Chapter 60: Sister Will Take You Away!
These pregnant cat mothers had dull, coarse fur and lifeless eyes. They huddled together in the corners of their cages, their swollen bellies appearing to have drained every last drop of their vitality.
“Do they specialize in capturing pregnant cats?” Amber muttered, struggling to suppress her rage. “What on earth are they trying to do?”
An even more horrifying thought crossed her mind: Could Baiyun and Xiaosanhua’s mothers have been captured by them too? What if one of their mothers is right here inside these cages?
Su Wudeng’s worry deepened as she observed them. The cat mothers looked utterly exhausted; they didn’t even react when mosquitoes buzzed right past their ears.
“Cats are at their most vulnerable when they’re pregnant,” Qingqing analyzed. “Is that why these poachers targeted so many of them?”
“What absolute scum!” Amber ground her teeth in fury. “I want to tear them to pieces!”
“We have to figure out a way to rescue them,” Su Wudeng said firmly. “If this keeps up, none of these cat mothers will survive.”
Suddenly, the drone’s audio feed crackled, and three figures materialized on the surveillance screen. Su Wudeng recognized them instantly. “Aren’t those the three men who were patrolling beneath the canopy earlier?”
She immediately adjusted the drone’s camera to track them.
The three men walked past the cat mothers, completely ignoring the cages as if they were entirely used to the sight. They marched straight ahead and halted in front of a suspended, mesh enclosure.
“You know, rich people have the weirdest hobbies. Who knew they’d pay a fortune for butterfly specimens?”
“Red, pink, blue, purple… look at all those varieties,” another man chimed in. “This haul should be worth a massive payday, right?”
“Of course it is,” the leader replied from behind. “Boss Wei collected these butterflies from all over the place. Every single one is an incredibly rare species.” A greedy look flashed across his face as he held up five fingers. “I heard a single one of these can fetch this much!”
“Damn,” the second man hissed, clicking his tongue. “He’s filthy rich! Imagine dropping five million credits on a single butterfly.” He glanced around, an illicit greed sparking in his eyes. What if he secretly pocketed just one? Boss Wei probably wouldn’t even notice, right?
Before he could make a move, the leader slapped him hard across the face. “Are you out of your fucking mind?!” the leader snarled. “If you want to die, go ahead, but don’t drag the rest of us down with you!”
“I was just looking, just looking!” the man squealed, waving his hands defensively. “I wasn’t going to do anything.” He quickly scrambled away, terrified he wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation if he stayed.
To distract himself, he wandered over to a cage housing tiger cubs. Looking at the little beasts huddled inside, he couldn’t help but marvel, “How did the acquisition team pull this off? They actually managed to bag this many saber-toothed tiger cubs?”
He smacked his lips as he moved to the next enclosure. “And this litter of Holy Lion cubs… that golden fur is flawless. They must be top-tier quality, right?”
The other two men walked over, their eyes filled with envy. “Do you think we could petition Boss Wei to let us contract one of these?”
“I’ve had my eye on that litter of Phantom Wind Leopards. The black one is incredibly sleek and handsome!”
“Imagine the prestige of parading a beast like that in public later.”
The leader let out a harsh sneer. “Keep dreaming. A single one of those cubs is worth more than ten of us combined!”
The expressions of the other two men soured instantly. They were acutely aware of their low standing in the syndicate. They would be lucky if they survived the season and walked away with a meager bonus. As for owning these priceless beasts? It was a pipe dream.
But knowing their place didn’t make staring at a fortune any easier. In the end, one of them muttered bitterly, “The capture team is incredibly stupid, honestly. Why didn’t they just bring back the adult females? Wouldn’t it be smarter to breed them continuously like those cats over there and sell the cubs for a steady stream of cash?” If they did that, maybe a grunt like him could get a leftover cub!
“…Heh, next time I’ll send you out to wrestle a furious adult Saber-Toothed Tiger and see if you still talk out of your ass!” the leader barked. “Move it! Keep patrolling! There are only a few cages left up ahead. Once we finish this sweep, we can finally grab dinner.”
“Stop daydreaming!”
The two grunts quickly put their grand fantasies aside and hurried along.
