The forest was not quiet at all. The wind blew past, and the grass swayed and rustled. Insects chirped in the grass, as if warning of the intruding humans.
Up on the hill were two people, and two XL2500 sniper rifles, one with the stones and vegetation.
Two gunshots sounded at the same time.
Down the hill, on the grass. two gunmen fell to the ground. One was a camouflaged sniper, and one was the leading pursuer. Xia Lei had killed the first, and Tang Yuyan had killed the latter. The two of them worked very well together.
However, his power was displayed in the next second. After the first shot, Xia Lei seemed to not even stop, and the XL2500 sniper rifle gun muzzle shifted a millimetre before the second bullet came roaring out.
Another gunman fell to the ground. Headshot.
Tang Yuyan was still trying to locate her target with the scope. She could not be like Xia Lei, and kill her targets without a scope. She had to use the sniper rifle scope to find her target. And the targets she was searching for were all well-trained in military tactics, so they would not give her a chance to lock on to them.
After leaving three bodies behind, the men below the hill charged into the forest. Someone fired blindly, and bullets came flying in Xia Lei and Tang Yuyan’s direction. A large number of bullets flew past their heads, but some still hit the stone next to them, sending up sparks.
“Go!” Xia Lei crawled out of his hiding place, turning to go somewhere higher.
Tang Yuyan crawled from her hiding place too, following Xia Lei to higher ground. She knew Xia Lei’s plan — to use the XL2500’s shooting range and the terrain to his advantage, and kill off the enemy at zero cost to himself.
“How did you kill the second man just now?” Tang Yuyan voiced her doubt in the middle of their running. She had not seen the details of how Xia Lei had shot, but she had seen Xia Lei kill the third target through the scope, and she had not locked on to her next target at that time.
“I fired. How else would I kill that guy?” Xia Lei did not explain.
Tang Yuyan pursed her lips in dissatisfaction. She was unconvinced, but she knew that if all the snipers in the world had a competition, Xia Lei would come out on top. He was the world’s best sniper.
Xia Lei climbed 50 metres up, and stooped. He turned to survey the terrain downhill. Thick forest blocked his vision and he could not see the activity of people in it.
Tang Yuyan was already in attack mode. She had crawled to a rock and was using it to support her XL2500 sniper rifle.
“Let’s have a one-on-one competition now. Let’s see who kills the enemy first,” said Tang Yuyan. She did not turn back. Her left eye was to the scope, and she was focused on looking for her next target.
“What’s there to compete about? Whoever kills an enemy first, it is still a good thing that the enemy’s dead,” said Xia Lei. He looked left and right, and his gaze stopped on a willow tree. The willow tree was very big, and a species unique to the western province. The trunk of the tree needed the arms of two men to encircle it, and its branches twisted to the left, loop after loop. Its canopy was very dense too, and the branches which made up the canopy were large too, strong enough for a person to stand on it and do something.
“If I win, how about coming with me to the family residence in Sichuan?” said Tang Yuyan. “You’ve known me for a long time but you haven’t been to my old place. How about it? Hey… Why aren’t you talking?” She looked back, and saw Xia Lei climbing the tree. His nimbleness made him look like a monkey.
Going to the Tang family residence in Sichuan? This idea made Xia Lei’s head ache just thinking about it, much less agree to it.
“Hmph! Avoiding me again…” Tang Yuyan looked back, and she pouted fiercely.
Up on the willow tree, Xia Lei had climbed to the lowest of the branches of the canopy. He was about 15 metres up, and the tree was also on higher ground, on the hill, so he gained at least 30 metres in visual field in one go. The height of 30 metres was almost the same as ten storeys of a building. Looking down from a height like this allowed him to have a large part of the forest in his field of vision.
He soon found targets. They were the leader, in monk robes, and a gunman who was in front of him. What made him surprised was that the leader in monk robes was walking in a practically perfect path. He never walked more than three steps in the same direction, and the paths he chose all had him under cover. Even if he appeared in the scope of a sniper, the sniper aiming at him would have no time to pull the trigger before he changed directions and his position.
However, the monk-robes-leader’s perfect path was only effective against snipers of Tang Yuyan’s level. It was useless against Xia Lei.
Xia Lei put the XL2500 on the tree branch in front of him, then tilted the body of the gun down. He quickly locked on to the man in the monk robes, but changed his mind an instant before he pulled the trigger. He changed his target to the gunman in front of him.
Bang!
A gunshot.
The one who had fired was not Xia Lei, but Tang Yuyan.
Tang Yuyan had killed one man in the time that Xia Lei had changed his target to another.
Xia Lei pulled the trigger after that. A gunshot sounded, and the gunman walking in front of the monk-robed leader also fell to the ground.
