newbobooks Chapter 354 On the way
Chapter 354 On the way
At 8:00 AM on April 28th, the convoy departed on time. The delegation for the peace talks, along with those attending the martial arts tournament and a guard company composed of superhumans, totaled over 200 people. The headquarters at the Anxi base was nearly 1500 kilometers from Longnan City, the location of the peace talks. Under Li Chenglong's arrangement, the delegation would arrive north of Longnan City on the evening of the 30th and begin contact with the zombie representatives on May 1st to commence the peace talks.
Li Chenglong's Level 2 strategic command vehicle led the way, followed by a long line of 20 vehicles of various sizes. This was Shangguan Jingyun's first time riding in Li Chenglong's upgraded command vehicle, and she looked around curiously. Xu Chu, however, spoke up directly: "Lord Li, do you sell these command vehicles? I'd like to buy a few for my troops."
Seeing that everyone was looking at him, as if they all wanted to know the price of the command vehicle, Li Chenglong said, "For sale. This is a level 2 command vehicle, which is quite expensive. I also have a level 1 tactical command vehicle, which costs 20 level 9 crystals. Since we're all friends, I'll sell it to you for 25 level 9 crystals. Upgrading it to level 2 requires 20 level 10 crystals, which you can upgrade yourself."
Upon hearing that each vehicle would cost 25 level 9 crystals, Xu Chu didn't think it was expensive. After the recent battle, they had also acquired quite a few high-level crystals, so he said, "We need two vehicles." Following Xu Chu's lead, other base leaders, such as Shangguan Jingyun, Ding Hai, Liu Zhigang, and Yan Song, placed orders one after another. Li Chenglong took out his notebook and smiled as he wrote down the quantities they needed, indicating that he could definitely deliver within half a month.
Yunlan huddled with the other women attending the martial arts tournament, chatting in the living area behind the command vehicle. There were 12 people in total, half of them women, and five of them were Awakened. Only Zhou Siyun, a level 12 wind, ice, and lightning elemental user, was a superhuman. Zhou Siyun exclaimed in surprise, "I didn't expect this command vehicle to be so spacious. From the outside, it looks like a medium-sized RV, but the interior is so much, so much bigger."
While eating fruit, Li Xue introduced the vehicle, saying, "This is a Level 2 command vehicle. It's much smaller than a Level 1 command vehicle, less than 8 meters long, 2.8 meters wide, and 3 meters high. It's covered entirely in a super alloy made of the same material as the Dragon Fang Dagger, making it extremely sturdy. Due to the use of spatial technology, the interior has a usable area of 400 square meters, half of which is a combat area and the other half is a living area, complete with all kinds of facilities." After listening to Li Xue's introduction and considering the tour she had just experienced, Shangguan Jingyun decided that as soon as her command vehicle arrived, she would immediately use crystals to upgrade it.
Wang Ruyan asked with a smile, "Sister Yunlan, it's almost the end of the month. Are those psionic apples almost ripe? Are there still 50 spots this time? I wonder if I could have one? I'm willing to pay extra. The current price is 5 purple crystals for one psionic apple, but I'm willing to pay 10."
Yunlan nodded: "Yes, we've been getting a lot of questions about this lately. Currently, Li Chenglong's 10 psionic apple trees can produce 400 apples per month. 300 are for the Dawn Army, 50 are for Dawn City, and the remaining 50 are for sale. Li Chenglong said he will only sell 40 this time, and the other 10 will be given away for free to everyone participating in the martial arts tournament, except for him and me."
Wang Ruyan couldn't help but clap her hands in delight: "That's wonderful! Now my brother can become a superhuman. Thank you so much! My brother is 17 years old this year. He's very handsome and works very hard in the army, but because he's just an ordinary person, I'm always worried about him getting into danger. But I'm also afraid he'll fail when I ask him to use an 8th-level purple crystal. I heard you sell spirit apples here, so I've saved up quite a few purple crystals. I'm prepared to buy one no matter how expensive it is this time."
Next, Yunlan, Li Xue, and Zhao Liying all asked Shangguan Jingyun and Zhou Siyun, who were already level 12, how they did it and why they could level up so quickly. Shangguan Jingyun said somewhat helplessly that she didn't know either. It was probably because there were too few experts in Black Gold City, and she had to do everything herself, so she leveled up faster.
