Chapter 306: Battlefield
Translator: Insignia Editor: Svjohn
On the way back, there were a large number of flies and mosquitoes. It was somewhat sparse initially but got denser as they moved on. After 10 kilometers they were almost unable to move as there were countless flies and mosquitoes that filled up the entire space.
The giant lizard looked a bit irritated and hesitated to move. However, under Luo Yuan's command, it could not reject and had to move on.
The air was filled with the stench of rotting corpses. The ground had become somewhat bumpy and there were a lot of potholes everywhere, making them feel like they were on the surface of the moon. On the ground, it was full of mutated insect and human carcasses. It was interesting to see the dead bodies everywhere. The flesh of the carcasses had been swallowed by carrion creatures and only the skeleton was left.
Luo Yuan slowed the giant lizard down and observed the surroundings. When he was in the sky he never noticed that the battlefield was not far away from Desert City. Undoubtedly it was only one of the more insignificant battlefields but its radius was extremely large. Luo Yuan circled around the battlefield and found that the radius was about hundreds kilometers.
There were a lot of broken tanks that were bent out of shape and anti-aircraft guns thrown everywhere like scrap metal on the battlefield. There were also live artillery shells that rolled at the side with bugs on top of it. Luo Yuan could feel the tragedy of the war even if he observed from afar.
When he passed by a fort he saw a collapsed corner. The fort could actually withstand heavy artillery but its corner had collapsed. He flew into the fort to take a look and saw countless corpses lying on the ground in a mess.
On the concrete floor there were few deep claw marks that divided the entire floor into several parts. However, the culprit behind these scratches was not seen in the fort.
...
When the sky was getting dark, Yan Mengjun frequently looked at the time, there was anxiety on his face. It was about five o’clock and the sky would be getting dark in an hour.
The wilderness was dangerous at night. This was once a desert and the temperature was vastly different between day and night with, most mutated creatures becoming active during the night. Today due to the drastic changes in climate the desert had become a prairie but the habits of these creatures were unchanged.
In the past, with his level three ability, it was not a threat to him at all as it was close to Desert City and was also within the human's line of defense. Besides that, the mutated beasts within the territory had been tamed until they were so docile that even a normal human could fight with the mutated beast.
However, this place had collapsed and the security zone was no longer safe. After the last wave of insects, there were unknown numbers of residual strong mutated beasts that hid in this prairie waiting for an opportunity to hunt.
At first, they had Luo Yuan to rely on but now, he had been away longer than expected and had not returned yet. As the sky darkened, his worries intensified.
His wife looked pale and seized his arm firmly. He could barely smile and comforted his wife, "Don't worry, I am here for you."
"Sister-in-law, please rest assured. Our people can guarantee your safety." Zhang Wu who was next to him also comforted.
"Look at them, they don't seem to be worried at all." said Yang Zhiqing curiously. He was considered relatively calm amongst the others.
The other side had all the women there so the team seemed to be divided in two. However, compared to the people on this side who were all tensed up, the group of women on the other side seemed calm; they were chatting about daily matters.
"Let me go and ask!" Said Yan Mengjun after he took a glance at the women. He was formerly a real estate broker so he was more eloquent than anyone else in the group. He brought Gu Meiyan with him and went over to ask, "Excuse me, do you all know what time Mr. Luo will come back?"
"He should be back soon." Huang Jiahui looked at the time and said with a smile. She had gone through so many things and already became accustomed to this concern, "Sorry but please wait for a while!"
"No, don't be sorry! I'm just a little worried. It was getting late and it may be dangerous later on." Yan Mengjun quickly explained, these people were the closest people to Mr. Luo. If they misunderstood his intentions and thought that he was impatient, it could spell trouble in the future.
"Thank you for reminding us, we'll pay attention." Huang Jiahui said politely but she was not concerned at all. Not to mention that they had Wang Shishi who was also very powerful. So much so that even on her own, she could face the usual mutated beasts without fear. They had gone through so much before, which is why they did not seem to worry at all even when they were in this desert that was on the outskirts of Desert City.
Yan Mengjun was helpless, he turned to his wife and returned to his side of the team, shaking his head when he saw Zhang Wu.
As time passed the sky became dark. The lush grasslands gradually began to see movement and a large gust of air gushed from time to time in the grasslands. A few hideous mutated beasts started to appear from the grass.
This area had been occupied in less than a month and the mutated beasts had improved both quality and quantity. They were able to see a few level two and three mutated beasts from far.
However, these creatures seemed to sense some anxiety in the air and started to become restless. They acted strangely and looked around carefully. Some of them wandered around and looked lost while others drilled themselves back into the ground.
"What was it?" Yan Mengjun looked curious, "What happened?"
"Could it be an earthquake?" Zhang Wu surmised.
"It feels like it is an earthquake." Yang Zhiqing felt careful and it was indeed a tremor.
