Chapter 68 The Battle for Oil Fields (Part 1)

When everyone discovered that Jiang Hao was the one who killed the rooster with nails, they were all stunned. Jiang Rong rushed forward to check on the two children, and after confirming that they were unharmed, he reached out and touched Jiang Hao's head.

The moment the pale blue supernatural power touched Jiang Hao's skin, it sensed the faint flow of metal-based supernatural power beneath. Jiang Rong exclaimed in disbelief, "Xiao Hao... how did he suddenly develop supernatural powers?"

He had always believed that only those weakened by a major crisis would possess supernatural abilities. The black rain in July further confirmed his view; those with supernatural abilities would be weakened for several days afterward. He remembered that during those days of the black rain, Chunlan and Leilei both became exceptionally weak.

Guan Shao brought Jiang Hao to their gate on a dark, rainy night. If Jiang Rong remembered correctly, Jiang Hao woke up the next day. At that time, although Jiang Hao was a little silly, he was very healthy, so Jiang Rong always thought he was an ordinary child like Xiao Heng.

Jiang Rong asked with concern, "Xiao Hao, do you feel any discomfort anywhere in your body?"

Jiang Hao shook his head and said seriously, "No."

Could ordinary people awaken superpowers in the future? Jiang Rong had never encountered such a thing in his previous life. After careful consideration, he said slowly, "Let Sister Chunlan check Xiao Hao in a while."

As for the rooster that tried to ambush Jiang Xiaoheng, its fate was, of course, to be cooked!

After leaving the farm, Jiang Rong drove straight to Chu Qiang's house. As soon as they entered the yard, Chu Qiang noticed something was wrong with Jiang Hao. He looked Jiang Hao up and down with surprise: "Oh dear~ I knew it was you who broke my door lock! It really was you!"

Chu Qiang laughed and picked Jiang Hao up, saying, "Good heavens, he even has a metal-type ability! Little Jiang, our team has gathered a full complement of elemental ability users!"

Jiang Rong's team currently has thirteen members, each with a different superpower. They already have elemental power users in the wood, water, fire, and earth elements; they're just missing a metal-type power user. To find the strongest metal-type power user in the base, Jiang Rong went through the entire base's list of power users again and again.

If Xu Kaitai hadn't betrayed him, he would have joined the core team because of his special abilities.

Chu Qiang chuckled, "I told you we were lucky! We got exactly what we were looking for!" Before he could finish speaking, Chu Qiang noticed Jiang Rong's reproachful gaze. He asked suspiciously, "What's wrong?"

Jiang Rong slowly began, "Xiao Hao is only five years old this year." Can a five-year-old child be expected to rush to the front like an adult?

Chu Qiang then realized, "Oh right, she's only five years old. We'll have to wait more than ten years." The youngest member of the superpowered team is Lei Lei. Lei Lei was able to join because her superpower is a support type, so she doesn't have to be at the forefront.

Jiang Rong took the child from Chu Qiang's arms: "Don't try to take advantage of the children." Jiang Hao and Jiang Xiaoheng are still young. They still have to go to school. Even if they have extraordinary abilities, they can only obediently go to kindergarten when they are young.

After examining him, Wang Chunlan concluded, "Xiao Hao is physically fine; he has indeed awakened his metal-type superpower." After a pause, she smiled and said, "I didn't expect someone to awaken a superpower after such a major crisis."

Pan Pan casually remarked, "It must be because the food at the Spark Base is so good that everyone's physical fitness has improved. When you're in good shape, you're stronger. Besides, the food we eat at the base is all carefully selected high-quality food, which is definitely good for the body from a nutritional perspective. I think there will be many more people with special abilities at the base."

Pan Pan's mother isn't a very good cook, so since the Xinghuo Base established a canteen, she and her son have basically been eating there. Although there are more vegetables than meat in the canteen, there's rice, vegetables, and soup, so they're always full.

Pan Pan's mother originally had some back pain, but after eating at the cafeteria for a while, her back pain and leg aches disappeared. Therefore, Pan Pan felt that the Xinghuo Base was very supportive.

