Chapter 1784 968: Wuyi Mountain, Old House in the Mountains (2)

Tui Zi turned on his flashlight and then walked to the right, using his hand to forcefully pry open the lid on this plastic barrel.

However, he couldn't open it with just one hand, so he clamped the flashlight with his mouth, holding the plastic barrel with one hand, and exerting force with the other hand.

The lid was sealed tightly; his veins bulged as he twisted, finally managing to open the lid.

A strong scent of pine oil burst forth.

Excitedly, Tui Zi aimed the flashlight into the oil barrel; the yellow, semi-transparent liquid—this was indeed pine oil!

This oil is extracted from pine trees, slowly flowing out. Collecting enough pine oil in a barrel requires dozens of pine trees.

Each pine tree yields a limited amount of pine oil. Before the apocalypse, there was a profession specifically for cutting open the bark and installing oil collecting devices; they were constantly busy in forests.

This might be the little house they built for resting temporarily.

"Brother Chen, there's pine oil inside these plastic barrels!" Tui Zi shouted excitedly.

His excitement couldn't be helped; their group left the Big Camphor Tree Base to perform tasks, planning to gain big from a long journey.

Unexpectedly, they set out well enough, but encountered rainfall mid-return, unable to go back.

A team of more than twenty encountered zombies on the road; if they hadn't abandoned their vehicle and fled into the forest, they'd all have been lost there.

They stayed in some townships for two nights, but the zombies in the torrential rain were exceptionally keen, discovered them, causing two more deaths. The remaining took their companions' bags, killed a few zombies, sliced them up, and smeared zombie blood and flesh on their clothes.

Utilizing this form of disguise, they escaped the house, fleeing into the forest again.

However, staying too close to the road wasn't safe, so they kept running deeper into the woods.

Unluckily thinking they ran two kilometers reaching somewhat safe forest, stopping to rest, a zombie appeared out of nowhere and bit a member.

Thus, they killed the zombie, picked up the member's pack, and escaped again.

Wuyi Mountain spans a thousand square kilometers, they were deep inside the forest, clueless of their location.

Running for a full day and night through torrential rain, soaked to the skin, faces and necks marked with scars from leaf scrapes.

"Pine oil?" Chen Delong, the team leader, appeared a bit uplifted hearing Tui Zi speak.

Pine oil has many uses—before Doomsday, it served as a lubricant, applicable in many chemical products.

And it has bactericidal properties; most importantly, it can burn and lasts exceptionally long.

If this house had ten or so barrels full of pine oil, they'd be in luck, able to dry clothes and warm up in this chilly rainy day.

"First, move it over to block the door," Chen Delong said to Tui Zi and An Sheng.

With the flashlight clamped in his mouth, Tui Zi hugged a pine oil barrel, shuffled it to the door, blocking the wooden door.

Each barrel is estimated to weigh over forty pounds—two barrels secured behind the door prevented it from falling.

Brother Chen searched the room, finding a long pole, inserted one end on the doorframe, propped the other end against the wall corner, forming support.

Rain pounded the door with a crackling sound, but at least the wooden door blocked the rain, and didn't fall.

Chen Delong wielded his flashlight, meticulously inspecting the small room's contents.

He checked every oil barrel inside; upon seeing most containing pine oil, joy arose, addressing the three behind: "Brothers, let's rest here."

"Great! I could barely move; trudging further feels like dying from exhaustion," An Sheng, hearing this, collapsed onto the ground.

On the other side, Tui Zi, delighted, said, "Brother Chen, we've traveled far enough; there shouldn't be zombies here, we're far off the main road. If there are zombies here, it's truly unreasonable."

"Hmm." Brother Chen nodded, flashing the flashlight at a tool bag by the door.

He took down the tool bag, discovering inside the tools for cutting pine trees resembling scythes, appearing extremely sharp.

Underneath a small bed, he found an axe and a fire pit.

The axe was rusted, looking unused for a long time.

Tui Zi removed his soaking wet clothes, hanging them on the rack, opened his duffel bag, only to find the contents drenched.

"Leader, let's ignite the pine oil first; I feel the temperature is under ten degrees, freezing to death," Tui Zi's lips were purplish, he shivered.

In cold rain, they kept walking, minimizing the chill while moving.

But as they now stopped, sheer coldness rushed upward from the soles to the top.

Chen Delong nodded, spoke: "Alright, light the fire; split the wooden rack to burn, or burning only pine oil is wasteful."

An Sheng nodded, received the axe from Brother Chen, swung it, took apart the rack.

Simultaneously, they organized the pine oil barrels to the right.

Ten or so pine oil barrels appeared rather impressive.