Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1053: Chapter 372: Chen Hua and Kong Xiu, Muyin in Chaos, Bashang in Defeat

Year 132 of the Moao Calendar, the first day of March, during the day.

The Muyin Town Mansion, a courtyard near the outskirts.

A middle-aged man wearing Thousand Forged Iron Armor knocked on the door and then let out three light coughs in succession.

Creak……

The door was opened from inside, and the middle-aged man quickly walked in, the door promptly closing behind him.

The owner of the house, also a middle-aged man, was not armored and was wearing regular clothes. After closing the door, he led the visitor inside. After sitting down in the inner room, he turned to look at the iron armor on the visitor, incredulously saying:

“You really infiltrated the Defensive Army, how is that possible?”

Clang…

Seeing Chen Hua’s expression, Zhu Xing patted his iron armor and couldn’t help but laugh proudly: “Hahaha, I told you it was possible, but you didn’t believe me. It took us less than half a year after arriving here to infiltrate the town, proving that Muyin Town has long been riddled with spies from the Three Towns. I reckon many higher-ups have been bribed by them. Two hastily assembled Defensive Army units, how meticulously do you expect them to investigate? I simply registered, demonstrated some of my cultivation, and they didn’t think twice, promptly letting me in.”

Upon hearing Zhu Xing’s words, Chen Hua was stunned for a moment, then quickly shook his head, saying: “With the Defensive Army so careless, it’s clear that the demise of Muyin Town is imminent.”

Pausing for a moment with an incredulous look, he continued:

“The Defensive Army is supposedly the greatest reliance of the town; Murong Chui must be aware of it, right? Are they really planning not to resist?”

“Knowing doesn’t help. Murong Chui is only the Town Chief, and the Army Chief position of Muyin Town is vacant, with the Lord Murong Yan acting in the role. Murong Yan, along with the entire big house of the Murong family, is eager to defect to Jinshan Town and considers his second granduncle an eyesore. How could they cooperate with Murong Chui to properly organize the army?”

Upon hearing Zhu Xing’s explanation, Chen Hua’s face stiffened slightly, contemplating the internal situation of the Murong family he had learned about during his infiltration of the town over the past two months, and he lightly nodded, feeling invigorated.

Both he and Zhu Xing hail from Five Ape Mountain, having joined Great Xia in April of the first year.

Zhu Xing is the leader of East Peak Camp; he is the leader of West Peak Camp.

Seven years since joining Great Xia, although both have successfully reached Cold Resistance Level, to be honest, aside from each having an Advanced Hunting Team, they have achieved virtually nothing in other aspects.

Cold Resistance Level cultivation might be impressive for an individual, but viewed in the context of the present Great Xia, it amounts to very little. At most, it ensures you could become a captain of an Intermediate Hunting Team; beyond that, there’s no room for imagination.

Having been leaders before, they naturally don’t want to live mediocre lives. Joining Great Xia for seven years, yet not advancing to even a mid-level position, they inevitably felt frustrated and urgently sought opportunities for prominence.

The challenge is that opportunities to distinguish oneself in Great Xia are excruciatingly scarce.

Counting, you realize Xia City has 28 external outposts, of which only Wuyuan, East Ridge, and Long Mountain have major outposts with subordinate government offices. Including the nine districts of Xia City’s headquarters, there are 12 major outposts and 25 minor outposts in total.

By accounting the outposts, a major outpost has eight subordinate government offices, amounting to sixteen positions, while a minor outpost has only the Chief and Deputy Defense Envoys, meaning altogether, there are just 242 outpost positions.

Of course, this doesn’t mean Great Xia has only 242 positions.

There are also Directors and staff of Eight Departments, along with the Commanders and Colonels of the Military Department, City Gate Commanders… But even counting these, there are fewer than four hundred positions available for entry-level status in Great Xia at present.

Yet, Great Xia’s Cold Resistance Level cultivators have already exceeded six thousand.

With too many monks and too little gruel, earning an entry-level status is no simple task.

Moreover, becoming entry-level is merely the first step to distinction, with later stages involving more challenging endeavors such as gaining titles and founding clans—currently the ultimate goal for the Xia people.

There are only so many total positions. Whenever one opens up, everyone scrambles for it. He and Kong Xiu reached Cold Resistance Level in the third year of Da Xia, not possessing particularly strong abilities nor unique advantages, thus naturally remaining unnoticed.

But reflecting on others’ situations, it’s eventually not that hard to swallow.

Even Xiao Kangcheng, who joined Great Xia at the same time as them, only managed to become Zhaoyang Guard Commander last year by leveraging Shi Ping’s promotion to Five Originals Guardian.

Not to mention Xiao Kangcheng’s family ties with Xia Chuan, he broke through to Cold Resistance Level in the second year of Da Xia, a year earlier than them, and made significant contributions in the conquest of Longyou, becoming one of the first to be conferred the title of Ninth-rank Xuanling Marquis.

Even Xiao Kangcheng endured for five years to become a Sixth-rank Guard Commander, without any foundation and average talent, climbing to higher levels is as hard as reaching for the sky for them.

Both feeling similarly unaccomplished, last October, upon learning that Minister Xia Chuan intended to send people to infiltrate the Nine Towns to gather intelligence, they promptly volunteered without a second thought.

Interestingly, many applied for the task back then, with numerous possessing greater strength. They were chosen precisely because they were older and moderately strong.

For infiltration, one naturally shouldn’t attract much attention. Middle-aged, ordinary Cold Resistance cultivators like them, lacking Battle Body Talent and with average strength, were indeed the most suitable candidates.

In early October, they, along with thirty other Cold Resistance Level spies, traveled through the Cold Jade Secret Tunnel to East Ridge. According to Lu Yang’s arrangement, each town had four spies, two responsible for gathering intelligence and two for relaying information back to East Ridge; he and Kong Xiu happened to be responsible for gathering intelligence on the Muyin Town side.