Fang Plover grabbed the protruding rock with his hands, shook it vigorously, tested the firmness there, and then climbed up using his hands and feet.
On the steep slope is the source of an underground stream. The cold stream flows out from the darkness, gurgling. The edge of the stream is covered with fluorescent moss. It is plump and green, with a hint of burnt yellow. Press it with your hand and crawl out from under the lichen. Some bugs that live in the dark come.
Most people may feel that their scalp is numb, but Fang Plover has learned this and is not surprised by it. Those bugs were his common types, living in lightless environments, the larvae of a kind of cave beetle.
This insect lives deep underground in Aitaria, where it may even be close to the "cave rock formation". This is a hypothesis put forward by geology - the sky and land in Aitaria are not solid, but Deep underground there is a world of criss-crossing hollows.
There are Guy crystal sources growing there that are enough to hold up the entire floating continent. They are called 'great crystal veins'. Some Guy crystal sources may even be thousands of miles long. In the year 1064 of the Isolin Calendar, people had actually discovered the surface of this rock world, in the Pillars of the Stars in Lotao.
Subsequently, successive underground worlds were discovered by people, and this hypothesis became a real theory. It's just that the 'cave rock formations' in different floating continents are all connected to the earth elemental layer. Elemental creatures that don't like outsiders live here. There are also some other difficulties, which have led to no one being able to thoroughly explore these underground worlds.
Fang Plover is not the first person to go deep into the depths of this rock formation world. As early as seven years ago in Kaolin-Ithulian, an expedition team of the Dwarf Association sponsored by the Iron Foundry Hall went deep underground. The mountain dwarves They are most familiar with the underworld, where they feel at home.
That expedition ran through the entire underground rock world of Eldron, and for the first time, a branch of the legendary 'Great Crystal Vein' was discovered underground.
Since the star gate opened, this magical world has gradually been revealed to people. Explorers from different worlds have opened doors to get a glimpse of the reality of this world. But now, their footsteps are no longer limited to this old world.
There was a voice behind him, and he looked back. Miss Mei was climbing up from there carrying a shield and armor. The long halberd was also hanging behind her, but the female knight's movements were not clumsy at all. Fang Plover stretched out his hand, took the opponent's hand, and pulled Mei up from below.
"Mr. Ed, your hands?" Mei asked with some concern as she looked at the red blood on Fang Plover's magic gloves.
Fang Plover shook his gloves and didn't care too much, "Don't worry, it's just a fluorescent substance on the lichen. It's a mineral. Dragon's blood moss likes to absorb this mineral from rocks, so it's named after it."
What bothered him was how to clean it. It was a natural mineral dye, so it was quite difficult to clean. If I had known better, I wouldn't have touched the moss, or I would have worn the King's Pride, because the metal would not be afraid of staining.
Nowadays, everyone takes turns to do the laundry on the ship. Only the maid lady does the laundry for him and Sylvester. Miss Siesta will probably give him a look.
"This is probably the hollow layer where the 'Great Crystal Vein' is located." Fang Plover looked up at this place. After coming up from the long and narrow tunnel opened by the Elemental Lord, he arrived at this underground world.
The underground world is a dark and empty tunnel, but some of the scenery is wonderful and magnificent. They saw many magnificent and wonderful scenery along the way. The crisscrossing hollow layers intersected with each other and hung upside down in mid-air.
Fang Plover withdrew his gaze, "The surface of the great crystal vein is usually one thousand meters underground. I don't know how deep we are, but the elemental monarch named Alphonse asked us to leave. This road can probably be all the way." It leads to the surface layer, but I don’t know how long it will take.”
He couldn't help but feel grateful that he had the foresight to prepare extra rations before coming down, otherwise he and Miss Mei might have starved to death down here before they even got out.
The elemental lord probably cannot understand the biological needs of mortals, so it is impossible to prepare food for them.
Mei seemed quiet. She only looked up at this strange underground world and blinked slightly.
It is not that there are no food sources in the underground world. Although most of the tall mushrooms are poisonous, a large part of the bugs that feed on them are edible.
But no matter how accustomed he was to these things, he could not overcome his psychological discomfort. After all, it was not that he had no choice. He would rather choose to be resurrected in a certain temple.
