Endless Winter: My Camp Infinite Upgrades

Chapter 135 New Discoveries in Redwood Ridge

In the world of Bingyuan, there is always wind and snow everywhere.

This kind of snow and wind, unlike an ordinary winter day, is accompanied by endless coldness, depriving the ground of all life.

Looking from Redwood Ridge, the entire ground is covered with nothing but snow.

There were only huge trees covered in snow standing motionless among them. From a distance, they looked like white spires with countless icicles hanging from them.

Trees are actually a form of life. Why are the trees in the Ice Abyss so thick? In fact, you can understand it if you think about it from another perspective.

If you don’t have strong vitality, how can you survive in this cold winter world?

To the north of Hongmuling was the sphere of influence of the former Lu Shang camp. After Xia Hong led 15 people to patrol a one-kilometer perimeter, he felt a little relieved.

"Fortunately, we didn't find any other people, nor did we see any signs of human activity. The people from the Mirror Fairy Camp should not have crossed the border yet."

Everyone nodded, and their expressions relaxed a lot.

When I went out tonight, I came here first to see if anyone from Jingxian Camp had crossed the border. Since no one was found, that's a good thing.

"The distribution of cold beasts within a thousand meters outside Lu Shang's camp is similar to ours. There are a few snow manes, frost wolves, and golden sheep within 500 meters. After 500 meters, there are only two soaring dragons, all of which are low-level cold beasts. It seems that if we want to find mid-level cold beasts, we can only go deeper."

Xia Chuan gave a brief summary of the situation during the inspection, and then suggested going deeper.

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately turned their eyes to Xia Hong who was in the front.

"As for the prey on the periphery, you can hunt them yourself when you have time. Come in!"

Xia Hong didn't say anything more. His goal tonight was clear, which was to hunt the intermediate cold beast. The prey on the periphery was not worth his time.

After all, this was the first time they had gone deep into a thousand-meter range. Realizing that the environment had begun to become unfamiliar, Xia Hong and the others immediately slowed down their pace, tried to walk as quietly as possible, and became alert to the surrounding environment.

In theory, there were no measuring tools, so people could only estimate the distance by feel. But when they actually walked in, they realized that they didn't need to feel at all, they could tell by just looking with their eyes.

The further you go into Redwood Ridge, the thicker the trees become. Because the trees are so thick, the roots underneath are of various shapes and sizes, some even protrude from the ground. The originally flat and smooth terrain begins to become complicated.

"The trees on the outer side with a diameter of more than ten meters are already considered big. I didn't expect it to be even more terrifying inside. This tree must be nearly twenty meters in diameter, right?"

Luo Yuan couldn't help but sigh, causing everyone to turn their heads and look at the tree he was talking about, including Xia Hong.

Seeing the shape of the tree, everyone couldn't help but click their tongues and shake their heads.

That tree is really big!

It is difficult for normal people to imagine a tree with a diameter of twenty meters.

But it is easy to understand if we describe it this way. If the middle of that tree is hollowed out, it will become a tall building, the kind that can easily accommodate hundreds or thousands of people.

Although there were hundreds of meters between them, the sixteen people still looked extremely small in front of the tree. Fortunately, they were all frequent visitors to Redwood Ridge and had seen many big trees on the outskirts, otherwise this tree alone would have triggered their giganticophobia.

"It's a pity that it's just an ordinary red frost tree. Have we not gone deep enough? The trees we have seen so far are all the same old ones. Leader, how about we go a little deeper?"

Hearing Luo Yuan's suggestion, Xia Hong retracted his gaze, looked around at the trees, and nodded slightly.

Although their main task is hunting, they will also pay close attention to the tree species along the way. If they encounter any new species or precious trees, they will record them directly and mark them.

Normally, these tasks are the tasks of the collection team, but since they are the first wave to come in, it is just a matter of convenience. They just need to make records and marks first, and then the task will be much easier to complete when the subsequent logging teams come in.

Xia Hong led everyone to go deeper into the cave for more than a hundred meters. After roughly estimating that they had gone 1300 meters, he immediately stopped everyone and continued exploring in the north and south directions.

Soon, everyone made a new discovery.

"Hiss... What a huge ice tree!"

More than a hundred meters to the north of the crowd, a huge ice tree full of transparent crystal fruits stood quietly on the ground.

The ice tree has a diameter of about 17 or 18 meters. There are so many crystal fruits on the tree that they are impossible to count. A rough estimate is that there are about 30,000 to 40,000 of them, which is equivalent to about 10,000 to 20,000 kilograms.

"I went over to mark it. This is the first time I've seen such a big ice tree."

Xia Hong led everyone to the north. When they got closer, they found that the ice tree in front of them was not only large in appearance, but the fruits it produced were also much larger than those of other ordinary ice trees.

Moreover, there is a large swamp under the ice tree, with a radius of about fifty or sixty meters, which is exactly the same as the extension of the tree crown. It exudes a fermented smell, and you can tell at a glance that it is formed by the rotting of crystal fruits that have fallen from the tree over the years.

“This isn’t a swamp!”

Just now, from a distance, I could tell at a glance that it was a swamp because the ground here was not covered with snow and appeared to be a light golden fluid.

But when Xia Hong was the first to step on it, he discovered that although the ground was fluid, it was only slightly softer than normal ground and there was a very obvious feeling of stepping on it.

