Chapter 186: Population Surge, Valley Planning

In the first year of Da Xia, the twentieth day of the fourth month

Exactly one month had passed since Xia Hong consolidated the Six Departments.

It had also been precisely seventeen days since the Exchange Fair.

The valley housing the Da Xia encampment had undergone a dramatic transformation.

After nightfall, people poured out in droves from the two temporary wooden huts: armed hunting squads, groups of adults heading out to cut timber, women carrying buckets of snow, bands of teenagers practicing fist techniques outside the wooden pavilion, and children under six who had agreed to play together...

Anyone observant would notice countless new faces in the valley—men, women, old and young—all present in large numbers, increasing the valley's total population by far more than a little.

After stepping out of the huts, everyone would instinctively turn back to glance at the wooden building under construction, their faces filled with deep longing.

"That wooden building should be nearly done—ordinary laborers are no longer needed; these past few days, it's been the hundred-odd craftsmen from the Workshop busy inside."

"Definitely. It's in the final stages. I heard they're arranging the third-floor rooms—I saw a lot of fine furniture moved in yesterday, Zeze, all wrapped in beast fur, probably for the Leader's quarters."

"I saw it too—just one chair, its back and seat entirely padded with beast fur, even the legs carved from beast bone, with frost wolves' heads carved on each armrest, Zeze, absolutely stunning."

"I saw it too—that chair was truly beautiful. I asked a friend in the Craftsmen's Department—guess how many Contribution Points it costs to exchange for it?"

"How many?"

"How many?"

"Seventy points!"

" Zeze, seventy points—that's enough for a full day of training at the Martial Hall."

"Still leaves twenty points extra."

"A full set of clothes is only 155 points—this chair's worth half a set."

"Only the Leader can afford it, right?"

"Not necessarily—I heard the Hunting Teams have placed orders too; the Craftsmen's Department has a pile of backlogged orders."

"That's just one chair. The wooden bed, the lamp stand, the brazier—all the items in the Leader's room are top-tier. Yesterday I even saw a golden throne carved with over a dozen cold-beast patterns, painted with gold powder ground from Golden Frost Tree tips—definitely for the Leader."

"Of course—who else in Da Xia deserves to sit on it?"

"The wooden building's been closed off these past few days—no one allowed inside."

"Probably waiting until completion. I wonder if those of us who came later will get a room."

"I asked Da Xia people—everyone will get one, but it depends on marital status: married couples get individual homes, singles get ten-person dorms by gender."

"Ah, that's great—I need to find a wife fast."

"Hahaha, can you just find a wife whenever you want?"

………………

The camp's current hottest topic of discussion was the wooden building.

The reason was simple: since the night of the fourth day of the fourth month, when the camps of Xiao He, Tong Ling, and San Hu—totaling over five thousand people—merged in one go, more camps kept joining every two or three days without end, causing Da Xia's population to surge in an extreme, unprecedented wave.

With this population explosion, the two wooden huts were utterly insufficient.

Had the valley's temperature not been high, and had the southern mine not been able to house many more, many would have had nowhere to sleep.

Thus, new housing became everyone's foremost concern.

Whether they were original Da Xia members or later arrivals, all felt the same.

…………

As people streamed out of the huts, a large group sat gathered in the main hall of the left wooden building—only the central seat was empty, with over twenty others seated on either side.

Xia Chuan stood beside the central seat, listening to Yue Feng's report.

Yue Feng held a beast-skin ledger filled with tiny coal-written characters, his voice excited as he recited the camp's population growth:

"In the first year of Da Xia, on the third day of the fourth month, the camps of Xiao He, San Hu, and Tong Ling, totaling 5, 19 people, merged in."

"In the first year of Da Xia, on the sixth day of the fourth month, the camps of Xi Feng and An Ping, totaling 1, 21 people, merged in."

"In the first year of Da Xia, on the eighth day of the fourth month, the camps of Jiu He and Gu Kou, totaling 2, 21 people, merged in."

