A large underground passage across the mountains, walking for a whole week, roughly estimated to be more than a hundred kilometers long. Ares couldn't help but sigh that he had discovered another miracle of Azeroth's engineering, how was this tunnel built? Ares couldn't figure this out anyway, the construction of the project before the crossing, the tunnel, is an extremely complex project, which requires accurate calculations and a lot of manpower and material resources, so it can only open up a very short distance, at most more than 50 kilometers, which can be regarded as awesome, and in Azeroth, there is no high-precision calculation, there is no modern excavation machinery, how did the dwarves manually hammer out this tunnel? Without asking the dwarves, Ares will probably never have a chance to figure it out.

After seven days of walking through the dark underground passages, on the eighth day, when Ares and Gianna dragged their tired bodies out of the underground passages, the scenery in front of them suddenly opened up. The green like waves rushed to the face, the endless prairie, and the scattered trees stood alone on this vigorous and desolate land.

The mountains and rivers in the distance are like silhouettes, hazy in the gray sunlight, so distant, so unreal. A broken stone path leads to an unknown town. It's hard to imagine that such a desolate place was once the largest gathering place of the humans of Azeroth, and was once the seat of the most powerful human empire in Azeroth, the Arathi Empire.

More than 2,800 years ago, the humans of Azeroth settled in the form of tribes, scattered across the continent, fighting each other, both at trade and at war. Among them, a tribal leader named Arahi, Soladin, is determined to unite the scattered human tribes. Using a variety of means—law, policy, diplomacy, force, etc.—the great Soladin patriarch finally united the scattered human tribes in six years. From then on, the first great human empire, the Arathi Empire, was born. Soladin became the first king of the human kingdom. It can also be said to be the greatest king in the history of mankind.

At that time, the Alahi Empire was extremely prosperous, and the seven great kingdoms of mankind in later generations were all split from the Alahi Empire. Even the famous Stormwind Kingdom is nothing compared to the Arathi Empire back then. Such a vast empire was originally established in the Arathi Heights. But now, the continent is bleak.

Walking along the broken paths, there was no one in the rolling hills and grasslands, except for the occasional bird or two that swept across the sky and chirped lonely.

"The Wall of Soladin."

Gianna said, pointing to the vague outline of the horizon. Her eyes were misty, and she seemed to be full of nostalgia for this period of human history.

"The colossal wall built by order of the great King of the Arathi Empire, Soladin, the longest human wall in Azeroth. It runs through the entire Arathi Highlands, separating the Arathi and Hillsbrad hills. to stop the invasion of the empire by the forest trolls of the north. ”

Ares replied. There was a hint of melancholy in his words. After witnessing so much war and sorrow, even Ares began to become melancholy.

Just like when Ares and Gianna returned to the ruins of Lordaeron together, at this moment, the mood of the two men was more or less similar.

"Alas, no matter how powerful an empire is, there will be times when it falls."

Gianna sighed. What this means, Ares doesn't have to think about it...... As the royal daughter of Kurtilas, Gianna watched Lordaeron go from a powerful kingdom to hell on earth overnight, just like the wall of Soladin seen in front of her, it witnessed the strength of the Arathi Empire and its fall. Leave the ruins and broken walls for people to mourn.

At night, the group rests in place on the desolate highland hills. It's the highest hill within a few miles of the wasteland, and it overlooks everything around it, so you can spot it in advance if there's any danger.

The dark green lawn is wavy and stretches to the end of the sight. The first impression of Ares here is that it is barren, and it is no wonder that over time, people migrate to the north or south, with Lordaeron in the north being rich in forestry and mines, and the south being fertile and mild.

This is like a picture scroll, a few people who have traveled far away, for the fate of mankind, embarking on the road of loneliness.

The evening breeze blows, and the cool air seeps into the body, making people shiver. Even the bonfires are erratic, and with little shade from the trees, the wind in the Arathi Heights is rough. It's almost scraped up on the horizon and falls off the other side.

Finally, on the fifth day, they arrived at the great Rapids Fort. The city was originally the capital of the Arathi Empire, but more than a thousand years ago, the stormy Arathi Empire split into seven separate small kingdoms, known as the Kingdom of Stormwind, Lordaeron, Gilneth and Dalaran. And some who were reluctant to leave the ancient capital stayed in Riptide City, continuing to guard the relics and glory of their ancestors. However, due to population outflow and lack of resources, the city gradually withered and later evolved into an independent city-state, Fort Riptide. One of the seven kingdoms of mankind, it's just that after the orc invasion and the natural disaster war, Riptide Fort is almost abandoned.

Only a handful of warriors remained strong and guarded here, barely a kingdom.

It was this army, numbering less than a thousand men, that provided Ares and Gianna with supplies and a real resting place for their men.

A meeting room that had been abandoned for many years and had not been opened to receive guests was opened on this day. The bronze door was pushed open, creaking and rubbing like the painful biting of the gears of an old clock when it was restarted. The long dusty table was even covered with dust. It can be seen how the city has withered into.

Indeed, when entering Fort Riptide, there were almost no citizens in sight, and most of them fled to Stormwind City in the south for refuge. According to the narration of the defenders, after Arthas's murder of his father, the Scourge legion went all the way south, and one of the troops set out from Dalaran, entered the hills of Hillsbrad, crossed the wall of Soradin, and finally arrived at the Arathi Heights, although the threat and destruction were not very large, but Fort Riptide was not Lordaeron, it did not have such a solid foundation, and a large number of troops could resist. The Scourge branch was enough to exhaust them.

Fort Riptide soldiers held on to the city and the towns, but refugees still flooded south into the relative safety of Stormwind.

Two years later, it was what it is now. This great ancient capital of mankind survived the division of the Seven Kingdoms and the invasion of the Orcs, but it did not survive the War of Natural Disasters......