Chapter 333: Chen Ying's New Discovery, Xia Yu Ning, Joyful News One After Another

Snowy night, at the cliff wall two kilometers north of Xia City.

A team of about twenty people was walking with their heads down against the severe cold, constantly moving up along the slope.

"Captain, we aren't hunting or exploring, why are we here?"

Chen Shang, a member of the team, holding a barrier blade and carrying a strong bow on his back, looked at his father Chen Ying, who was leading the team, and asked with a face full of confusion.

Although Chen Ying was his father, he was also the captain of the Iron Eagle team. When going out with the hunting team, he still had to be called captain; this was the rule.

"Stop for a moment, we're almost at the top of the slope, let's rest!"

Chen Ying in front turned around, swept his eyes over the team members, and found that their faces were as full of confusion as Chen Shang's. He called a halt to the team first, then was silent for a moment before speaking slowly:

"You should all know about the Gnawing Rat tide on the eve of the first year, right?"

Chen Shang and the two brothers He Yuanfeng and He Yuanluan next to him heard this sentence from Chen Ying, and their expressions instantly became a few shades heavier. They were old people from the Chen Ye camp and could be considered eyewitnesses of the Gnawing Rat tide back then, so they naturally remembered.

"I have read the Does Does Da Xia Annals. The Annals record that before the first year of Does Does Da Xia, a Gnawing Rat tide of several hundred appeared on the north slope of the cliff. At that time, our camp's strength was very weak and it was very difficult to deal with. It was the lord who discovered that the Tengjiao poison sac could restrain the Gnawing Rat group, then led everyone to build a batch of five-stone bows, and finally led all the Earth-Digging Realm and Woodcutting Realm experts in the entire camp to drive away the Gnawing Rat group with one heart."

"I have also read the records in the Annals. It is rumored that it was that time that our Does Does Da Xia discovered the people of the Mirror Immortal camp. At that time, we also merged a small camp with a population of only a few hundred, it seems to be called Chen Ye..."

The Does Does Da Xia Annals managed by Yue Feng recorded every major event that happened from the earth slope period to the present clearly. The Gnawing Rat tide on the north slope of the cliff was something that could threaten the survival of Does Does Da Xia at that time, so it was naturally recorded clearly.

In order to let the people of Does Does Da Xia remember the difficult years of the past, and also to make the image of the lord Xia Hong more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, Xia Chuan required everyone in Does Does Da Xia to be familiar with the book Does Does Da Xia Annals.

So the Gnawing Rat tide back then was known to almost all members of the Iron Eagle team, not just the three eyewitnesses Chen Shang and the He family brothers.

However, when a team member mentioned the Chen Ye camp recorded in the Annals, his voice suddenly paused, and he looked up at Captain Chen Ying.

The expressions of the others were similar to his. Hearing the two words "Chen Ye," they all looked up at Chen Ying, and their hearts instantly reacted.

The Iron Eagle team was already an intermediate team. They had been with Chen Ying for nearly two years, so they naturally knew some of Chen Ying's past.

Chen Ying was the former leader of the Chen Ye camp, which meant he himself was an eyewitness of the Gnawing Rat tide. It was only after that incident that he successfully led hundreds of people from the Chen Ye camp to merge into Does Does Da Xia.

"The captain means that the reason why there was a Gnawing Rat tide here back then was because there was a silver mine. But in the previous half year, Cloud Dragon, Dragon Martial, at least have..."

Chen Shang had already seen his father's intention to bring up this old matter again.

Chen Ying had been thinking about the north slope of the cliff for the past two years, which was not a secret, especially after the Cold Origin Festival at the beginning of this year, when Qiu Peng announced that anyone who directly discovered a silver mine could record 300 military merits in the Camp Needs Department, and those who provided clues to a silver mine could also record 30 military merits. Since then, his father Chen Ying had been like possessed, and whenever he had time, he would run to the north slope of the cliff to search.

Chen Shang sighed slightly. In fact, he could also understand why his father was like this.

When all was said and done, it was for the sake of being granted a title!

