Chapter 1: The World of Eternal Winter [Please Collect!]

The cold wind raged, snow blanketing the sky.

Under the cover of night, the towering trees, covered in snow, stood like white iron towers, unmoving in the wind.

East of Hongmu Ridge, outside an unremarkable cave.

Xia Hong adopted a traditional long fist stance, adjusted his breathing, then his gaze sharpened abruptly as he launched a punch.

At one meter ninety, though not heavily muscular, he was tall and sturdy; after completing the fist form, snowflakes swirled around him.

Suddenly, a young boy with a youthful face stepped out of the cave; seeing Xia Hong, his expression clearly showed admiration.

“Brother, you’re about to break through to Woodcutting Level, right?”

“Almost. Should be within a month.”

“Tsk, you’re too amazing. Father said only three geniuses in the nine surrounding camps broke through to Woodcutting Level before eighteen—you’ll be the fourth.”

Xia Hong lifted his head, revealing a delicate face that contrasted sharply with his physique.

Watching the admiration on his younger brother Xia Chuan’s face, Xia Hong felt pleased, but after calming down, he still shook his head slightly.

“Breaking through to Woodcutting Level isn’t much. The Luo Ge Camp has Earth-Digging Level experts—that’s true strength.”

Upon hearing “Earth-Digging Level,” Xia Chuan’s face lit up with longing.

“Luo Ge Camp has five Earth-Digging Level experts. They say they can mine over a thousand catties of coal daily—not only do they not need to burn wood for warmth, they use coal furnaces to forge sharp weapons and easily hunt low-level cold beasts.”

Xia Hong nodded slightly. “It’s a medium-sized camp with over five hundred people. If they had no strength, the cold beasts in Hongmu Ridge wouldn’t let them live so comfortably.”

“Too bad Father’s injured; otherwise he’d already be an Earth-Digging Level expert. If Great Xia had coal, we’d probably have become a medium-sized camp long ago.”

A medium-sized camp has three universally recognized standards: first, population over five hundred; second, must have at least one Earth-Digging Level expert; third, must be able to withstand low-level cold beast surges.

Great Xia Camp currently has only two hundred thirty-nine people and thirteen Woodcutting Level fighters.

With such strength, let alone a cold beast surge—even a single slightly stronger mid-level cold beast would turn everyone in the camp into food.

“Luo Ge Camp is too stingy. If only they’d sell us some coal.”

“Coal isn’t just for heating and smelting iron—it can also serve as currency to exchange for high-grade supplies at giant camps. Luo Ge Camp doesn’t even have enough for themselves; they won’t waste it selling to us. Besides, we’re just a small camp with nothing valuable to trade.”

More crucially, if other camps around Hongmu Ridge also got coal, Luo Ge Camp’s advantages in safety and weaponry would vanish.

Safety advantage draws in population; weaponry advantage ensures military dominance. With these two advantages, Luo Ge Camp is the undisputed king of Hongmu Ridge—selling coal to other camps would be self-sabotage.

As a transmigrator, Xia Hong saw further than Xia Chuan.

A month ago, when he first transmigrated, from initial panic to current calm, the shocks he endured were anything but minor.

This world is brimming with danger.

The danger doesn’t come solely from the peculiar species known as cold beasts.

It also comes from the climate and countless unheard-of phenomena.

This world has only winter—no seasons.

And the winter temperatures here are far more terrifying than those on Blue Star.

By Xia Hong’s unprofessional estimate, nighttime temperatures are at least minus seventy degrees Celsius; normal humans couldn’t survive.

Even more absurd: daytime is colder than nighttime.

Not just normal humans—even ordinary people in this world would freeze to death during the day without proper cold protection.

Fortunately, daytime lasts only four hours, so humans mostly move at night, which is why Xia Hong trained outside under cover of darkness.

Moreover, because daytime is colder, cold beasts are more active, more aggressive, and their strength increases by several tenths compared to nighttime.

Thus, humans, whether hunting or scavenging, almost always operate at night.

Transmigrating into such a perilous winter world would have shattered anyone else.

But Xia Hong not only accepted it quickly—he was even excited inside.

Because before transmigration, he was a patient with ALS.

Xia Hong came from a martial arts family; his parents died early, and he trained in martial arts and fitness since childhood, maintaining habits far more disciplined than ordinary people.

But fate played the cruelest joke on him: he contracted this incurable disease.

In his final days, he stopped training; while his hands still moved, he drowned himself in mobile games until he lay on his hospital bed.

After confirming he was about to lose all mobility, he chose a sunny day to end his life.

Then he woke up here, as this Xia Hong.

Though this world is perilous, he was reborn into a second life—he was already immensely grateful. Moreover, heaven had given him a strong, young body.

One meter ninety-one, ninety-plus kilograms, narrow waist, long arms, and barely over sixteen years old.

According to online claims from his past life, this body was a perfect martial arts vessel.

When he first transmigrated, though young and strong, his strength was only around two thousand catties.

But in his past life, Tyson’s legendary strength was said to be eight hundred kilograms—equivalent to sixteen hundred catties.

At first, Xia Hong didn’t understand, thinking he was strong.

Until he saw an adult woman in the camp casually lift a tree weighing five to six hundred catties—he realized:

In this world, everyone is a top-tier Tyson.

Think about it: humans are products of their environment.

In such an extreme cold climate, if humans didn’t evolve, they couldn’t survive.

Realizing his own weakness, Xia Hong dared not slack off.

His past-life martial arts still worked here.

For practicality, he chose Taizu Long Fist; within a month, combined with cold beast flesh, his strength surged to four thousand catties. According to his father Xia Ding, he was about to reach the Woodcutting Level threshold of five thousand catties.

“With Woodcutting Level strength, I can join the logging team—at least I’ll get to see what lies beyond the camp.”

In his past life, five thousand catties of strength would have been pure superhuman.

But in this world, it only means you’re qualified to chop trees.

Yes, Woodcutting Level means exactly what it says.

At this level, you can—chop trees!

“Brother, Father’s back!”

Suddenly, Xia Chuan shouted toward the direction of the Hongmu Ridge forest.

Xia Hong looked up: a group of twelve men emerged swiftly from deep within the forest, divided into six pairs, each pair carrying a towering tree over twenty meters long, one in front, one behind.

When all six pairs and their six trees had fully exited the forest, and the towering figure at the rear came into view, Xia Hong and Xia Chuan finally smiled.

As Father Xia Ding always said, every outing is a fight for survival.

Returning safely, with not a single man lost, is absolutely worth celebrating.

But as the thirteen loggers drew closer, Xia Hong and Xia Chuan noticed: no one’s face held joy—only grimness and unease.

The two hurried forward; Xia Hong asked directly.

“Father, what’s wrong?”

“How long until dawn?”

Xia Ding’s voice carried obvious forced calm—he was terrified inside.

But Xia Hong quickly looked up at the sky, checked the moon’s position, and answered.

“About fifteen minutes left.”

“Hurry, hurry back to camp—tell them to extinguish the bonfires. No fire allowed.”

Hearing this, Xia Hong’s pupils dilated, his face filled with confusion.

“Father, if we put out the fires during the day, everyone in camp will freeze to death.”

Daytime is colder than nighttime; even inside caves, without bonfires, people would surely freeze to death.

Xia Ding was the camp leader—he knew this better than anyone. Why would he suddenly say this?

“The anomaly from Hongmu Ridge has emerged!”

PS: New book launch—humble author, humbly begging for collections, comments, and everything!

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(End of Chapter)