Endless Winter: My Camp Infinite Upgrades

Chapter 398 Changing Mindset, Showing Goodwill and Arrogance
Xiao Heng knew very well how he got his captaincy.

More than 400 people participated in the exploration competition and were divided into more than 20 teams. The team captains were selected purely based on their abilities, so older people naturally had an advantage.

That's how he became the captain.

It's a real headache. I don't know if it's a coincidence or if my father, Xiao Kangcheng, did it on purpose, but none of the members of his team are easy to deal with.

The team consists of Luo An, Lu Dong, Zou Ping, Luo Cheng, Liu Peng, Hong Ye, Zhao Yuanwu, Zhao Yuanshan, Zhao Yuankang, Qin Feng, Liu Ming, Zhu Shen, himself, and three members of his own family: Xiao Lin, Xiao Jing, and Xiao Yan, making a total of 16 people.

Anyone who has lived in Xia City for a few days will immediately recognize these names upon hearing them; every single one of them is a well-known figure in the inner city.

The reason these people are so famous is not only because of their illustrious family backgrounds, but also because of their own talent and cultivation. After all, several of them have broken records in the Martial Arts Pavilion.

Thinking about it, it's understandable. A prominent family background means an abundant supply of resources. Given the current ability of the Great Xia Dynasty to provide cultivation resources, unless someone's talent is truly lacking, these people are bound to make a name for themselves.

Xiao Heng lived in the inner city and was considered a member of this circle. He had heard of Luo An and others before and knew their backgrounds well. However, because of the age gap between them, they didn't get along and didn't interact much.

It was only after this encounter that he realized just how difficult these people were to deal with.

The exploration competition started in early August, and after spending almost forty days together, Xiao Heng had a pretty good understanding of the personalities of these twelve people.

Because of their high talent, good family background, and growing up in the inner city, they have a broader perspective than most people, so they inevitably have some arrogance. Although they are not arrogant to the point of being disdainful of others, they are basically unruly and difficult to get them to obey.

Although he was stronger than them as the team leader, he was younger and therefore they were all only outwardly respectful but inwardly resentful.

Like tonight, Xiao Heng knew perfectly well that if everyone went straight for the rock bear, it wouldn't be difficult to kill it head-on. However, for safety's sake, he chose to use conventional hunting methods to minimize casualties, which would be beneficial for subsequent exploration.

Even though he was being opposed by so many people, Xiao Heng didn't think his idea was wrong. The problem was that it showed that he, as the team leader, didn't really hold much weight in the hearts of Luo An and the others. Otherwise, they wouldn't have united to oppose him like this.

"You want to create your own hunting team? Do you think leading a team is an easy task just because you see there are already more than 10,000 hunting teams in the camp? You should figure out the situation with the Xiaoshan team first before talking about creating one!"

Looking back on the year before last, when he was unwilling to stay in the Xiaoshan team and wanted to create his own hunting team, he didn't take his father Xiao Kangcheng's answer seriously at the time.

Now that it was his turn to lead the team himself, he truly understood just how much information was contained in his father's words.

Leading a team is definitely not an easy task!

Putting everything else aside, the very first thing that a team leader needs to do is to gain the respect of his team members and have them obey his orders is an incredibly difficult task.

While Luo An and his companions' rebellious nature certainly played a part, going out hunting and exploration is inherently a dangerous undertaking, and it's perfectly normal for team members to have their own ideas. You can't expect everyone to be a puppet and listen to you for no reason; otherwise, the trouble would be even greater when a real crisis occurs.

So ultimately, it's because he, as the captain, didn't demonstrate enough strength and ability, so the team members were dissatisfied and naturally wouldn't listen to him.

Faced with the crowd's rebuttal, Xiao Heng did not respond immediately. Instead, he led three members of the Xiao family to clean up the game on the ground.

Despite their resentment, Luo An and the others did not shirk their responsibilities. Seeing Xiao Heng take the lead, they immediately followed suit and began to prepare the prey.

This rock-armored bear is a mid-level cold beast. Its blood, hide, and bones are all extremely valuable. The group quickly drained its blood, then placed it on a tree to hide it, and marked the tree with its own special mark before they were done.

It's only the first half of the night, and they still need to continue exploring further. They'll have to wait until they return to their base to retrieve the rock-armored bear.

Are you really not afraid of danger?

After all, they had just finished arguing, so once the prey was cleaned up, the atmosphere became somewhat quiet. Xiao Heng noticed that everyone's eyes were on him, so he couldn't help but ask in a low voice.

Luo An and his team clearly wanted to speed up the exploration process, hoping to catch up with the other teams and win a place in the competition.

