Chapter 158: Lone Ranger, Xing Guguan

Does Does Da Xia Year 1, March 7th

Six kilometers south of the middle section of Red Wood Ridge, at a depth of about two kilometers.

One person and one Snow Mane were fiercely wrestling in the dense forest.

That Snow Mane was over seven meters long, with a shoulder height of three or four meters; its sturdy limbs were like four pillars supporting the sky; its two-meter-long tusks were like two slender, curved blades hanging from its mouth, revealing a chilling cold light; the thorny barbs on its back were covered with a layer of frost on the outer layer, the tips bright and sharp, just like hundreds of steel spears stuck upside down on its back, making one's heart feel cold.

This Snow Mane, just its size and appearance alone, was enough to inspire awe, not to mention that muscular body full of power; the strength contained within could be imagined.

However, such a terrifying-looking medium-level Snow Mane was now being grabbed by its tusks by a person, unable to move…………

A young man wearing a black cloak and a pale blue animal-fur hat pressed it to the ground with his eyes wide open, his hands resting on the Snow Mane's two tusks.

The Snow Mane's shoulder height was over three meters, and the young man was at most one point nine meters. Normally, he certainly wouldn't be able to reach it, but the Snow Mane's head was drooping at this moment, clearly having just made an attack posture but being controlled by the young man and pressed dead to the ground.

*Zeng*... *zeng*...

The Snow Mane's head pressed to the ground couldn't move, and its four limbs behind were struggling and flapping constantly, but no matter what, it couldn't break free from the young man's hands.

"Roar…………"

When the Snow Mane opened its mouth to let out a roar, there was only the root of its tongue left in its mouth. The tongue that was originally used as a sharp weapon had already been broken off at the root, lying on the snowy ground more than ten meters away along with a slender long blade.

Although the young man still had a giant axe on his back, he never used it, only using both hands to clamp the Snow Mane dead, clearly deliberately wrestling with it.

The Snow Mane's size, according to reason, should be more than ten times that of the young man. This was like a tiger being pressed dead by a small cat with both hands on its head, unable to break free even after exhausting all its strength.

Moreover, as the struggle lasted longer, the Snow Mane even started to show signs of exhaustion. The roar gradually faded, and even the movement was slowly becoming smaller.

If an outsider saw this scene, they would probably feel like they were dreaming.

The young man's eyes were wide open, his veins bulging. He pressed for a full hundred breaths. Seeing the Snow Mane's movement become smaller and its body strength fading, his gaze condensed suddenly.

He suddenly let go of both hands, quickly took the double-edged giant axe from his back, and took advantage of the Snow Mane's panicked attempt to get up to turn over, swinging horizontally from behind toward the Snow Mane's right neck, slashing diagonally.

The giant axe was too fast, the scratch marks condensing into substance in mid-air, exceptionally clear in the night. The Snow Mane's head had only just raised less than half a meter when it was hit.

*Ka*………… *peng*…………

The crisp sound of bone fracture erupted from the neck position first. The Snow Mane's huge head, like a kite with a broken string, flew directly to the left.

That's right, it flew out.

The young man actually directly severed that head, which was half the size of a person.

This axe, the force was so great that it probably far exceeded ordinary people's imagination.

That Snow Mane didn't even have time to shoot the barbs on its back.

Its body stood in place for a full ten breaths before crashing to the ground.

*Peng*…………

"The seventh one."

The young man was naturally Xia Hong, who had walked out of the camp alone.

*Chi*…………

Seeing a large amount of blood spraying from the Snow Mane's neck, Xia Hong hurriedly took out the leather bag he had prepared long ago and caught all the blood.

"Magic Sheep, Teng Jiao, Snow Mane, Lei Kui, Frost Wolf—seven prey have already occupied five types. I basically have the ability to hunt medium-level cold beasts common to the outer perimeter alone!"

In the third day of being a lone ranger, Xia Hong had already slowly changed from being unaccustomed at the beginning to being used to it, and now, he was even somewhat enjoying it.

