Chapter 219: Great Medicine, Going Out, Longyou Incident

Unlike the first time entering the main building, this time with Cheng Ping leading, Xia Hong quickly climbed to the fourth floor along the internal stairs.

The main hall on the fourth floor had a large martial arts training ground, where hundreds of people were currently practicing with concentration.

After Cheng Ping came up, his movements were clearly much more constrained. Unsurprisingly, those who could practice here, even if not elites, were at least members of elite families.

Soon Cheng Ping brought him to a small room on the wing of the fourth floor.

"Above this room is the boiler room for boiling the Jade Bone. I can only bring you here, my lord. Our Great Leader, Second Leader, and Commander Chen are all on the top floor today. My lord, why don't you............"

"Shh............ don't speak."

Xia Hong interrupted Cheng Ping directly, then closed his eyes and listened to the movement above with concentration.

It was a pity that after listening for a while, his brows sank.

"The top floor actually added protection, worried about others eavesdropping!"

This undoubtedly increased Xia Hong's curiosity, especially knowing that the Jade Bone was being boiled on the top floor at this moment. Xia Hong pondered for a moment, turned his head to look at the room's window, and drilled out directly from the window.

"You wait for me here."

Seeing Xia Hong climb to the top floor from the window, Cheng Ping's face became ugly to the extreme.

He was full of difficulty just now because he was afraid Xia Hong would do this. The Great Leader and the other two were all on the top floor. Once Xia Hong was discovered, he would definitely die. What would happen to his antidote then?

Of course, there was another possibility.

Since Xia Hong dared to go up, it proved he had confidence he wouldn't be discovered by the Great Leader and the others. But this possibility was really too small.

"It's over, it's over. Should I just go upstairs and report to the leader............

But what if it's really like what Hong Yu said, the leader can't help me detoxify either? Then I'll still be dead in the end!

No, no, better wait here and see the situation!"

After weighing the pros and cons, Cheng Ping could only pin his hopes on Xia Hong returning safely, while deciding that if there was any situation upstairs, he would act immediately.

Although he made up his mind, staying in the room, he was still like sitting on pins and needles.

………………

Inside the boiler room on the fifth floor, a large pot stood.

More than a dozen people were constantly adding coal stone under the large pot, burning the bottom of the pot red. Steam was constantly rising above the large pot. The whole room had only one pipe leading directly to the top, causing the steam to be unable to be discharged quickly, so there was basically no visibility in the room.

Those dozen people adding coal all covered their mouths and noses with wet cloths, their expressions dizzy, with very obvious symptoms of poisoning.

"How much longer until we switch people? I feel like I can't hold on anymore!"

"Soon, two more minutes, people have already come outside the door."

"The poisonous gas boiled out of this Jade Bone is truly frightening. Three hours is my limit. If I stay a while longer, I will definitely die of poisoning."

"I don't know how the Great Leader and the others use this for cultivation. I heard that every time the bone soup is boiled, they drink it directly?"

"Things have to be added. Last year when boiling the Jade Bone, I was in the last batch to go out and saw with my own eyes the leader bringing three kinds of medicinal herbs in. It should be that after adding those things, it can be drunk."

………………

The room was filled with gas, and everyone covered their mouths and noses, so the voices were very small. Soon, as the door opened and a batch of newcomers entered, everyone in the room felt relieved and walked toward the door.

No one noticed that the window on one side of the room had quietly opened a small gap. A man in black with a masked face was squatting in the smoke area on the side, taking advantage of the gap in changing people to mix silently into the new batch of people.

"Poisonous gas, Yu Wentao didn't mention this when he said He Yuanhun was boiling the Jade Bone!"

Xia Hong mixed in the crowd and shoveled coal together. Looking at the misty poisonous gas in the boiler room, a trace of confusion appeared in his eyes.

He could clearly perceive that this poisonous gas was indeed derived from beast bones.

But Yu Wentao didn't mention this before.

Yu Wentao had joined the camp for such a long time, so Xia Hong naturally trusted him. In that case, it was Chen Yingyuan who did it on purpose.

Combined with the matter of medicinal herbs mentioned by that person just now, unsurprisingly, it should be Chen Yingyuan deliberately adding medicinal herbs at the end to dissolve the poisonous gas so that the formula wouldn't leak.

This just happened to fit the Hive's overall conservative style of doing things.

"Someone, go up and stir it!"

Xia Hong shook his head slightly. Hearing the words of a person next to him, he immediately volunteered, threw down the iron shovel, and climbed up along the wooden ladder on the side of the large pot.

A long-handled iron spoon was placed on the side of the large pot. Xia Hong picked it up and began to stir.

