Chapter 139: Resource Shortage, Camp Changes |
"Leader, is the Warmth Realm very difficult to break through?"
Xia Chuan asked twice before Xia Hong snapped back to reality. Seeing everyone's curious expressions, he didn't hold back and directly told them the method to break through to the Warmth Realm.
Of course, it was the normal method of using small amounts of Frost Beast blood gradually, not like his approach of directly using a hundred jin. These people didn't have a system like he did.
"Using small amounts... then Leader, what about your..." After hearing Xia Hong's method, Luo Yuan immediately looked confused and pointed at the large wooden barrel in the room.
Everyone else also reacted, their expressions matching his.
Xia Hong had just said that only small amounts of Frost Beast blood could be used at once. If the dosage was too large, the pain would be unbearable for normal people.
So what did it mean that he had used over a hundred jin this time?
Xia Hong didn't know how to explain it to everyone. He couldn't just reveal the system matter directly. After thinking for a moment, he said: "My physique is different from ordinary people. When you reach the thirty thousand jin limit and try Frost Beast blood, you'll understand."
Although everyone's eyes were full of confusion, seeing that Xia Hong clearly didn't want to say more, they didn't continue asking.
He didn't know the blood content of other intermediate Frost Beasts.
But calculating based on the Snow Mane hunted last night, one Snow Mane only yielded about sixty jin of blood. Five thousand jin of beast blood would require at least eighty intermediate Frost Beasts.
Eighty intermediate Frost Beasts?
Using over a hundred jin of beast blood at once consumed one hundred thousand units of wood, over five thousand iron, and over eight thousand coal. Calculating comprehensively, if the resource consumption remained unchanged for subsequent uses, it meant that to break through to the Warmth Realm, he would need to repeat this resource consumption...
Fifty times?
"I thought I could relax a bit once I started breaking through, but instead an even larger resource gap appeared. This is simply..."
Xia Hong didn't know what to say. Looking at the piercingly cold sunlight outside the window, he shook his head incessantly, filled with helplessness.
Breaking through to the Warmth Realm was much more difficult than he had anticipated, and would clearly take much more time.
However...
Xia Hong clenched his fists tightly, feeling slightly excited, looking at his own fists as a gleam gradually appeared in his eyes.
"Correspondingly, the improvement in base strength is also terrifying!"
He turned slightly and saw that Xia Chuan's group hadn't left yet at the doorway, all looking at him curiously. His mind stirred slightly as he walked to one side of the room and lightly lifted the double-bladed giant axe leaning against the wall with one hand.
Lifting this giant axe with one hand wasn't particularly remarkable. Xia Chuan and the others all had base strength exceeding ten thousand jin, so lifting it with one hand wasn't difficult.
The problem was that the double-bladed giant axe weighing two thousand eight hundred jin felt weightless in Xia Hong's hands. Not only did he lift it with one hand, he even grabbed the axe handle and freely swung it around the room.
Whoosh... Whoosh... Whoosh...
The axe blades cutting through the air created roaring winds that instantly filled the entire room. The powerful kinetic energy generated by the swinging axe caused the wooden floor to shake violently.
Several times, when Xia Hong's axe blade nearly touched the floor, everyone couldn't help but hold their breath, afraid that one swing would directly split open the third-floor floor.
Even though he was swinging the axe with one hand, every swing from Xia Hong released powerful kinetic energy that could drive the air currents in the entire room to surge wildly.
"Just a casual swing from the Leader, I'm afraid I couldn't block it..."
Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan, and everyone else felt the air currents from the giant axe hitting their cheeks, and this thought involuntarily emerged in their minds.
After a long while, Xia Hong finally put down the giant axe and stopped.
After putting down the giant axe, he didn't even gasp for breath.
"The increase should be about two thousand five hundred jin, and this is only two percent progress. If I complete the entire skin membrane reshaping stage, what level will my base strength reach..."
Without needing to measure his strength, Xia Hong could accurately know his base strength by slightly clenching his fist and sensing the changes in his energy muscles.
"Xia Chuan fifteen thousand, Luo Yuan fourteen thousand, Zhao Long thirteen thousand..."
Not just himself. Xia Hong turned to look at Xia Chuan and the others, and by just slightly observing the movements of their energy muscles, he could immediately sense their base strength levels.
"After reshaping the skin membrane, my perception ability has greatly improved, especially regarding changes in biological energy muscles."
Xia Hong clenched his fists tightly, feeling slightly excited, looking at his own fists as a gleam gradually appeared in his eyes.
