The Favored Son of Heaven

Chapter 220: Kill the Leopard, Seize the Ranger

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

“Da da…”

An intermittent burst of rapid machine gun fire streaked across the silent rainforest in the Luang Namtha Province. Birds that inhabited here all year round had already disappeared before the gunfire started.

The sporadic gunfire quickly came and left.

Soon, the rainforest was restored to its initial silence.

“Colonel, we have just repelled the Emperor Army that wanted to break in. Do we need to dispatch the Jungle Ranger now?” The soldier who had his face covered with fireproof oil and stood upright like a pole reported to a Black male Colonel.

“No.” The Black man leaned against a big tree and pushed his bulletproof helmet up with a knife while his other hand was gently touching the area around his ear. A sinister smile flashed through his eyes, “I’m waiting for a big fish called Ming Kun. The Jungle Ranger is to be used to greet him.”

As the Black man glared at him, the soldier lowered his head quickly and shifted his sight to the mud under his feet. He dared not to look at the Black man’s ear area, as there was no ear at all, only a malevolent scar.

As the seasoned soldier of Wu Lianda, he knew that the ear of this Black Leopard Wu Henfeng had been chopped off by Ming Kun during a nighttime battle.

Wu Henfeng looked at the soldier with ridicule and waved his hand casually, “You may be dismissed now. Let everyone pay attention to the police. Push them back if they wish to break through, don’t let them run away again. If there is anyone who comes in from outside, kill him on the spot.”

“Understood!”

Wu Henfeng did not bother looking at the soldier who left with instructions. He grabbed the binoculars on his chest and observed the surroundings. He had a very, very bad feeling just now — his heart had contracted out of sudden.

He had this feeling before. For instance, the time when his ear was chopped off. The stronger the strength of a martial artist, the more life and death experiences he went through, the sharper his intuition would be.

“Am I sensing wrong?” Wu Henfeng held a leaf with his mouth. He scanned the area and there was indeed nothing wrong.

“After some contemplation, Wu Henfeng still felt that caution was the parent of safety. He put on a Dragon Skin bulletproof vest and snapped his fingers, “Twelve Iron Guards, surround me”

The Twelve Iron Guards were personally trained by Wu Henfeng after he got raided by Ming Kun. They were twelve personal bodyguards with Iron Mantle Arts. Their goal was not to kill enemies, but to help Wu Hanfeng resist any critical blow.

Surrounded by twelve five-star martial artists who practiced Iron Mantle Arts, Wu Henfeng’s uneasiness was reduced greatly.

Grabbing his binoculars, Wu Henfeng looked at the Emperor Army, which had been encircled again. With this amount of bait, even if he could not lure Ming Kun here, he must have to at least lure a lieutenant commander of the Emperor Army to make this worth his effort.

Without finishing his thoughts, Wu Henfeng’s head burst suddenly with a ” bang ” sound, like a watermelon being blown apart by a bomb.

His neck without the head was like a fire hydrant on the roadside that was hit by a car, spurting streams of water in a few meters height. Except that this stream of water was bloody red.

The Twelve Iron Guards already heard the gunshot that came from afar but they were unable to respond fast enough.

Puff!

The Iron Guard standing behind Wu Henfeng had a hole burst through his chest that was the size of a human head. His Iron Mantle turned into a torn cloth immediately.

Sniper! The remaining eleven Iron Guards finally responded. There was an absolutely ace sniper in a distant unknown position! Otherwise, it was impossible for Black Leopard, who was so sensitive, to not detect him.

The eleven Iron Guards jumped to different directions almost simultaneously. Everyone knew very well that the sniper’s bullets could not rake like a machine gun. Thus, the chances of survival were very high if they fled separately.

Shoop…shoop…

As the Iron Guards leaped off the ground, a series of whooshing sounds were heard in the air.

Drug dealers who lived in the Golden Triangle all year round were familiar with this sound.

Grenade!

