Chapter 130: Breakthrough Concept for Cold Resistance

Tong Xinglong’s explanation was, in fact, somewhat redundant.

The moment Xia Hong saw the dark red bloodstains, he already understood roughly what had happened.

The blood of cold beasts was always a deep green; Xia Hong had never before seen blood the same red as a human’s.

“Is the blood of a mid-grade cold beast red?”

After this suspicion arose in Xia Hong’s mind, he stared at the blood on the arrowhead for a long time, then, almost unconsciously, reached out and touched it.

“Big brother!”

“Leader, be careful.”

Tong Xinglong and his brother, who had just suffered a setback, immediately warned him, as did Xia Chuan.

But Xia Hong only shook his head and did not stop—he touched it.

From the moment the arrow struck the Rat King last night until now, at least thirty hours had passed, yet the blood on the arrowhead remained clearly liquid.

Hssss…

A wisp of blue smoke rose from his fingertip; the searing pain shot straight into his mind, yet Xia Hong’s hand did not pull away—his face showed no fear, only intense excitement.

“This burning sensation is just like the one I felt after eating cold beast meat!”

No, it wasn’t just similar—it was an enhanced version of eating cold beast meat.

This burning sensation, this burning sensation, just like…

After a moment of thought, Xia Hong suddenly looked up and asked the three men before him:

“Is it dark yet?”

Xia Chuan answered quickly: “Not yet.”

Hearing this, Xia Hong said nothing—he picked up the iron arrow and led the three out of the room, past the hall, to the corridor door.

On all four sides of the third floor, a three-meter-wide corridor had been left open, separated from the interior by doors; opening this door would lead directly to the corridor.

Xia Hong carefully pulled the door open, leaving just a narrow gap.

Hoo…

Even though the gap was only the width of a fingertip, the moment light from outside streamed in, a strong wind rushed through with a howling sound.

The cold in the sunlight was clearly visible; it clashed with the warmth inside the wooden hut, and wherever it touched, water stains immediately formed, and the temperature around the three dropped noticeably.

“Even within the radiation range of the iron-smelting furnace, if ordinary people were exposed to this, they couldn’t endure it—they’d freeze into ice statues in minutes…”

This icy sunlight, though not the first time he’d seen it,

still struck Xia Hong as deeply unnatural and eerie.

After steadying his thoughts slightly, Xia Hong extended his finger—the one burned from touching the arrow—into the sunlight.

“This…”

“The wound’s healed?”

“Is it repairing itself?”

Xia Chuan and the Tong Xinglong brothers stared, their faces filled with astonishment.

Xia Hong’s finger wound was slowly healing under the sunlight.

Not only healing—it looked even healthier than before!

“Sssss…”

Xia Hong sucked in a sharp breath, yanked his finger back, saw the thin layer of ice crystals forming on the now-healed skin, turned to look at Xia Chuan and the Tong brothers, and broke into a wide smile.

“By accident, you’ve given me the breakthrough idea for the Cold Resistance stage!”

The three weren’t fools—they immediately understood, piecing together Xia Hong’s actions.

“Big brother, are you saying breaking through to Cold Resistance requires mid-grade cold beast blood?”

“Exactly!”

The burning sensation he’d felt after touching the blood instantly reminded him of the feeling he’d experienced when he touched sunlight on the slope, during the attack by the Golden-Eyed Demon Sheep.

And this burning sensation bore clear similarities to the heat generated inside his body after eating cold beast meat—only far more intense, and localized on the skin.

“The skin membrane—breaking through to Cold Resistance must involve reshaping the skin membrane with this mid-grade cold beast blood. During the entire process, base strength will likely continue rising, but the most crucial part is granting the ability to move under sunlight. I just don’t know how much blood is needed…”

Feeling the subtle enhancement in his fingertip, Xia Hong was already ninety percent certain—his only uncertainty was how much mid-grade cold beast blood would be required.

“Sssss…”

Xia Hong turned and saw Tong Xinglong had copied him—he’d placed his burned finger in the sunlight, but couldn’t bear the cold and immediately pulled it back.

