Chapter 339: Rapid progress, martial arts techniques, dual-line eastward expansion, hibernation

"Fifty-four *zong*. Less than a month, twenty-three days, and I spent three days deducing martial arts techniques. The actual time spent cultivating should only be twenty days. Twenty days to improve by nearly two *zong*... this cultivation speed..."

On the Star-Plucking Terrace, Xia Hong, who was sitting cross-legged on the twelve-petaled silver Enlightenment Lotus Throne, suddenly opened his eyes, his face full of joy and emotion.

He himself came with a three-fold cultivation boost from the Martial Arts Pavilion, and adding another five-fold on top of that, it was a total of eight-fold.

The key was that the boost effect of the Enlightenment Lotus Throne was simply too strong.

Cultivation in the Cold-Resisting Realm stage revolves around the flesh and blood in the body. The specific method is to use external force to stimulate and destroy the original flesh and blood tissue, forcing it to continuously reorganize and grow.

There are currently only two types of this external force: one is the cold light from the outside world during the day; the other is medicine, such as Jade Bone Great Medicine and Yang Origin Pills.

Of course, the efficiency of the former is surprisingly slow. Although Xia Hong ordered people to build this roofless Star-Plucking Terrace, he mainly relies on Yang Origin Pills.

"The Enlightenment Lotus Throne not only improves my efficiency in absorbing Yang Origin Pills, but more importantly, it helps me check and fill in the missing flesh and blood parts in my body, helps me optimize my current cultivation method, and even deduces subsequent cultivation paths. It can be said that it solved all my worries at once. Of course, there is also..."

Xia Hong looked down at the ground in front of the lotus throne, his face even more joyful.

There were a total of forty-five bound martial arts classics on the ground, all mounted with high-grade animal skin, and even the fonts on the covers were written with Jin Lin ink.

"Forty-five techniques, covering twelve types of weapons: saber, spear, sword, halberd, axe, lance, whip, mace, hammer, staff, *shuo*, and fan. I also integrated the four power-generating routines of the Long Fist into them. Each one practiced to the highest level can explode with a maximum of fifty percent strength boost. Combined with weapon moves, the lethality can be even stronger. The combat effectiveness of the Great Xia people will be able to increase by a large margin in the future!"

This is the power of the Enlightenment Lotus Throne.

Coming from a martial arts family in his previous life, Xia Hong could almost master all kinds of weapons. The reason he chose to specialize in the Taizu Long Fist and popularize it to all of Great Xia was because the Long Fist routine is the most practical and has the greatest boost effect on power generation, reaching up to thirty percent.

But after spending three days using the martial arts deduction function of the Enlightenment Lotus Throne, he realized that thirty percent was not the limit.

The Long Fist power-generating routine at the pinnacle level, combined with these martial arts moves, practiced to the highest realm, can increase explosive power by up to fifty percent. It is even possible that this is not the limit; using the Enlightenment Lotus Throne to deduce, it can continue to improve.

Of course, there are two difficulties here.

One is the Long Fist routine at the pinnacle level. Xia Hong has the experience of his previous life, but others do not. Currently, there seem to be only ten people in Great Xia who have practiced the Long Fist to the pinnacle level. Regardless of their cultivation, these ten people are definitely geniuses in martial arts.

Secondly, there are martial arts moves. Weapons cannot be mastered just by touching them; they naturally require long-term cultivation.

"Xia Chuan's talent in weapons seems average. His specialty is manipulating puppets. Currently, those with higher talent in weapons in Great Xia that I have seen include Ying Xuan Ling's sword, Yu Wendao's broadsword, Yuan Cheng's double-edged axe, Hou Jing's staff, Lu Yang's sword... by the way, there is also that Luo Cheng's spear from last year!"

Deducing martial arts once using the Enlightenment Lotus Throne consumes 5,000 points of silver resources, equivalent to 25,000 *jin* of silver. Xia Hong naturally would not mess around. The twelve weapon martial arts deduced in advance are all used by people in Great Xia at the current stage.

Xia City's population has now exceeded 600,000. Xia Hong certainly does not have time to check everyone's talent, so he can only pick the ones he knows first.

As far as it goes, these forty-five techniques are definitely enough!

"Not only has the individual cultivation problem been solved, but all buildings have basically been upgraded by one level. The growth brought by the upgraded Martial Arts Pavilion, Weapon Refining Pavilion, and Medicine Refining Workshop has begun to show results. Next, it only needs time to ferment, and Xia City's strength will inevitably usher in rapid growth. The only fly in the ointment is that the consumption speed of this silver mine is really too exaggerated!"

