Chapter 97: New Wooden Hut

As soon as the cold beast meat was distributed, everyone, regardless of it being daytime, eagerly began their cultivation.

What was called cultivation was essentially just eating the cold beast meat and absorbing its energy through evaporation to enhance basic strength.

Xia Hong also didn’t hold back; he ordered Xia Chuan, Yuan Cheng, and others to teach all four forms of the Long Fist style, and soon, the wooden hut echoed with rhythmic punching sounds.

The wooden hut, only thirty meters on each side, already housed the smelting furnace and various supplies; with over nine hundred people in the camp all crammed inside, the overcrowding was unimaginable.

Only a small portion could even practice punching—accurately speaking, mostly members of the hunting and logging teams; a few reserve troops who managed to secure open spots could join as well.

The smelting furnace’s radiation range extended a hundred meters in all directions; the seventy-meter zone surrounding the hut had temperatures not much different from inside, allowing ordinary people to move freely at night, differing only in wind presence.

But during the day, it was impossible.

During the attack by the Golden-Eyed Demon Sheep, Xia Hong had already tested this—he, with his Digging Earth realm strength, couldn’t withstand the chill embedded in the sunlight, let alone anyone else in the camp.

Cultivation was normally done at night; today, since everyone had received cold beast meat for the first time, they didn’t care about day or night and began cultivating immediately.

But the current wooden hut was far too small, and the lack of personal space was undeniable.

Xia Hong furrowed his brow, scanning the crowd, and noticed Mu Dong sitting in the corner, deeply engrossed in carving a wooden board; after a moment’s thought, he didn’t go over to him.

For the next several days, Xia Hong led the hunting team out every night, returning with two or three prey each time, and even once brought back four in a single night.

Cold beast meat was distributed daily as previously stipulated, and although the initial excitement among camp members had faded, their enthusiasm for cultivation grew stronger.

When Xia Hong led the hunting team out at night, the reserve troops were already outside the hut practicing punches; by the time they returned, dawn was nearly breaking, yet the reserve troops were still almost entirely outside cultivating.

With ample cold beast meat and such intense cultivation fervor, Xia Hong eagerly anticipated the day when the Xia Army’s Woodcutting realm combat power would surge dramatically.

Xia Hong no longer personally oversaw the logging team; each day he only listened to Team Leader Cheng Feng’s reports and monitored the system’s timber resource numbers rising.

This quiet, fulfilling routine continued for six days.

On the sixth day, as Xia Hong returned to camp with the hunting team.

Cheng Feng and Mu Dong immediately approached him together.

As soon as they caught up with Xia Hong, Cheng Feng spoke first:

“Leader, over these past few days, I’ve thoroughly surveyed the eastern perimeter of Redwood Ridge—we’ve identified thirty-seven Ice-fruit Trees, all with identical growth cycles, all just bearing fruit, with some fruit still unharvested; I’ve sent people to collect them all, totaling 140,000 jin of Crystal Fruits.”

Xia Hong instructed the hunting team to process the prey first, then sat cross-legged beside the smelting furnace, gesturing for Cheng Feng and Mu Dong to sit as well.

Logically, with cold beast meat now abundant, Crystal Fruits had lost much of their significance—after all, only a hundred or so people in the camp still didn’t receive cold beast meat, and even at two jin per person per day, their annual consumption would be minimal.

But reality was different: as a cultivation resource, Xia Hong could never replace staple food with cold beast meat; the current abundance was only possible because the Xia Camp’s population was small; when more people arrive, the ordinary base will still rely heavily on Crystal Fruits.

Even just for reserve food supplies, Crystal Fruits must continue to be harvested.

More crucially, Xia Hong had tested them with the decoction pot—he confirmed Crystal Fruits not only filled the stomach but also had medicinal value; in fact, over these past few days, using the decoction pot, he identified over a dozen medicinal materials: Snowmane Tongue Powder, Frost Wolf Back Bones, Black Thorn, Coal Stone, Iron Powder, Golden Frost Tips, Zhu Shuang Stems, and more.

These dozen medicinal materials consumed over twenty units of coal resources, leaving Xia Hong deeply pained; worst of all, no recipes had yet been generated.

They solved the problem of monotonous food; served as reserve rations; possessed medicinal value; were easy to store; and for the current camp, their harvesting difficulty was low.

All these factors combined meant Crystal Fruit harvesting must continue without pause—including surveying Ice-fruit Tree locations and monitoring their growth cycles.

“So far, we’ve only surveyed a five-hundred-meter radius; keep observing this area during future logging expeditions to check for any missed trees; once our hunting range expands inward, your survey range can widen too—Ice-fruit Trees remain vital to us; don’t be careless!”

Cheng Feng nodded respectfully and replied: “Yes, Leader.”

On the other side, as soon as Cheng Feng finished speaking, Mu Dong eagerly handed over a wooden board, his expression excited: “Leader, the new wooden hut concept you mentioned—I’ve drawn it up. Take a look—is this how you imagined it?”

Xia Hong looked down at the schematic carved into the board with a knife, and immediately felt intrigued.

Beside him, Mu Feng hurried forward, pointing at the schematic as he explained to Xia Hong.

“As you instructed, the hut’s exterior is square, two hundred meters long and wide, fifteen meters high, with three levels.

The middle level, five meters high, serves as the camp’s main hall—no rooms needed; daily meetings, camp assemblies, and storage of shared items like the smelting furnace all occur here.

The bottom level, three meters high, has only one entrance/exit corridor and the central hall; the rest is divided by wooden panels into ten-meter-wide rooms. I calculated: with a two-hundred-meter side length, subtracting wall thickness, a five-meter-wide, seventy-five-meter-long corridor, and a fifty-meter-wide square central hall, we can fit over three hundred such small rooms—plenty for all ordinary camp members.

The top level, also five meters high, mirrors the bottom: retain the central hall and corridor, add one large warehouse, and divide the rest into twenty-meter-wide rooms. I calculated roughly ninety rooms—more than enough for current logging and hunting team members.

The three levels are separated by one-meter-thick wooden planks; the roof is built into a four-cornered pyramid shape as you described, then covered with beast hides to shield against snow, rain, and frost.”

Mu Dong spoke with animated enthusiasm, his excitement unmistakable—he clearly held Xia Hong’s original wooden hut concept in high regard.

Xia Hong wiped sweat from his brow; he wasn’t a professional architect—he’d only proposed the idea based on vague memories, and told Mu Dong just to see if he’d get lucky; he never expected Mu Dong had actually made it real.

Though he knew the wood here differed from that of his past life, since it was meant for human habitation, Xia Hong asked seriously: “Mu Dong, do you think this hut can actually be built?”

Mu Dong paused, then immediately nodded: “Of course it can.”

Then he hesitated slightly, adding: “But there are several difficult problems that are hard to solve.”

“Say them—I’ll see if I can solve them.”

After a moment’s thought, Mu Dong replied:

“Massive timber demand, many different tools required, significant iron consumption, and finally, driving the foundation piles takes a very long time—and some spots may require you to personally handle them.”

(End of Chapter)