Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Great Xia Year 1, April 20th.

It has been exactly one month since Xia Hong integrated the six departments.

It has also been a full seventeen days since that trade fair.

The Great Xia settlement in the valley has undergone earth-shattering changes.

After nightfall, people poured out of the two temporary wooden houses in droves, including fully armed hunting teams, adults going out to cut wood in groups, women carrying wooden buckets to collect snow, teenagers practicing boxing in groups in the square outside the wooden houses, and children under six years old who came out to play together…

Anyone with a discerning eye would notice that many new faces have appeared in the valley, including men, women, old and young. The overall population of the valley has also increased significantly compared to before.

After everyone walked out of the wooden houses, they would subconsciously look back at the wooden building under construction, with a strong look of longing on their faces.

“That wooden building should be finished soon, right? Ordinary laborers are no longer needed. These days, it’s been the more than one hundred people from the artisans’ workshop working inside.”

“Definitely. It’s already in the final stages. I heard they are arranging the rooms on the third floor. I saw them moving a lot of good furniture in yesterday. Tsk, tsk, all of them are covered with animal绒 (róng - soft fur/down). It’s probably for the leader’s room.”

“I saw it last night too. Just a chair, the back and seat are all wrapped in animal绒 (róng - soft fur/down). Even the legs of the chair are carved from兽骨 (shòu gǔ - animal bone). There’s even a Frost Wolf head carved on each armrest. Tsk, tsk, it looked so good.”

“I saw it too. That chair is really good-looking. I asked a friend from the artisans’ department, and guess how many contribution points it takes to exchange for that chair?”

“How many?”

“How many?”

“70 points!”

“Tsk, tsk, 70 points is enough to cultivate in the martial arts hall for a day.”

“And still have 20 points left over.”

“A whole set of clothes is only 155 points. This chair is worth half a set of clothes.”

“Only the leader can afford to use it, right?”

“Not necessarily. I heard that members of the hunting team have also ordered them. The artisans’ department has accumulated a lot of orders.”

“That’s just an ordinary chair. The wooden bed, lampstand, brazier… everything in the leader’s room is of the highest standard. Yesterday, I even saw a golden and resplendent throne carved with more than a dozen patterns of寒兽 (hán shòu - cold beasts). I heard it was painted with gold powder ground from the twigs of the金凛树 (jīn lǐn shù - Gold Majesty Tree). It’s definitely for the leader.”

“That goes without saying. In our Great Xia, who else is worthy to sit on it besides the leader!”

“The wooden building has been closed these past few days, and people are not allowed to enter.”

“It should be waiting to be completed. I wonder if those of us who came later will be able to get a room.”

“I asked someone from Great Xia. Everyone can get one, but it depends on your marital status. Married couples can be assigned a single-family dwelling, and unmarried people will live in ten-person rooms, separated by gender.”

“Ah, that’s so good. Then I have to quickly find a wife.”

“Hahaha, is a wife something you can find just because you want to?”

… … … … … …

Currently, the biggest topic of discussion in the camp is the wooden building.

The reason is simple. Since the night of April 3rd, when more than 5,000 people from the three camps of Xiao He, Tong Ling, and San Hu merged at once, it has been like it never ends. Every two or three days, another camp merges, and the population of Great Xia has ushered in an extremely exaggerated surge.

With so many people, the two wooden houses are completely insufficient.

If it weren’t for the high temperature in the valley and the south mine being able to accommodate a large number of people, I’m afraid many people wouldn’t even have a place to sleep.

Therefore, the new residence has become the most concerning issue for everyone.

This is the case for both the people of Great Xia and those who merged later.

… … … …

While everyone was walking out of the wooden houses, a large group of people was also sitting around in the main hall of the wooden house on the left. Except for the main seat being empty, there were more than twenty people sitting on the left and right sides below.

Xia Chuan was standing beside the main seat, listening to Yue Feng’s report below.

Yue Feng was holding a beast skin册 (cè - booklet) in his hand, with many small characters written in coal笔 (bǐ - pen). He was excitedly reading out the increase in the camp’s population:

“Great Xia Year 1, April 3rd, a total of 5,219 people from the three camps of Xiao He, San Hu, and Tong Ling merged.”

“Great Xia Year 1, April 6th, a total of 1,821 people from the two camps of Xifeng and Anping merged.”

“Great Xia Year 1, April 8th, a total of 2,521 people from the two camps of Jiuhe and Gukou merged.”

