The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

Leo did not wait for the turmoil in Hongtu City to subside before leaving. On the second day after he returned to the hotel from the inner city, the gates of the outer city had been captured by a group of desperadoes, and the city gates that had been closed for several days were also captured. is opened.

Some smart desperadoes know that now is a good time to escape, and if they continue to stay, when the turmoil in the inner city completely subsides, they will not be able to run away even if they want to.

Therefore, those desperadoes who had already robbed a lot of property rushed out of the city the moment the city gate opened. They wanted to stay as far away from Hongtu City as possible, so that the people sent by Hongtu City to hunt them would have no chance of catching up. them.

Because a large number of desperadoes began to flee, the originally chaotic outer urban area became much more stable. Although there are still some desperadoes wandering around the streets of the urban area, their number is very small, and basically they will not hide in the city. Ordinary people in urban buildings pose too much threat.

Leo also left Hongtu City at the moment when the city gate opened. He had no interest in meddling in the affairs of Hongtu City, but he was curious about the behavior of all parties staring at Hongtu City. However, when he saw Barbarisa, he asked Barbarisa will do, no need to waste time in town.

However, before leaving Hongtu City, Leo sneaked into the inner city again, collected several implant materials, and stayed on the road to continue researching the implant's energy core formation method.

Unlike those desperadoes who rushed out of the Red Earth City, Leo did not go south, but went to the Green Emerald area in the northeast.

Although there is a road from Hongtu City to the Green Emerald area, this road has been in the battlefield area all year round. It has been in disrepair for a long time, and it has long been dilapidated. Now most of the caravans from Hongtu City to the Green Emerald area choose to go south to bypass Battlefield area, go to the middle of the Emerald area.

However, for those smuggling caravans, the abandoned road across the battlefield and directly to the West Green Emerald area is their first choice for smuggling.

Because there is no unified kingdom system in the Middle Kingdom, the taxation of the entire region is very chaotic. Basically, every time you pass through a region, you will have to pay the local lord a tax.

Although those lords also knew that excessive taxes would only make caravans afraid to pass through their territories, so they didn't collect a lot of taxes, but these small amounts of taxes added up to a considerable sum.

Caravans like Hongtu City would go south and bypass the battlefield to reach the middle of the Emerald Emerald region in the normal way. If the road goes directly to the West Green Emerald area, then everything becomes much simpler. You only need to pay the tax once after entering the West Green Emerald area.

Although going directly from Hongtu City to the West Green Emerald area can save a lot of taxes and fees, except for those smuggling caravans composed of elite soldiers and generals, other caravans prefer to take the normal road and bypass the battlefield, mainly because The path across the battlefield was too dangerous for them.

There are several areas in the Middle Kingdom that are recognized as frequent war-prone areas. Basically, several large and small wars break out every year, with casualties ranging from dozens to tens of thousands. The Great Wilderness happens to be one of the most war-prone areas. Just from the fact that this area was originally a barren desert and sandy land, which was forcibly moistened by a large number of corpses that died here to form a grassland, one can imagine the frequent wars in this area. hair level.

The people who died in this area were not only people from Lorothir and the Emerald area, but also mercenaries hired by both sides from other countries. The ore from Lorothir and the gemstones from the Emerald area brought With the exception of a few important battles, most of the other wars between the two sides involved hiring foreign mercenaries to fight. Therefore, on the remains of the war dead found here, weapons from different countries can be seen. Collecting these weapons is more than enough to open a continental war museum.

Although Red Earth City will clean up the battlefield for both sides after each conflict and war, even if most of the corpses are still too late to clean up, these corpses attract all the scavengers and carnivores around. , but later they began to attack living people, and because they feed on humans, they are all extremely ferocious and cunning. Even the most well-prepared caravans have suffered from the hunting of these wild beasts, and they usually go down once. The death of seven or eight people in a smuggling caravan is not a big deal.

However, this is not the most dangerous thing on this road. The main reason why the caravans in Hongtu City are unwilling to take this road is a monster named Lutaxi.

According to the legend, this kind of monster originally lived in the deep mountains in the north. It was just an ordinary beast, but later it was attracted by the resentment of the dead here. Under the influence of these resentments, it mutated into the current Rutaxi.

No one has ever seen what this kind of rutaxi looks like, and they never come out in the daytime, but only appear in the middle of the night. They appear behind their prey without anyone noticing, kill the prey instantly, and drag them into the darkness.

This kind of monster is very bold. It will not only attack the smuggling caravans, but also attack the troops on the battlefield. In every battle between Lorothir and Green Emerald, some people will always die in Lutaxi's place. Under the attack, sometimes it is ordinary soldiers, sometimes it is dignitaries from both sides, there is no fixed number.

Therefore, Red Earth City, Lolo Hill, and Green Emerald all sent people to trap Lutaxi, but without exception, these hunters became prey in the end, and never walked out of this wasteland battlefield.

Originally, at Leo's traveling speed, he could have crossed the battlefield area and entered the West Green Emerald area before dark, but he didn't do that. He was also curious about this legendary and mysterious Lutaxi, so like He traveled at a normal speed like an ordinary person, and when it got dark, he was still on the battlefield.

Instead of continuing on his way, he found a random place and lit a bonfire, and then caught a prey like a normal caravan, and roasted it on the bonfire.

This method is indeed the best way to attract the carnivores entrenched in this area. Not long after he put the cleared prey on the fire, a group of wolves came out of the darkness and stopped in front of the light of the campfire. Around the edge, Leo kept circling, while a pair of green wolf eyes stared at Leo and the horse next to him, as if looking for an opportunity to attack.

