one equals?” Eerily, the words that escaped Xia Lei’s lips were in a language specific to the member’s tribe.
The man was perplexed. “Two.”
The moment his voice died, Xia Lei pulled the trigger. The bullet blasted through the armed member’s skull.
“Sorry, you know too much.” Xia Lei kept his pistol away and left the abandoned building. He stood on an elevated spot and waved his arm at the others.
Two hundred metres away, Giovanna placed her night-vision binoculars down and pouted. “Jeez, he’s always working like that. Taking out all the enemies alone… Does he think we’re just here for sight-seeing?”
Despite her words, her body was quick to react. She emerged out of her hiding spot and waved. “Onward!”
The Relief Society started to move again.
Shentu Tianyin followed the troop closely as they made their way towards the abandoned building. The woman was probably the most worried out of them all when Xia Lei had left. She was worried that this would be the end of him and she’d be forced to face this awful ancient jungle alone along with the vile, heartless terrorists. However, her biggest fear was still living out her remaining years in absolute loneliness.
All her worries had dissolved as soon as Xia Lei came into sight. No longer able to hold back, she dashed forward and hugged him tightly.
“Hey, it’s alright. We need to continue moving.” Xia Lei then whispered into her ear, “Hey, hey. There’s a lot of people staring at us.”
It was only then that Shentu Tianyin released Xia Lei, finally breaking out into a wide smile.
A few of them went into the building to bring out the corpses, some of them even went to the roof to check on the two bodies there. They began to drag the bodies, in an attempt to hide it in the jungle behind. Xia Lei stopped them and said, “Just ignore the bodies, we really need to go. They’ve buried mines throughout the area behind the building, there might be more elsewhere too. Everyone, please be vigilant.”
The Relief Society’s veteran soldiers were blown away, finally realizing that Xia Lei had crossed a mine zone in the dark and took out six terrorists within a few minutes!
Their shock they felt was something that could not be described with words.