“Great Xia Year 1, April 11th, a total of 2,712 people from the three camps of Qujiang, Pingdong, and Yingkou merged.”

… … … … … …

As one piece of data after another was reported, the expressions of the others present, like Yue Feng, became more and more excited.

On the other hand, Xia Chuan, who was in the lead, had a calm expression and just kept nodding.

After all, for the past half month or so, he was responsible for deploying manpower to help the people from these camps move over, and he had almost heard these numbers once before.

After the trade fair ended, the remaining nine medium-sized camps in Five Ape Mountain, except for the Xiao He and Tong Ling camps, sent people to visit Great Xia the next day.

The effect of the visit was similar to the situation in the Xiao He camp.

The conditions in the Five Ape Mountain camps were indeed too far behind those of Great Xia.

As long as they weren’t stupid, they basically wouldn’t refuse to merge.

The subsequent development of events indeed confirmed this point.

Not only did these camps agree to merge, but they even took the initiative to help Great Xia find the remaining small camps and brought them along to merge one after another.

Of course, this process wasn’t that simple. During this period, Yuwen Tao himself, including the entire hunting department, hadn’t been idle. Almost every night, they had to take people to survey the routes. After determining the time, they would escort the population of those camps to the Great Xia Valley.

With the previous example, Xia Chuan naturally didn’t dare to be careless about the large-scale population migration. In fact, if it weren’t for being careful, the speed of this annexation of the Five Ape Mountain camps could have been much faster.

Pa… …

While Xia Chuan was thinking, Yue Feng here had already reached the end of his report.

Yue Feng closed the beast skin册 (cè - booklet) in his hand. On the cover of the beast skin册 (cè - booklet), the five large characters “Great Xia Chronicle” were impressively engraved.

“Reporting, Director Xia, Director Yuwen has already set off at night. If there are no accidents, the 1,821 people from the Zhuhe camp will also come tonight. If we calculate it this way, the current total population of our camp is…”

Yue Feng had obviously already calculated it. He paused deliberately, looked around at everyone present, and finally continued loudly towards Xia Chuan: “23,231 people!”

Hiss… … … …

More than twenty people present all gasped in unison.

Even Xia Chuan, who had been mentally prepared for a long time, couldn’t help but feel excited, and a hint of excitement flashed in his pupils.

More than 23,000 people.

This was the result of annexing the entire Five Ape Mountain camp!

Let’s not talk about the current territory of Great Xia. Just this population size alone is already more than double that of the previous Mirror Immortal Camp.

Who would have thought that just over a year ago, Great Xia was just a small camp with a population of less than two hundred, always on the verge of destruction.

“More than 23,000 people. The population standard for a village-level camp is only 20,000. Has our Great Xia reached it?”

After a long silence, Yuan Cheng, who was sitting below, couldn’t help but speak.

Hearing this, everyone’s expressions couldn’t help but begin to stir.

A camp with a population of over 500 is medium-sized, 2,500 is large-sized, over 5,000 is giant-sized, and over 20,000 is a solid village-level camp.

Great Xia has unknowingly reached the population size of a village-level camp!

“It’s just that the population has reached it, but the number of strong people is not enough. I once heard Chief Yuwen say that to become a true village-level camp, there must be three kinds of intermediate spiritual objects to suppress the驻地 (zhù dì - garrison/settlement), so as to achieve the suppression of诡怪 (guǐ guài - monsters/strange creatures)…”

Meng Yi thought of what Yuwen Hu had said before his death and started to speak, but before he could finish, he saw the Blazing Sun Cauldron in the center of the main hall and immediately stopped.

The others, including Xia Chuan, also reacted and looked at the Blazing Sun Cauldron in the middle of the main hall, with excited expressions.

They didn’t understand what spiritual objects were.

But if it was just to suppress诡怪 (guǐ guài - monsters/strange creatures), with this Blazing Sun Cauldron, they wouldn’t need any spiritual objects at all.

“That is to say, from today onwards, we can call ourselves Great Xia Village to the outside world?”

Hearing Yuan Cheng’s words, everyone became excited.

Meng Yi frowned, but thinking that his understanding of village-level camps came from Yuwen Hu, which was a superficial understanding, he didn’t say anything more.

From the perspective of suppressing诡怪 (guǐ guài - monsters/strange creatures), Great Xia had indeed reached it.

It’s just that he didn’t know if there were any other standards for a true village-level camp besides this.

