Qing Duan, Chen and the others were shocked and asked Bai Lao Bai about the specific situation. Bai Lao explained everything in detail. Only then did they know the changes in Shenmu Continent and the suffering of mankind in the past five hundred years.
The Shenmu Continent more than five hundred years ago was a fertile land full of vitality. More than 70% of the land was suitable for human habitation, while the rest was occupied by spiritual beasts. The earth has a good ecology, rich products, and the air is clean, rich, and full of spiritual energy. It is suitable for ordinary human life and monks' practice, and it nourishes the lives of the entire continent.
At that time, the entire continent had a population of about 10 billion, and there were hundreds of millions of monks. Although the entire continent does not have a unified human government, and there are constant disputes and feuds between various countries and tribes, it is a continent ruled by humans, where humans thrive and live, and the legacy is passed down from generation to generation.
More than five hundred years ago, the spiritual beasts on the mainland began to attack humans on a large scale. Before that, although humans and spiritual beasts often killed each other, both sides only hunted when necessary and did not engage in unnecessary indiscriminate killing. . Therefore, overall a certain balance is maintained. Now, this balance is disturbed.
There were more human casualties, so the political powers of various countries, big families, and big sects began to organize high-level monks to massacre ferocious spiritual beasts. Soon, the great shape-shifting monsters among the beasts also began to kill humans indiscriminately. In the end, a large-scale vendetta broke out, with both sides suffering heavy casualties.
The war between humans and beasts has been going on for ten years, and humans have basically always had the upper hand. However, a big change suddenly occurred, and humans' combat power suddenly fell into a low ebb.
I don't know when it started. Some keen monks discovered that the spiritual energy in the air began to become scarce, and even the air began to become thinner. In less than a month, the density of the air and spiritual energy dropped by more than 30%. As a result, all the monks and even all humans were aware of this problem, and huge panic began to spread among the human race.
Monks not only need to practice spiritual energy, but also to realize their magic, martial arts, magic weapons and other combat power, most of them need to use spiritual energy as a medium. The consequences of not having spiritual energy can be imagined.
Even ordinary people need spiritual energy. Without spiritual energy, they are prone to fatigue and illness, and they need to eat more. This greatly increases the difficulty of survival.
Spiritual beasts also need spiritual energy, but they are inherently stronger than humans. Humans can only suppress spiritual beasts by absorbing spiritual energy and practicing. Without spiritual energy, humans are no match for spiritual beasts.
High-level human monks quickly realized the problem, and its root actually came from the sacred tree.
The sacred tree is a big tree located in the center of the continent. It covers thousands of miles and looks like a forest, but in fact it is a single individual. Some people call it 'Fusang', others call it 'Usang', but the most recognized name is 'Sacred Tree'.
The main trunk of the sacred tree is located in the center of the "forest". The diameter of the trunk is a hundred feet, and the crown is nearly a thousand feet high. Its huge root system spreads around and sprouts many small tree trunks, eventually forming a sacred forest with a radius of thousands of miles.
The sacred tree was originally a god revered by everyone in the mainland, and no one dared to cut down or destroy it privately. This sacred forest does not belong to any country or force. Every year, all forces in the mainland will unite to selectively cut down two or three branches of the sacred tree that are five to ten feet in diameter and about a hundred feet high. Because of its tough texture and beautiful wood grain and color, sacred wood is an excellent building material whether it is building a palace or a large ship.
For Shenmu, this is just a drop in the bucket. At the same time, every time people cut down trees, they must make a big sacrifice to show respect and gratitude.
People discovered that spiritual energy and even air were sucked away by this sacred forest. No one would have thought that the sacred tree they respected would retaliate against them in this way. In the eyes of humans, if the sacred tree is really a 'god', then it should protect humans rather than retaliate and punish.
As the sacred tree absorbs more and more spiritual energy, the concentration of spiritual energy on the continent continues to decrease. Humanity's combat effectiveness is greatly reduced, and the war with spiritual beasts begins to be at a disadvantage.
Finally, the human monks were determined to figure out what was wrong with the sacred tree, so a team of nearly a hundred high-level monks entered the core of the sacred forest for the first time in thousands of years.
A few days later, the team came out. Nearly a hundred people went in, but less than ten people came out. According to the people who came out, they encountered a large number of fierce monsters in the godswood forest. Except for a few of them, everyone else died in the hands of the monsters. And they haven't entered the center of the godswood forest at all, and they still don't understand the reason for the decrease in spiritual energy. But they guessed that these big demons must have taken advantage of the sacred trees and used some unnatural magical method to cause the sacred trees to absorb spiritual energy.
The panic-stricken humans once again organized a large number of masters. This time, there were nearly a thousand masters in the Jindan realm and above, hundreds in the Immortal realm, and eleven masters in the Shenyuan realm.
This time, the human monks were divided into four teams and entered the sacred forest from the southeast, northwest and northwest. As expected, they encountered a large number of evil beasts and monsters.
The human monks seemed to be more powerful in numbers, but as a result, most of them died in the godswood forest. Less than fifty monks escaped one after another, and most of them were seriously injured and could not recover.
The reason why humans suffered a disastrous defeat was not only because the godswood forest had become the base camp of monsters, gathering countless great monsters, but more importantly, because humans could not feel the slightest aura in the godswood forest. Therefore, human monks Their combat power has dropped by at least 50%, but the opposite is true for the spirit beasts and great demons. Their combat power has been greatly enhanced in the godswood forest.
After these two battles, nearly half of humanity's top power was lost, and it was no longer possible to organize a decent team to carry out large-scale attacks.
Some small groups of monks secretly used secret attacks, such as setting fire to the godswood forest, but the result was completely ineffective, and their lives were lost in vain.
