binnovel Chapter 358 Arrival at the Peace Talks Location
Chapter 358 Arrival at the Peace Talks Location
"Shadowless Shark Strike!" Shangguan Jingyun activated her spiritual summoning, unleashing her killing move. As she swung her giant abyss forks, the giant shark above her swam in tandem, then struck Yunlan on the ground with all its might. Surprisingly, Yunlan neither dodged nor evaded, but shouted, "Dragon and Phoenix Heaven-Shaking Fist!" The dragon and phoenix energies harmonized, and the golden dragon and fire phoenix energies flew out from her fists, intertwining and converging into an even more powerful energy that clashed with the charging shark energy.
Yun Lan and Shangguan Jingyun were both knocked off the field due to the clash of these two extremely powerful energies. Li Xue, Zhao Liying, and others wanted to go forward to check on them, but Li Chenglong stopped them, saying, "Wait a moment. Their injuries are not serious. Whoever gets up first wins. Don't move for now."
Hearing Li Chenglong's words, everyone stopped what they were doing, but still looked in the direction where the two had fallen. Several seconds later, Shangguan Jingyun, supporting herself with her hands on the ground, sat there panting heavily, then struggled to her feet. Yun Lan was not far behind, but she stood up a second slower than Shangguan Jingyun, unfortunately losing.
A round of enthusiastic applause immediately erupted. The two women walked together, looked at the smudges on each other's faces, and burst into laughter. Li Xue went over and treated them. Li Chenglong also came over and announced that the team competition was over. Everyone packed up and prepared to leave.
After the team competition, everyone was covered in sweat, and their clothes were quite dirty. Yunlan took out her Level 2 command vehicle and let the women get in. The Level 2 command vehicle had super artificial intelligence, capable of fully autonomous driving, and Li Chenglong's command vehicle was leading the way. Even without anyone in the driver's seat, nothing would happen.
Yunlan led the five women to the living quarters of her command vehicle and locked the isolation door between the command area and the living quarters. Shangguan Jingyun glanced around and was surprised to find that the living quarters in Yunlan's vehicle had a much more lived-in feel; it was clear that Yunlan had carefully arranged everything. Yunlan told everyone to take a good hot shower. The bathroom in her vehicle, with its separate wet and dry areas, was larger than Li Chenglong's and even had a bathtub. However, Yunlan generally didn't use the bathtub; it was troublesome to clean and felt somewhat unclean.
The women were naturally happy to take a good shower after the battle, and they all took out their toiletries from their storage capsules and went in one by one to wash up. The others gathered together to chat, talking about many topics that only women would discuss.
The men also went to Li Chenglong's command vehicle to wash up, but they were much faster than the women. After changing, Ding Hai, Xu Chu, and the others told Li Chenglong that he must complete their command vehicle order as soon as possible, as this kind of command vehicle was extremely convenient.
The group originally planned to stay at a base that night, but Li Chenglong said that the peace talks with the zombies were still a secret, and they shouldn't publicize it before achieving any results. Liu Xuehua agreed after considering it, telling everyone to find a safe place to camp in the wild.
For dinner, the group of over 200 people ate dumplings, mostly frozen dumplings made in Shuguang City, with some dumplings made by Liu Xuehua, Shangguan Jingyun, and others. Since there were no entertainment options, Xu Chu, who had the biggest appetite, suggested a dumpling-eating contest to see who could eat the most dumplings in half an hour. Only Zhou Siyun from the girls' side participated, while there were over 20 boys.
There were four kinds of dumplings: pork and cabbage, chives and egg, celery and beef, and celery and pork. Aside from the frozen dumplings, the handmade dumplings used eggs, pork, and beef from the alien beasts, and the vegetables were freshly picked by Li Chenglong from the natural area of his psionic space, making them taste excellent. Everyone, including the cooks, spent over three hours making them, but the quantity wasn't enough for everyone. So, each person received one serving of handmade dumplings and one serving of frozen dumplings.