Since the team members have taken the initiative to raise their opinions, as the team leader, he naturally cannot ignore them; otherwise, the problems and conflicts will only escalate.

"Of course, we came to Heyin this time for the competition, right?"

"The rewards for this competition are worth 30 contribution points just for the pills, plus other various supplies. The total value is at least over a million. Your father... Lord Xiao, the garrison commander of Heyin, said that only the top three will be selected in this competition. As far as I know, we haven't even made it into the top five yet. If we don't speed things up, it's definitely hopeless for us to get into the top three and make a ranking."

"That's right. The competition ends on the first day of December, and today is already the tenth day of September. The competition is already more than halfway over, so we must speed things up."

"Coming to the wilderness is an adventure in itself, so why come if you're afraid of danger?"

………………

Hearing Luo An and the others' answers, Xiao Heng seemed to have made up his mind. He nodded and said in a deep voice, "Alright, since none of you are afraid of danger, then our team will be more aggressive. We'll explore three kilometers in every night. If we encounter any cold beasts along the way, we should try not to disturb them. If we really have no choice, we don't have to deal with them the way I did before. We'll just hunt them down head-on and use the most time-efficient method to leave as much time as possible for exploration!"

Their primary task was exploration, not hunting.

In some ways, exploration is more troublesome than hunting.

Hunting simply involves finding a target within a designated area and then killing it; while the main purpose of exploration is to open up unfamiliar areas and understand everything about the terrain, vegetation, climate, environmental characteristics, the general distribution of cold-weather animal species, and even the habits of cold-weather animals.

Moreover, the unknown often means danger. In addition, the species of cold beasts in the Mo'ao Mountain area are unfamiliar to the people of Daxia. Therefore, the participating teams usually set the distance target to be explored each night.

Xiao Heng had previously set a goal for his team to explore as much as 1 kilometer deeper each night. However, from the beginning of August until now, their total exploration progress has only reached 21 kilometers. This means that they have rarely been able to achieve this target, and on average, they only go about 500 meters deeper each night.

There are reasons for all of this!
First of all, Xiao Heng likes to plan carefully before acting. Whenever he arrives at a new place, he will have his team gather together to confirm that there is no danger in the area before starting the exploration work.
Secondly, he is also quite cautious. When encountering cold beasts blocking his way, such as the rock-armored bear just now, in order to ensure that his team members are safe, he will adopt a labor-saving and safe hunting method. Although this ensures safety, it also wastes a lot of time.

When Xiao Heng said these words, it was clear that he was going to change many of his previous team-leading habits, and everyone's eyes lit up immediately.

"We have to be a little more radical!"

"We're already six or seven kilometers behind. If we don't catch up now, how can we expect to get a place?"

"now it's right!"

"With the strength of our group of sixteen, we should be in no danger unless we encounter a high-level cold beast."

"Now that's more like a captain."

………………

Seeing the satisfied expressions on everyone's faces, Xiao Heng waved his hand slightly. He didn't know if his approach was correct, but making a decision after considering the opinions of his teammates and handling internal conflicts was something he, as the team leader, had to do.

"Alright, since you all agree, let's start now. The sixteen of us will be divided into three teams. Luo An, Luo Cheng, Lu Dong, Zou Ping, and Liu Peng will be in my team at the front. The remaining ten will be divided into two teams, led by Xiao Lin and Xiao Jing respectively. Xiao Lin will lead the team in the middle, and Xiao Jing will lead the team at the rear. We will explore in as fast as we can. If there are any problems, please blow the whistle to notify us immediately."

"Okay!" Everyone readily agreed upon hearing this.

Xiao Lin and Xiao Jing are about the same age as Xiao Heng. One has a base strength of 82,000 and the other has 85,000. They are the second strongest in the team after Xiao Heng, so no one has any objections to the two of them being in charge of leading the team.

The sixteen people quickly split into three teams, forming a 6-5-5 formation, and began to slowly explore the depths of the snow forest to the east.

Xiao Heng changed his previous style. During the journey, he not only took the lead in exploring boldly, but also stopped requiring everyone to stay in one place. As a result, the exploration speed increased significantly.

In the team, some drew diagrams, some recorded notes, and some conducted surveys. In just over three hours, the team had explored more than a kilometer ahead, without disturbing the cold beasts sleeping in the trees along the way.

This immediately lifted everyone's spirits.

Even Luo An and the others looked at Xiao Heng with much more kindness.

"Brother Xiao, how many kilograms is your basic strength now?"

Upon hearing Luo An's low question, Xiao Heng's face immediately showed a hint of surprise.

Although they had been a team for over a month, they hadn't really chatted much. This was the first time Luo An had taken the initiative to strike up a conversation with him.

"Ninety-three thousand catties."