Xia Hong pondered for a moment and checked the panel of the camp system:

【Camp: Great Xia (Level 0)】

【Lord: Xia Hong】

【Cultivation: Late Cold-Resisting (Fifty-four *zong*)】

【Territory Population: 627,642】

【Resources: Wood 5.21 million, Coal 2.82 million, Iron 1.04 million, Silver 280,000, Gold 0】

【Buildings Opened 8: Yang Ruins Tripod (Level 5), Martial Arts Pavilion (Level 4), Medicine Refining Pavilion (Level 4), Weapon Refining Pavilion (Level 4), Iron Wall (Level 3), Spirit God Monument (Level 4), Black Soil (Level 3), Enlightenment Lotus Throne (Level 4)】

【Buildings Not Opened 1: Coarse Iron Chain】

Seeing that Great Xia's population was about to reach 630,000, Xia Hong's expression lifted slightly.

The 110,000 population of Songyang Ridge had all moved into Xia City. Relying on the credit of bringing in this population, Xu Ning successfully promoted to Great Xia's third eighth-rank Red Sky Viscount at the beginning of this month.

However, the excited mood quickly dissipated due to the lack of system resources, especially when seeing that only 150,000 points of silver remained, Xia Hong shook his head repeatedly.

In the previous twenty-three days, the 3,000-strong army soldiers mined a total of more than 6.5 million *jin* of silver, which converted into system resources totaled 1.3 million points. Counting the 240,000 points brought back in the first batch, it was a total of 1.54 million points. Except for the Enlightenment Lotus Throne, most buildings did not require much silver to upgrade from level 3 to level 4, basically between 3,000 and 20,000 points. It shouldn't have been consumed so quickly.

But the actual situation was completely different.

First of all, after the level 4 Cold Ruins Tripod was upgraded to the level 5 Yang Ruins Tripod, the radiation range reached twenty kilometers at once, which was the basis for this round of Xia City expansion. The key was that its fuel consumption not only increased, but also added a new fuel:

Silver!

That's right, silver can also be used as fuel for the Yang Ruins Tripod.

【Yang Ruins Tripod (Level 5): Can significantly increase the temperature within a radius of twenty kilometers by burning wood, coal, and silver. Can suppress and kill high-level ghosts, has a strong attraction to cold beasts, and can be used for casting iron and silver wares.】

【Special Function 1: For every 100 units of wood resources burned, one small torch can be generated, which can kill high-level ghosts, with a burning time of one hour.】

【Special Function 2: For every 200 units of coal stone burned, one portion of Condensing Fire Oil can be generated. This oil is harmless to humans, but burns upon contact with ghosts and has strong lethality against ghosts.】

【Special Function 3: For every 500 units of silver burned, one piece of Ghost-Suppressing Jade can be generated. Those wearing Ghost-Suppressing Jade cannot be approached by ghosts.】

【Special Function 4: All personnel in the camp can be transformed by this tripod to obtain the recessive Great Xia Holy Pattern bloodline. The host is the ancestor of the bloodline.】

【Upgrade Conditions: 100 million coal, 300 million iron, 1 million silver, 10,000 gold】

【Daily Consumption: 1,000 wood, 100 coal, 10 silver. The host can freely adjust the radiation range of the tripod fire. Burning a single fuel has the same temperature-raising effect, but the ghost-suppressing ability will drop significantly. The fuel exchange ratio is 1 to 100.】

The upgraded Yang Ruins Tripod has significantly improved its capabilities. The previous description of high-level ghosts was deterrence, now it has become suppression and killing; the strength of the small torch has also improved a lot; and there is a new item, Ghost-Suppressing Jade.

Judging from the final consumption description, it is clear that three types of fuel need to be added to maximize the effect of the Yang Ruins Tripod. Since this is the case, silver will become an essential resource for the camp just like wood, coal, and iron in the future.

"This is just one Yang Ruins Tripod, plus the medicine fields of the Medicine Refining Pavilion, the silver furnace of the Weapon Refining Pavilion, the opening of the Martial Arts Pavilion itself, and a total of fifty newly added cold beast stakes. Now, to get the best results, everything requires silver. This camp system is clearly a large-scale resource-devouring machine!"

Xia Hong sighed slightly. Although he was complaining, he could actually understand it in his heart.

These functions provided by the system buildings did not come for no reason. To get the best results, the resource requirements must be higher. This is normal.

He hadn't even counted the Enlightenment Lotus Throne for the consumption of so much silver just now.

Just cultivating for one day costs 50 points; one martial arts deduction costs 5,000 points; one epiphany costs 50,000 points, and there is that skill transcendence that costs 100,000 silver points, limited to once a year, with a success rate of only twenty percent. He didn't even dare to touch it at all.

