Chapter 145: 20, The Training Grounds

【CAMP: Great Xia (Level 0)】

【LORD: Xia Hong】

【CULTIVATION: Earth-Digging Realm Peak (Skin Remodeling Progress: 5%)】

【POPULATION: 1096】

【RESOURCES: Wood 0 Coal 0 Iron 0 Silver 0 Gold 0】

On the third day of the second month in the first year of Great Xia, Xia Hong awoke from bed two days later, clenched his fist, felt the significant boost in his base strength, and his face lit up with joy.

But then he looked at his system’s skin remodeling progress—only up by three points—and his joy vanished, replaced by frustration.

“Over thirty-five thousand, after using up these hundred and thirty jin, my base strength should increase by about three thousand jin, slightly higher than last time.”

“But the progress only rose by three percent, meaning it truly takes fifty jin of cold beast blood to gain one point of progress.”

“So to complete the entire skin remodeling process, I’ll need at least four thousand seven hundred more jin—that’s at least eighty intermediate cold beasts to hunt!”

When he arrived at the number eighty, Xia Hong was momentarily stunned.

Last night, he had woken up three times.

The first time he woke, his resources were gone; he dared not use so much at once, so he used only forty jin—and passed out again.

The second time he woke, he was even hesitant to use forty jin, so he used only thirty-five—and still passed out without a doubt from the pain.

As he’d predicted, only when his nerves reached their pain tolerance limit did the system deduct resources to help him endure the surge; otherwise, no matter how excruciating the pain, as long as it wasn’t catastrophic, the system wouldn’t intervene.

The third time he woke, he used up the last of the beast blood and fell straight asleep on the bed.

“Passed out three times, gained only three points, and now I’m out of beast blood—eighty intermediate cold beasts? When will I ever finish hunting them? How could skin remodeling possibly be this hard? The difficulty of breaking into Cold-Resistant Realm is just absurd…”

Xia Hong frowned. Though the boost in base strength was tempting, the difficulty was truly absurdly high.

“Each one percent progress boosts base strength by about twelve to thirteen hundred jin—so completing the entire skin remodeling process, my base strength will be at least one hundred fifty thousand jin. That’s like a human Tyrannosaurus rex…”

One hundred fifty thousand jin—and that’s just base strength.

The maximum impact force of an intermediate Snowmane in berserk mode was only one hundred thousand jin.

This meant any Cold-Resistant Realm expert, even unarmed, could crush an intermediate Snowmane with sheer body strength alone.

“Eighty it is—I must accelerate progress!”

Though Xia Hong had never personally tested a Cold-Resistant Realm expert’s power, based on his own cultivation progress, he could roughly estimate it.

And in Mirror Immortal Camp, there were two such experts.

“I’ll slow down for now, conserve resources, and upgrade the wooden dummy—see if it brings any new surprises!”

The power of a Cold-Resistant Realm expert might far exceed imagination.

As he reached this conclusion, Xia Hong also knew he couldn’t break through in the short term.

So he’d prioritize upgrading the wooden dummy.

From his two experiences absorbing cold beast blood, resources served to test his willpower’s limit—or, alternatively, to train his will and increase his tolerance to the beast blood.

He’d now tested his limit at forty-two jin; so he’d stick to forty jin per session—progress wouldn’t be slow.

He’d used up the hundred and thirty jin over two days, meaning, at his current tolerance, one intermediate cold beast’s blood per day was sufficient.

“I originally planned to hunt every three days—so each outing must net at least three intermediate cold beasts to match my consumption…”

Xia Hong frowned. Based on last time, hunting three intermediate Snowmane in one night was extreme, but not impossible—if he set more trap claws.

The problem was, whether there were still that many intermediate Snowmane in their current depth…

“Thinking too much won’t help. What if there are that many? If they’re truly wiped out, we’ll go deeper. If all else fails, we’ll just switch to hunting other cold beasts!”

