Chapter 115

She looked down and patted Chirp's back, saying, "Chirp, fly to the very center. Go see what that thing that was shining in the fog was."

It chirped in response, flapped its wings even more enthusiastically, and carried her into the thicker fog ahead, flying towards the center of the mountain range.

Even though they flew quite high, the thick mountain mist and miasma around them clung to them all the way, as if deliberately blocking their way and preventing them from going into the middle of the mountain.

Jiang Zhi was secretly relieved that Qiu Qiu possessed the ability to pinpoint locations. Otherwise, even if they were flying above the mountains, they would probably have been trapped by the overwhelming miasma long ago.

Even at its fastest speed, it still took the person and the bird half an hour to reach the center of the mountain range.

Sitting on Qiuqiu's back, Jiangzhi looked down through the miasma drifting in front of her. The center of the ring mountain range was not the undulating mountains she had imagined; instead, it looked like a depression that had been forcibly carved out.

The bottom of the depression glowed with a strange light, not the color of soil or rock.

Instead, it was a network of crisscrossing hills, their surfaces shimmering with a kaleidoscope of colors through the thin layer of white mist—

Jiang Zhi's pupils contracted.

These colors...aren't they the same colors as the special minerals we got in the strawberry fields during our trip to Hunan Province?!

She stared intently at the patchwork of light below, her heart pounding in her chest as if it would burst out of her chest.

Below the center of the mountain range, the colors were mottled: red like fire, blue like the sea, and some greenish-yellow hues interspersed among them.

Could it be... an entire mineral vein?!

The moment the thought crossed her mind, she was jolted.

Jiang Zhi recalled that Luo Yonghui had mentioned the base's huge demand for special ores.

Previously, the base would even assign specific missions to each mutant squad, with the goal of searching for this special ore.

However, right now, these large areas of special stones... if they were a mineral vein... it's unimaginable!

Look at the scale! It's frighteningly large!

Jiang Zhi took a deep breath, and the cool breeze entered her lungs, finally pulling her wandering thoughts back to reality.

She turned her head, her gaze towards Qiuqiu becoming more composed, and the shock she had felt earlier subsided.

"Chirp chirp, come a little closer over there, let's go take a look."

Chirp chirped slowly as it flew over.

The scene before me became clearer.

The white miasma from the mountains did not flow downwards due to the low-lying terrain; instead, it was pulled up and down by something.

Looking from above, you can see the pebbles below sometimes hovering in mid-air, then suddenly falling down after a while, and a few even circling around some of the ore.

Her heart skipped a beat—something was wrong down there.

Perhaps because of these ores, the magnetic field below is very chaotic.

As soon as Chirp flew over the center of the mountain range, its body suddenly sank, as if it had been pulled down by something. Then it suddenly floated up again, its wings flapping fast and slow, its whole body swaying left and right, making Shi Jiangzhi bounce along with it.

After covering it with a layer of spiritual energy, Jiang Zhi asked:

"Chirp chirp, can you fly a little lower?"

At the very least, it can reach the range of dashboard detection.

She needs to confirm whether what's below is actually a mineral vein.

Chirp seemed to understand, letting out a short "chirp" from its throat. Its flapping of wings paused, and it seemed to sense the chaotic force field below, pacing uneasily in place for half a circle.

Then, Chirp slowed down the flapping of its wings, carrying Shi Jiangzhi as it slowly descended. With each descent, it could feel the pulling force in the airflow intensify, forcing it to frequently adjust its posture.

They kept trying like this for more than twenty minutes.

Just then, Shi Jiangzhi finally heard the "beep" notification sound from the dashboard.

"drop--"

"Special ore discovered, fire-type special ore."

"Special ore discovered, ice-type special ore."

"Special ore discovered, a special ore of the soil type."

"Special ore discovered, a special gold-series ore."

"Special ore discovered, a special ore of the spirit type."

...

Jiang Zhi stared blankly down below, as if something was blocking her throat.

