Immortal Dao Fruits, Cards to Help Me

Chapter 50 The Boarmen's Winter Strategy
This Yin Sha Rift Valley is quite deep, with several "big monsters" of level 20+ in its depths!
Furthermore, according to the explorations of players on the forum, there are two key points here.

The first key point is the Yin Sha Cave, which extends hundreds of meters underground and contains a large amount of Yin Sha Qi.

There are some special properties and particularly strange spirits inside, and you can collect Xuan Yin Di Sha.

Some players do come here after level 30 to delve deep underground and collect Xuan Yin Earthly Fiends—because they need to consider fusing Earthly Fiends after level 35…

However, this is definitely not a good choice.

Because it's too dangerous.

The danger posed by spirits and monsters is secondary; the main problem is the perilous environment.

Deep underground, the earthly evil spirits would erupt frequently. Even the top players at the time, who had level 4 protective magic treasures that were considered "top-tier" among players, would die within minutes of an earthly evil spirit eruption.

Dying once at level 30+ is already a huge loss, let alone losing all your magic items and equipment on the ground and never being able to find them again!
So after a few players tried it at first, not many people did it anymore.

It would be better to try collecting other local evil spirits elsewhere. Although it depends a lot on luck, at least it's safe.

The second key point about Yin Sha Rift Valley is that it has a passage connecting to the Illusionary Spirit Realm.

As mentioned before, there is no "heavenly realm" in this middle thousand world, so below the human world is the phantom realm, and below the phantom realm is the underworld.

The uppermost part of the underworld, bordering both the human world and the spirit world, is called the intermediate state...

If the human realm is dominated by humans and other living beings, then the Phantom Realm is dominated by various spirits and monsters.

It is said that many local deities and legendary lands are located in the Phantom Realm.

Many unique landforms in the human world have corresponding counterparts in the Phantom Realm, like mirrors, such as the Five Sacred Mountains!

Many players have had the opportunity to enter the Phantom Realm, the easiest way being through the City God Temple in those ancient cities.

It is said that the original locations of those City God Temples are in the Illusionary Realm.

There are no gods in this world, only ghosts and spirits!
Aside from the ghosts and gods of the underworld, the sacred sites of those earth deities are basically located in the Phantom Realm.

Many people speculate that as players reach higher levels, their main activity area will shift to the Phantom Realm.

And within this Yin Sha Rift Valley, there is such a passage.

However, the Phantom Realm is a "high-level map," and it's extremely dangerous. Moreover, even if you can get through here, you might not be able to come back—many passages are one-way.

Chen Xiuxian would definitely not take that risk!
He carefully advanced inside, sweeping away all the monsters, and then hunted down the "big monster"!
Gathering experience points in a cool way! Digging for submerged wood!

Then it snowed heavily...

……

Chen Xiuxian killed in the Yin Sha Rift Valley for seven or eight days, but the killing was stopped by a heavy snowfall at the end of November.

The harsh cold of Liaodong is no joke.

The snow is so heavy!
A blizzard swept across the sky, and all around was a vast expanse of white.

I reached out and caught a snowflake the size of a coin! It swirled and danced, turning everything white for miles around!
Such heavy snow has been falling for nearly ten hours, from yesterday afternoon to this morning. The snow on the ground has reached waist level overnight!
Why bother fighting monsters now?

If it weren't for Chen Xiuxian's fire control skills and the abundance of firewood and fuel that kept the campfire burning all night, this heavy snow would have frozen him to death!

He has been living in a makeshift, sheltered shack for the past few days, using a lot of dry wood and felt, with a fire lit in the middle and an iron pot hanging there.

Because of the fire control technique, heat can be concentrated and not dissipated as much as possible.

However, they simply couldn't endure such extreme heavy snow.

"Let's retreat! We'll talk about it later!" Chen Xiuxian said to Dou Zhongde and Mimi.

It seems like leveling up to 18 is out of the question; I should head back.

Dou Zhongde wasn't particularly afraid of the cold; he was wearing a thick cloak and simmering soup.

Mimi shrank into a tiny kitten, curled up in a ball, and warmed herself by the fire inside a wolf-skin rug.

Upon hearing this, both of them nodded repeatedly.

It's fine if it doesn't snow, but once it snows, there's really nothing we can do.

Mimi has been enjoying the wonderful life of the human race for a while now, and he misses it terribly. He really wants to go back to the city and sleep on a warm kang bed!
Let's pack our things!
The snow outside the shed was waist-deep, making it very difficult to walk.

Chen Xiuxian hadn't been able to get his hands on a manual of light-body skills in the past six months, so he could only tie two wooden planks to his feet to try and avoid sinking into the snow.

However, he quickly came up with a good idea: he pieced together several planks of wood, used his weapon-refining skill to consume his true energy to "refine" them into one piece, and then sat on it while the gambling addict Ma Si'er pulled him along.
Have you ever seen a ghost pulling a sled?
……

Back at Wadang Fort, Chen Xiuxian ran into Lao Niu at the city gate. Lao Niu had been quite worried about Chen Xiuxian lately.

