After being promoted to the Fourth-Order Fire Pact and understanding the function of the "First Fire Sacrifice Ground", Leo returned to the Fire Bathing Area.

Before using the First Flame, he planned to take a look at the [Sacred Tree Core] area.

According to the Holy Maiden Shireen, the location of the twelve towers should be on the border between the [Sacred Tree Core] and the [Dead Silence Zone], but with the size of the towers, even from a long distance, they should be able to glimpse the scales and claws.

I don't know, what will happen inside the [Sacred Tree Core]?

Curious, Leo bathed in the firelight, chose to teleport.

The light and shadow fused and converged, and when everything had subsided, Leo was back in front of the ruins of the church.

In front of the mound with the name inscribed, a fallen leaf falls, as if to tell something.

Beside Leo, pure white particles of light emerged, condensing into the soul body of the Holy Maiden Shireen.

Melodious singing came out of the mouth of the Holy Maiden Shireen and went away with the wind.

When the singing stopped, Leo made a swordsman's salute to the tomb, and asked the Holy Maiden Shireen to return to the Holy Scroll of Revelation and go to the depths alone.

The [Sacred Tree Core] is permeated with a high degree of distortion and pollution of the environment, and in terms of pure soul body, the Holy Maiden Shireen can only resist the medium intensity at most.

Not far behind the ruins of the church is a foggy wall separating the area.

Leo didn't hesitate and stepped in.

When the gray fog disappeared in front of him, Leo raised his eyes and looked into the distance, and what greeted him was a magnificent city.

The walls are thousands of meters high, made up of well-polished boulders, and the cracks in the stones are filled with a fluid-like substance, which reflects a golden glow under the illumination of the light.

- City of Gold, City of God!

Inexplicably, these two titles came to Leo's mind.

The area of this golden city is so large that it is difficult to see the end at a glance, and the entire [Sacred Tree Core] is almost occupied within a radius of thirty kilometers.

And in the center of the Golden City, twelve black towers of several kilometers rise from the ground, surrounding the sacred tree of Flvedia in the center that reaches to the sky.

"Hoo ......"

Standing in front of such a "city of gods" that could never be built by manpower, you can deeply feel your own insignificance.

Leo let out a soft breath and headed for the gates of the Golden City.

In a short time he came to the gates.

As the façade of the "City of Gods", the height of the city gate is close to 800 meters, and such a gate is not for human beings to pass through at all, but more like a gate for the legendary giant Titan.

The gilt gold gate was not locked, but had a tiny slit.

Standing in front of the city gate, Leo could feel the space around him become more solidified, if the overall spatial stability of the sacred tree Flvidea was 100, then near this city gate, it reached a terrifying 500.

With this level of spatial stability, even if it is a demon god-level existence, don't want to avoid it by penetrating the space and enter the city gate.

Not only the spatial stability, but even gravity is extremely terrifying, with Leo now comparable to the transcendence power of the demon god level, he can fly, but the flight speed will be very slow, once an enemy attacks from the city wall, he will inevitably fall.

Instead of taking such a risk, it is better to enter through the city gate honestly.

Luckily, the gates are not locked from the inside, and you can enter them if you push them open.

Standing in front of the city gate, Leo pressed his hands on both sides of the city gate, and with the force of his arm, the gilded city gate, which was 800 meters high and had an unpredictable weight, let out a low "hum", and then slowly opened.

】

The slightly turbid air blows from the front, and this magnificent city, which has been sealed for nearly a thousand years, is finally unfolded in front of the eyes of the world again.

"Hoo ......"

Looking at the gap in the city gate in front of him, which was large enough to accommodate the normal passage of ordinary people, Leo exhaled lightly.

I don't know what material this city gate is, it's extremely heavy, if it weren't for the brightness of his soul fire above 20, he really couldn't push it.

Looking closely, he found that the gilded color on the city gate was actually a super giant magic circle engraved on the entire gate, and it was conceivable that once the city gate was locked, even if it was a demon god level, it would be extremely difficult to attack with all his might under the premise of being powerless to stop it.

Leo raised his eyes and looked inward along the gap in the city gate, and the scene in his eyes appeared, which made him slightly stunned.

- White.

The first impression of the interior of this "city of gods" was white.

The ground, the houses, the various facilities on the streets, and even the towering towers that loom in the distance are covered with a thick layer of snow, and even in the sky, snow is constantly falling.