"Look, what is it?" Gu Meiyan suddenly discovered something and quickly pulled Yan Mengjun over. She was shocked. They could barely see two small dots from afar but they became clearer as time passed and enlarged rapidly. At the same time, a tremor began to shake the ground slightly.
When the sight became clearer, the crowd was frightened and became pale. They could see two gigantic beasts approaching rapidly along with the strong quake. At first glance, the two beasts were still two to three kilometers away but after 10 seconds they were right in front of them. Humans looked tiny in front of these giant beasts. They ran until they were unable to stand properly. Yan Mengjun and the gang looked completely pale and kept sweating from their foreheads. Although they desperately wanted to escape, their body was weakened and they were unable to make a move. A few of the mutated beasts that were not able to escape in time froze on the spot and were trampled by the two giant beasts until they died.
As compared to Yang Mengjun and the gang who met the giant lizard and King Kong for the first time, Huang Jiahui and the ladies were undoubtedly calmer and less worried but they were shocked too. These two beasts not only had changed in their appearance, the size had doubled compared to the last time they met. If they had never seen Luo Yuan sitting at the back, they would have thought that they were faced with a big threat.
As the distance got closer to a few hundred meters away, the two giant beasts slowed down their speed. It was difficult to notice the existence of Luo Yuan compared with these two giants. Only at this moment did Yan Mengjun and the gang realize that Luo Yuan was sitting at the back of the giant lizard and they breathed a sigh of relief.
...
"Am I hearing you correctly? You want us to sit on these giant beasts?" Yan Mengjun opened his mouth and looked at him in disbelief. As a regular person, this was crazy. These were ten meters high, scary, gigantic beasts that could by virtue of touching them, hurt them gravely.
"Is there any problem for you? It is impossible for us to walk for more than a thousand kilometers," said Luo Yuan while looked at these people with an ambiguous look.
"No... No." Yan Mengjun looked pale and shook his head.
"Very... very reasonable, I have no other opinion." Said Zhang Wu with a stiff look.
"As long as it does not bite." Yang Zhiqing took a glance at the two giant beasts and whispered.
The previous rattan blanket had already gone. Since the sky had not completely turned dark the crowd tried to find a vine that could be used to make a new rattan blanket for them.
There were ups and downs when the giant lizard ran, if they did not have a rattan blanket to hold them in, they would fall down from its back easily, especially the giant lizard who was now nearly ten-meter height. If they fell down from the top it would end up in disaster.
The wilderness today had nothing but these mutated vines, which had become extremely strong and flexible after they mutated. Even Luo Yuan could not break the vines which had been intertwined into several layers with all his strength.
Of course, in order to make the rattan blanket, they needed to find thicker vines. Each of the vines had to be as thick as human arms. Not only could they skip twirling them together for a thicker cord, thicker vines would also result in a better grip so they would not fall down easily.
There were no pampered people after the apocalypse, even Gu Meiyan who was always unwell after the appearance of the mutated beasts also came to help up and she was very efficient.
At this time Yang Zhiqing, who was not very outspoken earlier had caught Luo Yuan’s admiration.
Perhaps he had experience making a fishing net before as was very good at weaving the rattan blanket. Under his guidance, the rattan blanket they were working on finally lookg like a real rattan blanket. The blanket was woven in perfect proportion, was strong and durable. Compared to the previous one Luo Yuan made that was just a tangle of vines that he pulled, this was a work of art.
As the back of giant lizard was very broad, making a rattan blanket required a huge amount of effort. Based on rough estimations, it was about two hundreds square wide. Naturally, it was extremely heavy that even Luo Yuan had difficulties moving it. It was at least two tons in weight.
Eventually, Luo Yuan summoned King Kong to help to lay the huge blanket on the body of the giant lizard.
This was a huge undertaking so when everything was completed it was nine o'clock at night. However, Luo Yuan did not want to camp here as it was an active area within the territory. It was evident from the tweet of the giant birds above the cloud as well as the earthquake data from the redevelopment area.
With the hanging vines, everyone climbed onto the back of giant lizard under Luo Yuan's supervision. Once everyone sat down properly Luo Yuan patted the giant lizard’s head. The giant lizard irritability snapped and blew fire from its nostrils. It stood up and ran in a slow pace under Luo Yuan’s control.
The sky was as black as ink without the shine of moon and stars, even Luo Yuan could only see the vague outline of Desert City which gradually disappeared from their eyesight. Luo Yuan had complicated feelings when he looked at that pile of rubble and thought of all those people who were waiting to migrate.
...
He could see electromagnetic towers along the way, but the electricity had been cut off since the place collapsed and it became a habitat for insects.
When the two giant beasts passed by, countless insects flew into the sky.
The deterrent that was two giant beasts helped smoothen the journey as no mutated beasts dared to confront them.
When it was four o'clock in the morning, a strange city, through the dim glorious of dawn gradually appeared in their sight.