However, despite the land being destroyed to such an extent, life still existed beneath the countless ravines and ruins.
Feng Jun saw many Mutated Creatures, field mice, hiding in the ravines.
These field mice were over a meter long and roamed the land in groups.
There were also some mutated insects; when passing the ruins of a village, Feng Jun saw a gigantic hornet's nest.
It was a hornet's nest magnified a hundred times, with a diameter exceeding fifty meters, and hornets over half a meter long constantly flew in and out of the entrance.
These mutated hornets were not only larger in size but also grew sharper mouthparts and claws on their bodies, and their tail stingers could even reflect sunlight.
One could see that the hornets returning from outside were all carrying prey of various sizes in their mouths: mutated field mice, mutated cockroaches, and mostly the remains of other mutated insects.
Some zombies were even torn apart and brought back by them.
Of course, Feng Jun also saw human remains among them, which indicated that these mutated hornets were indiscriminate eaters.
The hornets wandering outside quickly discovered the five passing iron lumps.
Dozens of hornets surrounded them from all directions, but these hornets had clearly chosen the wrong hunting targets.
Just a few bursts from the 75mm rapid-fire laser cannons killed all the attacking mutated hornets.
After leaving a ground full of corpses, these hornets realized that these five iron lumps were not to be trifled with.
The swarm immediately dispersed and no longer approached the five Crab Generals.
These mutated hornets already possessed a certain level of intelligence, understanding the principle of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages.
Seeing that they no longer approached, Feng Jun prepared to bypass the village, not intending to waste time there.
Just as Feng Jun and his group were circling to move away from the village, Feng Jun suddenly heard a child crying from the sky.
Feng Jun followed the sound and saw a particularly robust hornet in the air, carrying a human little girl with its mouthparts, flying towards the hive.
The child was clearly not yet killed and was letting out faint sobs.
“No need to look, shoot that hornet down for me, but don't hurt the child.
Don't leave this hive either,” Feng Jun immediately said without hesitation.
The intelligent system immediately locked onto the hornet in the air, and a single burst killed the hornet carrying the little girl.
The little girl, along with the hornet's corpse, fell next to the hive.
Feng Jun directly opened the hatch and leaped out of the Crab General, heading straight for where the little girl had fallen.
Because he had to sit in the Crab General, Feng Jun only wore a mechanical exoskeleton.
Opening the thrusters on his back, Feng Jun directly leaped into the air, then immediately activated his Blood Eye State, and suddenly, the world in his eyes entered slow motion.
The five Crab Generals opened fire simultaneously, indiscriminately shooting down all hornets flying in the air.
Immediately, the hive exploded as if it had been bombed; the hornets inside received the signal of danger from outside, rushing out of the hive and forming a black cloud in the sky.
Seeing Feng Jun charging ahead, the Imperial Guards naturally opened their doors and entered battle formation.
Feng Jun had already rushed close to the hive.
These hornets were not only huge but also had incredibly hard exoskeletons, but in Feng Jun's eyes, they were merely flying targets.
Ever since evolving his Blood Eye, Feng Jun's reaction speed and dynamic vision far surpassed ordinary people's.
With a flick of his hand, he pulled out a Bolter from his storage space.
Using a Bolter was perfect for dealing with this type of insectoid Mutated Creatures.
It was almost one shot, one kill.
Any hornet flying towards Feng Jun and the little girl received special attention from Feng Jun.
Now, he could achieve one shot, one kill without an auxiliary aiming system.
“Holy crap, is the boss really that fierce?!” an Imperial Guard couldn't help but exclaim.
Zhong Chen said, “Focus on covering the boss, don't do anything irrelevant.”
Zhong Chen was naturally also an Evolver, but he hadn't evolved any special abilities, merely having slightly stronger physical abilities than ordinary people.
Under his command, the five Crab Generals provided alternating cover, forming a network of firepower, killing as many hornets approaching Feng Jun as possible.
Slicing open a hornet with his electromagnetic blade, Feng Jun had already rushed to the little girl's side.
He pulled the girl out from under the hornet's corpse and quickly checked her.
The child had multiple injuries all over her body, but fortunately, she was still alive.
Without time to comfort her, Feng Jun took out hemostatic gel and applied it to the girl's wounds for emergency hemostasis, then immediately picked her up and retreated.
Feng Jun's actions completely enraged this hornet's nest.
Countless hornets swarmed out of the nest and directly attacked Feng Jun.
Feng Jun had no time to look back at the situation behind him.
While still in his Blood Eye State, he quickly pushed off the ground and directly outran the swarm of hornets chasing him.
“Missile lock on the nest, fire!” Zhong Chen immediately gave the order to fire after Feng Jun had pulled away to a safe distance.
The missile launchers on the back of the Crab General had already locked onto the hornet's nest.
More than a dozen missiles, trailing their exhaust flames, struck the hornet's nest, and the explosion instantly engulfed the entire hornet's nest.
