Endless Winter: My Camp Infinite Upgrades

Chapter 273: Terrifying Red Carp, Precious Wood Plants
"It was a little stronger than expected, with a total of sixteen teams advancing."

In the snow forest on the southern foot of Wuyuan Mountain, Xu Ning, who had just presided over the preliminary selection, hurried over to find Xia Hong with only a horizontal sword.

The preliminaries in Wuyuan were conducted simultaneously with those in Xiacheng, and also started at nightfall. The 31 teams took a total of more than eight hours, which was considered fast.

It was exactly midnight, when the weather was the coldest.

"Sixteen teams advanced, and 1600 people made it to the second round. That's pretty good!"

Xu Ning smiled and nodded, "The second round will use the Digging Realm system. Each person will play 10 games, and 128 people will be selected to participate in the finals. I took a look and there are more than 20 good seedlings. They should be able to enter the finals."

Xia Hong led the way towards the Xing River in the south and said, "There must be more than that. We can see the signs from the first round. The gap between Xiacheng and the other four logging areas and you is too big. I estimate that among the top 128 logging areas, Wuyuan accounts for at least %."

More than 70%, that would be more than 80 people!

A look of surprise flashed across Xu Ning's face, and he was obviously a little unconvinced.

Xia Hong did not explain too much, but turned his gaze to Xinghe and changed the subject, asking: "You have been stationed here for a year. Has anything special happened in Xinghe on weekdays?"

Hearing Xia Hong mention Yinghe, Xu Ning's expression suddenly became more serious, and he shook his head and said:

"Apart from the cold wave, nothing else special happened. I have tried to get closer before, but every time I got within a hundred meters, I would feel a strong sense of fear in my heart. Just as the leader said, there must be some terrifying creatures living in there, otherwise I would not do this for no reason!"

Xia Hong nodded. When Xu Ning came to Wuyuan to garrison, he had told him in advance not to get close to Xing River.

The Ying River itself was discovered by him first.

On the seventh day of March last year, he had not yet broken through to the cold-resistant level. In order to collect enough beast blood for the breakthrough, he went into Redwood Ridge to hunt for a long time.

When he came out later, in order to facilitate the subsequent exploration of Wuyuan Mountain by the camp's subsequent troops, he came here in advance to explore it. It was at that time that he approached Xing River for the first time.

When he approached within a hundred meters, his heart began to beat violently, so he speculated that there must be some horrible creature living in the Xing River.

"My strength now is totally different from before. I want to see if I can still have that feeling!"

Xia Hong and Xu Ning continued walking south for a long time, and soon they saw the cold fog on the river and the crystal clear green water plants on the river bank in the distance.

Unlike the first time, this time when Xia Hong saw the crystal green water plants, his expression was much more excited and his pace quickened.

When Xia Hong came here for the first time, he knew that those aquatic plants were not simple.

It can't be just an ordinary green aquatic plant if it can survive in such a freezing environment as Bingyuan and grow in such an inexplicably terrifying place as Xinghe River.

The problem was that he was too weak at the time and would get palpitations if he got a little closer to the river bank, so he had to give up picking.

This time it’s different. Not only will I go to the river to take a look, but I’ll at least pick a few of these water plants and take them back to the pharmacy to identify them to see if they are good stuff.

Xia Hong led Xu Ning forward and soon they reached a place more than a hundred meters away from the river. At this moment, Xu Ning's footsteps suddenly paused.

"Why, are you still feeling palpitations?"

Hearing Xia Hong's question, Xu Ning nodded solemnly, staring at the cold fog above the river, his eyes full of vigilance.

"Well, you wait here first, I'll go over and take a look!"

Xia Hong had experienced that kind of palpitations once before, so he did not force Xu Ning to follow him. He ordered him to stay where he was and walked slowly over by himself.

"The stronger I am, the less of a threat the creatures in the river will pose to me, so that feeling of palpitations will gradually disappear. That should be the case!"

Xia Hong took a deep breath and walked directly to the river. He did not pick the aquatic plants on the shore first, but carefully observed the river surface.

Just as he had guessed before, there was indeed a thick layer of solid ice on the surface of the river. The ice had turned white due to the age of the ice, completely blocking what was underneath the ice, making it impossible to see clearly.

Gurgling…………

However, after listening carefully, Xia Hong's expression was immediately shocked.

There is running water below.

Moreover, it is still flowing westward!
"There are no signs of cracks on the ice. Even if there are creatures underwater, it proves that they have never come ashore. If that's the case, why don't the cold beasts dare to approach here? And what's going on with that palpitation?"

