127: Rhone Valley

After completing the final transaction with Train Captain Lin Jun, Lu Yang's journey in Donglin Plain was essentially over.

For the next twenty days, he planned to head to Longhe Valley to continue gathering people.

Only on the last day would he return to Donglin Plain to receive the Einherjar Guards from Rui Ran, Train Captain of Ghost Princess, and then officially proceed with the 'Civilization Pioneer' advancement mission.

Longhe Valley is very close to Wanlong Town, with a straight-line distance of ninety-eight kilometers. Traveling via Longqing Road at a speed of one hundred and fifty kilometers per hour, it would take about an hour and a half to arrive.

Lu Yang didn't drive too fast; he needed time to briefly arrange the new passengers from the Armed Thug.

Before officially entering Longhe Valley, it was breakfast time on the Xinhuo Train. Lu Yang saw through the surveillance footage that the new passengers were orderly queuing for their meals under the supervision of the Train Police.

He gently pressed the button to close the video, then pushed the train's speed lever forward one notch.

Clank, clank. The faint sound, muffled by the steam exhaust optimizer, indicated that the Xinhuo Train's speed suddenly increased significantly.

Then, a prompt appeared on the Train Captain's control panel—

【Area Change Information Prompt: Esteemed Train Captain, you have entered the Intermediate Zone — Longhe Valley. The recommended exploration level for this area is higher than the train's current level. The risk assessment is light red (relatively dangerous). Please pay attention to safety during exploration and withdraw promptly if danger is encountered to avoid unnecessary casualties and losses.】

Hmm?!

Lu Yang raised his eyebrows, looking at the prompt message that was similar to but also slightly different from the one he received when he last entered the Inner Green Mist Forest.

He remembered that last time he entered the Inner Green Mist Forest, the danger level was assessed as red and extremely dangerous. He didn't expect it to be light red and relatively dangerous this time.

It seemed that Longhe Valley was indeed safer.

Of course, it might also be because the Xinhuo Train's strength had increased, and the combat power comparison assessment had changed.

But none of that mattered.

Anyway, his main purpose for coming this time was to gather people and incidentally mine some ore. As long as no one was foolish enough to provoke him, he didn't care about any level assessment.

In fact, Lu Yang sometimes thought that this danger warning should be issued to the other Train Captains and Mutated Creatures in Longhe Valley instead.

Because encountering him was truly 'relatively dangerous' for them.

As the Intermediate Zone with the most mechanical trains, Longhe Valley is very large, covering an area of 1.78 million square kilometers.

This is larger than Xinjiang, the largest province in China, the country Lu Yang was in before his transmigration.

Donglin Plain connects to the Wusu area in the south of Longhe Valley.

Before the apocalypse, Wusu was a prefecture-level city with seven counties and a total population of 7.8 million.

These were all data Lu Yang learned from the database.

Last time, in the county library database of Youshan County, Lu Yang found a lot of pre-war public information, including world maps.

Although various data have been severely distorted after the apocalypse.

At least there was a basic reference.

So after Lu Yang entered Longhe Valley, his first stop was the ruins of Luopu County, which was closest to him.

As the southern gate of Longhe Valley, Luopu County was very prosperous and densely populated before the apocalypse.

The population of just one county town was 2.58 million, nearly one-third of the entire Wusu area.

Even though the world's population plummeted after the apocalypse, how could there not be many left?!

Lu Yang even prepared to clear and search Luopu County, just like he did in Youshan County last time, expecting a considerable harvest.

However, after driving for a long time, he arrived at the location only to find—

Hmm?!

Where was my huge Luopu County!?

Why was only a shimmering large lake left at the original site? A quick glance revealed an area of at least tens of square kilometers, larger than the entire original site of Luopu County.

How could he search anything now?!

However, the resource detection radar kept beeping, showing three ore deposits at the bottom of the lake.

Two tier 2 Iron Mines and one tier 3 copper ore.

Seeing this, Lu Yang, adhering to the principle of not leaving empty-handed, opened the rear cabin door of the last carriage.

Only to see a figure over a hundred meters long gradually crawl out from the tail cabin door.

Compared to its size, the train door seemed a bit narrow.

It consciously retracted its huge mouthparts, and only after its entire body had crawled out did it shake itself and spread its limbs.

It was Lu Yang's first 'godson' — Iron Centipede.

The Iron Centipede had now advanced to tier 3. Compared to its mother, its body was relatively short but more solid.

Under Lu Yang's intentional guidance, it did not blindly pursue an increase in size, but continuously absorbed energy to strengthen its carapace.

Currently, its carapace was even stronger than the steel armor of a conventional tier 3 train.

When a Kuangfeng I Light Machine Gun of the same tier swept across it, it could only leave white marks on its carapace, completely failing to break its defense.

At the same time, it was not afraid of tier 3 Explosive Flame Bullet.

Among the conventional weapons of the same tier on the Xinhuo Train, perhaps only the larger caliber Iron Curtain Machine Cannon could cause it harm.

Even the PLZ Vehicle-Mounted Self-Propelled Howitzer.

If it wasn't precisely at the center of the shell's impact point, it wouldn't suffer much damage.

For this, Lu Yang spent a lot of Mutated Creature blood essence.

He fed it over a dozen tier 4 ones alone.

Lu Yang initially even planned to directly feed it tier 6 ones to make it grow faster, but Xiao Xin stopped him in time.

Because according to the data in the Mutant Creature Research Lab, that would very likely directly burst the Iron Centipede, which had just entered tier 3 at the time.

So Lu Yang slowed down, feeding it both Linghua Enlightenment Pills and lower-tier Mutated Creature blood essence.

However, even so, its evolution speed was astonishingly fast, already reaching 99% of tier 3 progress, just a little short of advancing to an Intermediate Mutated Creature.

But this breakthrough was not that easy; the Iron Centipede needed to further consolidate and sublimate its bloodline to advance further.

It also required sufficient opportunity.

But this did not affect Lu Yang releasing it to work at this moment.

Now, after continuously consuming Linghua Enlightenment Pills, the Iron Centipede's intelligence had reached the level of a seven or eight-year-old child. It could easily understand some of Lu Yang's commands.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have consciously retracted its limbs and body when it was in the carriage.

After coming out, under Lu Yang's mental command, it quickly burrowed into the bottom of the lake along the sandy ground by the lake.

Now, after gnawing on ores like Iron Mine and copper, the Iron Centipede could no longer further digest and strengthen itself, but it could condense the energy within them to form higher-grade ores, storing them in its body as backup energy.

Therefore, Lu Yang sent it to gnaw on ores at the bottom of the lake.

After it finished eating, expelling these backup energies would be equivalent to miners digging for ore.