Some things can cause a chain reaction.
If the supply of beast meat is insufficient, the improvement in strength will slow down, the number of Earth-digging Realm warriors won’t increase, preventing the camp’s area of activity from expanding. As a result, encountering Cold Beasts bees rare, and the improvement in hunting experience is slow...
Without iron ore, it’s impossible to produce enough weapons;
Without weapons, the area of activity cannot expand, making it impossible to find and hunt more Cold Beasts;
And without Cold Beasts, strength cannot continue to increase, the activity area remains restricted, making it even less likely to find iron ore.
This is almost a perfect closed loop!
Everyone knows that iron ore is very important.
Therefore, the Xiao He Camp has an enormous demand for iron ore.
On the Five Ape Mountain side, there are eight other camps that are as short of iron as they are.
Among the eleven medium-sized camps on Five Ape Mountain, only Zhu He and Tongling have iron ore, and knowing that the other nine camps lack iron, how could these two camps casually circulate their iron ore to them?
to 25 pounds of coal can only exchange for 1 pound of iron. Not only is the price set so high, but at the monthly exchange meetings, the amount of iron ore these two camps bring is astonishingly consistent, only five thousand pounds.
Each camp five thousand, totaling only ten thousand.
Even if distributed evenly, each camp could only get slightly over 1500 pounds at most.
Xiao He isn’t stupid, and neither are the leaders of the other eight camps.
Zhu He and Tongling, these two camps, are using iron to exploit them.
They all understand this, yet they have no solution at all.
Weapons and tools suffer from wear and tear.
Especially weapons, after battling Cold Beasts, not mentioning anything else, just the sharpening edges wear down astonishingly; not to mention bows and arrows, which once shot cannot be retrieved.
Getting over a thousand pounds of iron each month can at least maintain the necessary weapons and tools for the camp, ensuring a certain level of hunting ability, and still manage to catch some Cold Beasts each month, which greatly ensures safety.
If even these thousand pounds are lost every month, once the weapons and tools at hand are damaged, not only will the danger of hunting Cold Beasts increase greatly, but even basic tasks like cutting trees will bee difficult.
So, even knowing they are being exploited, they have no solution, not only not daring to plain, but even having to willingly approach each month to be exploited by the two camps once.
"Old Xiao, you go in first, Old Chen has also arrived, I’ll go greet him."
Upon hearing Zhu Xing’s words, Xiao Kangcheng turned his head and saw another group of three arriving, recognizing them as Chen Hua and his party from the West Peak Camp, he nodded immediately and walked towards the cave.
"Old Xiao has arrived."
"Hahaha, you brought quite a bit of coal with you."
"The cold wave is here, there’s no choice, we need to prepare more."
"We also brought quite a lot, hoping to exchange for more."
...
The monthly exchange meetings have made the leaders of the eleven medium-sized camps quite familiar with each other, and as Xiao Kangcheng exchanged pleasantries with everyone, he observed the situation inside the cave.
Besides the camps of Tongling and Zhu He, who only brought two bags, the other seven camps brought as much as their own, nearly ten bags of varying sizes.
Even so, the eyes of these seven people mostly gathered on the bags of the Tongling and Zhu He camps.
"Sigh..."
Seeing this scene, Xiao Kangcheng sighed slightly in his heart.
In situations where both parties consent, exploitation doesn’t really count.
Tongling and Zhu He camps are at least willing to release over a thousand pounds of iron ore to these nine camps each month; if they didn’t give an ounce, there would be nothing anyone could do.
The Sanhu Camp does also have iron ore, but the problem is, do you dare to trade with them?
"Old Chen has arrived, everyone’s here now!"
Soon, Zhu Xing brought Chen Hua and his party inside.
This cave space is quite large; just the part lit by the bonfire is over twenty meters wide, with more than forty people from eleven groups forming a circle around it, not seeming crowded at all.
Seeing everyone has taken their positions, Zhu Xing announced:
"The exchange meeting officially begins!"
As per usual practice, after Zhu Xing announced the start, he, along with the leader of the Tongling Camp, Meng Yuan, would reveal the amount of iron ore and Cold Beast Meat they planned to release, allowing the other nine camps to bid for them using coal or other resources.
The situation was indeed like this; once he announced, Meng Yuan stepped forward.
Ka-boom... Ka-boom...
Just as the two were about to speak.
Two consecutive thuds suddenly echoed from deep within the cave.
Two unknown objects suddenly flew from the depths of the cave toward the bonfire.
"Who’s there!"
"Is someone hiding inside?"
"Who’s skulking around, e out!"
...
The faces of the people gathered around the bonfire instantly changed drastically, as they began to scatter around while shouting angrily towards the depths of the cave.
Meanwhile, the unidentified objects that just flew out also fell beside the bonfire, clearly visible to everyone present.
Seeing this, their expressions froze in surprise.
What flew out were actually two people pletely bound in ropes.
"Mmm... mmm... mmm..."
Their mouths were pierced with iron arrows, seemingly having been gagged with something, but the impact when they flew out was so hard that the covering on their mouths fell off, emitting agonized groans.
Step... Step... Step...
Before they could clearly see the two on the ground, a steady footstep echoed from the depths of the cave, causing everyone to turn their heads with tense expressions.
Only the three from Xiao He Camp showed a hint of realization.
Wearing a black cloak, Xia Chuan slowly stepped out of the shadows from the depths of the cave, a slight smile on his face, as he began to speak:
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