Jiang Rong was both amused and exasperated: "Is that even a thing?" If everyone in the base could gradually acquire superpowers, it would be a good thing for the base. Jiang Rong wouldn't discourage other superpowered individuals; he always believed that there's strength in numbers, and more superpowered individuals would make things easier.

Pan Pan gave a thumbs up: "Of course, many people in our village say that they used to have some minor health problems, but they've all disappeared recently. By the way, there's an old man in the second village who used to have glaucoma, but now he has excellent hearing and eyesight."

Jiang Rong nodded slowly, and pondered, "It seems we need to open a window in the registration center to re-register the superhumans in the base."

Ruan Hanyu happily accepted the task: "Okay!"

Chu Qiang cleaned up the rooster they brought back, and everyone enjoyed a delicious braised chicken meal. Everyone was in high spirits, thinking that in a few months, many chicks would appear at the base.

Eating chicken is fun, but raising chickens is indeed a bit troublesome. Jiang Rong said slowly, "Today, the person in charge of the farm told me that the base is not allocating enough feed to the chicken farm, and there may be no feed left in another month."

Everyone was stunned for a moment: "Huh? Didn't we find a lot of grain damaged by mutated rats at the private grain station last time? It's gone so quickly?"

Guan Shao calmly said, "We brought back tens of thousands of mouths to feed." Even with the vegetables from the base, the daily consumption of chickens, ducks, and geese is still astonishing.

Chu Qiang was relatively optimistic: "It's alright, don't we have other teams of superhumans at our base? Please ask everyone to go as far as possible and try to bring back more food."

Speaking of the matter of the people leaving, Jiang Jinhu frowned. "By the way, there's something else I need to report in advance. Our base is running low on oil. If the superhumans leave, the base's oil supply won't last until next spring."

People need to eat, and cars need to eat too. The number of cars and agricultural machinery at the Spark Base is increasing, and each vehicle requires gasoline or diesel to operate. The superhumans at the Spark Base have searched almost every gas station within a hundred-mile radius, and even drained gasoline from vehicles that have broken down on the roadside. Even so, the extracted gasoline is still far from enough.

Zheng Zhanqing sighed in distress: "How much further can we go without gasoline?"

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Rong raised his head: "I've heard that Jiangyou has an oil field, but I don't know its exact location." It was his oversight; he had always thought the base had a lot of gasoline in stock.

The word "oil field" successfully ignited a spark in everyone's eyes, and Jiang Jinhu was extremely excited: "At this crucial moment, are you serious?!"

Jiang Rong nodded slowly: "Yes." He used to have a client who worked in an oil field. The client said there was an oil field on the Jiangbei Plain, and he told Jiang Rong the location at the time, but it had been a long time and he couldn't remember it anymore.

Even a starved camel is bigger than a horse. As long as the oil field's equipment is still there, even if the output is not high, it can still keep the base running for a while.

The pressure is now on Meng Weixian's side, and everyone's eyes are shining as they look at the living map. A bead of cold sweat drips down Meng Weixian's forehead: "I understand, everyone give me some time, I'll go back and study it."

He could indeed remember the road, but he might not remember what was on either side of it. Fortunately, he had satellite images from before the major crisis, so he could go look for them later.

*

Meng Weixian was incredibly efficient; in less than two hours, he located the oil fields on the Jiangbei Plain. The Xinghuo Base was in a very good location, with more than twenty oil fields of varying sizes on the Jiangbei Plain, the closest of which was less than two hundred miles away.

They have dredged the bridge across the river, so that after crossing the river, it will take less than 100 kilometers to find the oil field.

Everyone was extremely excited and wished they could organize a convoy to retrieve the oil overnight. However, they needed to count the number of tankers and fuel tanks, so they could only set off early the next morning.

As night fell, Jiang Rong slowly closed the door to Xiao Heng and the others' room. Guan Shao asked softly, "Asleep?"

Jiang Rong nodded: "They're asleep. I hope they don't have nightmares tonight." Being chased by a rooster today will definitely leave a deep impression. Jiang Rong remembered being chased by a chicken when she was a child, and for several nights in a row, she dreamed of a mighty rooster.

Guan Shao smiled and said, "That's what growing up is all about."

Just as the two were about to enter the bedroom, Jiang Rong heard Xiao Guaiguai's voice in her mind: "Jiang Gong, it hurts..."

