Four days after the battle with the Wanzhou warriors, a group of people who kept walking on abandoned roads with the help of ancient maps came to a strange place that was almost indescribable in words.
It seems that Titans and beings with shining eyes are still walking in the world. Giant dragons are not as rare as they are now. And the behemoths that are bigger than Dragon City let out earth-shaking roars. In order to be so huge that they can A time when territories larger than a human kingdom fought against each other.
Those ancient remnants that even the elves could only glimpse from ancient scrolls.
A towering forest hundreds of meters high.
Even the witches had never known that there was such a place in New Moon Continent before.
Perhaps some of the older Moon Kingdom books had records of this, but after changing paths many times and passing through the dark forest, this was the first time they encountered such a magnificent sight.
The red tree trunk reaches straight into the sky, and even 11 ghost tribesmen holding hands cannot wrap around the thick tree trunk. It was thicker from head to tail than their largest carriage.
And there are trees like this one after another.
"It's so strange. It looks like a cedar tree? But this is in Wanzhou." Miss Ph.D., who is familiar with astronomy, geography and worldly biology, raised her head and saw clearly the general appearance and leaves of the giant tree. She was puzzled. ——Fir trees are generally trees that grow in cooler areas, and are often more common in high mountains.
Even if there are differences between the varieties, in the hot Wanzhou and this is not a mountainous area, it is obviously not in line with the growth rules.
The answer was given immediately when they stepped into the white ruins that existed like these giant trees and were covered with vines.
"It was artificially transplanted." Ling nodded and recorded it in her notes. Animals and plants will appear in areas far away from their original growth areas. The main reason is human interference.
It was as if the rice that the New Moon Continent nobles loved to eat originally only existed on both sides of the river, and it was far from the full ears of rice it is today. Artificial improvement selects versions that can adapt to specific climates, and some of these characteristics are specially cultivated to meet needs. Human beings have been doing things like this since ancient times, which has been lost to history.
——But the ruins here are definitely not made by human hands.
Even though more years have passed than those present could imagine, the white and sharp-cut pillars of the ruins still shine with a warm radiance like pearls and jade. Perhaps because of the protection of the dense forest, weathering seems to have no effect on it. There are no cracks or aging on it that appear to be caused by time. If it were not for the climbing vines and thick shrub roots, it would all look as if it had just been occur.
The building materials, which have an astonishing age, seem to contain some kind of magical power, and everyone's eyes can't help but be attracted to it.
As a short-lived species, human beings always have a sincere yearning for eternity. People like gold and respect it as the king of metals precisely because gold will not be affected by time. Copper will turn green and darken, steel will rust and rot, but only gold will shine as brightly as if it was made thousands of years ago, even if it is newly unearthed.
"So beautiful." The lines are simple and symmetrical. Even if it is just a collapsed pillar covered with many vegetation, it is obvious that it was made by a skilled craftsman.
"Elf architecture." Henry recognized the style of the building. The elves do not have the concept of a unified country like humans. They live in tribes all over the world, but this does not mean that they only use tree leaves to cover their bodies.
Skilled craftsmen who spend their entire lives improving a certain skill are always honored as masters in human society, and longevity species far exceed human lifespans, which means that their improvement in a certain skill will be doubled accordingly.
Your lifetime may only be equivalent to the other person's professional training.
What humans are good at is innovation and exploration, opening up new fields and creating unprecedented things. These are the strengths of short-lived species; but when it comes to high and deep research in old fields, they can casually spend half a century studying in seclusion. It is natural that the long-lived species will have advantages.
But everything here is clearly dead.
Even the careless ghost warriors held their breath, and the group walked quietly through this beautiful but lifeless scenery.
Towering trees cast beams of light.
The road, which was still intact on the surface but was overturned by the growing and spreading vegetation, stretched forward crookedly. The sound of horse hooves, wheels and footsteps echoed, as well as the sound of the collision of armor and weapons, but other than that it was dead silent.
More and more ruins that are getting better and better appear in sight as we advance.
Domes and arches seem to be design elements favored by elves, and few of these architectural ruins are as sharp and angular as human buildings. Most places seem to use the same building materials as before, and some places are more special, with trees growing together and looking unmistakably "living" buildings.
"Compared to a large town." The warriors' admiration for its scale and details was not exaggerated at all. The part of this ruins that has been seen so far is probably enough to accommodate thousands of people, although the elves probably will not be as big as humans. The population is so dense, but it is already very spectacular.
The only fragile thing was the wooden door, which was in decay. The interior of most elven houses could be seen clearly, and no matter which room they looked at when they passed by, it was empty.
"It's so clean, it's like they moved away collectively." The Luoan girl gave her opinion.
