Chapter 33: Bear Gallbladder Soup, Health Boost

System Announcement: "All Survivors, please note, the level leaderboard update is complete."

Upon hearing this announcement, Survivors across all major global regions opened the leaderboard one after another.

The Survivors in District 174 were no exception.

However, the rankings above exceeded everyone's expectations.

[District 174 Level Leaderboard]

[1st Place: Cao Xing (Level 4, 1%)]

[2nd Place: Wu Xinghu (Level 3, 25%)]

[3rd Place: Zhou Bo (Level 3, 14%)]

[4th Place: Ren Yixu (Level 3, 10%)]

[5th Place: Fang Long (Level 3, 7%)]

[6th Place…]

Seeing this leaderboard list, the chat channel for the entire District 174 fell into a moment of silence.

Then, came the overwhelming flood of messages.

Chen Hua: "Holy crap! It's not Fang Long, nor is it Wu Xinghu; the first place is actually Great Lord Cao Xing!"

Tao Mumu: "I really didn't expect Great Lord Cao Xing to be first, he's too strong!"

Liu Dashu: "How did Great Lord Cao Xing do it?"

Everyone was expressing their shock.

A Survivor named Du Rong said: "I don't think everyone needs to be so surprised. Great Lord Cao Xing is the man who killed a bear; it's no surprise he took first place."

"Haha, I also think Great Lord Cao Xing deserves it. Thanks to his bear meat, my whole family improved our attributes. Now, not only have we survived the life-and-death crisis, but we have also gradually developed our territory."

"That's right, that's right. Great Lord Cao Xing in first place? I'm convinced."

In the chat channel, the comments about Cao Xing were almost overwhelmingly positive.

After all, the bear meat he sold had indeed helped quite a few people.

Meanwhile, Fang Long, Zhou Bo, and the others had somewhat ugly expressions.

"Damn it! How did this kid take first place?"

Fang Long's face carried a trace of anger and disbelief.

But he quickly regained his composure.

Fang Long slowly exhaled and said: "It's fine, it's only a 1-level difference. There are still three days until the end of the novice protection period; that's plenty of time for me to catch up in levels!"

On the other side, Zhou Bo also had an interested smile on his face.

"Interesting. I originally thought this kid just had good luck and was done for after offending Fang Long."

"Now it seems he actually has some skill."

Zhou Bo opened his friend list, then clicked on private chat and said: "Go, find out the background of this person named Cao Xing."

At this moment, inside the Lord's cabin.

Outside the window, the snow reflected light, and the cold wind howled.

In the room, the warm stove radiated heat.

The small wooden bed creaked, and the temperature under the covers was rising rapidly.

The beauty's face was flushed red, turning her head away, not daring to look into Cao Xing's eyes, her hands tightly clutching his neck.

"A-Xing… A-Xing…"

The beauty's call was long and ethereal.

The room was filled with the sweetness of intimacy.

A moment later, after a long and ethereal, charming sound, the movement in the room gradually subsided.

Liu Muxue lay limp in Cao Xing's arms, her eyes filled with a dazed expression.

At this time, they also heard the system announcement.

Liu Muxue arched her swan-like neck, and with an excited look in her eyes, said: "A-Xing, you're in first place! You're so amazing!"

Cao Xing shook his head, unconcerned: "It's only a temporary first place. Before securing the rewards, I still cannot relax."

Liu Muxue looked at him with admiration: "That's still amazing, after all, our District 174 has tens of thousands of people!"

Cao Xing smiled: "Tomorrow we must continue to work hard and see if we can get you a top-ten reward too."

Liu Muxue nodded her head slightly, clenching her pink fists in response: "Mm-hmm! I will do my best!"

Perhaps because the movement was too large and touched certain parts, Liu Muxue's face flushed red again.

She cautiously looked at Cao Xing, only to find that he was also watching her.

Cao Xing lowered his head and kissed her again.

"Mmm…"

The beauty was delicate and gentle; from the initial stiffness of her body, she gradually relaxed.

Her body twisted like a water snake and she actively wrapped herself around Cao Xing.

The temperature at night began to drop rapidly.

However, the temperature in the room was still rising…

The two spent a beautiful night.

Early the next morning.

Cao Xing saw several system notifications.

[Your territory building: [Small Shelter] construction complete…]

[Your territory building: [Primary Elemental Arrow Tower] construction complete…]

Cao Xing's eyes lit up with joy: "The arrow tower construction is complete!"

Through the window of the Lord's cabin, Cao Xing saw that at the edge of the camp bonfire, a 15-meter-high hexagonal tower had appeared.

This tower was built entirely of stone, and the elemental fluctuations faintly emanating from it were full of deterrence.

If any enemy approached the area within 600 meters of the camp, this arrow tower would automatically launch an attack; it was very powerful!

Cao Xing said with satisfaction: "Very good, this way, at least there's no need to worry about the safety around the territory, and those Arctic People can go out to collect resources better."

Meanwhile.

There was a knock at the door.

Cao Xing and Liu Muxue got dressed and looked towards the door, saying: "Come in."

The villager Sihua brought in a bowl of bear gallbladder soup and a portion of roasted bear meat.

A rich meaty aroma wafted in.

Sihua said softly: "Lord, the bear gallbladder soup and roasted bear meat you asked me to make are ready, please enjoy."

Cao Xing nodded: "Put them on the wooden table."

These two food items were things that could increase attributes.

Bear gallbladder could directly increase health by 200 points, while bear meat could increase Strength and Constitution by 2 points.

For Cao Xing and Liu Muxue, these were significant improvements.

This was also what Cao Xing had instructed these villagers to do yesterday.

Sihua nodded and then respectfully withdrew.

Cao Xing brought Liu Muxue to the dining table.

He took the first few bites of bear meat.

In an instant, his mouth was filled with the aroma of meat.

Cao Xing praised: "A professional chef, their skills are indeed good."

A system notification appeared.

[Consumption of Bear Meat (Blue) successful, attribute improvement gained, Strength +2, Constitution +2.]

Sure enough, he gained an attribute boost.

Then, Cao Xing started using chopsticks to pick up the bear gallbladder from the bowl.

But to his surprise, Cao Xing ate several bites and did not receive any system notification for an attribute boost.

"Hmm?"

Cao Xing was a bit puzzled and continued to eat the bear gallbladder.

It wasn't until he was almost full that the system notification appeared.

[Consumption of Bear Gallbladder successful, Maximum Health increased by 200.]

Cao Xing's expression brightened: "So it turns out you have to eat half of the bear gallbladder to get the attribute boost."

"Looking at it this way, the remaining half can provide another boost."

So, he looked at Liu Muxue beside him and said: "Muxue, you come over too."

"There is half of this bear gallbladder left; it should be able to give you an attribute boost as well."

Liu Muxue obediently walked over, picked up the chopsticks Cao Xing had used, and began to eat.

The bear gallbladder soup was delicious, and it took Liu Muxue a few minutes to finish.

Then, she looked at Cao Xing excitedly and said: "A-Xing, my health has increased too."

Cao Xing nodded.

One bear gallbladder had brought them a 400-point health boost, which was quite good.

Unfortunately, this type of food was only effective when eaten for the first time.

At this time, a system notification sounded.

[Survivors, congratulations on surviving the third night of the Frozen Era.]

[Remaining time of novice protection period: 2 days, 22 hours.]

[Weather forecast: There will be a small-scale snowfall tonight, with the lowest temperature reaching -70℃. Please pay attention to keeping warm.]