Xia Hong made up his mind, stopped dwelling, and since only two days had passed since the last hunt, his next outing was tomorrow—he couldn’t waste this day.

He took his rodent chisel and went to mine iron.

Of course, he wasn’t alone—the other miners, Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan, and the rest, had already begun digging.

Seeing Xia Hong enter, everyone knew he’d finished absorbing the hundred and thirty jin of beast blood, and their faces filled with curiosity.

They were curious about how much his strength had increased.

Xia Hong offered no explanation—only raised his chisel and began mining.

Their curiosity was instantly satisfied by Xia Hong’s astonishing mining efficiency.

The increase in base strength came with improvements in all physical attributes; mining relied most on endurance and sustained strength.

When first breaking into Earth-Digging Realm, using a regular ram’s horn chisel, one typically mined about one hundred jin per day; with the rodent chisel, that doubled to four hundred jin.

Of course, apart from Xia Hong, the camp’s fifteen Earth-Digging Realm cultivators weren’t newly broken through—they each mined over five hundred jin per day with the rodent chisel.

Xia Hong’s efficiency was even more terrifying: previously, it was roughly double theirs, reaching over nine hundred jin per day.

This time, after using the second batch of cold beast blood, he mined a full one thousand four hundred jin of iron ore in a single day right before their eyes.

The next day, as everyone followed Xia Hong out of the mine, their faces were numb; after Xia Hong announced tonight’s hunting expedition and went upstairs, the group erupted in heated discussion.

“Three times—our leader’s base strength must be close to forty thousand jin?”

“Probably not quite, but close!”

“Three of us can barely match his mining output!”

“I’m already Earth-Digging Realm, yet I feel like I’m still back in Wood-Cutting Realm when facing our leader?”

“I feel the same!”

“Our leader hasn’t even broken through yet—if he reaches Cold-Resistant Realm, we probably won’t survive a single punch from him?”

“Can you even survive one now?”

…………

Luo Yuan’s final question silenced everyone.

They recalled how, during the last hunt, Xia Hong had leapt down from a tree and swung that axe—based on the power of that single strike, none of them dared claim they could block it.

“We’ve got to push harder. Even if we can’t keep up with our leader, at least we must be useful—if we fall too far behind, he’ll soon have no use for us!”

After saying this, Luo Yuan went upstairs.

The others paused, then their expressions hardened; each went upstairs to rest, preparing for tonight’s hunting expedition.

…………

On the fourth day of the second month, Xia Hong led another hunting expedition.

To meet the needs for the next three days’ cultivation, he spent the entire night hunting and finally killed his third Snowmane just one hour before dawn.

Hunting three intermediate Snowmane in one night left Xia Hong and the other fourteen hunters utterly exhausted.

Yet in their pupils burned more excitement than fatigue.

First, pushing past one’s limits was inherently exhilarating.

Second, they all knew Xia Hong had a massive deficit in beast blood—the more intermediate cold beasts they killed, the more blood he gained, and the faster he’d break into Cold-Resistant Realm.

Three beasts yielded over one hundred seventy jin of blood.

Xia Hong began skin remodeling again—but this time, due to resource limits, he held back, capping himself at around thirty jin; even so, he still passed out multiple times from the pain.

For the following period, Xia Hong led a hunt every three days, returning each time with three intermediate Snowmane, extracting their blood immediately, and repeating this five times in total. Midway, Zou Yuankai recovered from his injuries and rejoined the hunting team.

…………

The nineteenth day of the second month, Great Xia Year One

The hunting team returned again with three intermediate Snowmane.

The camp members were no longer surprised by these massive beasts—over the past weeks, they’d brought back nearly twenty of them.

Xia Hong, as usual, went straight upstairs. Xia Chuan took the carcasses to the supply depot to drain the blood.

The other hunters with wounds rushed back to apply medicine; those unharmed, seeing it was still early, headed straight for the mine.

