Chapter 126: Totem City

"It's so cold!" Hongyue said tremblingly.

"Hold on, this is an excessive 'sexual' flow and it won't last long."

"But I'm freezing!"

"Hold on."

As soon as I finished speaking, the external air pressure suddenly returned to normal, and the strong wind stopped instantly. I quickly removed the protection of the mercury shield and spread my wings. The light shone back on us, bringing some warmth. Hongyue's face has turned white, and her body is shaking violently.

"Are you okay?" I asked Hongyue.

"No...it's okay, I'm just a little stiff."

"Xiao Feng." I quickly summoned Xiao Feng for help. A big fireball immediately solved our problem, and we felt like we were back to normal immediately. However, the problem here is relatively low. Xiaofeng cannot stay outside for a long time. I quickly let her go back after her body stopped being cold.

The depth of this valley exceeds our imagination, and the intermittent cold air just now circulates every minute, and the time is quite precise. Hongyue and I spent almost the entire afternoon hiding and walking all the way down to the bottom of the valley.

At the bottom of the valley is a frozen river, and you can see that there is still some water flowing under the ice. The width of the river is more than 50 meters, and there are frozen cliffs on both sides. Compared with the above, the temperature here is slightly higher, but the ambient temperature is still more than 40 degrees below zero. Although it is completely dark, it is very bright here. The surrounding ice crystals reflect a blue light, which looks quite dreamy.

"Look." Hongyue suddenly ran forward, but the ground was too slippery. She just ran two steps before she fell down with a split. I originally wanted to help her, but she was a little far away and couldn't reach her in time.

"Slow down. This is not snow, and the ice has no adhesion." I said as I tapped the toes of my right foot on the ground. With a crash, a large row of steel nails popped out of the bottom of the magic dragon boots. He put his left foot on the ground in the same position, and the same steel nails popped out. With this, you won't slip when walking.

Hongyue helped me climb up and followed me carefully to the place where she started to see it. The environment here is no different from where we landed just now. It is surrounded by crystal-like ice, but there are a lot of traces of battles on the ground and walls here. The glacier ground beneath his feet had obviously been hit hard. The huge radiating cracks on the ice can only be achieved by True Red. As for the large and small potholes on the walls, they are even more obvious. Most people will not have such strong destructive power.

The traces of the fight extend all the way forward. This is the best road sign. As long as we follow this route, we will surely catch up with Zhen Hong. "Hongyue, come here."

"What?"

"I'll carry you, so hurry up."

Hongyue thought for a moment before jumping up. I put my toes on the ground a little again, retracted the steel nails, and then I shook my feet. An ice blade popped out. Skating takes much less energy than walking and is very fast. It sounds very strange. Although traces of fighting could be seen everywhere, we didn't see any corpses or bloodstains along the way. There was nothing except the bumpy ground and broken ice all over the ground.

After running for a while, the river suddenly entered a cliff and there was no path. The river entered the mountain through a hole in the cliff. But the entrance to the cave is below the ice, so we can't enter. The traces of the fight also ended here. The lack of damage to the ice surface means that the true red did not follow the river into the mountain. It is surrounded by cliffs on three sides, and the only entrance is from the direction we came from. If Zhenhong didn't go down to the river, he would have to go from above.

Hongyue and I quickly started to find our way along the cliff. It's impossible for True Red to disappear without any reason. There must be another exit from this place.

After searching for a while, I suddenly found a cave entrance on the cliff above my head, more than fifty meters above the ground. The ice here is too smooth, and reflection and refraction are mixed together, making many things unclear. Otherwise, it wouldn't have taken us so long to discover the hole.

I aimed the dragon tendon rope at a point above the hole. When I moved my finger, the rope head immediately flew out and was accurately embedded in the ice. He picked up Hong Yue and put on the steel spikes on the soles of his shoes, stepped on the cliff wall and went directly to the entrance of the cave and drilled in.

The light inside the cave is brighter than outside, and blue light shines from the depths of the cave. The entire cave is entirely made of ice, with ice everywhere up, down, left and right.

"Oh my god! What is this?" Hongyue was suddenly frightened by what she saw in front of her.

There is a human being under the ground not far in front of us, his body is completely under the ice. There was only one hand stretched out on the ice toward the sky, as if trying to grab something. Although the corpse looked older, the person's appearance was still basically complete, and except for the skin being a little shriveled, he looked like a living person.

I carefully walked over to the poor guy and looked at him under the ice. "Looks European."

"It looks so scary." Hongyue carefully kept a distance from this guy.

"Maybe we should ask it what it knows."

"good idea."

