Chapter 100: Fifteen Thousand Jin

In one month, Xia Chuan increased from under seven thousand to eight thousand jin, gaining over a thousand jin; Luo Yuan rose from just over eight thousand to nearly nine thousand, gaining over eight hundred jin; the three Zhao brothers also went from seven thousand to eight thousand, also around eight hundred jin;

They eat at most eight jin of cold beast meat per day, but I consumed twenty to thirty jin daily this past month—almost at my absolute limit—so my strength gain should be higher than theirs!

Xia Hong had a rough sense of his own strength increase, but to know the exact number, he still needed to test it.

He noticed the crowd watching him, but paid no mind, focusing solely on adjusting the strength-testing post.

He placed a ten-thousand-jin post at the bottom, then stacked five one-thousand-jin posts on top; after a moment’s hesitation, he added one more.

Xia Hong took a deep breath, crouched down, wrapped both arms around the bottom ten-thousand-jin post, then roared loudly as he slowly, deliberately exerted force.

All onlookers held their breath.

As Xia Hong rose, the strength-testing post slowly lifted from the ground.

Ten centimeters… twenty centimeters… half a meter… one meter…

Finally, as Xia Hong stood fully upright, the post remained firmly clasped in his arms; everyone’s eyes shimmered with respect.

Thud…

“Fifteen thousand jin—my limit might still go a few hundred more higher; this month’s gain isn’t bad!”

Xia Hong slammed the testing post onto the ground, rubbed his nearly exhausted arms, and a flicker of joy rose in his eyes.

Previously, when fighting the Snowman Pile’s Snowman Mane, his base strength was thirteen thousand jin; only a month passed, and he’d gained nearly two thousand—this was no small improvement.

Yet in terms of gain rate, his increase clearly lagged behind Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan, and others; he consumed two to three times their resources, yet his gains slowed—proving that as base strength grows, further increases become ever harder.

Fortunately, cold beast meat is no longer scarce; if he maintains this steady progress, the thirty-thousand-jin limit will come eventually.

“Luo Ming said the limit of Digging Realm is thirty thousand jin, but he didn’t know what comes after reaching that limit; Yang Ning and Li Hu mentioned the Cold-Resistant Rank, but I have no idea how to break through it.”

Xia Hong frowned slightly, then relaxed his brow.

Judging by his current gain rate, he still had a long way to go before reaching the thirty-thousand-jin limit; even without knowing the next training method, he had no need to worry about it yet.

When the road ends, a path appears—when he hits the thirty-thousand-jin limit, he could just follow Luo Ming’s example and venture into the Arrow Bamboo Forest to ask at that place called the Hive.

After testing his strength, Xia Hong turned his head and realized the onlookers were still standing frozen, staring blankly at the fallen testing post.

“What are you all gawking at? Did you eat so much cold beast meat you’re bloated? If you want to become as strong as me, stop wasting time here and get back to training.”

Hearing Xia Hong’s jest, everyone burst into laughter.

“Hahaha, boss, we wouldn’t dare compare to you—just getting to Wood-Cutting Realm would be enough!”

“Lately we’ve eaten so much cold beast meat, we’re starting to feel full.”

“You can’t eat it all—give me some!”

“Hahahahahaha…”

…………

A few bold children teased each other, echoing Xia Hong’s words; but after the laughter faded, everyone quickly dispersed and returned to their training.

Watching the crowd scatter, Xia Hong felt considerably lighter.

Not just compared to before, when they were on that dirt slope—even compared to a month ago, the camp’s people now radiated far more vigor and spirit.

Previously, not only was it impossible to find someone who joked openly, but even finding a single smiling face among them was incredibly hard.

When survival is at stake, safety uncertain, and hope absent, no one can truly relax.

The steady distribution of cold beast meat has ignited hope in everyone’s hearts; while Great Xia still isn’t free from hunger or absolute safety,

at least now, these people have hope and purpose.

Back at his wooden hut, the smelting furnace had been moved over ten meters to the left; along the path of its relocation, a two-meter-deep trench now stretched across the ground.

Luo Yuan, Xia Chuan, Zhao Long, and Yuan Cheng each held a ram’s horn chisel, digging relentlessly within the trench.

This trench was being dug to lay foundations for the new wooden huts.

“One month, fifteen meters—if we keep this pace, digging eight hundred meters of trench will take four or five years…”

Thinking of the trench’s total length of eight hundred meters, Xia Hong’s vision darkened.

True, the ground softened by coal stone from the smelting furnace could be dug by Wood-Cutting Realm cultivators, but two problems remained: first, coal stone was limited—the camp couldn’t burn it daily for heating; second, there were only thirty-six Wood-Cutting Realm cultivators, who also had to chop wood and hunt—impossible to spend every day digging trenches.

So for the past month, Xia Hong could only have some Wood-Cutting Realm cultivators take turns digging when coal stone was being burned.

He himself had also dug, even without softened ground—he could manage it—but one man, no matter how strong, was useless.

To speed up foundation digging, there were two options:

Either burn more coal stone to soften the ground faster and involve more Wood-Cutting Realm cultivators in joint digging—but the bottleneck was coal stone, requiring sufficient mining, which demanded many Digging Realm cultivators.

Or have Digging Realm cultivators dig directly, without softening the ground with coal stone—again, this required more Digging Realm cultivators.

In short, the root problem was simply: not enough Digging Realm cultivators!

It was an unsolvable problem.

Xia Hong jumped into the trench, snatched the tool from Luo Yuan’s hand, and said:

“Go train—I’ll dig for a while!”

“Boss, I’m not tired—I can still dig more, really.”

Confused, Luo Yuan thought Xia Hong was concerned for him and tried to reclaim the tool, but seeing Xia Hong’s firm refusal, he gave up.

Luo Yuan climbed out of the trench, turned back, and saw Xia Hong had already taken his place digging; a wave of warmth rose in his chest, and he hurried off to train.

I really can't hold out on my own! Kid, if you don't break through soon, we won't have enough coal or iron left!

【Resources: Wood 6835 Coal 160 Iron 270 Silver 0 Gold 0】

Watching coal and iron dwindle daily in the system, Xia Hong’s hope for Luo Yuan’s breakthrough was even more urgent than Luo Yuan’s own.

Wood had skyrocketed this past month, but coal and iron were already in deficit; if this continued, within a few months, supplies would run dry.

The new wooden huts were being prepared, and much iron was already needed; Mu Dong almost daily asked him to forge items, and earlier he’d made a batch of carpentry tools for Mu Dong—coal and iron had been consumed heavily.

His main duty was leading hunting parties; he could only spare limited time for mining, so his coal stone and iron ore yields were negligible—nowhere near enough to meet the camp’s needs.

Before coal and iron ran out, if Luo Yuan didn’t break through, Xia Hong would have to reduce hunting trips and allocate more time to mining coal and iron.

Xia Hong sighed inwardly, stopped overthinking, and focused entirely on digging.

But after only a short while, a prompt echoed in his mind:

【Decoction Pot has automatically generated the Wound Healing Powder formula based on recorded items】

Hearing the prompt, Xia Hong’s face lit up; he immediately dropped the ram’s horn chisel, stepped out of the trench, and walked toward the decoction pot.

Arriving beside the pot, he saw Cheng Feng removing a pale blue plant from it; as the plant’s faint fragrance reached him, Xia Hong’s eyes brightened.

“Boss, what brings you here?”

Seeing Xia Hong approach, Cheng Feng froze, noticed his gaze, and quickly handed him the plant.

(End of Chapter)