Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Luo Ming and Shang Ping descended from the tree hollow and walked less than a hundred meters towards the location of the whistle before spotting two black figures beside a large tree.

"Is that Brother Yue Feng?"

"It's me!"

Hearing Yue Feng's familiar voice, Luo Ming immediately led Shang Ping over quickly. Only after getting closer and confirming it was indeed Yue Feng did he completely drop his guard, a smile appearing on his face.

"Brother Luo, this is the person I mentioned to you before. His name is Hong Yu."

Hearing Yue Feng's address, Luo Ming couldn't help but feel a pang of emotion.

Back in Redwood Ridge, when he was addressing Xia Hong as 'brother,' Yue Feng couldn't even get a word in. Now, he was only getting worse and worse.

However, he quickly adjusted his mindset and, following Yue Feng's introduction, looked at the person named Hong Yu behind him.

He had ordinary looks, appearing to be less than thirty years old, with a slightly sallow complexion. He wore a black beast-hide cloak and carried two knives, a long one on his back and a short one at his waist. He also carried a large bundle on his back, bulging and obviously filled with many items.

While sizing up Hong Yu, he also recalled what Yue Feng had told him during their transaction last night, a hint of confusion appearing in his eyes.

According to Yue Feng's explanation last night, someone in Great Xia had contracted a rare disease that could only be treated with medicine from the Longshan camp. The Great Xia camp would naturally not mobilize for one person, so the person had to choose to venture out and take a chance to save his own life.

Longshan was located in the central part of the Pingxi Wilderness, and only the people of the Hive camp knew its exact location. Moreover, the Hive was a necessary stop on the way to Longshan. That's why Yue Feng had approached Luo Ming, hoping he could help the person sneak into the Hive camp to gather information. If he could find out the exact location, the person would set off on his own to find Longshan.

Clearly, the unremarkable Hong Yu before him was the patient.

Seeing Hong Yu's sallow complexion, Luo Ming didn't doubt that he was sick. His confusion stemmed from curiosity about how this unremarkable Hong Yu had managed to persuade Yue Feng to ask for his help.

Judging from the movement of his qi and muscles, Hong Yu's basic strength was only around twenty thousand catties, which definitely wasn't considered high in Great Xia. Yue Feng had no reason to help him.

While Luo Ming was wondering, Hong Yu moved.

He stepped forward in front of Luo Ming, bowed slightly, and said with gratitude, "Brother Luo, thank you for your trouble!"

Interrupted from his thoughts, Luo Ming immediately waved his hand and said, "It's just a small favor. Taking someone to the camp isn't too difficult. The key is..."

Here, Luo Ming paused for a moment, then continued hesitantly, "I'm a bit blunt, so please don't mind, Brother Hong Yu. If I may be frank, the location of Longshan isn't actually that difficult to find out. Apart from the Big Boss Chen Yingyuan, the Second Boss Wu Tianxing, and the Hunting Squad Leader Chen Yingba, several of the Hunting Squad's captains should know it.

The problem is, even if you find out the exact location of Longshan, it's basically impossible to get there on your own. Your strength..."

"Cough... Brother Luo, there's no need to worry. Before coming, I already told him all the things he needs to pay attention to. Hong Yu knows everything. Just take him there, and he can handle the rest himself."

Hearing Yue Feng's words, Luo Ming didn't feel it was right to say anything more. After all, it was Hong Yu's own choice, and he shouldn't interfere too much.

"Alright, then I'll take Brother Hong Yu back. See you next month, Brother Yue."

"Okay, see you at the next month's trade day!"

After saying that, Luo Ming signaled to Yue Feng and directly led Shang Ping and Hong Yu towards the north.

Yue Feng stood in place, waiting until he could no longer see the three figures before sighing softly, muttering a farewell in his mind, and turning back to Jing Valley.

"Boss, have a safe journey!"

… … … …

The Pingxi Wilderness, as the name suggests, was mostly plains, with only a few small mounds occasionally seen. Trees were sparse, not even as dense as Redwood Ridge, let alone the outskirts of Shuanglong Valley.