"This is the first time I've stepped on such soft ground. Is the penetration of the decayed crystal fruit into the ground so obvious?"

Xia Chuan's unintentional words made everyone stand still, stunned. Xia Hong even looked up suddenly, his face full of surprise.

Seeing the expressions of the others, Xia Chuan also reacted.

If the crystal fruit has this function, then couldn't they use this property to soften the ground in the valley and transplant trees?

"Not necessarily. Don't be happy too soon. If the crystal fruit has this function, how could our ancestors not have discovered it for so long? Wait a minute, let me check the situation on the ground!"

Xia Hong quickly calmed down, squatted down, and grabbed a handful of dirt on the ground with his hands.

It's not the right word to say "grab", it should be "pick". But after several attempts, I couldn't get even a piece of the soil off even though it looked fluid and much softer than other surfaces.

Xia Hong frowned and his heart immediately began to beat fast.

His basic strength has reached the limit of 30,000 kilograms.

He can even dig out normal clods of soil from the ground.

This seemingly soft ground is actually impossible to scratch?
Xia Hong shook his head. This characteristic alone was enough to extinguish the thoughts that had just arisen in everyone's minds.

It looks soft, but it's actually so hard, what's the point of transplanting it?

"Forget it, just mark the location. Forget about this place and keep going north!"

There was no hope for transplantation and everyone lost interest. After marking the area, they followed Xia Hong and continued searching northward along the 1300-meter boundary.

Although four cold beasts were discovered later, three of them were Teng Jiao, and one was an awakened Blue Moon Spirit, all of which were low-level cold beasts.

It was difficult to hunt the Teng Jiao, so Xia Hong did not try. However, the awakened Blue Moon Spirit, perhaps because it was extremely hungry, jumped down and attacked when the sixteen people passed by the tree where it was lurking.

The group had been walking for such a long time and couldn't even find the shadow of a medium-level cold beast. They were already a little angry, and a low-level cold beast came to them to vent their anger, so they would naturally not give it a good face.

The Blue Moon Spirit is not big, only about one meter long, with hair all over its body as white as snow. Its strength is the weakest that Xia Hong has ever encountered, even weaker than a rat, but its speed is a few points faster than a rat.

With its small size, super-fast speed, and white hair that blends in with the snow on the ground and is difficult to distinguish, if Xia Hong's basic strength had not reached the limit of 30,000 pounds before, the sneak attack would probably have had a certain effect.

It’s a pity that the person it encountered was the present Xia Hong.

Everyone was on high alert as they went out to search for the medium-sized cold beasts tonight.

The timing of its sneak attack was really bad.

There was no need for Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan and others to take action. Xia Hong drew his sword alone and killed the Blue Moon Spirit in less than three moves.

"This Blue Moon Spirit should have innate magical powers like other cold beasts, but unfortunately it encountered the leader and didn't even have the opportunity to display them!"

Zhu Shun buried the Blue Moon Spirit in the snow, marked the location, and couldn't help but sigh.

The others nodded when they heard this, and thinking of the three clean and neat knife strikes just now, they looked at Xia Hong with admiration on their faces.

Xia Hong, who was thinking with his head down, heard Zhu Shun's words and remembered that it was the first time for everyone to see the Blue Moon Spirit and they did not know its characteristics, so he immediately said:

"The legs of the Blue Moon Spirit can burst out with five times the normal strength in a short period of time. This should be its innate magical power. I fought with it too fast just now, so you couldn't see it. If you encounter it next time, just remember this!"

Everyone finally understood and nodded.

This was also the first time that Xia Hong encountered the Blue Moon Spirit, but he had read the Atlas of Frost Beasts left by Luo Ming, which recorded the characteristics of the Blue Moon Spirit. When they just fought, the strength of its legs was indeed so great that even he almost couldn't withstand it for a moment.

"I just searched all the way here. In addition to the four cold beasts, I also found three ice trees, two blue jade trees, and several unknown plants. This should be enough for tonight."

Looking back at the more than eighty blue condensing grasses and several other unknown plants carried by Xia Chuan on his back, Xia Hong began to think about returning.

"Leader, if we go a little further in, we will definitely find it."

"It's only been half a night. We have so many people and are so well prepared. It would be a waste to just take this Blue Moon Spirit and these dozens of Blue Condensation Grasses back with us."

"Yes, I also suggest that we go a little deeper. No matter what, we should at least see what a mid-level cold beast looks like."

…………

The others obviously saw what he was thinking and tried to dissuade him.

"Okay, then hide what you have and go another 200 meters and look for it. If you still can't find it, come back tomorrow night!"

Seeing everyone's opinion, Xia Hong simply nodded in agreement.

Decided to walk another 200 meters inside.

After everyone has hidden all the prey and blue grass and other vegetation, mark them.

Xia Hong led them directly westward and began exploring deeper into Redwood Ridge.

The location where the intermediate cold beast was entrenched was obviously much deeper than everyone expected.

After searching for more than an hour, they still found nothing.

Xia Hong, who was at the front, stopped and turned around to look at everyone:

"Forget it, let's stop here tonight. Let's go back and make preparations. Expand the search area tomorrow and search two kilometers inward. I don't believe it..."

"Captain, look over there!"

"Captain, look..."

Before he could finish his words, Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan, who were closest to him, seemed to have seen something, pointed to the west, and interrupted him directly.

Xia Hong looked in the direction the two men pointed and was stunned.

(End of this chapter)