"Not necessarily." The sage shrugged, and with a "clang--" he picked out something out of place from the bushes next to him with his toes.
The gold ornaments were still there, but the rotten blade and wooden handle of the sword broke the moment it fell to the ground.
"It could also be that people looted it later."
"Do you remember anything?" He said this, and people who had participated in cave rescues before and had seen the ruins of a local dwarf tribe called Earth Spider felt the similarity to some extent.
Nowadays, this land where dragons, elves, dwarves and other common alien races in Rigar are completely extinct, does not seem to be the case in the past.
Some kind of event occurred at a certain point in time, causing other major races to evacuate the continent collectively, and most of those who remained had also perished.
The Kingdom of the Moon has concealed records in this regard, perhaps because there are not many valuable things in the ruins that have been searched, so it is not worth recording; perhaps because for short-lived species, generations change too fast, and many materials are lost in natural disasters in the long history. Lost in man-made disasters.
Or maybe it's related to some other reasons.
No matter what, this land is dead.
The white buildings that have stood extremely strong in time still stand, and the viaducts and outpost platforms woven with living vines and branches must have been guarded by ever-vigilant elves in the past.
They hold bows that are more powerful than any human war bow, and every arrow made of light silver they shoot can hit the opponent with extremely high speed and accuracy.
But they are gone.
There is only an empty city left here.
The wind blows through the houses with rotten windows and wooden doors, bringing waves of low hums, like some kind of song from the distant past, or like the breathing of a giant beast still sleeping here in its sleep.
Everything is still so lifelike, as if those beautiful and elegant creatures will be walking, singing, training, and giving birth in these buildings again in the next second.
But they are gone.
There is only deathly silence here.
The huge cedar tree is after all a tree species brought by the elves from other places for planting. It is incompatible with the local vegetation in other parts of Crescent Continent. Although they successfully survived after the elves left, they also created an area where it was difficult for local creatures to survive.
The sky blocked by giant trees doesn't allow much sunlight for shrubs to grow. The lack of edible vegetation on the ground means herbivores won't visit the area. And without prey, predators naturally lack interest in this place.
Wood-boring beetle larvae and the small birds that feed on them are probably the most common residents here. However, because the proportions of these trees are so huge, the already small creatures are almost overwhelmed by the scenery itself and cannot be noticed.
The two words "vital and lifeless" could be used to describe a scene at the same time. The group may have never thought about it before.
The old giant trees and beautiful buildings fell silent.
There were no birds chirping, no beasts roaring. Apart from their own movement, there was only the whine of the wind.
But maybe this isn't the norm here.
They moved on.
Suddenly something floated in the air.
"It smells of sulfur." The young master was the first person to give the answer, or it may be that the others just didn't say it.
This is not an uncommon smell in Crescent Island, which has many volcanoes and hot springs.
But this time is obviously different.
The short creatures with black-red skin gathered together and were eating something.
"Hiss-" The group of people stopped, they instinctively sensed the danger.
"Human form? With wings?" Ling was immediately attracted by the creatures in front of her. The outlines of these creatures, which were about the size of children and had their backs turned to them, were very similar to humans, except that they had a pair of bat-like wings on their backs.
The thin wing membrane appears translucent in the sunlight, revealing the blood vessels just like when you raise your hand to block the sun at noon when the sun is strongest.
It's just that the blood flowing inside is not red.
"Most of the creatures in the world have four limbs. Whether it's dogs, horses, cats, apes, or even bats, their arms are only transformed into wings. But this, with six limbs, is it humanoid?" Although I have seen those weird-shaped things before It would seem quite weird to be obsessed with such small details later, but she is a scholar in this field after all, and she can notice at a glance the things that ordinary people are less sensitive to.
"So, they don't belong to this world?" The warriors slowly pulled out their weapons, and after careful observation, they realized what these things were eating.
Or rather, who.
Six small winged creatures were gnawing at a corpse dressed in monk clothing. Perhaps a nearby temple had suffered a disaster.
Although why they would drag corpses to such places to feast on them is still unknown, these creatures clearly enjoy human flesh.
"That is to say, you Crescent Continent people are not clear about it. Most Rigal people can probably understand it just by looking at the appearance." Henry turned back and glanced at the missionaries and his group who kept praying after seeing these things.
The archers slowly climbed up to the second level of the carriage and got ready. The warriors and ghosts in the front row had their weapons ready, and the carriage was slowly controlled into place.
"Squeak - ah -" The moment it stopped, the axle, which lacked lubrication, made a sound they were not happy to hear.
Old Qiao, who was driving, closed his eyes and sighed.
The chewing sound stopped, and the six small winged creatures turned around.
"The church calls them little devils."
And so said the sage.
"Adventurers generally care about this kind of winged species."
"It's called the Flying Goblin."