This wasn't some useless function. Previously during hunts, he could only confirm prey's strength through combat. Now he didn't need to fight at all - just observation was enough. This not only saved trouble but could avoid many risks.
Suddenly thinking of something, Xia Hong turned to look at Xia Chuan and asked:
"By the way, that Snow Mane's essence blood..."
As soon as Xia Hong mentioned essence blood, Xia Chuan knew what he wanted to ask. Before he could finish speaking, Xia Chuan immediately responded.
"Leader, don't worry. When we processed the prey three days ago, we already extracted the essence blood and had the Wooden Dummy record it. I previously instructed Tong Xinglong and the other two that from now on, any new species among the prey brought back must be handled this way."
Hearing this, Xia Hong nodded, immediately feeling relieved.
No, it wasn't just relief.
A trace of excitement even appeared in Xia Hong's eyes.
When they brought back that Snow Mane three days ago, he had been in a hurry to try Frost Beast blood and forgot about the Wooden Dummy recording essence blood. Fortunately, Xia Chuan was now very familiar with the camp buildings' functions and could handle these matters without needing instructions.
The intermediate Snow Mane's base strength should be around ninety to one hundred thousand jin. Without iron weapons, humans had absolutely no possibility of hunting them bare-handed.
Judging from his own skin membrane reshaping progress, the Warmth Realm's base strength should be above one hundred thousand jin. To single-handedly hunt intermediate Frost Beasts, probably only those at the Warmth Realm could do it.
This meant that the Wooden Dummy capable of transforming into an intermediate Snow Mane could essentially function as a Warmth Realm powerhouse within the Smelting Furnace's radiation range.
Setting aside his own breakthrough, the biggest gain from this hunt should be the Wooden Dummy's transformation.
"Moreover, unlike Frost Beasts, the Wooden Dummy won't exhaust itself as long as sufficient coal stones are provided. At the same time, as a system structure, it most likely won't be damaged. This means..."
The Great Xia Camp had gained an intermediate Snow Mane that worked diligently without complaint, never tired, couldn't be damaged by external forces, and had strength comparable to a Warmth Realm powerhouse!
Xia Hong's expression grew increasingly excited as he checked the Wooden Dummy's description:
Wooden Dummy (Level 1): Training equipment, activated by inserting coal stones, can greatly improve training speed and increase martial arts comprehension.
Special Function 1: Can record Frost Beast varieties through essence blood, transform into any Frost Beast, and exert that Frost Beast's adult form strength.
Special Function 2: When activated within the Smelting Furnace's radiation range, can follow commands and fight autonomously.
Consumption: 5 coal/hour
Upgrade Conditions: 3000 Wood, 6000 Iron
Seeing the Wooden Dummy's upgrade conditions at the end, Xia Hong immediately felt tempted.
Three thousand wood was nothing, but six thousand units of iron converted to iron ore would be sixty thousand jin. At the camp's current mining speed, it would only take about seven or eight days of full-capacity mining.
"Upgrading the Wooden Dummy should bring quite a few pleasant surprises!"
Thinking about the huge functional improvements when the Small Fire Pit upgraded to the Smelting Furnace, Xia Hong immediately felt more anticipation about upgrading the Wooden Dummy.
Actually, if not for the unexpected delay caused by this breakthrough, not just the Wooden Dummy, but the Medicine Pot, Grinding Stone, and Smelting Furnace - these three buildings - were all things Xia Hong had planned to upgrade.
Including the Bamboo Fence, Marker Stone, and Yellow Earth - these three buildings that only required wood, coal, and iron resources to activate - he had also planned to create them all.
"Given the current situation, I have to do it. Judging from the functional changes when the Small Fire Pit upgraded to the Smelting Furnace, at the very least, the Wooden Dummy should be upgraded first!"
The most pressing matter now was the unpredictable risk brought by the Mirror Immortal Camp.
Although he had released Yuwen Tao, Xia Hong hadn't relaxed his vigilance against this Mirror Immortal Camp at all. Whether Yuwen Tao's words were true or false remained to be verified. The main reason Xia Hong released him was that he didn't want to create too much conflict with the Mirror Immortal Camp.
After all, Mirror Immortal was a giant camp with a population over ten thousand, guarded by Warmth Realm powerhouses. Although Xia Hong had made fierce threats to Yuwen Tao, he clearly understood in his heart that those words' effect would definitely be minimal.
In a world like the Ice Abyss, the principle followed everywhere was undoubtedly survival of the strongest. This applied between people, and must inevitably also be the case between two camps.
