Pillars of Ita

Fang Plover grabbed the protruding rock with his hands, shook it vigorously, tested the firmness there, and then turned over with hands and feet and climbed up.

On the steep slope is the source of an underground stream. The cold stream flows out from the darkness, gurgling, and the edge of the stream is covered with fluorescent moss, which is plump and green, and has a burnt yellow color. Press it with your hand, and it will crawl out from under the lichen. Some bugs that live in the dark come.

Ordinary people may feel that their scalp is numb, but Fang Plover has learned this, so it is not surprising.Those bugs were his usual species, the larvae of a kind of cave beetle that lived in the absence of light.

This kind of insect lives very deep underground in Etalia, and it may even be close to the "cave rock formation". Deep underground exists a world of hollows criss-crossing.

There grows a Gay crystal source that can support the entire floating continent, which is called the "Great Crystal Vein", and some Guy crystal sources may even be thousands of miles long.In the year 1064 of the Athelin calendar, people have actually discovered the surface layer of this rock world, in the pillars of the stars in Lotao.

Subsequently, successive underground worlds were discovered by people, and this hypothesis became a real theory of existence.It's just that the 'cavern rock formations' of different floating continents are all connected to the earth elemental layer. There are elemental creatures who don't like outsiders living here, and there are some other difficulties. As a result, no one has been able to thoroughly investigate these underground worlds.

Fang Plover is not the first person to go deep into the depths of this rock formation world. As early as seven years ago in Colin-Ishurian, an expedition team of the Dwarf Association funded by the Cast Iron Hall went deep into the ground. The mountain dwarves They are most familiar with the underground world, where they feel like coming home.

That expedition ran through the entire underground rock world of Eldron, and for the first time people discovered a branch of the legendary 'Great Crystal Vein' underground.

Since the opening of the star gate, this magical world has gradually revealed itself to people. Explorers from different worlds have opened the doors one by one to see the reality of this world.Now, their footsteps are no longer limited to this old world.

A voice came from behind him, and he looked back. Miss May was climbing up from there with a shield on her back, and a long halberd hanging behind her, but the female knight lady did not appear to be clumsy at all.Fang Plover stretched out his hand, took the opponent's hand, and pulled Mei up from below.

"Mr. Ed, your hand?" May asked with some concern, looking at the red blood stains on Fang Plover's magic gloves.

Fang Plover flicked his gloves and didn't care too much, "Don't worry, it's just a kind of fluorescent substance on the lichen, it's a mineral, and the dragon's blood moss likes to absorb this mineral from rocks, so it got its name."

What he has a bit of a headache about is how to clean it. This thing is a natural mineral dye, and it is quite difficult to clean.If I had known earlier, I would not have touched those mosses, or put on the pride of the lonely king, metal is not afraid of staining.

Now everyone on the boat takes turns doing laundry, and only his and Sylvie's clothes are done by the maid. Miss Siesta will probably give him a blank stare.

"This is probably the hollow layer where the 'Great Crystal Vein' is located." Fang Yan looked up at this place, and after coming up from the long and narrow tunnel opened by the elemental monarch, he arrived at this underground world.

The underground world is a dark and empty tunnel, but some scenery is magnificent and magnificent. They saw many magnificent and wonderful scenery along the way.

Fang Yan retracted his gaze, "The surface layer of the great crystal vein is generally 1000 meters underground. I don't know how deep we have gone, but the elemental monarch named Alphonse told us to leave. This road can probably be passed all the way. To the surface, I just don’t know how long it will take.”

He couldn't help feeling a little thankful that he had the foresight to prepare extra rations before he came down, otherwise he and Miss May might starve to death here before going out.

The elemental monarchs probably do not understand the biological needs of mortals, and therefore cannot provide them with food.

May looked quiet, only looked up at this strange underground world, and blinked slightly.

It’s not that there is no food source in the underground world. Although those tall mushrooms are mostly poisonous, a large part of the bugs that feed on them can be eaten.

But no matter how accustomed he was to these things, he still couldn't overcome his psychological discomfort. After all, he had no choice. Compared to him, he would rather choose to be resurrected in a certain temple.

As for May, Fang Ploy knew that she was terribly self-disciplined. She said that during the training of the ancient knights, she had eaten bugs more than once. "Grilled worms have no taste in themselves, and the taste is very woody." Miss Knight shared her experience with others solemnly. "As for eating raw, it is mostly the taste of the contents in their bodies, mostly astringent and bitter."

