In the year 1529 of the Lamanite calendar, at the end of the year 1330 of the creation calendar, the east coast ushered in a rare long winter.

As the occultists and astronomers of the imperial capital of Rahman ran around, believing that this was a sign of the re-arrival of the Xiaoice Age, they wrenched their brains about how to deal with the possible famine within the empire. What only a few people have noticed is that the biggest drop in temperature is not in the snowy northern mountains and the Palohian plateau, but in the lowlands in the south.

At exactly a full month before the Lamanite New Year.

For the first time in more than 300 years since the last one, the fog has completely dissipated.

For the first time, the forest of mist, which condenses in the air and spreads from tree to tree all year round, and even when it rains, only a few areas become visible.

The turquoise vegetation of the largely unharvested forest stretches as far as the eye can see, and the sight is not nothing short of magnificent. But at the moment, no one or any animal in its vicinity has the heart to appreciate it. All the animals were gone, the squirrels hid in the hollows of the trees, the wild boars diligently dug into the ground, and the animals, both cold-blooded and warm-blooded, instinctively huddled together just to get even the slightest hint of warmth.

In just a few days, the temperature dropped to freezing.

All the water vapor formed frost and fell on the ground, covering the grass and the branches of the trees.

It was an extreme environment that the Empire, accustomed to the warm tropical climate, could not have imagined that a few days ago it would be too hot to wear a full suit of plate armor, but now they only wanted to wrap themselves in thick clothes and sit by the fire without moving.

The small town of Scotti, which used to take only a few days to reach, took them nearly eighty percent of the time, but now they have walked less than half the distance.

Given the array of looming dangers, this sounds and looks like self-defeating, but it's almost the norm for plans to fail to keep up with change, and in this unfortunate team, change often goes in a deteriorating direction.

The reason for the big ups and downs, and the people who had just regained their energy because of the encounter with the unicorn, were ironically overprepared.

Even though they weren't the ones who were prepared.

As a thousand-year-old empire with strong financial resources, the war horses used by the knights and nobles of Padrosi were adapted to local conditions. In order to exert the maximum combat power, the knights of the north and south are very different from the vest to the various equipment and the war horse itself.

Only by being able to adapt to the local climate and geographical environment can the war horse exert sufficient combat ability. For this reason, the knightly horses in the southern part of the empire were all crossbred from the best stallions of Absera. With the ancestry of steppe horses, they have strong endurance and are able to run in the hot southern summer without easily collapsing and dying.

But at the expense of this, it is the ability to resist the cold.

The cold resistance is poor, but it is not really bad enough to cool down a little. But this cold wave is not just "slightly", and they have been suffering before that.

The horses were exhausted, and despite the loss of their vests, they objectively did not get much rest. The mortal threat was closely pursued, and no matter how distressed they were, the knights could only grit their teeth and force their horses to continue on their way.

The consequences of all this are instantly apparent when the temperature plummets.

First the reluctance to eat made half of the horses very haggard, and then the cold diarrhea put down three horses, and then due to a series of factors such as blood vessel constriction caused by the repeated sudden drop in temperature, two more horses suddenly suffered a heart attack and fell to the ground and died suddenly.

The loss of a considerable proportion of the carriage at once slowed down the speed of the procession, and when he realized that this cold wave might not end soon, and that it would only cause more attrition if he forcibly forced the remaining horses that had increased the burden to move on, Konstantin decisively gave the order to slow down the march.

And that's not even the worst.

There was an abundance of magic in the pervasive cold air, and even if we didn't mention our Luo'an girl who had a faint magic power after lighting the mana pool, everyone else could feel the discomfort that didn't just stay on the physical level.

As we have described before, when a person with strong magical power is clearly emitted with a targeted consciousness, those in its area of influence will feel as if the air pressure has changed, and a series of signs such as hypoxia and chest tightness will appear.

After Orno and Henry's explanation, they also have the ability to judge things related to magic. If something goes wrong, it's a demon.,Even if the cold wave of winter comes.,Quickly cool down to this level within a few days.,It's obvious that it's only a good thing for a witch to do it.。

She's nearby.

This is a close second.

Before they actually fought the witch, the group felt that if they rushed to Scootie's side, there would definitely be something to do. But now it seems that the simple garrison of more than 200 people, the lack of magicians and the clergy of the White Church, who are more familiar with magic-related things and can resist, will only increase casualties.

The drawbacks of the extreme lack of means of communication are now apparent. Constantine and his party were not garrisons in the town of Scotti, so it was impossible to carry ravens or carrier pigeons that had been trained to follow them all year round and knew how to return to the town, and there were only a few days left to go, and there was no means at all to warn the garrison on the other side of Scotti about the witch.

What to do?

Send out cavalry to inform?

The men and horses were extremely tired, and it was extremely risky to divide the troops and send a few people to the town to speed up when the temperature dropped suddenly and the supplies were insufficient. Even if someone in the team is willing, the chances of success will be extremely slim.

The silence of the "......" had lasted for two days, and there had been little communication between the group except for the necessary words that were as brief as possible.

The instincts of warm-blooded creatures are similar, and when the ambient temperature drops to a certain level, people will become reluctant to move.

The amount of calories needed to maintain physical activity is so much higher than when the environment is warm that the body will tell you to burn less, and you will become tired and sleepy, so you will want to curl up next to the fire and fall asleep.

Once you succumb to this instinct and fall asleep and don't move forward to look for firewood and food, a vicious cycle begins.

Many people who die in snowy environments can't sleep like this.

But while most people know that this is not a good situation, overcoming it will never be as simple as words say.