After a long while, she finally let out a soft sigh of relief. She had all sorts of special ores with so many different attributes…

Her eyelashes trembled involuntarily.

The emotions churning in his eyes didn't show on his face at all; only his tightly clenched hands betrayed a hint—his palms were already damp with sweat.

So much ore...

The sheer size of this exposed vein alone is enough to support the base's daily needs for many years.

Even... if these ores were used as a support, it wouldn't be impossible for the research projects at the institute that had been stalled for a long time to move forward.

Jiangzhi couldn't help but yearn for it.

In the future, will humanity develop new technological trees based on these?

Just as she was thinking this, the little chick beneath her suddenly let out a rapid "Chirp—".

Chirp's wing flapping became noticeably erratic.

Then his body sank, and he almost fell.

It hurriedly shook its head, and several feathers on its neck stood on end, clearly unable to withstand the chaotic force field below.

Shi Jiang quickly patted Qiu Qiu's back: "Qiu Qiu, are you alright?"

Seeing it chirp again, its wings flapping with increasing difficulty, he suppressed his thoughts, patted its neck, and said, "Let's go, let's change direction and explore the edge of the vein again."

Given their current situation, it's not advisable for them to explore further.

Let's report it to the base and let them figure out a solution.

Upon hearing this, Chirp immediately flapped its wings and flew up to me with Ginger Branch in its arms. Once it was far away from the magnetic field interference in the central area, Chirp flew along the edge of the mine.

The hazy, gray mist of the Qiling Mountains swept over us once again.

It would occasionally twirl around its wings.

Chirping flew for quite a while, but all Jiangzhi could see was the miasma that looked like milk and the continuous mountains below.

Occasionally, you can see the pointed mountain peaks piercing through the fog.

Sometimes it would sweep over forests blackened by fog, the wind carrying a damp, earthy smell.

Chirp flew for more than an hour.

But as far as the eye can see, the silhouettes of the Qiling Mountains seem to stretch on and on.

The mountains were shrouded in mist, and the mountains were connected to the mountains. We flew for a long time, as if we had never moved from our nest.

If she hadn't known about Qiuqiu's special ability, she would have suspected that she too was trapped in the miasma.

Sitting on Qiuqiu's back, Jiangzhi looked down at the endless mountain peaks and suddenly understood the weight of the phrase "Ten Thousand Mountains." Before, when she heard people mention it, she only thought it was a description of many mountains, but now she truly felt the essence of those words; they really were boundless.

Jiang Zhi couldn't help but wonder if the base would take people to the center of the mountains, just traveling there would probably take a lot of time.

Just then, the fog ahead seemed to thin out a bit, and through the haze, the end of the mountain range could be vaguely seen.

It wasn't a continuous mountain silhouette, but rather a series of staggered outlines, like the top of a building complex.

Jiangzhi was puzzled and urged Qiuqiu to fly higher. The fog was mostly dispersed by the wind, and the scene below gradually became clear—it looked like a city?

Although it looks somewhat dilapidated, with many buildings half collapsed, the crisscrossing streets and clusters of building outlines clearly resemble a city.

As she was trying to find her way, her gaze suddenly stopped when it swept over a high slope—on the slope stood a half-built iron tower, with the words "Longxi Broadcasting" still faintly visible on its body.

This iron tower... Jiang Zhi's heart skipped a beat.

Before the cataclysm, she had visited Gansu Province, and this iron tower was a landmark of Lan City!

She let Chiu Chiu fly down a little, and after seeing the dilapidated landmark clearly, her fingertips couldn't help but tremble.

Gansu Province is truly amazing!

They... actually flew all the way to Gansu Province!

From Ancheng where they started, to the Shaanxi province they passed through along the way, and now to Gansu province... Jiang Zhi looked at the still continuous mountain range below and felt a tightness in her throat. This Qiling Mountain Range had silently crossed three provinces?

She checked the time.

She and Qiuqiu had unknowingly spent more than two hours on the road.

The Qiling Mountains are so vast. Just this corner we flew over is enough to make one gasp. To describe the whole thing, the word "boundless" wouldn't be an exaggeration.

