Endless Winter: My Camp Infinite Upgrades

Chapter 470 A Bountiful Harvest and Bone Perfection, An Unexpected Joy, Millet and a Chance to Turn Things Around

"My lord, let me get your bundle for you."

The moment Xia Hong opened his eyes, the two girls immediately noticed.

Seeing that he had been staring at the bag since he opened his eyes, the girl on the left named Zhu'er, who was probably the older sister and was obviously more clever, immediately went over to help Xia Hong take it.

"Well…………"

But the moment she raised her hand, the scene became instantly awkward.

She tried to move the small yellow bundle more than ten times, her face turning red with embarrassment, but she couldn't budge it an inch. Realizing she couldn't lift it by herself, she instinctively turned to ask another girl for help.

"Hahaha, don't waste your energy, just hand me the tape..."

Xia Hong was amused by the girl's actions and laughed heartily. After laughing, he reached out and hooked the strap of the bundle that the girl handed him, and then gently pulled it.

The heavy yellow bundle was so easily hooked to the side of the bathtub. When Zhu'er, who had been carrying it for half a day, saw this, her pupils dilated instantly, and when she looked at Xia Hong, her eyes were filled with admiration.

Xia Hong had seen this kind of look many times before, so he didn't take it to heart. He slowly opened the bundle and laid out the contents one by one.

The first thing brought out were the corpses of six different cold beasts.

"The Three-Headed Wolf King, the Azure-Eyed Fire Lion, the Blood Jade Mystic Dragon, the Six-Tailed Divine Fire Fox, the Eight-Armed Mountain-Shaking Demon Elephant, and the Mystic Water Azure Jade Toad, two fire element, two wood element, one water element, and one earth element, totaling six single-element Five Elements Realm Beast Kings."

The effects of the Bone Burning Pill last for three days, so Xia Hong naturally wanted to make the most of it. How could killing only the Wolf King and the Azure-Eyed Fire Lion be enough?
He killed the Fire Lion in just half a day. In the following two days, he killed four more Solitary Beast Kings. When he was about to kill the last one, the Jade Toad, he noticed the Crimson Gold Demon Tiger spying on him and immediately made his move.

"It's a pity that Chu Tianxu appeared out of nowhere. If he hadn't been there, we might have really had a chance to kill that Crimson Gold Demon Tiger, the Golden Fire Twin Beast King..."

While Xia Hong looked regretful, he couldn't help but feel a bit horrified by the high level of intelligence of the royal-level cold beast.

How could he not see through the Demon Tiger's scheme to deliberately flee to Chu Tianxu's side at the last moment and lure outsiders into breaking the deadlock?
The problem is, he doesn't dare gamble on Chu Tianxu's character.

Chu Tianxu may have said nice things, but if we really joined forces to kill the Demon Tiger, who knows what he might do in the end? Besides, the effects of the Bone Burning Pill were already running out.

"If I gain it, I'm lucky; if I lose it, it's fate. I won't dwell on it!"

Xia Hong let out a slight breath, clearing his mind of unnecessary thoughts, and took out a dagger from his yellow mustard bag, starting by attacking the three wolf kings.

Even cold beasts have internal organs. Xia Hong had hunted so many that he was naturally familiar with the process. He located the wolf king's liver and cut it open directly.

The outer skin and flesh were broken open, and a round bead about three centimeters in diameter, emitting a bluish-green light, was revealed. Xia Hong reached out, took out the bead, and held it in his hand. He felt the powerful energy emanating from the bead and his eyes were filled with joy.

"This is the Wood Element Calamity Qi Bead. Using silver as a guide, it can draw out the massive amount of calamity qi contained within the bead. Then, by using the calamity qi to impact the battle body's golden body, it can force the golden body to generate the corresponding five internal organs."

The book said that one needs to collect all five elemental energy beads to attempt the breakthrough once, and the difficulty is extremely high; moreover, the higher one's aptitude, the less likely one is to succeed..."

It is a paradox that highly qualified people are less likely to succeed!

Xia Hong frowned and fell into thought. At the same time, he did not forget to extract the tribulation energy beads of the other five beast kings. Soon, the four elements of wood, water, fire and earth, a total of six tribulation energy beads, were placed in front of him.

"The higher a person's aptitude, the greater their strength will increase after breaking through to the Tribulation Body Realm. According to the law of conservation of energy, the more tribulation energy is needed to break through, the more times they should attempt to break through. That's probably what the book is trying to express!"