Old Niu: "You're finally back. I was worried something had happened to you, and I was just about to go look for you!" Especially after the heavy snow that night, some of the simple and dilapidated houses in the fortress were about to collapse under the weight of the snow, and the ground was almost impossible to walk on.

He was worried that something might have happened to Chen Xiuxian, so he had already packed his things and was preparing to go out to look for him.

As a result, they ran into Chen Xiuxian and his group at the city gate.

"Stop talking, brother, I desperately need a good meal!"

Because of the heavy snow, Wadang Fort is practically paralyzed, so we can't go to the restaurant.

However, Chen Xiuxian had plenty of ingredients in his inventory, so he could just cook it himself.

Stew two hens in a big iron pot, add potatoes, some cornbread, a few kinds of pickles, and some fried peanuts—that's all we can do in winter.

While Chen Xiuxian and his group were eating and drinking, people on the streets were already clearing snow, transporting it by cart to low-lying areas outside the city.

The people of Liaodong are used to this situation; it happens two or three times every winter.

That's how it is in winter; you can't do anything, you just hibernate.

Moreover, it's not just the Liaodong humans who hibernate; even the werewolves of the Liao Kingdom and the wild boar people of the Jin Kingdom have to hibernate!
In winter, apart from a few hunters going into the mountains to hunt, all other activities come to a halt.

This can be considered a period of truce between the two sides.

However, this year is different.

Last year, Wild Boar King Hachi unified the territory outside Liaodong and united the various tribes of the Wild Boar people.

After a year of restructuring and integration, it's time to get ready to go all out.

Although the harsh winter prevents large-scale troop movements, small elite units can still conduct some probing activities.

Such as this time.

While much of eastern Liaoning was busy clearing snow, several hundred-man teams of the Wild Boar People set off through the snow.

They carried a wooden plaque carved with a fierce tiger around their waists, and set off from Hetu Ala, the current capital of the Boar People, southward along the She River downstream of the Great Huofang Mirror Moon Lake, and then through the frozen She River into the Thousand Mountains.

One of the hundred-man teams, thanks to the tiger-shaped badges blessed by shamans at their waists, only experienced minor setbacks and lost a few men before traversing thousands of mountains and arriving at the Great Wall of the border...

……

Two days later, Chen Xiuxian was still wondering whether he should go and take a look at the hematite mine in Ironstone Mountain.
If I can't beat the goblins, can't I at least beat the rats?

The cave is unaffected by the heavy snow!
As a result, Cao Bianjiao rushed over: "Xiuxian! Lao Niu! I need your help!"

After he finished explaining what it was about, Chen Xiuxian and Lao Niu both frowned.

This is no ordinary task!

This is a battle between two armies, and although it's only a small-scale squad battle, it's still far more significant than any of the previous missions.

This thing is extremely dangerous!
Chen Xiuxian looked at Lao Niu. This matter was mainly Lao Niu's fault. He ran away from Jianzhou to Liaodong because he didn't want to fight, let alone fight for the Wild Boar People. The Wild Boar People were both domineering and barbaric, and he disliked them very much.

But now, should we help the Great Shun Dynasty fight the wild boar people?
Although Lao Niu was usually a man of few words, he was a shrewd one. He could tell from Chen Xiuxian's gaze that Chen was looking out for him, so he grinned and said, "I can fight, but the reward has to be generous!"

Cao Bianjiao patted him hard on the shoulder: "Don't worry about that! The General's Mansion is never stingy when it comes to this kind of thing!"

Last night, a hundred-man boar-man squad somehow managed to infiltrate the Great Wall and advance into the area between Wadang Fort and Sanyang Fort, where they occupied a sentry post.

This kind of thing has happened before, but it usually happens in the summer or autumn.

If we cannot recapture the outpost in time and annihilate or drive these boar-men back, they will gain a foothold, and once reinforcements arrive, things could get really bad.

The news has just arrived, and because the incident happened so suddenly, the commander of Wadang Fort can only send Cao Bianjiao, the strongest fighter in the army, to take the position.

Cao Bianjiao knew that these hundred-man squads of boar-men who infiltrated the enemy were all elite and had strong combat capabilities.

Ordinary soldiers are no match for them!
Taking them there would be pointless; just the thought of them having to march there quickly would be enough to give them a hard time.

Honestly, with less than an ounce of silver a month, why risk your life?
Therefore, he could only lead his thirty-odd personal guards into battle.

Although Sanyangbao would definitely send people, it was unwise to rely on friendly forces, which is why Cao Bianjiao sought out Chen Xiuxian and his companion immediately.

If there's anyone else in Wadang Fort who can help him, it's Chen Xiuxian and Lao Niu.

Cao Bianjiao had personally witnessed Chen Xiuxian's strength increase dramatically from being far inferior to his own at the beginning to now, in just a few months!

This person is not only good-looking, but also has a bit of luck on them!
Chen Xiuxian: "Then let's set off now!"

"Ding~ You have participated in the regional event: [The Boarman's Probing (Blue)]."

(End of this chapter)