Jiangzhi made Qiuqiu fly slowly around the edge of the mountain range, and the more it flew, the more it felt the cold air seeping into its bones.

Looking down, my heart sank – the cold wave had affected this area so much.

The entire edge of Lanzhou seemed to be frozen over.

The temperature here is significantly lower than in Ancheng.

The streets weren't covered in snow, but in solid blocks of ice. The wind blew across the ice, but it didn't even stir up a speck of dust.

Even in the past, a dilapidated place should have had some vitality, but now it's like a frozen painting, unable to exude even a trace of life.

The number of mutated creatures appearing on the ground is pitifully small.

Flying over frozen streets, all I could see were white, glistening ice surfaces.

As the chirping bird flapped its wings and swept across the old town, she suddenly frowned.

"Chirp, slow down." She gently patted the white eagle's feathers.

Chirp gently lowered its wings and slowed its flight.

Jiangzhi looked down, supporting Qiuqiu's crest, and then she saw clearly what was wrong—it wasn't the ice reflecting light and making her eyes water, but the ice itself had broken.

A dark slit stretched across the intersection of several streets, as if someone had cleaved the frozen ground with a giant axe.

The ice block, which had been frozen solid, was now cracking open along the fissure, with large shards of ice hanging from the edge of the crack, beneath which lay a bottomless abyss of darkness.

Looking down from above, the crack was as thin as a scratch, no more than a few centimeters wide, and hardly noticeable.

Jiangzhi immediately urged Qiuqiu to fly closer, wanting to get a better look at the crack.

It wasn't until Chiu Chiu had flown down a considerable distance that she realized the true nature of the fissure in the earth—

It was a huge crack, two or three meters wide, lying there darkly.

Upon closer inspection, its trajectory revealed that it was extending towards the mineral vein in the center of the mountain range.

Jiang Zhi's heart sank.

She stared at the crack in the ground, her brows furrowing: what if there was another tectonic movement, would this crack extend towards the mineral vein?

If the ore vein is damaged, the losses will be enormous.

With this in mind, Jiang Zhi felt more confident.

She patted Chirp's back: "Chirp, let's fly back along the crack."

We need to get the base to start mining this vein as soon as possible; otherwise, things might go wrong.

*

On the other side, Jiang Shu, who had split into two groups, hurriedly led Han Lei and his group to the rendezvous point.

At three o'clock, the sky was still shrouded in an impenetrable darkness.

The wind, carrying a chill, blew against people's faces. Jiang Shu and the others were well prepared; everyone was wrapped in coarse cloth and wore hats.

Even so, when they reached the meeting point, everyone's noses were still red from the cold, and their breath was swept away by the wind as soon as it rose.

A few dim emergency lights were shining at the meeting point. The light did not warm people, but instead cast crooked shadows on those standing in line.

This was the first time the base had sent so many vehicles out of the city; the scene was quite spectacular.

Many residents of the base stood by the military pickup trucks early in the morning, some wrapped in thick cotton-padded coats with their hands tucked into their sleeves, still unable to resist stamping their feet back and forth from the cold.

Almost everyone hunched their necks, chins pressed against their chests, with only half of their ears, red from the cold, showing.

The time hadn't come yet, and the doors of the military pickup truck were tightly closed. A layer of white frost covered the vehicle. People occasionally tried to climb into the passenger compartment, but as soon as they touched it, they hissed and pulled their hands back, rubbed them together, and breathed hot air on them to warm them up.

Looking at the scene before them, Han Lei and his companions felt fortunate to have latched onto the Jiang family's coattails; otherwise, they would have been among those who couldn't afford to eat or wear.

Jiang Wang was forced to wear a thick cotton coat by Old Mrs. Jiang, and he was also wrapped in a heavy fur coat on top.

He pulled his coat tighter, feeling that he hadn't felt this warm since the beginning of winter.

But for Wu Xiu, the cold outside was like a knife to the bone, compared to the warmth of her home. She shivered as soon as she stood still.

