Under Zhou Yicheng's continuous scolding, the soldiers reluctantly returned to their seats. However, they were still staring at the big pot, their eyes glowing with a green light.
Zhou Yicheng's face was a little swollen as he mumbled, "These bastards …"
Luo Yuan laughed, "Looks like you guys are really hungry, but let's wait a little longer. There's still food to be cooked. You guys can also use this time to tidy up."
Zhou Yicheng quickly understood what Luo Yuan meant. He looked at the faces of the soldiers and then at himself and the others. They looked like beggars who had rolled out of a muddy pit. Not to mention, their bodies were emitting a horrible stench. Even if he was in their shoes, he would not be able to eat with such people.
Next, it was time to boil water and take a bath.
Chen Xianfeng came back again and left two small mutated beasts behind. He hid in a corner and looked at everything with a pair of fierce eyes. Other than the vigilant soldiers, no one paid attention to him. After all, it was like this every day, even if they were not used to it, they were already used to it.
Luo Yuan had mentioned that there was food, and there was indeed food. Of course, it was not rice or flour.
This kind of food before the apocalypse was almost gone. It was either consumed or was rotting in the corner.
The food that Luo Yuan mentioned was a mutated plant. No one knew what it was originally, but no one cared. It looked like a ball the size of a basketball, wrapped in a layer of hard shell and thick roots. In fact, it was still in its infancy stage. When it grew to a certain stage, the shell would crack and it would grow into a small tree that was more than five meters tall in just one night.
Survival of the fittest. This was the miracle of evolution of plants in a harsh environment for the survival of their species.
To be able to grow a tree that was more than five meters tall in just one night, this ball contained a large amount of starch, vitamins and various trace elements. Although it was the size of a basketball, it weighed about 15 kilograms. Excluding the shell, one ball was enough for Luo Yuan and the others to eat for five to six days. If it did not go bad, it could even last for a week.
Plus, it tasted good. It was soft and sticky, and it tasted fragrant. That was why Luo Yuan had stored a lot of it. However, it was a pity that this kind of thing was very rare and difficult to find. He had searched for many, but only found 12 of them.
The meal was ready very quickly. What happened next could only be described as unbearable. If it were not for the limited amount of food, Luo Yuan suspected that these people would have stuffed themselves to death. In just a few minutes, the rice, meat, and even the soup in the pot were all finished. Even the injured people were not weak at all.
He had only eaten a bowl of rice for lunch. The women snickered when they saw Luo Yuan's depressed expression.
As soon as these people finished eating, their faces turned red as if they were drunk. Then, they yawned again and again, looking sleepy. This was the effect of the high-energy grade food. Their bodies were severely depleted, and their bodies were already in danger. If not for their willpower, they might have collapsed long ago. And the high-energy grade food, to their already exhausted bodies, was just like rain after a long drought. The medicinal effect was immediately activated, and it was extremely fierce.
Zhou Yicheng and the others did not know what was going on. They just thought that they had been lacking sleep for a long time, and once they relaxed, they would feel sleepy. A few of the soldiers had just finished eating, and soon, they fell asleep on the table. Soon, they were snoring.
Seeing that the situation was not right, Luo Yuan asked his men to vacate two tents for the soldiers to rest. He took a food brick and left the subway station.
He blew a long whistle, and the ground shook. Soon, the giant lizard appeared in front of Luo Yuan.
He threw the food brick, and the giant lizard seemed to be slightly stunned. The next moment, it suddenly jumped, stretched its neck, and caught the food brick accurately. It did not even chew it, but swallowed it directly. It seemed to be very excited, and kept rubbing its head against Luo Yuan's chest, pushing him back.
Luo Yuan smiled and quickly jumped on the giant lizard. Under his guidance, the giant lizard ran wildly into the distance.
Although the food brick was precious, time was obviously more precious.
The mission required them to complete it in a week, which was not a lot of time. Although the journey was less than 100 kilometers, and the soldiers still needed time to rest, the two giant beasts also needed time to recover. The giant lizard was slightly better off, as it already had a certain amount of combat power. Although it was not at its peak, it still had about 60 to 70 percent of its original strength. Lao Huang, on the other hand, was still seriously injured, and was still trembling when he walked. With such an injury, he would not be able to travel for at least two to three days.
