Chapter 165: Fleeing Jiazhou

The sky full of corpse crows devoured everything. For other convoys, it might have been a natural disaster, but for Lu Xingchen, who possessed a fire-based Esper ability, it was entirely within his domain.

The cloud-like flock of corpse crows in the sky burned and exploded, and a large amount of ash rained down.

But even so, a large number of corpse crows that flew up from the roadside still crashed into the jeeps and off-road vehicles of Shu Qin’s convoy, splattering blood and flesh everywhere.

Screech, screech, screech!

Seeing this, Lin Xian was frantic. He immediately created metal plates to shield the vehicles.

But there were still some that slipped through the cracks.

Boom! Boom!

Lu Xingchen landed shirtless on the roof of the train and began to continuously shoot fire, clearing the corpse crows for Shu Qin’s convoy.

“God’s Fire Wall!”

Lu Xingchen looked at the retaining walls on both sides of the track and directly shot out a large fire to ignite them, protecting both sides of the convoy.

Finally, as the train’s speed picked up, the corpse crows began to be unable to keep up, and the pressure of their attacks decreased sharply.

As the Infinity left the city’s edge and moved further away from Jiazhou City, the ear-piercing shrieks finally disappeared.

At this moment, Shu Qin’s convoy, which had been forcibly pulled out of the flames and the flock of crows by Lin Xian’s tow chains, was a complete mess. The exterior armor plates and windows were covered in blood and black bird feathers, and a thick layer of various shredded corpses had accumulated like ketchup.

The strong stench made it impossible for the people in the cars to open their eyes. If they hadn’t been held by the train’s chains, the convoy would have likely overturned and its occupants killed long ago.

Lin Xian’s gaze swept over them, and he noticed that the paint on many of the cars had been gnawed away, revealing the silver metal layer underneath, which was a chilling sight.

“What terrifying parasites. To think there’s something like this in the darkness…”

Fortunately, the black worms had been burned away by the flames. If they didn’t have this method, they would probably have had to abandon their vehicles and flee on foot even if they had escaped.

“Shu Qin, how’s the situation?”

Lin Xian picked up the walkie-talkie.

“We’re fine for now.” Shu Qin was driving nervously. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw that no cars had fallen behind, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Lin Xian looked at the convoy, but at this moment, he sensed something was wrong. He raised his hand and released the connecting chains of all the cars.

Clank, clank, clank!

Just then, the last off-road vehicle suddenly lost control and crashed into the metal high wall beside the track.

Something had happened.

Lin Xian’s expression darkened, and he immediately controlled the train to decelerate. The people in Shu Qin’s convoy also noticed something was wrong and stopped their cars one after another.

Everyone ran toward the out-of-control car. Shu Qin opened the car door, only to find that the car was now a bloody mess. The three people who were originally in the car were gone.

“Ah!!” Someone covered their mouth in horror.

“They were eaten by the crows!”

“Heavens!”

Lin Xian walked over at this moment. Shu Qin’s eyes widened, and she looked at him with a heavy expression. “It’s… the Zhong Jiahao family.”

“The car has been gnawed through. There might still be black worms inside,” Lin Xian took a step back and said to Lu Xingchen, “Burn it.”

Lu Xingchen sighed and directly raised his hand, shooting out a ball of fire.

Vroom~

In an instant, the car was engulfed in a raging fire.

The others watched this scene with sad and complicated expressions. Lin Xian looked over and saw that many people’s faces were even numb.

Every time they faced danger, this convoy almost always suffered casualties. It seemed that everyone had gotten used to it.

A hint of sadness flashed in Shu Qin’s eyes. She turned and said, “Let’s go quickly. We might not have shaken off those crows yet.”

Lin Xian glanced at Shu Qin but didn’t say anything. He restarted the train, climbed onto the roof, and began to run toward the Infinity. At the same time, he pointed to the roof and said to Lu Xingchen, “Fire God, disinfect the train too. Be careful with the fire.”

The so-called disinfection was to have Lu Xingchen clean up any remaining black nematodes on the train to avoid any hidden dangers.

“Leave it to me.”

Lu Xingchen nodded.