Further down the path sat a colossally large cage containing over a dozen massive wolfhounds. The moment the patrol approached, the hounds slammed against the metal bars in a frantic frenzy, snarling violently and snapping their jaws at the men.
“Holy shit!” The grunts recoiled in panic, jumping back a few paces.
“They’ve been starved for over ten days! How do they still have the energy to be this vicious?”
The wolfhounds bayed savagely for a few more moments before their starvation caught up to them, forcing them to collapse back onto the floor. Still, their eyes remained locked on the men, burning with pure ferocity.
Plucking up his courage, one of the grunts stepped forward and delivered a hard kick to the metal bars. “Behave yourselves, you mutts!” he yelled. “We can tame wild Wind Wolves, you think we can’t break you? You’re nothing but stubborn garbage!” He spat aggressively at the hounds. “Just wait until it’s my turn to handle your feeding. I’ll show you who’s boss!”
“Come on, let’s just go,” the other grunt urged, tugging at his sleeve. He was genuinely unnerved by the hounds; before these war dogs were broken, they were lethal.
The path ahead grew significantly quieter. The next enclosure held a colossally large bear, its massive torso brutally pinned down by thick, heavy chains. They stared at it for a moment, unable to determine if the beast was even still alive.
Shrugging, they moved to the adjacent cage, which contained a large pack of white-furred Spirit Foxes. The foxes were completely listless, staring blankly ahead without acknowledging one another or the guards.
Finally, they reached the far edge of the compound, where the most valuable beasts were kept—high-tier flying companions that were notoriously difficult to capture alive. The grunts were only permitted to glance at the specialized courtyard from a distance; entering the sector without authorization was strictly forbidden.
“Thank hell the patrol is finally finished,” one grunt groaned. “Honestly, doing a full sweep every single day is completely unnecessary. We’re in the middle of a barren wasteland. Who could possibly stumble upon this place?”
“Exactly! We’re stuck doing all the grueling, miserable grunt work out here,” the second man complained. “Meanwhile, Boss Wei and his inner circle are inside the main pavilion, eating, drinking, and living like kings.”
The leader chuckled, a conspiratorial glint in his eye. “Heh, I know you boys have had a rough shift. Look at the prize I bagged for us earlier.” He reached into his pack and produced a wild beehive, active bees buzzing across its surface as thick, golden honey dripped from the comb.
“I found this deeper in the woods,” he boasted proudly. “Have a taste. It’s incredibly sweet!”
The two grunts couldn’t control themselves and greedily reached out to snatch a piece of the comb. In his haste, one of them accidentally compressed a bee, which promptly stung his palm. He jumped back, howling in pain.
“Son of a bitch! These damn bugs!” he shrieked, cradling his throbbing hand. “How dare you sting your grandpa? I’m going to smoke every last one of you to death!”
The other two men erupted into loud laughter. “Why did it only target you? Probably because you smell like a pile of garbage, hahahaha!”
Nursing his swollen hand and a bruised ego, the stung grunt grabbed a large, airtight container. “Quick, help me herd the rest of these bastards into the box!” He ignited a branch of deadwood, instantly billowing thick, acrid black smoke directly toward the comb. “Let’s see you try to sting me now!”
Su Wudeng watched the surveillance feed, her face twisted in utter revulsion. She exhaled a long, trembling breath, her teeth clicking together in pure rage. “I still vastly underestimated how utterly vile and wretched these poachers are!”
When she closed her eyes, the tragic images of the imprisoned beasts burned into her mind, their helpless, despairing eyes haunting her conscious thoughts.
Feline mothers forced into a brutal, endless cycle of forced labor; stolen cubs ripped away from their mothers; fierce wolfhounds starved to break their spirits; a majestic giant bear pinned down by heavy iron chains; listless fox princesses; locked-up flying companions…
“They don’t just traffic these animals—they actively torture and slaughter them for amusement!”
“We’re going in right now to save them!” Amber barked, pacing frantically around the suite. “We can’t let them suffer another second in that hellhole!”
Qingqing was equally incensed, her feathers bristling as raw electricity crackled across her wings. “Let me loose, Sister! I will channel the storms and reduce every single one of those monsters to ash!”
