Beast Fighting

"Yuan Cheng, Lin Kai, go put out the hearth! Xia Chuan, Yue Feng, the five of you follow me to the cave entrance. Everyone else, retreat all the way inside, quickly!"

Faced with this sudden crisis, Xia Hong deployed his people immediately.

The frost beast was already very close to the cave entrance, so running outside was entirely unrealistic.

Furthermore, it was still daytime. If they really ran out, even those of them with Lumbering Realm cultivation couldn't withstand the extreme cold outside, let alone the rest of the camp.

The cave was not particularly large, but moving the crowd ten meters or so further inside posed no problem.

"It's daytime right now; once we put out the fire, they won't last long..."

Yuan Cheng had felt deeply confused upon hearing the order, but the situation was critical and he hadn't had time to ask. Once they finally extinguished the fire, he blurted out the question.

"Have you forgotten? The small torches we used when we went hunting with the chieftain came from this very hearth."

Upon hearing Lin Kai's reply, Yuan Cheng's expression changed instantly.

They had all seen with their own eyes just how fanatical the frost beasts were about the small torches.

With this hearth burning so fiercely, it would be catastrophic if the frost beasts discovered it.

"Thankfully the chieftain reminded us, otherwise it would have been a disaster. I remember that torch not only heals frost beasts, but can also boost their strength."

"Yuan Cheng, Lin Kai, hurry over and help once the fire is out!"

Hearing Xia Chuan's voice, the two men rushed toward the cave entrance without delay.

"Quickly carry the logs over and block the cave entrance just in case."

The tremors in the ground were still continuing. Xia Hong had everyone carry all the wood stored inside the cave right to the center of the entrance, while he walked over to the side of the opening and gently scraped out a small hole, wanting to see clearly what was happening outside.

The moment the small hole opened, a beam of light shot straight in from the outside.

There was no longer any firelight illuminating the cave, leaving it pitch black.

It was daytime outside, so sunlight shining through the small hole was completely normal.

Yet, accompanying that beam of sunlight into the cave was also a bone-chilling frostiness.

Xia Hong, standing closest to the small hole, could even see with his naked eye how the dust and tiny particles suspended in the sunlight were freezing at a terrifying speed. In the span of just three or four breaths, snowflakes materialized out of thin air and then drifted down to the ground.

Xia Hong's pupils constricted slightly, and he tentatively extended his palm out into the sunlight.

Hiss...

Almost the instant the sunlight touched his palm, a piercing cold shot straight from his hand to his forehead. The patch of skin on his palm rapidly turned blue, and even the blood within it stopped flowing.

Noticing that his palm was beginning to go numb and that the numbness was continually spreading to other parts of his body, Xia Hong's expression changed slightly and he hurriedly pulled his hand back. He rubbed it dozens of times before the numb sensation in his palm gradually faded away.

"Daytime temperatures can actually drop to this extent? No wonder they say humans can only live within the shadows. Even with Earth Excavation Realm cultivation, I'm afraid no one can walk freely beneath the sunlight."

Xia Hong shook his hand. After it recovered completely, he pressed his eye against the small hole and looked outside.

If sunlight assaulting the skin was already like this, direct exposure to the eyeballs would be even worse. The moment his eye aligned with the small hole, a stabbing pain spiked into his forehead. Enduring the pain, Xia Hong hastily checked the situation outside.

At this sight, Xia Hong's heart instantly sank to rock bottom.

A behemoth with six horns and four limbs, measuring a full five to six meters in length and resembling a giant goat, seemed startled by something as it charged frantically toward the hillside.

That colossal beast stood at least two meters tall at the shoulder. Under its violent charge, not to mention trees along the way, even smaller dirt mounds were plowed straight open.

"It's that goat-shaped frost beast, and it's charging right toward our side!"

Xia Hong's eyes reached their limit, so he quickly pulled back and sealed the small hole.

Hearing those words, Xia Chuan and the others all changed expressions.

They had all seen that goat-shaped frost beast before.

Yet every previous time had been at night, when the creature was asleep among the Golden Scale Trees.