As for Mei, Fang Lu knew that she was terribly self-disciplined. She had personally said that she had eaten bugs more than once during the training of the ancient knights. "The roasted bugs themselves actually have no flavor and have a very dull texture," Miss Knight said seriously as she shared her experience with others. "As for eating them raw, the taste is mostly due to the contents in their bodies, which are mostly astringent and bitter."
Except for Xiang Xiang who was a little interested in this, most of the people in the group looked embarrassed.
Fang Yu shook his head and threw these meaningless memories out of his mind.
Because it took a lot of energy to climb up the cliff, the two rested for a while next to the stream before continuing forward. On the way, Fang Plover tore some dry lichens and put them in his pocket, because he didn't know when he would stop to set up camp. These things were just right for starting a fire.
Most of his wilderness survival skills were learned at Dawn Star, and he has been on the adventure ever since, and has never fallen behind.
The two of them moved forward while picking up lichen, but after a while, Mei suddenly let out a soft "eh" sound. She stopped and stared at the spectacular miracle in front of her, which was in front of a cliff, which was actually the exit of a long cave.
Fang Yu couldn't help but put down the lichen in his hand, and also stared at the scene in front of him. The canyon was cut out like a knife, and it was so deep that the bottom was not visible, and the huge crystal veins spreading in it exuded bright brilliance, like a river of light, winding to the end of the field of vision.
Great Crystal Vein.
Although Fang Yu had heard about this for a long time, he was still shocked at this moment. He had seen elemental monarchs as huge as mountains, but they seemed small in this scene.
In the face of such a great existence, mortals are like dust to the vast sea, like gravel to the stars.
His chest rose and fell, as if there was a roaring sound inside, but that sound came from the bottom of the abyss. It was the resonance of the earth, the resonance of the long river of ether passing through the crystal veins of Xinta'an.
Rumbling, mighty.
A huge bolt of lightning was passing between the crystal groups, spreading for several kilometers, followed by another one, and the magic turned into a flash of light, almost materializing. If the floating continent had a heart, then this would be its blood vessels.
Xinta'an is worthy of the name of the giant of the sun. It is the most complete and oldest of all floating continents in existence. It is a place watched by gods, just like a giant god who sleeps here.
Standing in front of this canyon for a longer time, Fang Plover almost felt that he was being assimilated by it, his will and blood were all integrated into one. He took a step forward, and then he was shocked and quickly took back his steps.
He then looked away from the wonderful scene, not because he was attracted by it, but because of the resonance of magic power. Although mortals' perception of elements is weak, they are still part of this world after all.
"Such pure ether," May took a step back and sighed. She no longer looked at the huge crystals. "Mr. Ed, what is this?"
"Great Crystal Vein, but this is far from the source of ether." Fang Plover looked at the environment here, and suddenly thought of something, he turned around, took off his backpack, and placed it on the ground.
He took out several instruments from his open backpack and said: "I have read the records of the Geographical Society of the Cast Iron Hall. The crystal veins under Eldron are more spectacular than this one. This should be just one of the great crystal veins." Just a branch. The good news is that we should be no more than one kilometer away from the ground..."
Mei listened to his description quietly without interrupting.
Fang Plover was a little gushing when talking about this, "Rivers of light are formed on the etheric sea everywhere in Aitaria, and several of them pass through these crystal veins to form these huge Guy crystals, thus holding up the floating continent. The deepest of these veins will extend deep into the core of the earth, where they join the elemental plane."
"It is said that the mortal world has been developing Guy Crystals for hundreds of years, but it has never really involved the great crystal veins. Many Guy Crystal veins in the surface world are tending to dry up, so someone has made plans for this place. After all, if mortals can use the great crystal veins Crystal Vein, maybe Guy Crystal will always be inexhaustible.”
Then Mei Yi said: "But why has Mei Yi never heard of it?"
"Because no one has succeeded," Fang Plover replied, "It is not cheap to go deep into the hollow world, let alone mining. What's more, we can stand here with Alphons's approval. Don't forget this Down below is actually the home of the earth element.”
If you want to force yourself deep underground, you only need to think about the Osu people outside to understand what will happen.
But Mei suddenly thought of the huge equipment of the Empire at the bottom of the gray underground lake.
"Is this why the Imperial people are here too?"
Fang Plover nodded, "Yes, those are things of the past. Now the Imperial people may have half succeeded."
"Mr. Ed, do you mean half?" May asked, "Are the Oshurs extracting the power of the underground Gay crystal veins?"
