It was night, and a fierce wind howled, accompanied by driving snow, transforming the entire Siberian landscape into a world of white. Shen Feng and his three companions huddled inside a makeshift shelter. Fortunately, the tent was sturdy enough and, covered by the snow, had not collapsed.
The temperature here had plummeted below freezing. Even with his enhanced physique, Shen Feng felt the biting cold. In such weather, wearing three or four layers of clothing was entirely reasonable. Shen Feng and his group chose to build a fire for warmth near a large pine tree.
Xu Xing, not yet having fully absorbed the evolutionary base from before, wasn't as susceptible to the cold. She rested against an arctic fox. Lu Xian and Qi Ling Shan on the other side, however, were truly struggling. The weather was so terrible it wasn't fit for humans. Breathing out, their exhaled air instantly froze into white mist.
Lu Xian couldn't help but say, "City Lord, why don't we go and squeeze in with Xiao Sheng and the others? I saw them keeping a fire going in their ice houses, and smoke was rising. It must be warm in there. We can't sleep in this shelter at all."
"If you can't sleep, then dig a hole and live in a cellar; it won't be cold. Squeezing in with others shows no ambition! Besides, moving around in this kind of weather is the most concealed," Shen Feng replied irritably.
Ice blocks provided excellent insulation, with heat dissipating very slowly. As for the shelter built by Lu Xian and Qi Ling Shan, it was drafty, and its insulation was also poor. Thus, Lu Xian and Qi Ling Shan envied the living quarters of the people from the Ability Administration.
However, Shen Feng decided to act at this very moment. In the midst of the wind and snow, most people would not choose to move. The people from the Ability Administration were currently resting in their warm huts, conserving their strength to defeat the treants and obtain the mutated plants.
At this time, Shen Feng's actions would not be discovered.
Xu Xing quickly said to Shen Feng, "City Lord, if you go down, you can pay special attention to the ground. When I was underground, I broke a mirror. In the marmot tunnels, whenever I encountered a fork in the road, I would drop a shard of mirror on the ground. You just need to follow the mirror shards to reach the waterfall and leave."
Upon receiving this crucial information, Shen Feng immediately became attentive and said, "Understood. Your information is extremely important. I will definitely observe carefully when I am underground."
After speaking, Shen Feng instructed Lu Xian and Qi Ling Shan to protect Xu Xing, and then quickly set off with the marmot they had just captured.
In the midst of the wind and snow, Shen Feng arduously found the entrance Xu Xing had used previously. Fortunately, this entrance was on the cave side. If it had been on the other side of the crevice and separated, Shen Feng would have had to find another entrance.
Shen Feng brushed aside the accumulated snow and found the blocked entrance. He untied one of the marmots and said to it, "Hurry up and dig for me."
The marmot naturally could not understand Shen Feng's words, but driven by a strong survival instinct, it only wanted to live. It immediately began to dig underground. The soil blocking the entrance was relatively loose, while the surrounding ground was harder. In this situation, the marmot naturally dug along the loose tunnel and burrowed down the original entrance.
After half an hour, the released marmot had disappeared. Below, it had become a dark cave. Seeing this, Shen Feng was overjoyed. He hadn't expected it to work so well; the first attempt was a complete success.
Shen Feng looked at the other four marmots tied with ropes and said, "As for you, you might be useful later, so I won't kill you for now."
Then, Shen Feng placed the remaining marmots under the tree, where they wouldn't be easily buried by snow. After placing the marmots aside, Shen Feng turned on his flashlight and headed down. As expected, he saw shards of mirror at the tunnel entrance. In these narrow tunnels, there were also many glowing fruits, so even without a flashlight, the path underground could be seen clearly.
Upon seeing this, Shen Feng was filled with confusion. He thought, "The treants cannot enter these narrow tunnels, so why would the mutated plants illuminate the caves? This is not normal at all."
Shen Feng could understand illumination in an underground world, as plant hearts generally possessed vision. It was also normal for mutated plants to grow in marmot burrows, as vines and roots could find their way through any gap.
However, the appearance of glowing fruits in the tunnels made it even stranger. Could these mutated plants have a connection with the marmots? Besides illuminating the marmots' path, these glowing fruits seemed to have no other purpose.
While Shen Feng was pondering this, he arrived in a stone chamber that showed signs of human habitation. Outside the chamber were many vines, which hung down and concealed the entrance. If one didn't look closely, it would be impossible to tell it was an entrance.
Next, Shen Feng continued to follow the markers left by Xu Xing. Xu Xing's earlier caution had indeed paved a path for Shen Feng to reach the cave where the mutated plants were located.
However, when Shen Feng finally reached the cave entrance by the waterfall, he found that the entrance was now blocked by thick vines, making it impossible to exit.
"Could it be that the mutated plants have also discovered this entrance and forcibly blocked it?" Shen Feng wondered to himself.
