The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

After leaving from Satoran, Leo has been using the psionic wings to travel southward at full speed. It took about five days to cross the Vallan Mountains that divide the north and south of the continent, and arrived at the southern tip of the continent.

The Vallan Mountains are the largest mountain range in the world. It straddles the east and west ends and divides the entire continent into north and south.

Because of the barrier of the Vallan Mountains, the hot and humid air from the southern ocean cannot reach the north, so the overall temperature in the north is much lower than that in the south.

Although the land area of ​​the south is only equivalent to a quarter of the land area of ​​the north, its importance to the whole world is no less than that of the north, because it has nearly 90% of the virgin forests in the whole world, and it is the most important timber production area in the whole world , In addition, it also has extremely rich mineral deposits, which are the basis for the industrial development of the entire world.

Such abundant resources make the country in the south much richer than the north as a whole, but wealth does not mean that the country is strong. In fact, because most of the land in the south is either undulating mountains, or virgin forests and swamps full of unknown dangers, suitable for There are so few places to live.

Before the disaster, there were only seven large cities in all the countries in the south, and only nineteen places suitable for human habitation, and none of the other places were suitable for human settlement. The total population of the country is not comparable to the population of a city in the north, so the national power of the southern countries is much weaker than that of the north.

Although the national strength of the southern countries is so weak, the northern countries rarely invade or conquer the southern countries by crossing the Vallan Mountains. Because of the obstacles of the mountains and virgin forests, it is difficult for the north to conquer the south. It is also extremely difficult to grasp the fruits of victory, because the southern countries are very united. Once an attack is launched on one country, it is equivalent to attacking all southern countries.

So even though the northern countries salivate over the various resources contained in the southern land, they seldom use war to obtain these resources, and commercial transactions are their main means.

Today, there are almost no human beings in the area south of the Vallan Mountains. This is mainly because the climate and plants in the south have undergone unexpected mutations during the disaster.

Originally, according to normal circumstances, even if the world is surrounded by endless snowstorms, the climate in the south should be warmer than that in the north, making it more suitable for human habitation. However, the actual situation is that the temperature in the south is much lower than that in the north. Wearing suitable warm clothes, human beings can survive for a long time on the snowy fields in the north, while in the south even with sufficient warming equipment, human beings will freeze to death within ten minutes.

Back then, the Southern Redemption Expeditionary Force of the Redemption Order misjudged the temperature in the south and rashly dispatched a vanguard of thousands of senior clergymen and elite soldiers to cross the still-intact Verlan cross-border highway. The Vallan Mountains came to the south, and in this team, only one senior monk who was blessed by the Goddess of the Lantern escaped back, while the others all died in the extremely low temperature environment in the south, and the bodies have not been recovered so far.

Although the expedition failed, the Order of Redemption did not give up its plan to recover the southern land, because the resources in the south are too important to them. If the Order of Redemption wants to restore world civilization, the mineral resources in the south are absolutely indispensable. An essential part that is missing.

Therefore, more than ten years ago, the Order of Redemption built an outpost town in the Vallan Mountains, and equipped it with a laboratory dedicated to researching cold-proof facilities and equipment. The cold-proof equipment used by the Order of Redemption now Most of the equipment and facilities come from this laboratory, but unfortunately even so, the laboratory still has not found a way to lower the extreme cold weather in the south.

Even so, the outpost town was lucky and found a smuggling channel hidden in the mountains. Through the repair of this smuggling channel and the repositioning of the exit, they were able to dig the channel out of the range of the mountain range and outside the mountain Beside the primeval forest, the Redemption Order's exploration scope has expanded to the southern land.

However, when they tried to check the forest, they found that the virgin forest in the southern land had become completely different from the forest they knew.

Under the extreme cold, all the plants growing in the primeval forest did not die. Instead, they mutated into another species due to unknown reasons. This species was as transparent as an ice sculpture in appearance, with various shapes. The plants of the primeval forest look like an ice sculpture forest, and people will be inexplicably shocked after seeing it.

However, this seemingly harmless ice sculpture plant is actually extremely dangerous. Any creature that approaches will be instantly sucked to these ice sculpture plants by an invisible suction force, and then can no longer break free. Before freezing to death, it was first assimilated by this ice sculpture plant into a humanoid ice sculpture.

This kind of ice sculpture plant is mysterious and terrifying. It is considered by the Redemption Order to be another kind of abyss vine. This plant is also a danger that the Redemption Order will inevitably face in the future. Therefore, the Redemption Order has continuously sent people here to study it in recent years. This plant, and so far they have not had any research results.

When Leo flew over the Vallan Mountains, he saw the ice sculpture forest all over the southern land at a glance, and he also recognized the ice sculpture plant that had troubled the Redemption Order for many years.

As guessed by the Order of Redemption, this mutated species did indeed come from the abyss like the abyss vines, but it was not a plant, but a low-level abyssal creature called a kamut.

The individual of this kind of worm is very small, even smaller than the average fungus. Its growth process is divided into two stages, one is the worm body. At this time, the kamu worm is harmless. It will cause no harm to the inhaler, but when its growth process reaches the second stage crystal, it becomes extremely dangerous, and there have even been cases of killing adult abyss superiors.

It is very difficult for this kind of kamut to grow into a crystal state. It is so difficult that 99% of kamu worms spend their entire lives as worm bodies. Only a very few lucky kamu worms can grow into crystals, and this The crystal kamu bug at that time will be extremely contagious, and almost all creatures that come into contact with it will be crystallized. This crystallization is not a mutation caused by power, but more like a law, a kind of magic called touch. The law that will crystallize.

