Chapter 21: Bountiful Harvest

This snow-maned beast had already been exceedingly cautious.

When fighting frost wolves, even when severely wounded, it never used its tongue.

Clearly, these long-time forest-dwelling cold beasts had immense combat experience—they knew to hold back their secrets and never reveal them unless life or death hung in the balance.

Unfortunately, Xia Hong had deliberately planned for their carelessness.

Luring the snow-maned beast toward the large tree was meant to force its tongue through the trunk, hindering its movement, then striking its greatest vulnerability.

Yes, Xia Hong’s original target had been the tongue.

He had witnessed the entire hunting process at the Big Rock Camp last time.

Even a great knife couldn’t pierce the snow-maned beast’s hide, let alone his stone axe.

Frost wolves could slash open its belly with claws and tear its leg muscles with teeth—Xia Hong certainly didn’t foolishly believe he could do the same.

The tongue was nearly the only point that could wound it—and fatally, at that.

Plus, over this period, his strength had grown to six thousand four hundred jin.

So Xia Hong gambled on this one chance.

The outcome proved him right.

Cold beasts were powerful, but not invincible.

With its front pinned by Xia Hong and its left hind limb brutally hacked by Xia Chuan and Yuan Cheng wielding stone axes, the snow-maned beast, despite its fierce will to survive, ultimately collapsed in defeat.

The thousand-jin beast crashed to the ground with a thunderous thud; Xia Hong and the other two were nearly exhausted.

Yet all three faces bore identical expressions of relief and joy.

“This… must weigh over a thousand jin?”

“At least fourteen hundred, probably more.”

“Yue Feng and his four should be able to break through now.”

“Quick, carry it up—let’s get back to camp first.”

Xia Hong hadn’t lost his head to elation; after rising, he immediately extinguished the still-burning torch, had the two men shoulder the snow-maned beast’s corpse, and hurried them back toward camp.

Such a massive prey, whether attracting other cold beasts or other humans, would be deadly for three men now nearly spent.

Fortunately, the journey was tense but uneventful; in the end, they reached camp safely.

After exchanging the password, the cave entrance opened. Only when the snow-maned beast was finally laid on the ground and illuminated by the cave’s bonfire did Xia Hong’s heart truly calm, a relaxed smile appearing on his face.

“This… we brought back another one.”

“Leader, are you really this strong?”

“When Former Leader was here, we never saw a cold beast this large.”

“This must weigh over a thousand jin!”

…………

Whether Yue Feng’s five, the dozen or so youths, or every other person in camp, all now surrounded Xia Hong and the other two.

Gazing at the massive body, sharp tusks, and razor claws of the snow-maned beast, the crowd whispered among themselves, then all simultaneously turned to Xia Hong and his companions with reverence—even fervor—in their eyes.

Xia Hong was no stranger to this gaze; as he repeatedly returned resources to camp, such looks had grown increasingly frequent.

Reverence and fervor—Xia Hong didn’t care much. Any creature, upon seeing another stronger than itself, naturally develops such emotions.

What Xia Hong cared about more was the deeper thing in their eyes:

Hope.

Only with hope could people find motivation, find courage.

Xia Hong had noticed this upon his first arrival.

The people in camp generally lacked hope.

Even when Xia Ding was leader, when crystal fruit was plentiful and heating was adequate, not a trace of hope could be seen on their faces.

It was easy to understand: crystal fruit filled bellies, heating kept out the cold—these only sustained life, preventing starvation or freezing.

But humanity was more than merely existing to survive.

These people had spent their entire lives hidden in shadows; outside, cold beasts, strange horrors, even sunlight itself were lethal threats.

Security and dignity—these were what they lacked most.

And both required immense strength to support.

Cold beast flesh was their only hope of growing stronger.

When Xia Ding was leader, the Great Xia Camp obtained cold beast flesh too infrequently, so too few received any.

Now, in just over two months as leader, Xia Hong had brought back two snow-maned beasts—this had given the people tremendous encouragement.

Maybe it wasn’t their turn yet, but as the logging team rebuilt and grew larger, more prey would be brought back—and eventually, it would be their turn.

This was why their eyes held reverence and fervor when they looked at Xia Hong.

Because Xia Hong had given them their most precious thing: hope.

“After skinning and boning, it weighed exactly one thousand two hundred and seventy jin.”

As the weight of the cold beast flesh was announced, the crowd’s excitement surged to a new peak.

All eyes fixed on Xia Hong, awaiting his distribution.

Most knew they wouldn’t receive any.

But they still wanted to see how Xia Hong would divide it.

Xia Hong had already prepared his plan for handling the snow-maned beast.

Seeing all eyes on him, he spoke directly:

“From now on, all cold beast meat in camp will be divided in a three-five-two ratio.

The hunting party gets three tenths; the logging reserve, meaning Yue Feng and his five, get five tenths; the remaining two tenths go to anyone aged fifteen to twenty-two with a base strength exceeding one thousand jin.

Also, regardless of gender or age, anyone whose strength surpasses two thousand jin may join the logging reserve.

And from now on, we’ll set aside the remainder—like this time, one thousand two hundred and seventy jin, we’ll take seventy jin and distribute it to everyone in camp, just to give everyone a taste.”

Hearing the three-five-two ratio, the camp folk were stunned.

The hunting party would get only three tenths?

Then, when they heard the final clause—that anyone, man or woman, old or young, with strength over two thousand jin could join the logging reserve and claim five tenths—they fell silent.

Even the remainder—seventy jin—distributed to everyone.

Those who had assumed they’d get nothing instantly raised their heads, staring intently at Xia Hong.

“So we can join the logging reserve now?”

“Can women join too?”

“Did I hear that right?”

“We get a share too?”

Several voices rose from the crowd; everyone stared at Xia Hong in disbelief. When he nodded, confirming they hadn’t misheard, smiles broke across every face—some even wept with joy.

“Leader, mighty!”

Someone, no one knew who, shouted these four words first.

Instantly, the crowd erupted behind him in a thunderous cheer.

“Leader, mighty… Leader, mighty… Leader, mighty…”

Everyone went wild; some even knelt before Xia Hong in worship.

Xia Hong made no move to stop either the cheering or the kneeling—he understood these people, and their actions.

When Xia Ding was leader, only the logging team and their direct descendants received cold beast flesh; everyone else couldn’t even dream of it.

This wasn’t due to Xia Ding’s shortsightedness—he knew the more combatants in the logging team, the stronger the camp, and thus the more resources could be acquired; more people training and breaking through meant maximum benefit.

Xia Ding understood this principle, but he couldn’t achieve it.

Without hunting ability, obtaining cold beast flesh was, at best, luck; at worst, scavenging.

Under resource scarcity, priority had to go to the logging team.

But now, things were different.

Xia Hong’s face glowed with excitement; the greatest harvest of tonight’s hunt wasn’t this thousand-jin snow-maned beast.

The greatest harvest was proving that torch-hunting was viable.

Though luck played a part, it was undeniably feasible.

Before his strength allowed direct confrontation with low-tier cold beasts, having a proven, successful hunting method was invaluable.

This meant that around Redwood Ridge, hunting was no longer limited to Luo Ge’s camp alone.

Great Xia could hunt too!

(End of Chapter)