"In the first year of Da Xia, on the eleventh day of the fourth month, the camps of Qu Jiang, Ping Dong, and Ying Kou, totaling 2, 12 people, merged in."

………………

As each figure was announced, the others in the hall grew increasingly excited, mirroring Yue Feng's enthusiasm.

Only Xia Chuan remained calm, nodding steadily.

After all, for the past half-month, he had personally coordinated manpower to relocate these camps—these numbers, he had already heard repeatedly.

After the Exchange Fair ended, aside from Xiao He and Tong Ling, the remaining nine medium-sized camps of Wu Yuan Mountain sent envoys to visit Da Xia the next day.

The effect was much the same as with Xiao He's camp.

The conditions of the Wu Yuan Mountain camps were truly far inferior to Da Xia's.

Anyone not foolish would refuse no offer to merge.

Subsequent developments confirmed this.

These camps not only agreed to merge but actively helped Da Xia locate several other small camps, bringing them along in a steady stream.

Of course, the process wasn't simple—during this time, Yu Wen Tao and the entire Hunting Department had been constantly busy, almost every night leading teams to survey routes, then fully escorting the incoming camp populations to the Da Xia valley.

With past precedents in mind, Xia Chuan dared not take any risks with large-scale population transfers—in fact, had he not been so cautious, the annexation of the Wu Yuan Mountain camps could have moved even faster.

Pah…

As Xia Chuan pondered, Yue Feng had reached the end of his report.

Yue Feng closed the beast-skin ledger, its cover clearly inscribed with the five characters: "Da Xia Annals."

"Reporting to the Deputy Director, Director Yu Wen has departed at nightfall. Without incident, the 1, 21 people from Zhu He Camp will arrive tonight. Thus, our current total population is…"

Yue Feng had clearly already calculated it—he paused deliberately, scanning the room, then shouted to Xia Chuan: "Twenty-three thousand, two hundred and thirty-one!"

Hiss…

The twenty-odd people in the hall all drew a sharp breath in unison.

Even Xia Chuan, prepared for this, could not suppress his excitement—a flicker of exhilaration flashed in his pupils.

Twenty-three thousand people.

This was the result of fully annexing all of Wu Yuan Mountain!

Leaving aside Da Xia's current territory, just this population size already exceeded the former Jing Xian Camp by more than double.

Who could have imagined that just over a year ago, Da Xia was a small camp of fewer than two hundred people, on the brink of annihilation?

"Twenty-three thousand people—the standard for a village-level camp is twenty thousand. Has Da Xia reached it?"

After a long silence, Yuan Cheng, seated below, could not help speaking.

Hearing this, everyone's expressions shifted.

A camp exceeding five hundred people was medium-sized; two thousand five hundred was large; five thousand or more was giant; twenty thousand or more was a true village-level camp.

Da Xia had, without anyone noticing, reached village-level population size!

But population alone isn't enough—the number of strong individuals still falls short. I once heard Director Yu Wen say that to become a true village-level camp, you must have three mid-grade spiritual items to suppress the encampment, to deter the supernatural entities…

Meng Yi recalled Yu Wen the Guardian's words, rising to speak—but then he saw the Sunfire Cauldron at the center of the hall and fell silent.

The others, including Xia Chuan, also realized—staring at the Sunfire Cauldron in the hall, their expressions surged with excitement.

They didn't understand what spiritual items were.

But if the goal was merely to deter supernatural entities, with the Sunfire Cauldron present, they needed no other spiritual items.

"So does that mean, starting today, we can officially call ourselves Da Xia Village?"

Hearing Yuan Cheng's words, everyone grew excited.

Meng Yi frowned, but remembering his knowledge of village-level camps came only from Yu Wen the Guardian—fragmentary at best—he said nothing further.

From the perspective of deterring supernatural entities, Da Xia had indeed reached the standard.

But he didn't know if true village-level camps required anything else.

"Forget that for now. As long as our strength grows steadily, even if we haven't reached it yet, we'll reach it eventually. Qiu Peng, report on the Logistics Department's registrations!"

Xia Chuan glanced at Meng Yi, noting his hesitation but not pressing further, then turned to Qiu Peng beside him.

