Chapter 178: Chapter 177: Survival Showdown Begins!

The next day, it was time for the survival challenge to begin. Ling Chengyan arrived at the meeting point with her backpack.

All the participants in this survival challenge were company-level officers, totaling twelve people. Ling Chengyan was the only woman.

People arrived one after another. Zhou Lixin took the initiative to greet Ling Chengyan: “Company Leader Ling, how is your preparation?”

Ling Chengyan nodded: “Prepared as best as I could.”

The current society is much more advanced than during the Great Qi era, with things like medicine, lighters, watches, and compasses, and of course, advanced firearms.

With these items, anyone with some training can take on the challenge of wilderness survival.

Of course, Ling Chengyan is participating in a survival competition this time, and the eleven individuals in front of her are all her rivals.

The vicinity of Huicheng has no vast forests, and large wild beasts disappeared long ago. It’s in the north, so there aren’t many snakes, insects, rodents, or ants… Over the next three days, her biggest enemies will indeed be these competitors.

Zhou Lixin discreetly took out a box of unopened compressed cookies and handed it to Ling Chengyan: “This will help with hunger.”

Ling Chengyan glanced at him but didn’t take it: “I prepared my food according to the regulations.”

The contest rules require each participant to bring only one jug of water and a meal’s worth of food, with the food’s weight not exceeding 500 grams.

So she brought homemade lard fried noodles and some smoked donkey jerky prepared by Wang Liansheng.

Zhou Lixin didn’t feel embarrassed, smiled, and put the compressed cookies away.

With everyone present, Political Commissioner He and Staff Officer Xing took charge. Once everyone was named, they led the participants onto a liberation truck.

The truck roared out of the courtyard, heading east.

Zhou Lixin continued to sit next to Ling Chengyan. Watching the scenery outside the truck, he whispered: “As expected, they plan to drop us on the eastern mudflat.”

Huicheng is near the sea, a little over 100 miles north to the coast, and less than 300 miles east along the Yellow River to the shore. The key point is, the north has a higher population density, with salt marshlands where even small forests are hard to find. The east is more untamed, with vast undeveloped lands aside from a few large farms, abundant with vegetation and trees, making it easier for challengers to find food and shelter amid the challenge.

Ling Chengyan estimated that, given the pace of a normal person, covering 100 miles a day is about the limit. At over 200 miles, three days seemed just right.

However, Ling Chengyan soon realized they all guessed wrong when the truck, after driving over 20 miles east, turned south and entered the mountainous area an hour later.

Everyone on the truck had a grim look, although there weren’t large beasts like tigers or bears, wild boars were present, and there could be wolves. Mountain weather is unpredictable, especially in the rainy season. In case of heavy rain, not only would physical exhaustion and difficult progress occur, but flash floods might also be triggered.

In conclusion, this survival challenge was more difficult than they imagined.

In fact, there wasn’t much they could change, and after two more hours, the truck stopped after passing a winding mountain road.

Staff Officer Xing and Political Commissioner He’s jeep followed the truck and stopped. Their attendants came forward to check each person’s backpack, ensuring the food and water met the standards, and confirmed each person carried only ten bullets — another contest regulation. As for weapon types, there were no restrictions. Most chose the most advanced semi-autos, except for Ling Chengyan, who carried a standard sidearm.

Unlike others, besides a military knife, Ling Chengyan prepared a rope, a machete, and a polished stick. If not for her clothing and weapons, one might think she was a woodsman going to chop wood in the mountains.

Political Commissioner He stood with his hands behind his back while Staff Officer Xing announced the challenge route: Starting from here, crossing three mountains to reach the deepest point of Mopan Ridge, retrieve the pass at the mountain top station, and return, with a straight-line distance of 80 kilometers.

If it were flat ground, 80 kilometers in three days round trip wouldn’t be difficult. But in the mountains, the straight-line distance of 80 could translate into over a hundred or even two hundred, which is hard to count.

There’s an old saying: “Looking at mountains will run a horse to death!”

With permission to start, Ling Chengyan didn’t hesitate at all, taking the simple map provided, determining direction, she set off.

The initial stretch had a few miles of gravel road, but not far along, some people already left the road to enter the forests on either side.

Clearly, they confirmed the path leading to the relay station. Though the road could lead there, it required too much detouring — convenient for driving, but using legs, they naturally took the shortcut.

Of course, the consequence of taking a shortcut was encountering difficult trails, lacking clear mountain paths, forcing them to traverse through woods and underbrush.

From the beginning, Zhou Lixin tried to get close, originally thinking of teaming up with Ling Chengyan, moving together. But unexpectedly, after a few steps, Ling Chengyan silently left the mountain trail. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared into the forest.

His plan to ally naturally fell through, yet he only felt a slight regret, not a significant sense of loss.

Survival competition allowed alliances, so he considered finding someone reliable who wouldn’t be a drag. After observing for days he picked Ling Chengyan, but never anticipated she had no intention of forming an alliance.

The reason Ling Chengyan left the road and entered the woods was because she noticed several inconspicuous little dots on the map. These were unmarked, like accidental marks from the map maker. Ling Chengyan felt one might be a mistake, but several… the likelihood of error was lower.

Happily, there was one nearby, so she broke away from the group, deciding to investigate.

Entering the forest and advancing not too far, she found a shallow mountain gorge with a stream gently flowing.

Ling Chengyan checked her direction; the black dot and relay station were aligned, so she followed the creek upstream, roughly where it led.

She took a pencil from her pocket and marked the creek on the map. Walking along the creek, she wouldn’t worry about a lack of drinking water.

The creek banks were moist, plants particularly abundant. Ling Chengyan used her stick to push away grass ahead and on both sides, a technique called “disturbing the grass to startle snakes.”

Sure enough, after advancing about two kilometers, she startled a brown snake with black bands on its back.

Ling Chengyan frowned, lifted the snake with her stick, and tossed it far away. She recognized it — it was a type commonly found in the northern area, a viper.

She once read that there was an island called Snake Island in Liao Land, inhabited by thousands of venomous snakes, most being this type of viper.

If she wasn’t uninterested in snake meat, this big snake could’ve been enough for two meals. A slight pity.

After bypassing a short cliff and traversing a rocky field, Ling Chengyan took out the map again to check, confirming she’d reached the location marked as the first black dot.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep