Chapter 203

First Year of Great Xia, December 29th.

The northern foothills of Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan, a vast snowy night.

Compared to Seeing Seeing Hong Mu Ridge, the trees on the Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan side, while much sparser, were clearly richer in variety.

The trees in the Frozen Abyss World not only have a layer of ice crystals on their bark, but their branches are also covered in snow year-round, giving them a frost-white appearance. Therefore, judging the tree species generally requires cutting them open first.

But Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan is different; from their form and shape, one can tell the difference between these trees and those in Seeing Seeing Hong Mu Ridge.

The overall vegetation in Seeing Seeing Hong Mu Ridge is dominated by Zhu Shuang trees, followed by Jin Lin trees, and then a very small number of precious varieties like Ice-Solid and Blue Jade.

Both Zhu Shuang and Jin Lin trees share a characteristic: their trunks are straight, their size is huge, and their growth environment cycles are similar, making them very suitable for building houses and woodworking; they can be considered very useful timber.

As for the trees on the Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan side, first of all, their scale is not as large as Seeing Seeing Hong Mu Ridge's;

Secondly, there are very few with straight trunks; they are almost all twisted and varied in form;

Finally, their growth environments are also a mess—some sprout horizontally from rock crevices, some are slanted and stuck in the snow, and others grow in clusters of several trees together. Moreover, most trees vary in thickness and have no order, giving people a chaotic feeling.

But precisely because of this, once people see them, they can judge their species, which is certainly richer than that of Seeing Seeing Hong Mu Ridge.

Beside a large, crooked tree, after listening to the explanation from their captain, Xu An, the members of the Golden Sword Squad all revealed expressions of sudden realization.

"I was wondering why so many people from the Logging Department have been following our hunting teams to Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan lately. So it turns out it's all to find rarer tree species."

"It's not strange. The vast majority of the Logging Department are in the Woodcutting Realm. They can't go deep into Seeing Seeing Hong Mu Ridge, and just relying on collecting timber on the outskirts, the contribution points they get are at most enough for some beast meat. It's better to come to Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan; if they can discover some useful rare species, they can earn a large sum at once."

"Right, right, right. I heard that last month, someone discovered an entire Zhu Mu tree, and the Camp Supplies Department rewarded him with 200 contribution points at once."

"Hiss... 200 points? That's enough for us to hunt a dozen cold beasts."

"Zhu Mu is the material the Lord Administrator uses to make puppets; it's normal for it to be expensive."

"Do people in the Logging Department earn that much?"

"No, no, no. This kind of thing depends on luck. More people rely on diligent and conscientious collection. It can only be said that those willing to take risks have a chance."

"That's true, it's still not as stable as us hunting."

Hearing the team members' discussion, Xu An shook his head, took a book from his bosom, shone it in front of everyone, and said, "In your spare time, flip through this Great Xia Atlas more often.

Not just Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan, but Arrow Bamboo Forest, Pingxi Plain, Mirror Valley, Twin Dragon Mountain, including Seeing Seeing Hong Mu Ridge—this book has detailed explanations of the characteristics of the environment in these different regions, what cold beasts are inside, and even what types of vegetation are there."

"Hehe, Captain, we don't have the heart to look at that!"

"That thing gives me a headache just looking at it."

"Hunting every day is tiring enough; how could we read a book?"

Seeing that everyone was indifferent, Xu An's expression suddenly sank, and he said, "Don't take it lightly. I'm the same as you, hunting every day, yet I still have to find time to read it. Have you all forgotten the words of the Lord Administrator?

As a member of Great Xia, if you don't even know what territory your own home has or where it is located, can you still be considered a Great Xia person?"

Hearing this, everyone's expression suddenly turned solemn, and they dared not be cheeky anymore.

"You are all members of a hunting squad now. Reading the atlas and understanding the distribution of cold beasts, vegetation types, and environmental characteristics in each area not only improves the success rate of hunting but also prevents trouble before it happens. In the future, if there is any sudden situation, you won't be completely in the dark, waiting for death on the spot, or panicking and losing your way, eventually getting lost in the wilderness..."

While lecturing the fourteen team members, Xu An couldn't help but sigh softly in his heart.

"My own hunting squad started too late..."

As one of the first batch of Woodcutting Realm members in Great Xia, Xu An naturally wouldn't set low requirements for himself.

In April of this year, after his older brother Xu Ning's basic strength met the standard, he created the Black Arrow Squad. Although Xu An joined, he had always wanted to create a hunting squad of his own.