Last year in Longyou, the merits his father made personally were actually not small. In addition to accumulating 120 military merits in the Beehive defense battle, he also worked with Bai Wuting, Lin Fan, and Lu He to successfully lure out the beast horde with small torches at the tunnel exit connecting the Beehive to Wu Shuang, successfully destroying the more than 2,300 Longyou troops personally led by Li Ying Xuan Ling, who was the leader of Longshan at that time.

If the merits of the total annihilation of those 2,300-plus Longyou soldiers were all counted on the four of them, it would be enough for all four of them to be granted titles.

It was just that this great merit clearly couldn't be counted only on the four of them. Although the direct role played by the four was critical, if Xia Chuan hadn't led people to hold the Beehive to the death, if Xia Hong hadn't led the army to break through Longshan and cut off one of Li Tiancheng's arms, and if Yu Wentao hadn't brought the news in time to disrupt the morale of the Longyou army, the ambush of the four would have been impossible to talk about.

This merit was ultimately shared equally among all those who participated in the battle. Chen Ying and the other four who played a direct role took the lion's share, with 200 points each.

So his father's accumulated military merit value was 320 points, only 180 points away from being granted a title.

180 points, it didn't seem like much, but the channels for Does Does Da Xia to obtain military merits at present were really too few.

Since the map of Longyou was included in the territory last year, the camp basically had no wars. Even if they could encounter other camps, they were basically small and medium-sized, let alone large ones, and giant ones were even less likely.

Furthermore, with Does Does Da Xia's current scale, even if they encountered a large camp, it was estimated that sending an advanced hunting team could solve it. Unless they encountered a village-level or even town-level camp, there was basically no opportunity to obtain military merits.

With such a high difficulty in obtaining military merits, the number of people granted titles was naturally pitifully small. Like Chen Ying, there were quite a few people who accumulated hundreds of military merits in the Longyou battle. Like Lin Fan, who had 450 points of military merits, and Bai Wuting, who had 420 points, both were higher than his father and were also very close to being granted titles.

However, today was already July 25th. In the past half year, the number of Ninth-Rank titles newly added to the entire camp was only three, which showed the difficulty of being granted a title.

The three people who were newly granted titles, if Chen Shang remembered correctly, were Li Tiancheng, Hou Jing, and Zhou Yuan. The first two could basically be considered the most top-tier existences in Does Does Da Xia at present, except for the lord and the lord's wife, and the last one, Zhou Yuan, could also be considered among the best in terms of strength.

From this, one could see the difficulty of being granted a title.

Li Tiancheng previously provided the location of two silver mines in Longshan, which was originally recorded as 200 military merits, but later another one was discovered in Longshan, so another 300 military merits were recorded, and he was granted a Ninth-Rank title;

Hou Jing found two Cold Apple trees, recorded 200 points, and then discovered a silver mine in North Mangshan, recorded another 300 points, and was successfully granted a title;

Zhou Yuan was entirely lucky. The Longyuan hunting team he led had always been active at the Longshan station. At the beginning of last month, he discovered a giant camp with a population of over 80,000 named Beiyuan in the far north of Longshan.

Coincidentally, the leader of the Beiyuan camp, Zhou Kai, had a bad temper and actually tried to negotiate with Does Does Da Xia to divide the hunting area of Longshan.

The result was that the Slaughter Dragon Army, which had only been established for a month, was dispatched. The Beiyuan camp didn't even make a splash and was directly annexed by Does Does Da Xia.

Zhou Yuan, who discovered the Beiyuan camp, was recorded as the first merit, and he also participated in the subsequent battles throughout. His military merits easily exceeded 500, and at the beginning of this month, he was successfully granted the title of Ninth-Rank Ying Xuan Ling Viscount.

Zhou Yuan's title-granting ceremony last month was presided over by Minister Xia Chuan. Chen Shang was also present at the time, so he knew very clearly that there were quite a few people like his father who had an obsession with being granted a title.

The improvement in status in the camp after being granted a title was almost visible to the naked eye, especially the Cold Origin Festival at the beginning of this year, when the lord only invited those granted titles to enter the Political Hall, which made the temptation of being granted a title climb to the extreme.