Coupled with the risks and unpredictable situation along the way, any delay could lead to the failure of the mission.
On the other hand, the stronger the two giant beasts were, the lower the risk, and the safer they would be. Of course, he knew such addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division very well. Perhaps, they would not be able to keep all the food bricks this time.
However, it had to be mentioned that the loyalty of the giant lizard was off the charts after feeding it the food brick. It had reached an unprecedented 85 points. Although these were all illusory and could change at any time, it was true that the giant lizard had become much more obedient during this period of time.
The giant lizard ran as fast as lightning. There were no longer any mutated beasts in the city that could threaten it, so it could run as fast as it wanted. It roared continuously, declaring its ownership of the city. It was only when Luo Yuan slapped it a few times that it shut its mouth, feeling wronged.
The fortification of the sea crossing bridge was about 30 to 40 kilometers away from the center of Jiaping City, but with the giant lizard's speed, it was already in sight after about 10 minutes.
Suddenly, Luo Yuan felt that the giant lizard's speed was gradually slowing down, and its footsteps seemed to be hesitating.
Luo Yuan was stunned for a moment, and then he became vigilant.
Only then did he notice that after arriving here, he clearly felt that the wind had become stronger. The air carried a damp and salty smell, with a faint fishy smell. The ground seemed to be a little damp, and there seemed to be traces of water in some places.
"Water stains!"
Luo Yuan was shocked. It had not been raining recently, so how could there be water stains?
He patted the giant lizard, and it quickly stopped.
Luo Yuan turned over and jumped down. The cement ground was filled with sand and gravel, and when he looked closely, there seemed to be a layer of gray solid on the surface.
"This is sea salt!" He licked it slightly.
He walked slowly on foot, and as time passed, his expression became more and more unpleasant. Shell-Like creatures gradually appeared in the distance. There were big and small ones, the big ones the size of a house, and the small ones the size of a fingernail. Some of them were colorful and smooth like jade, while some were inconspicuous and shaped like rocks. They were not only on the highway, but also in the fields and forests nearby.
As he continued to walk forward, there were more and more of these creatures.
Suddenly, there was a sound of "Scrape, Scrape, Scrape" near the highway. Three huge, ferocious-looking crabs, the size of a water tank, quickly jumped out from a corner and ran towards Luo Yuan. Their eight limbs were like steel sickles, and they danced so fast that they were in front of Luo Yuan in just a breath's time.
Before Luo Yuan could pull out his knife, a strong wind blew behind him. A giant creature suddenly jumped up from behind him, and the next moment, it fell heavily on the path of the crabs.
Apparently, the crabs had limited intelligence. They did not even look around before they started to attack. It was too late when they reacted.
As soon as it landed, the giant lizard opened its mouth and bit one of the crabs into its mouth. It gently closed its jaws, and the hard shell of the crab was crushed into pieces. Then, it swallowed the shell together with the meat. The other two crabs saw that the situation was not right, and tried to escape. However, they were held down by the giant lizard's front claws. The huge difference in weight gave the crabs no chance to struggle, and they were directly crushed.
As the last one was about to run off the highway, the giant lizard raised its head, opened its mouth, and moved its throat. The next moment, a long, thin flame suddenly shot out like a missile.
"Boom!" A loud sound was heard, and the flame splashed everywhere, creating a mushroom cloud. A big hole suddenly appeared on the ground, and the fire burned fiercely. The poor crabs had already been smashed into pieces, and there was nothing left of them.
Although the giant lizard was doing well, Luo Yuan frowned.
He had been inseparable from the giant lizard, and he had a general understanding of its behavior.
If the giant lizard had used a normal attack on a few light blue to blue level crabs, it would have been fine. However, the flame attack was the attack that the giant lizard did not use often. Because of its high attack power, it consumed a lot of energy. It could not use it more than a few times, and every time it used it, it needed a few days to recover. It would not use it easily unless it was a strong enemy.
This was not normal!
It seemed to be a little anxious, which was why it was especially irritable and violent. The only explanation for this behavior was that there was something in front that made the giant lizard feel uneasy!