The hairs of the Iron Guards all stood up straight like steel needles, and they had rice-sized goosebumps all over their bodies. Unlike the armor-piercer, grenades were not single target destructive weapons. It was the reduced version of heavy artillery that possesses extremely strong explosive and destructive power.

Nine people, including Red Eyebrows, were stunned as they stood behind a tree.

They had never seen such a determined and decisive shooter – he had climbed the tree while carrying two weapons with a total weight of one hundred and fifty kilograms on his back, then he simply grabbed the Barrett and shot almost without aiming as soon as he assembled the weapon, which only took seconds.

Qin Fen did not even bother to confirm the result by using the sniper lens after the shot was fired. Instead, he threw the Barrett away immediately and grabbed the grenade launcher and started continuously firing. There were about ten grenades that launched within a second.

“What are you looking at?” Qin Fen shouted, with a grenade launcher in his hands, “Attack!”

As a cold shiver ran down the spine of Red Eyebrows and the rest, their eyes flashed with strong hints of self-deprecating. They had fought in many battles in these few years and were considered competent seasoned soldiers. However, they still watched another person’s fight, stunned like a rookie…

No tiger, no roar.

With the speed of light, nine people including Red Eyebrows rushed to the position they were assigned to previously.

Red Eyebrows and the rest felt even more embarrassed when they looked at the demon-like Lin Ling who was sprinting in front of them. As Qin Fen shot, Lin Ling dashed forward simultaneously. Their concentration was far poorer than a woman as they still required people to remind them about their tasks.

As the grenade launcher vibrated vigorously in his hands, Qin Fen started to feel excited. M134 was certainly incomparable to the grenade launcher that fired continuously. Following every shot of the grenade, there would be an explosion!

Since the opponents were all drug dealers, he did not have to bear any psychological burden killing them. The chance of fully-committed gunfire was indeed rare.

The eleven Iron Guards did not expect to find that there was a grenade at each of their landing spots!

“What fucking man is this? He could guess where I’m jumping to?”

As this thought went through their minds, the grenades hit heavily on their body at the same time!

Boom…

Flame soared to the sky and splinters from shells spurted in all directions.

By listening to the sound of the grenade explosion, Qin Fen knew that the eleven Iron Guards have died.

According to shooting psychology taught by Squad Leader Hao and Gun King, one could roughly estimate the place where the enemy would most likely want to hide when being attacked based on the standing position, the direction they were facing and surrounding environment of the enemy.

Obviously, the eleven Iron Guards did not know what shooting psychology was, much less anti-shooting psychology. Their instinctive reaction as martial artists provided the best tomb for them.

Qin Fen grabbed the infrared binocular on his chest and scanned the front quickly while pressing the talker beside his mouth, “Red Eyebrows, seven hundred meters ahead, twelve enemies, all AK47. Two grenades on each person…Lin Ling…”

By now, Wu Henfeng’s men had already gotten news from their observers that the colonel had been killed.

Because of having been in battles for all year round, in addition to their advantage in number, they did not retreat immediately. On the contrary, they took up their weapons intrepidly to eliminate the small group of intruders reported by the observers.

“They are changing their formation in a very target-oriented way…” Qin Fen furrowed his eyebrows and replaced his binoculars with the Barrett sniper. He searched for several opponent observers first thing. His flesh crept at that moment.

This was the feeling of being aimed at! Even if he was not entirely in the sight, he was exposed anyway! The opponent also had a sniper!

Without any hesitation, Qin Fen jumped down the tree. A “bang” sound was heard, and the spot he was at a second before was filled with sawdust that flew into the air, followed by the sound of the gunshot from the sniper.

Nice shot! Qin Fen praised in his heart. The distance between them was at least one thousand and five hundred meters. Even an ace sniper might not have been so accurate. The only weakness was the sniper’s murderous aura was too obvious when aiming at his target.

Qin Fen dodged another bullet with a standard military sniper evasive maneuver. Only now did he realize how lucky he was to get coaching from Gun King.

