Chapter 26: Artisan, Nightmare, Fierce, God, Demon

If a camp has over one hundred thousand people, what would the scene be like?

Actually, Luo Ming, Shi Qing, and the other seven people couldn't imagine it at all.

But they were all leaders, each managing a camp of several hundred people.

They knew very well what a camp with a population of over one hundred thousand meant.

Massive amounts of food, extremely high security costs, countless cold-beast blood and meat...

"No, with over one hundred thousand people, can they find such a large cave?"

Shi Qing still couldn't help but ask the confusion he had the most.

Humans cannot see light, so one hundred thousand people must hide.

Can they find such a large cave?

"Summer insects cannot speak of ice, frogs in a well cannot speak of the sea."

These two sentences appeared in the minds of Yang Ning and Li Hu, and they shook their heads lightly.

"Not all humans can only live in the shadows. One day, if any of you can luckily obtain the qualification to enter Beishu Town, you will know."

Yang Ning paused after saying this, and then said to himself: "Of course, for you few, this possibility is basically non-existent."

Luo Ming, Shi Qing, and the six others heard this sentence, and their complexions dimmed a lot.

Compared to Shi Qing, Luo Ming could actually understand this sentence of Yang Ning's better.

Luo Ge Camp was the only medium-sized camp around Seeing Seeing Hong Mu Ridge.

Other eight camps had almost all mentioned to him before that they wanted to merge in.

But he didn't dare to accept them at all, or rather, he couldn't accept them.

Although he also understood that the more people in the camp, the better.

But the premise of expansion is strength.

Strength means being able to obtain more resources, being able to support more people, and also being able to hunt more cold-beast blood and meat to provide more people for training.

It was a pity that Luo Ge Camp's strength was simply not enough to support its expansion.

Luo Ge Camp had a total of five Earth-Digging experts and forty-seven Woodcutting Realm members. The cold-beast blood and meat hunted every month were barely enough to cultivate their own people. If other small camps were allowed to merge in, the cold-beast meat would simply not be enough.

Moreover, once merged, it meant that there were more ordinary people, and the demand for crystal fruits would also expand rapidly. They would have to increase the frequency of going out to find more Ice-Fruit Trees, and this process was also risky.

The most critical thing was that the strongest in small camps were only at the Woodcutting Realm and didn't possess hunting ability at all, which meant that their joining would not only fail to improve hunting ability but would also squeeze the original cold-beast meat supply of the camp.

Therefore, when other camps proposed wanting to merge in, not only Luo Ming himself but everyone in Luo Ge Camp almost all refused.

Therefore, the rule is that one must have sufficient strength to expand, and then use the population advantage to cultivate more experts, repeating this cycle, to make the camp stronger and larger.

Blind expansion will only make the camp unable to manage itself, and in the end, even if it is not slaughtered by cold beasts and strange monsters, it is extremely likely to break out in internal strife and kill each other.

Therefore, by analogy, the Beishu Town that Yang and Li mentioned, although it had a population of over one hundred thousand, would definitely not accept external personnel indiscriminately. The "qualification" mentioned by the two must also be extremely harsh.

Shi Qing didn't need to think about it. Even if Luo Ming had the strength of the Earth-Digging Realm, the two Yang and Li were much stronger than him at a young age. The strength of Beishu Town was enough to see the whole leopard from a glimpse, so it probably wouldn't look up to him either.

What's more, the two were still the leaders of their respective camps.

They couldn't abandon their families and companions to join other camps alone.

"Alright, it's useless to tell you so much. Since Leader Luo asked about that Wood Puppet Strange Monster just now, I will explain it to you."

Seeing that Yang Ning was going to talk about strange monsters, Luo Ming and Shi Qing immediately pricked up their ears.

"A long time ago, the Ice Abyss was not like it is today.

At that time, not only did the day have twelve hours, but the temperature was also not as low as it is today.