At the beginning of last month, his basic strength finally met the standard. Taking advantage of the overflow of Earth-Digging Realm members in the camp, he didn't even think about it and directly withdrew from his brother Xu Ning's Black Arrow Squad, finding the Hunting Department to apply for the creation of this Golden Sword Squad.

Although the squad started with only ten people, under his leadership, they finally successfully passed the assessment mission, and the Golden Sword Squad successfully became the 83rd hunting squad under the Hunting Department.

But after the creation was successful, he realized that this was just the beginning.

When he was in the Black Arrow Squad, he would go out with the squad, just worrying about hunting cold beasts in the wilderness, and after a successful hunt, he would wait to share the contribution points; he didn't have to worry about anything else.

But now that he was a captain, he realized there were so many things he had to manage.

The reasonable distribution of contribution points; the control of the frequency of going out; the choice of hunting areas; finding and selecting suitable prey; how to reasonably set traps; how team members should cooperate; what essential supplies to exchange at the Camp Supplies Department; what to do when encountering sudden situations in the wilderness; the control of mining time; how to handle conflicts between team members...

As long as it involves the hunting squad, these aspects can be said to be crucial, no matter which one.

The key is that the team members below won't worry about these things; the only one who can handle these things is the captain.

You could find others to help you, but hunting cold beasts is a life-and-death matter; when it concerns one's own life, who dares not do it themselves?

He now understands why, even though the number of Earth-Digging Realm members in Great Xia is almost breaking 2000, there are only eighty-three hunting squads in total.

These various matters are not simple to handle at all. Even if many people's basic strength has reached the level, they simply don't possess this ability, and even if they have the ability, they might not necessarily have the willingness.

Managing these things is indeed too annoying.

For example, this Great Xia Atlas in his hand—there aren't many people in the whole camp who can hold it and study it quietly. He has persuaded his fourteen team members countless times, but they just don't want to look, and they really can't read it.

He spent so much time explaining the situation of Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan just now because he really had no other choice. Since these people are unwilling to read, he can only tell them orally.

Hearing a little is still better than knowing nothing at all.

"A low-level hunting squad has so many things to handle; those sixteen intermediate hunting squads, where most members are at the full quota of fifty people, probably have to deal with team member conflicts every day until they are exhausted. The things to manage when going out to hunt are even more..."

Xu An shook his head in his heart; glory indeed comes with a price. Before he was a captain, he only saw that the intermediate hunting squad's tokens looked good, the members were all very impressive, and the intermediate prey they brought back was eye-catching. Now thinking about it, achieving this step is not easy in itself.

Although he was thinking in his heart, Xu An's lecturing didn't stop at all. Seeing that only a few two or three people were listening seriously, and most of the team members had bored expressions on their faces, clearly unable to listen, he could only sigh slightly:

"Take it slow..."

It has only been a month since the Golden Sword Squad was created, and it is still a long way from being promoted to intermediate level. There is enough time for him to slowly explore and grow.

"Big Brother's Black Arrow Squad wasn't strong when it first started, but now..."

Thinking of his big brother Xu Ning, a trace of admiration rose in Xu An's heart. He cheered himself up slightly, turned his head to look at the team members, and smiled:

"Alright, you guys are probably tired of listening. I won't say anymore. Let's look around nearby, and if there are no new discoveries, we'll go back..."

Xu An paused here, turned around and pointed to the north, saying, "We have almost walked out of the northern foothills and are about to reach someone else's territory."

Hearing this, everyone immediately looked to the north and nodded slightly.

In the past half year, the five kilometers north and south and fifteen kilometers east and west of Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan had long been surveyed by the Great Xia camp.

Their current position is at the very edge of the northern foothills; they are indeed almost out of Great Xia's current territorial range.

A few of them suddenly had their expressions move slightly and spoke up.

"Captain, those four medium-sized camps north of the mountain have a combined population of five or six thousand. Why not just incorporate them all into our Great Xia?"

"I know about this. It seems they are unwilling themselves. They won't even send people to visit Great Xia. I heard someone is obstructing it from the middle."

"Lord Shi has already secretly probed it before. Those four camps are very weak, and their lives are not good. I don't know what they are thinking."

"I heard from others at the station that there is a Flying Tiger camp that is very resistant to merging and even persuaded the other three, which is why these four have not merged in for a long time."

"If you ask me, just take people and attack them. Their lives are already so bitter, yet they still hold onto that one-acre-three-fen of land. It would be better to come to our Great Xia to enjoy life..."

"You've only been here for five days, yet you've figured out the situation better than I have!"