“And I’ll tear their throats out!” Amber added savagely. “Let them experience the true wrath of the beasts!”
Su Wudeng’s heart bled for the animals, but she firmly extended her arms to restrain her companions. “Calm down. We cannot afford to act recklessly.”
“Listen to me. I want to liberate those beasts and execute those monsters just as badly as you do, but our overriding priority is ensuring the animals don’t sustain further trauma or casualties during the assault.”
If they launched a blunt, uncoordinated attack against the camp, the poachers would almost certainly use the caged beasts as shields or execute them out of sheer malice. These syndicates were vicious, calculating criminals; they would not collapse easily.
“Then what’s the play?” Amber whined, continuing her frantic pacing. “We can’t just sit here and watch them suffer!” If anyone else had tried to stop her, the husky would have already broken through the door to launch her assault. But her master’s logic was undeniable. How could she guarantee her combat swings wouldn’t accidentally breach a cage or injure a captive animal?
The same limitation applied to Qingqing. Could she guarantee her high-voltage lightning wouldn’t arc into the metal cages and electrocute the prisoners? Even if she managed to filter her targets, the poachers would instantly recognize the attack and weaponize the hostages.
“Filthy, parasitic poachers!” Amber snarled, her teeth itching to bite into flesh.
“There’s always a solution,” Su Wudeng said, forcing her racing mind to cool down. “First, we must establish a tactical umbrella to guarantee the safety of the captives.”
“Second, we must utilize our drone superiority to map out the exact head-count, positions, and defensive capabilities of every criminal inside that perimeter.”
“The reconnaissance aircraft are our greatest operational leverage. We will systematically extract every shred of intelligence they broadcast.”
Right then, the primary drone feed flashed an unexpected tactical opening.
The poacher who had been herding the bees into the airtight box suddenly gasped, clutching his midsection in agony. “Ooh, dammit… my stomach is completely turning. Hang on, I need to hit the latrine right now!”
The grunt who had been holding the smoking deadwood flared his eyes. “Don’t you dare drop your pants anywhere near this comb! Get the hell out of here!”
The man dropped his container, clamped his hands over his stomach, and sprinted blindly toward the outer tree line.
Simultaneously, the secondary reconnaissance drones finished compiling a complete structural schematic of the compound.
Su Wudeng scanned the incoming data streams, her eyes widening as she analyzed the numbers. “The syndicate consists of ten operators in total. Three are currently handling the perimeter patrol, completely isolated from the main installation.”
“An additional six operators are clustered inside the large mess tent near the eastern sector. Based on the thermal signatures, they are currently consuming dinner.”
“The final operator is entirely isolated inside the reinforced command tent at the center of the grid. That must be their coordinator, Boss Wei.”
Reviewing their spatial distribution, a brilliant operational plan crystallized in Su Wudeng’s mind. She pointed at the three isolated patrolmen on the interface. “These three grunts are too far away to signal the main base, and their patrol routes have established a predictable time deficit. We eliminate them first!”
“The target who went to the latrine is entirely cut off from his squad. It’s a perfect tactical window!”
She instantly input the commands, steering a high-speed reconnaissance drone to shadow the lone grunt.
The poacher scrambled deep into the brush away from the camp perimeter, casting a quick look around to ensure he was alone before undoing his uniform pants.
However, before he could finish the motion, a sudden, primal chill traveled down his spine, causing his skin to crawl. Before his central nervous system could even process the threat, a high-velocity kinetic round cleanly punctured a bloody hole directly through the center of his forehead.
He stared blankly into the darkness, blood cascading down his face as his vision blurred. “Run… quick…” His vocal cords failed before he could finish the warning, and his body collapsed heavily into the undergrowth, his consciousness instantly extinguished.
Watching the clean execution on the screen, Amber struggled to contain her excitement. “Flawless strike, Master!”
“One down, and the base grid hasn’t tripped a single alarm!”
Su Wudeng felt her pulse hammering against her eardrums. “The next phase is where the operation succeeds or fails.”
A low rustle vibrated through the bushes near the corpse, and a sleek, matte-black mechanical construct emerged from the shadows. It was the advanced Osside-900 unit Su Wudeng had procured from the core world logistics hub.
