Steel steam and flame

"It was just the floating island that brought the first major loss to the ocean-going fleet. In less than a month, the original number of more than 400,000 people was directly reduced by 100,000. In addition, the seriously injured members died one after another in more than a month. That time Nearly 130,000 people died. Afterwards, the fleet dismantled more than 20 ships and reorganized the fleet, which had a certain effect. However, the impact of that incident was not completely eliminated until the fleet prepared to return." Every A major loss event is accompanied by the death of a large number of personnel. In an unknown area, the ocean fleet simply cannot have sufficient equipment and personnel to support every operation like it does on the Zuoxiang Continent.

Although there are not many stormy weather on that deep blue sea, what you can see at a glance is the boundless sea that meets the sky, and it lasts for more than ten years. The feeling this loneliness brings to the crew is no longer the initial shock, but a deep fear.

The salt has eroded into everyone's bones. This is the inevitable result of the fifteen-year journey.

After the floating island appeared, the fleet circled it several times, and the airship on the Venetus was dispatched to explore the general situation first.

It was called a floating island because soon after the observers on board saw it, they knew that there was no continental shelf to support such an island in such deep sea areas. The floating island itself seemed to be moving slowly with the ocean currents. After the airship circled it several times, it brought back thousands of photos for preliminary analysis by biologists and oceanographers on the fleet.

Discovering new things in unknown waters is what the ocean fleet will come out to explore. The entire fleet became so excited about the appearance of the floating islands in the next few days that the increasing death toll was forgotten by most people. After several days of exploration by airship, a team of more than 300 people, composed of half surgeons and half ordinary people, landed on the floating island and began a closer investigation.

Chilman was on this first team. Afterwards, the fleet successively dispatched dozens of teams to the floating island, responsible for establishing the initial camp, drawing a rough map of the floating island, establishing road signs for future researchers' actions, and exploring several caves on the low hillside of the floating island.

As the first team, Chilman went to the floating island and saw not the rocks in the deep sea that should have been eroded by storms, but instead patches of strange plants scattered on the floating island. Later this plant was named the corpse tree. It is similar to moss, has more tenacious vitality, and is completely adapted to the salty environment. The leaves are very small, almost none, but the roots are extremely deep, like an ancient tree growing downward.

Chilman and the others tried to dig out the complete rhizome, but it was a piece of corpse-eating plant the size of an adult's hand. They dug down into the rock more than ten meters away, but still could not see the end of the rhizome. On the second day, someone dived underwater to explore why this island, which is about 30 kilometers in diameter, floats on the sea surface. They discovered that the island is covered by rocks on the surface, but underwater, all the rocks are attached to each other. On the huge log.

The properties of floating islands are similar to icebergs in some cold areas, but the volume ratio above and below water is smaller. The piece of wood had been soaked in sea water all year round, but it was completely black, like charcoal that had not been burned out. There is no marine life attached to the huge log, and there is not even a single place where aquatic plants grow.

This abnormal phenomenon once delayed the landing plan of the ocean fleet. It was not until preserved stone paintings and an ancient ruins were discovered in the cave that the original vigilance was gradually put aside.

"It was the fifth day after the first team landed on the floating island." As a historical researcher, after discovering the strange writings and stone paintings, Nonoska knew it was time to go to the island. "I was extremely excited at the time. . Because within the Theocracy, researchers like me have no chance to directly come into contact with ancient history and ancient ruins. Learning strange characters in research institutions will always be done through printed papers, and we have never even seen the actual photos."

"This is probably one of the reasons why you went to the Ocean Fleet for recruitment." Hillary said. At the same time, there was a knock on the door of the room. Before the two of them responded, Chilman left with a thick stack of information. Coming in, confusion and thinking coexisted on his face. But the conversation was not interrupted by Chilman's intrusion. Hilary continued her words, "Like a collection room in ancient history, several caves are connected in series, leading to an exquisitely slotted space. cavity."

"It looks more like a place of worship that often existed in ancient history." Nonoska retorted. Chillman, who had just come in, originally wanted to interrupt the conversation between the two, but after hearing the "place of sacrifice", he chose to join in.

"I thought that after meeting again, no one would want to recall what happened in the past thirty years."

"It's not because of the latest news about the ancient ruins within the empire, the cemetery containing the beluga skeleton fossils." Hillary replied, "As we talked, we also remembered what happened during the ocean exploration. After all, those three For more than ten years, it seems that nothing was brought back from the entire journey, but everything that happened during the period was related to the white whale, at least in the stone paintings and strange writings we got."

"What's the use of knowing!" After leaving the Venetus, Chilman's temper returned to the state he was in when he was still looking for ways to make money in the dark world. "The ocean exploration is over, and we can only get what we deserve." The generous reward can be regarded as an unexpected gain in the end, and it is only this ancient historical information that has no head or tail."

"Maybe you still don't know what's good or bad. You two can't be clear about the Theocracy's surveillance of us in the future." Helpless and with a sigh of finally recognizing the reality, Chilman knew that he, Nonoska and the others would never escape. He is no longer under the control of the Theocracy. He can only escape through death.

"This is not necessarily the case." Hilarelli's voice had a strange tone in it. She looked at Nonoska, "On the Zuoxiang Continent, we were indeed like this. But when we came to the Saint Dorag Empire, we Might it be possible to understand a little bit of that history and guess part of the goals of the Holy See of the Theocracy."

Chilman shook his head, but asked rhetorically: "When you mentioned the place of sacrifice, that should be the first major loss incident."

Seeing that the two of them had no objection, Chilman went to sit down at the table, put the information in his hand on the table, pressed it with his elbow, and then continued, picking up what the two had left unfinished, " The first incident was all because of the floating island. I don’t know how long it took for the floating island to drift before it reached the sea area where the ocean fleet was. But for a long time, as a second-type creature that did not exist in the Three-Phase Continent, The corpse tree has eroded the entire island. After more than twenty days of exploration, we did not find anything abnormal on the island. Until the fleet decided to use the island as a temporary camp and let most people take turns to go to the island. The danger really comes when you rest for half a year and let your feet know the taste of the land.”

"Before that, as a member of the temporary response team, although I initially lied about the conjecture that there was a powerful hypnotic substance in the fog. But before landing on the island, I already believed the cause of the accident to the first four auxiliary ships. It’s a hypnotic substance.”

"You know, I was the one who applied to dive into the water to explore the bottom of the floating island." Chilman lowered his voice when he said this, "When I saw that huge piece of charred wood, I felt that it had vitality, although it could only Said it was intuition. Later, this idea was also verified. As a fragment of the World Tree that disintegrated after the collapse of the World Tree in ancient history, the Corpse Tree evolved into a self-aware second-type creature, which is the same as the reason for the fragments of the World Tree. Don’t be afraid of big things.”

"But even if we know this and know that even if the World Tree collapses, it still has a power that cannot be reduced for a long time, but apart from satisfying our curiosity, it seems to have little meaning now. Not to mention those fragmentary ancient stories. historical information."

Chilman was not a thinker; his focus was on practical action.

"This is indeed the case in the Theocracy." Nonoska looked at Chilman, half agreeing and half refuting, "But the place we are currently in is already the Saint Dorag Empire, in a continent called Hou Xiang. On the land. Here, according to Pekingz Qilishi's "Strange Creatures", there seems to be a new world tree in the center of the southern forest that the empire said."