Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1264: Chapter 418: Seize the Opportunity, the Shock Brought by the Eldest Young Master, Hongmen Scroll

The ninth year of Great Xia, January 15, at nightfall

On the third floor of the Martial Arts Pavilion’s cultivation field, Xiang Liang, like the surrounding thousands of people, was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed. The medicinal power and blood energy alternated around him, continuously opening his body’s pores and penetrating into the flesh under the skin membrane.

His face was tightly knit, always bearing a look of pain. Clearly, the process of the medicinal power penetrating the skin membrane and destroying the flesh was not easy to endure.

Yet even so, he held on with clenched teeth.

In fact, among the nearly thousand people on the third floor, almost all those in the front rows had expressions almost identical to Xiang Liang’s. Some people’s facial expressions were even twisted, evidently enduring pain far greater than his.

After an indeterminate amount of time, when the fiery red medicinal power around his body dissipated completely, Xiang Liang’s furrowed brow gradually relaxed, and the pain on his face slowly subsided.

“Late-stage Cold Resistance, 11 mane hairs, in just two months, this has been worth a year or two of my hard work, cultivating in the Martial Arts Pavilion sure is fast!”

Xiang Liang opened his eyes and immediately clenched his fist, feeling the improvement in his strength, his expression instantly filled with excitement.

In early October of last year, Xia Chuan promoted him to Vice Chief of Punishment of Hongmen. According to expectations, he should have been able to directly assume office in Hongmen City, but unfortunately, his appointment, reported formally to the Prison Department the next day, was directly rejected by Li Tiancheng.

The reason Li Tiancheng rejected it was a bit embarrassing; it was because Xiang Liang’s strength at the time was only a little over 6 mane hairs, which was indeed too insufficient.

In fact, thinking carefully, it made sense. At last September’s Hongmen conference, over 600 people with ranks in the camp were all present, and even the weakest possessed a strength of 15 mane hairs. Xiang Liang’s performance in the Prison Department was indeed impressive, and his age and aptitude were excellent, yet a strength of just over 6 mane hairs to take on the role of Vice Chief of Punishment was somewhat inappropriate, especially for such an important base as Hongmen City.

But, after all, Xia Chuan had already spoken, so naturally, Li Tiancheng had to take it seriously. Therefore, after a discussion with Xia Chuan, a compromise was reached, allowing Xiang Liang to preemptively use a Martial Arts Pavilion cultivation slot to boost his strength, requiring him to reach at least above 10 mane hairs before taking office.

Upon hearing this news, Xiang Liang’s heart was naturally filled with excitement.

Today’s Great Xia isn’t what it was seven or eight years ago when he first arrived.

As the population continues to grow, especially last year, when the final 900,000 people from Bashang merged in, Xia City’s total population surged to nearly 2.6 million, instantly tightening many of the Camp Supply Department’s resources.

Even basic cultivation materials like beast meat saw a price increase of five times, let alone the even more precious cultivation resources.

Among the many precious cultivation resources, the slots for the Martial Arts Pavilion are undoubtedly the most coveted, with everyone trying their hardest to get in.

It’s known that the triple cultivation speed boost is a unique effect of the Martial Arts Pavilion, along with Dan medicine, spiritual wine, salt, cultivation techniques, and many other resources that can enhance cultivation efficiency.

In fact, calculations have long shown that if you are sufficiently prepared, cultivating in the Martial Arts Pavilion for a day can be as effective as ten to fifteen days of training outside, and as resources are stacked, the longer you stay, the more this speed boost shows exponential growth.

Especially when encountering a critical point of cultivation breakthrough, it’s no exaggeration to say that it can save years of hard cultivation effort in an instant. This is why the Camp Supply Department prioritizes the Martial Arts Pavilion slots for those with Earth-digging Realm Limit.

With such a precious cultivation slot, who wouldn’t fight for it?

No matter how hard you fight for it, there were only 1,000 slots before. The early distribution rules by the Camp Supply Department offered 900 slots for daily rotation and auctioned an additional 100 slots. Even in such circumstances, the auctioned slots still sold for a minimum transaction of 15,000 contribution points.

Currently, the Great Xia silver price is 1 tael for 10 contribution points, so 15,000 is equivalent to 1,500 taels of silver, showcasing how scarce the opportunity to cultivate in the Martial Arts Pavilion is!

Even though last September the Lord used Divine Skills to increase the capacity of the Martial Arts Pavilion to 3,000 people, given Xia City’s current large population, it still wasn’t nearly enough, so the scramble for slots hasn’t eased in the slightest.

In October of last year, the Camp Supply Department revamped the slot allocation rules: now there’s 1,500 slots reserved specifically for Earth-digging Realm Limit; 800 slots for children aged six to fifteen in the camp; 500 slots for Cold Resistance Level; 150 slots for auction; and the remaining 50 slots are reserved for Xia Chuan, the Eight Departments Director, and other top individuals, as well as awarded or used for other special circumstances.

Although these cultivation slots rotate, theoretically everyone can get a turn. But considering Xia City’s current population base, rotation takes a long time.

For example, the largest batch of 1,500 slots was already announced by the Minister at the Cold Yuan Banquet early this year, and currently, Great Xia’s Earth-digging Realm Limit population has exceeded 50,000. Based on this rotation, each person would have to wait at least a month for a turn, and if someone is at a breakthrough period occupying a slot, they’ll have to wait even longer.

The number of Earth-digging Realm Limit individuals keeps increasing.

This makes it even more difficult!

Many people, having no other option, can only spend contribution points to bid for those 150 slots.

Xiang Liang also considered spending money to bid for slots, but unfortunately, his financial resources were insufficient.

The year before last, after achieving merits by infiltrating Dajue Temple, the awards he received weren’t limited to just a title. From the various contribution points’ rewards given by the Camp Supply Department, he had amassed 480,000 total, and adding his previous savings, his total assets amounted to 580,000, which was already considerable.