Looking at the six Tribulation Qi Beads laid out before him, Xia Hong chuckled and shook his head, thinking to himself, "I'm only at the mid-stage of the Manifestation Yang realm, yet I'm only one bead away from having enough for the first Golden Body breakthrough. It seems that the escape of that Crimson Gold Demon Tiger was fate. One shouldn't be too greedy!"

After taking out the six Calamity Qi Beads, Xia Hong's mind stirred slightly. He then dissected the heads of the six Beast Kings and took out six fist-sized, blood-jade-colored lumps from them. His expression suddenly brightened.

"As expected, this blood-red miasma has even affected the Beast King. Ordinary cold beasts have blood jade beads, and the Beast King has blood jade crystals. So these lumps in the Beast King's head should be called blood jade marrow."

The name is secondary. The key is that Blood Jade Beads can make up for defects in the skin and flesh, and Blood Jade Crystals can make up for defects in the bones. So what about Blood Jade Marrow?
Xia Hong reached out and pinched the Blood Jade Marrow, sensing that the energy intensity inside far exceeded the previous two, and immediately gave up the idea of ​​consuming it directly.

"We can't just eat these anymore. Let's take them back to Xia City and have them appraised at the Alchemy Pavilion. Their uses are definitely greater than the previous two!"

Xia Hong immediately thought of something and unfolded the yellow mustard bag.

The yellow mustard bag is a compressed Sumeru space. As soon as the bag was unfolded, the things he had haphazardly stuffed into it poured out in a dazzling array of colors, instantly illuminating the entire room.

The two girls who were washing him were already dumbfounded when they first saw the six beast kings. Now, seeing such a large pile of colorful treasures pouring out of the small yellow mustard bag, their eyes widened instantly.

Although the two women were not very knowledgeable and could not recognize the contents of the bag, they were able to deduce their value based on their appearance and scent alone.

The two even forgot to continue washing Xia Hong for a moment, remaining frozen for more than ten breaths before they realized what was happening and quickly lowered their heads to continue.

Meanwhile, Xia Hong had already begun to sort and inventory the supplies.

"Aside from the Calamity Pearl and the Blood Jade Marrow, the Beast King's flesh and fur were not tainted by the blood-colored miasma, making them extremely valuable. We can keep them and bring them back to Xia City."

Besides the six Beast Kings, I also killed 14 Ironbone Corpse Demons and 25 Beast Kings. The bodies of the Beast Kings and Corpse Demons were too deeply tainted by the miasma and were highly poisonous, so I had to discard them. However, I obtained a total of 39 Blood Jade Crystals from them, as well as more than 4000 high-quality Blood Jade Beads.

In addition, I also collected seventy-eight kinds of vegetation from deeper within the area, all of which should have medicinal value. Once we return to Xia City and have them identified, they will be put to use.

Xia Hong, who used the Strongest Experience Card, made the most of it. In the past two months, he not only hunted Beast Kings and Corpse Demons in a frenzy, but also picked any special plants he encountered that he felt had medicinal value.

"In addition, there are 50 Green Xun Tree vines. Originally, there were three complete Green Xun Tree saplings with vines, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough space in the yellow mustard bag. I threw two of them away halfway to pack other things. I'll keep this one to take back, either for research or to try transplanting. That should be enough..."

The total space of the yellow mustard bag is only 5 cubic meters, which is already quite an achievement to be able to hold so much stuff. It would be really wrong to be greedy.

"Of course, besides these, the biggest gain is that my bones have been completely perfected, and I have reached the mid-stage of the Manifestation Yang realm with a strength of 75 jun. Looking at Mo Ao Chuan, no one can compare to me, not even the top three on the Heavenly Ranking!"

Xia Hong looked inward at the bones beneath the flesh, a flash of excitement in his eyes.

His bones remained dark red, but they had acquired a texture that resembled glass, and the energy fluctuations emanating from them were several times more powerful and vigorous than before.

"My bone structure is seven zhang and eight chi tall. In the past two months, although my cultivation level has increased significantly, it has not brought any increase in strength. My strength improvement comes entirely from the perfection of my bones. If I want to improve my strength in the future, I can only try to find a way through the Cleansing Pill and the Twelve Blood Scripture Technique. But this can only make a small difference. If I really want to make a significant improvement, I still need to break through to the late stage of Manifestation Yang as soon as possible."

After a moment of contemplation, Xia Hong suddenly realized something. His expression darkened slightly, and then he focused his attention on the patterns on the bones, his expression instantly freezing.

His bones were covered with a layer of mysterious patterns resembling molten lava, which is the origin of the name "Burning Bones".