The instinct of the animal led the horse beside Leo to pace restlessly. Past experience made it understand that fleeing into the darkness would only lead to a faster death, and only by being close to the bonfire had a chance of survival. Possibly gathered around the campfire.

It's just that it didn't know that its move to the campfire just blocked the light of the campfire, giving the wolves the best chance to attack.

With the scream of a wolf, the pack of wolves rushed towards Leo and the horse impatiently, their sharp teeth were exposed in their wide open mouths, as if they could crush the hardest bones at any time.

However, these wolves were several meters away from their prey, and their bodies suddenly disintegrated into neatly wounded fragments. After passing through the air for a certain distance, these wolves fell to the ground, and blood slowly overflowed from the fragments. , flowed on the ground, and soon the area was shrouded in a strong smell of blood.

Originally, Leo felt that he didn't have enough bait, but now that prey are automatically sent to his door as bait, Leo is naturally happy to see it. Now the smell of blood in this area is strong enough, and it should be able to attract some prey. It is unknown if there is a legendary Lutaxi.

After a period of time, carnivorous or scavenging animals were constantly attracted by the strong smell of blood here, and they were all kept by Leo without exception, becoming new bait to attract prey.

I don't know if there are too many beasts that died here, producing an unknown atmosphere, or because the nearby beasts have all been made into bait. After entering the night, no new beasts were attracted. , even if there were, they only stayed on the edge for a while, and then quickly escaped.

Time passed by little by little, and the middle of the night soon passed, and there was not much time until the early morning. Leo felt that the legendary Lutaxi might not appear tonight, so he prepared to pack up and leave on horseback.

At this time, a strange movement appeared in the area covered by Leo's mental net, and Leo immediately looked over there, but he didn't see anything, but then there was another strange movement, only this time The location is much closer than before, and it feels like something invisible is approaching here.

Leo immediately turned on his spirit vision and looked over there, only to see that under the action of the Eye of Reality, the hidden mysterious creature could not hide.

It's just that Leo felt a little surprised when he saw this creature, because it was different from the Lutaxi he had imagined. He had seen this mysterious creature in front of him. With its forked antlers and the unique energy fluctuations on its body, the mysterious creature in front of it is obviously a dryad living in the Black Forest Deer Park.

Leo remembered that the white deer mentioned that dryads are generally not allowed to leave the Black Forest, they are only sent out when they need to perform certain tasks, and dryads who leave the Black Forest, without exception, are in their corners. They will wear a golden hoop with the imprint of the Black Forest. This golden hoop is not only to show their identity, but also to protect them from being affected by the power of different worlds. It can also help them when necessary. The dryad escaped from hunting and returned to the deer park.

However, the tree demon in front of him didn't wear a gold hoop on his horns, obviously it didn't leave the deer park in the normal way.

While Leo was observing the Dryad, the Dryad also looked at Leo curiously with her big eyes. The reason why she was attracted was not the bloody smell in this area, but the smell of blood on Leo's body. The familiar smell, that smell made her feel very close, like family, which was something she had never encountered before.

At first, she thought she had an illusion, but when she got close to Leo, she felt the smell getting stronger and stronger, making her completely sure that it was not an illusion, and more importantly, the person in front of her seemed to be able to see to her.

You must know that after so many years, she has appeared in front of different people countless times, including ordinary people, warriors, shamans, high-level clergy who have been favored by gods, and even appeared in the incarnation of gods summoned by the divine descending technique. In front of her, without exception, all those people turned a blind eye to her and couldn't see her at all, which made her realize that she was an exception in this world.

Originally, she thought that she might spend her whole life alone like this, but what she never expected was that someone could see her, which caused a lot of questions to pop up in her mind instantly, and she had a strong urge to want to Go up to them and ask them these questions.

However, her cautious personality suppressed the strong impulse in her heart, and the flesh and blood around her that were used as bait all showed the danger of the other party, so she was always pacing around the periphery, and was ready to escape from here at any time.

"You are the legendary Lutaxi?" Leo asked, but the language he used was not any language in this world, but a language exclusive to the dryad. This is the language he lived in the Black Forest. I learned from Bailu during that time.

However, the tree demon in front of him obviously couldn't understand this language, with a blank expression on his face, and then said in a common language commonly used in the Middle Kingdom: "Are you talking to me? I don't understand Your language, but it sounds nice."

Hearing what the tree demon said, Leo immediately realized that the tree demon in front of him probably didn't come from the Black Forest, otherwise, she would definitely not understand this language that belongs to their own clan. Thunder language also contains mysterious power, and only the dryad can use it, and many abilities of the dryad need to use this language to display.

Although Leo was surprised by the origin of the dryad, he didn't show it on his face, but repeated the question just now in a language that the dryad could understand.

"Lutaxi? Someone seems to have mentioned this name before, maybe he was talking about me." The dryad thought about it seriously, and then said in a daze.

After hearing this, Leo told some legends about Lutaxi to the dryad. After hearing this, the dryad immediately showed anger on his face and said, "How can they talk nonsense? I want to save those people, they Their bodies are entangled with the power of death, if I don't save them, they will die."

"Save them?" Leo was stunned when he heard the words, and then asked: "If I remember correctly, some of the people who were taken away by you didn't seem to reappear? Some appeared, but they were already dead. Yes, and the death is terrible."

The dryad said with an innocent face: "You can't blame me, I can only save them once, take them to a safe place and leave. As for what happened to them afterwards, I don't know."

Hearing the dryad's words, Leo suddenly felt like laughing. He now understood the reason for the Lutaxi legend. It was all just a misunderstanding, but the misunderstanding became bigger and bigger, and gradually became a fact. .