However, when Leo saw these crystal forests infected by kamut, he couldn't help but have some associations in his mind. What he thought of was the crystal energy, the main energy source of this world before.

Although judging from the current situation, the two seem to have nothing to do with each other. For example, the crystal forest in front of you has no energy fluctuations. For example, the formation time of the crystal forest is after the disaster, and the crystal energy has existed for many years before the disaster. But Leo always has a feeling that the two are essentially the same thing.

He felt that kamu worms should have existed in this world a long time ago, even as early as when the nine so-called demon gods in the legend created this world, and at that time, kamu worms had grown into crystal forms and infected the world at that time. creature.

Later, with the evolution of the world, the infected and crystallized creatures were gradually buried deep underground, and finally transformed into energy crystals.

Leo's conjecture was not without purpose, because some medium-sized creatures in the abyss did devour a large number of crystals formed after the creatures were infected by the kamm worms when they evolved, which is enough to prove that there is something hidden in the crystals. Extremely powerful energy, but this energy is hidden.

And this also proves why those energy crystals contain the abyssal breath. Before, Leo thought that the abyssal breath came from the abyss vines, but now it seems that the crystals themselves may contain the abyssal breath.

If it was a normal time, Leo might be interested in stopping to study these crystal forests to see if he could find out the secrets hidden in them, but now he thinks more about how to cross the southern land and reach the seaside.

It is inappropriate to use the psionic wings to fly over the forest directly, because the crystal forest forms a huge field covering the sky from the ground, and this field contains extremely powerful law power. The reason why the southern land is stronger than the northern land. The severe cold is mainly because this field absorbs all the surrounding heat, and this field has a strong interference effect on any extraordinary power.

Although Leo is sure that even if his psionic wings are disturbed, it will not dissipate and can still help him fly in the air, but he is not sure whether there will be other dangerous things in the field of the crystal forest. If he goes deep into the forest In the depths, if he encounters the attack of other dangerous things, then even with his current strength, I am afraid it will be a little tricky.

So, after he flew near the crystal forest, he turned his flight direction and flew towards the east along the edge of the crystal forest.

Among the various materials he collected about the southern land, there is a map of the transportation network of the southern land, which marks the transportation network of the entire southern land on the map, and there is a transcontinental highway not far from Leo.

Before the disaster, in order to allow the smooth transportation of various minerals and timber, the southern countries built a road network covering the entire southern land based on their own borders. Each road was built according to the highest standards. The roads are all ten cars parallel in width. In order to avoid obstacles to the road when the trees break, all the trees within 100 meters on both sides of the road have been cut down, so Leo only needs to find such a road, and he can easily pass through the covered road. For the crystal forest in the southern land, there is no need to take a long detour and take the coastline.

After flying for about four or five minutes, a road appeared in Leo's eyes. As recorded in the data, this road can accommodate ten vehicles in parallel, and there is an open space of 100 meters on each side. From a bird's-eye view, this road divides the complete crystal forest like a isolation belt.

Leo flew to the entrance of the road and landed, and then walked into the road. As he thought, the domain created by the crystal forest was divided by the road. As long as you walk on the road, it is safe and the only one The problem is that it's cooler on the road than outside.

However, what Leo didn't expect was that there were still people active in such an extremely cold and extremely dangerous place, because on the snow on the road, he saw many traces of wheels being crushed. Judging from the shape and width of the wheels, It should be a giant truck used by the southern countries to transport large goods before the disaster. This kind of truck is more than ten meters high and twenty meters long. It looks like a big house. With the width of the ten-lane road under Leo's feet , can only accommodate two such giant trucks in parallel at most.

Obviously, the person driving this giant truck should not be a member of the Order of Redemption, because the members of the Order of Redemption are still troubled by the extreme cold in the southern land. If they can really drive a giant truck in these road barriers, So now the Order of Redemption has already been publicized to the point where everyone knows about it.

"Could the person driving the truck be a survivor of the southern land?" Another association appeared in Leo's mind, but this guess was impossible after thinking about it, because with the extreme low temperature of the southern land, it is difficult for human beings to survive for a long time. Surviving in this environment, and this situation probably appeared when the disaster broke out, it was impossible for the people in the southern land to survive this kind of disaster at that time.

Leo felt that if he walked down this road, he might be able to meet a giant truck driving on the road, and then he might know who was driving the truck, so instead of thinking about it, he made an ice sled, Step on it, and then use spiritual energy as a driving force, along the road, quickly slide towards the depths of the crystal forest.

After more than two hours, Leo saw the first southern town built in the forest. This town was located in the forest on the side of the road. Judging from the logs piled up by the road, this town was mainly Mainly logging.

Leo just stopped on the road for a while, and didn't enter the town, because he knew that there were no living people in the town, because they were all infected by the crystal forest made by kamu bugs, and turned into lifelike crystals The statues stood in the town. From the remaining expressions on the faces of these crystal statues, it is not difficult to see that they were all in extreme fear before they died.

After that, Leo passed through several similar logging towns one after another. The scenes were all exactly the same. At the moment of disaster, everyone and the surrounding forest were instantly infected by kammus and turned into crystals.

After discovering that several towns were all in the same situation, Leo thought that the towns in the crystal forest would have the same scene, but when he found the seventh town that appeared by the roadside, he found that this town was completely different. Same, because he didn't see a crystal statue formed by humans in the town, and also found that there were a lot of traces of recent activities in the town, but there was no one in the town.

All kinds of abnormal phenomena aroused Leo's curiosity, so he turned around and entered this different town along the connecting road built by the town itself.