Endless Winter: My Camp Infinite Upgrades

Chapter 9: Ice, Frost, and Gold
A lumberjack-level fighter finally emerged in the Daxia camp again.

Everyone's mood suddenly improved a lot.

Not to mention Xia Hong's mood. He originally thought it would take more than ten days, but he broke through in eight days, which shows the potential of his body.

It was about to get dark, and Xia Hong didn't waste any time. He walked to the fire and, in front of everyone's astonished gaze, took out a burnt stick.

The stick was pitch black, about half a meter long, thin at the bottom and thick at the top, and the very tip of the thick end was white.

Small Torch: One torch is generated for every 10 units of wood burned in a fire. It can be carried with you and has a similar function to a small fire.

The special function of the small fire is that we stayed in the cave for eight days. Although it was used to save wood, a total of 13 units were burned, so one was generated.

Since you are going out, you naturally have to be fully prepared.

It has a similar function to a small fire, that is, it also has the effect of shocking and killing monsters, but at the same time, it will also attract cold beasts.

Soon it was dark.

Xia Hong tied the torch behind him with a rope, put two hand axes on his waist, and then pulled out a three-meter-long stick from the side of the camp wall.

After taking a look outside through the large gap between fingers at the entrance of the cave and confirming that it had already become completely dark, Xia Hong turned around and gave Xia Chuan some final instructions.

"Remember the code I gave you. I will definitely come back before dawn. When I leave, you must seal the cave entrance immediately. If anyone comes, as long as they can't match the code, no matter who they are, don't expose yourself. Do you understand?"

The massacre had only happened eight days ago, and Xia Chuan still remembered it clearly. He naturally understood the importance of Xia Hong's explanation and nodded heavily.

Xia Hong didn't say anything more. He tore a hole and crawled out directly.

Xia Chuan quickly sealed the entrance of the cave, but when he saw Xia Hong leaving through the last gap, a hint of worry appeared in his eyes.

…………

How big is Hongmu Ridge exactly? Not only Xia Hong, but even Xia Ding doesn’t know.

Daxia is just a small camp after all. Although it has been exploring continuously over the years, its scope of activities is limited to the slope east of Redwood Ridge.

Moreover, they basically revolve around those six caves.

The approximate range is about five kilometers.

The most important area within these five kilometers is the outskirts of Redwood Ridge in the west.

It’s nothing, it’s just that there are so many trees in Redwood Ridge.

Not only are there many of them, but they are also extending outward madly.

In theory, there are nine human camps around Redwood Ridge. After years of logging, Redwood Ridge should be shrinking.

However, according to Xia Ding's observation, Hongmu Ridge has not shrunk over the years, but has been expanding outward continuously.

The tree grew bigger and bigger, and it grew more and more.

The rapid growth of resources is actually a good thing for mankind.

But the problem is that these trees are not just resources for them.

The same is true for cold beasts.

Most of the cold beasts live in trees.

Moreover, in addition to hunting, the cold beast also likes to eat fruits from trees.

Therefore, the expansion of Redwood Ridge is actually fatal to the surrounding camps.

As the trees continue to extend, the range of activities of those cold beasts is getting closer and closer to the surrounding camps, and humans will become more and more dangerous.

Of course, these things are not what Xia Hong should consider at this stage.

Although it was dark, the ground was covered with snow, so visibility was barely acceptable.

Before he knew it, he had reached the edge of Redwood Ridge.

Everywhere you look, the giant trees that were considered towering ancient trees in the past are now sparse and common here, or even just small.

Xia Hong took a quick look and found that even the thinnest trees on the periphery had a diameter of three or four meters, and trees that were thirty to fifty meters long could be seen everywhere.

The inside is even more terrifying. You can see trees with a diameter of five or six meters, or even over ten meters. You can't even see the top of those huge trees if you look up. I don't know how high they are.

Thousands of sharp icicles hang from the snow-covered trees, and together with the freely falling snowflakes, they form an exquisite picture of ice and snow.

However, Xia Hong did not have the leisure and elegance at this moment.

