The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

"Adult men? They! They all went to work in the lumberyard." Facing Leo's question, the old man guarding the gate of the town hesitated for a moment, and then replied indifferently.

"Does the lumberyard need so many workers?" Leo asked a little puzzled.

"Of course," the old man said earnestly, "I heard that the lumberyard has a big order and needs to purchase a large amount of round logs. The existing workers in the lumberyard have no way to cut enough round logs within the time specified in the order. , so I temporarily recruited all adult men from the small town to log in the forest, and they should come back after the number of round logs stipulated in the order is completed." Then, he looked at Leo very curiously, and said: "Yes Oh, why did you come here at this time, now is not a good time to travel here, animals in the forest are in estrus during this period, even docile animals are very aggressive, it is very dangerous to come to the forest at this time .”

Leo pretended to smile wryly, and said helplessly: "I can't help it, I'm just an errand worker, and those gentlemen above have assigned tasks, and I need to complete them."

After he finished speaking, he asked about the direction of Lake Narnia, and then left the town. Not long after he left, a bird with a note tied to its leg flew out of the gatekeeper's hut , and soon flew into the forest, but after entering the forest, the bird turned a corner, passed through a dense forest, and landed in the hands of the tree demon Lutaxi.

"How do you know he's lying?" The dryad Lutaxi took the note from the bird's foot, looked at it, and handed it to Leo.

Leo took the note and looked at it. The content of the note was very simple, that is, a strange traveler planned to go to Lake Narnia, so the recipient of the note should be careful.

After reading the note, Leo tied the note to the bird's feet again, then signaled the tree demon Lutaxi to let the bird go, and answered her previous question: "It's very simple, because it's unreasonable. .”

"Unreasonable?" The dryad Lutaxi looked at Leo in puzzlement.

"Not to mention the towns built in these virgin forests, even those rural towns close to big cities will never send all the adult males in the town to work as lumberjacks for a little wages. You must know the Middle Kingdom The region is not a peaceful place. There are constant wars here all year round. Every war will create a large number of deserters and defeated troops. Many of these deserted soldiers and defeated troops will become bandits running around. If they are sent out to work, if those bandits come to their small town, how can their small town resist it?" Leo replied in a very detailed and serious way: "Although the people in the small town don't have much knowledge, they don't have much knowledge. But they are not stupid. Of course they know how dangerous it would be if there were no adult males in the town, so sending all the adult males out is definitely not for any wages. There must be more important reasons, and these reasons are also closely related to the town itself. contact, they had to send all the adult males out at the risk of the town being attacked."

"Are we going to the lumberyard?" Lutaxi the dryad asked while listening to Leo's explanation, looking in the direction where the messenger bird disappeared.

"No! Not going to the logging camp." Leo shook his head and said, "No matter what the situation is, it has nothing to do with me. For me, Lake Narnia is the purpose of this trip."

"Aren't you curious about what's going on?" the dryad Lutaxi asked.

Leo turned his head to look at the tree demon Lutaxi, and seemed to see some of the tree demon Lutaxi's thoughts, and said, "Do you know something?"

"It's nothing," Lutaxi the dryad didn't hide anything, pointed to the direction where the bird disappeared, and said, "I feel a force of nature over there, but that force of nature is chaotic and disorderly, and full of energy. I've never felt such a force of nature other than aggression."

Hearing this, Leo also sensed the direction pointed by the dryad Lutaxi, but compared to the sensitivity of the dryad Lutaxi to the power of nature, Leo's perception was obviously not a little bit worse. After a long time, I didn't feel a reason.

Although the Dryad Rutaxi seems to have told the truth about what she knows, Leo still feels that the Dryad Rutaxi is still hiding something, especially when she mentioned the so-called force of nature that she has never felt before. At this time, even if she tried her best to hide it, Leo could still see a trace of complex emotions in her eyes. This emotion included panic and fear, but also longing and greed. Obviously, the power of nature in his mouth was not like what she said. as simple as that.

"After I have been to Lake Narnia and finished my business, I will go there again when I have time." Leo did not intend to follow the wish of the tree demon Lutaxi, but made a decision to maintain the original goal. .

Hearing Leo's decision, the dryad Lutaxi was very disappointed. Although she wanted to say something and try to persuade Leo, she swallowed it back before she could say it, and finally could only follow in silence. Behind Leo, walk towards Lake Narnia.

The crystal stones of Lake Narnia in the early days were regarded as gemstones. Although it was difficult and dangerous to mine, compared with those ores that needed to be mined, the open-pit gemstone mines at the bottom of the lake were obviously less expensive to mine, and almost Anyone can mine, no qualifications required.

As a result, a large number of miners gathered here. With their simple diving equipment or their own extraordinary diving ability, they dived into the bottom of the lake to mine Narnia gems, and these people also left a large number of residences around Lake Narnia. required cabin.

Leo was still far away from Lake Narnia, and he had already seen the abandoned wooden houses beside the road, and as he got closer to Lake Narnia, the number of such wooden houses became more and more. Buried by forests and shrubs, it looks a bit eerie.

However, in addition to the wooden house, there are also a large number of devices used for diving in the past, such as a house-sized artificial gas transmission tower pump that can supply six people for diving. This kind of tower pump has been outdated decades ago. All of them are mechanical pumps for personal use, but there are similar devices on some expedition ships for sunken ships at sea. After all, this kind of tower pump is easier to manufacture and not easy to break.

In addition, some corpses can be seen inside and outside some houses. Judging from the distribution of the corpses, there should be a large-scale fighting here. As for the purpose of the fighting, it is not known, but it should not be for Those crystalline stones in Lake Narnia.

Because although the gems of Lake Narnia were all the rage for a while, and even became the top gems in the world, their value dropped very quickly. It can be said that within a dozen days, they fell from sky-high price gems to ordinary crystals. stone price.