Jiang Rong stopped moving, and Guan Shao asked with concern, "What's wrong?" Jiang Rong said with her eyes closed, "My little darling says it hurts."

In her mind's eye, Little Darling was flailing her vines in a pitiful state. Upon seeing Jiang Rong, Little Darling clung to her, saying, "It hurts..."

Jiang Rong rarely entered Xiao Guaiguai's consciousness directly because Xiao Guaiguai had too many vines, and he would be overwhelmed every time he entered. But now he entered Xiao Guaiguai's consciousness without hesitation, and as soon as he entered, a bright yellow fire rushed towards him.

The little darling's vines ignited as soon as they touched the flames. Although Jiang Rong couldn't share its pain, just hearing its cries made his heart ache.

The convoy that attacked Xiaoguaiguai was located in Jiangbei. The vehicles had a large circle painted on them with the words "Peace" written on it.

It was the superhumans from the Peace Base! It was too dark for them to see the sign next to Little Darling before they attacked her. Luckily, Little Darling reacted quickly; realizing she couldn't control the fire, she released the vines and fell into the river.

It was unclear what kind of flame the other superhuman used, but even in the river, the flames continued to burn fiercely. Little Guai Guai had no choice but to cut off the burning vines to avoid being completely incinerated.

Even so, the group didn't let Little Guai go. They stood inside the railing, looking down at the river. Lights flickered on the swaying water, and faint voices drifted over: "Damn it, what the hell is that? How did it escape?"

The poor little creature curled up into a ball and buried itself in the mud at the bottom of the water. Only after Jiang Rong entered its consciousness did the group reluctantly leave.

Little Darling flailed her arms, looking aggrieved: "It hurts..."

Jiang Rong channeled her supernatural power into it for a while before it cheered up again. Jiang Rong comforted it, "Don't be afraid, they just didn't see the sign on the bridge and didn't know our little darling's identity. I'm sorry to have troubled you."

The little darling swayed its vines and chuckled twice before happily wrapping itself around the little fairy. Actually, breaking a few vines didn't hurt, but this was the perfect opportunity to charm Jiang Gong and gain his powers; it had to be as affectionate as possible.

Jiang Rong opened her eyes and said helplessly, "The people from the Peace Base probably didn't see the sign on the bridge and attacked Little Darling."

Guan Shao frowned: "How badly is my little darling hurt?"

Jiang Rong said slowly, "A few vines broke, but it's nothing serious. The leader of the Peace Base should be a fire-type ability user, and he seems to be of a high level."

Guan Shao's eyes widened in displeasure: "Your ability level is high, but your eyesight is poor." Can't you even see such large characters? It's only because Xiao Guai Guai remembered Jiang Rong's orders and didn't massacre them; otherwise, none of these people would have escaped.

Jiang Rong said helplessly, "Now, apart from our base, people from other bases turn pale at the sight of mutated plants and animals. No wonder they shout and kill when they see Little Darling." In his previous life, when he was in the Peace Base, whenever he went out on a mission, his heart would jump to his throat when he saw mutated plants and animals. How could he calm down and distinguish whether they were good or bad?

Guan Shao said in a deep voice, "Tomorrow we'll go to the bridge and change the words on the sign to fluorescent font, and we'll also put up warning signs on the approach bridge in advance." He didn't believe that the ability users from other bases wouldn't be able to see such large characters.

This incident also served as a reminder to Jiang Rong: "In addition to changing the lettering to fluorescent lettering, we also need to add a sentence to the plaque: Those who attack the Bloodthirsty Vine will bear the consequences themselves."

Some people bully the weak and fear the strong. Even knowing that Little Darling has an owner, they still use it for practice. He'll tell Little Darling later that anyone who attacks it after revealing their identity shouldn't be treated with respect.

Author's Note:

Old Cat's computer...froze to death! TAT

The manuscript I had painstakingly written was mostly gone, so I had to rewrite it.

There's not enough time, only one chapter today.

The battery in the iPhone is terrible; it will go into power-off protection mode if the temperature is above 35 degrees Celsius or below 5 degrees Celsius.

Every winter, when it freezes to death, I can only charge it by tucking it into my blanket and turning on the electric blanket. TAT