A biting wind raged, snow and ice filled the sky.
Under the shroud of night, the towering trees blanketed in snow looked like white iron towers standing tall and unmoving against the wind.
East of Redwood Ridge, outside an inconspicuous cave.
Xia Hong assumed a traditional Long Fist stance. After adjusting his breathing, his gaze suddenly sharpened, and he abruptly threw a punch.
After all, he stood 1.9 meters tall. Though he could not be called heavily muscled, he was tall and sturdy. Once he finished a set of punches, snowflakes immediately whirled all around him.
Suddenly, a young boy with an immature face emerged from the cave. When he saw Xia Hong, obvious admiration appeared on his face.
"Brother, you're about to break through to Lumberjack Level, right?"
"Soon. It should only take another month."
"Tsk, you're amazing. Father said that among the nine nearby camps, only three geniuses have ever broken through to Lumberjack Level before turning eighteen. You'll be the fourth."
Xia Hong raised his head, revealing a handsome, refined face that did not match his physique at all.
Looking at the admiration on his younger brother Xia Chuan's face, Xia Hong felt pleased, but after calming down, he still shook his head slightly.
"Breaking through to Lumberjack Level is nothing. Rogue Camp even has Earth-Piercer Level experts. Those are the true powerhouses."
When Xia Chuan heard "Earth-Piercer Level," longing immediately appeared on his face.
"Rogue Camp has five Earth-Piercer Level experts. I heard they can excavate over five hundred kilograms of coal for the camp every day. Not only do they not need to burn wood for warmth, they can also use coal furnaces to forge sharp weapons. Hunting low-level Frost Beasts is effortless for them."
Xia Hong nodded slightly. "After all, it's a medium-sized camp with more than five hundred people. Without some strength, the Frost Beasts in Redwood Ridge wouldn't let them live so comfortably."
"It's a pity Father is injured. Otherwise, he would have become an Earth-Piercer Level expert by now too. If Great Xia had coal, perhaps we would have already become a medium-sized camp as well."
There were three universally recognized standards for a medium-sized camp. First, its population had to exceed five hundred. Second, it had to have an Earth-Piercer Level expert. Third, it had to be capable of dealing with a low-level Frost Beast tide.
Great Xia Camp currently had a population of only two hundred and thirty-nine, with thirteen Lumberjack Level fighters.
With that level of strength, let alone a Frost Beast tide—even if a slightly stronger mid-level Frost Beast came along, everyone in the camp would become food.
"Rogue Camp is too stingy. It would be great if they were willing to sell us some coal."
"Coal can provide heat and fuel iron forging, and it can also serve as currency to exchange for advanced supplies at giant camps. Rogue Camp doesn't even have enough for itself, so it wouldn't be willing to sell it to us. Besides, we're such a small camp—we don't have anything good enough to trade with them."
More importantly, if the other camps around Redwood Ridge also got coal, Rogue Camp's advantages in safety and weaponry would vanish.
Its safety advantage attracted people, while its weapon advantage guaranteed overwhelming military strength. With those two advantages, Rogue Camp was the undisputed king of the Redwood Ridge area. Selling coal to the other camps would be crippling itself.
As someone who had transmigrated, Xia Hong naturally saw farther ahead than Xia Chuan.
He had transmigrated a month ago. From his initial panic and confusion to his current calm acceptance, the shocks Xia Hong had endured along the way had been anything but minor.
This world was fraught with danger.
The dangers did not come solely from the special species known as Frost Beasts.
They also came from the climate and all kinds of unheard-of things.
This world had only winter; there were no four seasons.
Moreover, the temperatures during winter here were far more terrifying than those on Earth.
Based on Xia Hong's unprofessional estimate, the nighttime temperature was at least seventy degrees below zero. Normal humans simply could not survive.
Even more outrageous was that daytime was colder than nighttime.
Forget normal humans—even ordinary people in this world would freeze to death if they had no means of keeping warm during the day.
Fortunately, daytime lasted only four hours, so humans were almost all active at night. That was why Xia Hong took advantage of the darkness to practice martial arts outside.
And because daytime was colder, the Frost Beasts were more active, their temperaments more violent, and their strength several dozen percent greater than at night.
