Chapter 227: Cold-Resisting Realm Classification, Harvest and Deception

"Longyou has a total area of more than 13,000 square kilometers. Seventy years ago, there were at least two hundred camps, large and small. At that time, everyone's strength was very weak, their range of activity was not large, and there was basically very little contact between them. But after Li Tianhua became the leader of Longshan, the situation changed..."

East of Longshan, the Blood Guard marched slowly toward the east. Hou Hu accompanied Xia Hong alone, telling him the history of Longyou.

"Li Tianhua not only had high cultivation talent, reaching the limit of the Earth-Digging Realm in his twenties, but his battle talent and hunting ability were also extremely astonishing. What's even more commendable is that his talent in developing the camp was not low either.

When he first became leader, Longshan was just a medium-sized camp with a population of just over a thousand. Relying on Longshan, he constantly took in surrounding camps. In just ten years, he developed and strengthened Longshan to a scale of ten thousand people, with over a thousand in the Earth-Digging Realm and possessing more than forty hunting teams..."

Mentioning Li Tianhua, Hou Hu's eyes held both worship and fear, which showed that his feelings for this person were quite complex.

This was not strange. Judging from his previous address of Li Tiancheng as Uncle, it was clear that he and Li Tianhua had a master-disciple relationship.

It was just that listening to Hou Hu tell these legendary experiences of Li Tianhua, although Xia Hong was pretending to be shocked, his real feelings in his heart were extremely odd.

Developing Longshan to a scale of ten thousand people in ten years, with over a thousand in the Earth-Digging Realm—this achievement was certainly considered very strong in the Frozen Abyss.

But if compared to Great Xia, it was too insignificant.

Of course, Xia Hong's vanity hadn't reached that point, so he naturally wouldn't interrupt Hou Hu's narration, just continuing to listen to see what Hou Hu intended to say.

"After Longshan's strength increased greatly, whether through grace or coercion, it began to accelerate the annexation of surrounding camps. In the few years that followed, there were almost no other camps within a twenty-kilometer radius around Longshan. Longshan's population reached as high as forty thousand. Li Tianhua had a super-grade battle body, and when he broke through to the Cold-Resisting Realm, he had eight *zong* of strength. At that time, he could be said to be unrivaled, and all human camps in Longyou were breaking their heads trying to merge into Longshan..."

Super-grade battle body, eight *zong* of strength upon breaking through!

This sentence made Xia Hong's heart move slightly, and he feigned shock:

"Eight *zong* of strength upon breaking through, then after breaking through to the middle and late stages, wouldn't the strength be even more astonishing?"

Hou Hu nodded and said: "Of course. In the three stages of the Cold-Resisting Realm, every time one breaks through a stage, the base strength can increase by one fold. According to Li Tianhua's strength upon breaking through, in the middle stage he had sixteen *zong* of strength, and in the late stage thirty-two *zong*. His strength upon breaking through to the peak of the Cold-Resisting Realm was sixty-four *zong*. Let alone Longyou, I estimate that in the entire Pingxi Plain, it would be very difficult to find a Cold-Resisting Realm expert stronger than him."

Xia Hong finally knew the strength classification of the Cold-Resisting Realm.

Breaking through to the Cold-Resisting Realm counts as the initial stage. Subsequent middle, late, and peak stages—every time one breaks through, one can increase the base strength once. According to Hou Hu's words, the increase magnitude is still calculated based on the base strength upon breaking through.

He himself had nine *zong* upon breaking through, and now seventeen *zong*, which meant he was only one *zong* away from the middle stage. His late stage would be thirty-six *zong*, and when he broke through to the peak stage, his strength could reach as high as seventy-two *zong*.

Eight *zong* stronger than Li Tianhua!

Hou Hu had sixteen *zong* of strength and peak Cold-Resisting Realm cultivation. Pushing forward, when he first broke through to the Cold-Resisting Realm, he only had two *zong* of strength, which was also an upper-grade battle body.

Li Tiancheng's strength was only a little stronger than his. It seems he was at most an upper-grade battle body as well.

