Chapter 159: Mirror Immortal

Mirror Immortal camp, snow-white three-story bamboo building

On the top floor main hall, twenty or thirty people were gathered full.

The two chairs at the very top were both empty. The crowd below was mostly discussing enthusiastically with joy on their faces, occasionally looking up at the compartment behind the chairs.

"It's been four days, the people of Great Xia don't dare to come to Red Wood Ridge anymore. This piece in the north should all be ours from now on, right?"

"Haha, this piece in the north? You are too timid. With Great Xia's little strength, how can they fight with our Mirror Immortal? Do you think the two leaders gathered us today for what?"

"You mean, we still have to continue south?"

"Hmph, that Xia Hong killed so many of us. Just ceding such a small piece of territory in the north and wanting to settle the matter—dreaming!"

"Inside Red Wood Ridge, there are many cold beasts, many precious trees and plants, and wood and coal mines are countless. Letting that Great Xia occupy such a treasure land is truly a waste of heaven's gifts."

"On this side of the Arrow Bamboo Forest, the vegetation is too single, coal and iron ore reserves are low, and there are not many cold beasts usually. We still have to worry about the cold beast tide once every four months. If we could take down Red Wood Ridge, it would be comfortable from now on!"

The people around heard this sentence and nodded with lingering fear at the same time.

This place, Arrow Bamboo Forest, is definitely a bit evil.

Usually, there aren't many cold beasts inside, but it happens to have a cold beast tide once every four months. Before they had explored the entire Arrow Bamboo Forest, they didn't know where those cold beasts came from.

Now they know, they were all gathered from Red Wood Ridge.

A cold beast tide is not a migration of a single cold beast variety, but all varieties and levels, thousands of cold beasts, all gathering toward one place as if they were crazy.

You must know that even the weakest low-level cold beast has a body length of three or four meters, and the instantaneous explosive impact is at least ten thousand.

Such cold beasts, even in groups of three or five, are enough to threaten a low-level hunting team, not to mention thousands of them. The destructive power is astonishing, far beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Not to mention, there are quite a few medium-level, and even high-level cold beasts among them.

Although the Mirror Immortal camp is strong, it is powerless in the face of a cold beast tide.

The twenty or thirty people sitting here at this moment can all be considered the backbone of the Mirror Immortal camp.

Most of them have witnessed the situation when the cold beast tide broke out in the Arrow Bamboo Forest, so when they think of it, they can't help but have lingering fear.

"Taking down Red Wood Ridge shouldn't be a big problem. I estimate that perhaps, from now on, even our settlement will have to move there."

"I have seen that Great Xia valley settlement from afar. It is located in the middle of the cracks of Twin Longshan. East, south, and north are all broken walls of Twin Longshan. Basically, no cold beasts will come down. Only the west side has an opening, facing Red Wood Ridge, convenient for entry and exit, easy to defend and hard to attack. Such a good place, the leader will definitely not let it go!"

"It's just that that Xia Hong is a bit troublesome. Even the Second Leader couldn't take him down, and last time he killed so many people. Hmph..."

"What are you afraid of? The Great Leader hasn't taken action yet. As long as he takes action, that Xia Hong can't turn the world upside down."

"That Great Xia camp has a total of only a thousand people, and the Earth-Digging Realm cultivators add up to less than twenty. The strength is not strong at all. There is no need for the Great Leader to take action. As long as we all move out together, directly surrounding the valley, are we still afraid that that Xia Hong won't surrender?"

"It's just that I don't know, why the Great Leader didn't give the order before!"

"I heard that it was the Second Leader and his son who spoke good words for that Xia Hong together. The leader is a person who cherishes talent, so he gave him chances again and again. This time, I estimate he won't endure it anymore."

"Back and forth, how many people were killed by that Xia Hong? Still enduring it—where should our camp's face be placed? Those people like the Second Leader can endure it, but I can't."

