Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

“Leader, Yuan Cheng is awake!”

Xia Hong had barely stepped out of the camp's supply depot when he was informed that Yuan Cheng had regained consciousness. He quickly strode towards the main hall.

Beside the iron smelting furnace in the main hall, Yuan Cheng was indeed awake. Although he was still lying prone and his face was pale, the festering wounds on his back had improved significantly. Judging by his mental state, he was recovering well.

“Greetings, Leader!”

Upon seeing Xia Hong approach, the crowd hastily paid their respects and made way for him.

“Alright, don't move. Just continue lying down and recuperating!”

Seeing Yuan Cheng struggling to get up, Xia Hong immediately stopped him. After reexamining his back, he estimated that he would recover in a day or two. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

“Next time you're hunting, don't get so close to the prey. Consider yourself lucky this time that I discovered the Teng Snake saliva could neutralize the poison beforehand, or you wouldn't have been able to save your life.”

“It was my recklessness this time. Yuan Cheng will remember this in the future!”

Yuan Cheng nodded heavily in agreement, a hint of lingering fear in his eyes.

This lesson was a painful one. If he didn't learn from it, he would be endangering his own life. He naturally understood the importance of this.

Seeing the fear in his eyes, knowing that he had learned his lesson, Xia Hong didn't say anything more.

The camp currently had a total of seven Earth Realm cultivators, which was not many. Xia Hong felt the loss of any one of them, especially since Yuan Cheng was a veteran of Great Xia, having followed him all the way from the earthen slope, and their bond was deep.

“Leader, why is your pouch smoking?”

Hearing the reminder from behind, Xia Hong quickly turned his head to look at the pouch hanging on his waist, and his expression froze.

The pouch was indeed emitting thin wisps of white smoke.

“Everyone, scatter! Everyone, scatter quickly!”

Realizing what was happening, Xia Hong shouted loudly, ordering everyone to disperse.

The pouch contained the Teng Snake poison sac that he had just taken from the camp's supply depot.

Seeing that everyone had scattered, including Yuan Cheng on the ground who had been carried away, and that no one showed any signs of abnormality, Xia Hong breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the pouch that had been resealed, his brow furrowed.

Wasn't the Teng Snake poison sac supposed to be wrapped in meat?

It didn't disperse just now, so why is it inexplicably dispersing now?

After pondering for a moment, Xia Hong turned his gaze to the iron smelting furnace, a hint of conjecture appearing on his face. Holding the pouch in his hand, he slowly approached the furnace.

Chī… … … …

As the temperature of the pouch increased, the Teng Snake poison sac inside emitted a soft hissing sound, and wisps of white smoke slowly rose.

Xia Hong quickly retracted the pouch, and his mind instantly cleared.

Just now, when he was squatting down to look at Yuan Cheng, the pouch on his waist was very close to the iron smelting furnace, accidentally raising the temperature of the Teng Snake poison sac inside, which triggered the release of the poisonous mist.

“High temperature can trigger the poisonous gas in the poison sac.”

Realizing this, Xia Hong's expression suddenly changed, and then a gleam of light rose in his eyes, his expression becoming extremely excited.

“I've got it, hahahaha, I've got it!”

Xia Hong clenched the pouch in his hand, his expression excited.

“Someone go to the mine and notify Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan, and the other five to all go to the smithy. I'll be waiting for them inside.”

The hunt tonight was very short, and it was still early before dawn, so as soon as Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan returned, they ran off to the mine to collect iron.

“Yes, Leader!”

Seeing someone go to notify the five, Xia Hong didn't linger in the main hall and went to the smithy next door.

As soon as he arrived at the smithy, Xia Hong was worried that the Teng Snake poison sac would still leak, so he cautiously wrapped it in another layer of leather. After sitting on a chair and pondering for a moment, Xia Chuan and the other five quickly walked in from outside.

“Sit down first!”

The camp's timber supply had long been in a state of surplus, and many wooden chairs were placed in public areas such as the smithy, the alchemy room, and the main hall.

Seeing that the five who sat down on the chairs were full of curiosity, Xia Hong didn't keep them in suspense and told them everything about the Teng Snake poison sac and saliva.

Zhao Long and his three brothers were alright. Although they had seen the gnawing rats, they were not present during the previous pursuit by the gnawing rat swarm when they fled to the Teng Snake's territory.

Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan, who were present at the time, immediately lit up after thinking for a moment when they heard about the poison sac and saliva.

The two looked up and exchanged glances with Xia Hong, immediately understanding why Xia Hong had summoned them here.

“Leader, if I'm not mistaken, you want to use the Teng Snake poison sac to deal with the gnawing rat swarm on the north slope of the mountain wall?”