Not only did he know the strength classification of the Cold-Resisting Realm, but he also deduced the battle body qualifications of Li Tiancheng and Hou Hu. Xia Hong's mood improved instantly.

"All human camps in Longyou wanted to join Longshan, and then?"

Hearing Xia Hong take the initiative to ask, Hou Hu immediately continued his narration:

"I said before that Longyou had a total of more than two hundred camps at that time, with a population approaching 150,000. No matter how capable Li Tianhua was, he couldn't afford to support so many people. So he refused the annexation of other camps and only agreed to gradually increase the population according to Longshan's development."

Xia Hong nodded slightly. Li Tianhua's choice was very reasonable.

The characteristics of the Frozen Abyss world determined that only those in the Earth-Digging Realm who possessed hunting ability had a positive effect on the development of the camp. Otherwise, no matter how large the population, it was just a burden.

But the Earth-Digging Realm must be cultivated with beast meat, and the demand for beast meat after breaking through to the Earth-Digging Realm would become even greater. Even the cultivation after the Earth-Digging Realm had step-by-step increasing demands for beast meat and beast blood resources.

In a situation where resources were limited, blindly expanding the population would not only be useless but would have a very strong negative effect. At best, it would drag down the development of the camp; at worst, it would bury hidden dangers and cause the camp to collapse, which was not impossible.

According to the situation seen before, Longshan's total area was definitely larger than Seeing Hong Mu Ridge, and cold beasts and other various resources were bound to be extremely rich.

The problem was, no matter how rich the resources inside were, if you didn't have enough strength, you couldn't successfully obtain them. Just like Great Xia, the exploration of Seeing Hong Mu Ridge was still ongoing. If Xia Hong remembered correctly, by the time he went out, the depth to which the Great Xia hunting team could enter Seeing Hong Mu Ridge was only seven kilometers.

And only the stronger intermediate hunting squads could go.

This was still Great Xia, which had a system and was developing rapidly.

No matter how capable Li Tianhua was, he had to be limited by the cruel environment of the Frozen Abyss. According to the ability to seize resources, steady and solid improvement of the camp population and expansion of the sphere of influence was the best way.

"If Longshan only refused the annexation of other camps, that would be nothing. After all, we were the weaker side. But the problem was, after he refused the annexation of other camps, he also forcibly occupied all the outer entrances of Longshan!"

Hearing this, Xia Hong understood roughly in his heart.

He had been curious before about the twelve families of Longyou. Longshan camp didn't need to be mentioned; they were at the foot of the mountain. Hive and Yanglu were next to Seeing Hong Mu Ridge, and they had a place to go for hunting. What about the other nine families?

One had to know that the Pingxi Plain side was mostly plains, and the vegetation coverage was very low. Although there were cold beasts, there were too few of them. Let alone supporting nine giant camps, even two or three would probably not be enough.

Relying on the mountain to eat from the mountain—from the distance, it was clearly much more convenient for them to go to Longshan. Li Tianhua occupying all the outer entrances of Longshan was actually understandable for the development of his own camp, but in doing so, he was squeezing the living space of other camps.

Then the subsequent development was not hard to guess.

"Longshan acted domineeringly. The remaining camps, for the sake of self-preservation, began to unite to resist. In the few years that followed, whether merging, resisting, or being eliminated, they finally relied on their strength to force Li Tianhua to open a few openings. But of the more than two hundred camps, only more than twenty remained in the end."

This passage, although only a few words, was enough to prove how cruel and bloody those years in Longyou were, just from the fact that it went from more than two hundred camps to only more than twenty.

Hou Hu was one of the hostages of the thirtieth year of Longyou. At that time, he should have only been the status of a leader's son, which meant he hadn't experienced those years. But his tone was just as heavy, which was probably a profound feeling for the experiences of the older generation.

"But even so, the struggle hadn't stopped!"

