Absolutely a Sniper Rifle (First Update, Please Vote with Monthly Tickets)

Xia Chujian was frustrated too.

She could only watch as the other party drew closer and closer. His speed was indeed astonishing, but the powerful magnetic interference here even affected her sniper rifle's aim.

For example, she clearly aimed at vital areas, yet somehow ended up hitting his legs...

By the time Feng Qianzhan had covered half the distance between them, he had already lost both lower legs.

No matter how arrogant he was, he knew he could not keep advancing.

The other side was firing bullets with wild abandon, using a sniper rifle like a submachine gun. He was starting to struggle.

That anti-materiel sniper rifle's lethality was simply too great. Although Feng Qianzhan's Gene Evolution Level was high enough for him to use Mental Strength to alter the direction of a bullet's kinetic force, he could not take sniper bullets head-on with his flesh! He made a snap decision, decisively changing direction. Rather than continuing his suicidal assault on Xia Chujian, he shot backward through the air in a frantic retreat.

He did not travel in a straight line or an arc through the air. Like the leopard-headed humanoid from before, he moved in S-curves and B-curves.

Only this could minimize the chances of being targeted by her sniper rifle.

But Xia Chujian had come prepared.

"...Trying to run? Too late."

Calmly, she yanked off the long front half of the Judicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle's barrel. With a snap, she opened the gun case, took out a small grenade, and swiftly loaded it into the large ammunition chamber in the middle section of the Judicator No. 7's barrel.

Then she activated the sniper rifle's thermal-core lock-on auto-tracking mode. Hoisting the Judicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle onto her shoulder, its barrel now half as long and thus looking especially short and thick, she aimed at Feng Qianzhan as he desperately fled through the air.

Feng Qianzhan had lost both arms and both lower legs. Blood streamed continuously from him, turning him into a bloody figure in midair. He could only keep himself from falling through the sheer power of his Mental Strength.

If any other Mental Strength Experts saw this scene, they would certainly find it unbelievable.

A Gene Evolver at Mental Strength Rank B Peak, the pinnacle of combat power among all Gene Evolvers on Guiyuan Star, was fleeing in panic like a homeless dog.

Xia Chujian had no Mental Strength, so she felt nothing about any of this.

Kneeling on one leg, she braced the modified Judicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle against her shoulder. Her dark eyes watched the direction of his escape as she coldly pulled the trigger.

Whoosh! A small 60mm × 100mm grenade shot from the middle barrel chamber of the Judicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle, trailing white exhaust. As if it had eyes, it charged after the rapidly retreating Feng Qianzhan with murderous intent.

No matter how fast Feng Qianzhan was at his current Gene Evolution Level, he could not outrun a grenade fired from Xia Chujian's modified shoulder-mounted sniper rifle!

Boom! The grenade, fired later but arriving first, caught up to Feng Qianzhan. A burst of crimson-black fire erupted, illuminating the entire Upper Space above them.

An explosion!

In midair, Feng Qianzhan, who had just believed he had escaped death, was instantly blasted into pieces by the grenade. Streams of Black Smoke spilled out in every direction from the brilliant red flames.

By the time Feng Qianzhan fell to the ground, the high temperature from the grenade explosion had already burned him into drifting ashes.

By then, Li Fu and Song Mingqian had awakened.

Feng Qianzhan had not had time to remove their Helmets, so they had merely been knocked unconscious by his punch. They were completely immune to the subsequent Mental Attack.

Only their captain, Ye Shijie, had suffered the most severe injuries because his Helmet had been removed.

Li Fu and Song Mingqian silently watched Xia Chujian. Their gazes moved from her modified shoulder-mounted Judicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle to the assassin's ashes drifting down from midair, and both swallowed at the same time.

Li Fu removed his Helmet and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He spoke with difficulty. "...Xiaochu, is that still a sniper rifle?"

Xia Chujian glanced at them and set the Judicator No. 7 Sniper Rifle, with only half its barrel remaining, back on the ground.

Then she sat cross-legged and reattached the half of the barrel she had removed earlier. With a perfectly serious expression, she said, "Of course. Look, it has a large caliber, a scope, it can aim, and it's One Shot, One Soul. It's absolutely a sniper rifle."

Absolutely a sniper rifle, my ass! Song Mingqian removed his Helmet as well, rubbing his head as he sat up from the ground. Tugging at the corner of his mouth, he said, "Xiaochu, don't take us for ignorant fools. That's a sniper rifle? That's obviously a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher!"

Li Fu gestured excitedly. "Exactly! Exactly! How can a sniper rifle that fires grenade rounds count as a sniper rifle?!"

"Sniper rifle, sniper cannon—there's only one word's difference. Why be so picky?" Xia Chujian said dismissively. She glanced toward Ye Shijie and Calm and Collectedly changed the subject. "Check on the captain. I think he's in bad shape."

Li Fu and Song Mingqian's hearts leaped into their throats. They hurriedly turned around and went to examine Ye Shijie.

He really was in bad shape.

Blood was flowing from all seven orifices of Ye Shijie's face, and his limbs lay twisted on the ground at strange angles.

This was brain damage caused by a powerful Mental Strength Attack.

And because he had passed out in the extreme cold without a Supernatural Helmet protecting his head, the blood on his face had frozen black, and his whole body was nearly frozen stiff.

Song Mingqian hurriedly took out a tube of Advanced Nutrient Solution and poured it down Ye Shijie's throat.