But not making fierce threats wasn't an option either. From the first encounter in the Arrow Bamboo Forest, He Meng's group's proactive probing behavior and their aggressive, domineering attitude showed that if Xia Hong showed any weakness or revealed even a hint of cowardice, the final outcome would absolutely be miserable.
With the system by his side, Xia Hong was destined to be absolutely unable to bring the Great Xia people to merge into another camp.
Thinking about it this way, it was better to maintain a strong stance first to keep the other side guessing, thus buying more time. This was why Xia Hong had previously released Yuwen Tao to deliver a message back.
The time bought then was for breaking through.
Xia Hong had originally anticipated that once he broke through to the Warmth Realm, combined with the functions of system structures, the threat from the Mirror Immortal Camp would naturally resolve itself.
Unfortunately, he hadn't expected the process of breaking through to the Warmth Realm to be so complicated.
Not only was the process complicated, but the required resources were astronomical.
Breaking through in a short time was definitely impossible.
In that case, he could only pin his hopes on the system buildings.
Previously, with severely insufficient resources plus pressure from the Gnawer Rat swarm, the camp's coal and iron had almost all been invested there.
But now it was different. Even excluding Xia Hong, just the fifteen Digging Realm members could mine 12,000 coal and 6,000 iron per day if mining at full capacity. As long as they accumulated for a while, they could upgrade several buildings.
"Upgrade the Wooden Dummy first. If that doesn't work, there are other buildings. Resolving the threat from the Mirror Immortal Camp shouldn't be difficult. Resource mining must continue, and hunting intermediate Frost Beasts cannot stop!"
Actually, the Wooden Dummy capable of transforming into an intermediate Snow Mane already counted as indirectly resolving the threat from the Mirror Immortal Camp.
If it was truly as Yuwen Tao said that the Mirror Immortal Camp had two Warmth Realm powerhouses, even if they really found the Great Xia base, presumably the Wooden Dummy would be enough to make them suffer greatly, not to mention the camp had so many people and so much iron equipment.
"They wouldn't possibly bring the entire Mirror Immortal Camp through the Arrow Bamboo Forest to attack the Great Xia base at Redwood Ridge, would they?"
Thinking this, Xia Hong slightly shook his head and immediately dismissed this possibility.
In the Ice Abyss world, moving large groups of people in massive operations itself isn't a wise move, let alone to unfamiliar areas. At the very least, this Mirror Immortal Camp's strength wasn't sufficient for them to do this.
This could be seen from the two experiences dealing with them.
During He Meng's time, there were fifteen people total. Originally they should have only been active in the Arrow Bamboo Forest, but later came out after being startled by the Gnawer Rat swarm.
During Yuwen Tao's time, there were more - over twenty - but the problem was they lost many people hunting that Magic Goat.
From these two instances, it could be seen that the Mirror Immortal Camp was very unfamiliar with the situation at Redwood Ridge, hence the small number of people dispatched each time, all elite hunting team members at the Digging Realm.
Moreover, the two camps themselves didn't have any deep hatred. The Gnawer Rat swarm matter was clearly He Meng picking a fight. The only existing dispute currently was the ownership issue of the Lushang Camp territory.
"The best scenario is that the fierce threats I had Yuwen Tao bring back worked, and the other side remains honest for a while, truly not coming to Redwood Ridge. But this possibility..."
Xia Hong shook his head. This possibility almost doesn't exist.
"Without any surprises, the Mirror Immortal Camp will ignore my words. Their people will still continue hunting in Redwood Ridge. Even judging from He Meng's previously displayed personality, they will most likely continuously cross boundaries, create conflicts, and seize greater benefits from Great Xia.
After all, their strength is right there..."
Survival of the strongest - this "strongest" didn't just refer to status.
Xia Hong frowned slightly. After thinking for a moment, he quickly reached a decision in his heart.
"Avoid them. Don't concern ourselves with the Lushang territory for now. Mine resources at full capacity, upgrade buildings. At the very least, we must ensure the base's safety. Secondly, my breakthrough progress must also accelerate."
Building upgrades could at most only ensure base safety, but they couldn't just turtle in the camp without going out. To completely drive the Mirror Immortal Camp people out of Redwood Ridge, they still needed to speak with strength.
"Moreover, unlike Frost Beasts, the Wooden Dummy won't exhaust itself as long as sufficient coal stones are provided. At the same time, as a system structure, it most likely won't be damaged. This means..."