“Let’s not mention this for now. As long as the strength is steadily improved, even if it hasn’t reached it, it will eventually reach it in the future. Qiu Peng, tell me about the registration situation of the camp needs department!”

Xia Chuan glanced at Meng Yi, noticed it, but didn’t ask in detail, and instead turned to Qiu Peng beside him to ask.

Qiu Peng was obviously prepared as well. He also took out a roll of beast skin册 (cè - booklet), walked to the middle of the main hall, and began to report the situation to Xia Chuan.

“During this period, too many people have joined the camp, and there are breakthroughs every day, so we can only report the latest data. In addition, the roster of the Zhuhe camp has been sent in advance, so it is also included in the statistics.

As of now, the total number of people who have registered for contribution points is 4,113, of which 431 are in the掘地境 (jué dì jìng - Earth Digging Realm); 3,712 are in the伐木境 (fá mù jìng - Wood Chopping Realm).

The remaining number of reserve役 (yì - service) people over six years old who have not broken through to the伐木境 (fá mù jìng - Wood Chopping Realm) is 15,231; the number of children under six years old is 3,887.

These are the overall population situation of the camp at present!”

After speaking, Qiu Peng thought of something and immediately added:

"Sir, recently, the number of reservists breaking through to the Lumbering Realm has been consistently over a hundred each day. The number of Lumbering Realm cultivators breaking through to the Earth Digging Realm averages about ten or so each day, sometimes even twenty or thirty, so the data changes significantly every day."

Xia Chuan nodded, as he was naturally aware of all this.

If he remembered correctly, the eleven medium-sized camps on the Five Ape Mountain side had a total of only 231 Earth Digging Realm cultivators. Great Xia previously had 110, but with the deaths of Liu Zhuang and Tian Yu, they were left with only 108. If there hadn't been continuous breakthroughs every day, they wouldn't have reached 431 Earth Digging Realm cultivators.

Not to mention the Lumbering Realm, which had been sprouting up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain since the environment gradually stabilized.

However, it must be said that the vast majority of people currently breaking through are basically from the original thousand-plus people of Great Xia.

This is also normal. It has only been a month since the Mirror Immortal Camp merged, and the people from Five Ape Mountain even less. The breakthrough wave for these people will definitely take time to brew.

Although the Martial Arts Hall is powerful, it can only accommodate 200 people each day. Since the newcomers don't have enough contribution points, the Great Xia group will definitely have priority. Recently, the Mirror Immortal group has started accumulating more contribution points, and some of them can now enter as well.

As for the more than ten thousand people who came later from Five Ape Mountain, they can only spend some time accumulating contribution points before they can enter to cultivate.

"In addition, according to your instructions, sir, everyone's household registration has been registered in separate volumes. Marital status, family members, including orphans, have all been carefully distinguished, and all have been formed into registers, which are right here."

Qiu Peng said as he handed over the register.

Xia Chuan took the register, flipped through it briefly, a look of satisfaction on his face. He then returned the register to Qiu Peng, and turned to look at Luo Yuan below, smiling, "Yuwen Tao is not here tonight, he should have explained things to you, right?"

Luo Yuan stood up and nodded, also taking out a beast skin book from the side.

"Sir, the Hunting Department has established eleven new teams during this period. Adding the original thirteen teams, and subtracting the Xuanwu Team that was disbanded, there are currently twenty-three hunting teams…"

Watching Luo Yuan speak eloquently, adapting to the position of Deputy Director of the Hunting Department so quickly, a hint of satisfaction appeared in Xia Chuan's eyes. He secretly thought that Yuwen Tao was quite sensible.

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As the major camps merged, the number of Earth Digging Realm cultivators increased, and the affairs that the Hunting Department had to manage also increased day by day. Xia Chuan was not surprised when Yuwen Tao found him a few days ago and proposed to add a Deputy Director.

What surprised him was that Yuwen Tao didn't mention his own people, but instead proposed that Luo Yuan be the Deputy Director.

Hong Guang's Xuanwu Team was disbanded by his eldest brother, and he could no longer compete for the position of Director of the Reclamation Department. Xia Chuan thought at the time that Yuwen Tao had an opinion and was deliberately proposing a Deputy Director to get his own people in, but he didn't expect that he had underestimated him this time.

"Hong Guang's matter was entirely his own fault. He caused the deaths of Tian Yu and Liu Zhuang, and I was very angry. The leader's handling was fair, and I have no objections. To be honest, sir, I didn't really agree with him competing for the position of Director of the Reclamation Department, but I couldn't persuade him and there was nothing I could do. Now that such a big thing has happened, I also have a responsibility."