Hou Hu's expression was solemn, and he continued: "To tell the truth, in terms of single strength, none of us could compare to Longshan. Being able to force Li Tianhua to open a few openings relied entirely on the more than twenty of us standing together. As time went on, Longshan began to divide us, so the struggle never stopped."

That was inevitable!

Opening Longshan's openings was yielding one's own interests. If the camp wanted to continue to develop, it had to occupy more resource lands. The ultimate goal of all camps was to annex others to strengthen themselves, and Li Tianhua was naturally no exception.

"The turning point of everything happened in the first year of Longyou..."

Speaking of this, Hou Hu's expression turned gloomy suddenly, and he continued: "That year, my father, Hou Hai, discovered a Cold Apple tree in Longshan..."

Cold Apple Jade Dew! Hearing this name, Xia Hong's mind immediately remembered the three major medicines that the Liu-surnamed pharmacist had mentioned in the Hive earlier.

One of them was called Cold Apple Jade Dew.

And later, when eavesdropping on Hou Tong and the others, Hou Tong also said that as long as the Hive defected to Zhaoyang, after overthrowing Longshan, the share of Cold Apple Jade Dew for each family would increase by one fold.

"How precious the Cold Apple tree is, Brother Hong should also be clear. It is one of the three most critical major medicines for boiling Jade Bone, and also the hardest one to find. Such a heavy treasure, my father knew it was unrealistic to occupy it alone. Based on the cooperative relationship with other camps at the time, he told the news of the Cold Apple tree, hoping that everyone could unite to guard it."

Speaking of this, Hou Hu's expression suddenly became angry.

"But I didn't expect that two families had already secretly defected to Longshan at that time!"

Hearing this, the subsequent things were not hard to guess.

Cold Apple tree, such a heavy treasure related to Cold-Resisting Realm cultivation—even if Li Tianhua didn't have reason, he would definitely take action to seize it;

Other camps would even more impossible to let it go for nothing.

"The great war broke out, and more than half of the more than twenty camps were gone. Although Li Tianhua's strength was strong, after the great waves washed away the sand, the strength of the remaining camps was not weak either. The great war intensified, and both sides fought until their eyes were red..."

!

So the Longyou Alliance was established on this basis.

A flash of understanding crossed Xia Hong's eyes. When he first heard about the Longyou Alliance from Yu Wentao, he thought it was established by the twelve families of Longyou to resist external forces.

Hearing it now, it was established through the joint consultation of the remaining eleven factions, pulled together by Li Tianhua to prevent the expansion of the conflict in Longyou.

"The Cold Apple tree finally belonged to Longshan, but Li Tianhua also made a promise to the eleven of us that Longshan would occupy 30% of the Cold Apple Jade Dew produced every year, and the remaining 70% would be distributed according to the number of Cold-Resisting Realm experts in the eleven families of Longyou."

"How much Cold Apple Jade Dew can be produced in a year?"

"Brother Hong is smart, asking the key point at once!"

Hou Hu sighed at Xia Hong's keenness, and his tone was full of praise.

Xia Hong was a bit confused, but following Hou Hu's subsequent narration, he also understood why the other party reacted like this.

"That Cold Apple tree was originally supervised by the twelve of us together. From the first year of Longyou to the twentieth year of Longyou, it produced about 200 drops stably every year. But later, Longshan didn't let us camps go to supervise it. From the twenty-first year of Longyou, the output was less every year. By the fortieth year of Longyou, it only produced 40 drops. Brother Hong, you tell me, if this happened to you, do you believe it or not?"

Xia Hong remained silent. Not to mention how much of what Hou Hu said was true and how much was false, but he understood the meaning expressed in the words.

"The treasure discovered by Hou Hu's father was forcibly occupied by Longshan, not to mention. The promise made to you camps earlier was also not intended to be kept. This is clearly concealing the output of Cold Apple Jade Dew, deliberately deducting the share of your families. Such a domineering act, this Longshan..."

After finishing the words, Xia Hong appropriately showed a bit of righteous indignation, and then continued in a deep voice: "It's simply bullying people too much!"

"Not bad, Brother Hong is indeed smart, understanding at once."

