Sophie flicked the charcoal fire with a twig, and a handful of sparks rose from the grass ash, and the flames of the bonfire lit up slightly, allowing shadows to flicker on the ochre-ash rock wall. She turned her head and looked out of the cave, where the wind and snow were blowing, and there was only a gray patch under the night, and the wind swept the snowflakes into the cave, but in an instant melted into the golden red firelight.

In the distance, the north wind howled, like the long howl of wild beasts, into the quiet cave, only the rustling of fire, moving and still, reflecting each other. Outside the shelter, the forest seemed to make a shivering sound, and if you listened closely, it seemed as if a line of footsteps was approaching.

But after a while, it turned into the wind again, whirring, the trees creaking and shaking, and occasionally the sound of lodging.

Sophie turned her head again, and a little golden light reflected in her dark eyes, and the red firelight reflected on the side of her face, like a curved jade tooth. The girl was very quiet, and there seemed to be a thin mist in her eyes—the kettle set up above the campfire let out a whimper, and white steam rose.

She took the kettle off, picked up the cup, took it, and added some brown sugar cubes.

Then he took a sip with both hands, tested the temperature, and blew lightly a few breaths before bringing it to Akane's mouth on the side. "Come, open your mouth." Sophie's voice was gentle.

She probed the girl's forehead with her cold hand.

The girl with the star knight had a hot forehead, a pair of amber starry eyes half open and half closed, she was wrapped in a thick stall, and looked at her main knight with some sleepy eyes: "Sophie, I'm sleepy......"

"It's not okay to be sleepy, open your mouth."

Akane looked at her helplessly, and could only tilt her head weakly and open her mouth slightly in obedience.

"There's a healing potion in there, and when the weather gets better, you'll be pretty much better." Sophie carefully helped the mountain girl and saw her frowning, so she asked, "Is it hot?" ”

Akane shook her head weakly.

Sophie couldn't help but be stunned when she looked at her like this. She suddenly lowered her head, pointed the tip of her nose to the tip of the girl's nose, looked at her, and asked with a breath: "Do you want me to take a sip and feed you?" ”

When the mountain girl heard what she meant, her face turned red, and she looked at her a little bewildered.

Sophie grinned, and then got up: "Lie to you, go to bed early-"

Akane buried her face in a blanket, not daring to look at her, only whimpering softly in reply.

The cave ** fell silent again, and only the sound of the girl's gentle breathing remained.

Sophie picked up the branch again and re-dialed the charcoal fire to make it brighter. Outside the cave, the wind seemed to be louder, so she got up and looked outside the cave, and slowly walked to the entrance of the cave.

She barely closed her eyes for three days.

Because Akane suddenly fell ill, she had to carry the work of keeping vigil and camping alone, and trekking through the wind and snow, and finally found such a shelter.

It's all because of that nasty guy.

If it weren't for him, he wouldn't have brought Akane to this place. However, although there was some dissatisfaction in her heart, she was actually a little surprised when she learned that the other party did not die underground in Fenris-

So much so that Fang Yu asked her to help bring things to Dulun, and she didn't think about refusing or refusing at all.

Thinking of this, she picked up the communication crystal, reflected a line of communication fields in her system, and then poked one of the IDs to send a message to it:

"I'm almost through the Great Valley, where are you?"

The piece waited for a moment, and quickly replied:

"Miss Sophie?"

"Didn't you remember my ID?"

"Ah, I'm sorry...... I didn't pay attention to it just now. ”

Fang Yu sent a cold sweat expression.

He sent another picture, and Sophie saw that the other party was assembling a magic furnace, presumably concentrating on the work at hand before, so she ignored the information on her side.

"We're almost there, too, Mr. Greystone should be east of the Great Creek Valley by now...... If it weren't for this sudden blizzard, we might have reached the northern edge of the Ash Forest. ”

Sophie estimated the time, and if the blizzard cleared in about three or two days, they should be able to reconcile.

She paused for a moment before typing, "Akane is sick." ”

"Ah, sorry......"

Fang Yu asked, "Do you need us to pick you up?" ”

"No, do you have a place to rest and medicine?"

Sophie, of course, knew that Fang Ou had transformed a platform. Fang Yu and his party regarded her as a friend, so they had told her about this early in the morning, and besides, the two sides were going to meet in Dulun, and they couldn't hide it.

"Yes."

"That's good."

"But don't you really need our help?" Fang Yu couldn't help but ask.

"Suddenly I care so much about Akane," Sophie's eyebrows curled: "Is there something wrong with it?" ”

“…… Of course not. ”

"Haha," she couldn't help but laugh back and forth, "Why are you so nervous?" ”

“……”

After teasing Fang Yuan, Sophie closed the communication crystal with satisfaction, raised her hands like a lazy cat, and stretched her waist for a long time. But suddenly, the girl stopped and looked out of the cave with some suspicion.

She heard a strange rustling sound.

