Moao Calendar, Year 131, October 15, Daytime

East Ridge Base, a wooden cabin about a hundred meters from the main building.

Zhu Baixu, Bai Wuji, Wan Qingyu, Nie Shen, and Yang He were sitting around a coal stove with Senior Brother Lu Yun. There were not just them, but also thirteen other young people around fourteen or fifteen years old gathered around two other coal stoves.

This group of adolescents, at the peak of their energy, clearly having just experienced something significant with some injuries on their bodies, were wide awake despite it being broad daylight, animatedly discussing something.

"Tonight's hunt was truly thrilling! I've never gone hunting in Beining Mountain on my own before. There were always a bunch of people following me. Only after facing a Cold Beast in one-on-one combat did I realize how much they had been coddling me. I almost couldn't even deal with a low-level Cold Beast with my basic strength of fifteen thousand pounds."

"Same here. When leaving the camp last night, I saw Zhao Shanyu leading a group of people and thought it was going to be like the hunts we had at the camp where they would step in immediately if something went wrong. But when I got knocked several meters away by that Demon Sheep and spat out a few gulps of blood, I saw they didn't move at all, and that's when I knew this was the real deal."

"Unfortunately, our strength was a bit lacking. We only managed to hunt a few low-level Cold Beasts, whereas Senior Brother and his group of six almost succeeded in hunting that intermediate Black Demon Eagle."

"There was no way around it. The Black Demon Eagle had such strong flying ability. Even though Senior Brother and his group had more force than us, they only had Earth-digging Realm cultivation, making it too difficult to hunt intermediate Cold Beasts."

"Luo An and their group of five are truly impressive! They set a trap with irons chains and not only managed to successfully capture and kill that Black Demon Eagle, but they also hunted an additional four low-level Red Simurghs. They made a huge gain from five flying Cold Beasts."

"No wonder all five of them can come and go from the main building as they please, not only because of their strength but also due to their much higher talent compared to ours."

......

During the discussions, everyone occasionally glanced towards Lu Yun's group of six in the center.

Little did they know that when they mentioned Luo An's group of five, expressions of amazement and admiration also filled the faces of Lu Yun and others.

"Senior Brother, Luo An, and Zou Ping, were they from the master's previous camp?"

Zhu Baixu suddenly asked in a low voice, directing the question at Lu Yun in the center.

As he spoke, Bai Wuji, Wan Qingyu, Nie Shen, and Yang He all turned to look, curiosity written on their faces.

Lu Yun didn't answer but instead raised an eyebrow and asked Zhu Baixu, "Why do you think that? How did you figure it out?"

Zhu Baixu pondered for a moment and said, "Not to mention Zhao Yuanshan, who is Zhao Shanyu's niece, the key is that I can see the hunting habits of those five are similar to our master and Zhao Shanyu's. The martial arts techniques they use against Cold Beasts follow the same style. Additionally, they are the only ones who can freely access the main building in the entire camp. If they weren't from the master's previous camp, I can't think of any other reason."

"I agree with Senior Brother Zhu's point of view. Only this explanation makes sense."

"I have already inquired with others in the base. They all arrived at East Ridge just on the tenth of last month, so they must be from the master's old camp."

...

As Zhu Baixu spoke, Bai Wuji, Wan Qingyu, Nie Shen, and Yang He all also quietly expressed their agreement, evidently sharing similar thoughts.

Thinking about how the five had been at East Ridge for almost a month, Lu Yun didn't say anything further, just lightly nodded to dispel their confusion.

"As expected!"

Compared to a month ago, Zhu Baixu had become much more composed. Seeing Lu Yun nod in confirmation of his speculation, he lightly nodded and with excitement in his eyes, asked, "Senior Brother, was the master's previous camp really that extraordinarily powerful? I've noticed that our master and Zhao Shanyu's group of people never regarded themselves as Beishuo people. Ten days ago, when Inspector Lord He came, they didn't even show him any courtesy nor allowed him in the main building, brushing him off with a few simple words. In my years living in Beining Mountain, I've never seen any camp dare to do that!"

Bai Wuji and the other four nodded upon hearing this, recalling the time ten days ago when He Wuyang came to East Ridge to find Master Lu Yang, and they were present as well.

There was no need to mention this, as just witnessing the night of the Zhu Ling Camp competition a month ago, where Lu Yang publicly rebuked He Wuyang in front of all eight Beining Mountain clans was enough to prove Zhu Baixu's words were no mere speculation.

Additionally, with the things they saw and heard during their month at East Ridge, the five indeed were extremely curious about the strength of Master Lu Yang's previous camp.

In just four short years since coming to Beining Mountain, East Ridge had risen to the top of the eight families of Beining Mountain. With Lu Yang's group so overwhelmingly strong, the other seven were already curious about their origins, and as sons of leaders, Zhu Baixu's group naturally knew some of the inside story.

Staying here for over a month, despite deepening their understanding of East Ridge's strength, they became even more curious about the capabilities of Master Lu Yang's old camp, eager to find out.

"I've noticed that in East Ridge, almost everyone who can freely access the main building is at the Earth-digging Realm Limit cultivation level. On the night of the Zhu Ling competition, counting the master and Zhao Shanyu as well as the three lords, East Ridge presented sixty-two Cold Resistance Levels. I initially thought that was the extent of East Ridge's strength, but this last month, I've probably seen at least twenty new Cold Resistance faces here who weren't present that night. How can East Ridge be this strong? Could the place where the master formerly resided have been at a Town-level Camp?"

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