binnovel Chapter 169 Qianyun Base
Chapter 169 Qianyun Base
Although Dawn City is only 530 kilometers away from General Sun Tianlong's Qianyun Base as the crow flies, the journey was not easy. Except for the section from Jinghai City to Linhai City, which was cleared by the Dawn Army multiple times and allowed for relatively fast travel, the rest of the journey was difficult as Li Chenglong's group had to stop and start frequently to avoid the zombie hordes.
They set off from Dawn City on February 6th, and according to Li Chenglong's estimate, it should have taken three days to reach their destination. However, today is February 9th, and they are still about 100 kilometers away from the designated location. Ahead lies another city with a high concentration of zombies, so it seems they won't be able to reach it today.
At noon, they stopped to rest in an abandoned village. Han Xiaoling took out some prepared food from her storage space and distributed it to everyone. Xu Qingming and Wei Huasheng also joined them, and their subordinates took out food from the vehicle to prepare a simple lunch. Xu Qingming watched Li Chenglong and his 21 men eating something that looked like rice but wasn't quite the same, and asked curiously, "Brother Li, what are you eating? Is it the seeds of psionic plants? After the apocalypse, we also collected some mutated wheat and millet, but the overall yield was not optimistic, and some of it was simply inedible."
Yang Liu smiled and said, "It is indeed a kind of spiritual plant. Our city lord calls it Dawn Rice. However, the yield is not very high." Li Chenglong took out some cooked Dawn Rice and distributed some to each of them. Xu Qingming only took one bite and praised the Dawn Rice highly. He and Wei Huasheng whispered to Li Chenglong, "Do you have any more of this rice? I didn't buy it with crystals. We'll take as much as you have."
Li Chenglong replied with a smile, "It's still in the experimental stage, and the production is very low, so there's no need to buy it. We're all friends, and when we go back, I'll give each of you 200kg." The two were overjoyed and told Li Chenglong that if the production increased, their Feiyun base would provide crystals to purchase it.
This Dawn Rice not only restores psychic or psionic abilities but also increases experience points, making it a rare treasure. However, Erica also mentioned that not everyone can level up to the next level once their experience points are full; potential also matters. The lower the potential, the harder it is to level up. Most people with the lowest potential will be stuck at level 8, and even on Meral, the vast majority only reach level 9. Erica herself admitted that if she hadn't taken the potion, she would have only reached level 10 at most.
After the group finished eating, the scouts reported that the zombie horde was showing no major unusual activity and they could proceed. The group of dozens quickly boarded their vehicles and headed towards their destination. Originally, Li Chenglong and his men planned to stay another night and arrive the next morning. However, he later received a call from Sun Tianlong. General Sun Tianlong stated on the phone that he had dispatched over 500 troops to meet them, allowing them to rest peacefully at the Qianyun base that night.
At 9 PM, led by the support troops, Li Chenglong and his group finally arrived at Qianyun Base. Generals Sun Tianlong and others actually came out of the base to greet them, making Li Chenglong, Xu Qingming, and the others feel flattered and repeatedly express their gratitude. Li Chenglong had Yang Liu bring a small box and handed it to Sun Tianlong, then secretly said to him, "Commander, this contains 30 Flame Fruits. Please accept them." Sun Tianlong had eaten Flame Fruit once during his stay in Shuguang City and vividly remembered its taste and effects. He immediately smiled and patted Li Chenglong on the shoulder, saying, "Good, good, you're very thoughtful."
After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Li Chenglong, Xu Qingming, and Wei Huasheng introduced their subordinates to the generals. The generals shook hands and greeted them in return. Sun Tianlong glanced at his watch and said, "It's too late today, so let's not say much. You must be tired from your journey, so please rest well. I've already arranged dormitories and washing facilities for you, though they're not indoors. They're on the left and right sides of each floor, so please make do. As for meals, someone from the canteen will bring them to you later." Xu Qingming immediately said, "These conditions are already very good. Thank you, General Sun."
Then guards led them to the dormitory. Li Chenglong could tell at a glance that it was a converted school dormitory. Each room had two beds, a small table and two chairs on the windowsill in the middle, and a cabinet at the head of each bed. There was an indoor toilet, but no washbasin. The washing and showering areas were in two large rooms on the left and right sides.