Although the cave entrance by the waterfall was blocked and he couldn't get out, the vines couldn't completely seal the entrance. Shen Feng could still observe the situation inside through the gaps in the entrance. He saw that the treants were currently working inside the cave, moving stones to block the former passage.
"These treants have blocked the entrance, but where do they go out from?" Shen Feng mused. He found it very strange, wondering what the treants' passage was.
As Shen Feng was wondering, a huge figure fell from his sight, landing on the ground with a resounding "boom."
Seeing this, Shen Feng finally remembered that above him was the waterfall's outlet from before. Could the treants be entering and exiting from here?
"Tomorrow, I must enter from the new passage to investigate. If this is indeed the case, then the mutated plants won't last much longer here," Shen Feng thought to himself.
The passage that originally led directly to the cave was now blocked by vines. Shen Feng was also fortunate that he hadn't killed the remaining marmots; otherwise, he would have had no place to dig.
Afterward, Shen Feng went out to bring the remaining groundhogs underground and instructed them to dig at designated spots. The first groundhog tried to escape quickly, but Shen Feng drew his sword and killed it. The other groundhogs were stunned by this. Being animals with brains, the remaining three groundhogs continued to dig according to Shen Feng's plan. Finally, through the efforts of the three groundhogs, another passage leading to the depths of the cave appeared.
"You're wise. Dig it out, and then scram. I won't hold a grudge," Shen Feng said indifferently. He didn't have the habit of discarding his tools once the job was done. Since the marmots had completed the work Shen Feng needed, he let them go.
This newly dug entrance was on the side of the cave. According to Shen Feng's calculations, the entrance was twenty meters above the cave floor. From the side, he could see the treants moving. In the center, the towering tree continued to grow. The branches and leaves that Shen Feng had cut before had already regrown, and it was currently motionless.
"They are still not primates. They've sealed their escape route. If something unexpected happens in the cave, they won't be able to find an escape passage," Shen Feng thought to himself.
The treants continued to labor, moving stones to block the former entrance. The waterfall's outlet on this side had dried up. The walls on this side were covered with vines and roots. The treants climbed these vines to enter and exit the cave through the waterfall's inlet.
After observing the situation, Shen Feng quickly departed, preparing to find the right moment to act. Shen Feng now had a direct channel to the treants' cave. Xiao Sheng, unaware of this, would have to enter the depths of the cave step by step, killing treants one by one!
However, as Shen Feng was leaving, he saw a group of dark figures in the darkness. Shining his flashlight on them, he realized they were soldiers in military uniforms. They were the same people who had been sitting with Xiao Sheng and the others in the karst cave. Now, they had managed to get out on their own. Shen Feng couldn't help but be impressed.
"Hello there. It's not simple that you managed to get out from underground," Shen Feng greeted them with the principle of friendly coexistence.
However, his greeting was met with a gunshot, "Bang." A bullet struck the snow at Shen Feng's feet. It was a warning; these people did not want Shen Feng to approach.
Shen Feng raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing? Aren't we friends?"
Shen Feng was naturally not worried about them attacking him. If they were to fight, Shen Feng could easily kill them all. He just didn't understand why these soldiers would attack him; he hadn't offended them.
At this moment, a soldier who understood Chinese walked over, spat on the ground, and said, "Pah! You are not friends at all. You Khitans are detestable liars. You tricked us into fighting for you, costing us five thousand youths. And now we know that Qiūmíng has been destroyed, but you never told us. You clearly knew all along."
Shen Feng understood. It turned out that after the soldiers had arduously emerged from underground, they had learned the news that Qiūmíng had been destroyed. Shen Feng remained silent. Although Shen Feng didn't believe that five thousand soldiers could have stopped the mutated birds' attack, when Qiūmíng needed soldiers the most, Xiao Sheng had taken them underground on a mission, which ultimately led to Qiūmíng's destruction. From this perspective, their anger was not unreasonable.
Shen Feng actually wanted to say, "This was all done by the Ability Administration. It has nothing to do with me."
But after thinking carefully, Shen Feng realized that perhaps in the eyes of these local soldiers from Qiūmíng, he and Xiao Sheng were in the same group. It would be impossible to explain clearly.
Finally, Shen Feng sighed and said to these soldiers who had escaped underground with great difficulty, "There are still over two hundred people left in Qiūmíng. One hundred of them are hiding with me at the steel mill. Since you are still alive, go and find them at the steel mill. In the future, strive to survive."
The destruction of a city was a sorrowful event. Shen Feng had also seen many small cities destroyed and never rebuilt after the zombie outbreak. The survivors of those cities lost their homes, and such sorrowful feelings were understandable.
"Thank you," the soldier replied stiffly, with no hint of gratitude in his tone.
Then, the soldiers turned and left, their tattered uniforms ready to protect the last two hundred survivors of Qiūmíng.
Shen Feng watched their retreating backs and murmured, "Xiao Sheng, oh Xiao Sheng, you've done so many bad things, and in the end, I'm the one who has to take the blame!"