Remembering Yuwen Tao's words the day before yesterday, Xia Chuan nodded slightly, put aside his thoughts, and continued to listen to Luo Yuan's report.

"Sir, can we appropriately relax the qualifications for forming a hunting team? There are still nearly two hundred people who can't join a hunting team!"

Hearing Luo Yuan's final suggestion, Xia Chuan was stunned for a moment, but quickly realized that there were not enough hunting teams.

Currently, all 23 hunting teams are low-level, and according to regulations, can only have a maximum of ten people, which means that only 230 Earth Digging Realm cultivators have joined a team, but now there are 431 Earth Digging Realm cultivators in the camp, and 199 without a team.

The problem is that Yuwen Tao initially stipulated that there were conditions for individuals to create a hunting team: First, the creator must have a basic strength of more than 20,000 jin; second, there must be four members; and finally, they must hunt and kill five different species of low-level Frost Beasts.

Yuwen Tao's regulations are still very reasonable. A basic strength of more than 20,000 jin, with four Earth Digging Realm cultivators, facing low-level Frost Beasts, even if they can't win due to lack of experience, at least they can protect their lives.

The regulations are reasonable, but the current quality of personnel cannot keep up.

There are too few Earth Digging Realm cultivators in the camp with a basic strength of more than 20,000 jin.

Xia Chuan also knew that of the eleven newly emerged teams, seven were successfully created by the original Great Xia Earth Digging Realm cultivators who met the standards. Of the more than ten thousand people who came from Five Ape Mountain, only four met the standards and successfully created a team.

Therefore, Luo Yuan proposed to relax the conditions, otherwise nearly two hundred people would not be able to participate in the hunting work, which is indeed a bit of a loss.

Xia Chuan lowered his head and pondered for a while, and finally shook his head, saying:

"The regulations have only been out for a month, and we can't change them now. The threshold of 20,000 jin is also very reasonable, there is no need to change it. If we relax the conditions, the hunting teams will be of mixed quality, and casualties will occur, which would be even worse.

Let's do this! Let's keep the existing twenty-three teams, but you can discuss with Yuwen Tao about changing the current team size limit. Low-level teams can be expanded to 20 people, but correspondingly, the medium and high-level team size limits must also change, and the minimum monthly hunting quota must also change."

Luo Yuan's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he nodded immediately.

Expanding 23 teams to 20 people each would accommodate a total of 460 people.

Not only would the remaining Earth Digging Realm cultivators be utilized, but more importantly, the second thing he wanted to say, the issue of the camp's increased demand for beast meat due to the recent increase in population, would also be resolved at once.

Xia Chuan solved the Hunting Department's problem, and finally turned his gaze to Mu Dong.

Mu Dong understood and immediately stood up, cupping his hands and saying: "Reporting to Director Xia, the wooden building is basically completed and will be fully occupied tomorrow night."

Hearing that the wooden building was completed and could be occupied tomorrow night, everyone, including Xia Chuan, couldn't help but smile.

They had been too crowded during this period.

However, before they could be happy for long, Mu Dong continued to speak:

"However, sir, the camp's current population seems to be a bit too large, more than 23,000 people. The newly built wooden building can accommodate them, but it is no longer possible to give each household a room like we did before!"

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, including Xia Chuan. After thinking for a while, they all immediately realized.

The rebuilt wooden building was only different from the previous one in terms of materials. The defensive performance was much higher, but the internal layout was still the same: 360 rooms on the first floor; 280 rooms on the second floor; 100 rooms on the third floor.

When Great Xia only had a thousand-plus people before, as long as they were married, they could basically get a single room, and the unmarried were separated by gender into ten-person rooms.

Now that the entire camp has more than 20,000 people, it is definitely impossible to allocate rooms in the same way as before.

Qiu Peng also stood up at this time and said: "Sir, excluding special orphans and single men and women, there are currently 5,821 registered households in the camp. Allocating rooms as before is completely insufficient."

5,821 households, Xia Chuan frowned. The wooden building only has a total of 740 rooms. Even if allocated by household registration, an average of eight households can only live in one room, not to mention those orphans and single people without household registration.

Housing has become a problem again!

This is not too big of a problem.

After thinking for a while, Xia Chuan's eyes quickly lit up, and he said:

"When the leader took us to discuss matters last month, I said that rebuilding the wooden building was only to deal with emergencies, similar to the previous Frost Beast tide. We need a place that can quickly gather everyone and has a certain degree of defense, so this wooden building itself is not for everyone to live in."