With this distance of one thousand and five hundred meters, the only way for an ace sniper to have an accurate shot was to use his murderous aura to aim at the target. However, once he aimed this way, he would also expose his purpose and target. It could be said as a double-edged sword that hurts both sides.

The third bullet hit the spot where Qin Fen stayed at shortly. He already understood that there were at least two opponent snipers.

At the same time the Barrett was lifted, the trigger pulled.

The sniper afar did not get the chance to be shocked as his head had already turned into a fleshy paste.

Another sniper hidden in the dark jumped to another direction without thinking. He saw very clearly that his prey shot while dodging just now. It was impossible to do any aiming. He merely relied on the instincts as a gunman and utilized the killer’s murderous aura released to aim at his target.

The dodging sniper knew that he was not capable to do so. The previous shot had also exposed his position. Thus, he did not want to risk any potential danger.

Bang!

A high-speed rotating bullet penetrated the sniper’s chest while he was still halfway in the air.

The sniper did not instantly die as his body was still falling down. He looked at the transparent hole in his chest as he could not believe this. He never failed in utilizing the anti-sniper dodge that he was performing just now, even in previous extreme sniper wars. How…how could the opponent see through my dodging route while he himself was dodging too? Don’t tell me the Emperor Army invited one of the Top Ten Snipers of the Federation?

After killing the opponents with two shots, Qin Fen leaned against a big tree calmly with the Barrett in his hands. As he watched his falling opponent, an ace sniper, he sneered cruelly.

Life or death on the battlefield was decided within seconds.

Only fools would do things because of the “like knows like” principle, such as simply destroying their opponent’s weapons and letting them go.

Qin Fen carried the Barrett calmly and found the only surviving observer opponent. His fingers pulled the trigger without any hesitation.

As the gunshot burst, the opponent fell from the tree.

Qin Fen climbed another tree that was very suitable for being undercover and used his binoculars to observe the fierce battle in the jungle.

Lin Ling was just like a massacre machine that never burns out. Her shots, temporary grenade traps, and ghost-like close assassinations impressed Qin Fen greatly. He knew that he could not do any better than Lin Ling.

Red Eyebrows and the rest formed groups of three. Even though they were at a disadvantage in number when facing fifty plus enemies, they would always prevail.

Bullets were whizzing by beside his body but Red Eyebrows had never been as excited as he was today. His body seemed to have entered an ethereal state that he has never experienced before. Obviously, he was distant from the enemy but he could clearly sense when the opponent lifted his gun, what angle he was aiming at, and when he would pull the trigger.

In the past, he would still have a hint of worry when bullets were whizzing past him. Now, he seemed to have another layer of mastery where he knew whether the bullet would hit him or not.

Without that timidity, he felt more unrestrained to fight. Every time he fired, he could sense that somebody in the opponent troop had been shot down.

Till this moment only Red Eyebrows understood why the use of True Energy was forbidden during training.

When a martial artist used True Energy, his body, both in strength and response, would be much more sensitive than usual.

However, the moment one stopped to use True Energy, his body sensitivity would drop. If one could raise his body sensitivity without using True Energy, then his body function would be more efficient when he used True Energy.

The fact was, once martial artists became accustomed to the use of True Energy, they would work hard to improve their True Energy in order to stimulate their bodies. Many people would forget that forcing the body to train was actually the base to enhancement. Thus, the subsequent extent of improvement would be greater.

“That is…?” Qin Fen’s eyes suddenly lit up as he saw a well-disguised machine in the jungle afar.

Had it not been for the teachings from the instructors, he would have been deceived by this Jungle Ranger that was disguised using projection technology.

Qin Fen took a deep breath. If he could seize this Jungle Ranger silently, he would not only have more options to assassinate Wang Hao, but he would also have more ways to retreat after killing him. Even if the Federation was unable to support them, they would have more certainty in completing the task.

Thinking about this, Qin Fen no longer paid attention to the changes on the battlefield. As long as Lin Ling faced no problem, how the others survived would be dependent on their own ability.