Looking at the rich and fragrant bone soup in the pot, which was boiling constantly, although there was longing in Xia Hong's eyes, he soon discovered that the Green Jade Beast Bone floating on the pot was glowing with an abnormal black color. Looking closely, the poisonous gas in the room was floating from it.

This was a wasted trip.

A trace of helplessness flashed in Xia Hong's eyes. Chen Yingyuan was so secretive about the beast bone formula that he couldn't even trust his own people, which was something he hadn't expected.

"What are you doing, want to taste a bite? It will poison you to death!"

Just when he was feeling a bit discouraged, a person climbed up directly opposite the large pot. While stirring the bone soup in the pot, seeing Xia Hong was in a daze, he immediately teased him.

"Zhu Yin Hua, Bai Shuang Cao, and a flavor of Hanping Yulu. Without these three great medicines, this pot of bone soup is highly poisonous to us. No, even if three medicines are added, we probably can't withstand the energy of the beast bone............"

Watching the person directly opposite the large pot still talking to himself, although Xia Hong didn't respond, after lowering his head, a burst of radiance erupted in his eyes.

This could also be considered a turn for the better.

Zhu Yin Hua, Bai Shuang Cao, Hanping Yulu!

He never expected that the person opposite him would tell him the names of the three medicinal herbs all at once.

Seeing that person's clothing was clearly a head better than others, Xia Hong's mind stirred slightly. Worried about being recognized, he didn't speak. After stirring a few spoonfuls, he went down on tiptoe directly.

"Pharmacist Liu, the heat seems to be not enough!"

"Go out and call people to move some more coal. Fifteen thousand jin is not enough. The amount of Jade Bone to be boiled this time is too large, estimated to be more than twenty thousand jin."

"Okay, I'll notify people to go."

…………

Just at this moment, a person under the large pot spoke, letting Xia Hong know the identity of the person who just spoke to him.

Pharmacist?

It was the one specializing in refining medicine in the Hive camp. So that was it.

Fifteen thousand jin, more than twenty thousand jin. When stirring just now, Xia Hong saw the Jade Bone in the pot with his own eyes, at most a little over three jin. Judging from the high-level Snow Mane broken arm harvested last time, it should be the bone of a whole high-level cold beast.

More than three jin, and it had to be boiled with more than twenty thousand jin of coal stone.

This consumption............

While Xia Hong was clicking his tongue in his heart, he also leaned to the side of the windowsill, seized a gap, drilled out of the windowsill directly, and went down to the fourth floor silently along the outer wall of the wooden building.

Just returning to the windowsill of Cheng Ping's room, Xia Hong suddenly raised his head, looked toward the top floor, and a sharp light appeared in his eyes.

"One, two............ three............ four, all four of them are dispatched. What are they going out to do, hunting, or is there something else?"

Xia Hong pondered for a moment, moved his lips toward the fourth-floor room, then leaped and swept toward the door direction.

…………

"You go back first, I have something to do. Later, come to me every ten days to get the antidote."

Cheng Ping, who was waiting anxiously on the fourth floor, suddenly heard Xia Hong's voice in his ear. His body was startled, he looked around a couple of times, found no Xia Hong figure in the room, and immediately nodded respectfully: "Yes, my lord!"

That Hong Yu, actually wasn't discovered!

Cheng Ping could be sure that the Great Leader and the other two were all on the top floor today.

But Xia Hong went up secretly just now, yet wasn't discovered.

What did this mean?

Gulp............

Cheng Ping swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and his pupils were instantly full of horror.

"This Hong Yu's strength............ no, I have to be more honest in the future!"

………………

It was dawn at this moment.

Above the Hive camp, the sky was bright. Due to being located in a plain area with sparse vegetation, the traces of Chen Yingyuan and the other four walking were unusually obvious. Xia Hong came out of the underground and arrived at the ground. It didn't take much effort to discover them.

"Going north, it shouldn't be hunting. Follow and see."

Red Wood Ridge was on the south side of the Hive. Chen Yingyuan and the other four were going north, naturally not hunting. But besides hunting, what else could make the four Frost-Resisting Realm experts all dispatched at the same time?

Not only the reason for the four people being dispatched at the same time, the identity of the fourth Frost-Resisting Realm expert in the Hive also made Xia Hong very curious. After a simple disguise, Xia Hong followed directly along the traces of the four people's walking silently.

Xia Hong walked north for five or six kilometers and finally saw four figures from afar on a dirt slope.

Although separated by five or six hundred meters, Xia Hong could see at a glance that three of them were Chen Yingyuan, Wu Tianxing, and Chen Yingba.

At the same time, he also saw the true face of the fourth Frost-Resisting Realm expert.