Advantages and disadvantages always go hand in hand. With low vegetation cover, there were naturally fewer cold beasts. Moreover, the plains offered a wide field of vision, and the cold beasts' large size meant they could be seen from afar, making it much safer than the mountains.

Under the night sky, the Pingxi Wilderness was like a layer of silver carpet, with high visibility. Luo Ming, who was leading the way, was clearly very familiar with the terrain, finding a prominent landmark every now and then, sometimes a large tree, sometimes a giant rock, sometimes a small mound...

Before long, the three had walked about ten kilometers north.

"Brother Hong Yu, you should also be a member of the hunting squad in Great Xia, right?"

After passing a giant rock with a diameter of three zhang, Luo Ming led the two to change direction to the west before suddenly turning his head to ask Hong Yu, who was at the back.

It was hard for Luo Ming to hold it in for so long!

Xia Hong chuckled inwardly. Luo Ming had turned his head to look at him several times along the way, obviously wanting to say something, but he had stubbornly held back. He had thought Luo Ming could hold it in all the way back to the Hive camp!

Yue Feng had said before that Luo Ming was very curious about the current situation in Great Xia, but he had been evasive and vague every time he asked. Now that he had finally encountered such a good opportunity to inquire, he would naturally not let it go.

Xia Hong was also prepared, raising his head and replying with a smile, "Brother Luo, just call me Hong Yu. I am indeed a member of the hunting squad."

This Hong Yu didn't seem as difficult to talk to as he looked.

Hearing Xia Hong's answer, a smile immediately appeared on Luo Ming's face: "Good, thanks to you calling me Brother Luo, when we get back to the Hive camp, Brother Luo will definitely look out for you, so don't worry."

After the pleasantries, Luo Ming became bolder and asked directly without hiding anything: "Hong Yu, you're from the Redwood Ridge area, so you should recognize me, right?"

Xia Hong nodded and said, "I know. Brother Luo was previously the leader of the Rogge camp. After the Wood Puppet disaster, Brother Luo led his people away from Redwood Ridge, leaving Shuanglong Valley to our Great Xia camp."

Bringing up the past, Luo Ming couldn't help but feel a pang of emotion, but he quickly adjusted his mindset and said, "It's been two years since I left Redwood Ridge. I wonder how the Great Xia camp is doing now. From the amount of supplies Yue Feng brought in the previous three transactions, Great Xia's strength should be terrifying now, right?"

He wasn't asking directly but trying to induce me to take the initiative to talk about the situation in Great Xia.

Seeing Luo Ming's intention, Xia Hong thought for a moment and spoke directly.

"Of course. Our Great Xia now has a population of over thirty thousand, nearly three thousand Digging Realm cultivators, and even more Lumbering Realm cultivators. There are over eighty hunting squads, and more than ten squads can hunt intermediate cold beasts. Our territory is five or six hundred square kilometers. No one in the surrounding camps should be a match for our Great Xia!"

… … … … … …

As expected, hearing Xia Hong's words, Luo Ming and Shang Ping's expressions instantly froze. They stopped in their tracks, turned their heads abruptly, and looked at him with disbelief.

Nearly three thousand Digging Realm cultivators?

More than eighty hunting squads, with more than ten squads capable of hunting intermediate cold beasts?

This, how is this possible!

"What, you don't believe me?"

Xia Hong raised his eyebrows slightly, deliberately asking back with a hint of anger.

Luo Ming didn't come back to his senses for a long time, and Shang Ping was the first to speak: "No, no, no, we're just too shocked. Nearly three thousand Digging Realm cultivators, then what level has your leader Xia Hong's strength reached now?"

"I don't know about that. Even Lord Yue Feng rarely sees the leader, let alone me."

"Alright, let's keep going. We'll be there soon!"

After a long time, Luo Ming spoke.

After saying that, he took the lead and continued walking, and Shang Ping seemed to have thought of something and followed without saying a word.

So, they don't believe me!

Hong Yu followed behind the two with a strange expression. After thinking for a moment, he roughly guessed what Luo Ming was thinking at the moment.

Luo Ming had asked Yue Feng about the current situation in Great Xia many times before, but he had been evasive. He probably thought that what he had just said was at Yue Feng's instruction, deliberately talking nonsense.