With his feet on the ground, Qin Fen took a breath and filled his legs with Dragon Elephant Prajna Art. He traveled around swiftly in the dense jungle.

The driver of the Jungle Ranger still took no action — he was waiting for the order! The order from Black Leopard Wu Henfeng.

Unlike other people, the Jungle Ranger driver did not use the public channel. Instead, he used a secret private channel with only Wu Henfeng.

Inheriting Gale Riley’s super masking techniques, Qin Fen managed to reach fifty meters behind the Jungle Ranger quietly.

The new generation of Jungle Ranger was very different from the first generation mobile armor in terms of assembly. Even if Qin Fen had learned quite a number of techniques on dismantling mobile armor with bare hands, he could only do so if the opponent had no ability to resist.

For a mobile armor in operation, as long as anyone touched its outer shell slightly, or entered the fifty meters radius of its biological radar, one would be discovered, thus making it impossible to dismantle it with ease.

Staring at the stationary armor, Qin Fen rubbed his chin back and forth with his fingers. In absence of preparations of sufficient auxiliary materials, using a human body to capture a Jungle Ranger and ensuring that it does not suffer any damages was definitely not something attainable by a six-star martial artist.

Even with strength as strong as Qin Fen’s in his current state could not attain it. The small size of the Jungle Ranger did not mean that its horsepower was also small.

It was not difficult to bomb this Jungle Ranger using the grenade launcher and the glorious bomb that he held in his hands.

Thinking about capture, Qin Fen felt a bit too excited. He lurked happily although he had not thought about the way to capture.

Snip…clang…

The door of the Jungle Ranger started opening suddenly. The driver inside jumped down with his hands covering his stomach. He muttered softly, “The seafood yesterday was not fresh…”

Although Qin Fen could not hear what the driver said due to the far distance, he could guess by observing the driver’s lips and body movement.

This driver was suffering from diarrhea!

Opportunity! He had no time to celebrate – butterflies filled in his stomach at this moment.

Indeed, the driver had gotten out of the Jungle Ranger, but the bio-detector on the mobile armor was still on. Once he stepped into the radius of fifty meters, the cockpit will beep immediately.

By that time, no matter whether the driver had settled his needs or not, he would definitely rush into the cockpit and start fighting within seconds.

Time! The timing is the most important thing!

Qin Fen’s eyes stared at the driver intensely. In the absence of any distractions, he could use everything, including all of his True energy, to imitate the Origin Suppressing Vajra Art.

Dragon Elephant Prajna Art continued to pressurize until there was slight pain in his pubic region. That was his limit, and only then did he stop pressurizing.

Four times more pressure! The force of eight elephants could be released in the blink of an eye!

The force of eight elephants… Qin Fen calculated this value and sighed secretly – only under circumstances with no distraction at all could he pressurize the Origin Suppressing Vajra Art four times.

The imitated Origin Suppressing Vajra Art was still not comparable to neo martial art and the genuine neo martial art that installed super regulators in the body directly.

The true Origin Suppressing Vajra Art only required a thought by the user and it would regulate automatically to the right level. The one imitated by paleo martial artists was like walking on a tightrope. Once a slight control error occurred, not only would the imitation fail but there was also a high possibility that the user would lose control of their True Energy to the extent of insanity, hemiplegia and even full paralysis.

If I could still attain this state despite being so distracted in the midst of battle… Qin Fen smiled bitterly and scolded himself for being too greedy.

The driver who ran to the side untied his mobile armor driving suit quickly while taking off his pants.

When the driver’s pants were taken off partially and he was just about to squat down, the force of eight elephants within Qin Fen’s body burst completely. The trees nearby were swaying non-stop as if an earthquake occurred. Qin Fen rushed through the air at high speed, producing faint friction that sounded like gunfire.

The second the Jungle Ranger started to beep, Qin Fen had already arrived at the thirty meters point of its bio-radar radius! The distance of twenty meters disappeared under his feet in the blink of an eye.