Upon hearing Xiao Heng's answer, Luo An's face immediately showed a look of surprise.

He knew that Xiao Heng was definitely stronger than himself, but he had previously thought that Xiao Heng's basic strength was at most 80,000 jin, which meant he was only of medium-level combat aptitude.

Ninety-three thousand jin, only seven thousand jin short of passing the threshold of superior combat body.

"Brother Xiao, are you capable of breaking through to the superior battle body?"

Unable to contain his curiosity, Luo An asked another question.

At the peak of the Earth-Digging Realm, one can sense the progress of their skin membrane reshaping. Although there may be errors, they are generally not too large. Therefore, without external help, as they progress, everyone has a general idea of ​​their own battle body aptitude.

This was actually a rather private question. If a stranger had asked him, Xiao Heng would definitely have ignored him. But since Luo An clearly didn't have any bad intentions, he wasn't on guard. After thinking for a moment, he replied, "It should be about right. I feel it's possible."

Superior combat body!

Luo An's expression tightened slightly, and he immediately began to pay much more attention to Xiao Heng.

His understanding of Xiao Heng was previously limited to the fact that his two older sisters were the wives of the Minister of Justice; he knew virtually nothing else.

As for Xiao Heng's talent, to be frank, Luo An has always looked down on him.

Xiao Heng will be twenty-three years old this year. Whether he is deliberately suppressing his battle physique aptitude or not, the fact that he has not broken through to the Cold Resistance level at this age is considered somewhat problematic by the young people in the inner city.

However, now that he knows he has the potential to break through to the superior level of battle physique, Luo An naturally no longer looks down on him as he did before.

Because his father, Luo Yuan, was the head of the hunting department, Luo An had a certain understanding of the overall combat situation of the camp.

The Great Xia currently has over nine thousand Cold Resistance level cultivators, but fewer than three hundred possess superior combat physique aptitude. This demonstrates just how precious superior combat physique aptitude is.

"Then I must congratulate Brother Xiao in advance!"

Upon hearing Luo An's congratulations, Xiao Heng shook his head modestly and said, "Your basic strength is already 61,000, which is already a lower-grade battle body. In the future, your aptitude might even be better than mine."

Upon hearing this, Luo An's brows first showed a hint of arrogance, but he quickly concealed it and said modestly, "Not necessarily. Although Brother Xiao is a little older than me, his battle physique aptitude is not necessarily worse than mine."

"Yes, our skin remodeling is just beginning, and we may not be as good as Brother Xiao!"

"Even we might not be confident in our ability to fight with superior combat physiques."

"My talent may not necessarily be greater than Brother Xiao's!"

"My current basic strength is only 58,000, not even reaching the lower-grade battle body level."

Lu Dong, Liu Peng, Luo Cheng, and Zou Ping had all heard Luo An's conversation with Xiao Heng clearly. When they saw Luo An comforting Xiao Heng, the four of them quickly followed suit and comforted him as well.

Hearing the five people's clearly insincere words of comfort, Xiao Heng secretly chuckled to himself.

A seven-year age gap is actually quite significant.

Compared to him, Luo An and his group were clearly still a bit inexperienced.

He could tell that the five people were trying to befriend him by offering words of comfort, but their acting skills were lacking. Even when they were trying to comfort him, they couldn't hide the arrogance in their eyes. Xiao Heng could tell at a glance that the five people probably thought that their talents couldn't possibly be worse than his.

Xiao Heng didn't take this younger brother's behavior seriously at all. He just smiled and nodded, gladly accepting everyone's comfort.

Of course, he didn't really think that he was inferior to Luo An and the others.

Cultivation is a marathon, and being older doesn't mean anything. Besides, it's only seven years older. The lifespan of a Cold-resistant cultivator is over a hundred years, and that of a Manifesting Yang cultivator is two hundred years. The future is long, and who can say for sure?
"you……"

Beep...

Just as Xiao Heng was about to continue speaking, a sharp bone whistle suddenly came from behind Xue Lin's left, interrupting him.

One whistle indicates a cold beast calling for help; two whistles indicate a monster calling for help; three whistles mean there is still enough time to retreat with supplies; four whistles mean everyone must retreat immediately and not linger.

The tradition of the Great Xia Hunting Team using bone whistles began in the first year and has continued for so many years that it has long been ingrained in the bones of everyone in the camp. Xiao Heng and the others could tell just by hearing it.

"A sound! It means we've encountered a cold beast!"

"To the left rear, that's Xiao Lin's group!"

"Something's happened, go check it out quickly."

Xiao Heng's expression changed drastically. He quickly led Luo An and the other five men back towards Xiao Lin's group to the left and rear, and sped away.

(End of this chapter)