Author: Jiuchengjun

After leaving Satoran, Leo has been using his psychic wings to travel south at full speed. It took him about five days to cross the Weerlan Mountains that divide the north and south of the continent and reach the southern end of the continent.

The Veran Mountains are the largest mountain range in the world. They span the east and west ends and divide the entire continent into north and south.

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

Although the southern land area is only equivalent to a quarter of the northern land area, its importance to the entire world is no less than that of the north, because it has nearly 90% of the world's primeval forests and is the most important source of timber in the entire world.

, in addition, it also has extremely rich mineral deposits, which is the basis for the industrial development of the entire world.

Such rich resources make the country in the south much richer than the country in 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 primeval forests and swamps full of unknown dangers, it is suitable for

There are too few places to live.

Before the disaster, there were only seven large cities in all the countries in the South, and only 19 places suitable for human habitation. None of the other places were suitable for human settlement. Therefore, the population of the countries in the South has not been very large, and most of them

The total population of the country is less than 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 power of the southern countries is so weak, the northern countries rarely invade or conquer the southern countries beyond the Weilan Mountains. Because of the obstacles of the mountains and virgin forests, it is difficult for the north to conquer the south. Even if they complete the conquest, they still want to completely conquer the south.

It is also extremely difficult to grasp the fruits of victory, because the southern countries are very united. Once they launch an attack on one country, it is equivalent to attacking all southern countries.

Therefore, even though the northern countries covet the various resources contained in the southern land, they rarely use war to obtain these resources. Commercial transactions are their main method.

Today, almost no humans survive in the area south of the Verland Mountains. This is mainly because the climate and plants in the south have undergone unexpected changes during the disaster.

Originally, according to normal conditions, even if the world is wrapped in endless snowstorms, the climate in the south should be warmer than in the north and more suitable for human habitation. However, the actual situation is that the temperature in the south is far lower than the temperature in the north. In the north, as long as

Wearing appropriate warm clothing, humans can survive in the snowfields of the north for a long time, but in the south, even with sufficient thermal equipment, humans will freeze to death within ten minutes.

Back then, the Redemption Order's Southern Redemption Expeditionary Force misjudged the temperature in the south and rashly sent a vanguard of a thousand people, a mixture of senior clergy and elite soldiers, across the still-intact Werland cross-border highway.

The Weilan Mountains came to the south, and in the end, only one senior monk in this team who was blessed by the goddess of the lamp escaped back, while the others all died in the extreme low temperature environment in the south, and there is still no way to recover their bodies.

Although the expeditionary force failed, the Redemption Order has not given up its plan to regain the southern land, because the resources in the south are too important to them. If the Redemption Order wants to restore world civilization, the mineral resources in the south are absolutely indispensable.

An important missing link.

Therefore, more than ten years ago, the Redemption Order built an outpost town in the Werland Mountains, and equipped the outpost town with a laboratory dedicated to researching cold-proof facilities and equipment. The cold-proof equipment currently used by the Redemption Order

Most of the equipment and facilities come from this laboratory. Unfortunately, even so, the laboratory still has not found a way to survive the extremely cold weather in the south.

Despite this, Qianshao Town was lucky enough to find a smuggling channel hidden in the mountains. By repairing this smuggling channel and relocating the exit, they were able to dig the channel out of the mountains and outside the mountains.

Next to the primeval forest, the exploration scope of the Redemption Order expanded to the southern land.

However, when they tried to check the conditions of 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 for unknown reasons. This species is as transparent as an ice sculpture in appearance, with various shapes.

Plants from the original forest look like an ice sculpture forest, which makes people feel inexplicably shocked after looking at it.

However, this seemingly harmless ice sculpture plant is actually extremely dangerous. Any creature that comes close will be instantly sucked to these ice sculpture plants by an invisible suction force, and then they can no longer break free. They are trapped by the surrounding extremely cold temperatures.

Before freezing to death, it was first assimilated into a human-shaped ice sculpture by this ice sculpture plant.

This ice sculpture plant is mysterious and terrifying. It is considered by the Order of Redemption to be another kind of abyss vine. This plant is also a danger that the Order of Redemption will inevitably face in the future. Therefore, in the past few years, the Order of Redemption has been sending people here to study it.

So far, they have not had any research results on this plant.

When Leo flew over the Werland Mountains, he saw at a glance the ice sculpture forests all over the southern land, and he also identified what this ice sculpture plant was that had troubled the Redemption Order for many years.

Just as the Redemption Order guessed, this mutated species does come from the abyss like the abyss vines, but it is not a plant, but a low-level abyss creature called Camu.

The individual of this bug is very small, smaller than ordinary fungi. Its growth process is divided into two stages. One is the bug body. At this time, the Camus bug is harmless. Even if it is sucked into the body, it will not survive.

It will cause any harm to the person who inhales it, but when its growth process reaches the second stage of crystal, it becomes extremely dangerous, and there are even cases of killing adult abyss superiors.

