"Yuwen Dao is very strong, so there shouldn’t be any problems. Hopefully, Hong Guang and the others will be fine. Let’s stop chatting and get ready to depart soon."
Seeing Shi Ping leave with his things, Qiu Peng started packing up as well.
Xiao He Camp, inside the cave.
In the outer storage space, Xiao Ning was leading a group as they loaded the coal stones into beast skin bags. Eight bags were already filled, occupying nearly half of the coal stones on the ground.
"Big sister, isn’t forty thousand pounds enough already?"
"My hands are about to go numb. How many more bags do we have to pack?"
Xiao Hen put a piece of coal stone into a bag, rubbed his sore arm, and couldn’t help looking up at Xiao Ning to ask.
Before Xiao Ning could speak, second sister Xiao Yu smacked him on the head and scolded, "Just concentrate on your work. Where do you get so many questions from? You haven’t packed much, but you sure have a lot of complaints!"
"Second sister, spare me. I’ll keep collecting, I’ll keep collecting."
Xiao Hen grinned sheepishly and bent down to pick up more coal stones.
Seeing this, the others nearby couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
Xiao Ning witnessed this scene and couldn’t help but smile too.
The third child, Xiao Hen, was spoiled at home. He was usually fearless, except when he saw second sister Xiao Yu; then he became like a mouse meeting a cat. Indeed, everyone has their Achilles’ heel.
Seeing the fatigue on the faces of everyone collecting coal stones, she remarked, "Just two more bags and we’ll be done. Let’s take a break and rest for a while."
Their expressions relaxed considerably, and after putting away the coal stones, they all sat down to rest.
"Big sister, we need to prepare fifty thousand pounds of coal stones this time; is it really that much?"
After stopping, Xiao Yu walked directly to Xiao Ning and asked.
Xiao Ning nodded and said, "It’s the last mutual exchange meeting before the cold tide. We need to trade for Cheng Guo, beast skin, bowstrings, external medicine, and most importantly, iron ore. That’s why we prepared so many coal stones."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Yu’s face showed a trace of worry.
Living at Five Ape Mountain presents this inconvenience: there is a cold tide period that lasts two months every year.
This cold tide is caused by the frozen river to the south.
Though the river is covered with thick ice, strangely, every ten months, there is still a flood season.
When the flood season arrives, the ice on the river surface keeps rising and spreading toward the North Shore, causing the temperature in the Five Ape Mountain area to plummet.
This entire process lasts for two months, which is collectively known as the cold tide period for all camps near Five Ape Mountain.
During the cold tide, apart from those in the Earth-digging Realm who can venture out, those in the Logging Realm and ordinary people can only hide in the mountain caves; otherwise, survival is impossible.
The problem is that during the cold tide, due to the drop in temperature, the vegetation on the North Shore also freezes, and the Cold Beasts flee, so even if the Earth-digging Realm ventures out, the resources they can gather are extremely limited, insufficient to sustain the entire camp.
Thus, the last mutual exchange meeting before the cold tide becomes crucial, and all camps take it seriously, hoping to trade for enough supplies to survive the cold tide period.
Xiao Yu was also acquainted with the mutual exchange meeting and, looking at the eight bags of packed coal stones on the ground, couldn’t help but shake her head, "It’s a pity that our Xiao He Camp doesn’t have any iron ore. I’ve heard from father that at the exchange meeting, it takes 20 to 25 pounds of coal to trade for 1 pound of iron ore. Even if we were to use all fifty thousand pounds of coal just for iron, we’d only get over two thousand pounds; it’s a huge loss for us."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Ning laughed bitterly and shook her head, "There’s no choice. Coal can be substituted, but iron cannot. On this side of Five Ape Mountain, other than Three Tigers Camp, only two other camps have iron ore, so naturally, they set the prices."
While the mining thresholds for coal and iron are the same, their scarcity levels are completely different. Xiao Ning hadn’t finished explaining: coal not only has alternatives but also has significantly higher underground reserves than iron.
For a medium-sized camp, finding a coal mine isn’t too difficult. Just look for trees with golden tinges on the surface and dig downward along the roots.
But finding iron ore is much harder.
Among the eleven medium-sized camps on Five Ape Mountain, almost every camp has coal mines, but only two have iron mines, which says enough about the scarcity of iron ore.
Trading 20 pounds of coal for 1 pound of iron is undoubtedly a loss, but they have no other option.
If they’re not trading with those two camps at the mutual exchange meeting, should they go to Three Tigers Camp?
After all, those two camps only want your coal, and they trade through normal channels, whereas Three Tigers Camp wants your life. Any sensible person knows the difference.
Xiao Ning pondered for a moment and said, with a hint of regret, "Last time, father was too hasty. The Great Xia Camp probably also has iron ore. If we could have talked more with big brother Xia Chuan, we might have managed to trade for iron ore at a lower price through him."
Hearing this, Xiao Hen instantly perked up and nodded, "Right, big sister. That long knife hanging on Xia Chuan’s waist, even the scabbard is made of iron. Their Great Xia Camp surely has a lot of iron ore, probably more than they can use."
Xiao Yu seemed a bit dissatisfied and retorted, "Big sister, you’re thinking too optimistically. That Xia Chuan might just be a big fraud, like Uncle Yuan and the others guessed, exactly like Three Tigers Camp, just here to deceive us."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Ning lowered her head in thought for a moment, but didn’t say anything.