The entire Cecil Empire has been shrouded in winter, and the cold winds have swept from the mountains of the north all the way through the central plains and the southern wilderness, from Wintercastle to Cecil, from the Ten Forest City to the Fortress of the Long Wind, the breath of winter is everywhere, and half of the empire has already ushered in at least one snowfall.

But in the eastern part of the Whitsunday Plains, where the Thorin Giant Tree stands, spring and life are still flourishing.

The massive Thorin Trees stand tall and tall on the ground, and the canopy that covers the entire town has spread across the central axis of Sorin Castle and the canyons further west.

After a recent period of growth, this amazing plant has reached its maximum size at this moment, her roots and canopy are no longer spreading wildly, but her branches and leaves are still maturing, and her roots are still digging deeper into the earth.

Within the area of the Giant Tree, the once ruined Fort of Tholin has been repaired and rebuilt, and parts of the castle and town have been restored, and now serves as a stronghold for the local garrison and research teams. Some of the roots of the giant tree grew out of the cracks in the collapsed walls of Solinburg, helping to hold the crumbling stone walls in place, and several research facilities were built on the old walls and the meandering roots—

In this wonderful place, the researchers of the Cecil Empire seem to have reached a wonderful symbiotic relationship with a giant plant, and the giant tree of Thorin not only provides valuable research samples for the Druid Institute here, but also cooperates with local production and construction.

On the trunk level, in the southeast sector, a large transport truck was parked in the open space next to the trunk, and a group of magic technicians and workers were busy beside the car, opening the baffles on both sides of the carriage, untying the ropes and hooks used to hold the cargo pallet in place, and a commander stood on an aerial root that protruded from the ground, directing the work.

Around the unloading area, there is a large open space that has been preliminarily leveled, compacted and organized.

A number of makeshift houses are scattered all over the near and far, and the magic crystal street lamps are neatly arranged along the improvised road, dispelling the darkness in the canopy-covered area, indicating that the presence of street signs, stacks of building materials, etc., indicates that there is a lot of follow-up construction plans here, and everything is going on in an orderly manner.

In vertical space, Knight Margarita divided the area covered by the Thorin Giant Tree into the root layer (where the underground palace is located), the trunk layer, the canopy layer, and the top layer, and on the plane, she divided the circular land under the canopy of the giant tree into four sectors.

At present, the staff and troops stationed here are mostly active in the sector of the surface, and the exploration work is maintained at the root level, and a small number of Druid Research Institute teams are focusing on the trunk layer and canopy layer - they have set up two small observation and sampling stations on the trunk of the giant tree, and a "druid hut" in the canopy, but in general, the research work in these areas is still in the initial stage, and the local research team has not yet explored the top of the Thorin giant tree.

If you want to send something to the treetops, you still need the cooperation of the "Solin Giant Tree" himself.

Workers opened the side panels of the vehicle and untied the ropes that held the tarpaulin in place, revealing a large magic guide device inside.

An alloy base several meters wide, with intricate locking, supporting, and suspension devices, and a diamond-shaped metal frame several meters high, is inlaid with a large number of shimmering Holm crystals.

It's a giant magical obelisk - its crystal structure is overscaled, so it's made up of a large number of small crystals.

"Be careful, everybody! This thing is very expensive! Standing on the roots of the bulging ground, the Commander shouted, "Be safe when you release the hook - don't have any unlucky fingers clipped!" Alchemical potions were not poured from the Gorgon River! ”

The workers responded to the commander's orders, and the magician climbed into the car after the side panels were lowered, checking the condition of the important rune substrates and checking that the crystals were intact.

The Commander turned his head and shouted in the direction of the Thorin Tree, "Lady Bertila—are you there?" ”

As soon as the commander finished speaking, a rustling sound came from all around, followed by vines and brown roots entwined with flowers emerging from the nearby ground, and these flower vines and roots twisted and merged into the form of Bertila: "I've always been. ”

"Ma'am, good day," the commander smiled and greeted the incredible "dryad" in front of him, although he had heard that the other party was once a patriarch of the Society of the End of All Things, and even the entire giant tree of Thorin was the result of the combined mutation of the power of all the remaining cultists of the Society of the End of Everything, but he had been working here for a while, and he had a lot of dealings with this "Dryad", and he was already able to communicate with the other party calmly at this moment, "The weather is good today. ”

Something, things have passed, the land is alive, that's all that matters - thought the young commander.

"Yes, the weather is nice," Bertila said slowly, looking up slightly, and there was a faint rustle in the canopy of the giant Thorin tree—the sun wasn't shining on her face, but it was shining on her canopy, which made her squint, "The sun is perfect today...... Photosynthesis. ”

"The Obelisk of Magical Energy that I told you earlier," the commander said, pointing to the cart not far away, "has been shipped from the Pompeii factory to the south." ”

"Oh, it's bigger than usual......" Berthira didn't turn her head, but had already "seen" the contents of the car, "do you need me to send it up?" ”

"Yes," said the commander, "just send it up and put it together according to the drawings that were given to you earlier." The device has been debugged and can be activated remotely. ”

Berthira nodded, and a rattling sound came from the canopy of Thorin's giant tree.

The magicians and workers near the cart had long since retreated, and they stood in a circle in the distance, watching as several extraordinarily thick vines stretched out from the base of the canopy hundreds of meters high, burrowing out layers of branches and leaves, and hanging all the way to the huge set of magical obelisks, carefully rolling up the parts and lifting them upwards.

