The beast tide retreated into the forest during the day, and the city returned to peace.
However, every night the beast tide would charge into the city to wreak havoc. The people currently staying in the city were completely unable to go out; if they went out, they would be eaten. But if they didn't go out, they would starve to death. It seemed like no matter what, it was a dead end. Especially in winter, escaping became a problem, with no direction to flee. To the north lay the ice caps of the Arctic Circle, to the south, beyond the forest, was a vast grassland teeming with wolf packs. To the east and west were dense forests.
Siberia possessed the world's most abundant forest resources. It was said that most of the timber Europe needed came from Siberia. In addition to this, natural gas and oil were also incredibly plentiful. In peaceful times, selling these resources would have brought immense wealth. But in the apocalypse, resources were completely unsellable.
"City Lord, be careful. It's best to return before dark. If you don't come back tonight, we'll have to come looking for you," Lu Xian said to Shen Feng, who was about to head into the forest.
Shen Feng smiled and replied, "I know. Don't worry, with my speed, no animal can catch me if I want to return from the forest."
Shen Feng's greatest pride was his speed. If he went all out, reaching the speed of sound was easy. In the air, sound travels at over three hundred meters per second. What did that mean? Even the fastest runners took over nine seconds to complete a hundred meters. In that time, Shen Feng could easily cover over two kilometers.
Xu Xing handed Shen Feng the package containing the glider and said, "City Lord, if all else fails, just assemble the glider and fly back."
Shen Feng did not take the glider. Instead, he explained seriously, "Carrying such heavy equipment will slow me down. To maintain full speed, I'll leave the glider here with you. Once I've scouted the forest environment and found nothing, we'll take the glider back to Lake Baikal and drive back to Yuzhou."
Shen Feng knew that taking the glider would be safer. However, doing so would add dozens of pounds of weight, inevitably reducing his speed. Moreover, the forest had many trees, making it not an ideal place for takeoff. If he encountered real danger, it would be better to simply run. The speed of sound was already a level unattainable by others.
Shen Feng then set off, using "As the Wind Follows" and plunged into the western forest. There was still a lot of snow on the ground, but much of it had melted. Animal footprints were visible on the snow, and the constant trampling had caused the snow to melt.
Walking through the forest, Shen Feng began to observe his surroundings. He finally found a newly cleared path. Because a lot of timber was piled around, the path was very winding. The road surface was not hardened, so walking on it easily led to getting mud on one's shoes. As he walked, he had to brush the mud off his shoes. Otherwise, shoes that originally weighed three hundred grams would end up weighing over a pound and a half by the end, with all the mud sticking to the soles.
However, precisely because the road surface was not hardened, tire tracks could still be seen in the mud. This indicated that someone had driven here recently.
Shen Feng immediately decided to follow the path forward, as these were likely traces left by Xiao Sheng and his group. He had taken people to search for treasure, so there must have been many people, and this meant they could only travel by car. After all, Qiou Ming had oil fields, so gasoline would not be lacking.
He advanced along the path for half an hour and saw many animals resting. Shen Feng did not disturb them, but instead moved away.
Finally, Shen Feng saw giant machinery appearing in a clearing, along with many trucks.
The trucks were all loaded with huge oil drums. Shen Feng opened one of the drums and found crude oil at the bottom. He immediately understood that this must be an extraction site. After the oil was extracted, it was transported directly via Qiou Ming's railway to northeastern China.
"It seems I've come to the wrong place. This is the oil field, not where they supposedly found the treasure," Shen Feng muttered to himself.
Shen Feng looked around the drilling rig. The towering machinery had stopped working, and there was no one around. Shen Feng couldn't help but suspect something. There were many fragments of clothing on the ground, as well as white, dry bones. The fat in the bones had been completely absorbed. The original staff here had all been killed.
"So much crude oil. If only it could be sent to Yuzhou. Yuzhou is in dire need of oil," Shen Feng mumbled, looking at the hundreds of trucks. Such a large amount of oil, perhaps thousands of tons. It was a pity that Shen Feng couldn't take it with him.
At this time, it wasn't just Yuzhou that was short of oil; the entire country of China was. Karamay's oil extraction was limited, and it was difficult to transport oil from the Middle East by sea. Therefore, China, lacking oil reserves, considered driving a rare occurrence.
Shen Feng looked at the environment around the drilling rig and suddenly noticed something strange. Many footprints on the ground led deep into the forest. Perhaps it was because so many people had passed through here that the ground near the forest had become compacted.
Shen Feng quickly moved closer. However, as soon as he made this move, he felt a strong sense of danger, as if a threat had appeared.
"Bang!" A gunshot suddenly rang out from the forest, and a bullet was fired in Shen Feng's direction. The bullet had exceeded the speed of sound the moment it left the barrel, so it was impossible to dodge at that moment.
Fortunately, as the bullet reached Shen Feng, it struck an invisible barrier. The sharp bullet created a network of cracks on the barrier before finally falling to the ground.
