Cave Refuge

After sowing the bamboo seeds, Dong Tianyu felt that the concentration of Spirit Power in the air within the Cave mansion had slightly increased. Although the increase in concentration was not high, it indeed had increased.

Since this was a good development, Dong Tianyu surely wanted to find out the reason behind it. Whether it was due to a passive increase in the concentration of Spirit Energy in the Cave mansion after the upgrade, or it was caused by some other reason.

The first thing Dong Tianyu checked was the Spiritual Spring. After all, the initial construction of the Spiritual Spring had activated the dormant Spirit Energy inside the Cave mansion.

Walking to the edge of the Spiritual Spring, he could clearly feel that the concentration of Spirit Energy at this spot was slightly higher than in other places within the Cave mansion. The spring water gushing out from underground seemed to bring out the Spirit Energy from the earth's veins with its relentless surge.

Though the concentration of Spirit Energy brought out now seemed to be higher compared to before the upgrade, it was still not enough to account for the current situation.

Then, Dong Tianyu turned his gaze to the Hundred Fruit Tree not far away. Although this was a seed provided for free by the System, it was undeniable that the Hundred Fruit Tree was indeed a spiritual plant.

Contrary to Dong Tianyu's original assumption that planting spiritual plants would consume Spirit Energy, whilst they did require a certain amount of Spirit Energy to grow, once they matured, spiritual plants would slowly and continuously begin releasing Spirit Energy.

It was similar to the way plants release oxygen during photosynthesis, no wonder these kinds of spiritual plants are found in such blessed lands.

Placing his palm on the trunk of the Hundred Fruit Tree, he could sense the ripening time of each fruit on each branch. Considering the maturity time, it should be around the New Year.

After the Cave mansion had been upgraded, not only the space within the Cave mansion had expanded but the radiation impact area of the Cave mansion had also significantly increased. Hence, the previously established scavenging plan could proceed as planned.

The external temperature was still continuously dropping. Even though there was sunshine outside, the temperature had astonishingly reached around -50 degrees Celsius under seemingly warm conditions.

At this temperature, it would be impossible for an ordinary person to be active outdoors without professional cold-resistant equipment.

Perhaps because the people in the underground refuge were concentrated, the temperature in the underground shelters built by officials had only dropped to around minus ten degrees Celsius. Although it was a bit cold, one could still move around normally by dressing more warmly.

However, not everyone was prepared like the Dong family who had made preparations beforehand. Many people moved in without bringing many cold-resistant clothes, so most people in the refuge, even if they were wearing heavy clothing, had to wrap themselves tightly with blankets for warmth.

In such conditions though, the underground shelters actually became much quieter, with everyone doing their best to minimize their body's heat consumption, hoping to safely get through this difficult time.

At this crucial moment, the officials initiated a long-planned emergency response plan.

Just after the temperature dropped, the experiment group from the officials discovered that newly made electronic devices could operate normally.

In just three days, all official refuges of Pengcheng could communicate with each other.

By the fourth day, Pengcheng had already restored contact with the decision-making layer of the nation.

Without many people noticing, the cities within the nation which had been relatively independently governing, once again returned to a state of unified command by the decision-making layer.

Because they had prepared for this beforehand, the shelters had undergone some special changes when they were initially transformed in order to be capable of dealing with such situations.

Due to the short timeframe, they could only make use of the existing conditions for the transformation.

Even if they hadn't seen a traditional heated bed, most people should have heard about it; the main principle was to use the heat produced from burning fuel to raise the temperature of the room,

Normally, to achieve the best results, the flue was usually hidden under the bed or within the walls.

In a shelter like this, which had been converted from underground facilities, if you were to construct a new flue, it would be a massive project which couldn't be completed in one or two months.

So, when transforming the shelter, they used a shortcut by splitting the ventilation ducts into two parts.

Half were reserved for normal ventilation and air changes, and the other half was used for heating and smoke exhaust.

The benefit of this was that it warmed the originally cold fresh air before it entered the shelter, so it was no longer freezing and piercing.

The downside was the huge loss of hot air—the flue made from ventilation ducts was not well sealed, and when it dissipated heat, it was neutralized by the cold outside air.

This not only wasted a lot of the heat in the flue but also generated large quantities of condensate in the ventilation ducts.

Theoretically, this condensate produced by the interchange of heat and cold was really pure, but in reality, it became somewhat muddy after passing through the iron pipes.

However, even though it was not fit for drinking directly, it was more than sufficient for daily use.

The appearance of this condensation greatly alleviated the water resource pressure in the underground refuge.

Although pressure from water resources was no longer an issue, the pressure on the coal resources used for heating had greatly increased.

Most refuges had only enough coal to last for about a week. If the officials did not come up with a solution, the temperature in most underground refuges was estimated to drop to around minus twenty or thirty degrees Celsius.

The difficulty of cultivating Qi was much tougher than Dong Tianyu had imagined. It was almost ten days, and he was still fluctuating at the third level of Qi cultivation, and had not yet touched the edge of the fourth level.

Leaving the gate of the refuge, Dong Tianyu took out a bicycle from the Shadow Space, intending to ride it downhill. Who would have thought that just as he sat down and pushed off, the bike shattered.

Seeing this, Dong Tianyu knew that the outside temperature was too low, and that steel would become brittle at extremely low temperatures. Looking at the shattered bicycle on the ground, he picked up the pieces in line with his principle of not wasting anything and stored them in the Cave mansion.

Dong Tianyu looked at the winding downhill road and fell into deep thought. The refuge was built on a mountainside, and vehicles used to be available for going up and down the mountain.

Even when the electromagnetic pulse destroyed electronic devices, at least bicycles were available to commute up and down the mountain.

Unexpectedly, now that vehicles were gone, going up and down the mountain had become Dong Tianyu's greatest problem.

Thinking about this, Dong Tianyu suddenly thought of a solution. Although he didn't know if it would be successful, he had to try. Otherwise, commuting up and down the mountain would indeed be a real problem in the future.

Returning to the refuge, he asked the System, which offered an excellent option: Shadow Evasion.

Shadow Evasion: uses the characteristics of the Shadow Space to move anywhere within the radiation range of the Cave mansion.

Seeing this introduction, Dong Tianyu thought to himself: isn't this just teleportation within the radiation range of the Cave mansion!

Unfortunately upon seeing the cost of activating this ability, Dong Tianyu instantly dismissed this thought. Although the first digit was only a three, the string of zeroes after it made Dong Tianyu lose interest in calculating.