Of course, it was not just the improvement of status. The qualifications to be equipped with maids and attendants, the right to exempt family members from corvée labor, the annual title salary... and various other generous treatments made people flock to being granted a title.

Now that Does Does Da Xia had no wars, the only way to obtain military merits quickly was to find silver mines and Cold Apple trees. It was not difficult to understand why Chen Ying ran to the north slope of the cliff so diligently during this period.

The problem was that the matter of the north slope of the cliff was not known to Chen Ying alone. Not to mention the eyewitnesses like Xia Chuan and Yuan Chuan in the early days, anyone in Xia City who had read the Annals basically knew about this, and they had long since turned this place upside down.

If it was said that other small teams didn't have the ability, it would be fine, but there were six advanced hunting teams that came here in the first half of the year, and all of them returned empty-handed.

How could his father have any harvest by bringing them here tonight?

Thoughts were flying in his mind, but in reality, it was only for a moment.

After Chen Shang raised the question, the others clearly reacted as well, nodding one after another, and then looking at Chen Ying with faces full of confusion.

Facing the questioning of his son and a group of team members, Chen Ying looked very calm. He nodded slightly, faced the crowd, and said: "I also know about the fact that the six advanced teams like Cloud Dragon came here to explore and returned empty-handed, but I think they all ignored one place. In the previous month, I came to explore alone and finally had some new discoveries, so I brought you here tonight."

Chen Shang and the others were stunned, and they all looked up at Chen Ying.

"Ignored what place?"

A mysterious look appeared on Chen Ying's face. He stretched out his foot and stomped on the ground, saying:

"They definitely haven't searched our previous station area carefully!"

The previous station, which was the station of the Chen Ye camp?

Chen Shang and the three brothers of the He family heard this, and their expressions froze slightly. Then, after reacting, their expressions instantly became moved.

"That's right! Back then, that group of Gnawing Rats only gathered on the top of the north slope during the day, and at night they would entrench themselves above the mountain body of our previous station. Others coming here would definitely go to the top of the north slope to search and wouldn't notice the cave where our previous station was located!"

After Chen Shang finished speaking, He Yuanfeng immediately nodded and took over: "I remember, there was a very deep secret passage behind the station cave. Back then, our strength was too weak, and we sealed it directly with wood. Exploring inward from that position, maybe, there will really be some new discoveries!"

He Yuanluan also said excitedly: "The Gnawing Rat tide back then had long since shaken the mountain body, and the entrance to our station cave was also blocked by stones. Others wouldn't think of it at all."

"Now you know why I want to bring you here, right?"

Seeing that everyone recalled the situation of the cave, Chen Ying's expression became more and more excited, and he continued: "During this period of time, I have already explored to the end along that secret passage. The secret passage extends three or four kilometers to the east and has already penetrated into the interior of the mountain body of Double Dragon Mountain. If we want to continue to explore forward, we can only excavate manually, and..."

Speaking of this, Chen Ying's tone paused, and his expression became excited again: "While exploring the secret passage, I not only bumped into four low-level Gnawing Rats, but also discovered a large number of Gnawing Rat activity traces. More importantly, last night, at the end of the secret passage, I also discovered two Zhu Silver Flowers!"

Teng...

Hearing the three words "Zhu Zhu Yin Hua," Chen Shang and the other twenty-plus team members all stood up, their expressions instantly becoming incomparably excited.

"So that's it. I said why the captain asked us to bring iron chisels and iron shovels tonight. With Zhu Silver Flowers, there is probably really a silver mine!"

"Great, this is a silver mine! Even if we report it now, we can record 30 points of military merits!"

"Stupid, how can we report it now? Of course, we have to continue to explore inward. If we can really determine it is a silver mine, then there will be 300 points of military merits."

"The captain is only 180 points away from being granted a title. If it is really a silver mine, that would be too great."

"Not only can the captain be granted a title, but we can also get a lot of contribution points!"

"Then let's go, what are we still stunned for, hurry up!"

After Chen Ying revealed the bottom line, everyone instantly swept away the questioning on their faces and became full of energy. At the same time, looking at Chen Ying's eyes, they were also full of gratitude.

