Chapter 14 - 14: The Regular Cast There is a convention among the camps surrounding Redwood Ridge. If a person hasn't broken through to the Logging Realm by the age of twenty-five, their cultivation value diminishes significantly. It's not to say that past twenty-five there is no hope, but beyond this age, potential declines rapidly. The same resources invested will yield less improvement than for someone under twenty-five. The resources in question, of course, refer to Cold Beast Flesh. In Xia Hong's view, this convention is obviously based on the scarcity of resources. Previously, having never seen a Cold Beast, he didn't understand it. But after venturing out and witnessing the might of the Frost Wolf and Snow Mane, he realized that for these weak camps around Redwood Ridge, every pound of Cold Beast Flesh is hard-earned, so it must be maximized in value. Especially for the Great Xia Camp. By concentrating resources to allow a few to break through first, the more people who can venture outside, the more resources the camp will have, which can then help more people enhance their strength, allowing the camp's overall strength to increase rapidly. The next night, under the witness of everyone in the camp, the competition began. Naturally, Xia Hong first handed out a pound of meat to each of the twenty-two participants. A pound of Cold Beast Flesh isn't enough to sustain their cultivation, but it could quickly satiate them and unleash their maximum basic strength. After eating, the faces of the twenty-two turned rosy, shedding their previous listless look, entirely different from the over hundred who hadn't received Cold Beast Flesh. Xia Hong handed over the responsibility of overseeing the competition to Xia Chuan and Yuan Cheng, while he seized the time to eat Cold Beast Flesh and began cultivating. The crushing defeat of the Da Shi Camp and the terror of the Cold Beasts filled him with urgency. The Da Shi Camp had sixteen logging-level warriors, including two archers with perfect aim, yet with such a luxurious lineup they failed to hunt a low-level Cold Beast and even lost three people. Although this was partly due to their carelessness, the strength and cunning nature of the Cold Beast is an undeniable fact. The impactful collision of that Snow Mane while it was alive, Xia Hong estimated, wasn't far from ten thousand pounds. A force of ten thousand pounds is the standard for Earth-digging Realm strength. Throughout all the camps near Redwood Ridge, only Rogel Camp and the leader Iron Eagle of Iron Peak Camp have an Earth-digging Realm strongman. Xia Hong looked down at the cave floor, held his breath, clenched his fists, and punched the ground. Bang... Now with a strength of five thousand pounds, such tremendous force hitting the ground only produced a not-so-loud sound. The ground remained unwavering, only a bit of dust rose near his fists. The so-called Earth-digging Realm refers to those who, at this stage, can use brute force to break open the ground and extract underground resources. Over years of extreme cold, all lands have become exceedingly hard, not to mention this cave area, which is all stone. "The difficulty of survival here is truly Hell Level!" The land being too hard means farming is impossible. Humans can only rely on those trees that survive the extreme cold and can bear fruit, like Ice Trees, for food. Could those trees be used as food, transplanted back to the camp? Xia Hong had asked Xia Ding this question before. The answer was no. Because those trees need sunlight to grow. Sunlight is only available during the day, but the low temperatures during daylight are fatal to humans. Moreover, not only are daytime temperatures extremely low, but the area of activity for Cold Beasts increases, their temper becomes more violent, and the most deadly are those deceitful monsters that might appear at any moment. A few years ago, Rogel Camp tried to transplant Ice Trees to the ground near the camp cave. But within days, the Ice Trees attracted a massive gathering of Cold Beasts, eventually causing significant casualties in the camp. People discovered then that Cold Beasts, when unable to hunt food, would also use the Crystal Fruit from Ice Trees to satiate their hunger. Thus, transplanting Ice Trees became almost impossible. "Not necessarily, if the camp's strength is enough that it doesn't fear Cold Beasts, transplanting Ice Trees as close as possible could still be doable." The current Great Xia Camp is naturally far from reaching that strength standard, and it was just a thought. Despite the myriad thoughts in his mind, Xia Hong continued his cultivation. After four sets of long fists, with his Beast Skin Clothing nearly soaked with sweat, he finally released the burning sensation that had risen in his body from consuming the Cold Beast Flesh. After slightly clenching his fists and feeling a slight increase in strength, Xia Hong furrowed his brows slightly. "Having broken through to the Logging Realm, my capacity for Cold Beast Flesh has increased by two more pounds. Now I can eat seven pounds a day, but the improvement efficiency seems to have slowed a bit." Everything gets harder as you progress, an objective rule. Xia Hong didn't think much of it. Just as he finished his practice and was about to stop cultivating, Yuan Cheng and Xia Chuan walked over with five people. "Yue Feng, Lin Kai, Qiu Peng, Lu Yang... Xu Ning." Xia Hong only glanced up, immediately reciting the names of the five people in his mind. Only when he got to Xu Ning did he pause a bit. There are only a bit more than a hundred people in the camp, and only about twenty in the same age group, whom Xia Chuan basically knows. In reality, the outcome didn't entirely come as a surprise. Xia Hong knew that those descendants of the logging team members would definitely win. The reason is simple. Compared to others, the descendants of the logging team members had previously been given Cold Beast Flesh, providing a foundation of strength. And indeed, it was so. Yue Feng is the son of the former logging team member Yue Fan, Lin Kai is the son of Lin Yu, Qiu Peng's father is the only archer in Great Xia, Qiu Ping's son, Lu Yang, is the son of Lu Ting. Among the five, only Xu Ning was not a descendant of former logging team members. This was precisely why Xia Hong paused when he saw him earlier. Not being a member of the logging team implies he hadn't eaten Cold Beast Meat before and had never trained. Under such conditions, for him to still make it to the top five wasn't simple at all! Xia Hong turned to Yuan Cheng and inquired, "What's their strength for each of them?" "Yue Feng is exactly 2000, Lin Kai 1800, Qiu Peng 1700, Lu Yang 1500, Xu Ning 1100." Looking at Xu Ning's eyes, Xia Hong's gaze immediately lit up. The first time consuming Cold Beast Flesh, the improvement range can't be too large, which means Xu Ning's basic strength itself is quite terrifying. "This kid might just give me a bit of a surprise." Xu Ning was clearly somewhat self-deprecating in nature. Seeing Xia Hong frequently glancing at him, he immediately grew a bit nervous, slightly evasive in his expression. Xia Hong understood; among the five, only he wasn't a descendant of logging team members, and with a strength gap from the other four, feeling a bit self-conscious at this age is quite normal. So he deliberately shifted his focus and instead took out the five pieces of Cold Beast Flesh he had prepared earlier and distributed them to the five. "From today, I will take time to teach you the long fist technique daily. You've previously eaten Cold Beast Flesh and absorbed it using traditional methods. Given your current physique, you can only manage half a pound per day, or even less. Practicing the long fist technique can enhance your absorption efficiency of Cold Beast Flesh, allowing for quicker strength improvement, so if you want to get stronger fast, learn seriously and carefully. Next time, when the camp gets more Cold Beast Flesh, just like this time, the closer someone is to the Logging Realm, the more they will receive, understood?" The five accepted the Cold Beast Meat, their expressions were immensely invigorated. Hearing Xia Hong's advice, they all lifted their heads, faces solemn, and responded in unison: "Yes, leader!" Recalling the people from the Da Shi Camp, looking at the five in front of him, although knowing there's still quite a gap, Xia Hong felt some confidence welling up inside. It's been over ten days since the logging team was wiped out. As the leader, he's finally formed the first wave of a small core team. The Great Xia Camp has also slightly regained some vitality.