Except for Zi Zi who was a little interested in this, most of the members of the regiment showed embarrassment about it.

Fang Plover shook his head and threw these meaningless memories out of his mind.

Because it took a lot of physical strength to climb the cliff, the two rested by the stream for a while before continuing forward.On the way, Fang Plover tore some dry lichens and put them in his pockets, because he didn't know when he would stop to camp, and these things were just right for starting a fire.

Most of his survival skills in the wild were learned at the time of Dawn Star, and he has been on the way of adventure since then, and has never fallen behind.

The two moved forward while picking up lichens, but after a while, May suddenly let out a soft 'huh' sound.She stopped and stared at the magnificent miracle in front of her, which was in front of a cliff, which was actually the exit of a long cave.

Fang Plover also involuntarily put down the lichen in his hand, and also stared at the scene in front of him. The canyon was cut out like a knife, deep and bottomless, and the huge crystal veins spreading in it exuded bright brilliance, like a river of light, winding to the end of the field of vision.

Great vein.

Although Fang Plover had heard about this for a long time, he was still shocked at this moment. He had seen elemental monarchs as huge as mountains, but under this scene, they were almost insignificant.

In front of such a great existence, mortals are like dust to the vast sea, like sand to the stars.

His chest heaved and heaved, as if there was a roaring sound within, but the sound came from the bottom of the abyss, the sound of the earth, the resonant sound of the river of ether passing through the crystal vein of Cintaan.

Rumbling, mighty.

A huge bolt of lightning is passing through the crystal group, before spreading for several kilometers, followed by another one, the magic power turns into a flash, almost materialized.If the floating continent has a heart, then this is its blood vessel.

Xintaan is worthy of the name of the giant of the sun. It is the most complete and oldest of all the existing floating continents. It is the place where the gods watch, just like a giant god who sleeps here.

Standing in front of this canyon for a long time, Fang Plover almost felt that he was about to be assimilated by it, and his will and blood were integrated into one. He took a step forward, and then he was startled, and quickly took back his steps.

He just turned his eyes away from looking at the spectacle, not because his mind was taken by it, but because of the traction of magic resonance. Although mortals have weak perception of elements, they are still part of this world after all.

"What a pure ether," May also took a step back and sighed, she stopped looking at those huge crystals, "Mr. Ed, what is this?"

"Great crystal vein, but this is far from the source of ether." Fang Plover looked at the environment here, and suddenly thought of something, he turned around and took off his backpack, and put it on the ground.

He took out a few instruments from the opened backpack, and said: "I have read the records of the Geographical Association of the Cast Iron Hall. The crystal veins underground in Eldron are more spectacular than this one, and this should be just one of the great crystal veins. It's just a branch. The good news is that we should not be more than one kilometer from the ground..."

May quietly listened to his description without interrupting.

Fang Plover was a little eloquent when talking about this, "The rivers of light are formed on the sea of ​​ether everywhere in Etalia, and several of them pass through these crystal veins to form these huge Gay crystals, thus supporting the floating continent. The deepest of these crystal veins will extend to the depths of the earth's core, where they will merge into the elemental world."

"It is said that the mortal world has been developing Guy crystals for hundreds of years, but the great crystal veins have never been really involved. Many Guy crystal veins in the surface world are tending to be exhausted, so someone has made their calculations to this place. After all, if mortals can take advantage of the great crystal veins Crystal veins, maybe Gay crystals are inexhaustible forever."

Only then did May open her mouth and said, "But why has May never heard of it?"

"Because no one has ever succeeded," Fang Ploy replied, "going deep into the hollow world is a costly thing, let alone mining. Besides, we can stand here with the approval of Alphonse, don't forget this Down below is actually the home of the earth elementals."

What will happen if you want to forcefully go deep underground, just think about the Oshu people outside.

But May suddenly thought of the huge equipment of the Empire people at the bottom of the gray underground lake.

"Is that why the imperial people came here?"

Fang Plover nodded, "Yes, those are in the past tense. Now the imperial people may have already succeeded in half."

"Mr. Ed, half of it?" Mei asked, "Could it be that the Ossurians are extracting the power of the Gay crystal veins underground?"