He chose for a long time and finally selected a tree that was three meters thick.

Xia Hong walked forward nervously, peeling away the snow on the surface, revealing a layer of ice crystals. Under the ice crystals, the bark faintly flashed a ray of red light. Seeing the red light, he looked up and carefully scanned the tree canopy. After not finding anything, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"There shouldn't be any cold beasts living under the Vermillion Frost Tree."

As Xia Ding said before, there are the most red frost trees on the eastern outskirts of Hongmu Ridge.

Since the branches of the Vermilion Frost Tree are relatively fragile and the cold beasts are relatively large, they generally do not choose to live on them.

Unlike Zhushuang, there is a tree called Jinlin that has a yellowish appearance. It has very strong branches and a thick trunk. It is the most popular among cold beasts, and they often roost on it at night.

Moreover, some cold beasts will build nests and live on it.

In addition, the number of Golden Rin trees is not large, so the cold beasts that can live on them stably are generally not weak in strength.

Xia Hong used his hand axe to mark the small red frost tree, and after memorizing the route, he continued to walk inside.

The camp's food and wood are almost gone.

We will save this tree for later cutting down when we return. The most urgent thing is to find crystal fruit.

"The Bingshuo tree likes light and grows faster in places with light, so it usually grows in relatively open places."

Xia Hong recalled the characteristics of the Bingshuo tree, looked around the forest, picked a tree, confirmed that there was nothing on the tree, and climbed up directly.

The bark of these trees was covered with snow and ice crystals, which was not only freezing cold but also slippery. It took a lot of effort for Xia Hong to finally climb to the top.

Once we reached the top of the tree, the view was much better.

Soon, Xia Hong found a relatively open area two or three hundred meters away on the west side.

"The 800 steps on the east side of Hongmu Ridge is our Daxia territory. If you join a logging team in the future, remember this rule. If you rashly enter someone else's territory and get killed, you can't blame anyone else."

Recalling what Xia Ding had said before, Xia Hong jumped off the tree and walked towards the open area on the west side.

Eight hundred steps is roughly one mile.

That open area belongs to Daxia and it didn't cause any problems in the past.

It is said that since the Ice Tree is such an important tree that can grow staple food, the camp should remember its location to avoid having to look for it every time.

Actually, I remembered it, but the death of Xia Ding and the logging team was too unexpected.

There were originally thirteen of them who were able to leave the camp, and all of them basically knew the location of the Bingshuo Tree.

Who would have thought that before they could tell Xia Hong, thirteen people died together.

Fortunately, the tree was not far away, and Xia Hong found it without much effort.

Although he was eager for food, Xia Hong still tried to stay calm and approach that place.

Every time he passed a tree along the way, he would look up and carefully search for the location of the tree canopy.

Night is the hibernation period for cold beasts.

But that doesn't mean they won't wake up.

Xia Hong has never seen a cold beast so far, but he learned about two or three kinds of them from the previous conversations between Xia Ding and the members of the logging team.

Although I have never seen a living one, just from the quantity and frequency of the blood and flesh of cold beasts obtained by the camp when Xia Ding was still there, I can infer that its strength is definitely terrifying.

Thirteen lumberjacks only managed to hunt down a young Bone-Bone Frost Wolf in a month.

This can already explain a lot of problems.

Xia Hong had to be careful. With his current strength, he would most likely die if he encountered a cold beast.

Fortunately, there were no dangers along the way. After more than an hour, Xia Hong finally reached the open area.

When he arrived at the destination and looked forward, Xia Hong's face was immediately filled with smiles.

In the middle of the open space, a towering ice tree over 40 meters high, covered in silver, stood quietly, with densely packed crystal fruits hanging on it.

"I'm so lucky. This must be worth thousands of pounds."

Xia Hong was not carried away by joy and went straight up the tree to pick the fruit.

Instead, he first picked another nearby vermilion tree and climbed to the top.

He began to carefully observe the crown of the ice tree.

Upon seeing this, his face suddenly became much gloomier.

(End of this chapter)