After saying goodbye to Honeysuckle, Xia Lunong and a few others drove to the city. It

is particularly cold here this year. There is still

snow on the roadside. In this situation, there are basically no evergreen plants to be seen, and even if there are occasionally

, they are gray.

In places like this, it is particularly easy for some mutant animals and plants to hide.

They drove through in an armored vehicle and had to be extremely careful.

Even so, they were attacked several times.

Everyone was tense. Fortunately, things went smoothly. They successfully found two factories in the industrial zone and got the metal they wanted. Under the cover of her brothers, Xia Lunong also stuffed some into the space bamboo tube, which should be enough for them. The industrial zone almost collapsed. It was already past four o'clock in the afternoon when they found the factory and obtained the metal. This time period is no longer suitable to look for other things. After everyone discussed it, they decided to drive to the suburbs first, rest for a night, and make plans after dawn tomorrow. The armored vehicle turned around and drove to the suburbs. It took more than an hour for the three vehicles to successfully reach the suburbs. After finally finding a place to rest and settling down, Old Liu pounded his waist and said, "The city is really too dangerous. It's not that dangerous to go hunting in the mountains." "Of course, otherwise why don't you all want to come to the city to collect supplies?" Yan Xinian poured a bowl of boiled water for him, and called to others, "Everyone check if you have any wounds on your body. If you have any wounds, treat them in time." Untidy responses came from all around the temporary rest area. Yan Xinian blew on the hot water in his hand and took a big sip. He felt a little more comfortable after being soothed by the warmth. Everyone was drinking water and chatting in the back of the armored vehicle. The three parties came out together, and they all drove armored vehicles, but they were in a cooperative relationship. Whoever found the supplies would own them, and they were generally not put together. At most, they would take inventory during the daily break to see what everyone had found and whether there was any need for exchange. Xia Lunong didn't care about these things. He sat aside and listened, still thinking about the meteorite crater in his heart. He ran around half of the city today, and he had communicated with many plants, but he didn't collect any information about the meteorite crater. He almost suspected that the meteorite crater was not close to their base, but outside. If they were out of town, with their current strength, they would definitely not be able to find it for a while. In fact, it doesn't matter if they can't find it, after all, they don't have much demand. But if this meteorite pit is found by other forces, it will be very uncomfortable. Xia Lunong was lost in thought on the side. Kong Zhi gently touched his cheek, "Don't think about it, let's eat first." Xia Lunong came back to his senses, "What are we eating today?" "Noodles." Xia Huoqu interrupted, "Do you have anything special you want to eat? If not, let's make noodles." Xia Lunong shook her head. It's good to eat noodles in winter. Meat and vegetables are put in the noodles and boiled. If you want to eat any flavor, just add sauce and mix it. Compared with rice, noodles save the time of cooking, and they won't get cold quickly. Everyone has been hungry for a long time, and no one has any objection to hearing about making noodles. Ba Niu said, "I'll get two radishes and bacon from the car. Let's make the radish and bacon soup first, and then cook the noodles." "Okay." Lao Liu said, "I have some turnips here, let's cook them together." Yan Xinian smiled, "Then we'll have bear meat. I hope you haven't gotten tired of it." Lao Liu laughed, "How can you get tired of such good meat? The more the better. By the way, we haven't caught any birds for a long time. There is a kind of mutant bird in this area that is particularly delicious. It's especially delicious when used to make soup." Yan Xinian said, "Big birds are okay, but forget about small birds. It's a waste of time and energy, and you won't get much meat." "That's not necessarily true." Xiao Tang said, "Captain Yan, you don't know that many mutant birds have the habit of living in groups. If you find their nests, you can catch hundreds of them at a time, which is much more convenient than going out to hunt." The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was interested. Xia Lunong's eyes lit up, "Have you found the nest of mutant birds? Is it easy to find?" "Not bad?" Xiao Tang said, "We once found a cave by chance. There were a lot of mutant birds in it. We got a lot of rewards. Even the bird beaks and claws were very powerful. When we caught the birds that time, everyone had blood holes on their bodies, and one person's eyeballs were almost caught out." Xia Lunong asked, "Are mutant birds usually in caves?" Xiao Tang shook his head. Old Liu interrupted and said, "There are so many kinds of mutant birds, but most of them are found on trees. Generally, there are a lot of birds building nests on big trees. If you want to find a large number of mutant birds, you can look at big trees." Xia Lunong patted her forehead after his reminder and said, "You're right, I didn't think of that!" "About what?" Yan Xinian glanced at him, "What about that and that? Do you have any ideas?" Xia Lunong happily showed his white teeth and stretched out his little finger to indicate, "I have some immature ideas, I don't know if they are feasible." Yan Xinian smiled, "Don't keep me in suspense, tell us what you think, and see if we can come up with any ideas." Xia Lunong said, "Didn't we always ask Niao'er about the news in the valley before?" Yan Xinian nodded and signaled him to continue with his eyes. Xia Lunong said, "We didn't encounter many birds along the way, and the birds themselves didn't encounter many things, so their movement trajectories would be relatively fixed. I'm thinking about whether we should find a bird's nest and ask the birds in the nest directly. Maybe we can get news soon." Kong Zhi said, "This idea is feasible. We have so much food. As long as we give them some food, the birds should be happy to provide us with news. Then we can just follow the news we got and look for it." Xia Lunong said, "Yes! There are many birds around here. There must be a place where birds gather. Let's look for it and we should be able to find it."