"Extraction?" Fang Plover shook his head, "I'm afraid not, but I already have some guesses." He said while rummaging through the backpack, and finally found out what he wanted.

It was an instrument, it looked like a vertical magic furnace.

Fang Plover took it out of the backpack, and there was a tripod underneath. Fang Plover spread it out and fixed it on a solid rock formation, and then matched it with a crystal braze, about an arm long, connected to a metal rod .

The metal rod was composed of three iron pipes. Fang Plover tightened them one by one and combined them together. Then he stood up and raised his hands to forcefully insert the crystal drill into the solid rock formation.

There was also a copper cable on it, and he connected the other end of it to the small instrument.This set of instruments is very valuable, and Fang Yan's net worth certainly cannot afford it. This is exactly the set that Bai Jia lent him to measure the readings of the crystals.

To be precise, it belongs to the military——

He had to return it when he was done with it.

There was a rattling reading sound from the magic furnace, and he covered the magic glove on its interface. Originally, Su Changfeng asked him to use this instrument on the crystal tower, but the crystal tower is deep into the ether vein, but Aita Li Where else could you be closer to the source of ether than here?
Fang Yan closed his eyes. He had been trying to verify that since he went deep underground, but at this moment, it happened to be the most suitable time.But just as he closed his eyes, he suddenly heard a slight sound behind him, and May's muffled grunt.

Fang Yan felt vigilant, and was about to turn around, but there was a cold touch on his neck, and a sword blade was already pressed there.He looked back, only to find that Mei Yi was covering her arms and stepped aside, leaving her halberd and large shield aside.

A tall, silver-gray humanoid construct stood between her and the attacker, and the attacker was holding a cage-handled rapier around his neck.

And Fang Plover actually knew that person.

It was the dragon knight of Prometheus whom he had dealt with once in Estonia. Fang Yan remembered that the other party was called Irs or something, which sounded like a code name or ID.

He and the other party are enemies and not friends, so it is difficult to talk about friendship.Back then, in the consciousness space of the Blind God, he and Miss Tata jointly taught each other a lesson. Afterwards, the person disappeared, but he never expected to meet him here.

"Mr. Ed, be careful..."

Miss Knight frowned and looked at this person, obviously sensing the opponent's strength to some extent.

But Fang Plover seemed calm, as if he was not facing an opponent from that level, but just an acquaintance who had met once, and this was not the space of consciousness.

He only looked at the other person's expression, with a look of crying but not a smile, and he said to him in a hoarse voice: "...I didn't expect that she was with you. I had some doubts..."

"You mean," Fang Yan asked, "Margaret the Dragon Queen?"

"Besides her, who else..." Irs didn't know what he had experienced in the past six months, and he looked distraught, "Daughter of Lifgarde, Dragon of Origin, the second Dark Dragon King... Back then, Irs I shouldn't have let you go, Tania..."

May looked at Irs a little quietly. She had met Alessa, and naturally knew her identity. However, she joined the team after the Seven Seas Traveler was built, and officially boarded the ship after the Northern War.

She had heard about the incident between Estonia and the evil god, but she hadn't experienced it herself after all.

So she just listened carefully to the conversation between the two.

Fang Plover interrupted Irs directly, as if he was not a dragon knight of Prometheus in front of him: "At the beginning of the Silver Sand Sand Sea, it is hard to say who let it go. I think you must have had a hard time at that time, but It's a pity that you were not thrown into the prison of the kingdom of sand... What you did in the sea of ​​sand at that time has far deviated from the standards that the chosen one should have."

Irs laughed hoarsely, "But I am the Chosen One, and the laws of the aborigines cannot judge me."

"That's just the usual situation," May said, "but engaging in terrorist activities, joining cults, destroying star gates, subverting the country, and killing aborigines are not included in this. What you did in Estonia May has heard it, it's appalling, it's outrageous."

Irs glanced at the two of them, "Okay, but those are probably... what the empire did, I was just the executor, and I didn't participate in it, I just shot you at the end. Estonia's A lot of things... all happened more than ten years ago, you should be able to tell... more than ten years ago, I was still an insignificant and unknown person..."

He suddenly realized something, and waved his hand angrily, "Why am I explaining this to you, the initiative is in my hands now, listen carefully, you'd better act according to the order now."

"I'm afraid it won't work." Fang Yan refused directly, ignoring the sword in the opponent's hand.

"What? Are you afraid that I will kill you?"