"He Meng and He Gang are the Great Leader's nephews, and they were killed. The Great Leader hasn't cured them for so long, and I don't know if they can be resurrected!"

"The Second Leader brought the Yuanzhou camp to join Mirror Immortal for only a year or so, and everywhere he speaks for that Xia Hong. In my opinion, he and his son, and that group of old people from Yuanzhou camp, are not on the same heart with us at all."

…………

The content of the discussion of most people in the hall gradually evolved from hatred for Great Xia to accusations against the Director Yu Wen father and son, and even the old people of Yuanzhou.

What was embarrassing was that this group of twenty people included Yu Wentao.

Hearing the low accusations of the crowd, Yu Wentao's face didn't change, but the fist under his sleeve clenched slightly, and his breathing gradually became heavier. His emotions were clearly somewhat volatile.

He wasn't the only one; five others sat beside him. Although their ages were similar to Yu Wenhu's and they were a generation older than him, their cultivation of Qi was not as good as his. At this moment, their faces were flushed, and their emotions were clearly on the verge of erupting.

"Shut up, all of you!"

Suddenly, a thunderous roar came from the compartment at the very top of the main hall.

The expressions of the crowd changed slightly, and they closed their mouths with indignation.

Yu Wentao and the other six raised their heads with a trace of joy.

Yu Wenhu walked out slowly from the compartment, his gaze sweeping over the few people who had just spoken, his face somewhat ugly.

Clearly, he had heard the discussion of the crowd in the hall just now.

"The leader has an order: ten days later, at night, encircle the Great Xia settlement..."

Ten days later?

The crowd below heard this, and a trace of confusion appeared on their faces at the same time.

Before Yu Wenhu could finish speaking, someone directly interrupted him.

"Why wait ten days? Second Leader, can you speak clearly?"

"That's right, since you intend to encircle the settlement, why wait ten days? It's just Great Xia. Except for that Xia Hong who has some strength, the others are nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs. It's better to take action early and swallow them in one go!"

"In the past few days, the brothers have seen very clearly. Not to mention hunting, their people only dare to move within a one-kilometer range of the valley, not even daring to enter the depths of Red Wood Ridge. It can be seen that they are afraid of us to the bone. Since that's the case, why wait ten days? We should set off immediately."

………………

Yu Wenhu's face became even uglier. He was, after all, the Second Leader of the Mirror Immortal camp. Being refuted like this before he finished speaking showed that this group of people in front of him didn't have a shred of respect for him in their hearts.

"Could it be that it's the Second Leader who advised the Great Leader again?"

"Previously, Young Master Tao was like this, and now even the Second Leader has begun to speak for that Xia Hong. Could it be that the Yuanzhou camp had some relationship with this Great Xia before?"

"Thinking about it, that Xia Hong hasn't broken through to the Frost-Resistant Realm. The Second Leader has such strong strength, but he couldn't take him down again and again. Could it be..."

The few people who knelt below, as if they didn't see his face, continued to mock the Director Yu Wen father and son one after another.

It was clear that they all blamed the matter of waiting ten days on him.

*Slap*…………

"Are your ears deaf? It's the leader's order!"

Seeing his father being mocked, Yu Wentao finally couldn't hold it anymore. He slapped the table angrily and stood up directly.

The five uncle-generation people beside him also stood up with him immediately, glaring at the few people who had just spoken.

If it were in another environment, with other people, this action of Yu Wentao's would definitely have been able to hold the scene, but today, these people didn't even give face to Yu Wenhu, the Second Leader, let alone him.

"Yo, Young Master Tao..."

The person at the head was about to mock Yu Wentao, but he had only said three words when a sharp, piercing sound came from behind the compartment at the top.

*Whoosh*...

A sharp white airflow passed straight by the left ear of that person, like a sleeve arrow, but the speed was countless times faster than a sleeve arrow.

Not to mention seeing it clearly, by the time the crowd heard the sound, the airflow had already been nailed to the bamboo wall.

