Steel steam and flame

The footprints were old, and I could tell they were from a few days ago.

Ye Jielin waved her hand gently, and everyone around her replaced the blunderbuss with blue and silver bullets. All ten people opened their cross pupils, and their breathing and heartbeats increased rapidly. Observing the surroundings in place, it was as quiet as before. At this time, the order was given to continue moving forward, but the speed had slowed down a lot, and every step became cautious.

Less than a kilometer away, the temperature had suddenly risen by more than ten degrees. There were more and more footprints left on the ground, and the dripping blood became more frequent, all turning brown with thirst. The air with little circulation began to smell of moldy blood. The surrounding low shrubs were trampled, and many of the tough vines were torn off by the huge force, and the stumps were scattered on the ground.

At that moment, Ye Jielin decided not to move forward in a straight line, and the route turned into a small fan-shaped arc, centered deep in the dense forest and going around for a long distance.

You can see increasingly dense footprints everywhere, all left by the same creature, accompanied by large patches of dripping blood.

"The blood is not shed by the second type of creature of the same type." One person in the team had been checking the blood. He squatted down and carefully ground the blood powder on the dead leaves with his hands and said. Depending on the color and fineness after drying, the types of these organisms can be roughly distinguished.

"It feels like the same powerful and strong wolf is constantly hunting other weak second-class creatures around it, and then carries them to a place in front of them and accumulates them." As he spoke, the man sniffed the air around him. As if trying to determine if there was a rotten smell in it. There is no result, just constant decay, and everything else is suppressed.

"She's pregnant. She's going to give birth to a wolf cub in the near future. Are you preparing food?" Someone made a guess and was agreed. This makes perfect sense in order to protect the safety and growth of the wolf pups. But how to explain the attack on the imperial garrison base located on the edge? Most of these second-category creatures have basic intelligence, and since they are wolf-like creatures, their heads are often a bit taller than other second-category creatures.

After that, Ye Jielin did not continue to move forward. After looking at the dark forest covered by tree trunks in front of her for a long time, Ye Jielin gave the order to retreat.

"Is a giant wolf about to give birth to cubs?" Returning directly to the ruins, Ye Jielin asked Atuohuan to obtain relevant information and analyze this phenomenon together.

"According to what you said, eldest sister Lin, the temperature is rising as we advance. If there is no fire source, there should be a geothermal resource there. It makes sense for wolves to choose that place. The data says that when some wolves give birth to wolves, they will A certain natural temperature is needed to ensure that the young wolves grow more steadily in the early stages. The second type of creatures can eat the corpses of other creatures soon after birth, which is also in line with their positioning."

"There is just one question that needs to be resolved now. Wolves almost always move in groups. Even if they are about to give birth, they will not leave the wolf pack without authorization. The second-class creatures are different from ordinary wolves, but this habit is still retained. Come down." Atuo Huan recalled the information he consulted not long ago and said, "You can first characterize the situation as what you said, Sister Lin, but for the specific reason, you may have to go over and take a look in person."

"Having this idea, the completion standards of the Military School mission are not so easy to fool. It's just that it's very risky for us to go alone. If we come back halfway, I also want you to help with some actions."

"It will take about two to three days before the more powerful teams will know about it." Atuohuan smiled and nodded.

The news spread in various ways among the ranks scattered around the edge of the forest. The effect is far better than the Atrop ring imagined, and it even has the opposite effect. Various covert methods were used, and the information was split and refined several times to completely hide the truth and add disturbing information, but in the end it was still spread.

Those who have survived to this day in Samsung Academy are very smart, have gained experience, and have become more cautious than when they first entered the school. The unknown source of information was shared with each other, and in the past few days, people around Ye Jielin also passed through other teams. After the news traveled around the entire Samsung Academy crowd, it returned to them.

Ye Jielin had a helpless smile on her face as A Tuohuan read out the messages sent to them from other teams one by one.

"Fortunately, only that area has spread, and no one knows the specific situation. We still have a little advantage and initiative, but not much, so we have to be careful. Some of those teams don't care whether the mission can be completed in the end. They The purpose is to reduce the number of people. I don’t like being shot in the back." Ye Jielin concluded, "In terms of time, everyone will probably choose tomorrow when we spread the word, be prepared, and set off a little later."

After the others left, only Ye Jielin, Atuohuan and Selmer were left in the simple camouflage tent, as well as the ammunition that took up most of the space.

"Inform Hessler that we need to cooperate well with each other tomorrow. Before that area is explored, other things will definitely happen." Ye Jielin said to Atohuan, she turned her head and looked at Selmer, " You need to carry the heavy weapons. Others are carrying several times the load, and the traveling speed will be seriously affected."

Selmer nodded, and you could tell that he wanted to say something, but the words got stuck in his stomach at the end.

In the evening, Ye Jielin climbed up to the tallest wreckage in the ruins alone and looked at the sea of ​​dark green trees in front of her that spread to the skyline. There was an obviously bulging shape, like a plate that was buckled down, covering everything behind it. There is no boundary, and towards the direction of the Flame Alliance, the dark green does not spread out at the extreme position of the field of vision.

The rising mist shrouded the sky, making the entire southern forest appear blurry. The place where Ye Jielin is staying now is just a corner location, the real center of the forest. Not many people have been there in the entire empire, and even in the entire Houxiang Continent. There is danger only there, and it is considered an extreme area because of its central location, which is invisible to the field of vision.

Hearing the footsteps, Ye Jielin turned her head, and Atuohuan climbed up and came behind her.

"I have never been able to see it. It is said that the fog over the southern forest never dissipates and lasts for an unknown period of time. Shortly after the establishment of the empire, a team went to detect it. Everything is changing, but the fog remains the same, blocking everything. It's something that many people want to see." Atuohuan looked up, his neck was very long, and his appearance seemed uncoordinated and twisted against his body shape.

"In theology, it is called a place where gods live. I was interested in it when I was a child. I really wanted to see what the specific shape of the thing called the 'World Tree' would be. It was introduced in the book that its crown almost grew into the deep blue In the field, hurricanes can’t blow it down, they can only tear off part of the leaves.”

"It is also said that the entire southern forest is the World Tree, and this dark green color is grown from the roots of the World Tree." Atohuan continued, and Ye Jielin looked forward together, falling into silence.

Soon after, the communicator vibrated, and Atuohuan and Ye Jielin said something, then walked down briskly to the tent.

Selmer was fiddling with weapons when he saw Atuohuan and stood up.