The leader dressed in monk robes hid behind a very large tree. Not one millimetre of his body showed outside of his cover.
‘I’ll let you live for a little while more,’ thought Xia Lei to himself. He was leaving that leader alive not because he didn’t want to kill him, but because he wanted the most valuable one alive.
Bang bang bang…
Tight bursts of gunfire sounded in the forest. The enemy had figured out which direction Xia Lei and Tang Yuyan were in after the attack, and they were firing blindly. Bullets came down like rain in an instant, and stone chips and wood chips flew everywhere.
Xia Lei jumped down the tree. Tang Yuyan also crouched behind the rock, waiting for the enemy to settle down.
Boom!
A grenade exploded a few metres under the rock, when Xia Lei had just crawled to Tang Yuyan’s side. Dirt and pieces of stone from the explosion pattered against their bodies, making them look like two zombies which had just climbed out from their graves.
The two of them crawled out at practically the same time after the blast, and headed quickly to higher ground.
Boom!
Another grenade landed, and the rock the two of them had been hiding behind was blasted apart.
“They still have four people.” Xia Lei spoke as he ran. “The next time is the time to end it. You just need to kill one. Leave the other two to me.
“I take one out, you take two out, the remaining one…” Tang Yuyan understood. “You want to leave one alive?”
“Leave the guy in the monk robes,” said Xia Lei. “The official Japanese military cannot be so bold. The possibility of them being Japanese special agents or Special Forces is also quite low. I want to know who they are.”
“Okay, we’ll do as you say.” Tang Yuyan agreed with Xia Lei’s view.
The two of them came to a stop again after a certain distance. Xia Lei did not climb up on a tree this time. Tang Yuyan lay flat on a rock. There were only four of the enemy left, so he and Tang Yuyan were sure to take out two of them when they got into their field of vision. Without the advantage of numbers and firepower, they had already reduced the enemy’s threat to themselves to a very low level.
“I won.” Tang Yuyan dug her elbow in Xia Lei’s side. “After this is over, you have to come with me to my family home.”
“I didn’t agree to bet with you,” said Xia Lei.
“I don’t care. I want you to go to my family home with me,” said Tang Yuyan willfully.
This was a headache to Xia Lei. He was just about to find an excuse to reject her when the sound of dogs barking came from their right. He looked in the direction of the sound, and immediately saw several moving lights. It was the light of tactical flashlights, and the light was strong.
Tang Yuyan had heard the sudden barking too. She looked over and saw the moving lights too. Those lights were dancing about in the forest, flashing and disappearing, and their numbers were terrifying!
“Who are they?” Tang Yuyan grew anxious.
Xia Lei’s left eye twitched and he quickly locked on to the first person of the group. He saw the person’s facial features and clothing clearly, and his expression turned to one of horror. “It’s… the Indian troops!”
Tang Yuyan frowned. “How’s that possible? This is our territory. Why would they turn up here?”
Xia Lei said, “This is our territory, but those Indian soldiers might not think so. You forget that this is the southern frontier of the western province, and India has occupied over 90,000 square kilometres of our land. They probably have military camps close by. Maybe the sound of our gunshots attracted their attention.”
“Damn it! How many of them are there?” Tang Yuyan could see them too, but she could not count them.
“At least fifty. We have to get out of here.” Xia Lei did not dare to linger. He got up from the rock and crawled towards the peak.
Going downhill was their best bet to get rid of the Indian soldiers, but there were still four gunmen around them. If they got entangled with them and a gunfight started, they would be surrounded by the Indian soldiers who were behind them, and fall into a situation where they would be vulnerable to their enemies.
Moving horizontally was not the best choice either, because there were too many enemies and they had a lot more firepower. He and Tang Yuyan would not be able to deal with them, even if both of them had godly skills with the gun.
The only choice left to them was to continue moving towards the peak. They could only make use of the advantage of the terrain to continue their previous guerilla method to have a chance of getting themselves out of this.
The hill was getting steeper and steeper, and the cover of vegetation more and more sparse. The wind was getting stronger too. White snow sat at the top. While running, Xia Lei was already seeing a problem. Tang Yuyan was wearing just a pair of hot shorts and a T-shirt, and he was also dressed in light summer clothing. How were they going to bear the cold of the peak?
Bark bark bark…
The barking of military dogs came from behind them.
Xia Lei and Tang Yuyan could keep out of the sight of the humans, but they could not shake off the noses of the military dogs.
It wouldn’t take very long for them to be caught up with, because even if they had the Tang Sect’s Qinggong, there was no way that they would be able to outrun dogs on a dangerously steep mountain path.