Going out with the hunting team had quite a few benefits.

For example, many things were done by others, so he didn't have to do everything himself; multi-person coordination had higher hunting efficiency than when he was alone, etc...

But the disadvantage opposite to this was that Xia Hong had to divide his attention to take care of others.

Currently, the highest basic strength of the hunting team members, Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan, was only just over twenty thousand. Facing medium-level cold beasts, it was still very dangerous.

If Xia Hong didn't divide his attention to take care of others, the casualty rate would definitely be very high.

"The efficiency is a bit lower, but at least it can ensure safety. Moreover, facing these cold beasts alone, the speed of improvement in combat experience and strength has become faster. Lone ranger it is, for the time being, this is the only way!"

Before Xia Hong's skin-membrane progress was as high as it was now, leading a team out to hunt three medium-level cold beasts in one night was basically no problem.

Tonight was the fourth night he had gone out alone.

In four nights, seven medium-level cold beasts—although there was the reason for hunting other varieties for the first time, the fact that the efficiency had decreased a lot was also an indisputable fact.

"Seven cold beasts, totaling about four hundred jin of beast blood. There is only a gap of two thousand jin left. Put in more effort, just need the last thirty-plus medium-level cold beasts!"

Xia Hong calculated in his heart, a trace of excitement flashing slightly in his eyes.

Recalling when he first broke through to the Frigid level and calculated that he needed the blood of eighty medium-level cold beasts, Xia Hong at that time had felt somewhat desperate in his heart.

But how much time had passed since then? In less than two months, his progress had already reached fifty-six.

Of course, the most critical thing was that Xia Hong learned from Gao Yu that the reason he needed so much medium-level beast blood after breaking through to the Frigid level was because his combat body talent was too high—in other words, his potential was too great.

With this, Xia Hong couldn't talk about despair at all; on the contrary, he became full of motivation.

"Take advantage of this period of time to gather the gap in beast blood in one go!"

The Does Does Da Xia prohibition had already started to be implemented. From the night of the 3rd, everyone in the entire camp, whether gathering, logging, or hunting, could not leave the one-kilometer range of the valley.

For a short period of time, the hunting team couldn't accompany him out.

Not just the hunting team, even Xia Hong himself, in the four nights he went out before, had all gone around the edge of the camp, coming out from different places.

After leaving the valley, let alone the north side of Red Wood Ridge, he didn't even go to the middle section, going directly to the south side of Red Wood Ridge.

Before breaking through to the Frigid level, avoid any contact with the Mirror Immortal camp.

"Thirty medium-level cold beasts, according to the current hunting efficiency, it will probably only take half a month. Hopefully, nothing else will happen during this period."

Xia Hong collected the beast blood and carried it on his back, then turned his head to look at the eastern outer perimeter, his expression moving slightly.

The position he was currently in was six kilometers south of Red Wood Ridge, with a depth of about two kilometers. Going out to the eastern outer perimeter was the earth slope of Does Does Da Xia's previous settlement.

That is to say, going further south was an unfamiliar area.

Xia Hong only pondered for a moment, immediately took action to drag the Snow Mane on the ground to a tree to hide it, then made a position mark, and walked straight out toward the eastern outer perimeter of Red Wood Ridge.

Leaving Red Wood Ridge and walking to the previous earth slope settlement, Xia Hong didn't have any hesitation, continuing to walk toward the south.

The previous idea was to let the Earth-Digging Realm people of the camp expand to the south, but the temporary occurrence of the Mirror Immortal camp matter meant that in a short period of time, it was estimated that only he alone had the ability to go out.

Since that was the case, then he would go and scout first to see the situation! Twin Longshan was combined from two mountain bodies, north and south. Does Does Da Xia's early earth slope was actually the part that extended from the south side of Twin Longshan.

From the information obtained from Gao Yu's mouth, it could be inferred that these people should all be located under the cliff on the west side of Twin Longshan.