Xu An first teased everyone, then said seriously, "I've heard about this too. Since those four camps are unwilling to join, then respect their wishes. Our Great Xia will never use military coercion to force other camps to merge. Whether they come or not is entirely up to them."

Hearing the last sentence, everyone's expression suddenly turned a bit more solemn.

Great Xia will never use military coercion to force other camps to merge. Whether they come or not is entirely up to them.

This sentence was personally said by the Lord Administrator Xia Chuan in front of everyone a few months ago when he was presiding over a meeting of all members of the Pioneering Department.

In fact, many people didn't understand this sentence.

In their minds, life in Great Xia is so good that even if others were forced to come and had hatred for Great Xia, as long as they lived a good life, their hatred would naturally dissipate, and they would certainly be grateful to those who forced them initially.

But out of respect and conviction for the Lord Administrator Xia Chuan, they still unconditionally followed this sentence.

Of course, Xu An is not among them.

Xu An's vision is still a bit higher than others. He could vaguely feel the deep meaning in Xia Chuan's words, especially after creating the Golden Sword Squad and serving as captain, starting to manage the squad members, he understood the wisdom contained in this sentence even more.

A hunting squad with no more than twenty people is so difficult to manage in every aspect, let alone the entire Great Xia camp.

If military coercion were used to indiscriminately increase the population, it would not only be of no benefit to the Great Xia camp but would also cause various hidden dangers, which would be detrimental to the development of the camp.

"The camps that refuse to merge are mostly that small group of people at the top who are unwilling to give up their supreme status, so they instigate others to resist Great Xia, and even worse, stigmatize our Great Xia.

For this small group of people, even if you forced them to come to Great Xia, they would definitely have ulterior motives. This type of person would require a lot of energy to reform, and in the end, it might not even be successful, which is not worth the loss.

As for those below, those who are willing to believe them and can be successfully instigated are not very smart people; truly smart people will naturally find ways to come to Great Xia to experience it personally, and when the time comes, they will have their own answers about whether to stay or leave."

Hearing Xu An's words, everyone nodded slightly.

One of them thought of something and said with a smile, "Actually, merging or not is the same. When I came five days ago, I heard that although those four camps refused to merge into Great Xia, they are greedy for our Great Xia's supplies, especially beast meat, weapons, tools, clothes, and cloth. I heard that Lord Qiu sent a representative from the Camp Supplies Department to trade with them every ten days. With just a little bit of things, they can exchange a pile of iron, coal, and other precious supplies from them..."

Hearing this, smiles appeared on everyone's faces.

With Great Xia's current productivity, for the four camps in the northern foothills of Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan, it is purely a dimensionality reduction strike.

Just like the simplest ten-forged weapon, although it can be forged as long as one is in the Earth-Digging Realm, the ones forged by Great Xia and those forged by other camps are completely different.

Once such a trade is formed, it is definitely unequal.

"That's how it should be—ruthlessly extract their resources, iron ore, coal, and other rare materials. Giving them to these camps, they don't even know how to use them; it's better for them to flow into our Great Xia."

Hearing a team member say this, Xu An immediately shook his head and said, "This doesn't count as us extracting their resources; at most, it can only be considered one willing to hit and one willing to be hit. The trade was proposed by them. With their strength, the things they can bring out don't actually have much attraction to us, but the supplies we can provide—beast meat, tools, better weapons, warmer clothes, and various medicines—are very important to them.

So, who earns and who loses is really hard to say."

Hearing this, everyone thought for a moment and nodded.

"Captain, how do you even know this?"

"What's difficult about this? I told you to read more books, but you didn't listen. As long as you look and think more, you will naturally understand."

After Xu An finished answering, seeing that the team members were all looking at him with admiration, his old face turned slightly red, and he hurriedly turned away to look elsewhere. Of course, Xu An didn't understand these things; it was actually something he heard when Qiu Peng and his big brother Xu Ning were talking last time.

"Cough, cough, stop talking nonsense. Go ahead and look carefully. If you don't find anything, hurry back!"

Fearing that the team members would continue to ask questions and worried about being exposed, Xu An changed the subject. He led everyone another hundred meters north, and after finding nothing, he planned to take them back to the Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan station.

"Alright, let's withdraw. Li Hun, take a few people and carry that Frost-Electric Ape over. The rest of you wait here with me for a while."

"Yes, Captain."

A young man walked out of the team, took four others, and quickly ran toward the east side.

They naturally didn't return empty-handed tonight; they had already hunted a Frost-Electric Ape in the first half of the night, but finding it troublesome to carry, they hid it in a large tree nearby.

