Chapter 1906 Crystal Forest

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 Weil Blue Mountains that divide the continent into north and south, and arrived at the southern end of the continent.

The Weil Blue Mountains are the largest mountain range in the world. It spans the east and west ends, dividing the entire continent into north and south.

Because of the obstruction of the Weil Blue Mountains, the humid and hot air currents from the southern ocean cannot blow to the north, so the overall temperature in the north is much lower than that in the south.

Although the land area in the south is only one-fourth of the land area in the north, its importance to the world is no less than that in the north, because it has nearly 90% of the world's virgin forests and is the world's most important timber production area. In addition, it also has extremely rich mineral deposits, which are the foundation of the world's industrial development.

Such rich resources make the southern countries as a whole much richer than the north, 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, there are too few places suitable for living.

Before the disaster, there were only seven large cities in all the southern countries, and only nineteen places suitable for human habitation. All other places were not suitable for human settlement. Therefore, the population of the southern countries has always been small. The total population of most countries is not as large as the population of a city in the north, so the national strength 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 cross the Weil Blue Mountains to invade or conquer the southern countries. Because of the obstacles of the mountains and primeval forests, it is difficult for the north to conquer the south. Even if the conquest is completed, it is extremely difficult to completely grasp the fruits of victory, because the southern countries are very united. Once an attack is launched on a country, it is equivalent to attacking all southern countries.

So even if 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 means.

Nowadays, there are almost no humans living in the area south of the Weil Blue Mountains. This is mainly because the climate and plants in the south have undergone unexpected changes during the disaster.

Normally, even if the world is wrapped in endless blizzards, 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 much lower than that in the north. In the north, as long as they wear suitable warm clothes, humans can survive for a long time on the snowfields in the north. In the south, even if they have sufficient warm equipment, humans will be frozen to death within ten minutes.

The Southern Redemption Expeditionary Force of the Redemption Order once misjudged the temperature in the south and rashly sent a thousand-man vanguard team mixed with senior clergy and elite soldiers from the still intact Weillan Cross-Border Highway, crossed the Weillan Mountains, and came to the south. In the end, only one senior monk who was blessed by the Lantern Goddess escaped back, and the others all died in the extremely low temperature environment in the south, and their bodies have not been recovered so far.

Although the expedition failed, the Redemption Order did not give up the plan to recover 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 an indispensable and important link.

Therefore, more than a decade ago, the Redemption Order built an outpost town in the Weir Blue Mountains, and equipped it with a laboratory dedicated to the research of cold-resistant facilities and equipment. Most of the cold-resistant equipment and facilities used by the Redemption Order now come from this laboratory. Unfortunately, even so, the laboratory still has not found a way to lower the extreme cold weather in the south.

Despite this, the outpost 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 dig it to the primeval forest outside the mountains, allowing the Redemption Order to expand its exploration range to the southern land.

However, when they wanted to try to check the situation in the forest, they found that the primeval 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, but instead mutated into another species for unknown reasons. This species looks like an ice sculpture, transparent throughout, and looks like various plants in the primeval forest. Looking at it, it looks like an ice sculpture forest, which makes people feel inexplicably shocked.

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 will never be able to break free. Before being frozen to death by the extremely cold surroundings, it will first be 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 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 this plant in recent years, but they have not yet achieved any research results.

When Leo flew over the Verlan Mountains, he saw the ice sculpture forests all over the southern land at a glance, and he also recognized what this ice sculpture plant that has troubled the Redemption Order for many years is.

Just as the Order of Redemption guessed, this mutant species did come from the abyss like the abyss vine, but it was not a plant, but a low-level abyss creature called Kamu.

The individual of this worm is very small, smaller than ordinary fungi, and its growth process is divided into two stages. One is the insect body. At this time, the Kamu worm is harmless. Even if it is sucked into the body, it will not cause any harm to the inhaler. But when its growth process reaches the second stage of crystal, it becomes extremely dangerous, and there have even been cases of killing adult abyss superiors.

It is very difficult for this Kamu worm to grow into a crystal state. It is so difficult that 99% of the Kamu worms remain insect bodies throughout their lives. Only a very small number of lucky Kamu worms can grow into crystals. At this time, the crystal Kamu worm 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 law called crystallization by touch.