It is very difficult for this Camus bug to grow into a crystal state. It is so difficult that 99% of Camus bugs remain insect bodies throughout their lives. Only a very few lucky Camus bugs can grow into crystals, and this

The crystal cam bug at that time will be extremely contagious, and almost all living things 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 thing called touch.

The law of crystallization.

However, when Leo saw these crystal forests infected by Camus, he couldn't help but have some associations in his mind. What he associated with 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 us has no energy fluctuations. Another example is that the crystal forest was formed after the disaster, and crystal energy had existed for many years before the disaster.

But Leo always had a feeling that the two were essentially the same thing.

He felt that Camu bugs 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 there were already Camu bugs that had grown into crystal forms and infected the world at that time.

of creatures.

Later, as the world evolved, the infected crystallized organisms were gradually buried deep underground, and eventually turned into energy crystals.

Leo's conjecture is not unfounded, because there are some medium-sized creatures in the abyss that, when life evolves, will indeed swallow large amounts of crystals formed after Camus infects the creatures. This is enough to prove that the crystals contain

Extremely powerful energy, but this energy is hidden.

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

If it were normal times, Leo might be interested in stopping and studying these crystal forests to see if he could find out the secrets contained in them, but now he is thinking more about how to cross the southern land and reach the seaside.

It is not appropriate to directly use psychic wings to fly over the forest, because the crystal forest forms a huge area covering the sky from the ground. This area contains extremely powerful power of law. The reason why the southern land is more powerful than the northern land

The severe cold is mainly because this area absorbs all surrounding heat, and this area has a strong interference effect on any extraordinary power.

Although Leo was sure that his psychic wings would not dissipate even if they were disturbed and could still help him fly in the air, he was not sure whether there would be other dangerous things in the realm of the crystal forest. If he went deep into the forest

Deep down, if he encounters attacks from other dangerous things, even with his current strength, he may be in trouble.

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

Among the various materials he collected about the southern land, there was a map of the transportation network of the southern land. The transportation network of the entire southern land was marked on the map. Among them was a transcontinental highway not far from Leo.

Before the disaster, in order to facilitate 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, and the data recorded all

All roads are wide enough for ten vehicles to travel abreast. In order to avoid obstruction to the road when trees break, all trees within a hundred meters on both sides of the road have been cut down. Therefore, Leo only needs to find such a road to easily pass through the covered road.

In the crystal forests of the southern land, there is no need to take the long way around and take the coastline.

After flying for about four or five minutes, a highway appeared in Leo's eyes. As recorded in the data, this highway could accommodate ten vehicles running parallel to each other, and there was an open space of 100 meters on both sides.

From a bird's eye view, this road separates the complete crystal forest like an isolation belt.

Leo flew to the entrance of the road and landed, and then walked into the road. Just as he thought, the area where the crystal forest was created was divided by the road. As long as you walk on the road, it is safe and the only way.

The problem is that the temperature on the road is lower than outside.

However, what Leo didn't expect was that there were still people active in such an extremely cold and dangerous place, because he saw many traces of wheel crushing on the snow on the road. Judging from the shape and width of the wheels,

It should be a giant truck used to transport large goods in southern countries before the disaster. This kind of truck is more than ten meters high and more than twenty meters long. It looks like a big house. The width of the ten-lane road under Leo's feet is

, can only accommodate up to two such giant trucks in parallel.

Obviously, the people driving such giant trucks should not be members of the Order of Redemption, because the people of the Order of Redemption are still suffering from the extreme cold in the southern land. If they can really drive giant trucks in these highway isolation zones,

So now the Redemption Order has already been publicized to everyone.

"Could the person driving the truck be a survivor of the southern land?" Another association emerged in Leo's mind, but this guess seemed impossible after thinking about it, because with the current extreme low temperature in the southern land, it is difficult for humans to stay for a long time.

Survive in this environment, and this situation probably appeared when the disaster broke out. At that time, it was impossible for people in the southern land to survive such a disaster.

Leo felt that if he walked along this road, he might be able to encounter a giant truck driving on the road. Then he might know who was driving the truck, so he did not continue thinking where he was and made an ice sled.

Step on it, and then use spiritual energy as a driving force to slide quickly along the road towards the depths of the crystal forest.

More than two hours later, Leo saw the first southern town built in the forest. This town was located in the forest on one side of the road. Judging from the wood piled beside the road, this town was mainly composed of

Mainly logging.

Leo just stopped for a while on the road and did not enter the town, because he knew that there were no living people in the town, because they were all infected by the crystal forest created by Camu bugs and turned into lifelike crystals.

Statues stand in the town. From the remaining expressions on the faces of these crystal statues, it is easy to see that they were all in extreme fear before their death.

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

After discovering that several towns were all in the same situation, Leo thought that the subsequent towns in the Crystal Forest would all have the same scene. But when he discovered the seventh town that appeared on the roadside, he found that this town was completely different.

The same, because he did not 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 changed the direction and entered this different town along the connecting road built by the town itself.
Chapter completed!