“Don’t experiment recklessly. You’re still Woodcutting Realm—you won’t survive this cold light. Apply Gold Wound Powder to your wounds and let them heal naturally. Be more careful with future prey, especially mid-grade cold beasts.”

“Yes, Leader.”

Xia Hong said nothing more—he cleaned the bloodstains off the eight iron arrows and dismissed the three.

Back in the room, Xia Hong took out his ceremonial blade.

He drew the blade from its sheath—just as expected, the green blood from the ordinary rodents had nearly dried into flakes, while a small pool of dark red blood had pooled at the tip.

Last night, it was this blade that first wounded the Rat King.

Xia Hong carefully cleaned all the blood from the ceremonial blade, then sheathed it and sat down to resume cultivation.

Relying on tiny traces of blood for cultivation was impossible.

To kill mid-grade cold beasts, given the strength of these rodents, his current hunting capability was clearly inadequate; at the very least, he needed to raise his base strength to the limit of thirty thousand jin before considering anything further.

“If my breakthrough theory is correct, then I don’t need to enter the Arrow Bamboo Grove. I can delay heading to Pingxi Plain.” Previously, the only reason Xia Hong had pushed to enter the Arrow Bamboo Grove and reach Pingxi Plain was to find the Beehive Camp and learn how to break through to Cold Resistance. Now that the problem was solved, there was no need to go.

“Cold Resistance… Cold Resistance…”

Xia Hong murmured softly twice, his heart filled with longing for the Cold Resistance stage, his gaze resolute as he plunged back into cultivation.

“Without thirty thousand jin, everything is empty talk!”

…………

Two days later, as soon as Xia Hong lifted the restriction on outdoor activities, the camp erupted into activity.

The craftsmen’s workshop aside, the foragers and woodcutters, having been confined for three days, rushed out the moment night fell.

Even the hunting team, under Xia Chuan’s leadership, went out.

The camp’s stock of cold beast meat had already been ample; now, with the additional eighty-three rodents and the earlier Tengjiao slain by Xia Hong’s team, the reserves had reached an astonishing level.

But hunting was habitual, and cold beast meat didn’t spoil—especially since Xia Hong hadn’t explicitly ordered a halt, so Xia Chuan naturally continued.

The moment Luo Yuan woke up from his severe injuries the next day, Xia Hong went to see him.

=9+ Shu _ Ba

Luo Yuan had taken the Rat King’s strike for him. Given the circumstances, his survival was pure luck—if the red beam had risen just a few inches higher, his skull would have been pierced.

Honestly, if it had been Xia Chuan, Yuan Cheng, or any other member of Daya Camp who’d taken that blow, Xia Hong wouldn’t have reacted so strongly.

But it was Luo Yuan!

At first, Luo Yuan had been somewhat resistant to merging his group into Daya Camp. Xia Hong was well aware of this, but from this experience, it was clear Luo Yuan had fully integrated into Daya Camp—and like the others, he now held the same fanatical devotion to his leader.

Such a loyal, powerful subordinate—Xia Hong would not be stingy. In front of everyone, he announced three rewards:

One thousand Daya Contribution Points, a ten-thousand-jin iron-tough bow, and a thousand jin of iron ore.

Upon hearing these rewards, nearly everyone in the camp stared with envy—even Luo Yuan himself looked stunned, clearly unprepared.

The hundred or so bows Xia Hong had hastily forged to combat the rodent swarm had, the day after their return, been fully collected by Xia Chuan and stored in the Camp Supply Office.

These iron-tough bows wouldn’t be given out for free.

Even the three bows used by Zhao Long and his brothers had been reclaimed.

“I already told you: all camp supplies must be exchanged for Contribution Points. Weapons are no exception. From now on, only hunting team members receive weapons free of charge from the camp. Others who want weapons must go to the Camp Supply Office and rent them using Contribution Points.”

After collecting all the bows, Xia Chuan immediately gathered everyone and announced the rental price for weapons—currently only bows: ten Contribution Points per month.