The machine shifted its chassis fluidly, stripping the dead grunt of his uniform before rapidly donning the garments over its synthetic frame.
“Acoustic calibration complete,” the unit stated, its vocal synthesizer perfectly mimicking the dead poacher’s exact pitch and cadence. “Returning to the perimeter line now.”
“What the hell is taking the third guy so long? Did he fall into the latrine?”
Staring at the dying embers of his smoking deadwood, the second grunt frowned, an uncharacteristic spike of anxiety hitting his chest. “Seriously, this feels weird. You don’t think he ran into a wild beast out there, do you?”
Hearing his complaint, the patrol leader rose to his feet, his gaze narrowing as he realized his team had blown past their time window. Something was definitely wrong.
But before he could command a tactical fallback, a muffled silhouette emerged from the dark tree line up ahead.
“Move it, get over here! You guys need to see what I just uncovered!” the figure called out. The voice belonged unmistakably to their missing squadmate.
The two remaining poachers exchanged a quick glance, their anxiety instantly vaporizing into naked greed. The idiot took forever because he stumbled onto a hidden haul!
Despite their greed, the leader maintained a baseline level of criminal caution. He flicked his hand, signaling the second grunt to advance and scout the position first.
The grunt eagerly sprinted forward into the dark brush, his smoking deadwood held high. Within seconds, his thermal signature vanished from the main monitor as he dipped behind a ridge.
A minute bled away, and the squad leader’s impatience began to fester. What are those two doing out there? Are they trying to pocket the best pieces before I can log the haul?
The more he brooded, the more convinced he became that his grunts were skimming off the top. His expression darkened into a murderous snarl as he marched toward the tree line. “If I find out you two are playing games with my cut, I’m going to rip your damn heads off!”
He had barely covered three paces when an overwhelming, suffocating aura of danger locked onto his position. His eyes widened in sheer terror as his vision caught the incoming arc of a high-velocity kinetic bullet tracing straight toward his skull!
BANG!
The impact shattered his forehead before his reflexes could chamber a round. He dropped heavily into the dirt, his consciousness fading as his lips formed a final, silent gasp: An… enemy…
Three targets neutralized!
Su Wudeng checked the system tallies, confirming all three perimeter signals had gone dark, and let out a long, controlled breath.
Amber and Qingqing were vibrating with adrenaline. “We did it! Three down, and the central camp is still completely oblivious!”
Su Wudeng shook her head, her expression remaining intensely grave. “This was merely the opening skirmish. The real battle begins now. Based on the grunts’ dialogue, the six operators inside that eastern mess tent represent their primary combat unit, Team One.”
“And we still have to handle their coordinator, Boss Wei.”
The moment the main camp detected a breakdown in the patrol schedule, the window for a stealth assault would permanently close. The worst-case scenario was that the poachers would execute the captive beasts out of spite and dissolve into the wilderness. Finding them in an uncharted primeval forest after that would be mathematically impossible.
She had to maintain her composure; emotion would get her killed. The synthetic duplicates could maintain the illusion of a live patrol for roughly ten minutes. Any longer than that, and the core command would inevitably flag the lack of biometric updates.
She had precisely ten minutes to engineer a second tactical opening.
The surveillance drones remained anchored over the two target pavilions, recording every micro-expression and acoustic vibration inside the fabrics.
Suddenly, a violent commotion erupted inside Team One’s mess tent.
“Cai Da!”
CRACK!
The sickening sound of knuckles striking flesh echoed through the audio feed, followed by a loud, arrogant sneer. “You actually thought you could fight back? Your pathetic Team Two is entirely wiped out! You’re a solitary, broken remnant. Did you honestly think you still command authority around here?”
A rapid succession of open-handed slaps rattled the feed. “What a pathetic collection of garbage. The Directors literally handed your team the easiest, lowest-risk forest sector on the map, and what did you idiots do? You managed to get yourselves picked off one by one like characters in a bad trid-drama.”
“Hahaha! Now you’re the last surviving coward of your division. You better learn how to drop on all fours and bark like a good dog whenever Team One enters the room!”