Old Liu shook his head, "I think you are still trapped in a misunderstanding."

Xia Lunong was surprised to hear him refute him for the first time, "What misunderstanding, Brother Liu, just say it directly."

Old Liu smiled, "I think people are stronger or animals are stronger."

"Needless to say, it must be people." Xia Lunong affirmed, "Whether it has mutated or not, humans have the upper hand."

Xia Lunong answered while thinking, and did not get an answer for a while.

He looked at Old Liu with bright eyes, trying to let Old Liu give the result directly.

Old Liu looked at him and said slowly: "You also said that humans are powerful. Then since humans are powerful, why don't you ask humans for help directly, but look for those animals?"

Xia Lunong was stunned, "Ask humans for help, what does that mean?"

Old Liu pointed with his finger, "Every profession has its own specialization. We humans have such a long civilization and have cultivated so many experts. If you want to find a place, humans must know more than animals. You don't look for humans but animals. Aren't you going the wrong way?"

Xia Lunong understood what he meant and immediately fell into thought.

Old Liu smiled, "I think you should find someone faster. Whether it's a valley or a bird's nest, we humans have experts here. As long as you raise your doubts, there will definitely be experts who can answer you."

Yan Xinian disagreed, "How can it be that easy? Old Liu, you know our current situation. Let alone finding an expert, it's very difficult to find a knowledgeable person."

Yan Xinian is not the kind of person who acts dictatorially. The base needs to recruit new talents and expand its scale. He has also discussed this with Old Liu and several other people.

No one has any objection. Old Liu knows what they are thinking and now he speaks directly.

Old Liu raised his head and said, "Captain Yan, this may not be true. The difficulties now are only because we are a small place and no one has come to our place. Proportionately speaking, we have quite a few experts and scholars."

Yan Xinian looked at him, "That's right, you don't even see how much material resources I have spent to attract talents."

Old Liu smiled and shook his head, looking at the others, "Captain Yan, everyone here is a brother, I will just say what I want to say."

Under his sweep, everyone realized that the situation was unusual, and they all straightened their backs and looked at him.

Baniu opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but felt the unusual atmosphere and closed his mouth again.

Even the summer pepper that Xia Lunong and others planted on the side tilted its branches to this side.

Yan Xinian's face became serious and he nodded, "Just say it directly, don't be shy."

Old Liu didn't say anything about this. Instead, he took a piece of firewood from under the pot and drew on the ground, "Captain Yan, Deputy Captain Xia, look, our base is here."

Yan Xinian raised his head slightly and motioned him to continue.

Old Liu didn't pause, "Yacheng is here, and the Black Gold Base is here. Although I haven't been to the Black Gold Base, I have talked to people who came out of the Black Gold Base. The influence of the Black Gold Base is very large, about that large."

Old Liu drew a big circle here to circle the Black Gold Base.

Then, he drew a small circle to enclose Nha Trang City. "The sphere of influence of Nha Trang City is about this big, and we--"

He paused and pointed at the dot representing their base with a wooden stick. "We don't have a sphere of influence at all. Our base doesn't even have a name. When people mention the base, they know they are referring to our base."

Yan Xinian narrowed his eyes, his gaze became sharper. "So--"

Old Liu smiled. "Don't be nervous, Captain Yan. I, Old Liu, would like to "But we have so few people, so it's not like we have any."

Old Liu looked around, "I just want to say that we are fully capable of annexing Nha Trang and bringing their sphere of influence into our own. In this way, we will have the city, the people, and the industries, and we can upgrade them."

Yan Xinian said in a deep voice: "As far as I know, Nha Trang just changed its boss last month, and it may not be easy for us to move their territory."

"Everything depends on human effort." Old Liu said, "We only had such a small place before, and our family was very poor. We had nothing. Now you see we not only have city walls, guns and cannons, but also armored vehicles, not to mention you."

Old Liu waved his hand, "Giant wolves, giant tigers, golden eagles, and a plant-based mutant whose strength is hard to describe. I think we can give it a try."

After he finished speaking, there was silence all around, with only the crackling of the burning bonfire.

Old Liu did not say much, just sat there quietly, waiting for others to react.

Baniu looked to the left, then to the right, suddenly stood up, and threw the porcelain bowl in his hand, "I think this will work!"