That goat-shaped frost beast possessed an immense size, and coupled with their lack of understanding, Xia Hong had deliberately avoided it during every hunt.

"Don't worry. Although its direction looks like this dirt mound, it doesn't necessarily mean it can find our cave. Let's observe the situation first."

The frost beast was already very close to the entrance. Fearing discovery, Xia Hong did not open the small hole again, choosing instead to lead everyone in guarding both sides of the entrance.

Everyone prayed silently that the frost beast would fail to find the cave and wander off on its own.

Thud... thud... thud...

Whether their prayers actually took effect or not, the footsteps of the frost beast suddenly slowed down. Not only did it lose its previous frantic pace, but judging by the sound, it was moving further and further away from the cave entrance.

Only then did everyone's hearts steady slightly.

"It must have been an accident. The frost beast didn't discover the cave; it's heading back."

Only Xia Hong furrowed his brow tightly, harboring a vague sense that something was wrong.

Thinking of something, Xia Hong suddenly dropped to the ground, pressing his ear against the earth.

He listened for less than three breaths before his expression morphed in shock. He sprang up abruptly from the ground and shouted harshly to the rest:

"Scatter to both sides, quickly!"

Everyone snapped to attention with a violent jolt, moving at lightning speed to retreat to the sides of the cave entrance.

Bang...

Almost the exact moment the eight people retreated to the sides, six sharp horns instantly smashed through the cave entrance. Forget about the branches and turf previously used to block the entrance; even the heavy timber the group had just hauled over was instantly pierced through by the horns, shattering into countless wooden chips that danced wildly across the air.

Under the violent impact, the entire cave entrance was wrecked.

Deadly chill mixed with a massive flood of sunlight seeped into the cave. The fur skirts worn by the eight people closest to the entrance, including Xia Hong, instantly frosted over.

"You all retreat further inside, you can't fight it here at the entrance!"

Xia Hong told the others to fall back inside, but he gritted his teeth and charged forward first, grabbing hold of the frost beast's sharp horns.

Upon grabbing the horns, Xia Hong was nearly flung away by the creature. Even though he forcibly stabilized his body, the frost beast's violent momentum sent him crashing backward in a relentless retreat.

Yet even so, Xia Hong leveraged his footing to continuously adjust the direction of the frost beast's charge. He backed up twenty to thirty meters until the path of the beast's charge shifted from the interior of the cave to the left wall.

Of course, his rush forward just now wasn't meant to engage in a wrestling match with the frost beast.

Judging purely by its size, this goat-shaped frost beast was far more powerful than a Snow Mane. With a strength that could at best match an adult Snow Mane at present, he certainly couldn't block it head-on.

He merely wanted to alter the direction of the beast's charge.

With everyone retreating deeper inside, if the beast charged further inward with that level of momentum, no one would be able to stop it.

Just as they were about to crash into the left wall, Xia Hong braced his legs, kicked off the wall fiercely, released his right hand, and drew his stone axe from his waist. Waiting for the exact moment the beast slammed toward the right wall, he hacked down savagely at its head.

Clang...

However, the frost beast, its head covered in horns, barely even shifted its body.

It merely tilted its head slightly and used its horns to block Xia Hong's stone axe.

Not only did it block it, but it also shattered the stone axe in Xia Hong's hand.

Looking at the mere wooden handle left in his grip, Xia Hong felt his scalp go numb.

"Chieftain, catch the axe!"

Xia Hong raised his hand and caught the axe tossed over by Xia Chuan, only then feeling a slight sense of relief.

Xia Chuan, Yuan Cheng, and the others had already swarmed around. Wielding ropes—three on the left, four on the right—they hurled the ropes from both sides to snare the frost beast, then pulled back together with all their might.

Though all seven of them were merely in the Lumbering Realm, their combined strength was still astonishing. Once the main trunk of the frost beast's body was bound and pulled like that, it stumbled awkwardly from an unguarded moment and nearly tipped over sideways.

Roar...

The frost beast forcibly steadied its stance and let out an angry roar that echoed repeatedly throughout the cave. Realizing it could not shake off the ropes held in everyone's hands and had fallen into a stalemate, its fury evidently escalated at an exceptionally rapid pace.