Among cold beasts, the vast majority were not as cunning and strong as they are now. Not to mention eating people, at that time, almost ninety-nine percent of cold beasts were just food for us humans.

And those strange monsters, there were none before.

In that period, whether day or night, humans could move freely.

At that time, the Ice Abyss was rumored to have seasonal changes, cold and heat cycles, and a pleasant climate; at that time, humans controlled various powerful tools and were the undisputed overlords of the Ice Abyss; at that time, the land was fertile, and one could farm everywhere, with more food than one could eat; at that time...

Food, clothing, housing, and transportation were all perfect, humans lived and worked in peace and contentment, and civilization was prosperous.

In that period, not to mention one hundred thousand people, even large gathering places of one million, or even ten million people, were not few."

Hearing Yang Ning's description, Luo Ming, Shi Qing, and others were already stunned.

One million, ten million—they didn't have this concept at all.

"Day and night, move freely"—these eight words were already a dream for them.

Ninety-nine percent of cold beasts were just food for humans?

Food, clothing, housing, and transportation were perfect, living and working in peace and contentment, prosperous and flourishing.

What kind of dream scene should that be?

It is very difficult for people to imagine things they have never seen or experienced, but this does not affect their yearning and pursuit of beauty.

The world Yang Ning described, in the eyes of Luo Ming, Shi Qing, and others, was no different from a fairy palace or heaven.

"Corresponding to today's Ice Abyss world, we generally call that period the Ancient Abyss Era, or prehistoric civilization.

No one knows what happened in the Ancient Abyss Era, what the prehistoric civilization encountered, and how our world became what it is today.

There is a saying that humans angered the gods, and the Ancient Abyss was punished by the gods; there are also people who say it was because humans did too many things they shouldn't have done, leading to the appearance of cold beasts and strange monsters, and finally the climate and time all changed. No one knows the specific reason.

But what is certain is that since the Ancient Abyss Era passed and civilization fell, strange monsters and cold beasts have become the nightmare of humans."

Although this large section was a foreshadowing, Yang Ning also said it extremely emotionally.

Clearly, even he had a strong yearning for that Ancient Abyss Era he had never experienced.

"Where strange monsters come from, no one knows yet, but what is certain is that they all originate from the Ancient Abyss Era, because only from them can we find evidence of the existence of the Ancient Abyss Era.

Strange monsters are divided into five types: Artisan, Nightmare, Fierce, God, and Demon.

And the Artisan Strange Monster is one of them. They are all transformed from many professional craftsmen with superb skills in the Ancient Abyss Era. Their preferences for killing are strange and varied, and their killing methods are also mysterious and unpredictable.

Like the Wood Puppet Strange Monster that emerged in Seeing Seeing Hong Mu Ridge, it should be a puppet craftsman in the Ancient Abyss Era, specializing in making and controlling various puppets, preferring to carve human-shaped wooden puppets to imitate humans and deceive trust, while it hides in the dark to control puppets to kill."

Speaking of this, Yang Ning paused and added: "All strange monsters will evolve by constantly killing people.

Let's still use this Wood Puppet Strange Monster as an example. The puppets it makes now can only exert the strength of the Woodcutting Realm, but as it kills more and more people, it itself, including the puppets it makes, will become stronger and stronger.

Beishu Town once hunted an intermediate Artisan Strange Monster, which we named the Tailor Strange Monster.

It had a pair of scissors in its hand, which could cut dozens of Earth-Digging humans into pieces in an instant;

It also had a set of needle and thread, which once, in front of me, sewed up the seven orifices of an expert at the Cold-Resisting level.

Then, after a while, that expert at the Cold-Resisting level suffocated to death."

Cold-Resisting level...

Hearing these three words for the first time, Luo Ming and Shi Qing had some guesses in their hearts, but there was still a look of confusion on their faces.

"Above the Earth-Digging Realm is the Cold-Resisting level. The reason it is called this is because when a person reaches this realm, they can resist the severe cold of the day and go out to move."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 27 =====

(End of chapter)