She quickly pulled out a thermos containing ginger water from her bag, unscrewed the lid, and handed it to them: "Drink some quickly, while it's hot, don't catch a cold, we can't afford to get chilled at this critical time."

Everyone took it, swallowed a mouthful of hot ginger water, and felt the warmth spread from their throats to their stomachs. Their bodies, which had been stiff from the wind, actually felt a bit better.

At four o'clock sharp, the staff arrived to register.

Twenty military pickup trucks were parked in the open space. The 180 slots were all filled through a fierce competition.

After the staff used a megaphone to explain the precautions, they began to have everyone line up to board the bus.

Seeing the long queue, Jiang Shu simply had Han Lei and the others split up and join different lines. Spreading them out saved them the trouble of waiting in a group, and soon it was their turn, making things much faster.

After registering, Ayu and his friends quickly got into one of the cars.

The carriage was already quite full of people, elbows touching knees, their breaths carrying each other's warmth.

They struggled to move inside and finally found a seat in the middle of the carriage, squeezing in against the bottom railing. Although their backs were pressed against the cold carriage wall, at least they had occupied a small space.

Just as the eight people sat down, more people outside squeezed onto the bus.

The already packed carriages were like compressed cans, with arms bumping against arms and knees pressing against backs, making even turning around difficult. Some people groaned from the pressure, but could only shrink further inside.

Many people carried fishing rods, but there was nowhere to put them in the crowd, so they could only lean them against their arms at an angle.

After a short while, everyone was finally there.

A soldier climbed up using the footboard, and with a "whoosh," pulled the canvas tarpaulin onto the roof of the vehicle. The surrounding tarpaulins fell down and were secured to the side panels with ropes.

With the wind blocked out, the carriage instantly became a small, airtight space. The chill that had just made people feel unbearably cold slowly receded, and a sense of warmth actually began to emanate from the body.

It was just too crowded; dozens of people were crammed into that one small space to breathe.

Before long, the air became murky, filled with carbon dioxide exhaled by everyone.

The carriage gradually quieted down; the previous hushed conversations ceased, and with the increased carbon dioxide intake, everyone in the carriage began to feel drowsy.

I heard that even though there are fewer mutated creatures now, it still takes more than three hours to drive from Ancheng to Haishi.

Some people got up so early that they leaned on the shoulder of the person next to them and closed their eyes to rest.

Wu Xiu was also sleepy.

She whispered to the young people, "Go get some sleep, or you won't have any energy left."

Han Lei and the others responded and leaned against each other, preparing to take a nap.

Before long, I became incredibly sleepy, and the bumpy ride made me even more drowsy.

A drowsy feeling crept up my body, and my head drooped involuntarily.

Even the ginger tree closed its eyes.

Just then, the car suddenly jolted, and the crowd surged forward. Someone's fishing rod was caught between two forces, and with a crisp "crack," it snapped in two.

"My rod!" the man cried out in a panic, frantically trying to pick it up, but the people around him were so tightly packed that he couldn't even bend down.

"Hey! Why are you pushing!"

"This awful road is so bumpy it feels like your bones are going to fall apart!"

A complaint followed the sharp crack. Someone had been jostled and slammed against the railing, wincing in pain. Turning around, they glared at the person behind them: "Can't you steady yourself? You're going to break your bones!"

The carriage was already stuffy and irritating, and this swaying and noise only added to the frustration. Low complaints mixed with heavy breathing buzzed in the small space covered by the canvas canopy.

Just then, someone quietly let out a fart. At first, no one made a sound, but the carriage was already stuffy, and the sour smell immediately filled the air.

"Hey, who is this?!" Those who were closest couldn't hold it in any longer and wrinkled their noses to move to the side, but they were too tightly packed to move and could only fan their noses vigorously. "The smell is too strong!"

"That's right, it's already so stuffy, and then someone farts at a time like this, it's impossible to breathe!" someone echoed, their voice full of disgust.