“Of course, if you save up enough Contribution Points, you can buy outright. The current price for a bow is eight hundred Contribution Points. More weapons will be added later. In short—if you want something, make more contributions!”

This was the reason for the camp’s recent buzz.

The ninety-odd people who had gone out that night had all used bows—they knew firsthand how much of an advantage a bow gave during outdoor excursions.

With Xia Chuan’s announcement, the entire camp erupted into a frenzy of saving Contribution Points—after all, who wouldn’t want a weapon of their own, one they could pass down through generations?

So when they heard Luo Yuan had been directly awarded a thousand Contribution Points, everyone felt envy; and when they learned Luo Yuan had also received a ten-thousand-jin iron-tough bow—the same one he’d used—Zhao Long and his two brothers grew desperate.

After using the ten-thousand-jin iron-tough bow, they had zero interest in the five-thousand-jin ones—they spent every day thinking of ways to swap for the other two.

There was no help for it—Xia Chuan’s pricing was brutal: twenty thousand Contribution Points for a ten-thousand-jin iron-tough bow.

Interestingly, the battle contribution scores from that night’s fight on the northern cliff had, after joint deliberation by Xia Chuan and the others, been fully tallied.

Before going out that night, Xia Hong had stated: each rodent was worth two hundred Contribution Points.

With eighty-three rodents, the total contribution for that night was sixteen thousand six hundred.

So many rodents, hunted at night, all killed with arrows—and worse, the iron arrows were hastily made and unmarked, making it impossible to tell who shot which.

In the end, Xia Chuan had everyone vouch for each other: find witnesses to confirm how many you killed, or form small groups to jointly certify your kills.

This method was bound to have errors, but it was the only option.

Fortunately, Daya Camp had almost no cheaters—everyone was honest, calculating their kills by the number of arrows they’d fired, and most could find witnesses.

But when the results came out, they were shocking.

Final tally:

Zhao Long and his two brothers had the highest kill counts: eight, six, and six respectively;

Luo Yuan, Xia Chuan, and Yuan Cheng followed: six, six, and four respectively;

The remaining ninety-six Woodcutting Realm members, confirmed to have assisted in kills, totaled only thirteen—and those were the best archers among them.

In terms of their actual strength, the results were reasonable.

But the reason they were shocking was this: over a hundred people, with over a hundred bows combined, had killed only fifty-one rodents.

The remaining 32 beasts, without needing to think or ask, everyone knew were killed by their leader, Xia Hong.

Xia Hong alone was nearly equal to all of them combined.

Only then did they understand why Xia Hong had chosen not to use the new contribution point system.

If his deeds were measured by contribution points, even the entire camp combined might not match him.

Fewer kills naturally meant fewer contribution points.

This time, the six Earth-Digging Realm cultivators truly earned the most contribution points, each nearly reaching a thousand, while the Wood-Cutting Realm cultivators earned far less; the most among them were the dozen or so who joined in joint hunts, each receiving two or three hundred, with the highest earning 320.

Zhao Long killed eight Rodent Mice this time, the most outside of Xia Hong, earning 1600 contribution points; even counting his previous savings, he still fell short of the 2000 needed to exchange for the ten-thousand-pound iron-bodied bow.

If he was like this, Zhao Hu and Zhao Bao were even farther behind.

The three brothers were now all pushing themselves, waiting to save up 2000 points so they could quickly exchange for the remaining two ten-thousand-pound bows, afraid that if they moved too slowly, the other two would beat them to it.

Xia Hong, who had remained secluded on the third floor recovering and cultivating, had originally been unaware of these events, but with Xia Chuan reporting to him daily, he heard and couldn’t help laughing, finding it amusing.

“Perfect—I’ll hold off on pursuing the ten-thousand-pound iron-bodied bow for now. Let these three compete; it’ll motivate them to do more!”

Xia Hong stayed on the third floor, and so half a month passed until the sixteenth day of the first month of Great Xia Year One; even Luo Yuan, whose injuries had been worse than his, had recovered enough to leave his wooden hut, yet Xia Hong still did not come down.

(End of Chapter)