"Where are the others?"
"Stimulated by big brother, they went to do their own things - those training went to train, those mining went to mine."
"Hisss..."
Xia Hong was about to answer with a smile when his skin suddenly felt a piercing cold sensation.
Looking down at his already bluish skin, Xia Hong hurriedly closed the window and put on clothes.
Wooden Dummy (Level 1): Training equipment, activated by inserting coal stones, can greatly improve training speed and increase martial arts comprehension.
With two percent skin membrane reshaping progress, staying five or six minutes - calculating this way, just when skin membrane progress reached one hundred percent completion, he could stay for the full four hours of daylight.
Xia Hong calculated this result in his heart. Peering through the not yet fully closed window gap at the sky outside, a strange expression appeared on his face.
How did this seem calculated? Could there be some connection between the sun and the human body?
Such a complex problem was impossible for him to understand at his current strength. Since he couldn't figure it out, he stopped thinking about it. Instead, remembering something, he asked Xia Chuan:
"By the way, how are Zou Yuankai and Zhu Shun's injuries?"
During the hunt for that intermediate Snow Mane, when the Snow Mane played dead and shot out its full back of spikes, actually everyone had been injured. But Zhu Shun and Zou Yuankai were relatively unlucky, each pierced through the body by one spike, directly losing consciousness.
Now three days had passed, and their injuries were unknown.
"Zhu Shun's situation is better. He was pierced through the leg. Currently still somewhat inconvenient for walking, probably needs three to five more days. Zou Yuankai was pierced at the waist area, more serious condition. Currently still bedridden. Looks like he won't be able to get up for half a month."
A heavy expression appeared on Xia Hong's face. Although humans in the Ice Abyss world had physiques far exceeding ordinary people, and their healing abilities doubled after reaching the Lumberjack and Digging Realms, they couldn't withstand Frost Beasts being even stronger!
Whenever they went out, they would inevitably bring back injuries. This applied to both the gathering team and lumberjack team, with the hunting team's situation being especially severe.
More critically, currently the camp only had Golden Injury Powder for treatment, with no other means of medical care. No matter how severe the injury, they could only apply Golden Injury Powder and wait for self-healing.
Three thousand wood was nothing, but six thousand units of iron converted to iron ore would be sixty thousand jin. At the camp's current mining speed, it would only take about seven or eight days of full-force mining.
"By the way, notify Cheng Feng that the gathering team can search beyond five hundred meters into Redwood Ridge for more medicinal materials. Additionally, with sufficient coal stones now, have all prey harvested by the camp identified at the Medicine Pot to see if we can synthesize more medicine formulas. Relying entirely on self-healing for injuries won't do!"
Xia Chuan nodded, then remembering something, said: "By the way big brother, I've already started expanding both the gathering team and lumberjack team."
Xia Hong then remembered that he had previously ruled the lumberjack team would only accept eighty people and the gathering team only forty. Now with more and more Lumberjack Realm members in the camp, and the Artisan Workshop and Camp Supplies Office not needing that many people, expansion was indeed needed.
Thinking about the huge functional improvements when the Small Fire Pit upgraded to the Smelting Furnace, Xia Hong immediately felt more anticipation about upgrading the Wooden Dummy.
Hearing this question, Xia Chuan immediately became spirited and answered excitedly:
Actually, if not for the unexpected delay caused by this breakthrough, not just the Wooden Dummy, but the Medicine Pot, Grinding Stone, and Smelting Furnace - these three buildings - were all things Xia Hong had planned to upgrade.
Hearing this number, Xia Hong instinctively started slightly.
If he remembered correctly, around the twentieth, when he was forging the ten-dan iron-backed bow in the Forging Room, he heard it was two hundred eighty-three. Only seven days had passed, and twenty-nine more had been added.
"The speed is still increasing. The Lumberjack Realm itself doesn't have much of a threshold. The first batch who broke through were all around twenty years old, and basically all of them have broken through now.
Those breaking through now are considered the second batch, mostly aged fifteen to eighteen and over twenty-five. This batch has just started. I estimate within a month, they should all be able to break through. By then the total Lumberjack Realm count should reach over five hundred."
Hearing this, Xia Hong's face couldn't help but show an excited expression.
Five hundred Lumberjack Realm members - a year ago in the earthen slope cave, they probably wouldn't even have dared to imagine this. And now, it was about to become reality.
Although Lumberjack Realm members couldn't hunt, gathering and logging were equally important for the camp. In critical moments, Lumberjack Realm members could also play huge roles, like during the previous Gnawer Rat swarm incident.