"Who the hell is ambushing me?" Shen Feng roared.
Shen Feng had originally thought the greatest danger in the forest would be mutated beasts, as the forest was the domain of mutated beasts. However, he had not encountered any attacks from mutated beasts along the way. Instead, he was shot at this moment. If he hadn't had a timely premonition, he would have been hit by now.
When Shen Feng sensed the danger, he directly activated the "Wind King Barrier," a instinctive reaction. Upon sensing the killing intent, he naturally had a means of defense.
There was no response from the forest, but Shen Feng saw a black figure turn and run. The creature was furry, like a large, long-haired gorilla, running on two legs. If people from North America saw this, they would likely mistake it for a wild man from the Andes Mountains. But Shen Feng did not believe in the existence of wild men.
An animal that could fire a gun must be human. Perhaps a chimpanzee could learn to fire a gun through training, but chimpanzees were already incredibly large. They could survive solely on their size and didn't need to bother learning to fire a gun. Especially in the apocalypse, who would have the leisure to train chimpanzees?
Shen Feng immediately used "As the Wind Follows" to pursue, wanting to apprehend the enemy and deal with them on the spot. They had dared to ambush him, such a despicable act definitely deserved punishment. It would be best to kill them with a single sword; he couldn't be expected to remain calm and communicate after being ambushed.
But when Shen Feng caught up, he found the figure had already disappeared. Shen Feng climbed into a tree and leaped from branch to branch, becoming like a squirrel, moving through the forest without any hindrance.
Even with his diligent search, Shen Feng couldn't find the enemy.
"Damn it, do they have invisibility? Otherwise, there's no reason I can't find them. This is truly bizarre!" Shen Feng muttered to himself, frowning.
At this moment, Shen Feng felt that the problem was very serious. An individual who had ambushed him could disappear without a trace. Shen Feng didn't believe the enemy had escaped, because with his current speed, no one could escape his grasp.
Since they hadn't escaped, there was only one possibility: the enemy was hiding. As for where they were hiding, Shen Feng was not entirely sure.
As Shen Feng was suspecting, suddenly, an animal appeared on the ground in the distance. It had golden-yellow fur with some patterns, walking on all fours, and occasionally rising on its hind legs to observe its surroundings. Its short claws looked very sharp, and on its head, it had a cute, naive face with two large front teeth exposed.
"Is that a marmot?" Shen Feng thought to himself.
Seeing a marmot suddenly appear in the forest, Shen Feng was a bit puzzled. Weren't marmots said to live in plains, generally in deserts and grasslands? Why were they also in the forest?
Many people were not familiar with the name "marmot," but if its other name, "groundhog," was mentioned, many would surely know it. There was once a very popular video online of a standing groundhog roaring!
Shen Feng did not disturb the groundhog, intending to see what it would do.
As a result, the groundhog continuously walked on the ground, found a blind spot, and then directly burrowed into it.
Seeing this, Shen Feng immediately reacted. Although the old saying goes, "The higher you stand, the farther you see," the situation was not absolute. Sometimes, standing high made it difficult to see the ground clearly. Just as the groundhog disappeared into the ground, the groundhog burrowed into a hole, and the enemy might also have burrowed into a hole to hide.
With this realization, Shen Feng immediately jumped down from the tree. Without a word, he silently drew his long sword and began searching the dead leaves and branches on the ground. The enemy definitely could not have escaped; the only possibility was that they were hiding in a cave.
"Thump, thump," After probing for a while, Shen Feng's long sword struck the ground, and a dull sound suddenly echoed!
Shen Feng summoned a gust of wind, blowing away the snow and leaves on the ground, revealing a wooden board. Around the board were several bamboo tubes. Needless to say, the bamboo tubes were specifically for ventilation.
"Come out. If you don't come out, don't blame me for slaughtering you!" Shen Feng said coldly. Shen Feng had now found the enemy's hiding place, and the next step was interrogation.
Once the wooden board was discovered, the person in the cave knew they could no longer hide. They had no choice but to open the wooden board and, using broken Chinese, say, "Sorry, sorry, no shoot."
As the wooden board was pushed open, a scruffy man emerged from the cave. He was wearing animal skins, whether bear or wolf, it was hard to tell. From a distance, he truly looked like a wild man. However, the fact that he could speak meant he was definitely not a wild man. Wild men could not fire guns.
Shen Feng noticed the man holding a rifle and casually snatched it. With both hands, he directly bent the barrel.
The most important part of a gun was its barrel. Without a barrel, bullets could not be fired. Now, the barrel had been bent into a ninety-degree angle by Shen Feng, making it impossible to shoot. The tool the man relied on for survival had been destroyed by Shen Feng.
Seeing Shen Feng's actions, the enemy's first reaction was anger. His means of survival had been destroyed by Shen Feng; what would he do in the future?
However, upon remembering Shen Feng's immense strength, the man could only remain silent. Since the other party could easily bend the barrel of a gun, he could certainly twist his neck.