As Li Xue pressed the stopwatch, the dumpling-eating contest officially began, and the 21 people immediately began wolfing down their dumplings. Before eating, they could freely choose what fillings they wanted, but they couldn't just eat handmade or frozen dumplings; they had to eat a mix. Xu Chu abandoned his chopsticks, grabbed a spoon, and started shoveling dumplings into his mouth as if he didn't chew, finishing a plate of dumplings in just over twenty seconds. Ding Hai was not to be outdone; although he used chopsticks, his eating speed was only slightly slower than Xu Chu's.
Zhou Siyun was the first to be eliminated. After eating 51 dumplings, she waved her hand dejectedly and said, "I can't take it anymore, I give up." Following Zhou Siyun's lead, others gradually withdrew from the competition. Twenty-five minutes later, only Li Chenglong, Xu Chu, and Ding Hai were still sitting there eating dumplings.
After eating his 95th dumpling, Li Chenglong felt nauseous and wanted to vomit. Yunlan patted his back, saying, "Don't throw up. Li Xue and I made quite a few dumplings in here." Li Chenglong rubbed his stomach, forcibly suppressing the urge to vomit, and said, "I'm quitting." Li Xue brought over a glass of juice made from slightly unripe flame fruit. The juice was very sour and appetizing, and could aid digestion. Li Chenglong drank it all in one gulp and stood aside to continue watching the match.
Only Ding Hai and Xu Chu are still competing now, and both of them have eaten no less than 120 dumplings each, leaving everyone watching with their mouths agape. The plates of dumplings are stacked thickly, and for easy counting, each plate contains a fixed number of dumplings: 20.
"Stop!" Li Xue pressed the stopwatch, indicating that 30 minutes had passed. Ding Hai and Xu Chu put down their plates and slumped into their chairs. After counting, Xu Chu had eaten 142 dumplings, and Ding Hai had eaten 139. Xu Chu won the dumpling-eating contest. Zhao Liying exclaimed in surprise, "Although people with superpowers need more energy and can eat more, eating more than 140 dumplings at once is just too much!"
Among the women who were sitting together eating, Zhao Liying ate the least, only 22 dumplings, while Shangguan Jingyun ate the most, 40. But even the one who ate the most dumplings couldn't beat Zhou Siyun, who came in last place in the dumpling-eating contest.
Li Chenglong told everyone to rest, but not to sleep, to avoid indigestion. He also prepared some fruit juice to aid digestion, so everyone could drink some if they needed it.
At 10:30 PM, after a busy day and a shower with Yunlan, Li Chenglong cuddled her and went to bed. Yunlan offered her command vehicle to the other women for temporary accommodation; the Level 2 command vehicle had plenty of single rooms in its living quarters, enough for twenty people. Ding Hai and the others didn't stay in Li Chenglong's command vehicle, opting instead to stay in tents, giving Li Chenglong and Yunlan some time alone.
Yunlan said with some regret, "Today I feel like I used 80% of my strength, but I still lost. I could sense that Sister Shangguan was also holding back. It's a pity that I'm still lacking in experience, otherwise I could have leveled up to level 12 and helped you more in this zombie tournament."
Li Chenglong patted Yunlan's smooth back: "It's okay, I'm here for you. Besides, I feel like you're leveling up quickly, probably in another half a month to a month. Once you reach level 12 and master spirit summoning, you'll be able to awaken the Phoenix Spirit, and your strength will improve significantly." The two chatted for a while longer before going to sleep.
The convoy continued south early the next morning. They hadn't rested much that day, and had only eaten boxed lunches for lunch. This was mainly because the team competition yesterday had caused some delays, and they were determined to make up for it today.
At 6 p.m. on April 30, after three days of travel, the convoy finally arrived at a small town in the southern part of Xinfeng County. It is about 80 km away from the zombies' negotiation site. After ensuring safety tomorrow, they can go there.
To ensure safety, Li Chenglong personally patrolled the surrounding area and ordered the Eagle reconnaissance aircraft, which had departed from Shuguang City that day for high-altitude reconnaissance, to patrol and report back immediately if any problems were found. Only after completing these tasks did Li Chenglong return to his base.
Under Liu Xuehua's chairmanship, the peace negotiation delegation and the more than 80 participants of the 12-person martial arts competition held a small meeting to carefully explain some necessary matters for tomorrow. After the meeting, Li Chenglong gathered the company commander, political instructor, platoon leaders, and others from the guard company to arrange the security work for tonight and during the peace talks.