“Move your useless ass! Go to the supply bay and bring us ten more platters of fresh meat!”
“You have exactly sixty seconds!”
With a succession of heavy thuds, a bruised and bloody man was violently kicked through the tent flaps, rolling into the dirt outside.
The man was Cai Da. His face was a mask of lacerations and purple swelling, his eyes burning with an intense, psychotic hatred as he stared back at the mess tent. But he knew the clock was ticking; if he failed to return within the minute, the physical torture would double.
“If only the Team Two leader was still alive…” he whimpered, wiping blood from his mouth. But it was a pointless lament. Weeks had passed since his squad’s transponders had permanently gone dark; there was no way his commander was walking back through those gates.
Defeated, he turned on his heel and shambled toward the automated supply tent to retrieve the meat rations.
The moment his silhouette cleared the threshold of the supply tent, a silent shadow materialized right outside the fabric flaps. A small, pressurized glass vial was cleanly tossed through the opening, shattering softly against the metal prep tables.
A distorted, familiar voice vibrated through the fabric:
“This is an ultra-concentrated neurotoxin. Lace every single platter of meat with this compound and serve it to Team One. It will liquefy their nervous systems in seconds!”
“Once they’re dead, Cai Da… you and I will seize the entire biological haul and split the credits down the middle!”
Cai Da’s entire body began to shake violently. That voice… it belonged unmistakably to his missing Team Two Commander!
His leader was alive!
The humiliation and agonizing trauma he had endured over the past few weeks instantly transmuted into a raging, murderous adrenaline. He frantically scooped up the shattered vial, gripping the glass until his knuckles turned white.
He swore a silent vow into the darkness. “Understood, Commander! I will execute the mission perfectly!”
“I knew a master of your caliber wouldn’t fall to a bunch of wild beasts!”
In his fractured mind, everything suddenly made perfect sense. His commander hadn’t been killed; he had deliberately faked the destruction of Team Two to drop off the grid, letting the other factions do the heavy lifting while he engineered a massive betrayal to steal the entire shipment! And he, Cai Da, was the chosen, irreplaceable lynchpin of the entire grand plan!
Swept up in a wave of profound fanaticism, he quickly injected the liquid toxin into the raw meat platters, wiped down his tools, and marched out of the kitchen bay with a twisted grin.
You want to treat me like a dog?
Enjoy your final meal, you bastards!
On the opposite side of the perimeter, Su Wudeng and her companions were monitoring the unfolding psychological operation with intense focus.
Amber was practically vibrating with awe. “Master, your brain is terrifyingly brilliant! You actually deduced that the four poachers we neutralized weeks ago in our forest belonged to their Team Two!”
“And because we kept their raw biometric and acoustic logs on file, our synthesizers were able to perfectly replicate the commander’s voiceprint to trigger his loyalty!”
“Now, we don’t even have to risk a direct confrontation; we just let their internal paranoia tear them apart from the inside!”
If Cai Da successfully served the poisoned platters, the lethal Green Snake neurotoxin she had obtained from the Xia family archives would permanently neutralize the primary combat unit without her group firing a single round.
The raw efficiency of human strategy left the beasts completely awestruck.
“But a plan with too many moving variables is inherently unstable. I cannot guarantee his delivery will clear their inspection,” Su Wudeng said, her expression remaining intensely focused. “We must maintain maximum tactical readiness and proceed precisely according to our backup matrices. Do not lose focus.”
“Move to your primary drop zones, and prioritize your own survival above all else. Execute!”
Amber and Qingqing snapped to attention. “Understood!”
Cai Da forced his shaking muscles to stabilize as he carried the heavy platters of raw meat back into Team One’s mess tent.
However, the moment he stepped through the flaps, his heart practically stopped. An unexpected figure was sitting directly at the head of the long table.
Boss Wei.
The coordinator of the entire installation was personally supervising the room. Hearing Cai Da’s entrance, the crime lord cast a cold, razor-sharp look in his direction.
Cai Da’s pulse hammered frantically against his ribs. He carefully lowered the heavy platters onto the center of the table, his mind spiraling into a vortex of sheer panic. Did Boss Wei intercept my transmission? Did he analyze the food prep area? Why else would he choose this exact millisecond to inspect the mess hall?