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, remembering that Xia Chuan did say this during the meeting last month, but the problem is, if they don't live there, where do they live?

"You probably all know the effect of the Scorching Sun Cauldron, right?"

Xia Chuan suddenly pointed to the Scorching Sun Cauldron and asked.

Everyone looked at the Scorching Sun Cauldron and nodded.

During this period, the radiation range of the Scorching Sun Cauldron has been tested, which is a radius of one kilometer.

The valley where Great Xia is located is only three or four hundred meters wide from north to south, and more than 1,500 meters long from east to west. The Scorching Sun Cauldron almost radiates throughout the entire area, and even some areas on the periphery are covered.

"After the new building is completed, it will no longer be distinguished as before. 739 rooms, plus two temporary wooden houses, will be divided equally among everyone, which means that except for the leader alone, everyone else will have to squeeze."

Even if counting the two temporary wooden houses, the new building will have at least five or six households, maybe even more. So many people squeezing into one room, everyone was shocked when they heard this.

"So crowded?"

"How can we live like this?"

"Twenty people squeezing into one room, that's terrible."

… … … …

Especially Yuan Cheng, who has been flirting with Shi Lu recently, and is about to live together soon. How can they live without a room?

He immediately stood up and asked: "Sir, no, it's too crowded, it's not convenient for everyone, right?"

Seeing his anxious look, everyone knew what was going on and lowered their heads and laughed.

Xia Chuan also laughed twice, but quickly waved his hand and said: "Don't worry, I said that the wooden building is used to deal with emergencies, not for you to live in. If you want to live, build it yourself!"

Build it yourself?

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, but quickly realized and their eyes lit up.

That's right, with the Scorching Sun Cauldron, the temperature in the entire valley is not a problem, they can completely build other buildings in the valley.

Build a building belonging to their own family?

Everyone's expression instantly became excited.

Seeing that everyone was about to ask questions, Xia Chuan immediately waved his hand, signaling them to be calm, and said with a smile, "Don't worry, I haven't finished speaking yet.

The space within the valley is only so large, and it's impossible for everyone to build, so not everyone will have the qualifications to build houses; also, how to build, what materials to use, and how large a house each person can build will require specialized planning and design, otherwise problems will arise every few days;

Also, you are all Earth Realm cultivators, and you have your own things to do every day, so it's impossible to fully dedicate yourselves to building houses. The construction materials, labor, and the supplies needed, how many contribution points will be needed to exchange for them, will also need to be discussed jointly by the Logistics Department and the Artisan Department…"

Xia Chuan said a lot in one breath. Although everyone was confused, the expressions on their faces were still excited.

Simply put, the twenty-odd people present at this moment were all considered high-level members of the Great Xia camp. Since Xia Chuan intended to promote the policy of building houses, they, as a group, would definitely be qualified.

Among those present, Mu Dong and Qiu Peng were the most attentive listeners. After all, both the Artisan Department and the Logistics Department had been mentioned by name, and as they listened more, they also realized that Xia Chuan was clearly assigning tasks to them.

"That's all for now. Mu Dong, Qiu Peng, discuss according to my ideas first, and show me the regulations after you come up with them. As long as they pass, they can be announced to the public."

"Yes, Lord!"

"Yes, Lord!"

Squeezing will still be necessary for a while. If you don't want to squeeze, spend contribution points to build your own house. Thinking of the earliest batch of hunting team members who were always clamoring that they had too many contribution points to spend, Xia Chuan chuckled inwardly.

With the matter of building houses, there would be another channel to consume contribution points.

Moreover, so much manpower and resources would be required, and the consumption would probably be considerable!

After resolving the matter of housing, Xia Chuan also breathed a slight sigh of relief. Thinking of what Mu Dong and Cheng Feng had said to him before he came, he immediately asked the two.

"By the way, Mu Dong, Cheng Feng, didn't you say you had some new things to show the leader? Did you bring them?"

Mu Dong nodded first, a look of excitement on his face, and clapped his palms.

Outside the main hall, five people immediately walked in, each holding a tray.

Cheng Feng's expression also shook, and he took out four bottles from his body.

Seeing that the two were about to speak, Xia Chuan quickly raised his hand: "No need, I'll take you to see the leader, and…"

He turned his gaze to Shi Ping in the back and said, "You come too!"

Shi Ping's expression shook upon hearing this, and he immediately followed excitedly.