This was extremely effective at restoring Mental Strength for Gene Evolvers.

Once their Mental Strength recovered, Gene Evolvers healed from external injuries far faster than Ordinary People.

Seeing Ye Shijie's complexion shift from deathly pale to showing a trace of color, Li Fu and Song Mingqian finally breathed a sigh of relief. "He's alive. Captain Ye is alive..."

Over the Helmet's Communication Channel, Ping Qiong laughed and cried at the same time as she said excitedly, "Li Fu! Song Mingqian! You both need to thank Xiaochu! If it weren't for her, you'd all be dead today!"

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it even if you beat me to death! Xiaochu, someone without Mental Strength, killed a Mental Strength Expert who was at least Rank B with a sniper rifle!"

Although Li Fu and Song Mingqian were not wearing their Helmets, their bone-conduction earpieces were still in their ears, so they heard Ping Qiong's voice.

The two exchanged a glance, then shook their heads with bitter smiles. "It seems every Mental Strength Expert who looked down on Xiaochu ended up dead."

Xia Chujian ignored them.

She put her bone-conduction earpiece back on, then tossed over the Helmet she had removed earlier. Shrugging, she said, "Put it on Captain Ye. Captain Ye's Helmet was taken by that bad guy, then I accidentally blew it up... no, sniped it."

Li Fu: "..."

Song Mingqian: "..."

And Ping Qiong, tears still on her face inside the Flying Vehicle: "..."

Only then did Ping Qiong ask thoughtfully over the team's Communication Channel, "...Chujian, I saw you take off your Helmet just now. Didn't that bastard take the chance to launch a Mental Attack on you?"

Li Fu and Song Mingqian had been unconscious earlier, so they had not personally seen how Xia Chujian had killed a Gene Evolver whose Mental Strength level vastly exceeded theirs.

Now that they heard Ping Qiong say Xia Chujian had not even worn an Ability Defense Helmet, they were both shocked.

The consequence of not wearing an Ability Defense Helmet should have been the same as Captain Ye Shijie's—severe injuries, even brain damage.

But Xia Chujian was jumping around so energetically. How did she look like someone with brain damage? Xia Chujian spat and said, "That bastard was completely insane! I'm just an ordinary person, yet he actually tried to assassinate me with a Dagger!"

As she spoke, she pulled a Tactical Dagger that had sunk deeply into the front of her thickly padded chest clothing.

She narrowed her eyes and examined it for a while, then said, "Impressive! It's actually a Chunjun Tactical Dagger, one rank higher than our Red Cloud Tactical Daggers!"

"You were assassinated by that bastard with a Chunjun Tactical Dagger, and he still failed?" Li Fu's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief.

"A Chunjun Tactical Dagger!" Song Mingqian struggled to his feet and came over to Xia Chujian. He knelt on one leg beside her, supporting his chin with one hand while examining the Dagger in hers. "...It really is Chunjun-grade!"

Ping Qiong drew a sharp breath. "A Chunjun-grade Tactical Dagger is forged from Special Metal. Xiaochu, were you wearing a bulletproof vest made of Exotic Metal? Or were you injured?"

Li Fu and Song Mingqian both looked toward Xia Chujian, genuinely worried that she had suffered a serious stab wound.

Perhaps an Internal Injury?

Xia Chujian held the Dagger between two fingers and gave it a little shake, immediately denying it. "Not at all. Maybe it was at the end of its strength, and I was wearing Lu Gao."

"...What does that mean? What is Lu Gao?"

"When a powerful crossbow reaches the end of its range, its force cannot pierce Lu Gao," Xia Chujian said with a smile.

Li Fu, Song Mingqian, and Ping Qiong had no idea what Xia Chujian was talking about.

Xia Chujian raised her eyebrows in surprise.

This was a story Aunt had told her when she was little. Clearly, none of them had heard it.

It seemed she needed to search the Star Net later to see whether the story was there.

Suppressing her surprise, Xia Chujian explained casually, "It means that bastard probably threw the Dagger with his last bit of strength. It had almost no kinetic force left, so it couldn't even penetrate my two coats!"

"You were wearing two coats?! Don't tell me you were also wearing a bulletproof vest!" Ping Qiong cried out from inside the Flying Vehicle.

What Xia Chujian liked most about Ping Qiong was how easily she could derail a conversation.

Sure enough, with that cry from Ping Qiong, Li Fu and Song Mingqian's attention was diverted too.

They gave Xia Chujian several strange looks, as if evaluating whether stacking defenses could really protect someone against Mental Strength Experts.

Xia Chujian nodded. "I was indeed wearing a bulletproof vest underneath."

After saying that, she casually tugged at the ivory-white knit cap on her head. Then she spun around, raised her sniper rifle, and aimed it at the Griffon Sea Eagle that had been staring dumbly behind her.

It had clearly witnessed that bloody scene just now.

Yet it still showed no intention of leaving.

The moment Xia Chujian turned and aimed her gun at it, it immediately flapped its wings, stared fixedly at Xia Chujian, and let out an "oh-oh" call.

Xia Chujian said coldly, "Make one more sound, and I'll fire immediately!"

The Griffon Sea Eagle froze for a moment.

Its golden bird eyes, set in a lion-like head, looked at Xia Chujian, then at the Blood Kirin plant it was guarding. A trace of mockery appeared in its gaze, as if saying, Go on, fire if you dare!

Second Update at one in the afternoon.

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