Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

In the Great Xia camp, a lumberjack-level combatant had finally been born again.

Everyone's mood improved considerably.

Xia Hong's mood was even better. He had originally thought it would take more than ten days, but he broke through in eight days, which showed the potential of his body.

Night was approaching, and Xia Hong didn't delay. He walked to the bonfire and, under the astonished gazes of the others, pulled out a charred stick from inside.

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

Small Torch: One is generated for every 10 units of wood burned in the fire. It can be carried around and functions similarly to a small bonfire.

The special function of the small bonfire, having stayed in the cave for eight days, even with conserving wood, had burned a total of 13 units, so one torch was generated.

Since he was going out, he naturally had to be fully prepared.

Similar function to a small bonfire, meaning it also has the effect of deterring and killing strange creatures, but at the same time, it will attract cold beasts.

Soon, it was dark.

Xia Hong tied the torch to his back with a rope, hung two hand axes on his waist, and then pulled out a three-meter-long pole from the side of the camp wall.

He glanced out through a finger-sized crack in the cave entrance, confirmed that the sky was completely dark, and Xia Hong turned back to give Xia Chuan one last reminder.

"Remember the code I told you. I will definitely be back before dawn. After I leave, you immediately seal the cave entrance. If anyone comes, no matter who it is, as long as they can't give the correct code, don't reveal anything, understand?"

The massacre had only happened eight days ago, and Xia Chuan remembered it vividly, naturally understanding the importance of Xia Hong's instructions, and nodded heavily.

Xia Hong didn't say anything more, tore open a gap, and directly slipped out.

Xia Chuan quickly sealed the cave entrance, but through the last bit of gap, seeing Xia Hong's departing figure, a trace of worry still appeared in his eyes.

… … … …

As for how big Redwood Ridge actually was, not even Xia Ding knew, let alone Xia Hong.

Great Xia was, after all, only a small camp. Although they had been constantly exploring these years, their activity range was limited to the eastern slope of Redwood Ridge.

Moreover, they basically circled around those six caves.

The approximate range was about five kilometers in radius.

Within these five kilometers, the most important area was the outer edge of Redwood Ridge to the west.

For no other reason than the fact that there were a lot of trees in Redwood Ridge.

Not only were there many, but they were also extending outward like crazy.

Logically speaking, there were a total of nine human camps around Redwood Ridge. With years of continuous logging, Redwood Ridge should have been constantly shrinking.

However, according to Xia Ding's observation, Redwood Ridge had not shrunk in recent years, but had been constantly expanding outward.

The trees grew bigger and bigger, and there were more and more of them.

The fast growth rate of resources was originally a good thing for humans.

But the problem was that these trees were not only resources for them.

They were also resources for the cold beasts.

The habitat of most cold beasts was in the trees.

Moreover, in addition to hunting, cold beasts also liked to eat the fruits on the trees.

Therefore, the expansion of Redwood Ridge was actually very deadly for the surrounding camps.

As the trees continued to extend, the activity range of those cold beasts became closer and closer to the surrounding camps, and humans became more and more dangerous.

Of course, these things were not yet something that Xia Hong at this stage should be considering.

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

Unknowingly, he had already walked to the edge of Redwood Ridge.

As far as the eye could see, giant trees that would have been called towering ancient trees in his previous life were commonplace here, and could even only be considered small.

Just from Xia Hong's rough glance, even the thinnest trees on the outer edge had a diameter of three or four meters, and those thirty or fifty meters long could be seen everywhere.

The inner side was even more terrifying. Those with a diameter of five or six meters, or even more than ten meters, could be seen. Looking up at those giant trees, you couldn't even see the top, not knowing how high they were.

The snow-covered trees were hung with tens of thousands of sharp ice ridges, which, together with the wildly falling snowflakes, formed a beautiful and exquisite ice and snow painting.

However, Xia Hong did not have the leisure to appreciate it at this moment.

He picked for a long time and chose a tree three meters thick.

Xia Hong walked forward nervously, and after brushing away the snow on the surface, a layer of ice crystals was revealed first, and under the ice crystals, the bark faintly shone with a ray of red light.

Seeing the red light, and then looking up and carefully scanning the canopy of the tree, after not finding anything, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"Crimson Frost Tree, there should be no cold beasts entrenched."

According to what Xia Ding had said before, there were the most Crimson Frost Trees on the eastern outer edge of Redwood Ridge.

Since the branches of the Crimson Frost Tree were relatively fragile, and the cold beasts were relatively large, they generally would not choose to nest on them.

Unlike Crimson Frost, a tree with a yellowish appearance called Golden Chill had very strong branches and a thick trunk, making it the most popular among cold beasts, and they often nested on it at night.

Moreover, some cold beasts would even build nests and settle down on it.

In addition, the number of Golden Chill trees was not very large, so the cold beasts that could stably nest on them were generally not weak.

Xia Hong made a mark on this small Crimson Frost Tree with a hand axe, remembered the route, and continued to walk inside.

The camp was running out of food and wood.

This tree would be left to cut down when he went back. The top priority was to find crystal fruit.

"Ice Jade Trees like light and grow faster in places with light, so they usually grow in relatively open areas."

Xia Hong recalled the characteristics of the Ice Jade Tree, looked around in the forest, picked a tree, and after confirming that there was nothing on the tree, he climbed directly up.

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

Once he reached the top of the tree, his vision was indeed much better.

Soon, Xia Hong discovered a relatively open area two or three hundred meters away to the west.

"Eight hundred steps to the east of the outer edge of Redwood Ridge is considered our Great Xia territory. If you join the lumberjack team in the future, be sure to remember this rule. If you rashly break into someone else's territory and get killed, you can't blame anyone."

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

Eight hundred steps was probably a range of one li.

That open area belonged to the Great Xia territory, so there shouldn't be a big problem going there.

Logically speaking, the camp should have remembered the location of the Ice Jade Tree, which could grow staple food, because it was such an important tree, so they wouldn't have to look for it every time.

In fact, they did remember it, but the deaths of Xia Ding and the lumberjack team were too unexpected.

The only people in the camp who could go out were the thirteen of them, and they basically all knew the location of the Ice Jade Tree.

Who would have thought that the thirteen of them would die together before they could tell Xia Hong.

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

Although he was eager to find food, Xia Hong still tried to approach it as calmly as possible.

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

Although it was nighttime, it was the hibernation period for cold beasts.

But that didn't mean they wouldn't wake up.

Xia Hong had not seen cold beasts until now, but he had learned about two or three kinds from the conversations between Xia Ding and the lumberjack team members before.

Although he had never seen a live one, he could infer from the number and frequency of cold beast flesh that the camp had obtained when Xia Ding was still around that their strength was definitely terrifying.

Thirteen lumberjack realm warriors had only successfully hunted a juvenile bone-piercing frost wolf in a month.

This already said a lot.

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 surprises along the way. After more than an hour, Xia Hong finally reached the open area.

Looking ahead at his destination, Xia Hong's face was immediately filled with smiles.

In the middle of the open space, a towering Ice Jade Tree, more than forty meters high, stood quietly, covered in silver, with densely packed crystal fruits hanging on it.

"I'm so lucky, there must be more than a thousand pounds of them."

Xia Hong was not overwhelmed by joy and went directly to the tree to pick the fruit.

Instead, he first picked another Crimson Frost Tree nearby and climbed to the top.

He began to carefully observe the canopy of the Ice Jade Tree.

This look made his face suddenly darken a lot.