The place where the prey was hidden was not far, and Li Hun and the five others returned quickly.

It's just that what they brought back seemed to be more than just that Frost-Electric Ape.

"Captain, we discovered a person who was seriously injured and unconscious. Look..."

No errors in the content at a glance!

When Li Hun approached, everyone realized that he was carrying a person on his back.

It was a teenager of sixteen or seventeen, wearing blue animal skin clothes, the workmanship of which was clearly much worse than Great Xia's. The teenager's eyes were closed, there was a knife wound on his chest, and three iron arrows were stuck in his back; he was clearly in a state of serious injury and unconsciousness.

Xu An stepped forward to look at the clothes on the teenager, observed the three iron arrows for a while, then frowned and asked, "Where was he found?"

Li Hun hurriedly replied, "Right beside the big tree where we hid the Frost-Electric Ape. This kid must have buried himself in the snow before losing consciousness and forgot to cover up the surrounding traces, so I spotted him at a glance. When we dug him out, his body was almost stiff. Captain, look at his hand..."

Hearing this, Xu An lowered his head to look at the teenager's hand and was suddenly stunned.

The teenager's right hand was clutching a small dagger, while his left hand was tightly gripping a rectangular wooden box. Whether it was frozen stiff or something else, the veins and bones were very obvious; one could tell he was gripping it very hard before losing consciousness.

Xu An reached out, pinched a corner of the wooden box, and pulled it gently.

"Hmm?"

Seeing that the wooden box didn't move at all, Xu An raised an eyebrow, lowered his head to sense the teenager's weak breathing, and a trace of curiosity rose in his eyes.

"This kid, he didn't forget to grip the wooden box even when he was about to die?"

"What precious thing could it be? Captain, take it out and let's see."

Xu An shook his head, let go, and after thinking for a moment, first took a red medicinal pill from his bosom and sent it directly into the teenager's mouth.

"Hot Wind Pill? Captain, that's good stuff. You're giving it to him?"

The Hot Wind Pill, which can quickly cure cold-related injuries, costs 20 contribution points each and is not cheap in Great Xia.

"Wake him up first to see what the situation is. You guys hold him down!"

After Xu An finished speaking, Li Hun hurriedly put the teenager down. After several people held down his head and limbs respectively, Xu An took out a bottle of Golden Sore Powder and then quickly pulled out the three iron arrows from the teenager's back.

Pfft... pfft... pfft...

The teenager immediately twitched in pain. Fortunately, with people holding his body down, he didn't move much.

The effect of the Hot Wind Pill volatilized, and the teenager's frozen body quickly began to warm up and recover. As the iron arrows were pulled out, Xu An immediately applied a layer of Golden Sore Powder to the wounds.

Soon, a flush appeared on the teenager's face, and his body was clearly recovering.

"It will probably take a while for him to wake up. Carry him back first; if dawn comes, this kid won't survive."

Xu An gave the order, Li Hun continued to carry the teenager on his back, and the group of fifteen, carrying the Frost-Electric Ape, walked toward the Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan station in the south.

However, they hadn't even walked for half an hour.

An accident happened.

Li Hun in the team suddenly bounced his body and violently threw the teenager on his back away.

Bang...

"Yi, you little puppy, why don't you recognize a good heart!"

The teenager was thrown into the snow and immediately tried to stand up, but his injuries were too severe, and he was clearly a bit clumsy. He tried two or three times before he managed to stand up with difficulty, half-supporting himself.

After standing up, he immediately checked the wooden box in his left hand, then tightly gripped the dagger with his right hand, looked up at the group of people in front of him, his face full of vigilance and panic.

Xu An saw that the clothes on Li Hun's right shoulder were torn and immediately knew what was going on. He looked at the teenager, frowned, and asked, "We saved you, and this is how you treat your saviors?"

The teenager looked panicked, but hearing Xu An's words, he clearly realized something. He reached out to touch his back, then fixed his eyes on the attire of the fifteen people in front of him, and a look of surprise suddenly appeared on his face.

"May I ask, are you all lords from the Great Xia camp?"

It must be them. The exquisite clothes these fifteen people wore, the weapons at their waists, and the iron-tire bows that everyone held—they must be from the Great Xia camp.

Without waiting for Xu An to answer, the teenager knelt down directly and said:

"I am Xiang Liang, son of Xiang Kai, leader of the He Feng camp. I have a precious treasure to offer to the Great Xia leader, and I have a matter of extreme urgency to inform him of. I ask the lords to quickly introduce me. I would be extremely grateful!"

Offering treasure to the leader?

And a matter of extreme urgency to tell the leader?

