Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1557: Chapter 489: On High Alert, Arrogant Warriors

Outer City of Daxia, outside the Northwest Wall, Milk Tiger Forest

The Milk Tiger Forest is only five kilometers long and wide, not considered large. Since it is specifically used as a trial ground for underage Cold Resistance Level youths, hunting is strictly forbidden. Usually, aside from the Dragon Forbidden Captain personnel responsible for management and maintenance, and those invited to observe during each genius trial, almost no one comes here.

But the situation tonight is clearly a bit unusual.

“You thirty will be responsible for observing the airspace above Milk Tiger Forest from the watchtower. The moment you notice anything unusual, blow the whistle and give the alarm. I’ve already arranged men beneath the wall; as soon as they hear it, they’ll immediately pass the word to the entire army. Not the slightest negligence is allowed!”

At the junction of the Northwest Wall of Xia City, atop a watchtower more than fifty meters high, Commander of the Dragon Forbidden Captain, Tie Xinchuan, patiently arranged the positions of the thirty Dragon Forbidden Captain soldiers one by one, then barked out his order.

The thirty Dragon Forbidden Captain soldiers, all clad in Profound Scale Silver Armor, wore extremely solemn expressions. After hearing the command, they bowed and shouted in unison, “Your subordinates obey!”

“Commander, isn’t this about enough? A post every fifty steps, a whistle every hundred steps, we’ve ringed the entire west, north, and south sides of Milk Tiger Forest. Forget people, not even a bug could fly in. We’ve got another fifty Dragon Forbidden Captain scattered throughout the forest on alert, and five hundred Dragon Forbidden Captain sticking to us for close protection. What trouble could possibly befall the Second Prince?”

Vice Commander of the Dragon Forbidden Captain and Commander of the Second Camp, Yuan Bai, was standing at the top of the watchtower, gazing into the distance. Seeing the west, south, and north sides of Milk Tiger Forest already encircled by a continuous line of firelight, his expression turned a bit odd. He felt Tie Xinchuan was rather making a mountain out of a molehill.

It was night, and those connected lines of firelight were the torches held by Dragon Forbidden Captain standing guard along the three outer sides of Milk Tiger Forest.

In the past, for the once-every-ten-days trials in Milk Tiger Forest, at most a single camp of a hundred Dragon Forbidden Captain would be dispatched to keep watch on the outskirts. Tonight, however, they had mobilized everyone. Granted, the safety of the Second Prince was indeed important, but even so, Yuan Bai still felt this display was a bit over the top.

The key point was that Milk Tiger Forest was pressed right up against Xia City. All the Cold Beasts inside had been captured from across Great Xia and released here, and they were all mid- to low-level Cold Beasts, not a single Advanced one among them. What kind of trouble could they stir up?

As for Deceitful Monsters, that was even less worth mentioning. As Xia City’s population had surged in recent years, the exploration of Redwood Ridge to the west had naturally advanced apace. Especially at the end of last year, Great Xia discovered the Cold Beasts’ main nest in Howling Moon Valley deep in the core of Redwood Ridge. They not only found over a dozen Cold Beast Clans, but also slew thirteen Deceitful Monsters. From then on, Redwood Ridge no longer held any secrets before Great Xia.

The greatest danger in Ice Abyss comes from the unknown. With Great Xia’s exploration of Redwood Ridge now thoroughly completed, the danger of this area had naturally dropped sharply.

At present, a ten-kilometer-wide strip between Xia City’s western wall and Redwood Ridge had been cleared. In the northwest corner, Milk Tiger Forest only connects with Arrow Bamboo Forest on a small stretch to the north, so there was practically no need to worry about threats from Cold Beasts.

With no need to worry about Cold Beasts, the small torches could naturally be used freely. The torches currently in the Dragon Forbidden Captain’s hands were the kind that ward off Deceitful Monsters;

Since both Cold Beasts and Deceitful Monsters no longer counted as threats, the only thing left to be wary of was people.

But people? That was even less likely!

Their one thousand Dragon Forbidden Captain were all the Lord’s trusted aides, and Yuan Bai, as Vice Commander of the Dragon Forbidden Captain, knew far more than most.

Chui Mountain, Muyin, and Jiangxia, the Three Towns, had long since been quietly merged into Great Xia. Now throughout the Southern Slope Territory, Great Xia stood alone in dominance. Never mind the Northern Three Towns; even if you added Yangqu and Dragon Valley, even if the Northern Five Towns joined forces, they would still crumble like rotten soil before Great Xia.

Under such circumstances, setting aside who would even dare target the Second Prince, even if someone did have the nerve, who would have the ability?

So in Yuan Bai’s view, the formation Tie Xinchuan had laid out tonight was indeed somewhat excessive.

Tie Xinchuan had just turned twenty-eight this year. Looking at his deputy Yuan Bai, who was a year younger, he shook his head slightly. “Great Xia is at the height of its power right now. We can’t get careless. Better safe than sorry. The Northern Five Towns are being pressed under sixty thousand troops; right now they’re like a pressure cooker. Who knows what stupid thing they might do?”

After speaking, he paused for a moment, then added, “Her Ladyship didn’t confine the two princes for no reason.”

Yuan Bai understood immediately. His brows knitted slightly, and a look of disbelief crossed his face. “They can’t be that stupid, can they? Just the Northern Five Towns spies we’ve dragged out of Xia City in the last few years are close to a thousand. Those five houses aren’t fools. They should have some sense of our methods in Xia City by now. And they still dare come?”

Ever since Hongmen was opened as a treaty port, Xia City had always adhered to an open-door policy. Not just the towns along the Southern Slope; even people from the Outer Domain camps, as long as they filed a report in advance at Hongmen City, could enter Xia City.

Trade, exchange, gathering information on the Outer Domain, broadening the Xia people’s horizons, boosting Great Xia’s productivity… If you really wanted to list all the benefits of opening up, you could talk for days without finishing.

But the problem was that in this world, benefit and harm always come together.

While openness brought Xia City many advantages, it inevitably also gave convenience to Outer Town spies. As Great Xia and the Southern Slope Territory became more deeply intertwined, more and more spies from the Outer Towns infiltrated Xia City.

To guard against these spies, Great Xia adopted many measures. For example, it stipulated that outsiders could only live in three guest districts in the Outer City: North 5, North 18, and South 2; it also restricted outsiders’ gathering and hunting activities—only when they accepted employment from Xia people could they obtain temporary hunting permits; and it limited their scope of movement, strictly forbidding them from entering the Inner City, and even from approaching Government Offices and military camps in the Outer City Districts…