Qiu Peng had clearly prepared—he pulled out another beast-skin ledger, stepped to the center of the hall, and began reporting to Xia Chuan.

"During this period, the number of people joining the camp has been enormous, and daily breakthroughs continue, so we can only report the latest figures. The roster from Zhu He Camp was sent ahead, so it's been included."

"As of now, the total number registered for Contribution Points is 4, 13: 431 in the Digging Realm, 3, 12 in the Woodcutting Realm."

"The remaining 15, 31 people over six years old who have not yet broken into the Woodcutting Realm are reserve troops; children under six number 3, 87."

"These are the camp's current overall population figures!"

After speaking, Qiu Peng added quickly:

"Director, during this period, the number of reserve troops breaking into the Woodcutting Realm averages over a hundred daily; those breaking into the Digging Realm average about ten to twenty daily, sometimes even twenty to thirty—so the numbers change daily."

Xia Chuan nodded—he knew this well.

If he remembered correctly, the eleven medium camps of Wu Yuan Mountain had only 231 Digging Realm cultivators combined; Da Xia previously had 110, and after the deaths of Liu Zhuang and Tian Yu, only 108 remained. Had it not been for the continuous daily breakthroughs, the Digging Realm count would never have reached 431. As for the Woodcutting Realm, since the environment stabilized, they had sprouted like mushrooms after rain.

Still, the vast majority of those currently breaking through were from the original thousand-plus of early Da Xia.

This was natural—the Jing Xian Camp had merged only a month ago, and the Wu Yuan Mountain people had joined only in the past half-month; their breakthrough wave would still need time to build.

The Martial Hall, though powerful, could only accommodate two hundred people daily. With later arrivals lacking sufficient Contribution Points, the original Da Xia members naturally had priority. Recently, the Jing Xian group had begun accumulating enough points to enter.

As for the over ten thousand who joined later from Wu Yuan Mountain, they must first accumulate Contribution Points before they can train inside.

"Also, as you ordered, everyone's household registration has been categorized into separate ledgers—married, unmarried, family members, even orphans—all meticulously recorded, and the full rosters are here."

As Qiu Peng spoke, he handed the ledger forward.

Xia Chuan took it, flipped through a few pages, nodded in satisfaction, then returned it to Qiu Peng, turning to Luo Yuan below and smiling: "Yu Wen Tao isn't here tonight—did he brief you?"

Luo Yuan rose and nodded, pulling out another beast-skin ledger from beside him.

"Director, the Hunting Department has newly formed eleven squads; adding the original thirteen, minus the disbanded Xuan Wu Squad, we now have twenty-three hunting squads…"

Watching Luo Yuan speak confidently and adapt so quickly to his role as Deputy Head of the Hunting Bureau, Xia Chuan's eyes revealed a hint of satisfaction; he silently thought that Yuwen the Guardian was at least sensible.

In one by one /

As the major camps merged, the number of Earth-Digging cultivators increased daily, and the Hunting Bureau's responsibilities grew accordingly; when Yuwen the Guardian had proposed adding another Deputy Head a few days ago, Xia Chuan wasn't surprised.

What surprised him was that Yuwen the Guardian hadn't nominated his own man, but instead suggested Luo Yuan for the position.

Hong Guang's Xuanwu Squad had been disbanded by his elder brother, and he could no longer compete for the position of Head of the Pioneer Bureau; at the time, Xia Chuan had assumed Yuwen the Guardian harbored resentment and had proposed the additional Deputy Head to install his own person—but now he realized he'd underestimated him.

"Hong Guang's affair was entirely his own fault—he caused the deaths of Tian Yu and Liu Zhuang. I was furious too. The leader's handling was fair, and I have no objections. To be honest with you, my lord, I never fully agreed with him vying for the Head of the Pioneer Bureau, but I couldn't stop him. Now that this major incident has occurred, I share some responsibility."

Recalling Yuwen the Guardian's words from two days ago, Xia Chuan nodded slightly, set aside his thoughts, and continued listening to Luo Yuan's report.