Hearing the teenager's words, Xu An and the other fourteen were stunned, and then they revealed incredibly strange expressions, looking at the teenager as if they were looking at a fool.

Xiang Liang saw that the fifteen people clearly didn't believe him, and a look of anxiety appeared on his face. He hurriedly continued, "I ask the lords to please believe me. The Flying Tiger camp already knows the specific location of your Great Xia station. They have gathered several camps and are plotting to join forces to attack your Great Xia. I must see your leader to explain the specific situation in detail..."

The Flying Tiger camp knows the specific location of the Great Xia station.

And they have gathered other camps to join forces to attack Great Xia?

Xu An was stunned after listening, and then his expression became even stranger.

Including the other team members, the expressions on their faces also had an indescribable eeriness.

"Lords, please believe me. As long as you let me see your leader, I will say everything."

Seeing that Xu An and the others had such expressions, Xiang Liang thought they didn't believe him, and his voice even carried a hint of sobbing; he was clearly very anxious.

"Don't be anxious, come back to the station with me first!"

Seeing that Xiang Liang's expression didn't seem fake, Xu An thought for a moment and spoke.

"Li Hun, he has injuries on his body, you go carry him!"

"Thank you, Lord!"

A look of hope appeared on Xiang Liang's face, and he hurriedly thanked them.

However, when Li Hun came over to support him, he immediately resisted, hid the wooden box behind his back, and said cautiously, "Lord, you are too kind. I'll just follow behind you; no need for support."

Having had his clothes on his right shoulder torn just now, Li Hun was already full of anger. Seeing that Xiang Liang was still so unappreciative, he slapped him directly on the head.

Slap...

"You stinky kid, you're quite cautious. Who wants your broken wooden box? Just lie on my back honestly. If you dare to move that little broken knife of yours again, I'll snatch your wooden box."

Xiang Liang only had Woodcutting Realm strength; he became honest after the slap, but he still tightly gripped the wooden box, not giving others a chance to touch it.

The group continued on their way back to the station.

Xu An looked at the wooden box countless times on the way. Seeing that Xiang Liang became nervous every time he looked, he couldn't help but laugh secretly in his heart.

After a long time, Xu An finally couldn't help it and asked with a smile:

"Kid, you said you wanted to offer treasure to our leader, but you have to tell me what that treasure is, right? We can't just bring anyone who says they want to offer treasure to the leader in front of the leader, right?"

Hearing this, Xiang Liang's expression changed repeatedly. He didn't know what he was thinking, but in the end, he chose to remain silent, as if he hadn't heard Xu An's question.

"Hehe, this kid doesn't release the eagle until he sees the rabbit!"

"It seems this wooden box is really a good thing. Why don't we snatch it and see."

"Hunzi, don't scare him."

"Hahahaha..."

Although the group's tone was clearly teasing, Xiang Liang's expression was nervous, and he turned his head to look at Xu An from time to time; he was still quite scared.

"Alright, stop scaring him. Let's go back first."

Xu An in the front shook his head with a smile and didn't care.

The group accelerated their pace, quickly crossed the mountain, and arrived at the southern foothills of Middle Ape Peak, which is Great Xia's station at Five Liu Liu Yuan Shan.

Great Xia's station at Middle Ape Peak is actually the original station of the Three Tiger camp.

Those three evil tigers before only thought about how to exploit other humans and naturally wouldn't build their own station well.

The original station was actually a cave under a rock wall. Except for building a few simple wooden houses inside, there was basically nothing else.

But since Xia Chuan ordered it to be established as a station in June this year, with the frequent coming and going of Great Xia people, this place has naturally changed its appearance.

Xiang Liang, who followed Xu An's group, only saw a giant wooden house appearing against the rock wall.

The wooden house was over a hundred meters long, and the top was covered, like a square box leaning against the rock wall. Xu An led the group to approach the wooden wall, felt around for a while, knocked first, and then spoke softly:

"The wind and rain from all directions cannot compare to the rain in our Seeing Seeing Hong Mu Ridge."

Soon, a voice came from inside the wooden wall.

"There is rain on Dragon Gate Mountain, and the snowfield tiger comes down the mountain."

As the voice sounded, the originally seamless wooden wall was abruptly opened from the inside, revealing a secret door two meters wide and three meters high.

"Captain Xu is back!"

"Hehe, a little new harvest tonight. Let's go in first."

A wave of warmth rushed toward his face. Xiang Liang followed Xu An into the wooden door. When he saw everything in front of him, his expression froze instantly.

(End of chapter)