"Extract?" Fang Pliance shook his head, "I'm afraid not, but I have some guesses." He said while rummaging through his backpack, and finally found what he wanted.
It was an instrument that looked like a vertical magic furnace.
Fang Plover took it out of his backpack. There was a tripod underneath. Fang Plover opened it and fixed it on a solid rock formation. Then there was a matching crystal drill, about an arm's length, connected to a metal pole. .
The metal rod was composed of three iron pipes. Fang Plover tightened them one by one and combined them together. Then he stood up, raised his hands and inserted the crystal drill downwards into the solid rock formation.
There was a copper cable on it, and he connected the other end to the small instrument. This set of instruments was worth a lot of money, and Fang Pliance would definitely not be able to afford it given his wealth. This was exactly the set that Bai Jia lent him to use for measuring crystal readings.
To be precise, it belongs to the military——
He had to return it when he was done with it.
There was a clicking sound from the magic furnace, and he covered its interface with a magic glove. Originally, Su Changfeng asked him to use this instrument on the crystal tower, but the crystal tower was deep into the Ethernet veins, but Aita Li Is there any place closer to the source of ether than here?
Fang Yu closed his eyes. He had been trying to verify that since he went deep underground, but now, it happened to be the most suitable time. But just as he closed his eyes, he suddenly heard a slight noise behind him and Mei's muffled groan.
Fang Yu felt alert and was about to turn around, but there was a cold touch on his neck, and a sword blade was already pressed there. He looked back, and then Mei Yi covered her arms and stepped aside, leaving her halberd and shield aside.
A tall, silver-gray humanoid construct stood between her and the attacker, and the attacker was holding a cage-handled rapier at his neck.
And Fang Pultru actually knew that person.
It was the Dragon Knight of Prometheus whom he had dealt with once in Istania. Fang Plover remembered that the other party was called Irs or something like that, which sounded like a code name or ID.
He and the other party are enemies rather than friends, and it is difficult to have any friendship. In the consciousness space of the Blind God, he and Miss Tata teamed up to teach each other a lesson. Afterwards, the person disappeared, but he did not expect to meet him here.
"Mr. Ed, be careful..."
Miss Knight frowned and looked at this person, obviously aware of her opponent's strength.
But Fang Yu seemed calm, as if he was not facing an opponent from that level, but just an acquaintance whom he had met once, and this was not a consciousness space.
He only looked at the other person's expression, looking like he was crying but not smiling, and said to him in a hoarse voice: "...I didn't expect that she was actually with you. I was still a little suspicious..."
"You mean," Fang Plover asked, "Margaret, the Dragon Queen?"
"Besides her, who else..." Irs didn't know what he had experienced in the past six months, and he looked like he was lost. "The daughter of Lifgard, the Dragon of Origin, the second Dark Dragon King... she was in Irs back then. Tania, I shouldn’t have let them go…”
May looked at Irs quietly. She had met Alessa and naturally knew her identity. However, she only joined the team after the Seven Seas Traveler was built. She would not officially board the ship until after the Northern War.
She had heard about the incident between Istania and the Evil God, but she had not experienced it personally.
So she just listened to the conversation between the two of them somewhat carefully.
Fang Yu interrupted Irs's words directly, as if he was not some Promethean dragon knight: "Back in the Silver Sand Sea, it was hard to say who let whom go. I think you must not have had an easy time at that time, but It's a pity that you were not thrown into the prison of the Kingdom of Sand... What you did in the sea of sand at that time was far away from the standards expected of a chosen one."
Irs chuckled hoarsely, "But I am the chosen one, and the aboriginal laws cannot judge me."
"That's just normal," May said, "but engaging in terrorist activities, joining a cult, destroying star gates, subverting the country, and killing indigenous people are not included in this. What you did in Istania May heard something, and it was appalling and outrageous."
Irs glanced at the two of them, "Okay, but those are mostly... what the empire did. I was just the executor, and I didn't participate in it. I only took action against you in the end. Istania's Many things... all happened more than ten years ago, you should be able to tell... I was still an insignificant and unknown person more than ten years ago..."
He suddenly realized something and waved his hand angrily, "I'll explain to you what these are for. Now the initiative is in my hands. Listen, you'd better follow the orders now."
"I'm afraid not." Fang Plover refused directly, ignoring the sword in the opponent's hand as if it were nothing.
"What? Aren't you afraid that I will kill you?"