Lin Xian ran directly back to the Infinity’s cockpit. At this moment, Chen Sixuan was observing the route. “Lin Xian, there’s a small station called Pukou about 100 kilometers ahead. It’s a level 3 station, and main line trains usually don’t stop there. Should we stop there to check the vehicles?”

Chen Sixuan was also very worried about the black nematodes and thought it would be better to do a thorough inspection.

“Okay.”

Lin Xian walked over and said, “If we’ve gotten rid of those crows, we’ll take advantage of the daytime to refit the train so that Shu Qin and the others can stay on the train, which will be relatively safer.”

Lin Xian felt a little heavy-hearted at this moment. He took a bottle of water and chugged more than half of it, letting out a long sigh.

The team had just expanded, and they had already suffered casualties. It was really hard to take.

“Lin Xian.”

Chen Sixuan looked at him. “You don’t have to blame yourself. You did everything you could. I know that if you had time, you would definitely find a way to make this vehicle safer and protect more people. They just joined, and we couldn’t fit their cars into the train. Look at the entire Jiazhou City, there isn’t a single living thing. We were already very lucky to escape from the mouths of those crows.”

Lin Xian nodded. “You watch the road. I’ll go check the back.”

In car number one, he opened the research center and chose to put Shasha’s VoG grenade launcher into the upgrade page.

[Please select the research direction for this weapon:]

[Firepower] (13 hours)

[Mobility] (12 hours)

“Firepower, mobility?” Lin Xian looked at the options on the interface. After thinking for a moment, he decided to enhance the firepower first.

[Notice: The VoG grenade launcher blueprint is undergoing an upgrade research. 12:59:59]

This amount of time was acceptable to Lin Xian. In less than a day, he could obtain a powerful weapon blueprint, which was definitely a good deal.

The PX-05 engineering robot blueprint and the G3 land-based electromagnetic railgun blueprint he had obtained from the spaceport were both very advanced. There was also the 1130 blueprint and a set of mechanical arms that Shu Qin had obtained from that Guo Lao’er. He hadn’t built any of these things yet, so he wasn’t in a hurry to upgrade them.

Anyway, his current mechanical manufacturing level was not high, and upgrading blueprints was a waste of time. He couldn’t build them even if he upgraded them. Considering that the crises they were encountering were becoming more and more pressing, he decided to upgrade the equipment of his team members first to improve their immediate combat effectiveness.

“Lin Xian, didn’t you scan the spaceport’s electromagnetic railgun? Are you going to install one on the train?” KIKI asked as she walked over, seeing Lin Xian sitting alone in car number one with a serious expression.

“I will, but not that fast.”

Lin Xian replied when he saw KIKI approaching.

“By the way, what about the robot? If you build one, I’ll write a program for it to help us maintain the train. Wouldn’t that make things easier for you?” KIKI floated in front of Lin Xian like a little elf, a sly look on her face.

“I did have that thought.”

Lin Xian nodded. “I have the blueprint now, but I’ve never built anything this complicated. I’ll try it when I get the chance.”

“Then why don’t you build it now?” KIKI stared at him with her big, beautiful eyes.

Lin Xian poked her on the forehead. “Build my ass. Can’t you see we’re still on the run? Even if I were to build it, I’d have to finish the new car’s armor first.”

He certainly knew that a robot could help improve efficiency, but Lin Xian also knew from the blueprint that this thing was not easy for his current mechanical manufacturing level. He had to start from the basic chip control architecture, and there was also the Hall electric thruster. Building it would require material conversion and preparation. From a practical point of view, since he was in a dangerous environment, his first priority was definitely to get the train cars sorted out. These precision items could be built slowly inside the cars.

“Okay, then my car number two also needs a good renovation.”

“How do you want to renovate it?”

“A bed, a bathroom, and the central control server for the nuclear-powered locomotive, isn’t that supposed to be moved over? It definitely needs to be rearranged.”

Lin Xian raised an eyebrow in approval. “Fine. If there’s enough time, I’m also planning to renovate the entire interior.”

KIKI was overjoyed. “Hee hee, you’re so nice.”

Just then, Lu Xingchen walked over, shirtless.

“Brother Lin, in car number five, this venerable one needs a dressing room, a tea maker, and a few well-fitting shirts. I wonder if Brother Lin would be willing to lend a hand…”