The driver heard the sound and wanted to get up. However, an indecent sound was heard from his backside. A person would retain some self-control while he still had his pants on. But the moment his pants were taken off, the self-control was almost non-existent.

By the time a person suffering from diarrhea started his squat, he would normally have lost all of his self-control. If there was any sudden accident, it would be too late to regain his self-control. Instead, it would accelerate the collapse of his last sense of control.

Implementing the psychology from Squad Leader Hao and incorporating the psychology of the body structure, Qin Fen managed to catch the most crucial point of time.

Shit! Look at the timing! What a coincidence! As this thought flashed through the driver’s mind, Qin Fen was already approaching the fifteen meters mark from the Jungle Ranger.

The driver was shocked to see Qin Fen’s speed. This person’s speed is incredibly fast. He traveled thirty-five meters in the blink of an eye?!

He had no time to be shocked. The driver raised his pants and ran towards the cockpit regardless of his bodily response.

Qin Fen was fast, but the driver was even faster because he was only five meters away from the Jungle Ranger.

Fifteen meters was short, but the driver was one step faster and managed to enter the cockpit and pressed the button to close the door.

“Come out!”

Snip…

The Jungle Ranger’s cockpit was closed, but the driver was not inside right now.

At the very last second, Qin Fen managed to drag him out of the cockpit in a harsh way.

“You…?”

The driver looked at Qin Fen in disbelief. What monster is this? He took only a few seconds to finish running fifty meters?

The driver was in so much shock that he even forgot to hold his own pants up.

With a walla sound, his pants fell onto the ground, followed by a pungent smell.

Qin Fen squeezed his eyebrows hard. Luckily he dragged the driver out in advance, otherwise, even if he used other methods to chase him out of the cockpit, the Jungle Ranger would be so smelly that no one could enter it.

“Open it.”

Immediately after ordering his command, Qin Fen’s hand that was clutching the driver’s neck contracted a little bit.

“Cough…”

The driver hugged Qin Fen’s arm tightly with both hands and dared not make any counterattack. Under this circumstance, he was aware that if his muscle or True Energy showed any slight hostility, his throat would be crushed immediately.

Seeing the driver’s legs kicking around in the air, Qin Fen lowered his arms slightly. The driver’s legs were finally on the ground again and his face looked a little bit better.

“Will you let me go if I open it?” The driver stared at Qin Fen vigilantly. At this moment, he would be dead meat if he insisted on being a hero and refused to open the mobile armor. He desperately wanted to seize any chance of survival.

“A real man keeps his promise!” Qin Fen was straightforward. A heroic spirit spread from his body, “Open it, and I’ll let you go alive.”

The driver observed Qin Fen for a few seconds to ensure that he was not lying. Then he said, as if he had accepted his fate, “The password is eight five two one seven two triple seven double zero.”

Qin Fen called up the virtual keyboard of the mobile armor and pressed the password quickly. Then, he listened to the response of the mobile armor carefully.

Each mobile armor had its own opening password. However, it also had its own self-detonation password program. Except that self-detonation password was not a set of fixed numbers: if the password keyed in was incorrect, it would self-detonate.

Even if the psychology learned from Squad Leader Hao taught Qin Fen that the password told by the driver was true and valid, he was still observing the response of Jungle Ranger carefully as this was a matter of life or death.

Creak…

As the cockpit opened slowly, Qin Fen’s heart finally settled down.

“Cough…Can you let me go now?”

The driver tried hard to pull Qin Fen’s palm away.

“Sure…” Qin Fen’s fingers tightened abruptly!

The driver felt a pain at his neck. While he heard his bone shattered, blood flowed out of his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. He stared at Qin Fen furiously as if he was blaming Qin Fen for not keeping his promise.

Pop…

“On the battlefield, it’s either you die or I die.” Qin Fen threw the driver’s body onto the ground. He seemed to be talking to the driver, but was only muttering to himself, “All gentlemen on the battlefield are dead, only headsmen survive.”

Qin Fen walked into the cockpit of the Jungle Ranger, “I must find a good place to hide it…”