After the nest was destroyed, the remaining hornets seemed frightened.
Even the large group of hornets chasing Feng Jun immediately abandoned him and scattered into the surrounding sky.
Seeing that the danger was resolved, Feng Jun also deactivated his Blood Eye State.
Currently, he could use the Blood Eye State for no more than ten minutes a day; exceeding this time would cause him immense pain after exiting.
The surrounding Imperial Guards immediately surrounded him, covering Feng Jun as he returned to the Crab General.
Unsure, Zhong Chen launched another dozen missiles into the hornet's nest.
After the explosion, a massive hornet, more than twice the size of a regular hornet, burst out of the hive.
It appeared to be the Queen.
This Queen hornet was ablaze, and after bursting out of the nest, it fell to the ground motionless.
Still uneasy, Zhong Chen ordered the soldiers to fire a few more shots before he finally felt relieved.
The little girl rescued by Feng Jun had already fallen unconscious, but fortunately, Song Peng had strictly followed the Ming Army's organizational structure when forming Feng Jun's Imperial Guard.
Among the 29 Imperial Guards, three were medics who had received medical training.
After simple emergency treatment, the little girl's injuries stabilized.
The little girl looked only thirteen or fourteen years old, with bangs and two ponytails.
She wore a white jumpsuit, and her limbs and body had multiple injuries.
Her left arm was almost severed by the hornet's mouthparts, but after simple bandaging, her life was no longer in danger.
“This is actually a White Stripe; looks like a unlucky soul who just came out of a Refuge,” the medic said jokingly while bandaging the little girl's wounds.
White Stripe refers to the white jumpsuit the little girl was wearing, which was particularly conspicuous in the Doomsday environment and could be spotted from a distance.
White Stripe usually refers to survivors who have just emerged from a Refuge; they typically wear uniform white or blue jumpsuits, the color of which indicates their rank within the Refuge.
For example, these white jumpsuits were mostly worn by researchers in the Refuge, while blue was for ordinary civilians, and there were also red for management and black for law enforcement (soldiers).
Although the little girl's clothes were tattered and even heavily stained with her own blood, it was still evident that her clothes were relatively new.
This indicated that she had recently emerged from a Refuge, suggesting that there was a Refuge nearby that had recently opened, and this little girl might have been separated from a larger group or her entire camp was attacked by hornets.
After confirming that the little girl was from a Refuge, Feng Jun immediately became interested.
A newly opened Refuge in the wasteland meant a large amount of valuable wealth.
Refuges usually contained large quantities of food and various resources, and even complete underground farms and clean underground water purifiers.
The men inside were excellent slaves, and the women were all delicate and tender-skinned, superior to the women in the wasteland, each a treasure.
If there were high-ranking officials or celebrities inside, they could fetch an even better price.
But for Feng Jun, the most valuable assets were the scientists and the central computer.
Before and after the war, the Ming Empire had sealed away a large number of pre-war talents in Refuges, including experts from various industries.
And the central computers of Refuges were usually Quantum Computers, which played an extremely important role in scientific research and data simulation.
Looking at the little girl in front of him, who appeared to be only “fourteen or fifteen” years old, Feng Jun found it hard to imagine that this girl belonged to the research staff in the Refuge.
However, she was currently unconscious, so Feng Jun had no way to wake her up for further confirmation.
The mutated hornets had a very wide range of activity, ranging from ten to twenty kilometers in radius, making it difficult to determine the location of the little girl's Refuge in this wilderness.
It was also possible that the little girl's Refuge was attacked, and she ran out alone only to be captured by the hornets.
Therefore, despite the enormous temptation of the Refuge, Feng Jun still decided to continue his journey according to the original plan.
Considering the cramped space inside the Crab General and the girl's injuries, Feng Jun decided to leave one Crab General and six Imperial Guards to wait for Song Zhan's main force, while Feng Jun led the remaining Imperial Guards to continue towards Yanqing Industrial Park.
Because of the small delay, Feng Jun did not admire the scenery along the way for the remaining time, but instead urged Zhong Chen to speed up and reach the target location in the shortest possible time.
However, Feng Jun also sent a message to Song Zhan behind him, explaining that he had rescued a girl on the way who was suspected to have just emerged from a Refuge, and instructed him to dispatch UAVs to search the nearby wilderness, trying to find that newly opened Refuge.
Finally, as dusk approached, Feng Jun led the remaining four Crab Generals to the outskirts of the target location.
A crooked sign reading “Yanqing Industrial Park” lay askew on the wall.
And the surrounding zombies gradually increased.
Even without binoculars, one could see the dilapidated buildings in the distance.
There were no skyscrapers here like in Shangqing City, only some quite large factory buildings.
Raising his binoculars, Feng Jun could see that the factory buildings were covered in large red blood vessels and sacs made of flesh.
Some fully developed zombies were detaching from the walls.