The sound flickered and flickered, like a line of footsteps, and some like the sound of the wind sweeping through the snow. Sophie didn't know if she had misheard, for the wind and snow had suddenly become a little heavier, and the taiga rattled and drowned out the previous sound—

Still alert, she retreated into the cavern, picking up her pale flame—inch by inch, drawing her sword and holding it in her hand.

She took her sword and walked towards the mouth of the cave, and the sound in the wind and snow seemed to become more and more pronounced, rustling, as if a group were walking towards this sheltered place. Sophie hesitated for a moment, but did not turn back to extinguish the bonfire, because the temperature was so low, and the mountain girl had a high fever......

Suddenly, the sound stopped a few meters away from the entrance of the cave, but it was gray in the wind and snow, and I couldn't see my fingers, and I couldn't see anything in that place.

Sophie suddenly had a creepy feeling.

For she clearly felt that something unknown was standing a few meters away from the entrance of the cave, watching her through the wind and snow, but she could not see anything—even for a moment, it seemed that the surroundings were completely silent.

The wind was gone, and she could even hear her own nervous heartbeat.

Sophie couldn't help but think of the legends of the Stormy Nights, legendary creatures that only appeared in the harsh winters of Aitalia, such as the Winter Wolf, the Frost Dragon, and the Pale Shadow.

Her eyes widened, and she suddenly saw a swaying shadow behind the wind and snow—it was clearly a person.

She was startled, but still plucked up courage in her heart, pointed her sword there, and shouted: "Who is where?" ”

The figure staggered forward.

Sophie took a breath, but instead calmed down and raised her sword to meet the enemy. But suddenly, the figure fell down in front of her with a thud, and fell in front of her.

But who is that?

Sophie couldn't help but look at it, it was just an empty piece of armor, scattered in the snow. But it had almost no mechanical structure inside, and it didn't have any dark mana, as if it were just an ordinary rusty armor that had been left in the snow.

But how could an ordinary piece of armor come to this place alone?

……

Fang Yu closed the communication crystal and shook his head.

He looked out the window, and there was the same howling blizzard outside, but one floor away, the wind only whined lowly, the night was pitch black, and the sky was low and thick, with almost no light.

Not far away, a fir tree shook violently in the wind and snow, like a narrow ghost, with teeth and claws.

The flickering light of the campfire reflected on the trees, and it was outlined in the wind and snow, and below was the lumberjack's camp, around which Lady Sukwe and her lumberjacks numbered thirty or forty.

There was a vigil in the camp, but no one was talking, and there was silence except for the wind.

It is often only after entering the main continent of Korin that one realizes how dangerous the winters here can be - within a week of leaving the Masunke Creek station, Mr. Greystone has experienced four attacks, including one encounter with a winter wolf.

If they hadn't avoided it in time, they would have suffered heavy losses - the Winter Wolf is a level 43 creature that is almost legendary in Aitalia, and the legendary creatures of Aitaria all have their own characteristics and ignore the rules in general.

Winter wolves are characterized by their wide range of activities, and they always appear with blizzards, even ignoring regional restrictions, and have been seen in novice areas such as Al Pahin.

Fortunately, the winter wolf didn't seem to be interested in them, and only glanced at them from a distance before disappearing into the snow.

Two more lumberjacks were injured in a subsequent attack, but they were just ordinary skeletons, and it was only because of the lack of precautions in the snowy night that they were allowed to sneak into the camp.

However, this incident alerted Fang Yuan, and he placed an alchemical trap on the outskirts of the camp - of course, it was actually a buzzer that was fired by a contact line, but it was also enough to protect against the average large beast and undead who lacked intelligence.

After that, the camp was much more secure.

The captain lit a candle in the room, the light of which was unstable and swayed gently along with the deck beneath his feet.

Due to the need to provide full heating, as well as hot water and food for the lumberjacks outside, all the magic power output of the small magic engine under the platform was concentrated on two sets of facilities - the cabin could no longer afford to use lighting crystals, so the only way to choose this compromise lighting method was to choose this compromise lighting method.

To be honest, this stretched mana supply is a bit shabby, but it seems a lot better when you think about the adventurers who are trekking through the wilderness.

However, Fang Yu thought to himself that his ship must not have such a problem in the future, it can be a little smaller, but the supply of mana must be sufficient, this snowstorm has caused the alchemy workshop on the platform to stop working for several days, delaying a lot of things.

The heating brass pipes glowed in the candlelight, and Lady Delis was lazily leaning against one of the hot pipes, squinting and pecking at the ground.

Its fluffy tail curled up like a couch, allowing Miss Tata to sit in it, looking intently at the pages of light, for a lot had happened lately, and the community seemed to be buzzing again.

Fang Yu was assembling the magic furnace while discussing with Tata some news that had happened recently.

Most of the community is of course about the disaster on Fenris Island, and the most speculated is not his whereabouts, but where Torragotos went.

And the news from the underground of Fenris Island is not good, the Geological Society of the Dwarves went down to explore, and the news came back that although the sinking of Fenris Island has stopped for the time being, the magic reaction inside it is active.