The top of the city is shaded by the canopy of the vast sacred tree Flvedia, which means that the snow actually falls from between the branches and leaves of the sacred tree.

After taking a few steps, Leo spread out his palm and caught a "snowflake" falling from the sky.

The surging cold sensation came the moment the snowflakes touched his skin, and at the same time, Leo felt that the magic power and sword intent in his body had decreased a little at the same time, about 0.1%.

This discovery shocked Leo.

Snow covers the entire city, which means that any creature that steps into it will inevitably come into contact with it.

He tried it, even if he held up the protective shield and was touched by the snow, it would still reduce his magic power and sword intent.

In other words, even in his heyday, Leo could only stay under the snow for 1,000 seconds at most, that is, more than 16 minutes, and he would exhaust his whole body's energy.

At the same time, Leo could feel the activation of the [Divine Source Power] in his body, and at the "lv.5" level, it was working to counteract the effects of "deep inhibition" for Leo.

"Is this [the core of the sacred tree], tsk......"

Entering it in person, even if it was Leo, he couldn't help but smack his tongue.

Calamity snow, in-depth suppression, monsters with a high probability of mastering high-level [Sacred Source Power], and high-intensity distortion polluting the environment......

None of these things are simple.

Under normal circumstances, those who can become fourth-order fire contractors have the strength to enter the demon god level for the first time.

However, as soon as he entered the [Sacred Tree Core], he faced the "Quadruple Weakening", and the normal Fourth-Order Fire Enterprise Group could exert fifty percent of its strength, which was a very remarkable thing.

You can see the difficulty of the strategy in the [Sacred Tree Core] area.

"Whew...... Suck ......"

The exhaled air condensed into a white mist visible to the naked eye in the air, and then quickly crystallized into ice, although the temperature here was not as exaggerated as the Frost Hell World, the head of the Knights of the Holy Tree, but it was at least more than 100 degrees below zero, and the environment was extremely harsh.

After observing the surroundings for a while, Leo decided to take shelter from the snow at the tower more than a hundred meters ahead.

He needed to see if the snow was falling 24 hours a day, day and night, or if it was falling periodically.

The snow mixed with the gray mist made the visibility of the city even lower, and even the Eagle Eye of the Grandmaster-level Joel Archery could only see a hundred meters.

Farther away, only the faint outline of the building can be seen, and the details cannot be seen clearly.

The city was extremely dangerous, and Leo decided to be cautious, walking at the speed of a normal person, towards the tower a hundred meters away.

It was very quiet, except for Leo's own shallow footsteps.

Until he reached the iron gate at the entrance of the tower, he did not encounter any monster attacks.

There was a lock on the iron door, Leo raised his sword and fell, the lock broke in two, he pushed the door in, and the thick smell of mildew dust came from the pavement, as if it had been uninhabited for a long, long time.

Leo's perception unfolded, covering the entire floor of the tower, sparing no corner.

After a few seconds, he made his way up the stairs to the upper floor.

Three minutes later, Leo was standing at the top of the tower under a snow-covered eave, his brow furrowed.

Inside this tower, he did not find anything of value.

The owner of this tower is long gone, and some things that originally had some value have been turned into ashes under the passage of thousands of years.

The snow was getting heavier, and the dense snowflakes further reduced the visibility of Leo's vision, and now he couldn't see anything clearly from fifty meters away.

To go out and explore in this environment is simply uncomfortable for yourself.

Leo sat cross-legged under the eaves, meditating and observing the laws of the snow.

After three hours of snowfall, the blizzard began to become thin, and for the next hour, it became smaller and smaller until no more snowflakes fell, and at this moment, it was almost dusk, and it was about to enter the night.

The sacred tree of Flvedia in the night is undoubtedly very dangerous, and the monsters under the blood moon will become more violent and their strength will also increase.

Leo did not rush out, but continued to observe.

The [Sacred Tree Core] is not as close to the previous areas, this is already very close to the [Dead Silence Zone], the danger level is ridiculously high, once there is a mistake, even if it is a demon god level, I am afraid that there is a danger of falling, so it is necessary to prepare in advance.

In this way, Leo observed here for three whole days.

And he also summed up the law of calamity and snow.

