What would a camp with more than a hundred thousand people look like?
In truth, Luo Ming, Shi Qing, and the other five had no way of imagining it.
But they were all leaders, each in charge of a camp with several hundred people.
They understood perfectly well what a camp with more than a hundred thousand people represented.
Vast quantities of food, staggering security costs, and countless Frost Beast carcasses...
"Wait. If there are more than a hundred thousand people, could they even find a cavern that large?"
Shi Qing could not help asking about the question that troubled him most.
Humans could not withstand the light, so a hundred thousand people would have to hide somewhere.
Could they really find a cavern that large?
Summer insects cannot be told about ice, and frogs in a well cannot be told about the sea.
Those two sayings surfaced in Yang Ning and Li Hu's minds. They gently shook their heads.
"Not all humans can only live beneath the shadows. If one day any of you is lucky enough to gain the qualifications to enter North Shuo Town, you'll understand."
After Yang Ning finished speaking, he paused, then continued to himself, "Of course, for the several of you, that possibility is basically nonexistent."
Luo Ming, Shi Qing, and the other four turned gloomy at those words.
Compared with Shi Qing, Luo Ming actually understood Yang Ning's words more deeply.
Rogue Camp was the only mid-sized camp in the area surrounding Redwood Ridge.
The other eight camps had all approached him before, asking to merge into Rogue Camp.
But he had not dared—or rather, had been unable—to accept them.
Although he understood that a camp was better off with more people,
expansion required strength as its foundation.
Strength meant being able to obtain more resources, support more people, hunt more Frost Beast carcasses, and provide cultivation resources for more people.
Unfortunately, Rogue Camp's strength was nowhere near enough to support expansion.
Rogue Camp had five people in the Earth Excavation Realm and forty-seven in the Lumbering Realm. Even the Frost Beast Meat they hunted each month was barely enough to raise their own people. If the other small camps merged in, there simply would not be enough Frost Beast Meat.
Moreover, once they merged, more ordinary people would mean a rapidly expanding demand for Crystal Fruit. They would have no choice but to venture out more often in search of more Ice Vast Trees—and that process was dangerous as well.
Most importantly, the strongest person in a small camp was only in the Lumbering Realm. They possessed no hunting ability at all. In other words, their addition would not increase the camp's hunting strength; it would only squeeze the Frost Beast Meat supply originally meant for the camp's people.
Thus, whenever the other camps proposed merging, it was not only Luo Ming himself—even everyone in Rogue Camp had almost always refused.
That was the rule: only after gaining sufficient strength could a camp expand. Then, using its population advantage, it could nurture more experts. Only through this cycle could a camp grow stronger and larger.
Blind expansion would only leave a camp with an unwieldy tail it could no longer control. In the end, even if it was not slaughtered by Frost Beasts and grotesques, it would very likely descend into internal chaos and mutual slaughter.
By that logic, although the North Shuo Town Yang Ning and Li Hu spoke of had a population exceeding a hundred thousand, it certainly would not indiscriminately recruit outsiders. The "qualifications" they mentioned were presumably extraordinarily strict.
Shi Qing could forget about it. Even though Luo Ming possessed strength in the Earth Excavation Realm, Yang Ning and Li Hu were already far stronger than him despite their young age. North Shuo Town's strength could be glimpsed through them alone; naturally, it would not think much of him.
What was more, both of them were leaders of their own camps.
It was impossible for them to abandon their families and companions and join another camp alone.
"That's enough. There's no point telling you so much. Didn't Camp Leader Luo just ask about that Wood Puppet Grotesque? I'll explain it to you."
When Yang Ning was about to speak about the grotesque, Luo Ming and Shi Qing immediately pricked up their ears.
"Long ago, the Ice Abyss was not like this.
"In those days, daytime lasted twelve hours, and the temperature was not as low as it is today.
"Most Frost Beasts were neither as cunning nor as powerful as they are now. Forget about eating humans—in those days, nearly ninety-nine percent of Frost Beasts were nothing more than food for us humans.
