Chapter 42: The Legendary Figure - Luo Feng (5) |
When it came to fame around Redwood Ridge, no one surpassed Luo Feng.
The reason was simple—before him, the entire Redwood Ridge area had no Digging Realm experts and no mid-sized camps.
In the early days, Redwood Ridge had sixteen small camps.
Twenty years ago, Luo Feng broke through to the Digging Realm, becoming the first qualified hunter in the vicinity. He then led Rogge Camp to continuous expansion. Soon, two other struggling camps voluntarily sought to merge.
Logically, merging with other camps should have been beneficial—after all, more people meant greater strength. But reality proved otherwise.
With ample resources, everyone knew expanding the population would boost the camp's overall strength. But for the barely surviving small camps around Redwood Ridge, "ample resources" was nothing but a distant dream.
At that time, Luo Feng had just broken through, and Rogge Camp's own people were still struggling to survive, waiting for him to hunt Frost Beasts so more could reach the Lumberjack Realm. Why would they agree to absorb other camps?
Even the smallest camp had at least a hundred or two people—merging would mean feeding three to four hundred mouths overnight.
No one expected Luo Feng to agree to the merger. Even if he personally consented, the rest of Rogge Camp would never allow it.
Those two camps were already on the verge of collapse, with only six Lumberjack Realm fighters between them. The remaining three hundred-plus members had no cultivation. Everyone assumed Luo Feng was being naively compassionate, disregarding his own camp's survival.
With such a sudden population surge, Rogge Camp surely wouldn't last long.
But they were wrong again. Not only did Rogge Camp survive, but Lumberjack Realm fighters began sprouting like bamboo shoots after rain. In just a few years, their numbers grew from over ten to thirty.
It wasn’t just strength—coal mining, iron extraction, and even daily life in Rogge Camp rapidly outpaced neighboring camps at an unimaginable pace. Eventually, they even produced new Digging Realm experts.
As Rogge Camp flourished, nearly every camp leader voluntarily proposed merging.
During Luo Feng's leadership alone, five camps—nearly a thousand people—were absorbed. This alone showed how rapidly Rogge Camp had grown under him.
Without exaggeration, everyone at the time believed Luo Feng would unite all humans around Redwood Ridge, transforming Rogge Camp into a large, perhaps even massive, settlement.
The remaining eleven camps were simply waiting for Rogge Camp's resources to grow before merging.
But an unexpected tragedy shattered both Luo Feng's legend and the hope of unification.
Fifteen years ago, Luo Feng's hunting party encountered an Abomination. The entire team perished, and though he barely escaped, he inexplicably killed his youngest son and descended into madness.
Thus fell a legend, leaving everyone in mourning.
Their grief wasn’t just for Luo Feng’s downfall—it was also for the lost hope of merging into Rogge Camp.
As expected, after Luo Ming succeeded as leader, though his leadership was commendable, it paled in comparison to Luo Feng’s.
Over the past fifteen years, only two desperately struggling camps—each with barely a hundred people—managed to merge into Rogge Camp. All other requests were flatly refused.
Not only did Luo Ming reject them, but years ago, he also gathered leaders from eight camps to delineate territories around Redwood Ridge’s outskirts, forbidding any camp from trespassing beyond their assigned zones.
This move aimed to give weaker camps a fighting chance while also crushing their hopes of merging.
No one would foolishly refuse to expand their population if possible. Everyone understood Luo Ming’s reasoning—Rogge Camp’s growth could no longer support further expansion.
As a leader, Luo Ming was widely respected. His decisions over the years had earned near-universal support from neighboring camps.
But comparisons are inevitable. With Luo Feng’s legacy looming, even Luo Ming’s best efforts felt lacking.
………………
In an instant, Shi Qing’s mind flooded with memories of Luo Feng.
Without exaggeration, even now, he idolized Luo Feng. In his younger years, he’d often fantasized about merging into Rogge Camp and fighting alongside his hero.
If it weren’t inappropriate, Shi Qing would’ve asked outright whether Luo Feng was truly insane and if he could visit him.
Seeing Luo Ming lead the way into the wooden house, Shi Qing pushed aside his thoughts and hurried inside with Shi Dong.
But before entering, Shi Dong slowly turned his head, casting a lingering glance at the small cabin.
Unlike its plain, box-like exterior, the house’s interior was surprisingly spacious.
Warm air greeted them the moment they stepped in—spring-like compared to the freezing wilderness outside.
The fifty-to-sixty-meter-wide space centered around a massive stone furnace, five to six meters in diameter, burning coal fiercely, its smoke vented through an overhead pipe.
Wooden partitions lined both sides, dividing private rooms where murmured conversations could be heard.
Behind the furnace lay the main hall, furnished with dozens of wooden chairs draped in beast pelts—a luxury that put every other camp around Redwood Ridge to shame.
It wasn’t that crafting chairs was difficult; it was proof that Rogge Camp lacked neither wood nor pelts, a feat no other camp could match.
Familiar with the routine, the group followed Luo Ming to the hall and took their seats.
Yang Ning and Li Hu strode straight to the head seats, while Luo Ming, the camp leader, settled into the third position.
Given their superior strength and leading roles in battling the Abomination, this seating arrangement had held for the past half-month, so no one objected.
As silence lingered after everyone sat, Luo Ming glanced at Yang Ning and Li Hu, then stood.
"Leader Shi has decided to leave. Boulder Camp truly can’t endure any more. If anything happens to these two, hundreds in their camp won’t survive. I can’t persuade them to stay."
Hearing this, Shi Qing clasped his hands in gratitude.
Luo Ming nodded before addressing Hong Gang and the other three leaders.
"I won’t waste words trying to convince you four. The Wood Puppet Abomination is beyond our current strength to handle.
Once these two leave, all our camps will suffer.
Whether you stay or go is your choice—I won’t stop you.
But one thing must be clear: if all four of you withdraw, I’ll have no choice but to bid farewell to our two protectors. Expecting Rogge Camp alone to defeat that Abomination is impossible."
After a pause, he added gravely,
"In the worst case, I’ll have to relocate my entire camp elsewhere to survive."
The moment Luo Ming finished speaking, Hong Gang and the other three leaders’ expressions darkened.