Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1160: Chapter 396: Saving Lives, First Encounter with Qingqing, a Series of Twists and Turns (Part 2)

The range for this exploration competition is limited to ten kilometers north, and all teams have been assigned specific exploration areas. Xiao Hen happens to know that Yuan Bai’s team is right next to his own.

"Alright, I’ll go right now!"

Xiao Jing is Xiao Hen’s cousin, ranking second among the Xiao Family peers of the same generation. Upon hearing Xiao Hen’s words, he immediately nodded and headed straight to the east.

"Stuff your ears with fabric balls, prepare your bows and arrows, let’s go!"

Xiao Hen was not verbose; once he made up his mind, he signaled everyone to use fabric balls to plug their ears and get their longbows ready. He then took the lead and swiftly advanced towards the pack of Golden Tigers, with the group closely following behind.

In the Golden Tigers’ area, among the twenty-three people from Jiangxia Town, five have already perished under the tigers’ jaws, and the remaining eighteen are mostly injured. If not for the two relatively strong individuals fighting desperately to shield the others, they would have been annihilated long ago;

As for the Golden Tiger pack, they initially numbered 32, and now still remain 32, except for the eight critically injured ones that have retreated to the rear. However, even retreating to the rear, they did not leave directly but blocked the gap in the pack tightly, preventing the people of Jiangxia from breaking through.

Whizz...

"Qingqing, run first, stop worrying about us!"

"There are too many tigers, if this continues we’ll all die here."

"Go! Captain, take Qingqing and break out quickly."

Xiahou Qingqing slashed open a Golden Tiger’s forehead with her longsword, and upon hearing the exclamations from behind, she tightened her grip on the sword and yelled at her brother Xiahou Yong, "Live and die together, I won’t leave you and run away alone!"

"Stop arguing! Everyone gather together, Qingqing, charge with me towards those eight critically injured Golden Tigers, we can break through once we get past them!"

Jiang Shouping’s voice was somewhat frantic at this moment, but as the captain with rich hunting experience, he immediately ordered Xiahou Qingqing to break out with him upon spotting the only flaw in the Golden Tiger pack.

Xiahou Qingqing’s Thousand Forged Iron Armor had been torn open with dozens of gashes by tiger claws, and the white inner lining had been stained red with blood, which clearly indicated severe injuries. Despite being young and barely in her twenties, her personality was decisive, and upon sensing slight discomfort, she tore the inner lining off directly, grabbed two small fabric balls, and stuffed them into her ears. With her teeth lightly clenched, she swiftly charged towards the position of the injured Golden Tigers with Captain Jiang Shouping.

Roar...

The pack apparently saw through their plan, and raised their heads in unison to issue a furious roar, causing the Snow Forest to shake instantly and the outer layer of ice on all surrounding trees to crack and fall.

Cold Beasts have their unique killing moves, and Golden Tigers are no exception.

Their unique killing move is their roar.

The roar of a Golden Tiger can resonate with a person’s eardrums and meridians, causing death within the Earth-digging Realm at close enough proximity, only individuals who have begun Reshaping Skin at the Earth-digging Realm Limit can withstand it to some extent.

In a one-on-one situation, Xiahou Qingqing, even with Early-stage Cold Resistance cultivation, would not fear them at all; the problem now was that she faced a pack. The simultaneous roar from over thirty Golden Tigers left even her dazed for a moment, not to mention the remaining sixteen people in the team, who were merely at the Earth-digging Realm Limit cultivation level.

With this simultaneous roar, Xiahou Qingqing and Jiang Shouping, although not greatly affected, managed to reach the injured Golden Tigers, but their remaining sixteen teammates didn’t fare well.

"Yiqing, watch out!"

Splurt...

"Ah!"

Xiahou Yong noticed his friend Jiang Yiqing being caught by a Golden Tiger’s claw and immediately warned him, then swiftly drew his blade and aimed to slash at the right claw in an attempt to save his friend.

Unfortunately, the Golden Tiger was too agile; Xiahou Yong had barely raised his blade before it noticed, swiftly released Jiang Yiqing, and with its right claw delivered a fierce strike to Xiahou Yuan’s face.

Xiahou Yong’s basic strength is only over seventy thousand jin, incomparable to that of this Golden Tiger, and caught off guard while raising his blade, as expected.

The tiger claw struck across his face, sending him flying dozens of meters away, not only that, but also forcibly gouging out his left eyeball.

With his eyeball brutally gouged out, Xiahou Yong couldn’t help but scream in agony.

"Ah Yong!"

Jiang Yiqing, witnessing his friend’s tragic state, instantly felt his pupils surge with blood, immediately rushing to pick up Xiahou Yong and retreating swiftly to the center of their group.

"It’s over, we can’t break through!"

Meanwhile, Jiang Shouping and Xiahou Qingqing, both at the Cold Resistance Level, have retreated from the periphery as well, seeing the Golden Tiger pack standing firmly in place; their breakout plan has obviously failed.

"These beasts have a leader; the eight injured Golden Tigers keep changing positions, preventing us from getting close, Qingqing, you must..."

"Brother!"

Jiang Shouping could see the dead-end situation, attempting to persuade Xiahou Qingqing to escape, but before he could finish, Xiahou Qingqing interrupted him with a grief-stricken cry.

At this moment, Xiahou Qingqing was supporting her brother Xiahou Yong, clutching his blood-soaked left eye, her expression reaching the peak of panic.

"Brother, I was wrong! If I had known, I wouldn’t have come to you. It’s Qingqing who brought harm to you and everyone, boohoo..."

Perhaps witnessing such a tragic situation with her brother for the first time, Xiahou Qingqing soon burst into tears, her cries full of remorse.