【RESOURCES: Wood 48212 Coal 1020 Iron 13210 Silver 0 Gold 0】

Upstairs, Xia Hong didn’t wait for the beast blood as usual—he first checked the system’s accumulated resources.

From the fourth to now, only fifteen days had passed.

Amassing this much in fifteen days showed how frenzied the entire camp’s resource gathering had been over the past half-month.

As for Wood-Cutting Realm cultivators—numbers kept rising, tools kept improving; now with over three hundred, they collected nearly three thousand wood points per day, totaling over forty-eight thousand in half a month—not exaggerated.

The real shock was the Earth-Digging Realm cultivators. Over the past half-month, Xia Hong had led them on five hunts; the day before and after each hunt, they couldn’t mine, so strictly speaking, they had only ten days to mine.

Their current mining efficiency: iron ore about seven thousand five hundred jin per day, coal about twelve thousand jin per day—equivalent to 750 and 600 points in the system.

To upgrade the wooden dummy as soon as possible, Xia Hong had allocated only two days to coal mining and eight days to iron mining.

Remember, during this time, he himself had been training—except for the first day, he hadn’t set foot in the mine at all.

Even if you maxed out the eight days, these fifteen men could mine at most eleven thousand two hundred fifty points—no way over twelve thousand.

Yet the system now showed thirteen thousand two hundred ten iron points.

Clearly, after returning from hunts, some had rested barely at all and rushed straight back to mine.

After a moment’s thought, Xia Hong understood—everyone was desperate to help him break through. A warm current surged through his heart.

Though skin remodeling was excruciating, Xia Hong had never once slackened—he gritted his teeth and endured.

First, he cherished the gains after the pain.

Second, breaking into Cold-Resistant Realm was no longer just his own matter.

Over this period, every Wood-Cutting Realm, Earth-Digging Realm, and even ordinary civilians in the camp had worked tirelessly, day and night, gathering resources—all for his breakthrough.

Over a thousand pairs of eyes were fixed on him.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for him to break through.

He had no reason to retreat, no reason to slack off.

And of course, the rewards of perseverance were immense:

【CULTIVATION: Earth-Digging Realm Peak (Skin Remodeling Progress: 20%)】

The previous four hunts yielded a total of over 730 jin of cold beast blood, and after using it all, progress increased by fifteen percent.

“Base strength is nearly 55,000 jin; once I use tonight’s cold beast blood, progress will reach 23 to 24 percent, and base strength will hit 58,000 jin!”

The gains over this period are certainly encouraging, but it’s also true that breaking through to the Cold-Resistant Rank remains far off.

Seventy-plus percent to go—at this current pace, I’ll need to venture out at least twenty more times, meaning another two months.

“For over half a month, we’ve avoided going north. Without doubt, the Mirror Immortal Camp has been hunting recklessly there. I must go take a look—otherwise, if this continues, they’ll truly treat that land as their own territory!”

Xia Hong’s first five hunts deliberately avoided the territory of Xian Lu’s camp, precisely to avoid an early confrontation with the Mirror Immortal Camp.

But constantly avoiding them isn’t sustainable.

Some things, if left unaddressed long enough, become reality.

If we keep ignoring the Mirror Immortal Camp, they’ll grow even more dismissive of Great Xia. Who knows? One day they might push southward and start seizing more of Great Xia’s land and resources.

The best hope is that the Mirror Immortal Camp heeded my warning and hasn’t entered Redwood Ridge this whole time—but that possibility is slim…

It’s been over half a month; Xia Hong can no longer keep leading his team to avoid them. He must go north and reassert Great Xia’s sovereignty.

“Of course, before going, we must prepare thoroughly…”

Xia Hong murmured inwardly, then looked up toward the left side of the room.

The wooden training dummy stood motionless against the wall. Upgrade condition: 3,000 wood, 6,000 iron.

Xia Hong shifted his focus slightly, and part of the system’s resources vanished instantly.

