Chapter 37: Earth-Digging Realm [Ask for votes and follow]

Bang...

The furnace was lit again, and after the cave was sealed, it returned to warmth.

Everyone gathered around the campfire again, and Xia Hong walked to Xu Ning's side.

Xia Chuan, Yuan Cheng, and the others also gathered around him, their expressions relatively solemn.

"Leader, this time we harvested a big one, hehe."

Xu Ning opened his one remaining eye, pointed to the Golden-Eyed Demon Goat lying on the ground, and forced a smile on his face.

Xia Hong didn't answer, just stepped forward to check his right eye. Seeing the empty hole inside, his expression also became solemn.

"Don't be reckless again in the future. When facing a cold beast you haven't seen before, be cautious!"

After finishing, he turned to Xia Chuan and the others and added: "The same goes for you all."

Xu Ning probably didn't want the atmosphere to be so heavy, so he smiled and said: "At least my life is still here. It's just one eye, not a big deal. My cultivation is still there, and my body is fine."

Seeing that no one answered, Xu Ning remembered something and continued:

"By the way, Qiu Peng, your father used to be the only archer in our camp. He often closed one eye when shooting arrows. My right eye is blind, maybe when the camp is rich in the future, I can be an archer."

Qiu Peng was stunned for a moment, then nodded with a strange expression.

"That's true. I heard my father say that to be precise when shooting arrows, one usually only uses one eye to aim. It's a pity that there are no bows and arrows in the camp now..."

Xia Chuan, Yuan Cheng, including Xia Hong and others, all felt a slight movement in their hearts.

Losing an eye was not as easy as Xu Ning said.

Although it had no effect on cultivation, it had a great impact on vision and physical coordination. For people like them who often had to fight life-and-death battles with cold beasts, losing half their vision and having poor physical coordination were both extremely fatal.

Xia Hong's solemn expression just now was because he realized that even if Xu Ning went out in the future, he would likely not be able to help much, and he had even decided to keep Xu Ning in the camp to watch over it when going out in the future.

But Qiu Peng's words were a disguised reminder to him.

When archers fight, in most cases, they really only need one eye.

And to a certain extent, because the other eye had completely disappeared, Xu Ning could concentrate more on his left eye.

This actually became a unique advantage.

"There aren't any now, but there will be in the future!"

Xia Hong spoke in a solemn tone, which was a promise to Xu Ning.

Hearing this, the others also encouraged Xu Ning one after another:

"That's right, the leader killed the Golden-Eyed Demon Goat, getting you a bow and arrow is a piece of cake."

"We don't even fear the 'Gui' now, are we still afraid of not being able to get bows and arrows?"

"Xu Ning, just rest well. When the bows and arrows come, if you can't practice well, we will laugh at you."

Hearing everyone's encouragement, Xu Ning's expression was moved, but he didn't say anything, just nodded heavily in silence.

"I have something to do, you all go deal with the meat of the Golden-Eyed Demon Goat first."

"Yes, leader."

Seeing everyone happily go to deal with the Golden-Eyed Demon Goat, Xia Hong walked alone to the side of the camp's strength-testing stake.

The original strength-testing stake in the camp only had a maximum of 1,000 jin. Later, as more and more people broke through to the Woodcutting Realm, for convenience, two 5,000-jin ones were added.

Xia Hong's expression moved slightly. He stacked the two 5,000-jin stakes together, held his breath, squatted on the ground, and hugged the two stakes with both hands.

Hu...

Exhaling a breath of turbid air, Xia Hong gritted his teeth, suddenly exerted force with both hands, and lifted them up fiercely.

The two stakes were lifted from the ground.

A look of wild joy instantly appeared on Xia Hong's face.

"I really broke through!"

After killing the Golden-Eyed Demon Goat just now, he felt that his internal strength had increased a bit, but the 'Gui' came later, so he had no mind to care about it.

Now that he tried it, he had really broken through.

Basic strength breaking 10,000 jin was the sign of breaking through to the Earth-Digging Realm.

During this period, heaven knows how distressed Xia Hong was about the Earth-Digging Realm.

Because he found that the closer he got to breaking through, the lower his efficiency in absorbing cold beast meat became, and the slower his strength improved.

The problem was that his quota of cold beast meat hadn't changed at all, and he even tried to increase the quota for the sake of breaking through, but the improvement was still minimal.

"It seems that only by experiencing this kind of life-and-death battle can one break through the physical limit faster. The subsequent cultivation of the Earth-Digging Realm still has to rely on cold beast meat. I don't know if it will be very slow."