Gradually, more and more human monks were killed by monsters, and the balance of power between the two sides became increasingly clear. The number of humans plummeted, while the number of monsters increased rapidly. A hundred years later, almost all human cities have been occupied by monsters, and the destruction of mankind seems inevitable.
However, when human beings were about to perish, the monsters also began to be in crisis. At the beginning of the war between humans and beasts, the monsters and beasts were united, but after they completely overwhelmed humans, they themselves began to fight each other.
At first, both the big demon and the surviving humans thought that the monsters headed by the big demon were seeing victory in sight, so they began to fight for power. Soon, they both realized that what the monsters were fighting for was not power, but resources.
Because, due to the continuous decline of spiritual energy and air throughout the continent, a large number of plants have withered and died. The war has lasted for hundreds of years, and the vegetation on the continent has been reduced to less than one-fifth of its original size. The spiritual objects originally produced from the land and rivers, such as spirit stone veins and earth veins, and other energy sources, have also mostly dried up.
Yes, not only humans and spiritual animals need aura and air, but plants also need it, or in other words, plants need it even more. Without aura, plants and spiritual veins, both humans and beasts will only die, sooner or later.
I don’t know why, even if the beasts won the war, they did not let the godswood forest stop absorbing spiritual energy. Later, a large number of spiritual beasts, including countless great demons, came out of the godswood forest, because, in the godswood forest, Within, they can no longer obtain any energy, and the spiritual energy absorbed by the godswood forest no longer provides them with any trace. Apparently, Shenmu was out of control.
The big monsters, like humans, have no way to deal with the sacred trees.
They won the entire continent, but the resources they had access to were not as good as before. A large number of spiritual beasts began to die, either killing each other or dying of starvation. It's just a little later than humans.
Another few hundred years passed, and the entire continent slowly evolved into what it is now. Vegetation is less than one-tenth of its original size, and all living creatures, including humans and beasts, are also less than one-tenth of its original size.
The godswood forest is still absorbing spiritual energy and air, and the ecology of the entire continent cannot be restored at all. The big monsters divided up the entire continent, each occupied a piece of land, and became the lords and kings of that land. They enslaved the humans on the land and asked them to engage in agricultural production to maintain their survival needs. After all, the lack of aura caused them to eat a lot to maintain their own consumption. At the same time, they had to increase their rest time to reduce consumption.
After Father Bai said this, it was almost dusk.
"Five hundred years have passed in just a blink of an eye!" Father Bai took a sip of tea, put down the cup, and said solemnly, "Three young heroes! As far as I know, the cause of the war between humans and beasts that year was... It is related to a group of monks from the Tianlong Continent. I have a hunch that perhaps your arrival will bring about great changes again and end the history of our human beings being enslaved. I hope I can see that day!"
"Why did Dad say this?" Qingshi said, "We are just passing by and want to cross the Shenmu Continent and continue eastward. How can we three boys be capable of this? Dad is joking."
"No!" Father Bai said sternly, "The talents of the three of you are so high that I have never seen it before. When it comes to your ability, at your young age, I feel it is unfathomable. The current On the Shenmu Continent, humans will either continue to be enslaved, but if there is a glimmer of hope for freedom, then this hope must fall on you."
"Dad Bai!" Qingshi said with a smile, "Don't say that we are just passing by and don't want to take any responsibility for saving the fate of mankind. Even if we really have such arrogant ideas, I'm afraid we don't have the ability."
"Hehe!" Father Bai smiled slyly and said, "I'm afraid it's not up to you! Now that you have come to the Shenmu Continent, there are only two ways to go. One is to surrender to the monsters and be enslaved by them; the other is to fight with the monsters. We will fight to the end and will not stop until death.”
"Hmm~" Qingshi said thoughtfully, "Isn't there a third way? For example, bribe a certain big demon and let him take us through. Or we can change our disguises, move forward in a low profile, and quietly cross the continent."
"Haha!" Father Bai said with a smile, "This is of course feasible in theory, but you should understand how feasible it is, right? In my opinion, you have missed the only chance you have. "
"Why?" Qingshi said, "Please give me some advice!"
"If you want to sneak over," said Father Bai, "then you should change your disguise as soon as you land, and sneak quietly without revealing your whereabouts. Now, you have shown your face in front of hundreds of people, and if you want to sneak again, it is already Not likely anymore.
"As for suborning a big demon to take you across the continent, this method is less difficult than sneaking by yourself. However, you must be able to successfully bribe the first big demon who sees you. Otherwise, as long as other big demons know about it, this method will not work. And I can be sure that our bald king will never be bribed by you."
"Yes!" Chen Tianye said with a smile, "I believe this. How can a king who even wants to snatch his underwear be bribed?"
"That's right!" Father Bai said with a smile, "The Bald King will only rob you without leaving a trace on your body. How can he allow you to keep your property to bribe him?"
"But he hasn't seen us yet!" Duan Wutian said, "Let's leave now and try the next big demon's territory. Maybe the next one won't be so vicious!"
"It's still too late to leave now," said Father Bai. "However, you have already revealed your identity. Even if you leave immediately, he will know about it sooner or later. No matter how far you can go, he will catch up."
"Really?" Qingshi said lightly, "So, we'd better meet this bald king."
"That's right!" Father Bai blinked and smiled, "Didn't you make a special trip to visit him? Haha!"
"Okay!" Qingshi also smiled, "In that case, let's meet him! I don't know whether I can bribe him or not."
"You still want to bribe him?" Father Bai said in surprise, "It will never work!"
"You can't buy it with spirit stones," Qingshi said with a slight smile, "Then try it with your fists."