【Resources: Wood 45,212 Coal 1,020 Iron 7,210 Silver 0 Gold 0】

At the same time, the wooden dummy before him began to change.

The ground beneath it—a roughly ten-meter square area—suddenly erupted in bright light. Then the glow faded, and the ground turned black, covered densely with mysterious cloud-like patterns.

The wooden dummy, once standing on one leg, now stood on two legs. Its color shifted from yellow to black; clearly, its material had changed from primarily wood to primarily metal.

It remained two meters tall, hollowed at the abdomen, with full facial features—but unlike before, its face no longer smiled. Its expression had turned stern.

Moments later, the dummy gave a slight shake, and four identical wooden figures appeared around it—in front, behind, left, and right.

Seeing the black-clouded ground and the five wooden figures, Xia Hong was already thrilled, and he quickly checked the upgraded dummy’s attributes.

Training Ground (Level 2): A 100-square-meter training area that greatly accelerates cultivation speed and enhances martial insight, accompanied by five wooden dummies.

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Special Function 1: The wooden dummies can record cold beast species through blood essence, manifesting as any cold beast and unleashing the full power of its adult form.

Special Function 2: When activated within the range of the smelting furnace’s radiation, the dummies can follow commands and fight autonomously.

Special Function 3: Cultivation within the Training Ground doubles the efficiency of base strength gains (effective only for those below Peak Excavation Realm).

Special Function 4: Training with the wooden dummies doubles the efficiency of martial insight gains (effective only for those above Peak Excavation Realm).

Training Ground cost: 20 coal per hour.

Wooden dummy cost: 5 coal per hour.

Upgrade condition: 100,000 wood, 30,000 iron, 200 silver.

After reviewing the full attributes of the Training Ground, Xia Hong’s expression surged with excitement.

Especially upon seeing Special Function 3, he couldn’t stop grinning.

Previously, the wooden dummy had also enhanced cultivation speed and martial insight.

But the problem was, there was only one—unable to serve many simultaneously.

And it consumed five coal per hour, totaling 120 coal per day—equivalent to 2,400 jin of coal stone, already one-fifth of the camp’s daily extraction.

Excavation Realm cultivators couldn’t spend every day mining coal, and the camp had many other coal-consuming needs: the decoction pot, the smelting furnace—both were heavy users.

So previously, aside from using the dummy once for the first hunting team selection, Xia Hong rarely used it.

“Now it’s different. This entire 100-square-meter Training Ground enhances cultivation speed. Dozens can train at once. The only drawback? The consumption is high…”

Twenty coal per hour means 480 coal per day—equivalent to 9,600 jin of coal stone, already four-fifths of the daily extraction.

Though the cost was high, Xia Hong considered it only a moment before realizing that compared to its returns, this consumption was negligible.

This upgrade, what Xia Hong valued most was the precise “doubled” metric.

Previously, the Level 1 dummy claimed to “greatly enhance” cultivation speed. Xia Hong had tested it himself: it was indeed great for Woodcutting Realm, but for Excavation Realm, the greater one’s base strength, the smaller the gain.

High cost; usable by only one person; diminishing returns.

That was why Xia Hong had avoided using the dummy to boost others’ cultivation before—but now it was different.

“Cultivation speed now has a quantified doubling effect. This means any Great Xia member can break through Woodcutting Realm without issue, and Excavation Realm breakthroughs will accelerate rapidly. With higher resource extraction later, this cost is trivial!”

Xia Hong walked excitedly into the Training Ground, glanced around, then shifted his focus slightly—his face broke into a smile.

“It can be moved freely. One hundred square meters—perfect for the third-floor main hall. Daily use for Woodcutting and Excavation Realm members!”

Of course, it wouldn’t be free.

Xia Hong’s eyes flickered with a faint light. The Training Ground could hold at most a hundred people, and coal consumption was so high—it couldn’t be used for free.

To use it, one must exchange Contribution Points!