Luo Yuan took the lead in asking. Seeing Xia Hong nod, knowing that he had guessed correctly, his expression first became excited, but after thinking about it, he shook his head again.

“No, based on the previous experience, they are not afraid of the Teng Snake, and they barge into the poisonous mist area without hesitation. It is definitely impossible to drive them away with poisonous mist; moreover, the Teng Snake venom is likely unable to kill the gnawing rats. At most, it will only affect them, making their movements slower…”

As Luo Yuan said this, he looked up at Xia Hong and immediately realized that Xia Hong's original intention was not to drive them away.

“Big brother's meaning is to use the poisonous mist to weaken the gnawing rats' strength, and then we all go up together and kill all those gnawing rats?”

Xia Chuan took over Luo Yuan's words, but after saying this, not only himself, but even Luo Yuan and the Zhao Long brothers were full of suspicion.

It shouldn't be possible.

Even if the three or four hundred gnawing rats had their strength weakened by the poisonous mist, they would not be able to deal with them. Not to mention seven Earth Realm cultivators, even if all the Lumbering Realm cultivators in the camp were brought along, they would probably not be able to defeat the gnawing rats.

“If, add this?”

Xia Hong naturally knew what the five were thinking. He slowly walked to the wall of the smithy, drew out a bow and arrow, and showed it to the five.

At the first glance of the bow and arrow, the five were stunned.

But then, after thinking for a moment, the eyes of the five immediately lit up.

“The gnawing rats' defensive capabilities are not strong, bows and arrows are indeed useful!”

“I tried it last time. Bows with a force of over ten thousand pounds have a huge killing power against them. If you shoot accurately, you can completely kill them in seconds; Lumbering Realm cultivators can't kill them in seconds, but at least they can severely injure them. If there are enough of them, hunting them is not a problem.”

“If a large amount of Teng Snake poisonous mist can be released to slow them down, the hit rate of the bows and arrows will definitely be very high. Hunting them like this is really not difficult.”

“Moreover, if we can find a good location, we don't even have to pay too much casualties. It's really possible!”

“The only difficulty is that the number of gnawing rat swarms is too large. If we really want to deal with them, we need a large number of bows and arrows and Teng Snake poison sacs.”

Compared to Luo Yuan and the other four, Xia Chuan, who spoke last, obviously considered things more comprehensively, almost hitting the nail on the head, pointing out the most difficult point at once.

Xia Hong nodded, his brow slightly furrowed.

“Chuan is right. If we want to deal with that group of gnawing rats, we need a large number of bows and arrows and Teng Snake poison sacs. In fact, it's not just that. If possible, we also need more Lumbering Realm and Earth Realm cultivators, but we don't have that much time…”

If possible, Xia Hong certainly didn't want to deal with the gnawing rat swarm now.

He could completely wait until Great Xia had enough Earth Realm and Lumbering Realm cultivators before solving the hidden danger of the gnawing rat swarm.

The problem is that the gnawing rat swarm wouldn't give him that much time.

At a distance of less than two kilometers, they could discover the valley at any time.

Not seizing the time to take the initiative to solve it is tantamount to waiting for death.

Dōng dōng dōng… … … …

“Leader, the Teng Snake spinal tendons have been delivered!”

The sound of knocking on the door interrupted the six people in the house.

“Come in.”

Shi Ping pushed the door open and walked in. Seeing that Xia Chuan and the other five were all there, he first saluted the five, and then handed the bundle of Teng Snake spinal tendons he was holding to Xia Hong.

“The Teng Snake has been completely processed. In addition to the poison sac, there are also 5 jin of viscous liquid, which should be the saliva that the leader mentioned. It yielded 2210 jin of meat, 38 meters of spinal tendons, and the bones have all been ground into powder and sealed.”

Xia Hong nodded to indicate that he knew, and then looked at the spinal tendons in his hand.

The Teng Snake spinal tendons have the three characteristics of elasticity, toughness, and durability. They are the best material for making bowstrings. The camp already has ready-made bows and arrows, and Xia Hong had studied them before, so he was no stranger to them.

“The camp currently has eleven bows, and although the bow bodies are all made of ten-tempered iron, they are only equipped with double strings, and the draw weight is 5,000 jin. It's actually no longer suitable for Earth Realm cultivators, right?”

As Xia Hong spoke, he turned his gaze to the Zhao Long brothers.

Zhao Long nodded. The three brothers had higher archery skills and a deeper understanding of bows and arrows. After pondering for a moment, he replied:

“That's true. I also had this feeling during the previous rescue of the Chen Ye camp and the recent hunting of the dragon. Based on my current basic strength, if I use a bow with a draw weight of 5,000 jin for a long time, I estimate that it won't be long before it breaks. Double strings are indeed not enough.”