At this moment, the lines on the outside of his bones remained unchanged, except that they were a little deeper than before.

"This……"

Xia Hong's face was instantly filled with astonishment. His expression had suddenly darkened because he realized that the effects of the Bone Burning Pill had completely worn off, so he wanted to check what changes had occurred in his bones.

He remembered clearly that when he encountered the three-headed wolf king and swallowed the Bone Burning Pill, a piercing pain instantly shot through the outer layer of his bones, as if someone were carving patterns on his bones with a sharp chisel.

Therefore, it is only natural that after the effects of the medicine have completely worn off, there will definitely be changes on the outside of his bones. The consumption of erysipelas and bones was clearly explained by the person from the Treasure Pavilion in Qinghua City when he bought the Bone Burning Pill.

But now, not only is there no sign of erysipelas, but even his bones show no signs of being consumed.

The only change is that the lines on the bone are now deeper.

"Bone-Burning Pill, bone-burning pill, can't be such a coincidence, can it?"

Xia Hong looked at the lines on his bones that were a few inches deeper than before. His expression changed from disbelief to surprise, doubt, confusion, and finally, his expression became incredibly interesting.

"The so-called Bone Burning Pill is to engrave patterns on the bones, thereby stimulating the bones to unleash greater power. My Bone Burning Pill already has melting patterns, so the Bone Burning Pill only deepens the patterns on this basis. The pill's poison and negative effects do not exist for me."

When Xia Hong finally guessed the answer, his eyes were filled with ecstasy and excitement, and he even couldn't help but feel his mouth go dry.

"No, no, these are all guesses and shouldn't be taken seriously. The key is to get a few more Bone Burning Pills to test them out. I was so focused on hunting the Beast King back in the Plains that I didn't really examine the bones closely. If we bring a few back to Xia City, Cheng Feng can lead some people to study them and we'll know the answer!"

When Xia Hong bought the Bone Burning Pill, he simply thought it was a coincidence. He never expected it would bring him such a big surprise.

The moment he took the Bone-Burning Pill in the Blood Miasma Plain, he was prepared for the effects of the pill's poison on his body over the next ten years, and for his cultivation speed to slow down over the next twenty years. Now that he has realized that he had panicked for nothing, the joy he feels at this moment is unimaginable.

Most importantly, if it is subsequently verified that taking the Bone-Burning Pill really has no negative effects on him whatsoever, that would be even more interesting...

Xia Hong suppressed his excitement, quickly tidied up the yellow mustard bag, let out a sigh of relief, and lay back down in the bathtub.

"Twenty months have passed in the blink of an eye. I came here on August 25th, 296th year of Caiqiu calendar. Today is the 7th of August, which means that I have been away from Daxia for almost three years. This is completely different from what I expected. People in Xia City must be getting anxious!"
No, there are also those four apprentices…

Suddenly remembering Su Xing'er and her three siblings, Xia Hong's expression faltered slightly, but he quickly relaxed.

Since he didn't come out of the Blood Miasma Plains, Cai Qiu most likely thought he was dead. Without him as their master, Su Xing'er and her three siblings would naturally no longer be able to enjoy the same good treatment as before.

However, since there was no deep-seated hatred between them, Cai Qiu would not make things difficult for them. Therefore, the four of them might not be in a good situation, but their safety should not be a problem.

"We've given them such a great opportunity, but whether they become dragons or worms ultimately depends on themselves. There's no need to go back to Caiqiu to find them!"

After checking his physical condition with his eyes closed, Xia Hong immediately shook his head and gave up the idea of ​​going to find the four people.

Judging from the current state of the bones, it can be confirmed that there is no erysipelas, but whether it will affect the speed of subsequent cultivation can only be confirmed after formal cultivation.

The problem is that his current physical condition prevents him from even engaging in normal cultivation.

Six Beast Kings are not so easy to kill!
Putting aside the physical damage, the injuries inflicted by the six beast kings had penetrated deep into the bones. At this moment, Xia Hong still had a large amount of the four elements of calamity energy (wood, water, fire, and earth) remaining in his body. It was only because of his amazing strength that he was able to withstand it. If it were just a random person in the mid-stage of the Manifestation Yang realm, they would probably be dead by now.

"I'm out of Sacred Vein Pills, so I can only use Jade Wound Pills as a temporary measure. I can't even unleash half my full strength right now, so I need to spend time healing my injuries first..."