Therefore, whether hunting or searching for supplies, humans basically chose to set out at night.
If other people had transmigrated into such a perilous world of endless winter, they would have collapsed long ago.
But Xia Hong not only accepted it quickly—he was even excited deep down.
Because before transmigrating, he had suffered from ALS.
Xia Hong had been born into a martial arts family. Orphaned at a young age, he had practiced martial arts and exercised from childhood, and his lifestyle had been far more disciplined than ordinary people's.
Yet fate had played the cruelest joke on him, giving him this incurable disease.
During his final days, Xia Hong stopped practicing martial arts. While his hands could still move, he spent every day immersed in mobile games until he ended up lying in a hospital bed.
After confirming that he would soon be unable to move, he chose a sunny day and took his own life.
As a result, he came to this world and became the Xia Hong he was now.
Though this world was filled with danger, he had been granted a second life and was already incomparably grateful. What was more, the heavens had given him such a strong and youthful body.
He stood 1.91 meters tall, weighed over ninety kilograms, had a slim waist and long, powerful arms, and was only a little over sixteen years old.
According to the sayings on the internet in his previous life, this body of his was the absolute holy physique for martial arts.
When he had first transmigrated, this body had been young and robust, but its strength had been at most around two thousand kilograms.
Yet the legendary boxing champion Tyson of Earth had possessed only eight hundred kilograms of strength, equivalent to one thousand six hundred kilograms.
At first, Xia Hong had not understood what was going on and had assumed he was very strong.
It was only after he personally witnessed an adult woman in the camp casually lifting a five-to-six-hundred-kilogram tree that he understood:
In this world, everyone was the perfected version of Tyson.
It made sense when he thought about it. Humans were products of their environment.
In such an unbearably harsh, frigid climate, humans simply could not survive without evolving along with it.
After realizing how weak he was, Xia Hong naturally did not dare slack off.
The martial arts of his previous life were useful here.
For practicality's sake, he had chosen Ancestral Long Fist. In just one month, with the aid of Frost Beast flesh and blood, his strength had risen to four thousand kilograms. According to his father Xia Ding, he was about to reach the five-thousand-kilogram threshold of Lumberjack Level.
"With Lumberjack Level strength, I'll be able to join the Lumber Team. At the very least, I can get a look at the world outside the camp."
If this had been his previous life, five thousand kilograms of strength would have made him a bona fide superman.
But in this world, it merely allowed him to chop down trees.
That was right. Lumberjack Level meant exactly what it said.
Once someone reached this level, they could go—chop down trees!
"Brother, Father is back!"
Suddenly, Xia Chuan pointed toward the woods of Redwood Ridge and shouted.
Xia Hong looked up. A twelve-person team was quickly emerging from deep within the woods. They were divided into six groups, with two people in each group carrying a towering tree over twenty meters long, one in front and one behind.
Once all six groups and their six trees had completely emerged from the woods, the two brothers, Xia Hong and Xia Chuan, finally smiled when they saw the burly figure at the rear.
According to their father Xia Ding, every trip outside was a fight for their lives.
Returning safely with no one missing was absolutely something worth celebrating.
However, as the thirteen members of the Lumber Team drew closer and closer, Xia Hong and Xia Chuan discovered that the people's faces held not the slightest hint of joy. Instead, they were filled with solemnity and unease.
The two hurried forward to meet them, and Xia Hong asked directly,
"Father, what happened?"
"How long until dawn?"
There was even a trace of forced composure in Xia Ding's voice. Clearly, he was terrified to the extreme inside.
But Xia Hong quickly raised his head and, after observing the position of the bright moon in the sky, gave him an answer.
"There should only be fifteen minutes left."
"Quick, get into the camp. Tell them to put out the bonfires. No fires."
At those words, Xia Hong's pupils widened, his face filled with confusion.
"Father, if we put out the bonfires during the day, everyone in the camp will freeze to death."
Daytime was colder than nighttime. Even hiding inside a cave, people would absolutely freeze to death without bonfires to raise the temperature.
Xia Ding was the camp's leader. He understood these matters better than anyone. Why would he suddenly say something like this?
"That monster in Redwood Ridge has come out!"
Before you continue