203. Artificial river channel
The spherical airship continued to move forward. Although it escaped the bone-spurred demon wolf, Qingshi did not dare to be careless at all. The dangerous atmosphere was increasing as they went deeper.
After flying for a while, Chen Tianye suddenly tugged at the corner of his bluestone clothes and said, "Slow down!"
Qingshi had also discovered the anomaly ahead, so he slowly stopped the airship and floated it quietly.
The four of them opened their eyes and looked forward through the rain and fog. They saw a huge ancient tree dozens of feet away in front of them, which seemed to be covered with something. Qingshi took out the telescope and took a closer look. It turned out that the branches of the big tree were covered with ghost bats. They hung themselves upside down on the branches with their hind paws, and their wings tightly wrapped around their bodies to block the storm. Looking from a distance, it looked like The tree was laden with huge black spindle-shaped fruits.
"What should I do?" Chen Tianye asked, "The bone-spurred demon wolves and ghost bats seem to be guarding something inside. Their nests are distributed in a ring, looking like a defense line!"
Qingshi naturally knew this situation, because there were other such big trees on the left, right and behind this big tree, and they were all covered with ghost bats. The distance between every two trees is about thirty feet, and there is almost no gap between the tree crowns. It is obvious that the ghost bat's defense is tighter than the bone-spur demon wolf.
"Don't be afraid!" Qingshi said, "If I remember correctly, the eyesight of these bats should be very poor. They mainly use sound waves to detect objects. I have already prepared for their characteristics. In addition to being invisible, this airship is also invisible. It can also avoid the detection of sound waves to a large extent, and can almost completely cover our breath. Under such a violent storm, I don’t believe they can detect us."
No matter how powerful the invisibility method is, it cannot be perfect, whether it is visible light, sound waves or breath. No method can truly hide oneself. However, it is not easy to detect invisible objects, especially under such complex meteorological conditions, there will be a lot of interference, which is why Qingshi decided to come in stormy weather.
Xiang An suggested that walking above the tree canopy be considered, but Qingshi believed that being exposed on the tree canopy would be more dangerous.
Qingshi ordered everyone not to make any noise. He lowered the power of the airship to the lowest level, then lowered the flying height and flew forward slowly, almost touching the ground, as slowly as walking.
After a while, the spherical airship approached the big tree and slowly passed between the two big trees. Sure enough, the black group of ghost bats overhead were not disturbed, but occasionally one or two spread their wings and waved towards them. A low roar came from the direction of the airship, which still made them sweat. Although I was worried, I still passed without any danger.
As he gradually moved away from the ghost bats, Qingshi raised the spherical airship to a height of more than two feet and slowly increased its speed. Knowing that the situation ahead might be even more dangerous, the four of them could not help but exhale and relax their tense nerves.
After continuing to fly for a while, Qingshi stopped moving forward and slowly reached out of the tree crown. He saw that this place was very close to the foot of the main peak. Here, the dangerous atmosphere and spiritual energy were more obvious. The place that exuded dangerous atmosphere and rich spiritual energy seemed to be It was a slightly raised platform, also covered by dense forest. It looked like it was no more than ten miles away.
Qingshi lowered his altitude and returned to the tree canopy, and continued to fly forward. After traveling for a few miles, the forest in front suddenly revealed a large open area. Qingshi slowed down and slowly approached, but was overwhelmed by the scene in front of him. Shocked.
The open area in front of us turned out to be a waterway about fifty feet wide, with no end visible from both ends. Its two banks were straight and neat, and they were embankments made of huge stone blocks. There was no doubt that this was a waterway. An artificial river channel rather than a naturally formed river.
I thought this was an uninhabited desert island, but I didn't expect that there was such a man-made project.
"Wow!" Duan Wutian shouted softly, "There is a man-made river on this island! It's like a moat!"
"Yeah," Chen Tianye said, "I really didn't expect it."
"It's not surprising," Qingshi said, "When I saw those big trees with ghost bats hanging on them just now, I suspected that they were artificially planted."
"That's right," Xiang An said, "those big trees are distributed so regularly, it does seem like someone planted them deliberately."
But after all, those big trees are only suspected to be man-made and cannot be confirmed, but the embankment seen now is undoubtedly a man-made project.
"It seems that this river is also a line of defense," Chen Tianye said, "There are probably monsters in it."
"Of course," Qingshi said, "You should pay attention to the inside of the river."
The other three people all looked carefully and saw a black arc-shaped object emerging from the water where the rain was blowing and white beads were jumping. It surfaced three feet high and was about ten feet long. It slowly moved along the river. Swimming forward slowly, leaving a trace on the water, and then gently submerging into the water.