The anger that had started earlier because of the broken fishing rod was somewhat dissipated by the sudden awkward smell. However, everyone's faces were even more unpleasant. Some were pursing their lips and holding their breath, while others turned their faces away. The buzzing complaints in the carriage were now mixed with some murmurs that were both funny and exasperated.

Jiang Shu pinched his nose in disgust, thinking to himself, "Thank goodness my younger sister didn't come, otherwise her face would probably be black."

Fortunately, this embarrassing situation didn't last long. The swaying outside the carriage gradually subsided, and the carriage quickly returned to calm.

I don't know how much time passed.

When even Jiang Shu was feeling drowsy, he finally heard someone outside shout, "We've arrived."

Immediately afterwards, the canvas awning was pulled open with a "whoosh," and a gust of cold wind swept in with fresh air, scattering the stale air throughout the carriage.

The passengers, who had been drowsy from the stuffy air in the carriage, were jolted awake by the cold wind, and their drooping heads snapped back to attention.

By this time, it was already bright outside, and light streamed in through the gaps in the open tarpaulin, making people squint.

Some people shivered from the wind, but couldn't help taking a couple of deep breaths—even the coldest wind was a hundred times more refreshing than the mixed air inside the carriage.

The drowsiness and weariness that everyone had felt earlier were completely dispelled, along with the frustration accumulated from the crowding and awkwardness. A sense of clarity, as if saying "We've finally arrived," gradually appeared in their eyes.

One of the soldiers shouted, "Hurry up and get off the vehicle!"

As soon as the words were spoken, the people in the carriage seemed to wake up instantly, and the previously crammed and motionless crowd immediately became lively.

They jumped down one by one.

The people behind surged forward, jostling and pushing each other toward the door, elbows bumping into each other, backpacks rubbing against each other.

After sitting for a long time, Wu Xiu's hands and feet went numb from being squeezed, and she almost couldn't stand up.

Jiang Shu quickly protected her and led her towards the car door. Han Lei and the others followed behind. The floor of the carriage was slippery and uncomfortable, but they didn't care. They just wanted to get off the crowded carriage as soon as possible.

The person at the back of the crowd was almost half-supported and half-dragged down to the ground by the people in front of them. As soon as their feet touched the solid ground, they first let out a long sigh of relief, rubbed their arms that were sore from being squeezed, and looked around. Many people were immediately stunned by the scene in front of them.

This is a bay.

As the daylight broke, the vast pier was deserted. Ahead lay the boundless sea, its surface, which should have been shimmering, now a solid block of ice, stretching from the edge of the pier into the distance.

The stone steps and piers of the dock were all covered with a thick layer of ice, a white expanse. The wind howled as it swept across the bare bridge surface, making the place seem even more desolate and frigid.

Where the water meets the sky in the distance, the ice surface merges with the gray-blue sky, the boundary indistinguishable, a vast expanse of coldness that weighs heavily on the heart, yet also exudes a breathtaking grandeur.

At this point, residents from all twenty vehicles got off one after another.

Wu Xiu unexpectedly spotted an acquaintance next to the car and couldn't help but say to Jiang Shu and Jiang Wen, "Da Shu, A Wen, Ma Yanhong and her nephew are here too."

The two brothers looked over.

That's true.

Beside the two people was an old woman who looked somewhat like Ma Yanhong's mother.

Wu Xiu: "That Ma family is scoundrels. We'd better be careful of them later."

The two brothers looked over there for a while and then both responded.

Just as everyone was excitedly preparing to take action, a soldier stood in the crowd, cleared his throat, and spoke with a crisp, cold tone in the cold wind: "Listen up—from now on, you are free to move around within the dock area."

Seeing that everyone had quieted down, he paused, glanced at everyone, and added, "But don't go too far. The ice surface hasn't been tested yet, and the area outside the dock is not safe."

"Meet here at 7 p.m. Remember, 7 p.m. No exceptions. And—" He glanced at the crowd, "from now until we meet, your safety and well-being are entirely your own responsibility."

As soon as the soldier finished speaking, the crowd, which had been silent for a moment, began to move in twos and threes, like scattered stars.