And the person who had just spoken stood expressionless in place, not knowing what had happened at all.

The crowd also didn't know what had happened, only staring at his ear.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

*Plop*...

That person's left ear actually fell off directly to the ground.

The ear fell down, revealing a straight and neat wound. The blood in the wound didn't even flow out until one or two seconds later.

The crowd turned to look at the wall at this time, only to discover that what had just brought out the white airflow was actually just a small, snow-white bamboo leaf.

A small bamboo leaf no larger than a thumb had directly sliced off the ear of an Earth-Digging Realm cultivator who had begun to remodel his skin-membrane. This was already outrageous enough. After slicing it off, it didn't fall for three breaths, and the wound didn't bleed until five breaths later.

The speed and power of this bamboo leaf...

In the whole hall, only Yu Wenhu looked at the bamboo leaf, his pupils trembling endlessly.

*Bang*…………

The person who had just spoken, including the few who had mocked the Director Yu Wen father and son together, changed expressions in shock and immediately knelt down.

"Who gave you the guts to be so disrespectful to the Second Leader?"

The warm-as-jade voice in the compartment only carried a trace of slight anger, which made everyone in the hall not even dare to breathe loudly.

The crowd kneeling on the ground trembled even more.

In the whole hall, only Yu Wenhu had a slightly normal expression, but even he bowed slightly to the voice in the compartment after it sounded.

"Second Brother, continue."

=9+Book_Bar

Hearing the voice inside, Yu Wenhu stood up straight, turned to look at the crowd below, and said in a deep voice, continuing what he hadn't finished just now:

"Within these ten days, no one is allowed to approach the Great Xia valley. Ten days later, the leader will personally lead all 271 Earth-Digging Realm cultivators in the camp to encircle Great Xia. The rest, stay behind with me to guard the camp!"

As Yu Wenhu's voice fell, the crowd kneeling on the ground revealed joy on their faces, even the person whose ear had just been sliced off was no exception.

And Yu Wentao and the other six were a bit puzzled at first, but after pondering for a moment, their expressions immediately became much gloomier.

Yu Wenhu, who said this order, had an even uglier face.

"Alright, all of you retreat and prepare!"

"Yes, leader."

The voice in the compartment sounded, and everyone bowed and left, soon leaving completely.

In the empty compartment, a sharp roar faintly came out.

"Hehehehe, watch it, watch it, they are all mine, they are all mine. You can't succeed, you can't succeed."

………………

Wooden house next to the bamboo building.

As soon as Yu Wenhu returned, his son Yu Wentao found him with an ugly face.

"Taking 271 Earth-Digging Realm cultivators over, clearly excluding you, and me, and the 43 Earth-Digging Realm cultivators who haven't worshipped Mirror Immortal. Father, what does the leader mean?"

Yu Wenhu didn't answer his son's question, only sat on the chair, looking at the ring-shaped jade pendant with silver edges in his hand, furrowing his brow and falling into deep thought.

Seeing the ring-shaped jade pendant, Yu Wentao immediately moved his expression and leaned to Yu Wenhu's side, asking in a low voice: "Father, does the jade pendant have a reaction?"

Yu Wenhu shook his head lightly and said: "No."

"Then it's purely excluding us. In the year or so since joining Mirror Immortal, Father, me, and Uncle Hong—which one of us hasn't fought to the death for the camp? Just because of the absurd reason of not worshipping Mirror Immortal, the leader now actually uses such a way to exclude us?"

"Do you think the leader made such a decision to exclude us?"

"What else could it be for?"

Yu Wentao asked back subconsciously. Seeing his father shake his head without speaking, he also lowered his head to think. Soon, his expression had subtle changes.

That's not right. Such exclusion indeed had no necessity.

What for?

To let them also go worship Mirror Immortal?

He Yuanhun hadn't forced them to worship Mirror Immortal from the beginning. Using such a way of exclusion to force them to worship was not as direct as forcing them directly.