Lumbering Realm humans have a basic strength of over 5,000 jin, so ordinary bows and arrows cannot be used normally by them, let alone Earth Realm humans with a basic strength of over 10,000 jin.

Longbows are generally divided into two parts: the bow body and the bowstring.

The iron in this world is different from the previous life. Although its strength is high, it still has a certain degree of toughness and elasticity, so the material of the bow body must be iron.

There is no need to even try wood. Even arrows cannot be used. Xia Hong had tried it according to his previous life's experience. The arrowhead was made of iron, and the arrow shaft was made of wood. As a result, the arrow was too light. After being shot out, not only was the attack power greatly reduced, but even the accuracy was terrible.

As for the bowstring, it is the spinal tendon of the Teng Snake. Generally, the bows used by Lumbering Realm cultivators are double strings, which are two strings. If you want to increase the draw weight, you must add another one, and naturally more materials will be used.

“Let's not worry about the bows for the Earth Realm cultivators for now. A bow with a draw weight of 5,000 jin is enough to deal with the gnawing rat swarm. The camp now has enough Lumbering Realm cultivators. The main task now is to produce a batch of bows and arrows in the shortest possible time; secondly, to improve the archery skills of all Lumbering Realm cultivators in the camp!”

Hearing Xia Hong's words, the five nodded.

“The camp currently has 152 Lumbering Realm cultivators. In the short term, some more people should break through to the Earth Digging Realm, but the number will definitely not be large.”

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Hearing the number of Lumbering Realm cultivators, Xia Hong nodded slightly, quite satisfied.

At the beginning of the construction of the wooden houses, the camp already had 140 Lumbering Realm cultivators.

However, since then, the gathering team and the logging team have lost another 18 people during their evening outings.

Counting it this way, from the completion of the new houses to today, which is about a month, the number of people who have newly broken through to the Lumbering Realm is still as high as 30.

“A five-thousand-jin draw iron-core bow requires at least three hundred and fifty jin of iron ore. The amount of iron used for an arrow is not large, only five jin, but a bow needs at least fifty arrows. Calculating it this way, making a complete set of bows and arrows requires at least six hundred jin of iron ore, which is about the same as the amount used for a large saber!”

After Xia Hong calculated for a while, he continued: “To be on the safe side, to deal with the gnawing rat swarm, it is best for all the Lumbering Realm cultivators in the camp to participate. Calculating it this way, we need to produce at least one hundred sets of iron-core bows.”

Making a set of bows and arrows requires six hundred jin of iron ore.

One hundred sets, that would be sixty thousand jin of iron ore.

The six people present came up with this number in their minds, and their brows furrowed slightly.

Although this number is very large, it is actually not impossible to achieve.

The camp currently has seven Earth Digging Realm cultivators. Two use gnawing rat chisels, and their daily mining volume can reach eight hundred jin. The other five use ordinary sheep horn chisels, and their daily output is five hundred jin, which adds up to one thousand three hundred jin.

Sixty thousand jin of iron ore will take about one and a half months to mine.

The reason why everyone is frowning is because of the time.

Mining alone will take one and a half months, what about forging?

The Lumbering Realm cultivators do not have the ability to forge, so these hundred or so iron-core bows must be forged by the seven of them.

Moreover, the camp's hunting activities cannot be stopped, and the seven of them cannot spend all their time on mining and bow-making.

“This way, the time is too long, it is definitely not feasible, so during this period, we still have to find a way to go over there and risk killing a few more gnawing rats. If everyone can have a gnawing rat chisel, then the mining speed will be much faster!”

Hearing this, Xia Chuan and the other four immediately brightened up and nodded.

If all seven of them could be equipped with gnawing rat chisels, then the daily iron ore mining volume would be close to three thousand jin. In this way, sixty thousand jin would only take more than twenty days, and the speed would increase by one time.

“In addition, we need to hunt a few more Teng Jiao to bring back. We need to prepare more poison sacs and saliva, and the Teng Jiao spinal tendons currently used for bow-making are not enough.”

For a swarm of three to four hundred gnawing rats, naturally, we need to prepare a few more poison sacs;

We also need to prepare more saliva to detoxify our own people;

The spinal tendons are even more crucial. The bows used by the Lumbering Realm cultivators need to be equipped with double strings. Making one bow requires two meters of spinal tendons. The length of the Teng Jiao hunted tonight is quite good. There are a total of thirty-eight meters of spinal tendons, which can roughly make nineteen bows without considering losses.

But they need to make more than one hundred bows, requiring at least one hundred and sixty meters. Calculating it, they need to hunt at least five more Teng Jiao.

