Chapter 33: Beast Fighting

"Yuan Cheng, Lin Kai, go put out the furnace! Xia Chuan, Yue Feng, you five come with me to the cave entrance. Everyone else, retreat inside, quickly!"

Faced with this sudden change, Xia Hong quickly deployed his men.

The cold beast was already very close to the cave entrance; running outside was not realistic.

Moreover, it was still daytime. If they really ran out, even those among them with Woodcutting Realm cultivation could not withstand the extreme cold outside, let alone the others in the camp.

The cave was not large, but moving the crowd ten meters or so further in was no problem.

"It's daytime now. If we put out the fire, they won't be able to hold on for long..."

Yuan Cheng had been confused upon hearing the order, but the situation was critical, and he hadn't had time to ask. Only after extinguishing the fire did he finally manage to ask.

"Have you forgotten? The small torches we used when hunting with the leader came from this very furnace."

Hearing Lin Kai's reply, Yuan Cheng's face changed instantly.

They had all seen with their own eyes how crazy the cold beasts were for those small torches.

This furnace was burning so brightly; if the cold beast discovered it, that would be disastrous.

"Luckily the leader reminded us, otherwise it would have been a mess. I remember, that torch could not only heal the cold beast's wounds but also allow it to increase its strength."

"Yuan Cheng, Lin Kai, once the fire is out, hurry over and help!"

Hearing Xia Chuan's voice, the two rushed toward the cave entrance.

"Hurry, move the wood over and block the entrance, just in case."

The tremors on the ground continued. Xia Hong had everyone move all the wood stored in the cave to the center of the entrance, while he walked to the side of the entrance and gently dug a small hole, wanting to see clearly what was outside.

The moment the small hole was opened, a beam of light immediately shot in from outside.

There was no firelight in the cave, leaving it pitch black.

It was daytime outside, so sunlight shining through the small hole was normal.

However, along with that beam of sunlight, a bone-chilling cold also shone into the cave.

Xia Hong, who was closest to the small hole, could even see with the naked eye that the dust and particles in the sunlight were condensing at a terrifying speed. In just three or four breaths, they condensed into snowflakes out of thin air and drifted to the ground.

Xia Hong's pupils constricted slightly, and he tentatively extended his palm into the sunlight.

Sssss...

Almost the instant the sunlight hit his palm, a heart-piercing cold shot straight from his palm to his forehead. The area of his palm quickly turned blue, and even the blood inside stopped flowing.

Sensing his palm starting to go numb and the sensation spreading to other parts of his body, Xia Hong's expression changed slightly. He hurriedly pulled his hand back and rubbed it dozens of times before the numbness gradually disappeared.

"The temperature during the day can actually drop to this extent. No wonder they say humans can only live in the shadows. Even with Earth-Digging Realm cultivation, I'm afraid one cannot walk freely under the sunlight."

Xia Hong shook his hand, and after it recovered, he aligned his eye with the small hole and looked outside.

If the sunlight was like this when it touched his skin, it was even worse when it shone directly on his eyeball. The moment his eye met the small hole, a violent pain shot to his forehead. Xia Hong endured the pain and hurriedly checked the situation outside.

At this sight, Xia Hong's heart sank to the bottom.

A behemoth with six horns and four limbs, five or six meters long and resembling a mountain goat, seemed to have been startled by something and was charging madly toward the hillside.

The behemoth's shoulder height was at least over two meters. Under its violent charge, let alone trees, even some smaller mounds of earth were plowed open directly.

"It's that goat-type cold beast, it's charging toward us!"

Xia Hong's eyes reached their limit, and he hurriedly pulled his body back to seal the small hole.

Hearing this, Xia Chuan and the others' expressions changed instantly.

They had all seen that goat-type cold beast.

But every time was at night, seen while it was sleeping on a Golden-Lin tree.

That goat-type cold beast was too large, and they didn't understand it, so every time they hunted, Xia Hong would deliberately avoid it.