Several people knew that it was the back of an animal. They just didn't know whether it was a fish or a beast. The head should be several feet long. Then, a large group of the same things swam over, one after another. There were dozens of them at least, and some of them had their heads sticking out of the water. This time Qingshi could see clearly, it was Hai Lingbiao.
Qingshi knew that it would not be so easy to pass this time. This Hai Lingbiao not only blocked the waterway, but also couldn't fly over from the sky, because they could launch water arrows. Due to the lack of spiritual energy, the flying height of this spherical airship was only twenty or thirty feet, which was definitely within their attack range. Moreover, Hai Lingbiao's ability to sense breath is very strong, and Xuanyuan Jia's ability to conceal breath is stronger than this spherical airship. However, Hai Lingbiao can sense these, so it is impossible to fly over quietly through invisibility.
"These monsters are all in the water," Duan Wutian said, "We shouldn't disturb them by flying over from the air, right?"
"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Chen Tianye said. "Building such a large-scale waterway is naturally to prevent people from entering from the ground, so how can we not prevent people from entering from the air?"
"Can't you feel the evil spirit?" Duan Wutian said, "The evil energy on this entire island comes from the other side of the river. I don't believe there are spiritual beasts like ghost bats or bone-spurred demon wolves here, even the flame dragon. It’s impossible to stay in there for a long time.”
Evil energy is terrible for any living being. It will not only corrode the skin and internal organs of the body, but also cause great harm to the nervous system. Powerful spirit beasts and high-level monks can naturally block the evil spirit, but being in the evil spirit will inevitably be uncomfortable, and you need to use your energy and spirit to resist it, so no spirit beasts or humans will stay in the evil atmosphere for a long time. .
"Yes," Xiang An said, "There shouldn't be any spiritual beasts here, but there will probably be artificial defensive formations."
"I don't think so," Qingshi said, "Think about it, setting up a magic array for warning and defense is far simpler and more effective than using spiritual beasts, so why do the people who operate these use magic circles instead of magic circles? Where are the spiritual beasts?”
"Why?" Duan Wutian asked, not too lazy to think about it.
"Amano, you are also a magic circle master," Qingshi said. "You also know a lot about spiritual beasts. So, if you want to set up a cordon or defense line, do you think it is better to use spiritual beasts or magic circles?"
"Of course it's a magic circle," Chen Tianye said, "You also said that setting up a magic circle is simpler and more effective than using spiritual beasts."
"If you were asked to set up a magic circle here with both warning and defense functions," Qingshi said, "How long do you think it can last?"
"Well..." Chen Tianye couldn't answer.
"Tell me!" Qingshi turned to Xiang An, "I'll give you the best materials and use dragon beads as spiritual sources."
"If it is always on, it will last for two hundred years," Xiang An said. "If it is set to trigger, it will last for one thousand years."
"You have ignored two issues," Qingshi said. "First of all, you have not considered the size of the array. Look at the area surrounded by this waterway. I estimate it is no less than dozens of miles in radius. How many spiritual sources and array treasures are needed? material?"
"That's true," Xiang An said, "I have never heard of a magic circle with such a large defensive range. It is difficult to achieve it with both manpower and material resources."
"That's right," Chen Tianye nodded in agreement, "It's neither necessary nor cost-effective to make it so big!"
"What about Longzhu Island?" Duan Wutian said, "The area is probably bigger than here!"
"Don't interrupt if you don't understand!" Xiang An couldn't help but tease Duan Wutian when he found the opportunity, "It's just a phantom array without much defensive power, and the materials and spiritual sources required are very different from the defensive array. "
"Yes!" Qingshi said, "And Longzhu Island has always been taken care of. I don't think there has been a human presence on this island for at least hundreds of years."
Several people nodded in agreement. Judging from what they had seen these days, this island had definitely not had traces of human activity for a long time, so they originally thought it was an uninhabited island.
"Is there anything else I've overlooked?" Xiang An has begun to agree with Qingshi's judgment, but he still wants to hear Qingshi's second question.
"Environment!" Qingshi said, "The environment on this island is very bad. It is located in the distant sea, and violent storms are common. If a magic circle without building cover is set up in such an environment, I think its service life can reach 30% of the normal situation. That’s pretty good.”
"Yes," both Xiang An and Chen Tianye suddenly realized.
"Then you mean there won't be a defensive formation on the other side," Duan Wutian said, "We can fly there directly?"
"What I mean is that there are probably no terrifying spiritual beasts or defensive formations on the other side, but there are probably more terrifying defensive measures. The unknown is the scariest thing." Qingshi said, "However, even if there is something on the other side, there will be more terrifying defense measures." No, it will be difficult for us to get over.”
"Why is this?" Xiang Anqi asked.
"Because there are Hai Lingbiao everywhere in this waterway!" Qingshi said.
"What's wrong with Hai Lingbiao?" Duan Wutian asked, "We're not going to go through the water!"
