"What is this?"
"Leader, did you go hunting?"
"Hiss… this was hunted by the leader?"
"I've never seen such a big Cold Beast; is the leader that strong?"
"Even when the Axeheart team was here, they never brought back such a large prey."
---
In an instant, everyone in the camp looked at Bruce with different eyes.
There was admiration, respect, reliance, and even more hope.
Strength warrants respect; this is an iron rule everywhere.
Especially in this world, full of peril, where one's life could be lost at any moment.
As someone at the camp said, even when the Axeheart team was here, they never saw a prey this large brought back.
And this was Bruce's first time venturing out.
"It wasn't me who hunted it, just luck."
Bruce explained briefly to everyone, but seeing the expressions on their faces, it was clear they didn't believe it.
After a moment of thought, he restrained himself from explaining further.
After all, during this special time, giving the people at the camp a bit more hope isn't a bad thing; let there be misunderstandings.
However, seeing Charlie and Tony's eyes full of fervor, he couldn't resist and gave each of them a flick on the forehead.
"Don't overthink it; I don't have that ability. The strength of Cold Beasts far exceeds your imagination. If this Snow Mane was alive, we'd all be just a snack for it, even if the whole camp took it on."
Others can be naive, but not Charlie and Tony.
The camp already lacks a core strength, and Charlie and Tony are among the elite.
They are expected to break through to the Axeheart Realm after him and probably will venture out with him soon.
If they remain naive, it could lead to their deaths.
After some explanation, they finally learned how the Snow Mane came to be.
However, their eyes were still filled with fervor and admiration when looking at Bruce.
Even without personal experience, they could both imagine how dangerous that situation was.
Bringing back this Snow Mane, Bruce's image in their minds naturally grew even more heroic.
"The people at Taylor Camp are too much. In the past, when they were short of people for hunting and came to our camp, Uncle Ding and Father would agree and even personally take people over to help. Now, they actually dare to hunt across borders."
But Tony quickly grasped the key point in Bruce's words, stood up, and angrily criticized the people from Taylor Camp.
Beside him, Charlie also showed an indignant look, obviously having opinions too.
In reality, hunting on others' camp territories and gathering resources is considered a very severe and atrocious act in Redwood Ridge.
The reason is simple; there are many trees on Redwood Ridge, numerous Cold Beasts, and even more unknown precious resources.
The problem is the humans in the surrounding camps, their strength is too weak.
Because of their weak strength, they don't dare to venture far into Redwood Ridge.
All camps only dare to operate in a small, limited area on the outskirts of Redwood Ridge.
So when dividing territories early on, except for the medium-sized camp Rogue, other families already had very small territories.
In such a situation, when you go to another camp's land to gather resources, it impacts others.
Judging from the previous actions of the Taylor Camp, it's clear this wasn't their first time crossing borders, which implies they knew the location of that Ice Tree very well.
It's very likely they had already harvested several crops of Crystal Fruit from the Ice Tree.
"Given the current situation, if they want to cross the border, let them. We don't have the ability to deal with it now; first, we need to ensure the camp's survival. Once our strength grows, naturally, they won't dare to come over."
Bruce could understand their anger, but given the current dire state of the camp, there really was no energy, nor the standing, to deal with such matters.
Yes, the territory must be defended, but the premise is survival.
"You two, answer me honestly. If the Cold Beast Flesh is fully supplied, how long will it take to break through to the Axeheart Realm?"
Upon hearing Bruce's question, both glanced at the Snow Mane on the ground simultaneously, their breathing becoming heavier.
"Brother, if I'm fully supplied, I should only need about a month."
Actually, Bruce was clear about Charlie's situation.
When he taught Charlie Fist Technique previously, his strength had already reached over two thousand kilograms.
He only grew slowly due to limited Cold Beast Flesh supply.
On the other side, Tony also spoke up.
"My strength is already at three thousand kilograms; it shouldn't take a month. If the leader is willing to teach me the Fist Technique, I am confident I can break through in twenty days."
Bruce's eyes lit up; Tony's strength was better than he thought.
"Not just you; I'll teach everyone in the camp."
After Bruce finished speaking, he looked back at the Snow Mane meat, starting to calculate.
Based on Charlie and Tony's current strength, the daily limit of Cold Beast Flesh should be around three kilograms each.
Assuming it takes both a month to break through, that's only a hundred and eighty kilograms.
Which means there would be more than two hundred kilograms extra.
Soon, Bruce had a plan and asked Tony and Charlie to gather the other twenty-two people in the camp of similar age to them.
Currently, the camp has a total population of one hundred fifty-four, excluding fifty-three middle-aged, seventy-six under twelve, leaving twenty-four at roughly Bruce's age.
"Everyone, I won't say any pleasantries; this Snow Mane wasn't hunted by me, it's as if heaven believes our camp's fate shouldn't end and blessed us, so we must seize this opportunity to quickly enhance the camp's strength.
The prey was brought back by me alone, so I will take a hundred kilograms exclusively. Tony and Charlie, who are about to break through to the Axeheart Realm, will each get ninety kilograms.
Including the previous camp's stock, I calculated there's still over a hundred and seventy kilograms left.
You twenty-two, tomorrow, I will give each of you one kilogram, then compare Basic Strength, the top five will get thirty kilograms each."
Upon hearing this, everyone showed excited expressions.
They did not expect that even such a bounty, brought back solo, Bruce would be willing to share with them.
"The outside world is dangerous; relying on me alone, there is no way for so many in the camp to survive. Charlie, Tony, you must break through as soon as possible.
The same applies to everyone else; the next time there's Cold Beast Flesh, whoever breaks through fastest will get the priority quota."
Hearing Bruce's solemn words, everyone nodded slightly.
Charlie and Tony clenched their fists tightly, their eyes filled with determination.
There is a convention among the camps surrounding Redwood Ridge.
If a person hasn't broken through to the Axeheart 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 Bruce'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 Kilogram of Cold Beast Flesh is hard-earned, so it must be maximized in value.
Especially for the Harper 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, Bruce first handed out a Kilogram of meat to each of the twenty-two participants.
A Kilogram 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.
Bruce handed over the responsibility of overseeing the competition to Charlie and Tony, while he seized the time to eat Cold Beast Flesh and began cultivating.
The crushing defeat of the Taylor Camp and the terror of the Cold Beasts filled him with urgency.
The Taylor Camp had sixteen Axeheart-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, Bruce estimated, wasn't far from ten thousand Kilograms.
A force of ten thousand Kilograms is the standard for Earthripper Realm strength.
Throughout all the camps near Redwood Ridge, only Rogel Camp and the leader Iron Eagle of Iron Peak Camp have an Earthripper Realm strongman.
Bruce looked down at the cave floor, held his breath, clenched his fists, and punched the ground.
Bang…
Now with a strength of five thousand Kilograms, 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 Earthripper 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?
Bruce had asked Thomas 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 Harper Camp is naturally far from reaching that strength standard, and it was just a thought.
Despite the myriad thoughts in his mind, Bruce continued his cultivation.