If his treason had been discovered, his death would be slow and agonizing.
The sheer terror made his fingers tremble visibly against the metal platters.
With the high coordinator present, the grunts of Team One didn’t dare to touch the food first. The squad captain immediately selected the prime cut of meat, placing it onto a silver tray and sliding it toward Boss Wei with a sycophantic grin. “Please, Boss, honor us by tasting the fresh cut first. The local game is exceptionally rich tonight!”
Boss Wei glanced down at the raw flesh, his face a unreadable mask. He extended his fork, spearing a piece of the meat. Just as he was about to raise it to his mouth, his gaze suddenly shifted, locking directly onto Cai Da’s shivering form.
Cai Da felt his lungs lock. Unable to endure the suffocating weight of the coordinator’s gaze, he instinctively lowered his eyes to the floor, sweat soaking through his collar.
Boss Wei didn’t consume the meat. Instead, he slowly lowered his fork, his voice smooth and deadly. “Tell me… did you boys choose to discipline Cai Da again right before dinner?”
The Team One captain’s expression shifted, a flash of murderous venom targeting Cai Da before he quickly wiped it away, replacing it with a mask of corporate grievance and confusion. “Absolute non-sense, Boss! We merely provided structural guidance, and Cai Da volunteered to manage the logistics himself!”
“Isn’t that right, Cai Da? Tell the Boss yourself.”
Cai Da was completely paralyzed, cold sweat dripping down his face. Why was the coordinator suddenly focusing on a common grunt’s hazing? He had to know. The trap was already sprung!
Sure enough, the exact millisecond the captain finished his defense, Boss Wei exploded out of his seat, his boot violently kicking the long table. The heavy mahogany structure flipped instantly, launching the poisoned platters across the tent, the raw meat scattering across the dirt amid the smash of porcelain.
“You absolute inbred idiots!” Boss Wei roared. He lunged forward, grabbing the Team One captain by his tactical collar and delivering a succession of brutal, open-handed slaps that echoed through the tent. “You sit here playing petty kitchen games while your brains rot! Look at the chemical discoloration on that flesh! The meat is laced with concentrated neurotoxins!”
The captain’s face swelled rapidly from the strikes, his mind reeling in shock, but the moment the realization hit him, his gaze snapped toward Cai Da like a rabid animal. “It was you! You treacherous piece of shit!”
Infuriated, the captain launched himself across the tent, his fist slamming into Cai Da’s jaw with bone-shattering force. “Who the hell backed your play?! Who gave you the balls to poison the executive council?!”
The captain’s rage entirely consumed him; he began violently stomping and kicking the fallen grunt, his boots fracturing Cai Da’s ribs. The broken man’s agonized shrieks filled the interior of the tent.
“Enough!” Boss Wei commanded, his voice slicing through the violence. He stepped over the wreckage, his heavy boot pinning Cai Da’s bloody face into the dirt. “Where did a low-tier grunt like you procure military-grade biological toxins?”
“I… I… there is no poison!” Cai Da wheezed through a mouthful of blood and broken teeth, still desperately trying to protect his commander’s phantom game.
A terrifying, murderous coldness settled into Boss Wei’s eyes. “You refuse to speak? Fine. I don’t require your confession to solve basic arithmetic.”
“The only entity in this entire sector who possesses the operational knowledge to weaponize your loyalty… is your missing Team Two Commander. So the bastard faked his squad’s termination? He’s returned to seize my shipment?”
Connecting the dots, the crime lord let out a harsh, chilling laugh. “Brilliant. A corporate mutiny right under my nose!” Without another word, he drew his plasma sidearm and fired a clean point-blank shot directly through Cai Da’s skull.
BANG!
Holstering his weapon, Boss Wei spun toward the exit. “Move out! I want every operational unit deployed! We are hunting down those Team Two remnants!”
The Team One captain wiped the blood from his own face, a sudden panic locking into his features. “Wait, Boss! If Team Two is orchestrating a coup… what if the kitchen poison was merely a tactical feint to draw our combat units away from the holding pens? What if their primary objective is to liberate the high-value biological assets while we’re distracted?!”