Although mountain excavation was tiring, Chen Ying was a Cold-Resistant Realm expert. As long as he was willing to spend more time, even if he only brought his son here, he would eventually be able to open up the mountain body. Finally, once a new silver mine was really discovered, he could monopolize the merit.

However, Chen Ying not only revealed the news but also brought them here to work together, clearly wanting to share a part of the merit with them. Everyone naturally felt full of gratitude toward him.

"Good, then no more nonsense. I will lead you to drill into the mountain body. From now on, we will focus on excavating the mountain body and continue to explore inward. As long as we don't bump into high-level Gnawing Rats, there will be no danger. If we can really find a new silver mine, I won't monopolize the merit. I only need 180 points of military merits, and the rest will be divided among you."

Military merits are also divided!

Hearing this promise from Chen Ying, everyone's eyes lit up.

Military merits and contribution points were two rewards, both of which would be available if a silver mine was discovered. They had previously thought of sharing contribution points, but they didn't expect Chen Ying to be willing to share even military merits. Everyone was even more excited now.

Chen Ying wanted to be granted a title, and they naturally wanted to as well!

Even Chen Shang was excited at this moment.

Just as He Yuanluan said just now, the Gnawing Rat tide back then had long since shaken the mountain body, and the cave where the station was located had long been blocked by stones. Chen Ying had already opened up a passage to go down from above the mountain body some time ago. At this moment, he led everyone to drill into the passage and began to excavate the mountain body while exploring.

Does Does Da Xia Year 3, August 5th.

Once it was August, one could clearly feel that the atmosphere in Xia City was somewhat different.

Especially the inner city.

The current main building of the inner city had long since become an area for the seven departments of Does Does Da Xia to handle official business. Except for the public officials of the seven departments, the advanced hunting teams under the Hunting Department, and the army soldiers who came to rotate and guard every day, others could not enter at will.

Recently, whenever someone came back from the outside, as long as they entered before the main building, they would inevitably look up at the direction of the Star-Plucking Hall, and then find people in the main building to inquire about the news.

And the reason for this was because the lord's wife, Li Ying Xuan Ling, was about to give birth!

Those who could enter the main building now did not have low status in Does Does Da Xia, and basically all participated in the beast horde battle in the Yanglu Realm last year.

Everyone was not stupid. At that time, Li Tiancheng had already said that the fetus in Li Ying Xuan Ling's abdomen was already two months old. Then, calculating the days, the delivery time should be in August of this year.

Someone had long since leaked the news, and now everyone in Xia City basically knew that the child of the lord Xia Hong would be born this month.

If the birth of Xia Chuan's eldest son, Xia Yu Zong, last year only moved a group of high-level Cold-Resistant Realm experts, then the two children in Li Ying Xuan Ling's abdomen at this moment were really receiving close attention from all 500,000-plus people in Xia City.

"I guess the 8th is a good day. The Lady will give birth on the 8th."

"Good things take time. In my opinion, it will be at the end of the month."

"I heard it's twins. The Lady is not only beautiful as a painting, but this belly is also more promising than ordinary people. Giving birth to two young masters in one breath, the lord will probably be overjoyed."

"Don't call them that randomly. The Minister said last month that the lord's son is a golden branch and jade leaf, bearing the future of our Does Does Da Xia camp. The seating in the Political Hall is only below the lord. We people must respectfully call them Highness."

"Yes, yes, I was confused. It's two Highnesses."

Star-Plucking Hall, Han Shuang, the maid adjutant, carried a basin of hot water into Li Ying Xuan Ling's room. Seeing Li Ying Xuan Ling had already woken up and was half-lying on the bed, she hurried over and draped a blanket over her.

"The Lady is about to give birth, be very careful not to catch a cold!"

Seeing Han Shuang's tone carrying a hint of reproach, Li Ying Xuan Ling shook her head slightly.

She was already at the Cold-Resistant late stage, not far from breaking through to the Cold-Resistant peak. Even if she was pregnant, it was impossible to be so weak, not to mention that the Cold Ruin Cauldron had always been placed in her room. What kind of wind could make her catch a cold?