I took out the magic necklace from the bracelet and wrapped it around the arm stretched out in the air. I saw that the entire corpse suddenly lit up with white fluorescence.

"Who? Who woke me up?"

"A passer-by." I held the necklace and asked, "Did you see a girl passing by here this afternoon?"

"I have been sleeping, and even if there is, I don't know."

"Then how did you die here?" I really want to know the cause of this guy's death, because if we don't know, it may also become the cause of our death.

The voice of the corpse slowly sounded: "It was an Eastern monster that killed me. According to legend, it should be a mascot for the Chinese. But I don't know why Easterners use such a dangerous thing as a mascot."

"Can you describe what that thing looks like?"

"It's hard to say. After so many years, my memory is a little fuzzy. And the appearance of this thing is very special. It has the general appearance of a four-legged carnivore. It is covered with white fur. By the way. It has a pair of antlers on its head, somewhat like antlers."

"Kirin?"

"Yes. That's it."

Hongyue crossed her arms and thought, "Obviously there is a frost and snow unicorn living here, but according to legend, unicorns are supposed to be gentle creatures. They shouldn't hurt people for no reason!"

I knocked on the ice and asked the corpse below: "Why are you here?"

"I am a paladin of the Knights Templar, and I came here to hunt down Qilin under the orders of the church."

Hongyue said in relief: "It's no wonder!"

"Why does the church let you hunt and kill unicorns?"

"Because Qilin is an evil beast and it does not respect God's guidance."

"God? Which god?"

"Of course he is the God of Light who is extremely bright, generous and selfless."

Hongyue said disdainfully: "You can't even tolerate creatures that don't respect you. You are indeed tolerant and selfless."

"You cannot slander the incomparably great God of Light." This paladin is indeed determined. "You must pay the price for what you said, and move towards the incomparably great..."

I pulled off the necklace, and the light on the body disappeared instantly, and the sound suddenly stopped.

"What an idiot." Hongyue turned around and continued walking into the cave.

I quickly followed him. "Why are you so angry with an NPC? At least we got some information."

"But we still don't know the whereabouts of Zhenhong."

"At least we didn't go the wrong way." I pointed to a huge crack area that just appeared in front of us. The entire wall here is covered with dense spider patterns, which will probably completely dissipate if touched again.

"Another masterpiece from True Red."

"It looks like this punch is quite powerful."

"Which punch of Zhen Hong is too weak?"

"Hey. It seems to be windy here." I pointed to the passage in front.

Hongyue followed me and ran to the other end of the passage. The passage suddenly ended after turning a corner. We suddenly entered a huge and unimaginable space. This is a world made of ice. The walls, ground, and ceiling are all made of ice. There is something even more spectacular in this huge ice cave - a city.

The city in front of us is not that big, let alone Isinger. Even compared with Yunxiao City, which is entrusted to the Hot Blood Alliance, it is not a big city. But the structure of this city is so amazing, it is made entirely of ice. The entire city has only one wall, and the other three directions are directly protected by icebergs. The only direction facing the passage is a five-kilometer-wide ice city wall, with a row of ice sculptures of various monsters on the top of the wall.

There are a few relatively tall buildings in the city behind the city wall, and the top structures of the buildings can be directly seen from here. You can tell from the hanging corners and cornices on the roof that this is a Chinese-style building, but this should be regarded as the boundary of India. How can there be a Chinese city?

"It's so red." Hongyue suddenly shouted.

On top of an icicle stood in front of us. Zhen Hong was putting his feet up and looking at something. She turned around immediately when she heard the shout. "Why are you guys down too?" Zhen Hong turned over and fell to the ground and ran towards us.

"I'm not looking for you." Hongyue complained half-truthfully: "While walking, I suddenly realized that you were missing. As a result, we found a hole and wanted to see if you were in it, but the ground suddenly collapsed. We fell together.”

"Then why did you arrive?"

I pointed at Hong Yue: "We didn't jump down directly. After the ice broke, I kept climbing down with Hong Yue on my back. By the way, I saw a lot of cracks on the road. What on earth did you fight with and hit everywhere? Is it a trap?”

"A medium-sized monster, there are a lot of them, but I killed them all." Zhen Hong said indifferently.

"Then why didn't we see the body?"

"That thing is made of ice. Once it's broken, it becomes ice shards. You must have seen it but not paid attention."

I nodded and pointed to the city in front of me: "Have you entered?"

Zhenhong shook his head: "Have you seen the ice sculptures on the city wall?"

"What's wrong?"

"Those are magic ice statues, similar to golems. They automatically attack as soon as they get close. I've tried several times. There's no way to get close."

"Is it so powerful?"