That was a middle-aged man with a purple face and a broad face. The material of his black clothes was not bad. His height was fully over two meters. His physique was unimaginably burly. Standing there, he looked like an iron tower, carrying a silver eight-sided giant hammer on his back, his arms crossed over his chest, and his posture was quite domineering.

Xia Hong measured the surrounding environment and soon chose a big tree only two hundred meters away from the dirt slope. After climbing the big tree silently, he listened to the conversation of the four people quietly.

"Leader Chen, why go to such unnecessary trouble?"

Read it all in one go!

The purple-faced middle-aged man's voice was like a bell, quite matching his domineering temperament, but at this moment, looking at Chen Yingyuan, his expression was clearly a bit impatient.

"It concerns the alliance, I hope Brother Hou will forgive me!"

Chen Yingyuan was very patient. After speaking, he immediately remained silent. Chen Yingba and Wu Tianxing standing next to him also didn't say a word, standing quietly.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man surnamed Hou shook his head slightly and also fell silent.

It concerns the alliance............

Xia Hong, hiding in the tree, a bright light appeared in his eyes instantly.

Today was already the end of February. There was only a little over a month left until the alliance in mid-April. These four people came here to discuss the alliance!

It was just that Xia Hong didn't know what the "unnecessary trouble" the middle-aged man surnamed Hou just said meant.

But soon, accompanied by two more people coming from the north.

Xia Hong immediately understood what was going on.

The two people coming from the north were both middle-aged.

The person on the left was in yellow clothes, small in stature, with a fierce face, a pair of unusually large fists, and a zhang-long black long stick slanted on his back;

The person on the right was just the opposite of him, tall in stature, handsome in appearance, with a goatee on his chin, and a long sword slung around his waist.

"Wu Xiong, pays respects to Lord Hou!"

"Han Jiuli, pays respects to Lord Hou!"

As soon as the two arrived at the dirt slope, they bowed to the middle-aged man surnamed Hou, and then turned to look at Chen Yingyuan and the other two, speaking with a smile.

"Old Chen, it's been a while."

"Brother Chen, long time no see!"

As soon as the two spoke, their temperaments all came out. The short Wu Xiong seemed much more simple, while Han Jiuli was slightly more elegant.

"Brother Wu, Brother Han, long time no see. Your two families, really............"

In fact, the moment he saw the two bowing to Hou Tong, Chen Yingyuan's pupils shrank suddenly. Realizing his inquiry seemed a bit redundant at this moment, he didn't finish his words.

"The old leader is advanced in age, the eldest young master is acting perversely, the Longyou Alliance has long existed in name only. Now that it's finally led by the Zhaoyang camp, and Lord Hou Tong has personally come to the door, with such sincerity, what are you still worrying about, Brother Chen?"

As soon as Han Jiuli spoke, Wu Xiong next to him also continued: "Not just our two families, the Xiling, Bai Yuan, and Dongkang camps have all decided to defect to Zhaoyang. Brother Chen, don't consider it anymore, let's overthrow Longshan together and build a new alliance!"

Zhaoyang led, plus Xiling, Bai Yuan, Dongkang, Wu Shuang, and Hanqiong, there were already six camps. This already accounted for half of the camps in Longyou.

If the Hive joined, that would be seven.

Even if the remaining four camps stood firmly on Longshan's side, they wouldn't form an advantage in numbers. He seemed to really have to............

Chen Yingyuan's mind began to fight between heaven and man. He wanted to speak several times, but in the end, when the words reached his lips, he held them back forcibly.

"Everyone, that is Longshan after all! Li Tianhua's strength............"

"Leader Chen, next month is the forty-eighth alliance. Li Tianhua founded the Longyou Alliance at fifty. How old is he this year? Have you calculated it?"

Hou Tong, who had been silent for a long time, finally couldn't help but speak at this moment.

His inquiry with a sneer made Chen Yingyuan fall silent directly.

The Longshan alliance was once a year. Li Tianhua founded the alliance at fifty. Experiencing forty-eight alliances, his age could be calculated very easily.

Hou Tong didn't wait for him to speak and continued.

"The maximum lifespan of the Frost-Resisting Realm is only one hundred, and the further back it goes, the more the Qi and blood will decline. Since the alliance three years ago, Li Tianhua has no longer appeared in public. What does this represent? Brother Chen should be clear in his heart. Even if Li Tianhua is not dead, with his lifespan, how much strength can he exert............"

Speaking of this, Hou Tong changed the subject, his expression arrogant: "My leader Hou Hu already has the strength of the peak Frost-Resisting Realm, and is currently in his prime. Not to mention Li Tianhua is on the verge of death, even in his prime, he might not be able to defeat our leader."