The exact pricing would be decided by Xia Chuan and others; Xia Hong had no intention of managing such details. His gaze finally settled on the five wooden dummies, and a fierce heat kindled in his eyes.

“Five obedient, pain-immune mid-tier cold beasts. Now the base is truly secure—even if both Mirror Immortal Camp’s Cold-Resistant experts came together, it probably wouldn’t be a problem…”

The base’s safety was finally guaranteed!

Xia Hong stared at the five wooden dummies and let out a long, relieved breath.

Based on his current progress, a Cold-Resistant expert’s base strength likely topped out around 150,000 jin. One or two mid-tier cold beasts couldn’t threaten them.

But five?

And these five ignored pain entirely, were harder than real cold beasts, and most crucially—they obeyed his commands absolutely, even to death.

“Too bad I can’t take them out hunting—if only I could…”

The thought crossed his mind, and Xia Hong immediately chuckled and shook his head.

Carrying the smelting furnace and the entire camp on the move? Who knew what might happen—he couldn’t bear that risk.

Better to stay cautious.

“Since the base is now secure, I can go north and check whether the Mirror Immortal Camp has crossed the border.”

Outside, it was daytime. When Xia Hong opened the window, a freezing wind swept in, carrying snowflakes that surged violently into the room.

Through the swirling snow, he gazed toward the northern edge of Redwood Ridge, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes.

………

Great Xia Year One, February 20th

Xia Chuan received orders, went upstairs to Xia Hong’s room.

After coming down, Xia Chuan immediately gathered everyone in the camp and announced excitedly that the Supply Office had added a new item for exchange.

“Training Ground time: 20 Contribution Points per day. Gather fifty people to exchange, and the Training Ground opens for one day.”

At first, when Xia Chuan announced it, everyone was confused.

What was the Training Ground?

Twenty Contribution Points for a day? What benefit did training there actually bring?

Facing their confusion, Xia Chuan offered no explanation. He simply gathered the entire hunting team, plus thirty-five others with the highest base strength, and himself—fifty in total—and went upstairs together for a full day.

No one knew what happened on the third floor that day.

All anyone knew was that everyone who came down—from Xia Chuan to the last person—wore expressions of excitement and exhilaration.

Once word spread, the entire camp erupted…

“The leader built a new Training Ground upstairs. Train there, and the efficiency of absorbing cold beast meat doubles!”

“Doubles—truly doubles. The hunting team confirmed it: anyone who goes up gains double speed.”

“Cheng Feng, Lin Kai, and Xu Ning broke through to Excavation Realm right there that day—it’s real! I must go too!”

“Twenty Contribution Points for a day—I must go. I’m close to Excavation Realm. Just a few days upstairs, and I’ll break through!”

………

Don’t underestimate how obsessed cultivators are with gaining strength.

Even now, the camp had countless items available for exchange: wooden goods, leather goods, iron tools, weapons…

Yet the most sought-after resource in Great Xia, without question, remained cold beast meat.

Everyone knew: no matter how good, useful, or beautiful other things were, nothing compared to actual strength.

Strength was the foundation of everything. Without it, even the finest treasure was a castle in the air—crumbling at the slightest touch.

Now, the Training Ground doubled their cultivation speed.

The frenzy was unimaginable.

The next day, February 21st.

As soon as night fell, a long line formed outside the Supply Office.

Fifty people? No need to gather—they were already filled. Most of those taken up the day before had claimed front positions; only a few sharp ones snatched the first fifty spots.

Those who arrived later knew they wouldn’t make it today. Their faces showed regret, silently vowing to queue earlier next time.

After Shi Ping registered them, the fifty followed Xia Chuan upstairs.

As they stepped onto the black-clouded ground, those who had been there before smiled in satisfaction and began consuming their prepped cold beast meat.

Those experiencing it for the first time copied them, and when they felt their base strength surge faster than ever before, their pupils shrank sharply—joy exploded across their faces.