Zhenhong shook his head again and said: "It's not that powerful. I punch each of these things, but as long as they are broken, they will slowly melt into the ground. Then a new individual will appear on the city wall. I will punch them here." It’s been half a day and I can’t finish the fight at all.”

"Infinite rebirth." Hongyue looked at Bingcheng and said, "Have you ever tried using fire?"

Zhenhong didn't answer but directly took a torch from behind and handed it to us. There is a large piece of ice on the top of this torch, and it looks like a burning flame.

"Frozen?"

Zhenhong nodded: "I just lit it, but the fire on the torch froze completely."

I flicked it with my hand. The torch actually still jingled. "Good guy. So hard."

"Should we go back the way we came or find a way to get in?" Zhenhong asked me.

Hongyue said: "We are all here, will Ziri agree if we don't go in?"

"Of course." My unexpected answer stunned Hongyue. I took out the map and marked the location here, then put away the map and said to the two of them: "There are still many things going on in the guild. We don't have time to delay here. Let's leave first and come back when we have time."

Although Hongyue was startled, she still agreed with my opinion. We first returned to the canyon and then climbed up little by little out of the valley. After returning to the snow peak, we trekked for another night and finally arrived at the Chinese border after dawn. After crossing the border, it was simple. We took out the scroll and teleported directly back to Isengard.

As soon as True Red and Hongyue arrived at Essinger, they couldn't hold on and went offline. I ran to check with Rose and the others that they were safe, but I didn't know that I was in vain. The players who stayed behind said that several of the main leaders in the guild had gone to Steel City. I had no choice but to run to Steel City again.

After leaving the teleportation array, I felt something was wrong. Steel City was so quiet that I could only hear the sound of the cooling fans of some large machines. Steel City is the heavy industrial base of our guild. It is the noisiest city among all cities, but today it is surprisingly quiet. I ran around the city for a long time and saw almost no people, except for some automated machinery rumbling at work. Most of the equipment has stopped, and what's even more strange is that some large equipment is missing.

The last time I came to Steel City, there were more equipment than now. Later, we introduced a lot of new equipment from Germany and the United States, and we also developed a lot of equipment ourselves. Normally, there should be a lot of these equipment, but Steel City is actually more empty than the last time. This is really strange.

Suddenly I saw someone running over in a hurry, and I quickly grabbed him. "Finally I saw a living person."

"President?" This player was also stunned when I caught him.

"Where are all the people here? What are you doing in such a panic?"

The player pointed up. "Everyone is busy up there with the things you brought back. I still need to get the parts. You'd better ask someone else." As he said that, the player ran away like a gust of wind.

I stumbled to the original ground passage, but it was completely unrecognizable. Originally, the only entrance to the ground in Steel City was a long stone staircase, but now it has turned into a large group of elevators and countless spiral staircases. Several large elevators loaded with cargo were rising slowly against the wall ahead. Many players were busy loading things onto a parked elevator. A large number of NPCs and players were running up and down the artificial spiral staircase like ants on a hot pot, not knowing what they were busy with.

Judging from the looks of everyone, there might be some large-scale construction going on on the ground, so I found a lift and followed it up to the ground. As the surface conditions came into view I was completely dumbfounded. There is actually a warehouse above the elevator. The huge space is no smaller than the hangar of a large passenger aircraft. The room was filled with boxes of all sizes, and groups of monsters pulled flatbed trucks to transport some boxes outside the warehouse.

I walked out of the warehouse almost unconsciously. The scene outside was even more shocking. The desert on the top of Steel City disappeared, and instead there was a huge work area like a field airport. The ground paved with steel plates is extremely hard, and some strange-shaped buildings stand irregularly in all directions, which feels quite weird. Looking back at the warehouse I just walked out of. Its appearance is also different from ordinary warehouses. This guy seems to be a turtle shell buckled on the ground. More like a bunker than a warehouse.

In the huge flat square, a large group of people are building the base of a building, because there is only a foundation. So I can't tell what it is building. Just as I was about to walk over, Woma's voice suddenly appeared behind me: "Ziri? Are you here so soon?"

"Woma? What are you doing here?"

"Look over there and you'll understand." Woma pointed to the side of us.

I turned around and saw only a huge support frame and a large number of workers. The corner of the warehouse blocked most of the thing, so I had to run over and take a look. As soon as I left the shadows of the warehouse, I immediately saw the thing in full view.

First I saw a large row of steel arches. The huge metal supports were all huge, and they were all painted with yellow and black stripes, which looked quite powerful. Inside these arches, a giant crane (pronounced "hang") is busy going back and forth on the track. These arches were apparently built to support the hanging crane.