Luo Yuan patted the giant lizard's back to comfort it, and finally let it stay where it was.
The giant lizard's strength had not fully recovered, and it was at most a normal dark blue level, so it could not help the situation. If there really was a problem, it would alert the enemy instead.
Luo Yuan hid his breath, quickened his pace, and ran forward.
His movements were graceful and swift, and they carried a strange sense of rhythm, causing him to seem like a nimble cheetah.
From time to time, he avoided the shells that looked harmless, and some strange creatures.
The mutated shells were no longer as vulnerable as they had been before the apocalypse. They were not slow, and with their thick, armor-like defense, it was very difficult to deal with them. Some of them also had unique skills, and one of them was to spit out corrosive acid.
Some of the shells on their backs were just a cover, hiding a greater danger.
Luo Yuan saw with his own eyes that one of the shells suddenly opened its thick shell, and a colorful poisonous sea snake came out.
Although these things were not a threat to Luo Yuan, he did not want to waste time on them. It was better to avoid trouble.
The further he went, the stronger the sea breeze, and the more obvious the sound of the tide was.
His face was getting worse. If he remembered correctly, there was no sound of tide a few days ago, and the saltwater lakes under the sea bridge could not have caused a tide, and the humidity was far less obvious.
The ground started to become bumpy, and small puddles appeared from time to time. Mutated seaweeds were everywhere.
Ten minutes later, he finally reached the fortification. He looked at it and was slightly relieved. The foundation of the fortification was higher, so the water had not seeped in. Otherwise, the weapons inside would have been destroyed. Fortunately, it was fine.
He did not walk in directly, but continued to run forward.
A few minutes later, he finally stood at the edge of the sea bridge. The damage to the sea bridge was more serious than it had been a few days ago. The entire part of the sea was almost broken, and only a few lonely piers were still standing. However, the scene in front of him made him completely forget about it.
It was a vast expanse of water that seemed to have no end.
The scene on the other side of the shore was blurry and distorted under the rising water vapor, like a mirage. This bay that had been dry a few days ago was now filled with seawater, and the waves surged to the sky.
At this moment, a huge whirlpool suddenly appeared in front of them. Following this, an indescribably huge shadow quietly swept across the water surface, revealing a row of beautiful bone spikes. The water surface surged, stirring up a huge splash and making a loud crashing sound.
He subconsciously took a few steps back, and when he came back to his senses, the giant beast in the sea had disappeared. He touched his forehead, which was full of sweat.
Although it was just a glimpse, the oppressive aura still made his heart beat violently, and he was scared.
He dared not go any closer, and retreated a few hundred meters away. He held onto the metal bridge frame, and could not help but look down the bridge curiously. Suddenly, he felt that something was wrong. If he remembered correctly, this should have been a large piece of saline-alkali land, but now it had become the sea, and the sea was less than three meters away from the bridge. Luo Yuan estimated, and was shocked to find that the entire coastline had been pushed back by seven to eight kilometers.
Even the villages and restaurants that he remembered had been submerged by the sea.
Before the apocalypse, the bay had been dry most of the time. Only a few months during the flood season would there be seawater, but it was only a shallow layer. It was impossible for something like this to happen.
Moreover, according to the date, the flood season had not even started yet. How could this happen?
Could it be?
Suddenly, Luo Yuan thought of something, and his face changed.
"The sea level, the sea level has risen. Damn it!" Luo Yuan mumbled.
Global change and climate warming first affected living things, and then the glaciers in the North and South Pole. After such a long period of melting, the sea level had probably risen by more than one or two meters, and as time went by, it would rise even more until the glaciers and the temperature reached a new balance.
The rising of the sea level would have serious consequences. Most of the coastal areas would be submerged by the sea and become part of the ocean. The average altitude of Jiangnan Province was five to six meters, and this included the mountains and hills. If it was a plain, the altitude would be even lower. In a few years, the entire Jiangnan Province would become a vast ocean and a series of scattered islands.
Hu City was originally an alluvial plain, and its altitude was even lower, with an average altitude of four meters. Other than the Big Golden Mountain, most of the areas were less than four meters.
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