Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely-Chapter 96: Mad Hunting and Steady Improvement

The civilization of humanity in the Ice Abyss World, although fallen, is not completely lost.

From the beginning of his journey, Xia Hong had already discovered this.

While humans have indeed regressed to a primitive era to some extent, this was largely due to the extreme environment’s pressure. Yet, from many aspects, one can still see traces of civilization’s former existence.

From the human camps’ concepts of family and marriage, surname culture, funeral rites, even the writing system; down to basic craftsmanship, gathering tools, and leather products, up to cooking food and avoiding raw water, and so on...

Initially, Xia Hong thought these retained habits were due to the disaster that caused civilization’s downfall not being too distant in past, but he overturned this idea considering the harsh cold environment and biological evolution.

Earth’s temperature requires centuries to shift by a few degrees, but the extreme cold climate of the Ice Abyss World, the might of the Cold Beast, and even the inexplicable deceitful monster, obviously couldn’t have formed in a short time.

Based on what he heard from Shi Qing, according to Yang and Li, the Archaic Abyss Era might be exceedingly distant.

Thus, concluding this way, humanity’s endurance of so many civilized habits must be credited to civilization’s own resilience.

Extreme environments can drastically reduce populations, but it’s not that simple to completely erase a civilization with no trace.

The human desire to survive is one of the most powerful forces in existence.

What other camps are like, Xia Hong isn’t sure.

But having arrived in the Ice Abyss World and been born around Redwood Ridge, he often feels fortunate.

In extreme environments, the extent of human malice burst equals the extent of kindness that can grow—this is the power of civilization, or one could say, the inertia of civilization.

This is precisely proven by all the camps around Redwood Ridge.

If civilization had truly fallen completely, there wouldn’t exist people venturing out to gather resources to feed hundreds of ordinary people, or talk of sharing Cold Beast Meat with others would be absurd.

Civilization can raise wisdom, mutual support, helping each other, unity and cohesion, responsibility and sharing, any resistance to selfish behavior—these are manifestations of wisdom.

The primary reason for humanity’s dire situation is the extreme cold environment, followed by Cold Beasts and deceitful monsters.

Extreme cold makes food and travel problematic;

Cold Beasts and deceitful monsters make safety unguaranteed.

To thoroughly eliminate these three issues seems nearly impossible at present.

"Unity, strengthening power, adapting to environments, continuously responding to challenges posed by Cold Beasts and deceitful monsters is humanity’s only way out."

Faced with these three issues, Xia Hong thought for a long time and came to this conclusion.

Change the last "humanity" to "Great Xia," and this conclusion, under Xia Chuan and others’ promotion, soon became a well-known ideological guide in the Great Xia Camp.

This statement would suit humanity more, but given the current strength of the Great Xia Camp, proclaiming it blatantly feels slightly rhetorical, grandiloquent.

No any collective organization can do without ideological guidance.

To put it simply, it’s about ensuring that every person in the camp knows what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. Only then they’ll have the drive toward a common goal.

With ideological guidance and accompanied by Xia Hong leading frenzied hunts, with sufficient Cold Beast Meat distribution, in the subsequent period, everyone in the Great Xia Camp visibly busied themselves.

The Hunting Team, led personally by Xia Hong, almost returned fully loaded every night, though occasionally some injuries occurred, mainly minor.

A month following the policy’s official implementation, during the second distribution of Cold Beast Meat to children under thirteen in the camp, the reserve of Cold Beast Meat in the camp’s mine already reached over thirty thousand pounds, enough to last two months without hunting.

Xia Hong had not concerned himself with the Logging Team matters, leaving it to Cheng Feng and Mu Dong, yet from the growth in his resource data, and the height of timber stacked on both sides of the valley, the Logging Team’s gains were also significant during this period.

The plan to build new cabins had already spread within the camp by Mu Dong, so during this time, the Logging Team focused mainly on cutting down the Golden Frost Trees.

It’s worth mentioning that since Cold Beasts frequently huddle on the Golden Frost Trees, sometimes cooperation from the Hunting Team is necessary. They first hunt the beasts on the trees, and then the Logging Team proceeds with cutting.

Although the Rogel Camp had penetrated the Redwood Ridge’s thousand-meter area before, in this time, Xia Hong still limited the huntings and logging area of the Great Xia Camp to five hundred meters on the outskirts without leading anyone further in.

For one, he wasn’t familiar with the inner surroundings, nor had encountered new types of Cold Beasts, wary of potential issues; for another, resources the Great Xia currently needs are abundantly within the five hundred meters on the periphery, with no need for further depth.

The area where Great Xia currently gathers resources at Redwood Ridge is no longer limited to the meager initial five hundred meters.

Rogel, Da Shi, Daxuan, Huang Zhao, including its previous territory, now wholly undisputed belong to Great Xia, from the east side of Redwood Ridge, from the valley’s position southward for four kilometers.

With such a vast space for resource-gathering, Xia Hong naturally avoids advancing foolishly, focusing first on gradually strengthening power, and waiting until the periphery resources can’t sustain the camp’s development to delve deeper, undoubtedly more prudent.

The Hunting Team and Logging Team faced heavy tasks, yet not a trace of fatigue could be found on the thirty-six individuals’ faces. Instead, their enthusiasm grew with each outing, and their smiles returned even brighter each time.

Xia Hong clearly knew the reason because these people, himself included, were enhancing their strength at a remarkably rapid pace.

Others, he didn’t specifically delve into, but regarding the fifteen members of the Hunting Team who followed him each night, he was aware of how astonishing their progress was during this period.

The daily consumption of Cold Beast Meat by the Logging Realm ranges from five to ten pounds, while these fifteen from the Hunting Team receive ten pounds each night, their supply far exceeding consumption, enabling them to absorb and enhance in an almost extreme state every day.

Moreover, Xia Hong’s four sets of long fists had been fully transmitted down, with martial arts enhancing their absorption rate, thus naturally accelerating their improvement.

According to Xia Hong’s observations during hunts, it’s expected that Luo Yuan would be the first to break through to the Earth-digging Realm, followed by the three Zhao siblings.

Another unexpected individual for Xia Hong was Xia Chuan.

A month ago, during the first outing with the animal trap for hunting, Xia Chuan’s strength was just under seven thousand pounds, and within a mere month, he had risen nearly to eight thousand pounds, now matching the Zhao siblings, only slightly under Luo Yuan.

Although Xia Hong hasn’t paid special attention to the Logging Team and reserves’ training conditions, deducing from their fervor for training upon returning from outings each day, he can guess the situation somewhat.

The camp’s overall strength is steadily rising, and given equivalent circumstances of Cold Beast Meat supply, Xia Hong understands that next, he merely awaits the arrival of the explosive period.

Of course, while others steadily progress, he himself cannot fall behind.

After one month of the new regulations in Great Xia, Xia Hong gave the Hunting Team its first night off, and after distributing the Cold Beast Meat as usual, he walked alone to the spot outside his cabin, where the Force Measuring Stake was stored.

Those who were already training outside noticed Xia Hong’s movements, realized he was about to test his strength, and immediately stopped what they were doing, eagerly gathering around him.