But having served with Han Shuang for more than half a year, Li Ying Xuan Ling had already grasped her temper. If she refuted at this time, she would immediately become fearful, thinking that she hadn't done something well.

So Li Ying Xuan Ling didn't continue this topic, but remembered something and asked: "The lord hasn't come out of seclusion yet?"

Han Shuang, while using a hot handkerchief to clean Li Ying Xuan Ling's hands, answered softly:

"I heard from my sister that after returning from Beiyuan last month, the lord has been staying on the Star-Plucking Platform and hasn't come out. My sister sends food every three days, and she has sent it twelve times so far."

Li Ying Xuan Ling heard this, her brows furrowed slightly, clearly very unhappy.

Seeing her expression, Han Shuang immediately understood. Remembering something, she hurried to the window and took a blood-red jade stone placed on the windowsill, saying softly: "The lord is thinking of the Lady in his heart. After returning from Beiyuan last month, he specially brought this Blood Agate Jade for the Lady.

This Blood Agate Jade is a unique treasure of Beiyuan, nourished by a large amount of beast blood. Cold-Resistant Realm experts can use it to restore Qi and blood, and even ordinary people can expand the tolerance of their skin membrane in advance by wearing it. I heard that it costs 500 contribution points per tael in the Camp Needs Department. This piece of the Lady's is over four jin, which can be considered an extraordinary treasure, showing the lord's importance to the Lady."

Hearing Han Shuang speak for Xia Hong so impatiently, Li Ying Xuan Ling looked at her, her expression becoming somewhat strange, and she suddenly forgot about the unhappy thing.

She discovered that not only Han Shuang, but also Nongying, Qiuru, Mingyue, Hualing, and the large group of maids including Han Yue, all had a near-fanatical obsession with Xia Hong, the lord. They not only maintained his image everywhere in public, but even in private, they didn't allow anyone to slander him.

As long as she expressed any opinion about Xia Hong, Han Shuang and these people would immediately help Xia Hong speak. On one hand, it was to maintain his image, and on the other hand, it was clearly also afraid that the two of them would have a bad relationship.

"Han Shuang, I remember that you and your sister Han Yue both merged into Does Does Da Xia from Hanqiong. It shouldn't have been long, right?"

Han Shuang nodded first, then remembered something, and said with a face full of reverence: "Back then, the Hanqiong camp suffered a disaster. If it weren't for the lord's rescue, my sister and I would have lost our lives long ago. How could we have lived the life we have now?"

Li Ying Xuan Ling's expression froze, then she recalled the matter of the Gourd Valley in Hanqiong and immediately understood why the two sisters were so loyal to Xia Hong.

She suddenly raised a hint of mischief and whispered to Han Shuang:

"Your base strength is over 20,000 jin. It is said that you can go out and live the life of a normal person. Are you willing to stay in the Star-Plucking Hall to serve me?"

Sure enough, hearing this question, Han Shuang's face turned pale, her eye sockets immediately turned red, and then she knelt down to her with a thud.

"Lady, did Han Shuang do something wrong? Please, Lady, don't drive me away. I am willing to stay by your side forever. Han Shuang is absolutely willing, please, Lady..."

"Don't, don't, don't. Why are you so nervous? I was just teasing you!"

Li Ying Xuan Ling naturally didn't let her kneel down. After reaching out to support her, she hurriedly comforted her softly. Seeing her nervous and fearful posture, she couldn't help but feel a few points of guilt in her heart.

In fact, it could be understood. Let alone the Hanqiong camp, compared to the days she spent in Longshan, Does Does Da Xia's life was absolutely superior.

Moreover, Han Shuang could live in the Star-Plucking Hall. Not to mention anything else, living with Xia Hong, Han Shuang's clothes, food, and daily necessities were basically unimaginable to most people in Does Does Da Xia.

And her status was also very special. Because she served Xia Hong for a long time, she could usually talk to Xia Chuan. Just this special privilege was estimated to be an honor that many people in Does Does Da Xia could hardly imagine. ===== CHAPTER 334 =====