"My lord, could we moderately relax the qualifications for forming Hunting Squads? Nearly two hundred people still can't join any squad!"

Hearing Luo Yuan's final proposal, Xia Chuan paused in surprise, then quickly understood—the Hunting Squads were insufficient.

Currently, all 23 Hunting Squads are low-grade; according to regulations, each can have at most ten members, meaning only 230 Earth-Digging cultivators have been assigned. But the camp now has 431 Earth-Digging cultivators, leaving 199 without squads.

The problem is, Yuwen the Guardian had set strict conditions for forming a Hunting Squad individually: first, the founder must possess at least twenty thousand jin of base strength; second, four members are required; third, they must kill five different types of low-grade cold beasts.

Yuwen the Guardian's rules were still reasonable: twenty thousand jin of base strength, plus four Earth-Digging cultivators, should be sufficient to face low-grade cold beasts—even if inexperience leads to defeat, survival at least remains possible.

The rules were sound, but the current personnel quality couldn't keep up.

There were too few Earth-Digging cultivators in the camp with over twenty thousand jin of base strength.

Xia Chuan knew these eleven new squads: seven had been formed by former Great Xia cultivators who had already met the criteria; of the ten thousand-plus who came from Five Ape Mountain, only four met the standard and successfully formed one squad.

So Luo Yuan's suggestion to relax the conditions was indeed justified—otherwise, nearly two hundred people would be excluded from hunting duties.

Xia Chuan lowered his head, pondered for a while, then shook his head and said:

"The rules have only been in place for a month; changing them now is unacceptable. The twenty-thousand-jin threshold is reasonable and shouldn't be altered. Relaxing the conditions would result in uneven squad quality, and casualties would only make things worse."

"Here's what we'll do: keep the existing twenty-three squads, but you and Yuwen the Guardian should revise the size limits. Low-grade squads can expand to twenty members, but corresponding changes must also apply to the size limits and monthly minimum kill quotas for mid- and high-grade squads."

Upon hearing this, Luo Yuan's eyes lit up and he immediately nodded.

Expanding the twenty-three squads to twenty members each would accommodate 460 people.

Not only would this fully utilize the remaining Earth-Digging cultivators, but more importantly, it would instantly resolve his second concern: the camp's recent surge in population had increased demand for meat.

Having resolved the Hunting Bureau's issue, Xia Chuan turned his gaze toward Xiang Mudong.

Xiang Mudong understood at once and stood up, bowing: "Reporting to the Deputy Director, the wooden buildings are nearly complete; everyone will move in tomorrow night."

Hearing the wooden buildings were finished and occupancy would begin tomorrow night, everyone—including Xia Chuan—could not help but smile.

For this period, they had been far too crowded.

But before they could celebrate long, Xiang Mudong continued:

"However, my lord, the camp's population seems to have grown too large. The new wooden buildings can accommodate everyone, but assigning individual rooms to each household as we did before is no longer possible."

Everyone froze, including Xia Chuan; after a moment's thought, they all realized the truth.

The newly rebuilt wooden building, though constructed with superior materials and far more defensive, still followed the same internal layout: 360 rooms on the first floor, 280 on the second, and 100 on the third.

When Great Xia had only a thousand or so people, any married couple could get a private room, and unmarried individuals were housed in ten-person dormitories by gender.

Now, with over twenty thousand people in the camp, such an arrangement was impossible.

Qiu Peng then stood up and said: "My lord, excluding orphans and single men and women, the camp currently has 5, 21 registered households. If we assign rooms as before, it's completely insufficient."

Five thousand eight hundred and twenty-one households—Xia Chuan's brow tightened. The wooden building had only 740 rooms total. Even if assigned by household, each room would need to house eight families on average—this didn't even account for orphans and singles without registered households.

Housing had become a problem again!

But it wasn't an insurmountable issue.

After a moment's thought, Xia Chuan's eyes brightened and he spoke:

"Last month, when the leader convened us, I said the rebuilt wooden building was meant solely for emergency response—like the previous cold-beast surge—so we needed a place to quickly gather everyone with some defensive capability. This building was never intended for daily residence."