More than 180 people were scattered on the frozen dock in the blink of an eye.

Some people, carrying small chisels they had prepared beforehand, went straight to the ice surface inside the dock, squatted there and tapped around, clearly eager to find a place to ice fish.

A few families huddled together, whispered a few words, then wrapped their clothes tighter and headed deeper into the dock, a little further from the meeting point.

Jiang Shu took two steps closer to Jiang Wang, shuffling his feet on the thin ice to avoid a slippery patch before asking, "Uncle Wang, look how big this dock is, and with all this ice and snow, where should we start?"

At times like these, Jiang Shu's supernatural abilities become somewhat inadequate.

The ice and water blended seamlessly, making it difficult to distinguish whether the ice underfoot was thin or thick.

However, it's possible to see which areas have the most mutated fish.

When it came to what he was good at, Jiang Wang immediately perked up.

He squatted down on the ice, pressing his only left hand against the cold ice shell, tapping his knuckles to listen to the sound, and then looked up into the distance: "The sea is different from the river; we have to look at the ice first."

“Look at that piece of ice. It’s not a clear, crisp white; it has a dark bluish tinge. The ice on top isn’t frozen too thick, so the water underneath is flowing freely, which is why the fish are willing to come.”

"We'd better not choose a place too close to the shore. The ice is thin near the shore, and in winter the fish will move to the deeper water. It's a waste of effort to dig in the shallow water."

Jiang Wen asked, "Uncle Wang, so you mean we need to go somewhere further from the shore?"

Jiang Wang shook his head. "The ice in the sea is the most dangerous place. Don't go far from the dock. The ice around the piers is solid and frozen more firmly. You can go and take a look over there first."

Han Lei: "How do we determine if the ice is thick? What if we accidentally fall in?"

Jiang Wang stood up, took two steps toward the edge of the ice, stomped his feet on the ice, and then bent down to wipe away the frost with his gloves: "It's not hard to tell if the ice is thick. First, look at the color of the ice. If it's white and brittle, then the ice is thin, mostly newly frozen, and the bottom might not be solid. If it's dark blue and dull, and feels hard to the touch, and when you tap it it makes a 'thump thump' sound without being hollow, then it's thick ice that's been frozen through."

Jiang Wang explained in great detail, and everyone who listened immediately felt that Jiang Wang's experience was indeed rich.

Having someone guide you can definitely save a lot of time.

Jiang Wang spoke at length to the group, and finally said, "I'll walk in front, and you can follow."

Jiang Shu nodded: "Okay, Uncle Wang, we'll listen to you."

Jiang Wang didn't hesitate and took the lead, his foot landing steadily on the ice. Every two steps, he would bend down and tap the ice, listening to the muffled "thump-thump" sound. Jiang Shu and the others followed closely behind, moving forward in his footprints. Soon, they could see the ice under their feet gradually change from whitish to dark blue.

The group walked cautiously for a while and soon arrived at the Qianqiaodun.

“This is it.” Jiang Wang stopped two steps away from the bridge pier, bent down and patted the ice. “The ice under the pillars is frozen solid, and there are a lot of fish here.”

Han Lei and the others were delighted.

Jiang Shu also took out the tools they had prepared from the spaceship and distributed them to everyone.

Jiang Wang held a small chisel and hammer in his hand. He first drew a small circle on the ice, then swung the hammer and smashed it against the chisel. With a "clang," ice shards flew up, and he chiseled out a small pit in a few strokes.

"You guys find a sheltered spot to rest first, I'll try to make an opening," Jiang Wang said without looking up, his hand applying even pressure.

Several young people wanted to go up and help, but Jiang Wang refused, saying, "The ice here isn't thick, I can handle it."

Although Jiang Wang didn't say it directly, everyone could tell that he was afraid they would make too much noise and scare the fish.

Before long, the small pit that Jiang Wang had created had expanded into an ice cave the size of a bowl. The seawater inside was dark, and tiny bubbles were indeed rising to the surface.