Xia Hong took out a Jade Wound Pill and swallowed it. After sensing his condition for a moment, he shook his head repeatedly. "It's a level five healing pill, yet it only restored this much. To fully recover, I'll need at least three months of rest. Maybe I should go to Yanling County and spend some more money to buy some better healing pills..."

Xia Hong was slightly tempted, but when he recalled Chu Tianxu, whom he had just met in the Blood Mist Plain, he immediately gave up the idea of ​​going to Yanling County now.

Safety first. If you're not capable, don't go running around recklessly!
"correct……"

Thinking of spending money to buy pills, Xia Hong suddenly remembered something and quickly took out a silver invitation card from his yellow mustard bag.

That invitation was the same one he received in Linchu County two years ago—the one from Yang City.

"An invitation from two years ago—we've completely missed it!"

He remembered clearly that the opening date of this Yang City invitation letter was the 9th day of the 12th month of the 297th year of the Caiqiu calendar. Now almost two years have passed, so he has naturally missed it completely.

Xia Hong shook his head slightly and opened the invitation with a hint of disappointment.

But when he opened it, he was instantly stunned.

[The Yang City Market will officially open on December 25th this year. Please keep your invitation letter safe. The secret method for entering the Yang City Market will automatically appear at that time. Those who wish to enter the market can follow the instructions of the secret method to enter.]

Yang City has a large quantity of Cleansing Pills, top-grade Bone-Removing Pills, and other rare and precious items for sale.

The two lines of text on the invitation were almost identical to those he had seen the year before last.

But the date has changed...

“I can’t be wrong, it’s definitely the 9th of December, so the opening date changed on its own. In other words, as long as I don’t use this invitation, it will always exist, and it will change its date on its own according to the specific opening time of each year.”

This is absolutely amazing!
Xia Hong looked at the invitation, his pupils flashing with strange light.

He received the invitation two years ago and immediately tested it with fire-condensing oil and yellow candles, but could not detect any strange energy.

"Perfect timing, let's go in and see what's going on!"

Xia Hong put away the invitations and quickly finalized the next steps:

"Judging from the composition of the people, Qingwu Village should be a slave village in Chencang. It is more than 60 kilometers away from the Blood Miasma Plain in the south and more than 70 kilometers away from Yanling County in the north. Let's heal our injuries here first, and then sneak into Yanling County to take a look."

As soon as the plan was finalized, the bloodstains and necrotic skin on Xia Hong's body were finally scrubbed clean.

The two girls, who had been busy for half a day, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. However, when they looked down at Xia Hong, who was lying on his back in the bathtub, the admiration and desire in their eyes were much more blatant than before.

When Xia Hong first arrived, he was wearing an animal skin. His hair was messy, and his whole body was dark. He had dozens of wounds all over his body, and the places without wounds were covered in bloodstains. There was not a single piece of good skin to be found. His disheveled and filthy appearance could not be described as unkempt. He looked exactly like a seriously injured beggar on the verge of death.
But now, after rubbing off the mud all over his body, he has completely changed.

Beneath Xia Hong's blood and grime lay a skin as delicate and white as a newborn baby's. Unfortunately, this delicacy was brutally destroyed by dozens of terrifying wounds of different colors, making one feel inexplicably heartbroken.

The water level just covered his solid chest, and his long, dark hair, soaked and still untied, clung to the rim of the tub, with a few strands sticking to his slender neck, making his skin look even more like jade.

Water droplets slid down his sharply defined jawline, dripping into the water along the curve of his collarbone. His face looked to be no more than twenty years old, with a breathtakingly handsome appearance—sword-like eyebrows that slanted upwards, a high and straight nose, and thin lips with distinct lines, like a work of art meticulously sculpted by God.

However, good looks are secondary!

What was most captivating were his half-closed eyes. Although his long eyelashes were damp with moisture, the domineering and all-seeing sense of control in his pupils, along with the sharp glint that occasionally shot out, still made the two girls feel a little flustered. As soon as they made eye contact, they immediately lowered their heads and dared not look at each other again.

"Are you sisters? What are your names? How old are you?"

Xia Hong asked twice in a row, and seeing that the two women were still standing there blankly, he shook his head and raised his voice in exasperation.

The two then came to their senses and hurriedly knelt down with a thud:
"My name is Zhang Yuzhu, I am the elder sister, and I am seventeen years old this year."

"My name is Zhang Yuhong, and I am sixteen years old."

Upon hearing the two women's ages, Xia Hong immediately shook his head. After pondering for a moment, he took out a small red porcelain bottle from his mustard bag and gently tossed it into the hand of the older sister, Zhang Yuzhu.