"And grotesques did not exist back then.
"During that era, humans could move about freely, day or night.
"It was said that the Ice Abyss had four alternating seasons, with cycles of hot and cold and a pleasant climate. Humans commanded all kinds of powerful tools and were the undisputed overlords of the Ice Abyss. The land was fertile and could be farmed everywhere, producing more grain than anyone could eat. Back then...
"Food, clothing, shelter, and travel were all perfect. Humanity lived in peace and prosperity, and civilization flourished.
"During that period, large settlements of over a hundred thousand people were common—not to mention those with a million or even ten million people."
Hearing Yang Ning's description, Luo Ming, Shi Qing, and the others were all dumbstruck.
They had no concept of millions, let alone tens of millions.
The words "move about freely, day or night" alone—
to them, were already the stuff of dreams.
Ninety-nine percent of Frost Beasts were merely human food?
Food, clothing, shelter, and travel, all perfect. Peaceful lives and flourishing civilization.
What kind of fantastical scene would that be?
It was difficult for people to imagine things they had never seen or experienced, but that did not hinder their yearning and pursuit of beautiful things.
In Luo Ming and Shi Qing's eyes, the world Yang Ning described was no different from a celestial palace or paradise.
"Compared with today's Ice Abyss world, we generally call that period the Ancient Abyss Era, or the Prehistoric Civilization.
"No one knows what happened during the Ancient Abyss Era, what befell the Prehistoric Civilization, or how our world became what it is today.
"Some say humanity angered the gods, and the gods brought divine punishment down upon the Ancient Abyss. Others say humans themselves did too many things they should not have done, causing Frost Beasts and grotesques to appear. In the end, even the climate and the passage of time changed. No one knows the exact reason.
"But one thing is certain: after the Ancient Abyss Era passed and civilization fell, grotesques and Frost Beasts became humanity's nightmare."
Though this lengthy explanation served as foreshadowing, Yang Ning spoke with deep emotion.
Clearly, even he yearned intensely for the Ancient Abyss Era he had never experienced.
"No one currently knows exactly how grotesques came to be, but one thing is certain: they all originated in the Ancient Abyss Era. They are the only things through which we can find proof that the Ancient Abyss Era existed.
"Grotesques are divided into five kinds: artisans, nightmares, dread, divine beings, and demons.
"Artisan Grotesques are one of those kinds. All of them were transformed from highly skilled professional craftsmen of the Ancient Abyss Era. Their tastes in killing are bizarre, and their methods are unfathomable.
"Take the Wood Puppet Grotesque that appeared on Redwood Ridge. It should have been a puppet craftsman from the Ancient Abyss Era, skilled at creating and controlling all kinds of puppets. It favored carving humanoid wooden puppets to imitate humans and trick them into granting its trust, while it hid in the shadows and controlled the puppets to kill."
At this point, Yang Ning paused, then added, "All grotesques evolve by continually killing people.
"Take this Wood Puppet Grotesque as an example. The puppets it creates now can only display the strength of the Lumbering Realm. But as it kills more and more people, its own strength—and the strength of the puppets it creates—will grow stronger as well.
"North Shuo Town once hunted an intermediate Artisan Grotesque. We named it the Tailor Grotesque.
"It had a pair of scissors that could cut dozens of humans in the Earth Excavation Realm into pieces in an instant.
"It also had a set of needle and thread. Once, right before my eyes, it stitched all seven apertures of an expert in the Cold Resistance Level shut.
"Before long, that expert in the Cold Resistance Level suffocated to death."
"Cold Resistance Level..."
This was the first time Luo Ming and Shi Qing had heard those three words. Though they had some guesses in their hearts, confusion still appeared on their faces.
"Above the Earth Excavation Realm is the Cold Resistance Level. It is called that because once a person reaches this realm, they can withstand the daytime cold and venture outside."
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