Boss Wei froze, the logic striking him like a physical blow. He turned and charged out of the tent at a dead sprint. “To the holding pens! Move, move, move!”
The corporate poachers sprinted across the compound, clearing the central ridges only to find two distinct shadows actively hauling the high-spec beast enclosures toward the perimeter line.
“Son of a bitch! My calculations were correct!” the Team One captain screamed, his blood boiling at the sight. Those high-tier beasts represented their entire quarterly revenue; letting a bunch of mutineers steal them was unacceptable!
Without waiting for a formal command, he leveled his heavy hunting rifle and unleashed a high-velocity round!
BANG!
One of the shadow figures collapsed instantly into the dirt, while the second figure immediately abandoned its enclosure, sprinting frantically toward the deep woods.
Boss Wei’s expression was murderous. “Hunt him down! Do not let him clear the perimeter!”
“Anyone who attempts to compromise my profits will learn the true meaning of a living hell!”
The remaining six combatants launched themselves into the brush in hot pursuit.
However, after covering a mere fifty meters, the fleeing silhouette abruptly halted, pivoting to face them. The poachers raised their weapons, but as they looked up, a massive, predatory silhouette dropped out of the dark sky like a falling star!
Boss Wei’s survival instincts flared. “Do not let them secure an aerial extraction! Fire at will!”
If the target managed to board an apex flying companion, tracking them across an uncharted primeval star system would be completely impossible!
Seeing the giant bird level out just meters above the forest floor, the poachers unleashed a chaotic, frantic volley of high-velocity ammunition. “Wind Wolves! Unleash the pack! Intercept the target!”
Suddenly, blinding arcs of purple lightning violently erupted across the giant bird’s wings. The incoming ammunition was completely vaporized or deflected by a crackling elemental shield before a single round could pierce its feathers.
Simultaneously, a dozen massive Wind Wolves charged out of the undergrowth, their jaws snapping as they attempted to form a lethal clamping circle around the avian’s landing zone.
Suddenly, a brilliant flash of silver steel illuminated the darkness. A massive, pure-energy longsword sliced through the air with terrifying force. The sheer kinetic pressure of the swing sent a wave of primitive terror through the canine pack, forcing the Wind Wolves to frantically break their line and scatter into the brush.
“What the hell is that…?”
Boss Wei’s eyes widened as he recognized the distinct combat profile of the beast. “A Sword Heart Husky!”
He hadn’t anticipated that the Team Two mutineers had managed to subjugate a high-tier Sword Heart Husky to serve as their frontline vanguard. No wonder their operational ambition had scaled so drastically! “Focus fire on the canine! Annihilate it!”
He re-targeted his pack, but the agile husky immediately executed a flawless evasion matrix, sprinting in the opposite direction and drawing the entire Wind Wolf pack away from the landing zone.
“Dammit, Boss! The pilot is clearing the deck!” the captain shrieked, pointing toward the sky. The shadow figure had successfully vaulted onto the massive bird’s back!
“Faster! Fire again!”
Abandoning all tactical formation, Boss Wei charged directly toward the ascending avian, his plasma sidearm discharging continuously as he closed the distance. “You aren’t escaping me!”
Yet, as the ambient electrical discharge of the bird illuminated the shadow figure’s face, Boss Wei’s tracks skidded to an abrupt halt. He stared at the pilot, his face twisting into a mask of pure, unadulterated confusion.
“That… that isn’t the Team Two Commander!”
“What?!” the captain stammered, his rifle dropping slightly. “If it isn’t Team Two, then who the hell is sitting on that bird?”
Before his brain could process the operational discrepancy, the giant bird let out a piercing, apocalyptic raptor shriek, its powerful wings beating the air as it launched vertically into the upper atmosphere in a fraction of a second!
The Team One captain’s gaze tracked its ascent, his criminal greed briefly overriding his terror. “Holy Christ… look at the wing profile! That’s a Saker Falcon!”
An ultra-rare, priceless, mythic-tier Saker Falcon!
If they could deploy an anti-air net and capture a biological asset of that caliber alive, the black-market valuation would secure their retirement permanently!
