Salt is a crucial substance for maintaining human health, as a deficiency in salt can lead to water balance issues in the body. Xu Song was aware of the importance of salt, but he didn’t have the wealth of life experience that his mother had, and he wasn’t as knowledgeable as Yue Zheng, who had studied relevant information.
As a result, his sense of urgency regarding the shortage of salt wasn’t very strong.
Throughout history, salt has been highly valued, and ancient salt merchants were known for their wealth.
“I checked and found that, besides coastal areas that produce salt, there are also inland salt wells and salt lakes. However, the current status of these locations is uncertain, whether they are still in operation post-apocalypse,” Yue Zheng explained.
The base had marked nearly all known salt production areas on their map. However, the problem was that the places they could be certain were still producing salt were quite far from their current location. “Salt lakes and salt wells, considering the distance based on post-apocalyptic travel, would take at least a month to reach. While the coastline is closer, the marine creatures…”
They both knew that shortly after they left, S City had been invaded by marine creatures. It was unclear if other coastal cities had faced similar incursions. Apart from other creatures, those marine life forms, in terms of size, were enough to crush them. If they sat down and fought them, they might be crushed or more.
“How about we go check this area first?” Xu Song leaned over to Yue Zheng and looked at the map he had marked with possible salt production locations. “If it’s confirmed there’s no salt here, we can then head southeast towards the coast where salt production is certain.”
Yue Zheng considered for a moment and nodded, saying, “That sounds good.”
Salt production areas, found in many cities across the country, may not have salt in them anymore in this post-apocalyptic world. Most salt fields eventually became nothing more than place names. Therefore, they had to rely on luck when visiting these places.
Thus, they had to set out on their journey again after staying in this area for less than twenty days. However, due to the large amount of belongings they had, their departure had to be delayed until they had thoroughly packed everything.
They stored the iron boxes in the RV and harvested all the various plants that Mo Tiancheng had grown to maturity. After cleaning up any traces they left behind in the car, the convoy could finally set out by the end of March, heading eastward.
Leaving the grassy hill they had stayed on, the cars followed the winding path of a river that flowed southward. They went from the vast grasslands to gradually seeing various trees and forests. It was undeniable that the post-apocalyptic world had become even more vibrant with natural life.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Mutant plants, mutant animals, mutant insects, it was all densely packed, and even Xu Song had trouble distinguishing one from the other. Nevertheless, it was undeniable that the aggressiveness of these plants and animals was not to be underestimated.
This place was close to a former tourist attraction and had once been a royal hunting ground. Therefore, the variety of animals inside would likely surpass their expectations. It was better to stay in a relatively safe location for now.
“Let’s have something simple to eat today,” Mother Xu stood up and rummaged through the refrigerator for a while, taking out some food prepared a few days ago. She intended to heat it up, make some soup, and serve it with rice and side dishes.
Mo Tianyou suddenly sat up straight and pointed outside, saying, “The most powerful one in the forest is coming out!”
Xu Song and Yue Zheng immediately raised their guard, exchanging a glance, and then went out through the side door of the vehicle. Mother Xu put the food on the table, grabbed two pistols, and joined her two children, crouching by the window, peering outside.
During their journey eastward along the river, the group had indeed encountered attacks from some mutant creatures. However, most of these creatures had relatively low combat abilities. So when Tianyou mentioned that the most powerful thing in the forest was coming, they needed to be cautious.
After a while, the creature entered Xu Song’s detection range, and he raised his eyebrows. It seemed that the creature was quite large. When it moved, it made noises as it pushed through nearby trees, causing smaller animals to flee in fear.
“Can you sense what it is?” Yue Zheng asked.
Xu Song performed a careful scan and then looked at Yue Zheng with a somewhat strange expression. “It seems… it’s a bear?”
It was a bear, but this bear was excessively large. Even before it emerged from the forest, they could see its towering back moving amidst the tree canopies. When the mutant giant bear finally came out, both Xu Song and Yue Zheng couldn’t help but blink in astonishment. The creature’s size was nearly on par with the legendary dinosaurs. It was quite remarkable that this massive bear could fit into this forest.
