Chapter 1, The Bitter Winter World |
The fierce wind ravaged, snow swirling across the sky.
Under the shroud of night, the towering trees covered in white snow stood like imposing iron towers, unmoving against the wind.
To the east of Redwood Ridge, outside an inconspicuous cave.
Xia Hong took a traditional long fist stance, adjusted his breathing, then his eyes suddenly sharpened as he swiftly threw a punch.
After all, standing at one meter ninety tall, though not heavily muscled, he was tall and sturdy. After a set of punches, snowflakes immediately danced in the air around him.
Suddenly, a young boy with a youthful face emerged from the cave. Upon seeing Xia Hong, admiration clearly showed on the boy’s face.
“Brother, you’re about to break through to Lumberjack level, right?”
“Almost there. Should only take about a month.”
“Tsk, you’re amazing. Father said that before eighteen, only three geniuses among the nine surrounding camps have broken through to Lumberjack level. You’ll be the fourth.”
Seeing the admiration on his younger brother Xia Chuan’s face, Xia Hong felt pleased inside, but after calming down, he shook his head slightly.
“Breaking through to Lumberjack level is nothing. Over at Rogue Camp, they even have Earth Diggers. Those are the real strong ones.”
Upon hearing “Earth Digger,” Xia Chuan’s face instantly lit up with longing.
“Rogue Camp has five Earth Diggers. It’s said they mine over a thousand jin of coal every day for the camp. Not only do they not need to burn wood for heat, but they also use coal furnaces to forge sharp weapons. Hunting low-level Frost Beasts is easy for them.”
Xia Hong nodded slightly and said, “After all, it’s a medium-sized camp with over five hundred people. Without some strength, the Frost Beasts in Redwood Ridge wouldn’t let them live so comfortably.”
“It’s a pity Father is injured; otherwise, he’d be an Earth Digger by now. If our Dashan Camp had coal, maybe it would have become a medium camp long ago.”
The recognized standards for a medium camp are threefold: first, a population over five hundred; second, possession of Earth Digger level experts; third, the ability to withstand low-level Frost Beast tides.
Dashan Camp currently only has 239 people, with thirteen Lumberjack level fighters.
With this level of strength, forget about the Frost Beast tide—if even one slightly stronger mid-level Frost Beast appears, the entire camp would become prey.
“Rogue Camp is too stingy. If only they’d sell us some coal.”
“Coal isn’t just for heating and smelting iron. It can also be used as currency to trade for advanced supplies at the Giant Camp. Rogue Camp doesn’t even have enough for themselves; they won’t give any to us. Besides, we’re such a small camp; we have nothing valuable to trade with them.”
More importantly, if the other camps around Redwood Ridge also had coal, Rogue Camp’s safety and weapon advantages would vanish.
The safety advantage attracts population, and weapon superiority ensures military dominance. With these two advantages, Rogue Camp is unquestionably the king around Redwood Ridge. Selling coal to other camps would be like sabotaging themselves.
As a transmigrator, Xia Hong naturally saw things more long-term than Xia Chuan.
A month ago, after crossing over, from initial panic to now calm acceptance, Xia Hong had suffered no small shock.
This world was full of dangers.
Danger did not only come from the special species called Frost Beasts.
There was also the climate and all sorts of unheard-of phenomena.
This world had only bitter winter, no other seasons.
And the winter temperatures here were far more terrifying than on Blue Star.
By Xia Hong’s unprofessional estimation, nighttime temperatures dropped at least below minus seventy degrees Celsius, making it impossible for normal humans to survive.
Even more absurdly, daytime was colder than night.
Not to mention normal humans, even the ordinary people of this world would freeze to death if they had no way to keep warm during the day.
Fortunately, daytime only lasted four hours, so humans mostly operated at night. This was why Xia Hong practiced martial arts under the cover of darkness.
Also, because daytime was colder, Frost Beasts were more active, more aggressive, and their strength was several times stronger than at night.
Therefore, humans generally chose to hunt and gather supplies at night.
If anyone else had transmigrated to such a perilous bitter winter world, they would have broken down long ago.
But Xia Hong not only quickly adapted, he was even excited inside.
Because before crossing over, he was a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Xia Hong was born into a martial arts family, orphaned young, trained in martial arts and fitness from childhood, and had much healthier habits than most.
But fate played its cruelest joke by giving him an incurable disease.
In his final days, Xia Hong stopped training and, while he could still move his hands, immersed himself in mobile games until bedridden.
Knowing he was soon to lose all mobility, he chose a sunny day to end his life.
The result was, he arrived in this world and became the current Xia Hong.
Though this world was full of dangers, he was grateful to be living a second life, let alone having such a strong, young body.
One meter ninety-one tall, weighing over ninety kilograms, with a slim waist and muscular arms, and just over sixteen years old.
According to online descriptions from his previous life, this body was a genuine martial arts saint body.
When he first crossed over, though young and strong, his strength was only about two thousand jin.
But the legendary Blue Star boxing champion Tyson was said to have a strength of only eight hundred kilograms, equivalent to sixteen hundred jin.
At first, Xia Hong didn’t understand and thought he was very strong.
It wasn’t until he personally witnessed an adult woman in the camp casually lift a five to six hundred kilogram giant tree that he realized:
This world’s average person was a supreme version of Tyson.
It made sense; humans are products of their environment.
In such an extremely cold climate, if people didn’t evolve accordingly, survival would be impossible.
Realizing his own weakness, Xia Hong dared not slack off.
His martial arts from his previous life were useful here.
To be practical, he chose a set of Tai Zu Long Fist. In just one month, combined with Frost Beast flesh, his strength rose to four thousand jin. According to his father Xia Ding, the threshold for Lumberjack level at five thousand jin was almost within reach.
“With Lumberjack level strength, I can join the lumberjack team and at least see the world outside the camp.”
Back in his previous life, five thousand jin of strength was superhuman.
But in this world, it just meant being able to cut trees.
That’s right, Lumberjack level meant exactly that.
At this level, you could go—chop wood!
“Brother, Father is back!”
Suddenly, Xia Chuan shouted, pointing toward the Redwood Ridge forest.
Xia Hong looked up. A group of twelve people was quickly emerging from deep within the forest. They were divided into six pairs, each pair carrying a towering tree over twenty meters long, one in front and one behind.
When all six pairs with six trees fully emerged from the woods, and seeing a burly figure at the rear, Xia Hong and Xia Chuan both smiled.
According to their father Xia Ding, every outing was a desperate battle.
It was a cause for celebration if everyone returned safely and none were missing.
However, as the thirteen lumberjacks approached, Xia Hong and Xia Chuan noticed the serious, uneasy expressions on their faces, not joy.
The two hurried to meet them. Xia Hong asked directly,
“Father, what’s wrong?”
“How much longer until dawn?”
Xia Ding’s voice contained a clear forced calm, clearly masking extreme inner fear.
But Xia Hong quickly glanced at the sky, observing the moon’s position, then answered,
“Only about fifteen minutes left.”
“Hurry, get inside the camp and put out the bonfires. No fires can be lit.”
Upon hearing this, Xia Hong’s pupils dilated in shock, his face full of confusion.
“Father, putting out bonfires during the day will freeze everyone to death.”
Daytime was colder than nighttime. Even hiding in caves without fire to warm up would definitely freeze people to death.
Xia Ding was the camp leader and knew this better than anyone. Why would he suddenly say this?
“The Abomination from Redwood Ridge has appeared!”
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