Twin Longshan was over two hundred li long from east to west. Gao Yu didn't even know the distance from north to south. It was estimated that the breadth of the mountain body far exceeded imagination.

That is to say, the entire Red Wood Ridge, including the Pingxi Plain to the north, the Arrow Bamboo Forest, and even larger places, should all be located under the cliff on the west side of Twin Longshan.

Xia Hong walked only one kilometer along the earth slope to the south, and the mountain body started to concave inward—that is, toward the east side. If he wanted to continue exploring, he could only turn left and go to the inner perimeter on the east side.

"The mountain body is just concave, not cut off. The mountain trend is still continuing to extend to the south side, visually at least over a hundred li. But there is a river on the south side, that is to say, this river flows down from above Twin Longshan. It's just that I don't know if we are in the middle reaches or the lower reaches here..."

Xia Hong visually measured the distance of Twin Longshan's southern extension, then gazed at the east-west flowing ice river one kilometer away to the south, falling into thought.

A kilometer away, the mist of cold air billowing over the river was exceptionally conspicuous. Although the river surface could not be clearly seen, based on the ice crystals on the outer layer of the trees within Red Wood Ridge, it could be inferred that the river surface had definitely frozen into an exceptionally hard layer of ice.

In such an extremely cold and frozen world, having a living river was itself a very unreasonable thing. Not to mention, Luo Ming had also mentioned that there were no traces of cold beast activity around the ice river.

Xia Hong could basically conclude that there were definitely extremely terrifying creatures underwater.

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On land, the cold beasts that could survive were all this powerful.

Being able to survive underwater isolated by a thick ice layer and being able to scare other cold beasts from approaching—the terrifying degree of the underwater creatures could be imagined.

"Underwater creatures should have higher value than land creatures; water itself can also be considered an extremely scarce resource; moreover, one can judge the terrain orientation through the water flow, as well as the current location of Does Does Da Xia.

It's just a pity that the strength is currently insufficient. Wanting to utilize this river, it's definitely impossible for the time being. Only wait until the strength is sufficient in the future to talk about it!"

Xia Hong walked another seven or eight hundred meters south. As he got closer and closer to the ice river, a sense of panic inexplicably appeared in his heart.

Clearly, he could only see the cold air water mist steaming on the water surface and the green, crystal-clear water grass by the river, but the panic seemed to be generated out of thin air.

When he was only a little over a hundred meters away from the ice river, Xia Hong's heart started to beat violently.

This feeling of extreme danger was even more intense than when he first hunted the Snow Mane and strayed into the four-kilometer depth of Red Wood Ridge.

Xia Hong stopped his footsteps, gazing at the ice river water mist in front of him. Finally, he took a deep breath, turned around, and walked toward the left side—that is, the mountain wall on the south side of Twin Longshan.

"Living water, aquatic cold beasts, various scarce items at the bottom of the water, including those green, crystal-clear water grasses—without accident, they are also treasures. This river, if it can be utilized in the future, the camp's survival environment will definitely be better..."

Xia Hong looked at the ice river while walking and turning his head. After pondering for a moment, he took out the map from his bosom and marked it at the river's position:

【Xinghe】

Luo Ming should have also approached this river before, but he didn't mark the name of this river. Xia Hong simply took a name for it himself.

Of course, taking a name was secondary.

More importantly, it was Xia Hong's regard for the value of this river.

"Wait until when, when Xinghe can be utilized, Does Does Da Xia's strength should be enough to look down on the entire Red Wood Ridge area!"

Xia Hong continued to explore along the south mountain wall. After walking forward for about four kilometers, the east-west extending mountain wall finally recovered to a north-south direction.

At the same time, a dense forest of lush trees that slanted upward from west to east also came into view.

Xia Hong raised his eyes to gaze south, then turned his head to look north—that is, the direction of his own valley—and immediately had a concept of the outline of the entire Twin Longshan.

The entire Twin Longshan presented a north-south direction. How long it was specifically was unclear, but the east-west length, according to what Gao Yu said, should be at least two hundred kilometers.