The large, purpose-made magical obelisk seemed to have no weight in the vine "hands", and was easily pulled towards the canopy, and the dense layers of leaves retreated to both sides, revealing a "path" to the top of the tree.

Beside the commander, Bertila slowly raised her hand and made a gesture of putting something above her head, stunned for a moment before putting her hand down.

She looked around and saw that no one had noticed her actions.

The Commander had been looking up at the sight of the vines sending the magical obelisk up the canopy until the huge magical devices disappeared into the dense foliage, and he looked at Bertila beside him with a smile on his face: "It is the largest magical obelisk in the eastern region of the Holy Spirit Plain, with the latest signal amplification relay array - and now it is also equipped with the highest 'support tower' in the plains, and it will definitely be the most effective." From now on, this is the hub of the magic network in the East Holy Spirit Plain - half of the plain's magic network nodes will be connected, and we are one step closer to connecting the national magic network into one. Thank you very much for your help. ”

Bertila looked at the young commander with a smile on her face, although she was an expert in biochemical technology, she only knew a little about magic technology, and she couldn't help but be a little curious at the moment: "This is a very useful thing, isn't it?" ”

"Of course," the young commander said immediately, "the magic net not only provides energy for the magic guide device, it can also be used to transmit signals and maintain regional shields, and now large and small magic nets are being established all over the empire, but the magic nets in various regions are not fully connected to each other, and the connection in many places can only rely on a series of single-line relay stations, which is not a real 'net' - Your Majesty wants to connect all the magic nets of the entire empire, just like the main network in the south - the nodes of the Holy Spirit Plains, It is a key link in connecting the magic web throughout the empire......"

Bertila listened quietly to the young commander's description, and in the young man's face she saw a visceral pride and joy.

Not far away, the magicians were waiting beside the magic net terminal and the small magic energy crystal, monitoring the magic energy obelisk that was being sent to the canopy, and in those magic channelers, she saw total dedication and enthusiasm.

And in those places that she couldn't see—she could imagine, there were also countless proud, joyful, dedicated, enthusiastic people.

They are changing the world – though many of them may not realize it – and this feat of changing the world is accumulated little by little by countless ordinary people.

There is no need for miracles and forbidden arts, no need for transcendent power, no need for some man-made god to reign over the world.

It was another path that she and her former compatriots had never imagined.

Carefully controlling her vines and canopy, like some fragile treasure, Bertila carried the large, intricate device to the highest point of the Thorin Tree, assembling the pieces according to the drawings she had seen, and then carefully holding them above her head.

Inside the canopy, there were thousands of magic net rune substrates that had been sent up one after another a few days ago, and they were pulled together by countless tiny vines, and the connection with the magic energy obelisk at this moment was the last link in the entire project.

"Put it on." She said.

The magic guide technicians not far away received the signal of the activation of the base of the magic energy obelisk, and they quickly sent out remote commands, and above the magic net terminal used for monitoring, the dim lines presented in the holographic projection were lit up one by one, and one node after another was quickly activated.

Beltila watched curiously, she saw words emerge from those projections, she saw the greetings from afar transmitted to her eyes as if miraculously by the hands of mortals—

"Greetings to you from Thorin Hub - Boulder City Rebuild Camp."

"Greetings to you from the Thorin Nexus signal - Red Maple Rebuilt Camp."

“…… Pompeii greetings you......"

"This is Cecil Hub, congratulations, and greetings to Rebecca Cecil."

The crowd cheered.

Even the young commander, who had a knight's badge from an officer's rank, cheered.

Bertila blinked, and on this brilliant sunny day suitable for photosynthesis, she felt that her heart, which had been fused with the plants, was beating again.

"Congratulations." She tried to smile like a human, and said to the young commander beside her.

The young commander thanked them once more, and then ran to the workers and technicians and soldiers in the distance to celebrate with everyone.

Bertila stood still for a moment before looking to the south.

There are guests coming.

……

A wizard car flying the flag of the Joint Reconstruction Corps came to the Thorin area, and it seemed to bring a big man with it - Bertila could see everything that was happening around the Thorin Tree, she saw a lot of people running out of the stronghold of Thorin to meet the car, she saw an old man coming out of the car, and she saw that the old man was accompanied by several retinues and guards - maybe just a simple subordinate.

Finally, she saw the old man come near her tree trunk.

Norris looked up at the canopy that covered the sky, at the countless branches illuminated by the magic crystal light, at the support pillars that hung from the canopy, and at the flower vines coiled around the trunk and support columns, and couldn't help but whisper, "This is the Thorin Giant Tree......

"It's a miracle...... a young agricultural technology officer, also looking up, exclaiming, "I've never seen a plant grow this big......

"And she's kept the whole area alive, even keeping it at a relatively comfortable temperature," Norris said, "remember the road?" Until the crossing, there was still snow on the ground. ”

"I'm just transferring some of the heat from the depths of the earth to the surface," a slightly hoarse female voice said, as Bertila's figure emerged from a clump of vines and roots, and she moved to the ground near the trunk with her wriggling roots to Norris, "Hello, I'm the plant in front of you—you can call me Bertiera." ”

"Hello, Ms. Bertila," Norris looked at the woman in front of him, putting away a moment of surprise, "I'm Norris. ”

"I think I've heard the name......" Bertila frowned, a look of remembrance.

"He was the Minister of Agriculture of the Reich." Someone next to him reminded.

"Ah, yes, that's right, I remember," Beltila said, abruptly, "and I've heard the name...... In newspapers and on the radio. ”