"Let's not talk about killing me, if we were afraid that we would not enter the consciousness space of the evil god, the situation at that time would not be a thousand times more dangerous than it is now," Fang Plover looked straight into the other's eyes and replied, " And, are you really planning to kill us? But I don't feel any killing intent from your sword."

"Killing intent?"

Irs froze for a moment, could he feel the illusory killing intent? He couldn't help but give Fang Plover a strange look, wondering if this guy was a bit of a second-guess.

But Fang Plover's confidence comes from his own dark blessing, and his death prediction allows him to completely avoid the opponent's attack once a day, no matter whether the opponent is a mortal or a god.But there was no movement at all from the omen, which only showed that Irs' sword was not aimed at him.

This is just evidence.

Fang Plover looked at the dragon knight of Prometheus in front of him. Of course he was not a fool. The Seven Seas Brigade had investigated Prometheus in detail before going to the empire. After all, no one wanted to bump into a hostile dragon knight. .

But judging from the information obtained, it seems a bit weird.If those rumors are true, since Irs returned to Prometheus, the outside world has been rumored that he has become a bit weird, not only often stays behind closed doors, but also severely restrains the members of Prometheus.

Outsiders said that he was terrified by Istonia's defeat, but Fang Plover noticed something strange in it. He was a witness to the Battle of the Blind God, although he knew that the blow might not be good for Irs Small, any person will be somewhat suspicious of life after being defeated by so many opponents who are weak.

But how can someone who can become a dragon knight be so fragile.

He repeatedly recalled the situation that day, and only came up with a few possibilities, either because of the Dragon Queen Margaret, or because of Miss Tata.But from now on, the possibility of the latter can almost be ruled out.

The opponent really came for the Dragon Queen.

After recalling this point, he suddenly froze for a moment. Since arriving in Nozpitz, whether he was in the Adventurer's Guild or after going deep into the mining area, he has always had a vague feeling of being spied on. a feeling of.

Fang Plover couldn't help looking up at the other party. Now it seems that the feeling of peeping was not his own illusion, but came from the dragon knight in front of him.Also, if it was a dragon knight who deliberately wanted to follow them, how could they notice it?

But before he really understood the purpose of Prometheus, or Irs, it was impossible for him to negotiate terms with the other party.After all, the Seven Seas Brigade had fought against each other in Istonia. Judging from the past of the opponent, he didn't think it was a good thing for this guy to follow them.

Even if what the other party said is true, but he can get out of everything that happened in Estonia, what about Prometheus?

Judging from the performance of the league in the third division, he doubts that the back of the first division is clean, and Su Changfeng also holds the same opinion, not to mention that the headquarters of the Super Sports League is here.

As the saying goes, the upper beam is not right and the lower beam is crooked. The military has always believed that the scandals in the third division league actually came from the infiltration of the North American side of the league.They have a unique distrust of the old beauty, and Fang Yan naturally can't trust Prometheus, the largest free-caller guild in the first division.

Who would believe that this behemoth was innocent in the Istonia incident?
What's more, he also noticed some other clues.

Fang Yan has already loosened his hand from the instrument: "As soon as we arrived here, you followed. It seems that the headquarters of the first division alliance is very concerned about the Seven Seas Brigade. Or should you say that this place has you? Something you don't care about?"

"Something you have to care about?" Irs coughed lightly, looked up at the crystal vein, "You mean this Guy crystal? Cough cough... It seems that you have discovered something, okay, save me from explaining." .”

This answer made Fang Plover slightly startled.Reading the readings from the instrument requires some professional knowledge, but it is not complicated. The moment he put his hand on the cover, he had already noticed the abnormality here.

Mei asked earlier whether the imperials were extracting the magic power from the Gay crystal underground here.But the fact is just the opposite. The imperial people are not extracting magic power, but injecting magic power into this branch.

He had guessed this a long time ago, because those devices were not magic power extraction devices, how could the magic power extraction devices need a tower-type magic furnace for continuous energy supply?
Those energy supplies are not supplied to those tall iron nails, but to the depths of the ground, into this ether vein.

Moreover, the blueprints left by Jeldham, Helinwell, and Friston almost proved this point. The scientific name of those things is the element layer resonance device. What is resonance?In Atalia, it is essentially a magical resonance.