Everyone paused, recalling that Xia Chuan had indeed said this last month—but if not for living, then where would they live?

"Do you all understand the effects of the Yangyang Cauldron by now?"

Xia Chuan suddenly pointed to the Yangyang Cauldron.

Everyone looked at the cauldron and nodded.

During this time, the Yangyang Cauldron's radiation range had been measured: a radius of one kilometer.

The valley where Great Xia was located was only three to four hundred meters wide north to south, and over fifteen hundred meters long east to west—the Yangyang Cauldron covered nearly the entire valley, even extending to some outer areas.

"After the new building is complete, we will no longer divide rooms as before. The 739 rooms, plus two temporary wooden huts, will be evenly distributed among everyone—meaning, except for the leader alone, everyone else must share."

Even counting the two temporary huts, each room would need to house at least five or six families—possibly more—nearly twenty people per room. Hearing this, everyone erupted.

"That crowded?"

"How are we supposed to live like that?"

"Twenty people in one room? That's unbearable."

………

Especially Yuan Cheng—he'd been getting close to Shi Lu lately, and they were about to start living together. How could they do that without a room?

He immediately stood up and asked: "My lord, this is too much. Everyone will suffer!"

Seeing his anxious expression, everyone understood the reason and quietly smiled.

Xia Chuan chuckled twice, then waved his hand: "Don't rush. I said the wooden building is for emergencies, not for living. If you want to live comfortably, build your own homes!"

Build their own?

Everyone paused, then quickly understood—their eyes brightened.

Of course! With the Yangyang Cauldron, the valley's temperature was no longer an issue—they could build other buildings within the valley.

Build their own family homes?

Everyone's expressions instantly turned excited.

Seeing everyone about to speak, Xia Chuan immediately raised his hand: "Wait—I haven't finished."

"The valley has limited space; if everyone wants to build, it won't work. So, building rights won't be open to all. Also, how to build, what materials to use, how large each house can be—all must be carefully planned and designed, or problems will arise constantly. And since you're all Earth-Digging cultivators with your own duties, you can't all devote yourselves to construction. Materials, labor, and required supplies—how many contribution points each requires—must be jointly decided by the Supply and Craft Departments…"

Xia Chuan spoke at length. Though many were confused, their expressions remained eager.

It was simple: the twenty-odd people present were all senior figures of the Great Xia camp. If Xia Chuan intended to promote housing construction, they would certainly qualify.

Only Xiang Mudong and Qiu Peng listened most intently—they were the ones named, and as they heard more, they realized Xia Chuan was clearly assigning them tasks.

"For now, that's all. Xiang Mudong, Qiu Peng—discuss my ideas, draft a charter, and bring it to me. Once approved, it will be announced."

"That's all for now. Xiang Mudong, Qiu Peng, discuss this according to my ideas, draft a set of regulations, and bring them to me—once approved, we'll announce them."

"Yes, my lord!"

They'd still have to endure crowding for a while—but if they didn't want to, they could spend contribution points to build their own homes. Xia Chuan smiled inwardly, recalling how the earliest Hunting Squad members had boasted about having more contribution points than they could spend.

Housing construction now provided another channel to consume contribution points.

And given the massive manpower and resources required, the consumption would be substantial!

Having resolved the housing issue, Xia Chuan exhaled slightly. Remembering what Xiang Mudong and Cheng Feng had told him before he arrived, he immediately asked:

"By the way, Xiang Mudong, Cheng Feng—you said you had some new items to show the leader. Did you bring them?"

Xiang Mudong nodded, a look of excitement on his face, and clapped his hands.

Outside the main hall, five men entered, each carrying a tray.

Cheng Feng also tensed, pulling out four vials from his person.

Seeing both were about to speak, Xia Chuan raised his hand: "No need. I'll take you to see the leader. Also…"

He turned to Shi Ping behind him and said: "You come too."

Shi Ping's expression changed instantly—he eagerly followed.

(End of Chapter)

(End of Chapter)