Seeing Chen Yingyuan's expression beginning to loosen, Hou Tong immediately struck while the iron was hot:

"Brother Chen, my leader said, once the new Zhaoyang Alliance is established, the annual tribute handed over by camps like yours that joined early will be directly halved, the share of Hanping Yulu will be increased by one fold, and the mutual protection treaties formulated by Longshan at the beginning will all remain unchanged. What are you still worrying about?"

"Lord Hou, give me some more time to consider, how about that? There is only a little over a month left until the alliance. If I'm not mistaken, this alliance is when you will unite several families to force the palace. I guarantee that before the alliance, I will consider it well!"

Hearing Chen Yingyuan's answer, Hou Tong was full of impatience, clearly unable to hold back. But just at this moment, Wu Tianxing on the side spoke.

"Lord Hou, my Hive has old ties with Longshan. It is normal for the leader to be unable to make a decision for a while. I hope you can give my leader more time."

Hearing this, Hou Tong's expression stagnated, then he waved his sleeves fiercely and said in a deep voice: "Then Leader Chen, consider it well. Before the April alliance, I hope my leader can hear a satisfactory answer. In that case, Hou will not stay in the Hive for long. Farewell!"

After speaking, Hou Tong turned and left toward the north directly. Wu Xiong and Han Jiuli, who had just come over, also followed him and left together.

Chen Yingyuan and the other two stood for a while and soon turned and left.

Xia Hong stayed on the big tree for a full half hour, confirmed that several people were all far away, then jumped off the big tree, his expression thoughtful.

"Sure enough, there is a problem inside Longshan. It looks like this problem is about to explode. Zhaoyang Hou Hu is the key to the problem!"

Hearing about the Longyou Alliance from Cheng Ping's mouth that day, Xia Hong had some guesses in his heart. The scene he glimpsed inadvertently today undoubtedly confirmed his guesses.

The increasingly powerful Zhaoyang camp really couldn't hold back and wanted to win over several other camps to overthrow the Longshan camp together and set up their own portal.

Xiling, Bai Yuan, Dongkang, Wu Shuang, Hanqiong, half of the camps had defected to Zhaoyang. Looking at Chen Yingyuan's appearance, it was estimated that it wouldn't be long.

Looking at it this way, Longshan's winning percentage didn't seem high!

Of course, today's harvest was more than that.

Zhaoyang Hou Hu, peak Frost-Resisting Realm strength!

Sure enough, there was a distinction between high and low in the Frost-Resisting Realm.

It was just that he didn't know which stage these people just now belonged to.

"The six people just now, Hou Tong has the strongest strength, about eight manes; Wu Xiong, Han Jiuli, and Chen Yingyuan are equivalent, all seven manes; Wu Tianxing and Chen Yingba are slightly weaker, both about six manes............"

With Xia Hong's vision, the strength of the six people just now naturally couldn't escape his eyes.

But the conversation content of the six people didn't involve the distinction of the Frost-Resisting Realm, so he didn't know which stage these people were at.

"Frost-Resisting Realm one hundred years of lifespan, about the same as my previous guess!"

When breaking through the Frost-Resisting Realm earlier, Xia Hong already had a preliminary perception of his physical condition.

From the Earth-Digging Realm to the Frost-Resisting Realm, the most thorough change was the skin membrane. Although the internal organs of the flesh also improved, the range was not large. Xia Hong had already inferred his lifespan based on the physical condition of people in their forties in the camp. What Hou Tong said just now confirmed his guess.

"To force the palace at the Longshan alliance, it seems this alliance should be very lively. That Hou Tong's posture is so arrogant, it looks like Hou Hu is not simple. Chen Yingyuan's wavering attitude is not a good thing. When choosing sides, the most taboo is this kind, and also............"

Xia Hong paused when he said this, recalled the process of several people talking just now, and a guess faintly emerged in his eyes.

"That Wu Tianxing seems to have a problem!"

The bystander sees clearly. Wu Tianxing spoke for his leader just now. The behavior seemed very normal, but Xia Hong could keenly feel that his greater purpose should be not wanting Hou Tong to say anything excessive, affecting Chen Yingyuan's decision.

There was a bit of a trick here!

Xia Hong shook his head, paced slowly on the snow, pondering what impact this Longyou incident would have on Great Xia.

No, it should be what Great Xia could get from this Longyou incident!

Xia Hong's eyes flashed, turned his head to look at the southeast side of the Pingxi Plain, which was the direction of Great Xia. Soon he had a plan in his heart and revealed a smile.

"Longyou falling apart is not a bad thing for Great Xia. It was hard for me to insert a foot into the Pingxi Plain, which was originally an iron plate. But if you have internal chaos yourselves, then don't blame me!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 220 =====