That's right. Given the harshness and cruelty of the Ice Abyss world, it was indeed hard to believe that Great Xia had developed into what it was now in two years. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, no one would believe it.

In that case, Luo Ming's perception of him now should be very bad.

A strange expression appeared on Xia Hong's face, then he shook his head.

So be it. There was nothing he could do. He had told the truth, but they just didn't believe him. What could he do?

Luo Ming's curiosity about the current situation in Great Xia was more out of peeking and reminiscing about old people and old places; in comparison, Xia Hong's curiosity about the Hive camp was genuine and unadulterated by any other factors.

Judging from the map Luo Ming took out when he left two years ago, the Hive camp had existed since Luo Ming's father Luo Feng was young, which meant that the camp had been established for at least several decades.

A camp that had continued to exist and develop for so many years must have accumulated a lot of valuable experience in surviving in the Ice Abyss world, as well as its own unique features.

More importantly, Xia Hong was also very curious about the overall strength of the Hive camp.

Xia Hong had met all three of the Hive's Cold Resistance level cultivators, and he had even taught two of them a lesson, but he didn't know how many people there were in the camp, how many Digging Realm cultivators there were, what methods were hidden in the base, what the material situation was, and what the productivity was.

If he had the opportunity, he would naturally find out all these questions to make plans for the future.

"Great Xia's current area of activity is still too small. This time, in addition to figuring out the cultivation system of the Ice Abyss world, I also need to see the things and styles of different regions and different camps, learn from others' strengths, and make up for my own weaknesses, so that I can become a medium for Great Xia's external exchanges and improvement."

Communication is the best way to grow and develop. The slow development speed of the small and medium-sized camps in Bingyuan is mainly due to the harsh environment that restricts the movement of people, resulting in too little communication between different camps.

Now that Xia Hong has the strength, he naturally wants to start solving this problem.

As the first stop, Xia Hong naturally has high expectations for the Hive Camp.

Xia Hong directly stated the situation of Da Xia because he was afraid that Luo Ming would keep asking him about it later. He didn't expect Luo Ming to not believe him and accidentally worsen his impression of him.

However, once the impression was bad, Luo Ming stopped asking.

It was a disguised way to achieve his goal!

The three of them traveled in silence, and their speed naturally increased a lot. They quickly walked another seven or eight kilometers to the west.

As another boulder appeared in front of them, Luo Ming spoke.

"We're here!"

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Xia Hong, who looked at the elliptical boulder with a diameter of more than five meters and found that he couldn't see anything, suddenly showed a hint of curiosity on his face.

However, Luo Ming's next action immediately changed his expression.

He saw Luo Ming walk to the bottom of the boulder, knock on a spot three times, and then say a word.

"Zifeng returns to the nest."

"Coming!"

A human voice replied from under the boulder.

Boom, crack…

Then, the bottom of the boulder was opened from the ground.

Subsequently, a downward sloping passage appeared.

A human face looked up at the three of them from below. The man stood underground, holding a torch, and said to Luo Ming with a smile: "I've been waiting for you for a long time, come in!"

The one who appeared underground was none other than Li Baihe, one of the three Earth Piercing Realm cultivators who had left Redwood Ridge with Luo Ming earlier.

Because they had joined forces in the past when encountering the Frost Wolf pack during the migration, Xia Hong had a deeper impression of the three Earth Piercing Realm cultivators who had left with Luo Ming, namely Shang Ping, Li Baihe in front of him, and Xu Kang.

In a daze, Xia Hong did not forget to follow behind Luo Ming and Shang Ping, walk into the passage under the boulder, and walk down the sloping stone steps.

Below the stone steps was a narrow passage. A coal stove was lit every ten meters on both sides of the passage, so it was not only bright but also warmer than outside.

"I still have to continue guarding this entrance. You guys go back first. This is the brother from Da Xia, right? My name is Li Baihe. What's your name, brother?"

"My name is Hong Yu."

Compared to Luo Ming and Shang Ping, Li Baihe's reaction to Xia Hong was much warmer. He had a smile on his face. When he heard the name Xia Hong reported, he immediately nodded and urged: "Brother Hong Yu, hurry up and catch up with them. There are many passages in the camp. It's easy to get lost if you don't keep up."

