What is left behind reappears repeatedly, and the invisible killer lurks at his feet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, this vast expanse of white land near the coastline is not covered by a blanket of snow, but a huge number of salt crystals.

"This is a natural salt mine?" Hearing Xinglan say this, Xijie leaned to the ground and licked it with his tongue curiously, and then immediately spit out with a distorted expression, "Ahhh Salty to death! ”

"Although theoretically this is a non-toxic salt crystal, but if you taste it like this, it will naturally be ......" Xinglan chuckled, moving the perspective of the signal up to four or five meters in the air, and then looking at the white vast land, constantly magnifying the scenery by improving accuracy, and finally caught a glimpse of a trace of greenery in the distance of the horizon, "Sure enough, I know." I hadn't noticed much of this saline land on satellite maps before, so its size would certainly not be that big. ”

"Eh, sister, do you see the end?" Xijie stood up, shook off the salt particles on his body, and raised his head to look at the air, but found that he still couldn't see anything, "It's really troublesome to find the direction of speech at all." ”

"Although there are a lot of hills and lowlands ahead, the saline land itself is not very large, and you can definitely leave here in a day." After estimating the distance, Xinglan affirmed, "This large open-pit salt mine along the coast is probably left behind by the drop in sea level...... And it's spring......"

In summer, when the rain is abundant and concentrated, a large amount of soluble salt seeps into the lower layers of the ground or flows away with the water, which is the "desalination" season. In spring, when the surface water evaporates strongly, the salts in the groundwater will accumulate in large quantities on the soil surface as the capillary water rises, which is the main "salinization" season. At this moment, the northern hemisphere of Lanxing is the season when winter passes and spring arrives.

"Eh, sister, what's that?" Xijie looked around and suddenly exclaimed, "That's ...... Are there any plants here? ”

If you look along the beach where the waves are coming, you can see some sparse trees not far away...... Even though the shapes may seem strange, they are trees.

These pale looking trees grow right on the border between the beach and the salt mines, and when the tide reaches its highest, it even submerges most of the trees' roots, but they are still alive and growing.

Shiokyu quickly ran to the nearest tree, and carefully avoided the time of the rising tide, and with a slight pull of his little paws, he jumped up to the branch that looked a little pale on the surface.

"These are the salt crystals secreted by trees......" Xinglan nodded in affirmation as he watched Tiaojie gently peel off some fine white particles from the surface of the bark, "It seems that this tree has the ability to filter water from seawater and expel excess salt, so if you are not afraid of being soaked in seawater and causing dehydration, then it is not bad to grow in a place rich in this mineral...... Let's call it the Sea Salt Tree. ”

"It doesn't seem like there's much fun, so let's go." The tide knot wandered around the canopy of the entire sea salt tree, and found nothing interesting, so he jumped down from the branch with some disappointment, "So thirsty, so thirsty...... The water here is all salty, so you can't drink it at all! ”

"It's strange that some idiot licked the salt mines, so it's no wonder he's not thirsty." Xinglan smiled and watched Xijie begin to advance on the white salt and alkali ground, and the signal tightly surrounded her, "Okay, okay, I'll show you the way to leave, otherwise be careful to get lost in this white place." ”

"Yes."

……

At this time, above the vast sea, the task of the broken bone squid as a means of transportation is finally coming to an end. According to the meaning of the wind, the activity consumption of this big guy is too great, and the vision problem at night is also a big trouble, so he has already arranged for a creature that is very suitable to serve as a sea mount to respond.

Xinglan knew that it was unlikely that flying creatures would be sent to the handover on this vast sea with no land in sight, so eighty percent of the people who came to meet this time were still marine animals, and they were also marine animals that could float stably on the surface of the sea for a long time.

In fact, if it is Xinglan himself, it is nothing to go directly underwater, after all, the robot does not need to breathe and is not afraid of water pressure, as long as it does a good job of waterproofing, it will be no problem, but don't forget that there is also the fairy bird that is controlled by the wind to communicate words, this little guy does not have the ability to fly all the way to land in this vast sea.

Although she seems a little ruthless when it comes to events such as mass extinctions, Xinglan doesn't like to control creatures casually and treat them as outcasts, not to mention that she finds it interesting to communicate directly in words.

All in all, Xinglan is still full of anticipation for the creature sent by the Wind Fleet, and she has been forcibly holding back her curiosity, waiting until the final moment when the mystery is revealed to find out what kind of strange creature it will be.

When the bonecrusher finally stopped moving and stopped in the sea, one of the tentacles that had scalded and died in the lava flow near the island was completely detached, leaving only a severed limb in its place, giving good reason to believe that it was capable of growing intact again.