"Not to mention killing me, what would happen? If we were afraid, we would not have entered the evil god's consciousness space in the first place. The situation at that time would not have been a thousand times more dangerous than now," Fang Pliance looked directly into the other person's eyes and replied, " Moreover, do you really intend to kill us? But I didn’t feel any killing intent from your sword."
"Killing intent?"
Irs was stunned for a moment, could something as ethereal as murderous intent be felt? He couldn't help but glance at Fang Pulver in a strange way, wondering if this guy was a little confused.
But Fang Yu's confidence comes from his own dark blessing. Death prediction allows him to completely avoid the opponent's attack once a day, whether the opponent is a mortal or a god. But the omen was completely silent just now, which only meant that Irs's sword was not aimed at him.
This is just evidence.
Fang Yu looked at the Prometheus dragon knight in front of him. He was certainly not a fool. The Seven Seas Brigade had investigated Prometheus in detail before heading to the empire. After all, no one wanted to run into a hostile dragon knight. .
But judging from the news I got, it seems a little weird. If those rumors are true, since Irs returned to Prometheus, there have been widespread rumors that he has become a little weird. Not only does he often stay behind closed doors, but he also imposes great restrictions on the members of Prometheus.
Outsiders said that he was frightened by Istania's defeat, but Fang Pliance noticed something strange in it. He was an eyewitness to the Blind God battle, although he knew that the blow might not be good for Irs. Xiao, anyone who is defeated by so many weak opponents will have some doubts about life.
But how could someone who could become a dragon knight be so fragile?
He recalled the situation that day over and over again, and came up with only a few possibilities, either because of Margaret the Dragon Queen, or because of Miss Tata. But from now on, the possibility of the latter can almost be ruled out.
The other party really came for the Dragon Queen.
After he recalled this, he was suddenly startled. Ever since he arrived at Nozpitz, whether in the Adventurer's Guild or after going deep into the mining area, he had always had a vague feeling of being spied on. a feeling of.
Fang Yu couldn't help but look up at the other party. Now it seemed that the sense of peeping was not his own illusion, but came from the dragon knight in front of him. Also, if a dragon knight deliberately wanted to follow them, how could they detect it?
However, it was impossible for him to negotiate terms with Prometheus or Irs before truly understanding their purpose. After all, the Seven Seas Brigade had fought against each other in Istania. Judging from the opponent's past, he didn't think this guy was following them for any good reasons.
Even if what the other party said is true, he can extract it from everything that happened in Istania. What about Prometheus?
Judging from the performance of the third division league, he doubted that the one behind the first division was clean. Su Changfeng also held the same view, not to mention that the headquarters of the Super Competitive League was here.
As the saying goes, if the upper beam is not straight, the lower beam is crooked. The military has always believed that the scandals in the third division league actually come from the infiltration of the North American side of the league. They are uniquely distrustful of Lao Mei, and Fang Luo naturally cannot trust Prometheus, the largest free-chosen guild in the first division.
Who would believe that this behemoth was innocent in the Istania incident?
What's more, he also noticed other clues.
Fang Yu gently released his hand from the instrument: "As soon as we arrived here, you followed us. It seems that the First Division Alliance Headquarters is very concerned about the Seven Seas Brigade. Or should I say that you are not allowed to live in this place? Something you don’t care about?”
"Something you have to care about?" Irs coughed lightly and looked up at the crystal veins. "You mean this Guy crystal? Ahem... It seems like you have discovered something, so you don't need to explain it to me. .”
This answer made Fang Yu slightly startled. Although reading out the readings from the instrument requires some professional knowledge, it is not complicated. He had already noticed something abnormal here the moment he put his hand over it.
May asked before if the Imperials were extracting the magic power from the Guy Crystal underground here. But the truth is exactly the opposite. The Imperials are not extracting magic power, but injecting magic power into this branch.
He had this conjecture for a long time, because those devices were not magic extraction devices. How could the magic extraction device require a continuous energy supply from the tower magic furnace?
Those energy supplies are not supplied to those tall iron nails, but to the depths of the underground, to the Ethernet veins.
And the drawings left by Jeldham, Helinwell and Friston almost prove this. The scientific name of those things is called elemental layer resonance device. What is resonance? In Aitaria, it is essentially a magical resonance.
But why do the Imperials do this?
When he noticed this, he couldn't help but think of something. During the Battle of the North, the signal sent from Elpaxin's crystal tower made the craftsmen discover something.