Xia Hong turned his head and realized that Luo Ming and Shang Ping had already walked forward. He nodded to Li Baihe and quickly followed.

The Hive's base is actually underground!

Although Luo Ming and Shang Ping didn't say anything, Xia Hong quickly discovered by observing the wind direction in the passage and the intersections of some forks that there should be many, many underground passages.

Moreover, the fire at the end of some passages was very strong. As expected, there should be people active there.

Each passage entrance was marked, and the markings were arranged from small to large, making it easy to understand. After entering the passage, Luo Ming started from No. 27 and walked along the smaller-numbered passages, quickly reaching the passage marked as No. 1.

Passage No. 1 was the narrowest and sloped downwards.

After walking along Passage No. 1 for about a hundred meters, they finally saw a large iron gate three meters high.

The iron gate was open, and the fire inside could be seen clearly. Following Luo Ming and Shang Ping into the iron gate, Xia Hong finally saw the core area of the Hive's base.

Unlike the passages just now, after stepping through the iron gate, it was a huge open underground space.

The entire space was more than three kilometers across horizontally, and the highest point vertically was twenty to thirty meters, while the lowest point was more than ten meters. Judging from the few stalactites hanging from the stone wall above and some traces of excavation, this underground space was obviously a combination of natural and artificial elements.

Within the three-kilometer area, there were hundreds of buildings of various sizes, distributed in a ring. The most central one should be the giant iron-clad house in the middle, which was more than twenty meters high and already connected to the stone wall above.

In the middle of the ring-shaped distribution of wooden houses, there were also three rings of roads from the inside to the outside, and a main road running from north to south starting from the passage entrance, which was obviously used for traffic within the base. At this moment, many people were coming and going.

"This is almost a hundred meters underground, right? The Hive's base is actually in such a safe location. As long as it's not discovered by the strange creatures, almost no cold beasts will actively come over. This is too safe!"

Combining his experience of walking through the passage just now, Xia Hong roughly estimated the underground depth of this space and couldn't help but admire it.

No wonder the Hive Camp has been able to exist for so many years. Who would have thought that there would be such a large underground space under the seemingly endless Pingxi Plain!

Except for the Long-tailed Gnash Rats that Da Xia had encountered before, according to the information Xia Hong currently had, there should be very few types of cold beasts underground.

From this point alone, the Hive's safety is definitely higher than Da Xia's.

"Hey, a stranger, Luo Ming, who is this?"

Naturally, there were people guarding the passage entrance.

The five guards were wearing clothes made of cloth and animal skins, which were obviously more advanced than the animal skin clothes Luo Ming was wearing. As expected, their status should be above Luo Ming's.

Sure enough, when the man opened his mouth to ask, Luo Ming immediately bowed and saluted.

"Greetings, Lord Cheng Ping. This man is called Hong Yu. He is someone we brought over from a small camp in the east. He has Earth Piercing Realm cultivation. He heard that our Hive Camp is powerful and proposed to join. Seeing that his strength is acceptable, I brought him over."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Ping immediately raised his eyebrows and looked Hong Yu up and down, then showed a hint of contempt on his face and nodded.

"Since he's a newcomer, quickly take him to report to Commander Chen!"

Luo Ming almost had a smile on his face. Upon hearing this, he immediately nodded respectfully and almost dragged Xia Hong away, running towards the inside.

Xia Hong's expression was a little strange, and he didn't know why Luo Ming was in such a hurry.

However, he soon found out.

"Wait, let me see the two knives on this kid's back first!"

…

When Xia Hong turned around and saw the greed in Cheng Ping's eyes, he immediately understood why Luo Ming had dragged him away just now.

It turned out that this gatekeeper, Cheng Ping, was a greedy person…

He wanted to see his knives!

Xia Hong's expression was normal, but his heart sank slightly.

The two knives on his back didn't look unusual in their sheaths, but once they were unsheathed, it would be different.

And he just happened to run into such a greedy person, so he couldn't let him see them even more.

"There's no need to be impatient just after arriving. Let's see how Luo Ming solves this first!"

Xia Hong turned his head calmly and gave Luo Ming a look of help.