If he really wanted to force them, to tell the truth, they couldn't resist either.

Even if Yu Wenhu could resist, could he, and the other 42 Earth-Digging Realm cultivators of the Yuanzhou camp, resist?

It wasn't exclusion, then it was deliberately not letting them participate in the encirclement of Great Xia.

But, what was the reason?

Seeing his father's expression, Yu Wentao immediately knew that his father saw much further than himself. Clearly, he had long begun to think about this problem.

"Judging by the strength of the Great Xia camp, as long as the leader takes action personally, there certainly won't be any problem. In fact, whether we go or not won't make much difference. But according to common sense, more people mean more strength. If we went, it would always reduce some casualties, and the psychological pressure on Great Xia would also be greater."

Hearing Yu Wenhu's words, Yu Wentao immediately followed the train of thought:

"Deliberately not letting us go, conversely, is that if we went, it might produce bad results for this encirclement?"

"Could it be that those who have worshipped Mirror Immortal won't die, and the leader is worried that we who haven't worshipped Mirror Immortal are greedy for life and afraid of death, and won't fight hard?"

Yu Wenhu immediately shook his head and said in a deep voice: "Who said those who worshipped Mirror Immortal won't die? He Meng and He Gang haven't been resurrected yet. The leader said he is saving them, but who knows if they can be saved?

Moreover, I have sworn brotherhood with him for so many years; he wouldn't look at me like that!"

"Could it be that he is worried about what we might see?"

Yu Wentao's slightly bold speculation caused Yu Wenhu's expression to condense.

The father and son looked at each other, and a faint light flashed in their pupils.

………………

Great Xia Year 1, March 15th

Deep in the south side of Red Wood Ridge, in a poisonous fog area, Xia Hong covered his face with a piece of animal-skin cloth, held a giant axe, and split the head of a medium-level Soaring Dragon in two.

The Soaring Dragon died. Xia Hong didn't have the slightest hesitation, shouldered the corpse, and rushed out of the poisonous fog area.

He ran for three or four hundred meters before stopping, caught the blood overflowing from the Soaring Dragon's wound on his hands, then smeared it on his body, his expression somewhat excited:

"The thirty-second one. It should... be enough!"

Originally estimated that it would take half a month to gather thirty medium-level cold beasts, unexpectedly, it only took eight days to complete.

Not only completed, but also exceeded the standard.

From the 7th to today, in eight days, he hunted a total of thirty-two medium-level cold beasts.

It is hard to imagine that in the half a month or so since he became a lone ranger, Xia Hong's individual hunting efficiency was actually faster than when he led the hunting team before.

In fact, the reason was also very simple. Just as Xia Hong speculated before, hunting cold beasts one-on-one, the speed of combat experience improvement was faster than imagination.

Moreover, the hunting experience for the same type of cold beasts was common.

Especially in one-on-one situations, cold beasts often appeared to be underestimated. It seemed that they were born with a contemptuous attitude toward humans, feeling that they couldn't lose one-on-one.

Before, when leading the hunting team to deal with medium-level cold beasts, they often had to guard against the cold beasts fleeing toward the end.

Now alone, this situation was rare.

Of course, the most important reason was the improvement of Xia Hong's own strength.

【Cultivation: Earth-Digging Realm Perfection (Skin-membrane remodeling progress 70%)】

In these eight days, he certainly didn't dare to use too much beast blood at once, but just using it while stuck at the limit, the progress also increased by 14 points.

It was calculated before that one point of progress could increase his basic strength by about 1,250 *jin*. Converting it, 14 points was 17,500.

"Strength is already 120,000 *jin*, and the beast blood is enough. Next, raise the last 30 points of progress, and it's time to officially break through to the Frost-Resistant Realm!"

Xia Hong clenched his fists. Thinking that his basic strength would usher in another leap after breaking through to the Frost-Resistant Realm, his face added a few more points of excitement. He shouldered the Soaring Dragon and returned rapidly toward the valley.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 160 =====