Xia Hong gradually put away the excitement on his face and calmed himself down.

With the enhancement of his physique, the demand for cold beast meat would also become greater and greater.

But for him now, it wasn't a big problem.

When in the Woodcutting Realm, he could lead people to hunt cold beasts, let alone now.

The key was that breaking through to the Earth-Digging Realm meant that from today on, he was qualified to dig for mines.

Coal, iron, silver, gold, as long as he could find a mineral vein, he could successfully point out the other eight buildings of the system.

"Starting tonight, expand the search range to see if we can find a mineral vein!"

Xia Hong was extremely excited and put down the stakes.

Coincidentally, the Golden-Eyed Demon Goat on the other side had also been cleaned up.

Yuan Cheng reported the meat yield of the Demon Goat to Xia Hong excitedly from afar.

"Leader, the Golden-Eyed Demon Goat yielded a total of 1,700 jin of meat, and there is also a whole skin that can make five animal-hide skirts."

1,700 jin. According to the current distribution of cold beast meat in the camp, it was enough for about twenty days.

"By the way, there's also this."

Yuan Cheng thought of something and threw an object to Xia Hong.

Xia Hong reached out and caught it. It was the short knife just used to kill the Golden-Eyed Demon Goat.

Wang Ming's big knife was converted into the system's iron resources, which was 60 points.

Upgrading the small campfire used 50 points, and there were 10 points left, which Xia Hong used to make this small short knife.

Calling it a short knife, it was actually less than five inches long; describing it as a dagger was more suitable.

Because it was too short, he estimated it couldn't break through the Golden-Eyed Demon Goat's defense, so Xia Hong hadn't used it all along. Until he had to attack the eye on its back and realized the stone axe wasn't suitable, he used the dagger, which could be considered to have had a miraculous effect.

Xia Hong put away the dagger and summoned the six members of the Woodcutting Team, including Xia Chuan and Yuan Cheng, as well as the reserve members, which had increased to thirty-one, all together.

"Distribute all the meat directly. Ten days later, we will go out as usual. Xia Chuan, Yuan Cheng, you six, seize the time to improve your strength during this period.

In addition, the reserve members must also speed up. See if we can have a few more break through to the Woodcutting Realm before going out."

"Yes, leader!"

Everyone answered in unison. Xia Chuan and the other six were fine, but the thirty-one reserve members had just witnessed Xia Hong and the other eight hunting that Golden-Eyed Demon Goat with their own eyes. They were already envious, and their desire to break through to the Woodcutting Realm had reached its peak.

He estimated that even if Xia Hong didn't say it, they would practice with their lives on the line, seeking to join the Woodcutting Team as soon as possible and go out with him.

Time returned to just now.

Just as the Wang Ping controlled by the 'Gui' was burned to fly ash by the Fire-Condensing Oil.

Five hundred meters east of the mound where the Does Does Da Xia camp cave was located, on a large tree on the outermost edge of Red Wood Ridge, a shrill scream rang out.

"Ah... ah..."

A black-clothed old man, no more than 1.5 meters tall and with a hunched figure, was holding a cluster of white silk threads in his hand. One end of the silk thread was held in the old man's hand, while the other end extended far to the west.

The silk thread was white itself, and with the ice and snow all around, it was almost invisible to the naked eye. One could only judge from the direction that the other end was connected to the location of the cave where the Does Does Da Xia camp was.

Just at this moment, the silk thread was spontaneously igniting out of thin air.

The old man's scream was because the flames on the silk thread had already burned to his palm. He slapped his arm madly, but still couldn't extinguish the domineering flames.

Seeming to realize that he couldn't extinguish the fire in his hand, the old man's crimson pupils suddenly became fierce. He extended his right palm and then raised his left hand.

He hacked down fiercely with a knife.

Clack...

He actually used the small knife held in his left hand to directly sever his own burning right hand at the root.

Although he had severed his own right hand, there was not a hint of pain on the old man's face; instead, he breathed a huge sigh of relief.

After the right hand was severed, before it even fell to the ground, it was burned to fly ash by that domineering flame.

Looking at that wisp of black smoke, a flash of dread appeared in the old man's crimson pupils. Then he turned his head to look at the cave where the Does Does Da Xia camp was located, and the dread in his eyes all turned into resentment and hatred.

"Wait for me, you can't escape, you definitely can't escape. Your lives are all mine, all mine..."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 38 =====