Cave Refuge-Chapter 322 - 295: Embarking on the Return Journey_2
Now, it was because of the excessive amount of building rubble on the ground, especially as one approached the City Center, the closer to the earthquake’s center, the more rubble there was. There was now a thick layer of building debris on the ground, and if it weren’t for Dong Tianyu using his Divine Sense for observation, he would not have noticed the special state of this rubble at the moment.
Current disturbances barely subsided before new ones arose. Today’s earthquake brought forth such strange phenomena, making it uncertain whether these were a sign of the earthquake’s end.
Looking at the increasingly thick layer of building rubble on the ground and sporadically discovering some other survivors through his Divine Sense, Dong Tianyu knew he was headed in the right direction and must have already entered the City Center.
He looked up, and even though he had made it to the City Center, the dense canopy of the colossal trees still completely obscured the sky, although sunlight managed to penetrate through the gaps between the leaves to reach the ground.
But the beams of light, like flashlight beams in the dark of night, inevitably made the ground scene much dimmer than it used to be during daylight hours.
From the building rubble on the ground, Dong Tianyu could vaguely discern that he must have passed through the city center, continuing westward toward Saxon County.
Because the surrounding scenery was almost identical, Dong Tianyu became indifferent to the perception of time as he traveled.
Without realizing it, Dong Tianyu had left the urban area and arrived at the outskirts.
As his Divine Sense had never been turned off, he surprisingly discovered the presence of Ye Liuyun at a campsite. Dong Tianyu subconsciously slowed his pace and altered his course directly towards the campsite.
Since Dong Tianyu did not intentionally conceal his presence, the camp guards and Patrol Team quickly spotted him approaching the camp. However, once they confirmed Dong Tianyu was human, the camp lowered its guard.
Unlike the chaotic scenes depicted in films and television, China stabilized the relations among survivors quite well. Although there was some disorder for a while after the great disaster struck, for the most part, relationships between survivors were quite stable.
After the earthquake, especially when aircraft from Kyoto began transporting food to Pengcheng, most of the campsites in Pengcheng were led by the Officials, as relief grains could only be obtained in camps led by them.
The private campsites had to provide items of equivalent value to obtain food, as paper currency had been abandoned. So, in Pengcheng, the sturdiest trade item was not gold but rather the Bugs Clan produced from the Bug Nest.
Because Bugs Clan could be processed into nutritional supplements for export, using them as trade commodities did not raise concerns about inflation.
The existence of private camps meant that these Official-led campsites did not harbor much hostility toward unknown survivors. The camp guards and Patrol Teams were primarily there to prevent invasions from the Bug Nest and possibly other monsters that could suddenly emerge like the Bug Nest.
Since the discovery of the Bug Nest by Dong Tianyu and others, up to this point, no one in Pengcheng had been able to ascertain the patterns of their appearances, and despite the increasing number of people becoming Insect Nest Hunters, the Bug Nests within Pengcheng had not been eradicated.
And still, there were occasional rumors of ordinary survivors being attacked by the clan. Although it was uncertain whether they were truly killed by the Bugs Clan, every day in Pengcheng, there were indeed many cases of ordinary people going missing.
Although both the Patrol Office and camp leaders repeatedly advised the ordinary survivors in the camp not to go out alone, as the saying goes, "People die for money, and birds die for food." For the chance to become Martial Artists, many survivors were willing to take the risk.
Whether independently scavenging useful materials from the ruins in the city or joining squads to hunt in the Bug Nest as bait, they knew the dangers involved with these jobs beforehand.
But to become Martial Artists, all they could do now was gamble with their lives.
This is why some survivors who had no ties or obligations, after winning their bet, would proactively leave their original campsites and continue living in a new one. Even though they were all Official-led campsites, changing locations allowed them to start anew.
Since food could be obtained from other places, the person in charge of each camp was actually eager to have Martial Artists from other camps come and join them. As such occurrences were not unusual, when Dong Tianyu approached alone, the checkpoint and Patrol Team members did not pay much attention to it. After all, although this was not a common occurrence, it happened about once every ten days or half a month.
Although Dong Tianyu was curious why, despite being spotted, no one came to intercept and inquire about his intentions, since no one stopped him, he wasn’t going to seek out trouble intentionally.
At this point, the camp here wasn’t much stronger than that of the Officials, with several large trees also sprouting up within the camp. Madeline was currently discussing with others about lumbering.
When Dong Tianyu approached, Madeline was somewhat puzzled as to why Dong Tianyu didn’t stay put at Nameless Mountain but came to this camp instead, but she still greeted Dong Tianyu and invited him over.
After Dong Tianyu came over, Madeline briefly introduced him, and then introduced Dong Tianyu to the identities of the few people around her.
The people present, apart from Madeline and an Inner Breath Realm Martial Artist that came with her, were the managers of this camp.
After a simple introduction to each other, they resumed their previous discussion.
"To level the land in the camp, it’s not just a matter of chopping down a few big trees, we also need to pull out the tree roots buried in the soil. Although this task is somewhat troublesome, it is doable.
The reason I don’t agree with cutting down trees today is that we are still unsure whether there will be an earthquake tomorrow. If there is no earthquake, everyone would indeed be happy, but what if an earthquake occurs again?
Just like today, what if we had just cut down the trees and new large trees sprouted from the ground? That would make our strenuous efforts today in vain."
Hearing the camp leader Hamish say this, Madeline didn’t get upset and continued to speak with a smile, "I’m just making a suggestion. After all, you are the person in charge of this camp and the final decision is in your hands.
My suggestion is purely to lend a hand. If you want to level the camp, I can bring people to help. But if you don’t want to deal with it, it’s actually not much of a concern to me. In fact, I’d rather take it easy."
Hearing Madeline say this, Hamish fell silent.
Seeing Hamish lost in thought, Madeline took Dong Tianyu aside and asked, "Why did you come over? Aren’t you supposed to be staying at Nameless Mountain? Are you here especially to find me? What happened!"
Seeing Madeline’s serious face, Dong Tianyu smiled, "I didn’t come specifically to find you. I went to the City Center this morning to take care of some things, then I stumbled upon this incident. I was about to head back when I happened to notice you were here, so I just came to check on things."
Hearing Dong Tianyu say this, Madeline was somewhat skeptical of his words, but with outsiders present, it was not appropriate for her to ask in detail.
"If there’s nothing important for you here, then I’ll be going. With such a commotion today, who knows what might happen in Saxon County. I need to go back and check."
Hearing that Dong Tianyu was going back to Saxon County and considering that he hadn’t come by car, Madeline offered, "How about I arrange a car for you to drive back?"
Hearing Madeline suggest this, Dong Tianyu immediately replied, "Forget about it. With the situation as it is, driving is not as convenient as running back."
Hearing Dong Tianyu say this, Madeline thought back to the ground damage caused by the giant trees on the way here and the construction debris visible everywhere. After pondering it, she realized that Dong Tianyu was right, driving was indeed not as convenient as running back, especially since the distance was not too far, and in Madeline’s view, Dong Tianyu was an Inner Breath Realm Martial Artist, and such a distance was at most a short run for someone of that realm.