The reason why this happened was that the finance minister of a certain country had fallen from office at that time. After interrogating the finance minister, people found that there was an organization secretly manipulating the price of Narnia gems, and even Narnia gems They also concealed the fact that it was only crystal stones, not gems, and bought a large number of gem experts to speak for Narnia gems.

This incident destroyed the accumulated reputation of Narnia Gemstones almost instantly, and the price of Narnia Gemstones also fell to the bottom of a cliff. Until now, the price of Narnia Gemstones has not risen. Other crystal stones are used together as decorative stones.

Also because the price of Narnia gems is too low, mining is difficult and dangerous, so except for some gem merchants who need a batch of Narnia gems temporarily and will hire people to mine them here, other gem merchants are unwilling to touch Narnia. Sub-precious stones, and the settlements gathered around Lake Narnia because of the miners were naturally abandoned.

After passing through a large residential area formed by intricate wooden houses, the realization in front of him suddenly became clear, and a huge lake that even Leo could not see the opposite edge appeared in front of him, because it was dusk at this moment, the sunlight Falling on the gloomy lake reflecting the reflection of the sky, the sparkling light made the scenery look very beautiful.

However, the two people who saw this scene at this moment seemed to have ignored this beautiful scene, and their attention was focused on the extraordinary things hidden under this beautiful scene.

Perhaps it was because the shadows she had seen in Lake Narnia before were too great, so that the dryad Lutaxi stopped a long way from Lake Narnia, and stopped While stepping, he used his own ability to apply layers of protection around his body, and at the same time showed Leo that he would never approach the lake anyway.

The somewhat exaggerated behavior of the dryad Lutaxi did not displease Leo. At this moment, he could clearly feel the fear and worry in the tree demon Rutaxi's heart. Under the influence of worry, it was good that he didn't turn around and run away immediately.

Out of curiosity, Leo asked what the dryad Lutaxi was afraid of, and what shape Lake Narnia looked to her.

In the face of Leo's question, the dryad Lutaxi did not give a suitable answer, because even she herself didn't know what she was afraid of, because the experience that brought her fear back then was already in her mind. It became very blurred, not because there was a problem with her memory, but because of the mysterious power contained in that experience itself, that power will completely blur that memory, leaving only the emotion of fear itself.

As for the shape of Lake Narnia in her eyes, whether it is the shadow world or the real world, Lake Narnia is a pitch-black lake whose water surface is so calm that there is no ripple.

After hearing the description of Lake Narnia from the dryad Lutasi, Leo also realized that the Narnia Lake that the dryad Lutasi saw was completely different from the Narnia Lake he saw. Although Lake Narnia with normal eyesight is calm and peaceful, there are still obvious ripples on the surface of the lake, and these ripples are like a layer of scales covering the surface of the lake under the illumination of the setting sun. It is completely different from the black mirror lake mentioned by the dryad Rutaxi.

In this case, Leo also switched his eyes to the state of spiritual vision. Through the power of the real eye, he also saw the situation of Lake Narnia in the mouth of the dryad Rutaxi.

Although he had already heard the description of the dryad Lutaxi and was prepared in his heart, when he saw Lake Narnia under the eyes of reality, Leo still couldn't help feeling an inexplicable sense of danger. This dark mirror lake made him think of a black hole involuntarily. Let alone approaching it, just staring at it for a long time, there will be a feeling of spiritual consciousness and even flesh and blood being sucked away by the lake in front of him, and more importantly, Lei Ou soon discovered that it was not a feeling, but a real existence. After he withdrew his vision, he immediately felt an inexplicable sense of exhaustion both physically and mentally. After examination, he found that his spirit and flesh and blood were indeed partially damaged. .

After discovering this, Leo also understood why the dryad Lutaxi was so far away from the lake and did not dare to approach it. Presumably, she should also be very aware of the danger of the black mirror lake.

However, what also makes Leo feel miraculous and unbelievable is that as soon as he exits the state of spiritual vision, the dangerous black mirror lake in front of him immediately becomes an ordinary lake, and the mysterious power that can take away the soul and flesh and blood also disappears. , even if Leo stood by the edge of the lake, squatted down and stretched his hands into the water, he didn't feel any danger.

Although it is still unclear where the dangerous power in the black mirror lake came from, Leo can be sure of one thing, that is, this power should have nothing to do with the Stone Throne, because when that power appears, the Stone Throne has nothing to do with it. reaction.

But what's interesting is that the devouring power produced by Leo's chaotic stomach pouch has become more active because of this power, but the degree of activity is not too obvious. If Leo didn't check all the conditions of his body seriously, I'm afraid It was also impossible to detect this faint activity.

Obviously, this situation shows that even if the dangerous power contained in the black mirror lake is not directly related to the devouring power of the chaotic stomach, the two should have some connection at the original level.

In order to confirm his guess, Leo intentionally used his spiritual vision ability near the lakeside, and began to use the devouring power in his body to spread it on the surface of his body.

Because it is on the edge of Lake Narnia, the mysterious power that absorbs the spirit and flesh in the Black Mirror Lake has become several times stronger than the previous position, but its side effects on Leo have completely disappeared, perhaps To be more correct, it is isolated from the body by the power of devouring. Obviously, the power of devouring can effectively resist the mysterious power of the black mirror lake.

After discovering this, Leo deactivated his spiritual vision ability again, allowing Lake Narnia in front of him to return to its normal state.

Although he found a way to deal with the mysterious power in the Black Mirror Lake, he did not immediately explore the situation in the Black Mirror Lake, but decided to explore the normal Narnia Lake first, go to the bottom of the lake, and mine some Narnia gems Mine to see how effective these crystal stones are on your stone throne.