This suggests that the catastrophe has only stopped for a while, and that the cracks that have occurred at the time may have caused a rift in the interior of the island, perhaps only a few decades later, before Fenris will follow in Ethelin's footsteps and sink beneath the abyss.

In fact, the Kaurin-Ishurian royal family and the General Craftsmen Association have already begun to consider the gradual evacuation of the hundreds of thousands of people on Fenris Island.

Fang Yu couldn't help but sigh when he heard the news, although he tried his best, but in the end, he could only get such a result.

"It's none of your business, Mr. Knight," Tata replied calmly, "sinking beneath the abyssal sea is the ultimate fate of the Floating Continent, but Gotos' plan has exhausted the time of Fenris Island in advance......"

Fang Yu was silent for a moment, of course he knew this in his heart.

Few people know what it was like to be born at the beginning of Aitalia's birth—

In the accounts of the natives, before mortals established civilization in this land, Aethelin and Aitalia existed on this sea of clouds for thousands of years.

In the elves' ancient narrative poems, the world was born in the aftermath of an earth-shattering Great Will - the fall of a great will called Ita, whose massive body turned into a floating continent.

And Ita's greatest favor to the mortal world is obviously the magic crystal buried deep in the earth - Guy.

It was Guy's power that allowed Aitaria to exist above the sea of clouds, but the magic eventually ran out, and in fact, it was not until after the catastrophe of Essorin that mortals began to realize that the life span of the continent may not be eternal.

No one knows how long Aitaria will have to exist, perhaps a thousand years from now, or even longer; But it is also possible that when people open their eyes, they find that the magic contained in the solid earth beneath their feet has begun to wane......

Since the Magic Guiding Technology Revolution, the excessive exploitation of Guy Crystal by mortals is actually one of the causes of the decline of the magic power of the Floating Continent.

That's why countless explorers have embarked on a journey to find a new world.

That was the beginning of the history of the Second World.

Fang Yu had naturally heard of the origin of the second world, and at the end of the first world, there was a bridge to the second world, where above the upper sea of clouds, there was a world like a paradise.

That's Hailin, the second world.

"What happened to Fenris will definitely make people more enthusiastic about the Third World," Tata whispered about another thing: "Actually, even without Torragotos, the decline of the continent's magic is very common—"

Fang Plover couldn't help but think back to the abandoned Guy Crystal Mine he had seen in the Traveler's Swamp.

Such mines, in the era of the rise of magic technology, abound on the continent. But today, open-pit crystal mines are very rare, and almost all the remaining Guy crystals go deep underground, and the major mines are also in the hands of the major national forces on the continent.

That's the foundation of the continent --

However, it is also doomed to be impossible to completely abandon magic technology, which is equivalent to returning civilization to an era of obscurantism, and the decline in productivity may bring more than just a lack of convenience.

It is more likely to be famine, with endless turmoil, or even the destruction of civilization.

Although the discovery of the second world once gave people hope. It's a pity that above the sea of clouds there, after all, there is only a large and small floating island, and there is no continent that is really shaped like Aitalia.

But the forerunners of the explorers and the electors were not without success.

There are clues that behind the Second Land Bridge, there should be a supercontinent, the legendary Land of Promise, which is why the gateway to the Third World, will become the target of contention between nations.

Fang Yu couldn't help but look behind him—there was only a thin bulkhead separated by the room, and the room of the ship's officer—people like his father, Sir Ma Wei, might have come into being under such historical conditions.

Everything about Fenris Island is undoubtedly the biggest news in two months.

However, as a first-hand witness, Fang Yu actually didn't care too much about this matter, after all, the news discussed in the community may not be as clear as he has.

In the last month, the Chosen One, the combined forces of Stargate Harbor and Elpahim repelled the attack of the Dark Dragons in Charter City, and it was the first time that the Kaorin-Ihurian Kingdom had announced that the Dark Dragons were still alive in this world.

The news caused a sensation for a while.

Of course, the most concerned about this matter is the Elector, most of them are concerned that the Dark Dragon has returned, so will the legendary five dragon slaying swords and their guardians also reappear?

After all, the Five Holy Swords are all sub-artifact-level equipment.

However, only Fang Yu understood that in fact, there were only four holy swords left in this world—even higher.

However, neither of these two news actually made him pay much attention, but he was more concerned about another thing - a small news that was drowned in the disruptive discussion under these two major events.

That little news was made a week ago, and it was related to him - after the Stargate Port finally made his news public and announced that a stowaway might have entered the Stargate.

According to the news, the relevant investigation has been carried out, and the family information of the smugglers has been obtained, and with the consent of the family, the relatives concerned have also intervened in the search.

And three days earlier, on the fifth day after the winter solstice in Aitalia, the investigation team had arrived at the port of Stargate.

When Fang Yu saw the news, he almost had two heads.

He only thought of one thing—

They actually brought their aunt and uncle!

He couldn't help but feel a little numb in his scalp, thinking that he might be beaten again this time.

……