The shadow man also injected a piece of magic or information into the Crystal Tower, and its host was most likely the young man he helped arrest and bring to justice not long ago. And under the crystal network is the river of ether, and the current behavior of the shadow people and the empire almost coincides with each other.
That injection almost caused the blockage and collapse of the entire crystal network. Fortunately, they stopped it in time and saved it. But even so, the third coordinate at that time has still disappeared into the sea.
When the crystal network is intact, it is almost impossible to find a beacon of the main crystal tower in the network.
But what exactly was the shadow man's plot was not clear to him at the beginning, but now he finally got a clue.
"...It just so happens that you seem to have noticed something," Irs said, coughing hoarsely: "Tell me what you observed."
"The readings of Guy's crystal are dropping sharply," Fang Plover hesitated before replying. After all, if Irs is on the imperial side, then he will not know this.
And if not, then it doesn't matter if he says it and makes the other person stop.
Fang Yu looked at Mei Yi again, and seeing that the other party didn't quite understand, he simply explained, "Miss Mei Yi, the readings of the Guy crystal in Xinta'an are extremely abnormal. In fact, they started from a few years ago. From the beginning, the readings in all floating continents in Aitaria have been steadily declining."
"...However, the Geological Society has many interpretations of this. It may be caused by cyclical changes or artificial mining. But whether it is Kaolin-Ishulian, Giant Tree Hill or Lotao, None of them are as intense as Xintaan’s readings at the moment..."
He paused and organized his speech: "To put it simply, if changes continue on this scale, Xinta'an Continent may sink into the abyss in less than ten years..."
Even Mei Yi, who had always been calm, couldn't help but look surprised when she heard this. It was one of the oldest floating continents in the world, and there were countless creatures living on it.
If it sinks under the abyss, it will not only be the destruction of an empire, but also an unimaginable disaster.
"But why..." she couldn't help but ask, "Is this caused by the empire?"
"Half the responsibility," Fang Yu thought for a moment and replied, "Reduced Guy crystal readings have occurred on all continents, including Stargate, which is also investigating the source of this disaster. Some theories believe that it may be related to a potential incoming planet. It’s related to the disaster star. But all in all, even if a disaster occurs, it will be at least a hundred years later. We still have a lot of time to prepare..."
"But the Empire?"
"The empire is using a device to actively resonate with the elemental layer," Fang Plover replied. "The direct consequence of this is that the elemental layer will become active at a thousand times faster than usual. Because the wind elemental power is consumed, it is reflected in the cover. The readings on the Yijing crystal dropped sharply..."
"so……"
"So the empire will fly," Irs coughed and interrupted the two of them. "They inject magic into the Ethernet veins and use these magic powers as a medium to make the entire Guy crystal vein active. Essentially - —”
"Essentially, it is to turn the entire great crystal vein underground of Xinta'an into a giant Guy generator," Fang Yu replied, "that is, the kind that people often see on floating ships, but in this case , one branch is not enough.”
"Of course it's not enough," Irs said. "It's not just this one place. The key lies in the main core crystal. What the Empire wants is the entire crystal network, not just this point underground in Nozpiz."
"How could they do it?" Fang Plover was greatly puzzled. "It is impossible for energy to increase or decrease out of thin air. Xinta'an is in a stable state. The imperial people make it active, but at the cost of consuming more energy. Yi Crystal, but this consumption cannot be replenished, it will only make it sink into the abyss faster."
"Yes, it was a hundred years in the past, and it is ten years now," Irs replied, "But what's the difference? If no changes are made, Xinta'an will inevitably usher in that day."
What changes do the Imperials want?
Fang Yu did not expect that after he found out the changes underground, he would not be able to understand what the Imperial people were doing. He suddenly realized something suspicious. The Empire seemed to be using technology from seven hundred years ago.
In other words, Jeldham, Hellingwell, and Friston had already noticed this as early as the era of the Elkins dynasty, and they had been making preparations since that era?
Or is that where the plan they talk about to change the world comes from?
But if so, why did the Imperial people delay launching this huge plan for seven hundred years?
Why?
While he was thinking, Irs suddenly withdrew the sword on his neck. The other party looked at him and said: "Since you have noticed so much, there is no point in hiding it anymore... Let's negotiate a deal. Bar."
…
7000 words.
(End of chapter)