Under the huge arch, an already basically formed object is undergoing final assembly. I can roughly tell that this is the head of an insect. I'm not an entomologist, so I can't tell what kind of insect it is just based on the incomplete head.

This insect head is entirely made of welded metal, and its huge size is quite scary. The giant head, which is almost two-thirds the size of the Great White Shark, has a pair of large pincer-like mouthparts in front of it, which looks very aggressive.

I suddenly remembered what it was, and looked back at Woma who had already walked up to me. "Is this the army ant fortress? Have you already started building it?"

Woma smiled and said: "When the people from the institute came to show me the little ant totem, I started to let them build it. You kept us busy during the last clearance of the institute. I really don't know why. You’re going to have so many weird things in your storage space.”

"I just don't like organizing things." I smiled and pointed at the huge head: "How did you design the movement mechanism?"

"In fact, this is what we are worried about." Woma explained as he led me over there: "The Army Ant Fortress does not have any movable mechanism at all. If it were in the real world, then I think it should be just A relatively large sculpture. For example, the large plier-like mouth. It is completely integrated with the head. Let alone bite things, don't even think about moving it. But the ant totem you brought back insists that it only needs to be roughly The shape is created, and it can make this thing move. We are now worried about whether what this guy said is true."

"I think it should be true. After all, it does no good to deceive us." I looked at the big head that was almost completed and asked: "Did you only build one head?"

Woma pointed behind us. It used to be on the back side of the warehouse, but I just saw it now. There are many such supporting arches here. "The chest of the army ant fortress is being built over there, and the one behind you is building the abdomen. The ant legs are being built in the two places on the left, and there are already three completed legs in the warehouse over there. It won't take long before we can The final assembly is going on. I hope that totem is telling the truth."

"What should I do during the final assembly of such a big thing? There seems to be no large enough hoisting equipment nearby, right?"

"Have you forgotten that we have gravity resistance devices? Although those things cannot be moved, they can still be used as lifting equipment for straight up and down. If the progress is fast enough, we will be able to see the completed army ant fortress tonight. In the end It depends on tonight whether we can actually make this steel sculpture move."

I brought these insect legions back from the tropical rainforest just for the 800-level mission level they mentioned. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have helped them. Each of these 13 races has its own racial castle, and there is no need to build complicated joints. As long as they create the physical shape, they can use magic to make these big guys move. Although I had my doubts, I still believed in them for the 800-level mission. Woma has similar views to mine, and is also worried about the authenticity of what they say, so this time we will build one of them first. If it can really be moved, it won't be too late to build other castles. If you can't move, think of it as paying for a lesson.

I haven't left Steel City all day today, and Rose and the others are here too. After I met them, I showed them the Divine Weapon Sifang Zun and told them some information about the really red new national weapon. Of course everyone was very happy, but now everyone is focused on whether this big steel ant can Even though he was moving, he didn't show any excitement.

Due to some minor problems, the construction progress was delayed a little. Still not finished after dark. The huge square was lit up with square lights powered by magic crystals. The big metal ants were crawling quietly on the ground. Groups of workers are busy making connections and adjustments outside and inside the ants.

This big ant is not solid, it also has a lot of space inside. Although because of its strange appearance. The internal space utilization rate is not high, but the final calculated effective area still reaches four-fifths of the effective internal space area of ​​the Great White Shark. The entire giant ant used millions of tons of our steel. If it weren't for the reinforced steel floor, it would have sunk into the sand.

It took until daybreak that the giant metal ant was finally completed. This huge guy is now lying on the ground quietly, its body is directly resting on the ground, and those long legs do not support the body, but are crossed diagonally on the side. The black metal surface was painted with some red markings by the workers, which looked quite eye-catching, but the current posture really didn't show much momentum.

Rose handed the totem to me again. They said that of course I should be the one to carry out such an important work for the first time. Everyone pushed him through the gate on the ant's chest into the interior of the army ant fortress, which was similar to the interior of the Great White Shark dock ship. The compact room arrangement leaves a lot of space for the public areas. We climbed up the stairs to the ant head of the army ant fortress, where the control room is located.

After entering the control room, we took a rough look at the internal environment. This place is more of a town hall than a control room. There is a hemispherical convex part on each side of the room, which is the eye of the ant. However, the pure steel eye is opaque. We cannot see anything through it. Even the light here is brought by us. provided by the light source.

There is a one-meter-high platform in the middle of the room. The top surface of the table is sloping, like a console, but there are no buttons here, only an ant-shaped groove. Even a fool knows that I have to put the totem in my hand into it to activate this thing.

The red ant totem kept flashing red light, and just as I moved it closer to the slot, it suddenly screamed. "Wait a minute."