"In any case, the cultivation problem has been solved. According to my cultivation speed in the past twenty days, even if the speed slows down later, it will take less than a year at most to increase the base strength to seventy-two *zong*. Even by taking advantage of the opportunity to have an epiphany once a month, I can significantly shorten this time.

Except for the silver mine being mined on the north slope of the mountain wall, there are currently three silver mines confirmed in Longshan and one in North Mang Mountain. The four silver mines are all there and won't run away. It just depends on whether Great Xia's strength is enough!

The quota for the Martial Arts Pavilion has increased to 1,000 people. When the amount of silver mined later is larger, it can be upgraded once more, allowing more people to enter and cultivate at the same time, so that the camp's strength improvement speed can be faster.

The medicine research of the Medicine Refining Pavilion and the weapon casting of the Weapon Refining Pavilion are all improving rapidly. It just depends on when the next explosion period of strength arrives, and then we can take action on those four silver mines!"

Xia Hong exhaled a turbid breath slightly, picked up all forty-five techniques on the ground, then looked up at the door and called softly: "Han Yue?"

Almost at the same time he spoke, hurried footsteps came from outside the door.

He had been in seclusion, so he naturally would not wake up easily; it was only because he heard someone hurrying toward the Star-Plucking Platform that he came out of seclusion.

"Han Shuang pays respects to the Lord. Ming Yue just came to report that the Chief Administrator has something important to see the Lord about. It seems to be the Hanqiong Garrison Commander, Lord Lu Yang, who brought back some important news."

Hearing this, Xia Hong remembered that Han Yue was indeed sent by him to the Weapon Refining Pavilion to handle things today. Hearing that it was Lu Yang who returned from Hanqiong, he immediately realized something, a bright light flashed in his eyes, and he stood up directly.

"It should be that there is news about that secret passage!"

………………

Main building, Political Affairs Hall.

"Pay respects to the Lord!"

"No need for formalities. Is it that secret passage? There is a situation, right?"

Xia Hong, who had rushed over, asked Lu Yang directly.

"The Lord is divine and wise, this subordinate admires you!"

After Lu Yang took charge of Hanqiong, he was clearly much smoother. He first smiled and flattered Xia Hong, and then continued with excitement:

"We spent more than seven months before, and finally on the night of the sixth of August, we finally cleared the part where the cold seal collapsed. As the Lord expected, that secret passage does lead to the top of Twin Longshan, with a total length of forty-five kilometers. The final exit is in an area called North Ning Mountain."

The tunnel was opened on the sixth of August, and today is the fifth of September. It took a month to return to Xia City to report the situation. Clearly, Lu Yang had already inquired about a lot of information about North Ning Mountain.

"Sit down and talk slowly!"

Xia Hong's eyes lit up, he sat directly on the main seat, and signaled Xia Chuan and Lu Yang to sit down and talk slowly.

Lu Yang nodded, sat down, and continued:

"North Ning Mountain is located in the northern section of the Twin Longshan range, right above our heads. Its east-west depth is about two hundred kilometers, and north-south is about one hundred and fifty kilometers. The Lord's previous guess was correct. Right above our valley is the deepest part of North Ning Mountain. On the cliff top and the cliff wall, there are a large number of difficult-to-deal-with avian cold beasts. Although I didn't see it with my own eyes, I could clearly feel that the people in the camps around North Ning Mountain are extremely wary of them, or even terrified."

Twin Longshan range!

Hearing these four words, Xia Hong immediately understood that the entire Twin Longshan was much larger than he had originally expected. After all, according to Lu Yang, the North Ning Mountain above the valley was only the northern section of the Twin Longshan range.

As for the difficulty of avian cold beasts, it is not hard to understand.

Regardless of the level of the cold beast, as long as it has the ability to fly, its advantage over humans is too obvious. After all, the range of bows and arrows is limited. Unless the cold beast rushes down regardless of its life, you can only watch and stare.

Speaking of this, one has to mention Great Xia's unique geographical location.

Because they live in the valley world on the west side of Twin Longshan, Great Xia has only suffered one avian cold beast intrusion so far. If Xia Hong remembers correctly, it was December 30th of the first year, and it was finally solved by Yu Wendao, who had just broken through to the Cold-Resisting Realm.

Xia Hong's thoughts are not mentioned for now, Lu Yang is still continuing to narrate:

"The final exit of that secret passage at the Hanqiong outpost is on the northern periphery of North Ning Mountain, about fifteen kilometers deep. If you continue to walk north for more than ten kilometers, you can pass through the snow forest, and then walk east for five kilometers to reach High Sun Ridge.