But why would the Imperials do this?
When he realized this, he couldn't help but think of something. During the Battle of the Northern Territory, the craftsmen discovered something from the signal sent from the crystal tower of Elpaxin.

The Shadowman also injected a piece of magic power or information into the crystal tower at the beginning, and its host is likely to be the young man he helped arrest and bring to justice not long ago.And under the crystal network is the river of ether, and the current behavior of the shadow people and the empire almost coincides with each other.

That injection almost caused the blockage and collapse of the entire crystal network. Fortunately, they stopped it in time and restored it.But even so, the third coordinate at that time has still disappeared.

When the crystal network is intact, it is almost impossible to find a beacon of the main crystal tower from the network.

But what the shadowman's plan was, he didn't quite understand it at the beginning, but now he finally grasped a clue.

"...It just so happens that you also noticed something," Irs coughed hoarsely and said, "Tell me, what did you observe."

"The readings of Gay's crystal are dropping sharply," Fang Ploy replied after hesitating for a moment.After all, if Irs was on the side of the Empire, then he wouldn't be ignorant of this.

And if not, then it's okay for him to tell the other party to stop.

Fang Plover looked at May at the side again, and seeing that the other party didn't quite understand, he simply explained, "Miss May, the readings of the Gay crystals in Xintaan are extremely abnormal. At the beginning, the readings of all the floating continents in Altarlia have been steadily decreasing."

"...However, the Geological Society has various interpretations for this. It may be caused by periodic changes or artificial mining. But whether it is Kaolin-Ishurian, the Hill of Giant Trees or Rotao, It's not as intense as Xintaan's reading at the moment..."

He paused for a while, and organized his language: "Simply put, if the changes continue on this scale, Xinta'an Continent may sink into the Abyss in less than ten years..."

Even May, who was always calm, couldn't help showing surprise when he heard these words. That was one of the oldest floating continents in the world, and countless creatures lived on it.

If it sank under the deep sea, it would not only be the destruction of an empire, but also an unimaginable disaster.

"But why..." she couldn't help asking, "Is this caused by the empire?"

"Half of the responsibility," Fang Plover thought for a while and replied, "The reduction in the readings of Guy's crystals has occurred on all continents, including Stargate, which is also investigating the source of this disaster. Some theories believe that it may be related to a potential incoming But all in all, even if a disaster happens, it will be at least a hundred years later, and we still have a lot of time to prepare..."

"But the Empire?"

"The Empire is using a device to actively resonate the elemental layer," Fang Yan replied, "The direct consequence of this is that the elemental layer will become active at a speed thousands of times faster than usual. Because the wind elemental power is consumed, it will appear in Gai Yi Jingjing's readings have dropped sharply..."

"so……"

"So the empire will fly," Irs coughed and interrupted the two of them directly, "They inject magic power into the ether veins, and use these magic powers as a medium to make the entire Gay crystal vein enter an active state. Essentially— —”

"Essentially, it is to make the great crystal vein underground in Xintaan become a giant Gay generator," Fang Plender replied, "that is the kind that people often see on airships, but in this case , one branch is not enough.”

"Of course it's not enough," Irs said. "It's not just this one. The key lies in the main core crystal. What the Imperials want is the entire crystal network, not just this one under the Nozpitz."

"How could they do it?" Fang Plover was very puzzled, "It is impossible for energy to increase or decrease out of thin air. Xintaan is in a stable state, and the imperial people make it active, but at the cost of consuming more Gai Yi Jingjing, but this kind of consumption cannot be replenished, it will only make it sink into the deep sea faster."

"Yes, it was 100 years in the past, and now it is [-] years," Irs replied, "but what's the difference? If no changes are made, Xintaan will surely usher in that day."

What change do the Imperials want?
Fang Plover did not expect that after he found out the changes in the underground, he could not understand what the imperial people were doing.He suddenly realized a suspicious point, the imperial people seemed to be using technology from 700 years ago.

That is to say, as early as the era of the Elkins dynasty, Jeldham, Hellingwell, and Friston had already noticed this, and they had already started making preparations since that era?
Or is it that the plan they talked about to change the world originally came from this?

But if so, why did the imperial people delay launching this huge plan for 700 years?
why?
While he was thinking about it, Irs suddenly withdrew the sword on his neck. The other party looked at him and said, "Since you have already noticed so much, there is no point in hiding it... Let's talk about a condition." Bar."

……

7000 words.