Chapter 99: Frenzied Hunting and Steady Advancement

The human civilization of the Ice Abyss World, though fallen, has not been utterly erased.

Xia Hong had noticed this since the moment he crossed over.

Although, to some extent, humanity had indeed regressed into barbarism, this was largely forced by extreme environments; from many aspects, traces of past civilization could still be seen.

From large-scale cultural elements like family structures, marriage customs, surnames, funeral practices, and even writing; to small-scale details like basic craftsmanship, gathering tools, leather goods, and the preference for cooked food and boiled water—

At first, Xia Hong assumed these lingering cultural habits persisted because the disaster that caused civilization’s collapse had occurred too recently. But from the harshness of the extreme cold and the evolution of lifeforms, he overturned this idea.

On Earth, temperature shifts of just a few degrees take centuries; the extreme cold of the Ice Abyss World, the power of the cold beasts, and even those inexplicable anomalies—none of these could have formed in a short time.

According to Shi Qing, and as stated by Yang and Li, the Ancient Abyss Era may already be extraordinarily distant.

If so, then humanity’s ability to preserve so many cultural habits could only be attributed to the resilience of human civilization itself.

Extreme environments can drastically reduce population, but completely erasing a civilization, making it vanish without a trace, is far from simple.

Human will to survive is itself one of the strongest forces in the world.

Xia Hong did not know what other camps were like.

But having been reborn in the Hongmu Ridge area of the Ice Abyss World, he often felt grateful.

Under extreme conditions, the depth of human malice is matched only by the depth of goodwill it can also generate—this is the power of civilization, or one might call it civilization’s inertia.

All camps surrounding Hongmu Ridge clearly confirm this point.

If civilization had truly collapsed completely, there would be no logging hunters venturing out to gather resources to feed hundreds of ordinary camp residents, and sharing cold beast meat with others would be pure fantasy.

Civilization enhances wisdom: mutual support, cooperation, unity and cohesion, responsibility and sharing—any behavior that resists selfishness is, in essence, an expression of wisdom.

The reason humanity’s plight has become so dire is, above all, the extreme cold; secondly, the cold beasts and anomalies.

The extreme cold makes food and travel problematic;

The cold beasts and anomalies eliminate any guarantee of safety.

Solving these three problems entirely seems impossible for now.

“Unite as one, strengthen our strength, adapt to the environment, and continuously confront the challenges brought by cold beasts and anomalies—this is humanity’s only path forward.”

After much thought, Xia Hong arrived at this conclusion in response to these three problems.

By replacing the final word “humanity” with “Da Xia,” this conclusion, promoted by Xia Chuan and others, quickly became the guiding ideological theory known to every member of the Da Xia Camp.

This phrase, applied to humanity, would be more accurate—but given Da Xia Camp’s current strength, shouting it aloud risks sounding overly grandiose and hollow.

Any collective organization cannot exist without ideological guidance.

In simple terms, it means ensuring every person in the camp knows what they are doing and why they are doing it—only then do they gain motivation and can strive toward a common goal.

With ideological guidance in place, combined with Xia Hong’s leadership in frantic hunting and a steady supply of cold beast meat, everyone in the Da Xia Camp became visibly busy for a period afterward.

Under Xia Hong’s personal leadership, the hunting team returned nearly every night fully loaded; though injuries occasionally occurred, they were mostly minor.

By the time the system had been officially implemented for one month, when the camp distributed cold beast meat for the second time to children under thirteen, the stockpile in the mine had reached over thirty thousand jin—enough to sustain the camp even without hunting for two months.

Xia Hong paid little attention to the logging team, leaving everything to Cheng Feng and Mu Dong; but from the growth in his system’s wood resource data and the height of woodpiles stacked on both sides of the valley, he could tell the logging team’s harvest had been substantial.

The plan to build new wooden huts had spread through the camp, so during this period, the logging team primarily felled Jinlin trees.

Notably, because cold beasts often dwelled on Jinlin trees, the hunting team sometimes had to assist—first eliminating the beasts on the trees, then allowing the loggers to cut them down.

Although the Luo Ge Camp had previously penetrated a thousand meters into Hongmu Ridge, during this period, Xia Hong still confined Da Xia Camp’s hunting and logging zones to the outer five hundred meters, avoiding deeper incursions.

First, he was unfamiliar with the inner zone and had not encountered new cold beast species there, so he feared unforeseen dangers; second, the resources within the outer five hundred meters were already entirely sufficient for Da Xia’s needs—no need to go deeper.

Da Xia’s current resource-gathering area in Hongmu Ridge no longer consisted merely of the original five hundred meters.

Luo Ge, Da Shi, Da Chuan, Huang Zhao, and even Da Xia’s own former territory on the eastern side of Hongmu Ridge—starting from the valley’s corresponding position and extending four kilometers south—were now undisputedly under Da Xia’s control.

With such a vast area for resource gathering, Xia Hong naturally would not recklessly push inward; instead, he would steadily strengthen their strength first, and only gradually advance deeper once outer resources became insufficient to sustain camp growth—this was far more prudent.

Though the hunting and logging teams had heavy duties, none of the thirty-six showed signs of fatigue; instead, their enthusiasm for each outing grew higher, and their smiles upon return grew brighter with each trip.

Xia Hong knew the reason: these people, including himself, were rapidly increasing their strength at an astonishing rate.

He had not closely examined others, but he knew exactly how dramatically the fifteen hunters who accompanied him nightly had improved.

The daily cold beast meat consumption for a logging cultivator ranged from five to ten jin; these fifteen hunters received ten jin every night—supply far exceeded consumption, so they absorbed and improved nearly at their physical limits each day.

Moreover, Xia Hong had already taught all four sets of Long Fist techniques; aided by martial arts, their absorption efficiency increased, and their progress naturally accelerated.

Based on Xia Hong’s observations during hunts, Luo Yuan would likely be the first to break through Digging Ground Realm, followed by the Zhao brothers.

Another who surprised Xia Hong most was Xia Chuan.

A month ago, on their first trip out with the trapping devices, Xia Chuan’s strength was under seven thousand jin; in just one month, he had surged to nearly eight thousand jin—now equal to the Zhao brothers and only slightly behind Luo Yuan.

Though Xia Hong had not deliberately monitored the logging team and reserve forces’ cultivation, he could infer their progress from their heightened enthusiasm after each return.

The camp’s overall strength was steadily and rapidly rising; under consistent, bulk supply of cold beast meat, Xia Hong understood that all he needed to do now was wait for the explosive growth phase to arrive.

Of course, while others advanced steadily, he could not fall behind.

After the new Da Xia regulations had been in effect for a full month, Xia Hong granted the hunting team their first night off; after nightfall, once cold beast meat had been distributed as usual, he walked alone to the wooden hut’s exterior, to the camp’s strength-testing post.

Those who had been training outside noticed Xia Hong’s movement, realized he was about to test his strength, immediately stopped, and gathered eagerly around him.

(End of Chapter)