From six o'clock in the morning, when the blood moon has just shimmered, the calamity snow will begin to fall, and the snowflakes at this time will be small, eroding the energy at 0.05% per second, which Leo calls "light snow", until the end of the afternoon at twelve o'clock.

At twelve o'clock, the snow begins to get heavier, and until two o'clock in the afternoon, the erosion of energy is 0.1% per second, which Leo defines as "heavy snow".

Starts at 2 p.m. and by 5 p.m., the snow becomes heavier, a "blizzard" with an erosion of 1% of energy per second.

Between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., the snow becomes extremely weak, eroding energy at 0.01% per second, which can be called "weak snow".

And from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day, there will be no snow at all, that is, at night, it is a snow-free time, however, the blood moon hangs high at night, which will cause the monster to become stronger.

From this, the following conclusions can be made:

The exploration of the inner perimeter of the sacred tree can be divided into two modes.

One is to take advantage of the daytime to explore in "light snow" and "weak snow" weather, when the erosion of energy by the calamity snow is within an acceptable range.

The other is to choose to face more violent monsters at night, and the advantage is that it will not be affected by the calamity snow.

There are pros and cons to both ways of exploring, and it is still necessary to try and know how to choose.

Leo stood up.

After three days of meditation, his proficiency in the four swordsmanship has improved again.

The skill of [Heart Meditation] has greatly helped him in his cultivation of swordsmanship, and the soul generated by the collision with the swordsmanship experience and wisdom of the leader of the Sacred Tree Knights has made him improve his swordsmanship extremely quickly during this time.

——

[Meditation of the Heart]: A powerful soul that allows you to have a more nuanced feeling of everything in the outside world. When performing meditation practice, the efficiency is increased by 2160% based on the current soul fire brightness.

——

[Acquired Skills: Royal Swordsmanship (Celestial 6449/10000), Storm Swordsmanship (Celestial 5690/10000), Thousand Flame Swordsmanship (Celestial 5668/10000), Sword of Light (Celestial 5633/10000)......]

——

The four swordsmanship skills have almost 100 points of proficiency.

If he could maintain this pace and continue to meditate, Leo would be willing.

It's a pity that the swordsmanship proficiency is more and more difficult to improve the higher it goes, and without the help of the sword intent of other world systems, without the excitement of life and death fighting, the improvement speed will become slower and slower.

Sensing this, Leo knew that there would be little improvement if he continued to meditate, and he planned to explore the [Sacred Tree Core] for the first time, and the time he chose was six o'clock in the morning, when the "light snow" had just begun.

Finely fragmented snowflakes fell from a high place and descended on the surface of the body, taking away 0.05% of the magic power and sword intent. The effect of Calamity Snow on energy will only take effect on one snowflake per second, that is, no matter how many pieces of snow are hanging on the body, only 0.05% of the magic power and sword intent will disappear.

After estimating how long he would be able to explore in the "light snow", Leo took a step in the direction of the sacred tree of Flvidea.

His speed is neither fast nor slow, maintaining a speed of twenty meters per second, such a speed, even if he encounters danger, he has plenty of time to react.

In "light snow" weather, his field of vision is wider and his visibility is improved, reaching about 150 meters.

In this way, after about 500 meters, Leo stopped.

What appeared in front of him was a high platform with a radius of more than a thousand meters.

The high platform protruded from the ground, and was surrounded by stairs that climbed up the stairs, and on each of these steps, a withered figure knelt down.

The moment he saw these figures, Leo was startled at first, and then relaxed.

Because in the bodies of these figures, he did not perceive any fluctuations in energy, life, or even soul.

They are long dead, their bodies frozen in the endless snow.

A closer look at the corpses reveals that they have different identities, ranging from knights in armor to scholars in slender robes, and more often than not, ordinary residents, but they all have one thing in common: they kneel in the direction of the high platform, with their limbs on the ground and their heads against the ground.

Just like the most devout believers in the world, even if their lives are taken away a little bit in the snow of calamity, they don't care.

Leo was in his heart, because of the height difference, he couldn't see the scene on the high platform, but the existence of these corpses indicated that the monsters he was going to face next were not ordinary.

On both sides of the stairs leading to the high platform, kneeling with frozen bodies, in this strange and inexplicable atmosphere, Leo walked up the stairs step by step, until he reached the high platform, and finally, he saw the figure standing silently in the center of the high platform.