Li Chenglong was chatting casually with everyone in the combat zone. He knew most of them, so the conversation was quite relaxed. The person in charge of negotiating with the zombie team was a woman named Liu Xuehua, specially arranged by the China headquarters. She was an 8th-level water-based ability user, 60 years old this year, but because of her ability and the fact that Chinese women tend to look younger than their Western counterparts, she looked only about 40.
Liu Xuehua has been a member of the Chinese People's Association for 40 years, serving multiple times as ambassador and vice minister of foreign affairs. She is extremely skilled in foreign negotiations. It's worth mentioning that her eldest son, Liu Zhigang, a level 12 wood, water, and wind elemental power user, is 35 years old this year.
When headquarters initially wanted to contact Shuguang City, Commanders Chen Guoqiang and Zhao Wannian originally intended to send Liu Xuehua, who had already prepared her negotiation team. However, General Sun Tianlong, Li Chenglong's former superior, said that the matter would be entirely entrusted to him, which led to Feng Tianxian's "provocative" trip to Shuguang City, and later, Sun Tianlong and Feng Tianxian's joint inspection trip to Shuguang City.
Liu Xuehua was a tough woman, decisive and efficient. Before meeting Li Chenglong in person, she had been somewhat dismissive, especially since her son was also a rising star, a prodigy, and the top-ranked level 12 three-elemental ability user in the Northeast Military Region—his strength was formidable. Therefore, she had always considered her son the most outstanding. However, in her interactions with Li Chenglong over the past few days, she discovered that in terms of combat prowess, vision, military skills, and knowledge, her son paled in comparison to this young man.
Because the Level 2 command vehicle has a highly advanced automatic driving system, although it has a driver, the driver does not need to keep an eye on it all the time. Li Chenglong took out his crystal phone and found that it was already 12:30 pm, which was lunchtime. So he used the walkie-talkie to notify the convoy behind him to stop and cook, and also to take this time to get out of the car and rest.
Yunlan, Li Xue, and the others had already started cooking in the living area of the command vehicle. Since there were many people, Yunlan decided to stick to rice. The vegetables were grown in the natural area of her psionic space, which had been upgraded to its maximum level and covered 3 square kilometers. One square kilometer was a storage area, and two square kilometers were a natural area. In this natural area, Yunlan used half the area to grow high-grade Dawn Rice, and the other half specifically for growing fruits and vegetables.
Li Chenglong's psionic space has also reached its maximum level, but its area is much larger than Yunlan's, totaling 16 square kilometers. Of this, 2 square kilometers are a spatial factory, 4 square kilometers are a storage area, and the remaining 10 square kilometers are a natural area. Li Chenglong used 3 square kilometers of the natural area to grow psionic apples, flame trees, psionic persimmon trees, and fruits and vegetables, and the remaining 7 square kilometers were used entirely for growing high-grade Dawn Rice. Between Yunlan and Li Chenglong's natural areas alone, excluding the seeds they kept, they could refine 9000 tons of high-grade Dawn Rice per month.
A moment later, the electronic door between the living area and the combat area opened, and Li Xue and Zhao Liying pushed out a stainless steel water dispenser and many glasses. Li Xue smiled and said, "Dear brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts, this is honey grapefruit tea that my brother asked me to prepare for you. We made it together. Please try it and see how it tastes." As she spoke, the two women filled everyone's glasses with honey grapefruit tea and placed them on their respective tables.
Everyone thanked him repeatedly. Xu Qingming saw Li Xue come out and quickly went to help. Liu Xuehua took the cup with both hands, said thank you, and took a sip, immediately attracted by the rich aroma. Li Chenglong looked at everyone's expressions and said with a smile, "Everyone, the taste is not bad, is it? This is our new product from Dawn City, supernatural honey. It is produced by supernatural bees in the natural area of my and Yunlan's spiritual energy space. If you like it, I will give each of you a bottle when we come back. If you want more, you will have to buy it. But it's not expensive, 1 cyan crystal per kilogram."
Zhao Liying then explained the effects of the supernatural honey. One 1-kilogram jar of honey can be made into 100 bottles of supernatural honey water. One cup of this water can restore 30% of a level 9 supernatural ability user's power, and even a level 11 user can recover 5%. Furthermore, if the honey is consumed directly, 50g of it can restore 30% of a level 11 user's power, and this restoration will be completed within 30 seconds.
As soon as Zhao Liying finished speaking, Li Chenglong continued, "I guarantee this effect with my personal reputation. After numerous experiments and practical tests, we can confirm that the superpowered honey is indeed effective." This completely dispelled everyone's concerns, and five minutes later, Li Chenglong received another dozen or so orders.