Only then did Qingshi remember that he faced Hai Lingbiao alone that day. Duan Wutian and Chen Tianye probably didn't know about Hai Lingbiao's ability, and Xiang An didn't even know about it. Qingshi immediately told the three of them what happened that night and all the abilities of Hai Lingbiao. The three of them were dumbfounded after hearing this.
"It's amazing," Chen Tianye said, "This sea lingbiao looks fat, ugly and stupid. I didn't expect it to be so powerful. The book at home only said that they can live in the sea and breathe on land. , but I never said I had such ability."
"What should we do?" Duan Wutian asked.
"Hmm..." Qingshi thought for a while and said, "Let's test it first and ask for directions."
After explaining a few words to Duan, Chen and Xiang, Qingshi quietly flew out of the spherical airship. Xiang An stood in front of the control array and took over the control of the airship. This airship is not an ordinary flying boat. It not only needs to control the flight, but also needs to be invisible and hide its aura. Most monks cannot control it, even someone like Chen Tianye A third-level magic circle master is difficult to control without training. Only then did Duan and Chen vaguely guess the reason why Qingshi wanted to take Xiang An with him.
Qingshi activated the invisibility function of Xuanyuan Armor and flew northward along the river in spite of the wind and rain. Of course, he did not fly over the river, but still shuttled through the dense forest on the river bank.
After flying for about three hundred feet, the river turned westward and formed a right angle. Qingshi followed the turn without thinking and continued flying along the river. Soon it flew a thousand feet. The river turned again here, this time turning southward. At a right angle, the bluestone turned again, and he roughly understood the terrain: the river should surround a square area with a side length of thousands of feet.
Qingshi's guess was good. He flew along the river and observed, and returned to the spherical airship in less than half an hour.
After returning, Qingshi told the other three people about the situation, and then flew out again, but this time he brought Duan Wutian out. Because after flying around just now, Qingshi found that there were no spiritual beasts on the bank of the river. , Therefore, even if the armor of the other three people does not have the invisibility function, there is no need to worry about being discovered, as long as they are not too close to the river and be seen by those Hai Lingbiao.
Of course, Qingshi didn't have to ask Duan Wutian to do anything, he just wanted to act with more than one person so that they could take care of each other in case of an emergency.
After flying a hundred feet south, the two flew behind a big tree closest to the river. Qingshi chopped off a big branch with a light palm, then threw the branch to Duan Wutian and said, "Brother Qi, in a moment. I will break this big tree and push it into the river, and you will throw this broken branch across the river at the same time, do you understand?" Duan Wutian nodded to express his understanding.
Qingshi asked Duan Wutian to step back a few feet, then he fell to the ground and took a deep breath. Qingshi suddenly punched the trunk of the big tree lightly. With Qingshi's punch, it was already swaying in the wind and rain. The big tree immediately made a rattling sound of the trunk breaking, and swayed more violently. Qingshi pressed his palms gently on the trunk and waited.
A few breaths later, a stronger wind blew, and the big tree could no longer support it. The main trunk was severed from where the bluestone was punching, and fell towards the river. The bluestone pushed hard, and the big tree flew more than ten feet in the wind. , falling to the water in the middle of the river, making a loud splash. At the same time, a broken branch flew in the wind and flew across the river to the other side. This was naturally the branch thrown by Duan Wutian.
As the big tree fell into the river and stirred up waves, more waves suddenly surged in the river. Where the waves were rolling, more than a dozen sea spirit turtles jumped out of the water and flew into the air towards the big tree. The three-foot strong mountain of meat fell from a height of several feet, breaking the big tree into dozens of pieces in an instant, and those Hai Lingbiao wildly slapped the big tree with their huge flippers, but within a few seconds In the short time it took to rest, the big tree turned into a pile of broken wood and fallen leaves.
Looking again at the big branch that Duan Wutian threw across the river, Qingshi found that when it floated past with the wind and rain, it was hit by at least seven or eight water arrows and broke into several pieces. However, these branches fell. After arriving on the other side, there was no further attack.
Qingshi waited for a while but saw no other movement, and said to Duan Wutian: "Brother Qi, shoot a flying gun towards the other side and have a look."
Without saying a word, Duan Wutian shot him with a flying gun. Flying guns were his best method of long-range attack. He had no fewer than a thousand such long guns in his storage. The flying gun was attacked by four water arrows as it flew over the river. However, the speed of the flying gun was too fast, and none of the water arrows hit it. The flying gun fell into the woods on the opposite bank without causing any reaction, and there was no reaction in the river. It seemed that these Hai Lingbiao only cared about the foreign objects within the river and did not investigate their origin.
Qingshi waited for a while, but still saw no movement, and immediately returned to the spherical airship with Duan Wutian.