Xia Hong raised his eyes towards the center of the river and frowned slightly.

The fog in the middle of the river was thicker, basically blocking the view and making it impossible to see anything clearly.

"Why don't we go to the middle of the river and take a look!"

This thought came to Xia Hong's mind, and he immediately stretched out his right foot, but just as he was about to step on the ice.

Gurgle...whoosh...

Suddenly, there was a huge sound of flowing water from under the ice.

The feeling of palpitations suddenly rose from his heart again. Xia Hong's expression changed drastically. He suddenly drew out the Dragon Sparrow Sword from his waist. Without even thinking, he swung the sword at the water plants on the shore, grabbed a handful at random, and quickly retreated.

But his movements were still slow.

click...

boom!
The solid ice surface cracked in an instant, followed by a loud bang.

Two voices, separated by just a moment!

The originally quiet and silent river surface suddenly rose up with a huge wave tens of meters high, like a mountain, rolling towards Xia Hong.

boom………

A huge wave hit his back, and Xia Hong didn't even have the chance to look back. He caught a glimpse of the red shadow of a beast under the water, his heart skipped a beat, and he fled madly towards the north.

"Run, run!"

Seeing that Xu Ning did not run away immediately, but was still drawing the bow and trying to shoot an arrow at the red beast shadow behind the water curtain, Xia Hong immediately shouted to stop him.

Xu Ning gritted his teeth and put away his longbow, but did not run away immediately. Instead, he waited until Xia Hong was less than ten meters away from him before he retreated with him.

boom!
Before the huge wave hit his back, Xia Hong had already held his breath and concentrated, mobilizing his membrane for defense. However, when he actually came into contact with and collided with that force, a look of fear still appeared on his face.

puff……

Xia Hong's body was like a cannonball and was blown away hundreds of meters.

Before being blown away, Xia Hong gritted his teeth and pulled Xu Ning along.

With the power of this huge wave, he had no doubt that if Xu Ning was hit like himself, his body would definitely explode.

boom…………

Xia Hong didn't know how many trees he had smashed through, he only knew that his body had flown forward for at least five hundred meters, almost a mile, and finally half of his body was stuck in the ground before he came to a stop.

Puff! He was not done yet, he could not suppress the injury on his back, he suddenly spurted out a mouthful of blood, looked up at the red beast shadow in the direction of the river bank, his eyes full of horror.

"Leader, you..."

"Stop talking nonsense and keep running!"

The huge waves raised by the red beast shadow were still moving towards this side.

Xia Hong interrupted Xu Ning, endured the great pain in his body, and quickly fled north;
Xu Ning stopped talking and didn't even dare to look back. He just followed Xia Hong and ran away.

“Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick…”

A series of rapid and sharp cries like birdsong came from behind. Xia Hong, who had just taken the blood sore pill, had a look of horror and shock on his face. At the same time, he did not dare to slow down at all, and continued to flee north with Xu Ning.

"Leader, this cry seems to be..."

"It's a warning. It's warning us not to get close to the river!"

Xia Hong's voice was filled with horror and a strong sense of fear.

Hundred Manes... Thousand Manes?
No, Xia Hong couldn't quantify the force of the huge wave that hit his body just now. It was like the power of another dimension, which made him despair.

The key point is that this is not exerted by the opponent's physical body, but just the power of the huge wave it created after breaking the ice.

Xia Hong took Xu Ning to run for three or four kilometers, all the way to the foot of Wuyuan Mountain, and then stopped.

After stopping, he immediately turned to look at Xu Ning and asked:

"What was that red beast shadow? Did you see it clearly just now?"

At the moment the huge wave rose, Xia Hong only saw a red shadow of a beast and immediately turned around and ran away. During the rest of the process, he had his back to the beast and did not see it clearly. Xu Ning had been facing the river bank and should have seen it clearly.

Xu Ning still had some lingering fear on his face, and it took him more than ten breaths to calm down before he answered:
"The water curtain was too big, so I couldn't see it clearly. I only saw that it had a pair of glowing green eyes, no limbs, and an oval-shaped body covered with a layer of red scales. The part that was exposed above the water was over a hundred meters long."

As he spoke, he roughly drew the shape of the ferocious beast on the snow.

When Xia Hong saw what he drew, his face froze.

Others may not recognize what Xu Ning draws.

But he recognized it at a glance.

It was actually a red carp!
Of course, considering the size and strength of this ferocious beast, as well as the strange cry it makes, it definitely has nothing to do with the red carp from the previous life.