The ill-prepared team lacked the necessary warmth gear, and the light capes that dropped to freezing were not enough to keep them warm. Fortunately, the lighter items that the merchants did not give up happened to be all kinds of fabrics, which were wrapped in the inside of the clothes and stuffed into the gaps in the armor, barely so that everyone did not freeze and could not even move.

Fingers are numb and slow.

Heavy sleepiness swept over - and then suddenly swept away after the sixth day of the cold spell.

"It's the Earth Dragon. Henry, who seemed to be completely unaffected by the temperature, examined the marks on the ground and said words that did not surprise anyone.

With the arrival of the cold wave, biological activities require more heat, and at the moment when the creatures in the Bao Forest are already hidden, the only way to get enough food is the human town that has raised all kinds of livestock in captivity.

Everyone who had been in contact with the earth dragon that day looked at each other, and they all felt a chill down their spines.

The people of Scotty Town probably didn't know anything about this, and they were busy because of the sudden cold wave, and in this case, not only the witch but also the earth dragon was already approaching in this direction.

There's no room for them to linger here anymore.

"Divide the troops. Konstantin was concise and lightened the burden, and the whole team was still not lightly armed, and the loss of horses and the presence of wounded slowed down their progress to a considerable extent. In order to warn the small town of Scotty and get ready, it was necessary to have a small number of reliable people carry foster care and a light squad to speed up, and this candidate, after thinking about it, was obviously only Henry and his party.

There is a huge gap between the provisions of a few dozen people and a few people, and it is impossible to move forward quickly while searching for food, firewood, and caring for the wounded. If they had slowed down a bit and concentrated their supplies among a few, the divided team would have been able to concentrate on hurrying instead of wasting time on getting supplies such as food and firewood.

The decision was made, and under the command of Constantine, the various beasts that froze to death on the side of the road due to the sudden drop in temperature were calculated and distributed to Henry and several others.

The sudden arrival of the cold wave was a great gift in this regard, and they didn't need to go hunting, just pay attention to the traces on the ground to find the frozen beast. And the near-freezing temperature also allows them to be better preserved and do not rot easily.

"Hah-" The breath exhaled by both men and horses turned into a snow-white mist, and although the road was not icy, in order to protect the soles of the horses' feet from frostbite, they made rudimentary fur horse shoes out of the fur of their prey.

The patchwork of warm gear looked ridiculous, the heavy Imperial knights who had first met were gone, and now they were wrapped tightly in furs, fabrics and cloaks of various colors, and they looked no better than the low-ranking mercenaries who didn't have a good reputation.

But survival is more important than appearance.

Food and firewood had been piled up on Henry's flatbed wagon, the back half of which had been temporarily reinforced on the ramp down the road from the ancient city of Katigali, which they had dismantled for the sake of speed, and as no longer needed as much cargo space.

The team is back to its original size of five. Filippo and Ferruccio, whose horses had been slain by the dragons, took over the two horses in the best health from the knights, while Henry and Mira rode together, which was not of slightly lower quality and was not specially cultivated according to the environment, but was much more adaptable to the environment.

"Shhh

"I, stay," said Horno, who had been in the carriage driven by Margaret, and Barrow followed her as silently and sluggishly as ever, and when he was not moving, almost no one in the group noticed the presence of the brown-skinned man.

"Well, it's good that we need a magician on our side. Constantine nodded, and Henry looked deeply at Orno, and then at the knight.

"Be careful. As he said this, Konstantin frowned, and what seemed to be an ordinary exhortation sounded in the ears of the chief knight, but it felt that there was something in the words.

"Well, I will. He nodded earnestly, and although the Sage was a complex being for him in terms of position, the Knight Captain was not so foolish as to ignore this man's warnings because of some minor tangle in his heart.

"So, here we go. Without too much nonsense, Henry and the others said goodbye to their companions who had traveled together for quite some time.

Compared to their friendship in adversity, this farewell seems a little too simple.

But no one cares about this issue.

The tremendous pressure caused by the threat from all sides made everyone's hearts feel like a huge stone was pressing, and the foreboding made everyone not have the heart to think too much.

Although the wet soil is frozen due to temperature changes, footprints persist longer than normal. But the frosty thin layer of water vapor that overflowed from the bottom of the pit could somewhat deduce that the Earth Dragon had passed by at the beginning of the cold spell - in other words, it had been a few days ago.

If its destination is undoubtedly the small town of Scotti, I am afraid that there is no luck over there now.

The horses' hooves sped across the hard dirt, and the closer they got to the stone floor of Scottytown, the more intact it became, and with this change in the pavement, the sound changed from a dull thud to a loud clatter.

The five people who sped up quickly threw the large group behind them far away, and when they had pulled a long distance, followed the footsteps of the earth dragon to confirm that it was indeed walking in the direction of the town, and stopped to light a fire to eat and warm up to regain strength.

In the sky, the first snowflakes slowly fell.

Located in the southern region of the tropical Padrosi Empire, this strange scene is rare for thousands of years.

Mi stretched out his hand.

Because the temperature was not yet extremely cold, when it fell, the half-melted snowflakes fell on her palms, and the palms that were a little stiff and numb by the cold wind could only feel a trace of coolness.

"Uh-" A tingling pain flashed through Luo'an Girl's mind, after lighting the mana pool, she was more sensitive to the magic around her than normal people, and the moment she came into contact with this snowflake, she clearly felt the emotions contained in the magic associated with this widespread cold wave.

Emotions from the witch herself.

Contrary to what was expected, it was not hatred.

"She's—" Mira muttered to herself, a little sluggishly.

"Are you crying......"

The mixed-race female anchor forgot to turn off the camera after the live broadcast, and the private life video was exposed!Please pay attention to the WeChat public account to watch online: meinvmei222 (long press for three seconds to copy)!!