Industrial Cthulhu doesn't believe in the end times.

Chapter 214 You're exhausting me!
The visitor was Su Xun. After confirming the plan for dealing with the alien corpses with Xu Huan, he personally led a team to accompany him, firstly to protect his safety, and secondly to scout out the situation of the troops on the battlefield.

After the trip, he gained a deeper understanding of the team's current situation.

The military reforms have yielded significant results, with superhumans becoming more widely integrated into the military. Many teams composed entirely of superhumans are active on the battlefield, accomplishing numerous challenging missions and making the military generally more composed when facing the enemy.

Meanwhile, ordinary people who have not yet reached the extraordinary level are increasingly unable to keep up with the pace of the battlefield.

Wars against supernatural beings, while not as unpredictable as those between humans, are often a fight to the death, which can drag on for an extremely long time, making it difficult for ordinary people to even sustain their physical strength.

The most obvious problem now is the artillery force. This force is their greatest reliance after the Great Cataclysm, and its overall size has been expanding. With such a large size, it is naturally impossible for it to be composed entirely of people with superpowers.

Ordinary soldiers suffered muscle strains and injuries from dropping shells while carrying them; such incidents occurred in every unit, and there were even cases of shells accidentally exploding and causing casualties.

Should ordinary people be kicked out of the military? That's neither realistic nor appropriate. To solve this problem, the entire population, or at least the entire military, needs to become extraordinary. This task needs to be put on the agenda.

Fortunately, once the alien species here are defeated and more spiritual energy crystals are mined in the secret realm, the progress of this matter will be greatly accelerated.

In addition, the mental state of the soldiers also needs to be taken seriously. After the cataclysm, the fighting has never stopped. In the past, wars between humans would often require a long period of rest and recuperation after a battle, which could last for months or even years. But now the situation is different. There is only the difference between large-scale and small-scale fighting, but there is no such thing as stopping.

Of course, this problem is easy to solve: rotation, publicity, and appropriate incentives. Dongfang is an expert in this area. He had spoken with Qin Chang about this before, and some measures are being deployed.

Approaching the campfire, he saluted the soldiers.

"Hello, comrades."

"Hello, Chief!"

"Sit down. By the way, call those two soldiers on the hillside down to warm up by the fire. It's really too cold here."

Wang Peng replied, "Sir, they're on duty right now, this..."

"Let my men go and relieve them first." Su Xun turned and gestured, and the two guards nodded and turned to go up the hillside.

Su Xun approached the campfire, and the flames flickered even more intensely. Moreover, a rather warm breeze wafted around the fire.

Su Xun was sitting directly opposite the frostbitten soldier. He looked at the soldier's face and asked, "Have you applied any medicine?"

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, it's been painted!"

The soldier looked quite nervous, but Su Xun waved his hand and said, "Just say a few words, there's no need to shout so loudly, just speak normally."

Several soldiers around him grinned, and the atmosphere on the scene became more relaxed.

Su Xun accompanied Xu Huan to deal with the alien corpses on the battlefield. When they encountered small teams like Wang Peng's, it was just a matter of chance. There was really nothing to ask; they just chatted for a few minutes to get a sense of the situation.

The water on the campfire had boiled. Xu Huan took out a piece of ginger from his pocket, peeled two pieces, threw them in, and had everyone share them.

Knowing the plight of the soldiers on the front lines, he carried this piece of ginger with him and would often use his spiritual power to stimulate a portion of it. Everyone took cups, shared the ginger, and drank it, feeling as if their whole bodies had been warmed up.

"Old Xu's ginger is very effective. Could you get more and distribute it to the troops?"

The old man rolled his eyes: "You'll exhaust me to death." But he didn't refuse.

Su Xun smiled and thanked Xu Huan. He then took out a spiritual energy crystal from his pocket, gently squeezed it, and the crystal crumbled into powder. He then handed it to class monitor Wang Peng.

"Some people in the team have frostbite. Apply this to them later; it should help them heal faster."

"This, Commander, let's leave this to the regular soldiers in the artillery. Their frostbite is more severe. We can handle this!"

One crystal is worth a thousand revival coins, which is still commonly referred to as a thousand yuan. It doesn't sound like much, but nowadays steamed buns are priced by the cent, so the purchasing power of a thousand yuan is incomparable to that before the Great Cataclysm.

Moreover, in many cases, even a thousand revival coins cannot buy a single spiritual crystal.

Su Xun glanced at him: "It's not you who got hurt, so why are you refusing on behalf of others?"

"Commander-in-Chief, that's not what I meant!"

The soldier with frostbite said, "Yes, sir, let's leave it to our comrades in the artillery. My little injury is nothing."

“Frostbite is no small matter. If it doesn’t heal properly, you’ll get frostbite every year.” Su Xun shook his head: “Don’t worry, after killing so many alien species, it’s time for us to crystallize freely.”

“Spiritual energy crystals are for human use. Use them sparingly where you can and spend them where you can. They’re good for healing wounds. The artillery has already been given more supplies, so you don’t need to worry about them.”

Cheng Rui had previously raised three questions with him. The first was about extreme weather changes, which Tao Yue had been tasked with resolving, and the results had been quite good.

Secondly, there's the issue of dealing with the alien corpses on the battlefield. This is currently being addressed. Xu Huan's abilities are highly effective on these aliens, proving to be very suitable. This frequent training of his abilities, coupled with his in-depth exploration of his own abilities at the Institute of Botany, has allowed him to reach the threshold of the fifth rank, making him another fifth-rank member of the legion after Yin Danyi.

Reaching the fifth rank has its own threshold and is not easy. Practical experience is indispensable, but more importantly, it requires a combination and understanding of one's own abilities and knowledge. Although people like Xiao Zhenru have already reached the fourth rank, they are still somewhat inferior to Xu Huan in the latter aspect.

But it's not much different.

Su Xun's trip with Xu Huan this time was more like taking him to gain practical combat experience. The alien corpses did not resist, but Xu Huan's ability was used in the same way. The fruits of the catalytic plants followed behind them, being hauled to the Taimon base one truckload after another, and now they have filled many warehouses.

Sometimes the transportation speed can't even keep up with their processing speed, and in some areas vehicles can't pass. As a last resort, Xu Huan has been pouring more spiritual energy into that peach pit, and the peach pit seems to accept it all without reservation, looking insatiable.

Having absorbed so much spiritual energy, Su Xun was starting to look forward to seeing what it would eventually look like.

Yin Danyi only said it was a tree seed, which seemed to leave something unsaid, but...

It can't be the legendary peach tree, can it?

As for the last problem, which is to solve the issue of frostbite among the soldiers in extreme environments, Su Xun's solution is to use spiritual energy crystals.

As long as there are enough spiritual energy crystals, no problem is a problem.

Although this would consume a huge amount of spiritual energy crystals for the entire force, what could they do when they had killed so many alien species?
The crystals inside the alien body are relatively pure. Applying a small amount externally will at most cause dizziness for a while and will not leave any sequelae.

Furthermore, as I said before, once the crystals in the secret realm are unearthed, Su Xun is worried about the rapid devaluation of the currency. Can money spent on warriors really be called spending?
Of course, using spiritual energy crystals is a treatment for frostbite, but it's only a temporary fix and doesn't address the root cause. To completely solve this problem, we need to find another way.

(End of this chapter)