"Don't worry. Looking at the direction, although it's toward the mound, it might not necessarily find our cave. Let's observe the situation first."

The cold beast was already very close to the cave entrance. Worried about being discovered, Xia Hong did not open the small hole again, but led everyone to guard the two sides of the entrance.

Everyone hoped the cold beast wouldn't find the cave and would retreat on its own.

Bang... bang... bang...

Perhaps their prayers really had an effect; the cold beast's footsteps suddenly slowed down. Not only was it not as violent as before, but judging by the sound, it was moving further and further away from the cave entrance.

Everyone's hearts finally steadied a little.

"It must have been an accident. The cold beast didn't find the cave; it's going back."

Only Xia Hong had his brows tightly furrowed, vaguely feeling something was wrong.

Thinking of something, Xia Hong suddenly lay down, his ear pressed against the ground.

After listening for less than three breaths, Xia Hong's expression changed in shock. He sprang up from the ground and shouted sternly at the crowd:

"Quick, scatter to both sides!"

Everyone gave a violent start and moved quickly, retreating to the sides of the cave entrance.

Bang!

Almost the instant the eight of them retreated to the sides, six sharp horns instantly broke through the cave entrance. Not to mention the branches and turf originally used to block the entrance, even the wood they had just moved was instantly pierced by the sharp horns, turning into countless wood chips flying in the sky.

Under the violent impact, the entire cave entrance was smashed.

Deadly cold air seeped into the cave along with a large amount of sunlight. The eight people closest to the entrance, including Xia Hong, had their animal-hide skirts instantly covered in a layer of frost.

"You all retreat inside first! You can't fight it here at the entrance!"

Xia Hong told the others to retreat inside, but he gritted his teeth and rushed up first, grabbing the cold beast's sharp horns.

After grabbing the horns, Xia Hong was almost sent flying by the beast. Even though he forcibly stabilized his body, the cold beast's violent impact forced him to retreat wildly.

Yet even so, Xia Hong still used his footsteps to exert force, constantly adjusting the direction of the cold beast's charge. After retreating twenty or thirty meters, the direction of the cold beast's impact changed from the inside of the cave to the left wall.

He had rushed up just now, of course, not to wrestle with the cold beast.

This goat-type cold beast was much stronger than a Snow-Mane just by its size. With the strength he currently had, which could at most compare to an adult Snow-Mane, he definitely couldn't block it.

He just wanted to change the direction of the cold beast's charge.

Everyone was retreating inside; if the cold beast charged further in, with that impact force, no one could block it.

Just as it was about to hit the left wall, Xia Hong braced his legs, kicked hard against the wall, let go with his right hand, drew his stone axe from his waist, and aimed at the beast's head just as it was about to hit the right wall, hacking down fiercely.

Clang...

However, the cold beast, covered in horns on its head, didn't even move its body much.

It just tilted its head slightly and used its horns to block Xia Hong's stone axe.

Not only did it block it, but it also smashed the stone axe in Xia Hong's hand.

Looking at the stone axe in his hand that only had the wooden handle left, Xia Hong felt almost numb.

"Leader, catch the axe!"

Xia Hong raised his hand to catch the axe thrown by Xia Chuan, and only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Xia Chuan, Yuan Cheng, and the others had already surrounded it. They held ropes, three on one side and four on the other, throwing the ropes from left and right to bind the cold beast, then pulled back with all their might.

Although the seven of them were only in the Woodcutting Realm, their combined strength was still astonishing. After the cold beast's main torso was bound and pulled like this, it was caught off guard and stumbled, almost flipping over.

Roar...

The cold beast forcibly stabilized its figure and let out an angry roar. The entire cave echoed with the sound. Finding that it couldn't break free from the ropes in their hands, it could only form a stalemate with them. Its anger was clearly rising at an extremely fast speed.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 34 =====