However, when Leo saw the crystal forests infected by the Kam insects, he couldn't help but have some associations in his mind. He thought of the crystal energy, the main energy source of the previous world.

Although from the current situation, the two seem to have nothing to do with each other, such as the crystal forest in front of him has no energy fluctuations, and the formation time of the crystal forest is after the disaster, while 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 the Kam insects should have existed in this world a long time ago, even as early as the time when the nine so-called demon gods in the legend created this world, and at that time, there were Kam insects that grew into crystal form and infected the creatures in the world at that time.

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

Leo's conjecture was not aimless, because some medium-sized creatures in the abyss did swallow a large number of crystals formed after the Kam insects infected the creatures when they evolved, which was enough to prove that the crystals contained extremely powerful energy, but this energy was hidden.

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

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

It is not appropriate to fly directly over the forest with psychic wings, because the crystal forest forms a huge area covering the sky from the ground. This area contains extremely powerful law power. The reason why the southern land is colder than the north is mainly because this area absorbs all the heat around it, and this area has a strong interference effect on any extraordinary power.

Although Leo is sure that his psychic wings will not dissipate even if they are disturbed, and can still help him fly in the air, he is not sure whether there will be other dangerous things in the area of ​​the crystal forest. If he goes deep into the forest and encounters attacks from other dangerous things, then even with his current strength, it may be a bit tricky.

So, after he flew to the vicinity of the crystal forest, he turned his flight direction and flew eastward along the edge of the crystal forest.

Among the various materials he collected about the southern land, there was a map of the southern land transportation network, which marked the entire southern land transportation network on the map, and one of the transcontinental highways was not far from Leo.

Before the disaster, in order to enable 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 data recorded that all roads were wide enough for ten cars to run in parallel. In order to avoid obstacles to the road when trees broke, all trees within a hundred meters on both sides of the road were cut down. Therefore, Leo only needed to find such a road to easily pass through the crystal forest covering the southern land. There was 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 could run ten cars in parallel, and there was also a hundred meters of open space on both sides. Looking down from the air, this road was like a buffer zone that divided the complete crystal forest.

Leo flew to the entrance of the highway and landed, then walked into the highway. As he thought, the area where the crystal forest was produced was divided by the highway. As long as he walked on the highway, he would be safe. The only problem was that the temperature on the highway was 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 on the snow on the highway, he saw many traces of wheels rolling. Judging from the shape and width of the wheels, they should be giant trucks used by southern countries to transport large goods before the disaster. This truck is more than ten meters high and more than twenty meters long. It looks like a big house. With the width of the ten-lane highway under Leo's feet, it can only accommodate two of these giant trucks in parallel.

Obviously, the person driving this giant truck should not be from the Redemption Order, because the Redemption Order is still worried about the extreme cold in the southern land. If they can really drive giant trucks in these highway isolation zones, then the Redemption Order would have already publicized it to everyone.

"Could the person driving the truck be a survivor from the southern land?" Leo had another association in his mind, but this guess seemed impossible, because with the current extreme low temperature in the southern land, it is difficult for humans to survive in this environment for a long time, and this situation may have occurred when the disaster broke out, and it was impossible for people in the southern land to survive in this disaster.

Leo thought that if he went down this road, he might encounter a giant truck on the road, and then he might know who was driving the truck, so he didn't continue to think in place, but made an ice sled, stepped on it, and then used psychic energy as a driving force, along the road, quickly sliding towards the depths of the crystal forest.

More than two hours later, Leo saw the first southern town built in the forest. The location of this town was in the forest on one side of the road. Judging from the wood piled up on the side of the road, this town was mainly engaged in 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 the Kam worms and turned into lifelike crystal statues standing in the town. From the expressions left 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 the disaster, everyone and the surrounding forests were instantly infected by the Kam worms 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 be the same, but when he found the seventh town that appeared on the roadside, he found that this town was completely different, because he did not see a crystal statue formed by humans in the town, and he 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 made Leo curious, so he turned around and entered this different town along the connecting road built by the town itself.