Chapter 287: Changes in the Camp
Alliance Calendar Year 685, January 15.
In the blink of an eye, a full year had quietly passed since Zhou Ming returned to the camp from the Endless Tree Sea.
The biting winter was about to end. Under the blazing sun, the vast stretches of white snow were melting into crystal-clear streams that flowed slowly across the earth.
An Ironback Bear over five meters in size was wandering through the wilderness in search of prey, its massive body resembling a small hill and inspiring fear.
The pitch-black fur on its back stood out conspicuously against the snow-covered plains.
Among the many low-tier ferocious beasts, the Ironback Bear enjoyed considerable notoriety. Ordinary hunter squads would not easily provoke it.
Thus, for the Ironback Bear, there was no need for camouflage to protect itself.
However, just as it was searching for prey, an infrasound wave that ordinary people could not hear suddenly rang out. Its mind felt as though it had been violently struck by an iron hammer. The piercing pain caused it to let out a series of furious roars.
Before it could determine who had ambushed it, a Brindle Tiger charged in from the distance and, with ruthless methods, killed the Ironback Bear on the spot.
As the corpse of the Ironback Bear collapsed onto the snow, two figures stepped out from behind a massive boulder not far away.
“Muye, don’t you think that since we handled the Ironback Bear so easily, we can apply to Teacher Su for advancement to Professional Beast Tamer?”
The two were Ding Mowen and Muye. Nearly five years had passed since they captured their beasts and encountered the descent of the giant race in the Panlong Mountain Range.
Muye was still the same as before—short, tousled hair and a cold expression, like an aloof young man.
As for Ding Mowen, perhaps due to the Brindle Tiger’s feedback, his height had already approached 1.9 meters. After practicing martial arts, his physique had grown as sturdy as an ox.
As beast taming prodigies within the Dark River Camp, the two had been nurtured with abundant resources, and their spiritual power had already reached the limit of ordinary people.
Looking at the Ironback Bear that his beast had easily slain, Ding Mowen voiced the thoughts in his heart.
Muye, with his cold expression, ignored the talkative Ding Mowen.
Advancing to Professional Beast Tamer—Muye longed for it deeply as well. But once an advancement failed, attempting again would become exceedingly difficult.
Therefore, Muye planned to wait until he was completely prepared before applying to Teacher Su Mei for the resources required for advancement.
Ignoring Ding Mowen’s endless chatter, Muye commanded his Ghost-faced Moth to begin consuming the Ironback Bear’s brain matter.
After several years of cultivation, Muye’s Ghost-faced Moth had fully entered maturity. Its strength had already reached the limit of low-tier ferocious beasts.
With a wingspan exceeding one meter, its gray body bore an extremely clear black human face pattern on its back. Its half-meter-long proboscis resembled a sharp longsword.
Facing the Ironback Bear’s alloy-like skull, it easily pierced through and began devouring the brain matter.
The Brindle Tiger at the side was already accustomed to the Ghost-faced Moth’s presence. Their food sources did not overlap, so it calmly devoured the Ironback Bear’s internal organs.
“Damn it, Muye, say something! Which path are you planning to choose?”
“I’m definitely choosing Ferocious Beast Knight. I’ll live and die with my beast, charging into battle on its back.”
“If you choose Shepherd, you handle support and control, I’ll take care of killing on the front lines. That’ll definitely be the perfect partnership.”
Since Su Mei had already informed them that they could freely choose among the three different advancement paths—Shepherd, Illusion Beast Master, and Ferocious Beast Knight—Ding Mowen had long decided to choose Ferocious Beast Knight.
Muye had long known Ding Mowen’s choice. After all, Ding Mowen even slept at night lying on his Brindle Tiger.
As for himself, Muye was more inclined toward Shepherd.
The Ghost-faced Moth’s wide-area battlefield control ability was simply too outstanding. Its only shortcomings lay in frontal offense and defense, which could be compensated by a Shepherd’s secondary beasts.
“Can you guarantee success in one attempt right now?”
“If you fail, the resources needed to recover your spiritual power and attempt advancement again will require approval from our lord.”
Seeing Ding Mowen continue rambling, Muye immediately brought up Zhou Ming.
As Muye had expected, Ding Mowen instantly stopped talking about advancing to Professional Beast Tamer.
Although the two of them had only met Zhou Ming a few times, they understood their lord’s style of doing things very well.
If they failed in advancement, their value in his eyes would inevitably drop significantly.
“Hmph, I’ll definitely advance before you.”
Unwilling to admit defeat, Ding Mowen still declared that he would surpass Muye as he watched Muye walk toward the Ironback Bear’s corpse.
Afterward, the two stripped the Ironback Bear of its hide and extracted its bones after the brain matter and internal organs had been completely consumed. They collected the two most valuable materials before heading toward a small castle several kilometers away.
Under Zhou Ming’s orders, Su Mei had constructed a castle thirty kilometers east of Qinghui Base, near a southern mountain ridge.
Below the castle lay the waterfall leading into the underground cave. As for the original camp, it had already fallen into partial abandonment. They only needed to wait for the Snake King Fortress inside the underground cave to be completely finished before relocating the entire camp underground.
Before long, the two saw a castle built against a cliff face. Half of it was embedded within the hundred-meter-high cliff, while the other half extended outside.
Hidden within the castle were large quantities of heavy weapons. Even if facing a Professional Beast Tamer’s frontal assault, it could withstand it for a short period.
As the Duanmu Family and the Hunter Guild exerted their influence, many other forces within Qinghui Base had also taken the initiative to establish cooperative relationships with the camp.
Thus, within this short year, the camp had actually obtained more resources than before.
Entering the castle, the two handed over the ferocious beast materials they had brought back to the guards before walking along the massive internal passage downward.
Upon entering the underground cave, a hundred-meter-tall lighthouse, nearly reaching the upper rock layer, came into view. At its peak, dazzling white light shone, illuminating the entire cavern.
On one side beneath the lighthouse stood the massive fortress constructed by the camp, covering an area of one square kilometer.
The inner section of the castle, like a barbican, perfectly enclosed the small dimensional rift.
After the Catwoman Aina gained Zhou Ming’s trust, she had already led people to thoroughly investigate the situation beyond the dimensional rift.
Behind the rift lay a small basin. Its exact location was unknown, but it contained a large number of low-tier ferocious beasts and various medicinal herbs.
Therefore, under Aina’s leadership, part of the External Affairs Department’s hunting squad followed her into the dimensional rift to gather resources.
Compared to Professional Beast Tamers, ordinary people could enter Tamu World multiple times and even live there for extended periods.
For ordinary people, Tamu World’s rejection was significantly weaker.
The only issue they faced was that the power of conventional bullets was weakened. Only bullets made with energy crystal powder could unleash the normal power of firearms within Tamu World.
However, compared to the income generated, this cost was negligible.
It could be said that after several years of Zhou Ming’s meticulous efforts in building the camp, tremendous changes had finally begun to take shape.