"Prepare to go over and change mounts, the target is confirmed." The fairy bird left such a sentence, and flapped its wings and soared into the air. Xinglan knew that it could fly directly to the opposite side, and she ...... Well, it's just a short swim.

However, when the creature that was used as a replacement mount gradually emerged from the sea with a golden background effect, Xinglan, who was full of anticipation, was instantly shattered by the full sense of immediacy......

"Ahh Xinglan felt an indescribable impulse in her heart, and pointed at the golden creature in front of her in surprise.

"Well, although the area may be a little smaller, relatively speaking, its consumption is small, its stamina is strong, and there are no troublesome natural enemies." Wind Passing seemed to be a little puzzled by Xinglan's reaction, "What's wrong?" Is there anything wrong with this creature? ”

“…… No, there's nothing wrong with that. Xinglan resigned herself to jumping directly from the head of the bone squid into the water, splashing a splash and starting to swim forward, "I just feel that all my expectations have been in vain......

The golden-crowned turtle is actually a golden-crowned turtle!

It is true that this golden giant tortoise, whose shell resembles a crown and can reach a diameter of about one meter, is not an ordinary creature, but after all, it is also a creature left over from the Fifth Age, not the Sixth Age creature that Xinglan wants to see.

Holding on to the edge of the golden hard shell, Xinglan quickly climbed to the top of the golden crowned turtle's shell, and the fairy sound bird, which had been hovering in the air for a while, landed lightly and said, "The next time I can see the land, it will be near the nuclear continent." ”

Seeing that the bone-shattering squid began to sink continuously, and finally completely disappeared into the depths of the sea, Xing Lan smiled lightly: "No problem, let's go." ”

……

Nanyuan mainland, coastal open-pit salt mine.

Like the snow-capped polar plains, the pale and monotonous saline lands can easily be disoriented, tired and irritated from the bottom of their hearts, and it has a bigger problem than snow: drought.

Unless you're willing to risk dying of utter thirst, there's no drinking water in this vast stretch of saline land. The small ponds with high salinity content are even more salty and deadly than seawater, and only those organisms with the ability to filter salt can survive in this environment.

Luckily, Xinglan's accurate guidance can avoid the embarrassing situation of getting lost, and the area with salt crystals is not very large, and the mystery is also a creature with incredible speed of movement. After running for dozens of minutes in a state that was not at full strength, Xinglan judged that she had crossed half the width of the saline ground.

The salt terrain here is no longer as flat as the perennial coastal waters, but a large number of noticeable salt dunes have begun to appear in the wind, if you have to use an analogy...... It looks like a desert full of sand dunes, and this is a desert made of salt.

Xijie, who had been running for a long time, also felt a little tired at this time, and was walking slowly on the salt floor, and seemed to be a little tired of this unchanging white area.

Suddenly, she stopped, her expression confused.

"What's wrong?" Xing Lan, who was constantly calibrating the direction of progress, couldn't help but be stunned when she saw this, looking at the tide knot that stopped in place, as if she realized something, "Did you find something?" ”

"Wait, sister......" Xiyuhu glanced around suspiciously, then closed his blue eyes, and the crystal array on his forehead began to vibrate weakly and rapidly, "It seems...... Something is wrong......"

A gentle breeze blew across the land, leaving wavy streaks on the white hillside, and Xinglan glanced around cursory, but found no obvious signs of activity.

"There's something around here." Xijie closed his eyes, in fact, even if he didn't rely on his eyes, he could achieve the same precise perception with the sensing of the crystal array and his keen hearing, "Although the brain wave response is very weak, it is indeed a living thing, and it is not far away. ”

"Can you determine the location and number of the other party?" Xinglan scanned around carefully, but still found no obvious anomalies, only a large number of salt grains were swept up by the wind, filling the air like sand above the ground, "At the visible light and infrared frequencies, I didn't find any obvious anomalous activity. ”

"I'm afraid not." To Xinglan's surprise, Xijie shook his head helplessly, "The signal response is too weak, and the other party is constantly moving, so it is impossible to track the specific situation at all." ”

"That's right...... Maybe it's underground, so I'll scan it with a signal. After hesitating for a moment, Xinglan made a decisive decision, but as soon as she infiltrated the signal near the ground, she suddenly exclaimed, "Xijie be careful!" It's on the ground in front of you to the left! ”

"Huh?" Xijie subconsciously looked down, only to see that the white salt crystal layer on the ground suddenly appeared a slight distortion, and the next moment......

A cold wind is blowing in your face!