The guard then explained, "The middle of this building has been bricked up. There's an entrance on the left and in the middle. The right side is the women's dormitory, and the left side is the men's dormitory. The bedding has already been prepared for you; it's all clean. Your dormitories are on floors 4-6 of this building. They're all empty rooms there. Please make your own arrangements. After eating, please get some rest." The guard then handed Li Chenglong two large bunches of keys for the men's and women's dormitories on floors 4-6 and left.
Actually, Li Chenglong brought most of the female soldiers; 15 of his 20 special forces members were women. As for Wei Huasheng and Xu Qingming, there were only four female soldiers in total. Li Chenglong gave the keys to the women's dormitory to Yang Liu, asking her to make the assignments, while he, Xu Qingming, and Wei Huasheng led the group to the men's dormitory. He chose rooms 601 to 603 on the top floor as the men's dormitory for Shuguang City, making a total of six people including himself, two people per room.
Dong Meng quickly checked the room. The bedding was indeed new, and there was a 25-watt fluorescent light. Besides that, there were no other electrical appliances. Li Chenglong retrieved their backpacks from his psionic space and had Dong Meng distribute the backpacks to the other four people. At this moment, the food delivery personnel arrived. Each person received two steamed buns, a large portion of pork stew with cabbage, and a soup. Rice was also provided if they didn't want steamed buns. The food, including the soup, was all packed in lunchboxes. The delivery personnel smiled and said, "Our Qianyun base is quite poor; we usually don't prepare meat dishes unless there's a combat operation. Today, since you've come, General Sun specially arranged for meat. Please enjoy your meal." After saying this, the two men went out, pushing a cart full of lunchboxes to deliver food to the others.
Before leaving, the person said that after finishing his meal, he should put his lunchbox on the small cart on the far left of the corridor, and someone would come to pick it up later. After thanking the person, Li Chenglong went to the other two dormitories, took out his fixed ration of Dawn Rice and distributed it to them, before returning to his own dormitory to eat with Dong Meng. Li Chenglong took a bite; the food tasted pretty good. He quickly finished his meal, went to the corridor, and used his crystal phone to call Yun Lan, Zheng Yong, and Ma Tiancheng, informing them of the situation.
The two men were eating inside when a little boy peeked in from outside the door. His bright eyes blinked, making him look very cute. Li Chenglong looked closely and saw that it was a boy of about six or seven years old. When the boy saw that Li Chenglong had noticed him, he quickly came in and said, "Uncle, let me hide for a bit. If anyone comes and asks me, just say you haven't seen me." As he spoke, he hid behind the cabinet.
Less than a minute later, a female soldier knocked on the door, then opened it and asked, "Have you seen a little boy who looks about six or seven years old?" Li Chenglong said he hadn't, but glanced towards the cabinet. The female soldier understood and said, "Excuse me, I'll leave now." She then quietly entered, making the door close. Hearing the door close, the little boy waited about ten seconds before smiling and emerging from behind the cabinet, saying, "Uncle, thank you. Um? Auntie, what are you doing here?"
After saying that, the little boy activated his superpower and prepared to escape, but the female warrior grabbed him: "Alright, don't run away, or I'll tell your mom and she'll teach you a lesson." Hearing this, the little boy wilted like a frostbitten eggplant and immediately became obedient. Li Chenglong smiled and patted the little guy's head: "You're General Sun's grandson, right? I've seen you in a photo once before." The little boy nodded, somewhat proudly saying, "Yes, my name is Sun Bowen, and I'm seven years old. But I don't want to rely on my grandfather; I'm a powerful superpowered individual myself."
The seven-year-old boy was indeed a superhuman, specifically a wind-type superhuman, and his attributes were quite good. The female warrior beside him was a level 6 water-type superhuman. At this moment, the female warrior saluted and said, "You must be Major General Li Chenglong. I am Captain Wu Lan from the Qianyun Base." Li Chenglong returned the salute and said, "No need for such formalities here, just make yourself at home." Wu Lan nodded, "My sister has been looking for him. I'll take him there now. Come on, let's go. It's already ten o'clock at night, why are you still wandering around?" With that, Wu Lan led the little boy away.
Li Chenglong smiled and shook his head. After finishing his meal with Dong Meng, he tidied up, took a quick shower, locked the door, and went to bed.