From south to north, except for some mountain bodies that occasionally concaved inward or convexed outward, the rest were generally mountain walls over two thousand meters high. The only gap should be the place where Xinghe flowed—that is, the slope in front of his eyes at this moment.

That is to say, Does Does Da Xia valley, Red Wood Ridge, Arrow Bamboo Forest, and Pingxi Plain were all located in the valley bottom on the west side of Twin Longshan. Most likely, the only opening connected to the outside world was the slope in front of his eyes.

Xia Hong climbed to the top of a large tree and gazed at the overall situation of the slope.

The slope was no more than ten li from north to south, and the middle was also occupied by Xinghe for half.

Xia Hong only performed a deduction in his mind, and then looking at the slope's eyes, they immediately changed.

"As long as you jam this slope and control Xinghe, you can completely block the connection between the valley bottom and the outside world."

Such an important strategic location was actually right on the edge of the Does Does Da Xia settlement!

"Hahahaha, thinking too far ahead..."

Xia Hong lowered his head and mocked himself. Does Does Da Xia's current scope of activities was restricted to within one kilometer of the valley by the Mirror Immortal camp. This valley was no matter how important, it had nothing to do with the current Does Does Da Xia.

"When, when Does Does Da Xia can integrate all the humans in the valley bottom on the west side of Twin Longshan, can it consider going east from this road, to the outside world, to see what the real Mo Ao Mountain is like, as well as the Beishuo Town in the mouths of Yang and Li, and those other eight towns!"

Xia Hong took a deep breath, calmed the ambition in his heart, leaped down from the large tree, took out the map, drew the slope position, and then marked:

【Xing Guguan】

"The human settlements here should be quite a few, but they must all be distributed in positions far from the north and south banks of Xinghe, unless there is a very strong camp that can already utilize the resources of Xinghe."

Xia Hong shook his head slightly. This probability was almost non-existent.

Even he, a person with Frigid-level strength, didn't dare to approach within a hundred meters of Xinghe.

A camp that could utilize the resources of Xinghe appearing here—impossible.

The most important two prerequisites for a position suitable for humans to be a settlement are resources and a naturally formed hidden environment.

Xing Guguan was a slope, but that was the overall situation. The mountain trend was slowly rising from west to east. Judging from the lush dense forest in this area and the undulating mountain situation, there must be quite a few human settlements hidden inside.

Xia Hong didn't hesitate. After pondering for a moment, he plunged directly into the dense forest.

Sure enough, after going less than a li into the dense forest, Xia Hong discovered footprints in the snow, temporarily generated firewood piles, scattered iron arrows, and even animal-skin products used by humans.

A look of joy appeared on Xia Hong's face. After observing the iron arrows and animal-skin products carefully, he immediately had a preliminary concept of the development situation of the human settlements in this area.

"The iron arrow craftsmanship is not good, and the animal skins are all from low-level cold beasts. Compared to the situation of the Luo Ge camp before, it should be even worse. During this period of time, I can come over to see more. Without accident..."

Xia Hong climbed up a large tree again, looked around, and soon found five small hills with an average height of no more than two or three hundred meters.

Human habits are common. Any camp, as long as the Earth-Digging Realm hasn't reached a certain quantity, it's unrealistic to rely on oneself to dig earth and build a city.

So, any weaker camp, when choosing a settlement, the first choice is a natural mountain cave. Like the Luo Ge camp, being able to find a valley with unique advantages as a settlement belongs to being an outlier among outliers.

Saying it was favored by heaven was not too much at all.

Looking at the five small hills, although Xia Hong's expression was moved, he finally sighed and temporarily suppressed the thought in his heart.

"Leave a mark first. Now, the timing is not mature!"

Does Does Da Xia itself is currently not safe, so where would it have the spare energy to accept other human settlements? Even if he found the human settlements in this area, he couldn't possibly take them to move to the valley side alone.

Xia Hong marked the position on the map, turned around, and left directly.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 159 =====