On this High Sun Ridge, there is a village-level camp called Zhu Ridge, with a population of more than 60,000. By the way, the Lord should not know yet how the outside world defines whether a camp has reached the village level."

Hearing this, Xia Hong became interested and nodded slightly.

The population standard for a village-level camp is 20,000. If you only count this, the twelve camps in Longyou before basically met the standard, but at that time they always claimed to be giant camps, including Longshan, which later had a population of over 100,000.

There is no way, the news in Pingxi Plain is blocked, even Longshan, which had the largest population at that time, didn't know, how would other camps know?

Xia Hong actually had some guesses in his heart, but it was not easy to draw conclusions directly without contact with the outside world. Since Lu Yang had inquired, he was naturally interested in understanding it.

"What I inquired about is that for a village-level camp, in addition to the population reaching more than 20,000, there must be an object in the camp sufficient to deter ghosts!"

"Silver object?"

After listening, Xia Hong immediately guessed.

Lu Yang nodded and smiled, "The regulation of North Ning Mountain is that there must be a silver object weighing a thousand *jin*. The Lord might as well guess again, whose hand did this regulation come from?"

Seeing Lu Yang selling the pass, Xia Hong smiled, but also cooperated with him and lowered his head to think. His brows frowned slightly, and he soon had the answer.

"Beishuo?"

Hearing these two words, Xia Chuan, who was sitting in front of Lu Yang, trembled slightly, and immediately turned to look at Lu Yang. Clearly, he had not heard this situation from Lu Yang before.

Xia Chuan's emotional fluctuations naturally could not escape Xia Hong's eyes. As for the reason, he also knew it. Clearly, Xia Chuan was still brooding over the kick Li Hu gave him four years ago.

Thinking about it, it is normal. Four years is not long, not to mention that Li Hu's kick almost cost him his life.

"The Lord is too amazing, you guessed it right!"

Having received Lu Yang's personal confirmation, not only Xia Chuan, but even Xia Hong's heart trembled slightly.

After more than four years, there was finally news of Beishuo Town.

The key was that since news of Beishuo had been uncovered, the other eight towns, including that Mount Mo'ao mentioned by Yang and Li back then, should also...

"Mo'ao Mountain is on the northeast side of North Ning Mountain. I don't know how far it is, but its mountain height and mountain body are ten times or even dozens of times that of Twin Longshan. When Zhao Hu and I saw it for the first time, we were all stunned!"

Xia Hongteng stood up directly from his chair, then realized something, hurriedly calmed his mood, and asked Lu Yang: "How is the strength of those seven families in Mount Beining? Has news of Beishuo Town been found out? Also, what is the specific location? Tell me everything you know."

Seeing Xia Hong's reaction so big, Lu Yang didn't dare to sell the pass anymore, and hurriedly answered with a serious face: "Except for Zhu Ridge, the other six families in North Ning Mountain are Yang Valley, Hong Yuan, White Plain, Ten Thousand Stars, Long River, and Purple Qiang, with populations between 30,000 and 50,000. Judging from the situation I inquired about, although the population of the seven families in North Ning Mountain is equivalent to the giant camps in Longyou before, their strength is clearly stronger than them. Each family has more than five Cold-Resisting Realm experts, and Zhu Ridge even has more than a dozen.

The other six families, including more than a dozen large and medium-sized camps along the fifty-kilometer outer perimeter on the north side of Mount Beining, all honored Zhu Ling as their superior. Every month, they had to pay tribute to Zhu Ling in the form of coal, iron, and beast meat. Zhu Ling, in turn, had to accept the jurisdiction of Beishuo Town, paying tribute to Beishuo once every six months, with each trip led jointly by the leaders of the seven families.

"I didn't find out the location of Beishuo Town very clearly; I only know that one must follow the edge of Mount Beining eastward, and the distance is over three hundred kilometers."

Lu Yang said everything he knew in one breath. Seeing Xia Hong frowning and not speaking above, thinking he said too little, he immediately said uneasily:

"The Lord forgives me, in one month, Zhao Hu and I had no suitable identity there, and were afraid of revealing our feet and being noticed by others, so we could only secretly find a few large camps to inquire about news. Currently, the situation inquired is only this much!"

"No, you did very well, just be careful!"

Xia Hong spoke immediately, a glimmer of light flashing in his eyes as he continued: "We don't understand the situation in Beishuo and the other eight towns. Being able to take a step ahead to walk out of the Pingxi Plain and get a glimpse of their true strength is the best thing for us. Before we are clear about their strength, we must continue to maintain this state."