The enormous bear initially moved on all fours, crawling forward. However, even on all fours, it was roughly the same height as the mutated trees around it. When it spotted the RV’s presence, it surprisingly stood upright and emitted a threatening roar. When it stood upright, its size was absolutely terrifying.
“Does it… eat humans?” Xu Song’s sudden question wasn’t entirely unfounded. A bear this large could only consume a small number of humans. Even a mutated dog like Abu would barely suffice for one meal. So, did it have any reason to come after them?
It seemed that the RV’s size had piqued the bear’s interest, or perhaps it had harbored an innate aversion to humans even before the apocalypse, or it was displaying intense hostility. After seeing the two people, the bear hardly hesitated and roared in anger. Following its roar, it lunged toward them while standing on its hind legs, extending a massive paw to swipe at them.
“God, with one swipe of its paw, I estimate that it would turn people into mincemeat. How is it going to eat them later?!”
Xu Song couldn’t help but express a strange sigh in his heart. Yue Zheng had already leaped out at lightning speed, reminding his beloved, “Hide!”
With such a massive size, even with Xu Song’s formidable fire-based abilities, there was no way to completely incinerate the bear in an instant. Faced with the bear’s attacking style, they had to first evade and then figure out their strategy.
Mother Xu and her two children stared in amazement as the “Black Mountain” outside suddenly crashed to the ground. The violent shaking was even more intense than the nationwide earthquake that had occurred earlier.
Yue Zheng leaped several times, sprinting along the bear’s shoulder where the massive paw had landed. Then, he leaped high and, harnessing the full force of his body, made a space-splitting strike—only to cut through the thick bear hide!
Goodness, the hide was so thick that even his space-splitting technique, which could almost make everything seem as nothing, would require several strikes to cut through completely!
The bear roared in pain, raised its head suddenly, and with the paw that Yue Zheng had used to climb up earlier, it swiped toward its neck. Yue Zheng leaped onto the bear’s head, tightly gripping a handful of fur and waiting for its body to stabilize.
Xu Song had already run away from the original spot, but he was still knocked down by the immense shock.
At this moment, the bear, in pain, flailed its other paw haphazardly on the ground, uprooting trees, rocks, and everything in its path. Dust filled the air.
Just as Xu Song had managed to stand up, he heard another angry roar from the bear not far away. The massive paw on the ground swung in his direction!
Although he knew the bear wasn’t targeting him intentionally, there was no doubt that if he had an intimate encounter with that paw, he would be swatted away like a fly.
With a stumble, Xu Song barely stood up and ran forward, but unfortunately, due to the larger size of the bear, he couldn’t easily escape after just a few steps. A white light net appeared in front of the bear’s paw. Xu Song felt a tug on his waist, and he was lifted into the air by something. The gigantic bear paw swept past below him, creating a fierce gust of wind that temporarily blinded him.
Yue Zheng, standing on the bear’s head, breathed a sigh of relief and his heart continued to race. If he hadn’t seen Tiancheng controlling the distant diamond vines to save Xu Song just now, he would have teleported over.
Intense worry ignited his immense fighting power. Yue Zheng leaped into the air, his body spinning 180 degrees, and with his dagger, he slashed a pitch-black and seemingly bottomless radiance. In an instant, the bear’s neck was more than halfway severed!
“Bang!” Another deafening noise, with a powerful vibration, shook the ground, causing a cloud of dust and countless broken rocks and wood to fill the air.
Even Xu Song, dropped into the air by the diamond vine controlled by Mo Tiancheng, could clearly feel the intense vibration. Not to mention Mother Xu and the twins in the RV. The entire RV, along with its furniture and decorations, jumped in place three times, creating a cacophony.
In the silent forest, moonlight gently bathed the ground. A scent of blood slowly emanated from the bear, staining every inch of the ground beneath it.
The collapse of the colossal beast, such an impact, even Yue Zheng, who had just killed the bear, didn’t react for a while. He stood on the bear’s head, catching his breath for a long time, before leaping a few steps to Xu Song’s side and holding his beloved who had been released by Mo Tiancheng’s controlled diamond vine. “Are you alright?”
Xu Song shook his head.