"No wonder the cold beasts didn't dare to get close to the water. It only took a split second for that thing to break through the ice and create huge waves. Even if it was a high-level cold beast, it would probably be swallowed by it in my position just now!"

Besides, who knows whether the ferocious beast can get ashore?
Just like all the cold beasts can climb trees, the underwater creatures in the Ice Abyss certainly cannot be judged by common sense, so Xia Hong took Xu Ning to run so far.

"An ordinary underwater beast is so powerful. The dangers of the underwater world are probably more terrifying than those on land."

Hearing Xu Ning's sigh, Xia Hong nodded slightly, and his eyes looking towards Xinghe gradually became hot.

The greater the danger, the greater the reward; this is an eternal truth!

The red carp was so powerful, which must be related to the rich underwater resources of the Xing River. Moreover, the last warning from the other party was obviously intended to protect its own territory. The red carp probably regarded the water area and the shore as its territory.

"I can't even pick it. This waterweed must be really difficult!"

Xia Hong took out a total of five crystal green wood plants from his hand, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, smelled the fragrance of the wood plants, his eyes full of anticipation.

The five trees are all identical and clearly of the same variety.

There's nothing we can do about it. The situation was critical just now, and the last pull could only be in one area, so it was inevitable that I only got one.

"It's a pity that I didn't see the white frost grass. It will probably take a long time to get close to this place next time. It seems that I still have to find a way in Longyou!"

Although the main purpose of this trip to the Xing River was to explore the situation, Xia Hong also had other purposes, which was to find the white frost grass.

White frost grass generally grows near water sources. It is one of the eleven medicinal materials for refining Yang Yuan Dan, and it is also used in refining several other kinds of elixirs. The ones previously traded from Longshan and Zhaoyang have been used up. If we can find it here in Xinghe, Daxia will have a fixed output in the future.

It’s a pity that it was disrupted by the red carp.

Xia Hong took a deep breath and said to Xu Ning:

"That beast has probably been entrenched near the north bank for a long time. From now on, do not let anyone get close to the Xing River without my order."

"Yes, leader!"

If Xia Hong hadn't helped him just now, he would have lost his life tonight. Even without Xia Hong's instructions, Xu Ning would not let anyone approach Xinghe River again.

"You don't seem to have many Digging Realm people here. As for those who have advanced to the Woodcutting Realm, are you planning to send them to Xiacheng tonight or tomorrow night?"

In the April Longyou War, most of the Wuyuan Digging Territory, including members of Xu Ning's Black Arrow Team, were transferred away, so there were indeed not many people.

The lack of people at the Digging Realm meant that Wuyuan could not hold a martial arts competition for the Digging Realm groups.

"I only have over 1600 Diggers on my side. They just happened to be going back to Xiacheng to participate in the selection. As soon as the selection of the Woodcutters was over in the first half of the night, I arranged for these people to escort Woodcutters back along the Xia Straight Road. They are probably just setting off now."

After advancing in the first round of the Lumberjack Realm, you have to go to Xiacheng to participate in the second round of selection.

A total of 1600 people from Wuyuan advanced. So many people set out from Wuyuan to Xiacheng together, and they were all only at the lumberjack level. Even if they took the Xia Straight Road, they would definitely have to arrange people to escort them along the way.

"That's perfect. I'm going back to Xiacheng too, so I'll escort them along the way."

Xu Ning immediately bowed and nodded, remembering something. Seeing that Xia Hong had turned around and was about to leave, he immediately asked:
"Captain, when will the martial arts competition for the cold-resistant group begin?"

He was coveting the generous rewards of the Cold-Resistant Level Martial Arts Competition, and had been gearing up for this period of time, racing against time to prepare. Xia Hong happened to be right in front of him, so he naturally couldn't help but ask.

"It will start after the Digging Realm and Woodcutting Realm martial arts competition is over. It should be the fifth day of the first lunar month. Don't worry, I will have someone notify you."

"Okay, Chief, I'm going back first!"

After getting the answer, Xu Ning nodded and bowed, then walked towards Wuyuan.

Xia Hong did not stay any longer. He took the five trees and flew across the snowy night. He first found the straight road between Wuyuan and Xiacheng. He soon discovered the team that set out from Wuyuan. He then hung beside the team to ensure their safety.

When Xia Cheng appeared in sight, Xia Hong immediately left the team, rushed to the main building first, and immediately ordered someone to find Cheng Feng.

"Chengfeng, take these five herbs to the alchemy workshop for identification."

"Yes, leader!"

Cheng Feng took the five plants and immediately ran to the medicine shop.

(End of this chapter)