An intense wave of avarice consumed his senses. “Boss! Regardless of their identity, we cannot let that avian clear the sector! Deploy the heavy nets!” Even if this was an official government rescue operation, they had to eliminate the witnesses to survive!
But Boss Wei’s criminal survival instincts were vastly superior. His gaze swept across the empty clearing, his skin crawling as an absolute, icy dread locked onto his mind. He frantically raised his hand, signaling an immediate abort. “No! Break formation! Execute total tactical retreat right now!”
“Fall back!”
If this wasn’t an internal corporate mutiny, then his organization had been systematically walked into a massive, multi-tiered tactical trap! The enemy had engineered the entire sequence to draw his entire combat force into a single, high-density target box!
However, the realization came far too late.
The moment Su Wudeng’s falcon cleared the safe thermal threshold in the upper atmosphere, she locked onto her tactical interface and detonated every single optical stealth bomb she had pre-planted across the camp perimeter.
BOOM!
An apocalyptic, earth-shattering explosion ripped through the valley. The entire target sector was instantaneously transformed into a roaring, incandescent sea of thermal fire!
The brilliant, solar-grade flames illuminated the pitch-black midnight sky for miles, the sheer kinetic yield of the explosion causing the tectonic plates of the valley to vibrate violently. A massive, towering column of roiling black smoke mushroomed into the atmosphere.
Though Su Wudeng had ensured her falcon maintained a safe operational altitude, the concussive pressure wave still caused her ears to ring with a continuous, deafening buzz.
She peered down through the smoke. The valley below had been reduced to a scorched, blackened crater of ash and twisting flames.
“With a thermal yield of that magnitude…” she murmured, her voice steady. “No biological entity within that box could have survived.”
Qingqing executed a series of tight victory loops through the smoke, her mind filled with profound wonder. “Sister! We cleared the entire map!”
Two living beasts and a single human had systematically neutralized an elite, ten-man corporate poaching syndicate equipped with heavy armor and tracking assets—without sustaining a single scratch!
Su Wudeng let out a long, controlled breath, the tension finally leaving her shoulders. She monitored the thermal trackers on her screen. “Now we ensure Amber secures her extraction vector.”
“With the primary handlers eliminated, the Wind Wolves’ neural collars will drop into failsafe mode. Deprived of their command nodes, the pack will inevitably disperse into the deeper forest to survive.”
“Let’s navigate toward the pre-arranged extraction coordinates first!”
She possessed absolute faith in the husky’s tactical agility.
The apocalyptic concussive roar of the explosion had completely terrified the imprisoned beasts within the holding pens.
Su Wudeng dismounted from Qingqing’s back, her boots crunching against the dirt as she approached the heavy titanium structures. Looking through the bars, she saw the pregnant cat mothers huddled together in a shivering, terrified mass at the far corner of their enclosure.
The feline mothers didn’t dare to raise their heads, their emaciated bodies pressed tightly against one another as they trembled uncontrollably in the shadows.
A deep, agonizing sorrow pierced Su Wudeng’s chest. She stepped closer, lowering her posture and pitching her voice to a soft, gentle, and deeply reassuring coo. “It’s over now, sweet babies. You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”
“The monsters who hurt you are permanently gone.”
“I am going to transport you to a beautiful, safe, and wonderfully warm sanctuary right this second~”
Hearing her voice, one of the older Snow Crystal mothers suddenly froze. Her ears twitched, and she slowly, hesitantly lifted her head, her nostrils flaring as she sampled the air currents in deep bewilderment.
Why did the atmosphere contain this specific, incredibly familiar scent?
Dragging her heavy, emaciated frame forward step-by-step, her swollen belly scraping against the floor, she crept toward the cage doors, single-mindedly tracking the source of the aroma.
Su Wudeng assumed the fragile animal was desperate for medical intervention.
Staring at the cat’s painfully prominent ribs and hollow features, her eyes flushed a violent crimson, a thick sob catching in her throat as she struggled to maintain her composure. “What’s wrong, my beautiful girl? Are you experiencing labor pain? Are you hurting?”
“Sister is taking you home right now, okay?”
