Chapter 26: Craftsman, Nightmare, Fierce, God, Demon |
What would a camp with more than one hundred thousand people look like?
In truth, Luo Ming, Shi Qing, and the other five simply could not imagine it.
But as leaders, each in charge of a camp of several hundred people, they understood clearly what a population exceeding one hundred thousand meant.
It meant massive amounts of food, extremely high security costs, and countless Frost Beast flesh and blood...
“No, more than a hundred thousand people—could such a huge cave even be found?”
Shi Qing could not help but voice his biggest doubt.
Humans cannot be exposed to sunlight, so at the very least, these hundred thousand people would have to hide.
Is it even possible to find such a vast cave?
Like talking about ice to a summer insect, or the sea to a well frog.
“Not all humans have to live in the shadows. If one day among you, someone is lucky enough to gain the qualification to enter Beishuo Town, then you will understand.”
After saying this, Yang Ning paused, then continued to talk to himself, “Of course, for you few, this possibility basically does not exist.”
When Luo Ming, Shi Qing, and the other four heard this, their expressions instantly darkened.
Compared to Shi Qing, Luo Ming understood Yang Ning’s words even better.
Rogge Camp is the only medium-sized camp around Redwood Ridge.
The other eight camps had almost all asked him before to merge with them.
But he simply dared not accept it—or rather, could not accept it.
Although he knew that the more population a camp had, the better.
But the premise for expansion was strength.
Strength meant the ability to obtain more resources, support more people, and hunt more Frost Beast flesh to cultivate more practitioners.
Unfortunately, Rogge Camp’s strength was far from enough to support expansion.
Rogge Camp had a total of five Digging Realm cultivators and forty-seven Lumberjack Realm cultivators. The monthly Frost Beast flesh they hunted was barely enough to sustain their own people. If other small camps merged in, the Frost Beast meat would be completely insufficient.
Moreover, once merged, it would mean more ordinary people with rapidly increasing demand for Crystal Fruits. They would have to increase foraging frequency to find more Crystal Fruit Trees, which carried risks.
Most importantly, the strongest cultivators in those small camps were only Lumberjack Realm, with no hunting ability at all. Their joining would not only fail to improve hunting strength but would also squeeze the original Frost Beast meat supply of the camp.
Therefore, when other camps proposed merging, it wasn’t just Luo Ming himself—almost everyone in Rogge Camp refused.
The rule was clear: only with enough strength could expansion happen, then use the population advantage to nurture more strong practitioners, repeating this cycle to make the camp stronger and larger.
Blind expansion would only make the camp unwieldy. In the end, even if they were not slaughtered by Frost Beasts and Abominations, internal strife and mutual slaughter could break out.
By analogy, the Beishuo Town that Yang Ning and Li Hu spoke of certainly had more than one hundred thousand people, but it would absolutely not randomly recruit outsiders. The “qualification” they mentioned must be extremely stringent.
Shi Qing didn’t even need to think further. Even though Luo Ming possessed Digging Realm strength, Yang Ning and Li Hu, at their young age, were much stronger than him. The strength of Beishuo Town was enough to glimpse the whole from a part, so they probably wouldn’t look favorably upon him.
Besides, the two were leaders of their own camps.
They could not abandon their families and comrades to join other camps alone.
“Enough. Talking to you all this much is useless. Didn’t Leader Luo just ask about that Wood Puppet Abomination? Let me explain.”
When Yang Ning said he was going to talk about the Abominations, Luo Ming and Shi Qing immediately perked up their ears.
“Long ago, the Ice Abyss was not like it is today.
Back then, daytime lasted not only twelve hours but the temperature wasn’t as low as now.
Among Frost Beasts, the vast majority were not as cunning and powerful as they are today. Not to mention devouring humans—back then, almost ninety-nine percent of Frost Beasts were just food for us humans.
And as for those Abominations, none existed at all.
During that time, humans could freely move about day and night.
Rumors said the Ice Abyss then had four seasons alternating, heat and cold cycling, and a pleasant climate;
Humans wielded various powerful tools and were the undisputed overlords of the Ice Abyss;
The land was fertile and arable everywhere, with more food than could be eaten;
At that time…
Clothing, food, shelter, and transportation were perfect, humans lived in peace and prosperity, and civilization flourished.
During that era, not to mention a hundred thousand people—there were even many large settlements with millions or tens of millions of people.”
Hearing Yang Ning’s description, Luo Ming, Shi Qing, and the others were all stunned.
Millions and tens of millions—the concept was beyond their comprehension.
Day and night, free movement—those eight words alone felt like a dream to them.
Ninety-nine percent of Frost Beasts were merely human food?
Clothing, food, shelter, and transportation perfect, peaceful living, flourishing civilization—
What kind of dreamlike scene must that have been?
It is difficult for people to imagine things they have never seen or experienced, but that does not affect their yearning and pursuit of a better life.
The world Yang Ning described was, in the eyes of Luo Ming, Shi Qing, and the others, no different from a celestial palace or heaven.
“To correspond with today’s Ice Abyss world, we generally call that period the Ancient Abyss Era, or the Prehistoric Civilization.
No one knows what happened in the Ancient Abyss Era, what the Prehistoric Civilization encountered, or how our world became like today.
Some say humans angered the gods and the Ancient Abyss was punished by divine retribution; others say humans did many forbidden things themselves, causing the appearance of Frost Beasts and Abominations, and eventually climate and time changed. The exact reason is unknown.
But what is certain is that after the Ancient Abyss Era vanished and civilization collapsed, Abominations and Frost Beasts became humanity’s nightmare.”
Though this was largely exposition, Yang Ning spoke with great emotion.
Clearly, even he had a strong longing for the Ancient Abyss Era he had never experienced.
“No one knows exactly how Abominations came to be, but it is certain they all originate from the Ancient Abyss Era, because only from them can we find evidence of the Ancient Abyss Era’s existence.
Abominations are divided into five types: Craftsman, Nightmare, Fierce, God, and Demon.
The Craftsman Abomination is one of them. They were many highly skilled professional artisans during the Ancient Abyss Era who transformed into Abominations. They kill with bizarre and mysterious methods.
Like the Wood Puppet Abomination that appeared in Redwood Ridge—it should be a puppeteer artisan from the Ancient Abyss Era, skilled in making and controlling all sorts of puppets, favoring carving humanoid wooden puppets to mimic humans and gain their trust, while it hides in the shadows controlling the puppets to kill.”
At this point, Yang Ning paused and added, “All Abominations evolve by killing continuously.
Take this Wood Puppet Abomination as an example: the puppets it creates now only have the strength of a Lumberjack Realm cultivator, but as it kills more people, both it and its puppets become stronger.
Beishuo Town once hunted a mid-level Craftsman Abomination, which we named the Tailor Abomination.
It wielded a pair of scissors that could shred dozens of Digging Realm humans into pieces in an instant;
It also had a set of needles and threads, and once before my eyes, it sewed shut all seven orifices of a Warmth Realm expert.
Not long after, that Warmth Realm expert suffocated to death.”
Warmth Realm...
The first time hearing those three words, Luo Ming and Shi Qing had some guesses but still showed confusion on their faces.
“Above the Digging Realm is the Warmth Realm. It is called this because at this stage, a person can resist the daytime cold and move outside.”
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