"This is called Blood Spirit Pill. There are 50 pills in total. Your basic strength is still a little short of the 30,000 jin limit, so don't use them for now..."

Xia Hong paused, cut two strips of meat, each about the thickness of a little finger, from the three wolf kings, and tossed them to the two men. He continued, “These two pieces of meat are not for you to eat. With your current cultivation levels, eating them will surely cause you to explode and die. Use them to make a pot of soup every day, and drink it sip by sip. You should be able to reach the limit of the Earth-Digging Realm in a few days. Then you can use the Blood Spirit Pills I gave you to rebuild your skin membranes.”

"Thank you for the generous gift, sir..."

Upon hearing Xia Hong's instructions, the Zhang sisters, who were kneeling on the ground, instantly became extremely excited. After exchanging a glance, they immediately began to kowtow in gratitude.

"Alright, don't kowtow yet, I still have something to ask you."

However, before they could even take a couple of bites, Xia Hong interrupted them.

This habit of frequently kowtowing is a unique characteristic of Mo'aochuan.

Xia Hong shook his head and asked, "This village of yours should be a slave village, right? Is it under the jurisdiction of the Yanling County?"

Zhang Yuzhu nodded immediately.

"What is that large brown area to the west of the village?"

Brown area?

Zhang Yuzhu looked completely bewildered when she heard this question.

Zhang Yuhong, the younger sister standing to the side, seemed to have thought of something and whispered, "Sister, the adult was probably referring to Lusutian."

Zhang Yuzhu suddenly realized and hurriedly replied, "Reporting to you, sir, that brown area is a field of sorghum. Including us, more than a dozen slave villages around here are specifically responsible for planting sorghum here."

Upon hearing her answer, Xia Hong's eyes lit up immediately.

"Sure enough!"

He didn't end up in Qingwu Village by chance. When he flew north from the Blood Miasma Plain, he stopped because he noticed a brown area suddenly appearing on the white land.

He had heard of sorghum in Qinghua City long ago. It was a specialty of Chencang and one of the top ingredients of Mo'aochuan, with an excellent taste.

Of course, a little bit of culinary desire was not enough to make Xia Hong pay attention.

The main reason is that food made from millet can enhance qi and blood, and its effect is even stronger than that of animal meat.

More importantly, he had secretly observed in Qinghua City that before being processed into food, this millet was in powder form, exactly the same as sorghum flour from his previous life.

Sorghum is one of the alternative names for sorghum.

This made Xia Hong suspect that Chencang had the ability to grow grain.

He had been keeping an eye on it since Qinghua City, and now that he was in Chencang, he naturally wanted to pay close attention to this millet and see what was going on.

"Is your area the only place in the entire Chencang region with fields of reeds and millet?"

Seeing the confusion on Zhang Yuzhu's face, Xia Hong realized that she was just a little girl who hadn't even reached the Cold Resistance level, so how could she know everything? He immediately shook his head and said, "Alright, you can go down now! Go and call your grandfather over, and tell him I have something to ask him."

The two women looked at the brand-new linen clothes in front of the bathtub and immediately showed their discomfort.

"Sir, let us help you change your clothes first..."

"No need, no need, go quickly."

"Yes, slave, I obey!"

Hearing Xia Hong's tone become harsher, the two women didn't dare to say anything more and quickly got up and walked out of the house.

Xia Hong then slowly got up and quickly put on the slightly itchy blue linen robe. After putting it on, he reached out and touched the fabric, a slight smile appearing in his eyes.

"It's been so long since I wore clothes like this, almost ten years..."

………………

"Grandpa, these are the elixirs and meat that lord bestowed upon us..."

The Zhang family courtyard is a small house located to the side of the main house.

Upon seeing the small red porcelain bottle and two pieces of top-grade beast meat with a texture as clear as jade and glass that his two granddaughters had placed on the table, and after hearing his granddaughters explain the uses of the beast meat and pills, Zhang Qinggu's aged face instantly flushed crimson, and his expression became extremely excited.

Bet right.

You bet right!
Zhang Qinggu, who was over sixty years old, trembled with his long beard. Then, looking at his two granddaughters, he suddenly burst into tears and said, "Zhu'er, Hong'er, our Zhang family's chance to turn things around has come! I'll write a letter to Yu Chuan right now and tell him to come back from the county town as soon as possible..."

"grandfather……"

The Zhang sisters, Yuzhu and Zhang Yuzhu, were a little nervous seeing their grandfather with such an expression for the first time, and quickly stepped forward to take his hands.

(End of this chapter)