Seeing Xia Hong's reaction, a flash of joy crossed Hou Hu's eyes. After praising him, he continued in a deep voice: "Not only this matter of the Cold Apple tree, but Longshan has also borrowed the name of the alliance leader over the years to make us pay tribute—iron ore, coal, medicinal materials, all kinds of resources—I don't know how much they have scraped from the eleven of us. On the other hand, they have expanded wildly within Longshan's territory, not allowing other camps to enter. Even the coal and iron mines we found ourselves, once discovered by them, will be immediately snatched away.

Such acts, how are they different from robbers and jackals? The eleven families of Longyou can be said to have suffered from Longshan for a long time. Hou is also unbearable, and in desperation, he made a counterattack. In the final analysis, it is for himself, but also to seek fairness for them..."

The atmosphere had reached this point!

Xia Hong looked up and saw the expectation in Hou Hu's eyes, and immediately shouted angrily:

"I, Hong, have been out of the camp for half a year, and I have never seen such a domineering camp. If I didn't run into it, that would be it. Since I ran into it, then I, Hong, must manage it. Brother Hou, rest assured, I happen to have no other important matters, so I will stay in the Zhaoyang camp temporarily and deal with that Longshan with Brother Hou. I don't believe there is no justice!"

There really is such a simple and honest person!

Actually, the deception succeeded...

Hou Hu looked at Xia Hong, slightly lost in thought, but his acting skills were not bad either. He quickly adjusted his expression, his look was incomparably moved, and he bowed to Xia Hong:

"Hou, on behalf of the thousands of humans in Longyou, first bows and thanks Brother Hong for your righteous act!"

"Hehe, this..."

Xia Hong appropriately rubbed his hands again, and said with a hint of awkwardness:

"Brother Hou doesn't have to be like this. I also have some selfishness. To tell Brother Hou, I came from outside Shuanglong Mountain. My camp's method of boiling Jade Bone is a bit backward, so I thought about going to other camps to inquire and see if there are other better formulas. If Brother Hou doesn't mind..."

"Brother Hong, rest assured. Hou received your grace of saving my life. A mere formula for boiling Jade Bone should naturally be offered with both hands. Not only that, this time returning to the camp, twenty *jin* of Jade Bone, plus five drops of Cold Apple Jade Dew, will also be offered together. As long as Brother Hong can help me overthrow Longshan this time, there will be even greater benefits later!"

Xia Hong's eyes lit up instantly, and he nodded heavily: "Good, then it's a deal. I, Hong, will help Brother Hou."

At this moment, Hou Hu's heart was truly settled.

If this Hong Yu had no needs and really wanted to help him with a heart of blood, he would instead suspect that having needs was the right thing.

The formula for boiling Jade Bone was not a big secret to Cold-Resisting Realm experts in Longyou. Besides, this Hong Yu knew Cold Apple Jade Dew, and clearly had his own formula, just wanting to improve it, so telling him was no harm.

As for twenty *jin* of Jade Bone and five drops of Cold Apple Jade Dew, if Zhaoyang could really overthrow Longshan this time, what did these things count for?

"Being able to force Li Tiancheng back, this Hong Yu's strength is roughly equivalent to mine. With such a powerful help, as long as the subsequent layout is appropriate, the hope of overthrowing Longshan can increase by at least 20%. The era of Zhaoyang leading Longyou is about to come!"

In the gap of moving forward, Hou Hu looked back and looked at the shadow of Longshan under the night, clenched his fists slightly, his eyes full of desire and ambition.

"The strength classification of the Cold-Resisting Realm, the formula for boiling Jade Bone, it was obtained so simply, and..."

Twenty *jin* of Jade Bone, five drops of Cold Apple Jade Dew.

Xia Hong's face behind the mask was full of smiles.

That moment of forcing Li Tiancheng back was really too worth it.

The key was that this Hou Hu, at this moment, was probably laughing secretly just like him.

Who was the one being deceived, he hadn't figured it out yet!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 228 =====