“The cold beast meat reserves are currently very sufficient. For the next month, the hunting team does not need to go out. When Yuan Cheng's injury recovers, I will take the six of you out to hunt five more Teng Jiao. The rest of the time, the six of you will work with me to mine with all our strength.”

“Yes, leader!”

Since he had made a decision, Xia Hong no longer procrastinated and began to deploy.

“By the way, Chuan, go and notify Shi Qing now. During this period, everyone in the camp, as long as they are above the Lumbering Realm, must take half of their time every night to practice archery with him and let him teach them well.

There are not enough bows and arrows at the moment, so notify Mu Dong and let the craftsman's workshop rush to make a batch of wooden ones for them to practice with. When the bows and arrows are made, there will be no time for them to practice.”

“Yes, leader!”

Xia Chuan nodded and obeyed, leaving directly to go downstairs to notify Shi Qing.

Looking at the remaining Luo Yuan and the other three, Xia Hong directly opened his mouth:

“Time is of the essence. The four of you continue to go to the mine. I will stay here to make bows. When night falls tomorrow night, we will go to the north slope of the mountain wall to see if we can find a chance to hunt a few more gnawing rats.”

The four of them also nodded and obeyed, turning around and going downstairs to the mine.

“120 points of iron resources is only enough to make four bows. There should still be a little bit in the mine. Let's mass-produce the bows first, and the arrows can wait until later.”

Xia Hong directly took out the iron ore, put it into the furnace to melt, and began the tedious and boring process of bow-making.

In fact, the efficiency of forging weapons in the Great Xia Camp is very, very high.

According to Luo Ming's original statement, an ordinary ten-tempered saber requires at least two Earth Digging Realm cultivators to cooperate and spend three to five days.

And the Great Xia Camp, with a sharpening stone, can produce a ten-tempered weapon weighing about seven hundred jin in one night.

The iron-core bow only weighs three hundred jin, and the Great Xia Camp can forge two in one night. This efficiency is already unimaginably high.

But thinking of making a hundred bows, Xia Hong still felt it was too slow.

“Don't rush, don't rush, first use up the iron ore at hand, and then concentrate on mining with the other six. With enough iron ore, the bow-making speed will be faster with seven Earth Digging Realm cultivators working together.”

While the iron ore was melting into liquid, Xia Hong was not idle either. He took the cold beast meat that had been prepared earlier and began to cultivate, racing against time.

After Xia Chuan notified Shi Qing, he also went directly to the mine to collect iron ore with Luo Yuan and the other three, racing against time.

After receiving the notice, Shi Qing immediately called his son Shi Ping, and then went to find Bai Dongying and Cheng Feng separately, and told them Xia Hong's order.

“The gathering team, the logging team, and the hunting team, all the Lumbering Realm cultivators in the camp must take half of their time every night to practice archery!”

Although Cheng Feng and Bai Dongying did not understand, they immediately followed the order after confirming that it was Xia Hong's order, and notified all the members of the gathering team and the logging team.

After confirming that the other nine members of the hunting team and the craftsman's workshop knew about it, Shi Ping went to the mine to report to Xia Chuan.

Xia Chuan, who was mining, did not look back, thought for a while, and said directly:

“Also tell them that there will be an archery level competition every ten days, with a reward of 10 contribution points for the top three; 5 points for the fourth to tenth places.”

“Yes, sir.”

Shi Ping's expression froze, and then his face was full of joy. After nodding and obeying, he hurried away happily to notify the others.

Xia Chuan naturally understood why he was so happy. Although Shi Ping only had the strength of the Lumbering Realm, his archery level inherited from his father Shi Qing was quite good.

The top three are not certain, but he can definitely enter the top ten, so he is so happy.

“Brilliant, with contribution points to take, they will definitely practice harder.”

“Chuan, no wonder the leader made you the camp steward, amazing!”

After Shi Ping left, Luo Yuan and the other three, who were mining beside him, couldn't help but give Xia Chuan a thumbs up.

It is said that even if there is no competition, these Lumbering Realm cultivators in the camp will definitely practice seriously, after all, it will be useful for future outings.

But with this competition, they will undoubtedly practice more seriously.

The overall archery level of the camp will definitely improve faster.

Faced with the praise of the four, Xia Chuan's expression remained the same, and he said in a deep voice: “The faster their archery level improves, the greater the camp's chances of winning against the gnawing rat swarm. In the end, they are all practicing for themselves, and the contribution points are just the icing on the cake!”

Hearing this, Luo Yuan and the other three immediately looked solemn and nodded.

“Hurry up and mine, the leader is still waiting.”

“Okay!”

The five raised their tools again and began to accelerate the mining.

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