"By the way, have any new Digging Realm members appeared?"
Of course, compared to the Lumberjack Realm, Xia Hong was more concerned about whether anyone had broken through to the Digging Realm. But clearly, his expectation was a bit beyond the current scope.
Xia Chuan slightly shook his head and answered: "Currently none. But I've observed that Cheng Feng, Bai Dongying, Bai Wuting, Lin Kai, Lu Sheng, Xu Ning, and Lu Yang - these seven have base strength over nine thousand jin, considered the first echelon. Without any surprises, these seven should break through first.
The second echelon below them aren't as strong, the highest only around seven thousand-plus jin. Probably need about two more months to break through."
In a world like the Ice Abyss, the principle followed everywhere was undoubtedly survival of the strongest. This applied between people, and must inevitably also be the case between two camps.
The first four were all former Rogge Camp Lumberjack Realm members with existing foundations, so their fast breakthrough wasn't strange. But the latter three - Xu Ning, Lu Yang, and Lin Kai - surprised him somewhat.
All three were among the earliest batch of Great Xia Lumberjack Realm members. Their rapid strength improvement shouldn't be remarkable, but being able to squeeze into the same echelon as the first four was somewhat impressive.
Xia Chuan clearly read the surprise on Xia Hong's face and said with a smile: "Not just these three. Big brother, do you know among the existing three hundred-plus Lumberjack Realm members, how many are from the earliest Great Xia batch?"
With the system by his side, Xia Hong was destined to be absolutely unable to bring the Great Xia people to merge into another camp.
"Seventy-two!"
This number made Xia Hong pause slightly, then show some disbelief: "You mean, aside from those too young, they've all broken through to the Lumberjack Realm?"
Xia Hong hadn't forgotten that after the disaster, Great Xia only had one hundred fifty-four people left. Excluding seventy-six too young, seventy-eight remained. Excluding himself and subtracting the five hunting team members, exactly seventy-two remained.
Xia Chuan chuckled and nodded.
"With big brother leading them, they didn't dare slack off at all. I've seen these people - their training intensity is much crazier than others'. Thanks to these people leading by example, others followed suit. That's why so many Lumberjack Realm members have broken through recently."
Xia Hong had originally anticipated that once he broke through to the Warmth Realm, combined with the functions of system structures, the threat from the Mirror Immortal Camp would naturally resolve itself.
Unexpectedly, it was still his own influence. Xia Hong was speechless for a moment, shook his head, but immediately understood in his heart.
Unfortunately, he hadn't expected the process of breaking through to the Warmth Realm to be so complicated.
"This is good too. Being able to motivate others to train is also not bad!"
Not only was the process complicated, but the required resources were astronomical.
Since they had to wait, they should prepare other matters first.
"You handle the gathering team and lumberjack team expansion. I won't concern myself further. Notify Bai Dongying that from now on, unless under special circumstances, the entire lumberjack team must go out every night to maximize logging speed."
"Big brother, do you need large amounts of wood resources?"
Xia Chuan immediately caught the underlying meaning. Xia Hong needing resources wasn't anything strange in the camp. Buildings appearing out of thin air, resources disappearing whenever he touched wood, iron ore, or coal stones - all these signs indicated it.
"Yes, not just wood. I need iron and coal too, lots and lots. This relates to how quickly I can break through to the Warmth Realm..."
Previously, with severely insufficient resources combined with pressure from the Gnawer Rat swarm, the camp's coal and iron had almost all been invested there.
"Double the lumberjack team's tasks directly. Gathering team members, unless under special circumstances, should all go logging together too.
Additionally, starting today, the hunting team will temporarily stop hunting low-level Frost Beasts. Go out once every three days, led by me personally, to hunt intermediate Frost Beasts. Use all remaining time to mine coal and iron ore.
Continue like this until I break through to the Warmth Realm!"
When he heard that resources related to how quickly Xia Hong could break through to the Warmth Realm, Xia Chuan's expression immediately turned solemn as he began contemplating how to improve everyone's resource acquisition efficiency. After Xia Hong finished speaking, he also nodded, showing a look of agreement.
With the threat from the Mirror Immortal Camp imminent, Xia Hong breaking through to the Warmth Realm was the most important matter for Great Xia. He believed everyone in the camp, including himself, could recognize this.
"Alright, notify everyone to start now. Inform me when Zhu Shun and Zou Yuankai recover."
"Yes, big brother!"