Chapter 330: A Greater Crisis

"Block what?" Zuo Li was completely bewildered, turning her head to look at the person descending the helicopter’s rope ladder.

The man was in a black military uniform, his figure tall, slender, and ramrod-straight.

When the rope ladder was still at least two or three meters from the ground, he leaped down, landing before the crowd.

For a moment, Zhang Biyun thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.

Was that Gu Chen?

Why was Gu Chen here all of a sudden?

Several more people came down the rope ladder one after another. Before the group from Chaoyang Base could even react, they realized they had completely lost control of the situation.

Zuo Li spotted the insignia on the helicopter and hurried over to Lu Wei and his men to get friendly. "Hey, brothers, you guys from Golden City Base? I don’t think I’ve seen you before."

"You must be Captain Zuo." Lu Wei recognized Zuo Li at a glance and gave a slight nod and a smile. "I’m Lu Wei. We came to pick you up. That man is our team’s—"

Lu Wei turned around, only to find that his boss had already slipped away without a trace.

"How many people do you have? Captain Zuo, let’s go over there and discuss how we’ll leave."

"Have the cargo planes been arranged? I’m telling you, there’s a ton of goods here, and it’s all ours."

"They’re on their way."

Zhou Jiangye and his men were herded down the mountain at gunpoint by Gu Chen’s subordinates, leaving them seething with anger.

"Base Leader, who are those people?"

Zhou Jiangye was suffering in silence.

In fact, he had already arranged several days ago for cargo planes from Chaoyang Base to come and load the goods.

It was just that Chaoyang Base’s transport capacity and equipment seemed to be inferior to Golden City Base’s.

The reinforcements from Golden City Base had arrived, but there was still no word from Chaoyang Base.

"Why isn’t there any response from our side? Don’t tell me something went wrong," a few of his trusted subordinates asked anxiously, following behind Zhou Jiangye.

"Base Leader, what do we do now?"

"Zuo Li’s helpers are showing up in waves. Are we still going to have the competition or not?"

"Competition, my ass!" Teng Hongming roared, his voice rough. "Can’t you see it yet? This has all just been a stalling tactic from Zuo Li. Sending that Miss Xie out to cause a scene was just to buy time."

And now, she’s managed to stall long enough for backup from Golden City Base to arrive!

Damn it! Damn it!

The back mountain of the scenic area was only so big. Where could Xie Ning possibly run?

Besides, after running just a few steps, she realized something. ’I haven’t done anything wrong. What am I so guilty about?’

’Why am I running?’

’I’m not running!’

Xie Ning stopped in her tracks and turned around, just in time to see the young man, Gu Chen, sprinting down the mountain path toward her.

"Ningning, why are you run—" He swallowed the last part of his sentence as he met the girl’s glistening dark eyes.

"I wasn’t running," Xie Ning said, standing there and looking at him with perfect composure.

’If he hadn’t just seen her running faster than a rabbit with his own two eyes, he might have actually believed her nonsense.’

He had intended to have a stern word with this little girl who ran all over the place and made people worry, but the moment they came face-to-face, he found himself laughing instead.

Walking briskly to her side, Gu Chen couldn’t help but smile. "No wonder you were so happy here you forgot all about home. Turns out you were having a martial arts competition. Was it fun?"

Xie Ning thought for a moment, then shook her head. "It wasn’t fun at all."

"The few people who went up were all pretty average. I don’t think they’re on the same level as me."

Coming from anyone else, such a statement would have sounded far too conceited.

But for some reason, Gu Chen felt that when the young woman said this, she was practically bathed in a glow of confidence, as radiant as a sunrise with its spreading, rosy light.

"Ningning, everyone at home misses you very much."

Xie Ning suddenly felt a pang of guilt. She really had been running all over the place lately, having so much fun that she hadn’t even thought about returning to the base.

’Her grandparents must have been very worried about her.’

"Meteorologists predict that in a few days, the temperature will continue to drop."

"The ice age is expected to last for three to five months, possibly even half a year."

"So stop running around, and come back with me now, okay?" Gu Chen took her hand. His tone was gentle, completely consultative, so naturally, Xie Ning couldn’t resist.

She had always responded to soft persuasion, not brute force, and Gu Chen had long since figured out the young woman’s temperament.

Seeing her lost in thought, Gu Chen spoke again. "Golden City Base is moving everyone into the underground air-raid shelters. What are your plans?"

Xie Ning couldn’t help but frown at his words. "Can they really accommodate that many people?"

With the recent sudden drop in temperature, there was bound to be a continuous stream of survivors heading to Golden City Base.

Golden City Base had started with tens of thousands of people, but now, its population probably exceeded six figures.

Could the underground air-raid shelters really hold that many people?

"Mm," Gu Chen sighed softly. "Even if we can’t, we have to try our best to fit everyone. The temperature is too low now. The elderly and children definitely won’t be able to take it."

"Fortunately, Golden City Base is built on a foundation of ancient architecture. The base recruited many Earth Ability Users to expand the original air-raid shelters as much as possible."

"The recent results have been significant, but it’s a rush job done with a lot of overtime. It can only guarantee a basic standard of living; it’s impossible to expect much comfort."

"Even some of the residents in the courtyard houses were moved to the underground shelters a couple of days ago."

"According to the meteorologists’ analysis, if this trend continues, temperatures could drop as low as minus fifty degrees."

"By then, it’s estimated that aside from some Ice and Earth Element Superpower Users, no one will be able to go outside."

"So it’s best to prepare in advance. After all, we might have to hibernate for up to half a year. It’s only natural that people are using these last few days to scavenge for more supplies to take back."

"And I suspect that after this prolonged period of low temperatures, the day of the thaw will bring an even greater crisis. It feels like this sudden ice and snow is creating a natural paradise for the zombies and mutated plants and animals."

"They’re just waiting for everything to be unleashed before they reach out for us with their demonic claws."

Xie Ning took a deep breath, her expression grim as she nodded. "I think there’s good reason for your suspicion."

The way things were developing now was completely different from her past life.

The low temperatures... In her past life, the temperature had dropped to minus seventeen or eighteen degrees at most, which was about the same as it was now.

It had never gotten as low as minus fifty or sixty degrees, let alone lasted for half a year, as the experts were now predicting.

Wasn’t this the arrival of an ice age?

How did humanity survive the ice ages?

It was said that a "Little Ice Age" had occurred during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was a time of consecutive harsh winters, with frequent hailstorms, blizzards, and floods.

The Yangtze River basin experienced catastrophic floods, and places like Lu Province were struck by devastating cold snaps.

The harsh, extreme weather triggered large-scale natural disasters, followed by successive droughts and locust plagues.

The common people filled their stomachs with grass roots, tree bark, and chaff. The problem of securing food and warmth became increasingly severe, and instances of people swapping children to eat them were all too common.

Now... the situation felt even more severe.

Surviving the ice age itself was one thing, but they also had to survive the various mutated plants and animals that would come after it. Only then would the problem be truly solved.

Xie Ning took another deep breath. "There’s a large batch of supplies inside Barbarian Base. If we can control and use it properly, we should be able to scrape by for three months without a problem."

But half a year... was far too long.