“Twenty Contribution Points equals mining 400 jin of coal. Fifty people total? That’s 20,000 jin. Isn’t your pricing a bit high?”

Xia Hong, seated in his chair just beyond the Training Ground’s wall, watched the fifty through the wooden window, his expression oddly thoughtful.

Under current rules, coal and iron extraction yielded Contribution Points at the same rate as the system’s conversion: 20 jin of coal = 1 point, 10 jin of iron = 1 point.

The Training Ground consumed 9,600 jin of coal per day—equivalent to 480 coal points. Divided among fifty people, each person’s daily cost should be under ten points.

But Xia Chuan set it at 20 points—double the original amount.

Even Xia Hong couldn’t help but think it was a bit ruthless…

Hearing the teasing tone in Xia Hong’s voice, Xia Chuan chuckled, then grew serious and shook his head. “It’s not ruthless at all. Among these people, aside from the hunting team members, none have mining ability—they earn contribution points solely through logging and gathering. Their contribution points are already inflated.”

“Besides, doubling your cultivation speed is an opportunity you can get just by chopping wood. I think 20 points is even too low.”

“If I raised it higher, they’d fight over it.”

Xia Hong listened, thought for a moment, then let out a light laugh.

True enough—it wasn’t ruthless. Doubling cultivation speed was a miracle, unmatched by any other method. They couldn’t even beg for it. In that light, 20 contribution points meant nothing.

“But we can’t let it interfere with the camp’s resource gathering. I plan to open it every three days. If more people show up, we’ll raise the price—or even auction it. We can’t spare fifty people every day just for cultivation. Our Great Xia still isn’t strong enough for that…”

Xia Chuan was clearly thinking even further ahead—he was already planning the details after the training ground.

“Just handle it.”

Seeing how thoroughly he’d arranged everything, Xia Hong said no more. Instead, he remembered something and asked, “Have the two weapons been forged yet?”

“Luo Yuan and Yuan Cheng didn’t come today—they stayed in the forge. They should be done in about a day.”

Xia Hong nodded, a faint thrill stirring in his chest.

The first time the training ground opened yesterday, it brought a pleasant surprise.

Cheng Feng, Lin Kai, and Xu Ning all broke through to Earth-Digging Realm within a single day.

Cheng Feng’s breakthrough didn’t surprise Xia Hong—he was among the oldest in Luo Ge’s camp, with strength already among the top. But Lin Kai and Xu Ning? Those were the real shocks.

Especially Xu Ning. Clearly, after losing his right eye, he hadn’t given up—he’d become even more diligent. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have broken through to Earth-Digging Realm so quickly.

Cheng Feng was the gathering team leader, and no suitable replacement existed yet, so Xia Hong couldn’t reasonably move him to the hunting team. But Lin Kai and Xu Ning? No issue there.

Two new members deserved new weapons.

The hunting team’s standard issue: one large blade, one ten-stone iron-core bow, and fifty specially made iron arrows weighing seven jin each.

The benefits of Earth-Digging Realm were slowly becoming clear.

Now, unless it was a special case, mining, forging, even hunting low-grade cold beasts—none required his personal involvement.

“Big brother, shall we go hunting as usual tomorrow?”

The last hunt was on the 19th. The schedule was every three days. Tomorrow was the 22nd. And since Xia Hong had just asked about Lin Kai and Xu Ning’s weapons, Xia Chuan easily guessed his intent.

But he was wrong.

Xia Hong shook his head, his voice low. “Not necessarily tomorrow. First, go check the situation north of Redwood Ridge. If the opportunity arises, then we act.”

Check the situation north of Redwood Ridge.

Xia Chuan understood at once. He nodded slightly, a glint of cold light flashing in his eyes.

During past hunts, Xia Hong had deliberately avoided the northern region. They all knew why.

“I hope the Mirror Immortal Camp folks will behave themselves.”

Xia Hong murmured low, a sharp gleam cutting through his pupils.

(End of Chapter)