The tempests mixed with the snowstorm did not die down until a day and a night later.
When the last tempests left like dragons that had had enough food and drinks, the whole world had been completely changed.
Before the snowstorm, although this place had been a desolate, barren land, there had still been some gray rocks on the ground. Occasionally, some sparse brown grasslands could be seen. A few rivers that were almost dry zigzagged past, too.
But right now, the world was enshrouded in silver. As far as one's eyes could see, the snowfield extended to the horizon from below one's feet and seemed to be rising vertically, freezing the sky. The continuous mountains had turned into translucent peaks of ice, too, congregating into a world of whiteness.
It was supposed to be noon when the sun was scorching, but the sun was struggling on the horizon. The only feeble light it emitted was merely a layer of dim orange on the horizon. In most places, the sky was like the eyeball of a frozen dead fish. It was hazy and chaotic.
This was the real appearance of the Land of Eternal Night in the Far North.
On the countless maps of the past dynasties, the dreadful land that was frozen and barren all year round was known as the Land of Eternal Night. It was a forbidden area for most lives.
Although the snowstorm had passed, the plummeting temperature did not rise again. Li Yao had secretly measured the temperature with the thermometer of the Xing Yao Federation, only to discover that the average temperature was minus fifty degrees even at noon.
Also, this place was only the periphery or even the edge of the Land of Eternal Night. They were far from the Divine Palace. It was not hard to predict that the further north they went, the lower the temperature would be.
Such an extremely low temperature could not be described as' dripping water into ice 'at all. Every breath that people exhaled seemed to be spurting out a cluster of icy mist, which then covered their face, body, hair, and beard and condensed into a shell of ice.
The Ancient Sages Sector did not have the advanced mustard-seed combat suits that could keep people warm like the Federation and the Imperium. Everybody could only wear thick, clumsy cotton robes, even though the cotton robes were specially designed to resist the cold and had been mixed with crystals of the fire class and runes.
An ordinary cotton gown in this environment would freeze into ice in less than a day and night.
Although they had covered themselves like dumplings, the frigid wind of the Land of Eternal Night that was as thin as needles still leaked in through every opening and stimulated the explorers' flesh, veins, and bones all the time. Most of the Cultivators had to turn on their spiritual shields or magical equipment to resist the cold all the time. As a result, the consumption of spiritual energy and crystals was significantly higher than before.
Other than that, there was another problem, which was that most of the magical equipment did not work well under the extremely low temperature. The wear rate and the consumption of crystals were increased, but the efficiency was greatly reduced.
In the environment of minus fifty to sixty degrees, the delicate stripes on the magical equipment were all covered in a layer of frost. The hardness of the magical equipment such as flying swords and sabers was significantly reduced, too. Some of the Cosmos Rings were not functioning properly, and it was impossible to retrieve and store items.
Magical equipment such as flying swords and sabers could be stuffed into the Cosmos Ring.
However, the floating rune arrays, the power rune arrays, the defense rune arrays, and the warmth rune arrays on the flying boats had to be exposed to the cold air.
Not only was the consumption of crystals almost twice as high, the speed of the flying boats had dropped by about two thirds, too. The exploration fleet that had been moving as fast as lightning had turned into an army of turtles that were connected head to tail and struggled in the icy hell.
Thankfully, they had foreseen the problems that would happen today before the exploration began.
Other than the elite soldiers, the thirty starships carried crystals and other assets. Every Cultivator was given at least two Cosmos Rings, which were all stuffed to the brim.
Naturally, the Cosmos Ring technology of the Ancient Sages Sector was not more advanced than that of the Tian Yuan Realm.
Most of the storage magical equipment such as Cosmos Rings and Cosmos Bags that the middle-level and low-level Cultivators used had a storage space equal to that of a backpack. It meant that, other than the storage space inside the cabin, everybody could carry two backpacks of life-saving items. That was all.
Right now, they still had twenty-six flying boats. Other than the Wind Riders who were maneuvering the flying boats, there were also 977 experts from the Imperial Guards such as the 'Fiery Phoenix Legion' and 1,026 Cultivators from the 'six major sects'.
"Master Spiritual Vulture, this way please."
On the deck of one of the warships in the lead, a few Imperial Guards and Cultivators invited Li Yao to a piece of bizarre-looking magical equipment respectfully.
It looked like dozens of copper rings large and small had been embedded and were revolving in a dazzling way.
On the rails of every copper ring, countless glittering silver pearls were rolling and colliding with each other, uttering clanging noises.
It was named 'Heaven Magnetic Measurement Instrument'. It was a piece of magical equipment that the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector used to determine their location when they were on a long journey.
In the Ancient Sages Sector, measuring the precise coordinates of one's location had always been a headache.
The orbit of the Ancient Sages Sector did not have a network made of hundreds of satellites. If one was in an ocean or a barren land where it was impossible to tell the directions, how could one know exactly where they were exactly?
In the outside world, other worlds of ancient Cultivators had invented all kinds of astronomical magical equipment to observe the stars in the early years, such as the 'Star Observation Plate' and the 'Nine Heavens Apparatus'. Through the changes of the relative positions of the stars, one could determine the latitude and longitude of one's location through a series of complicated transformations.
The tragedy of the Ancient Sages Sector was that the 'stars' here were not the stars in the sea of stars that had a relatively fixed orbit but the glittering remnants of the primeval wars that were brimming with radiation near the Ancient Sages Sector.
The remnants of the wars were torn apart by the gravity of the stars, planets, and satellites. Occasionally, they would even crash into each other. Their locations and trajectories were a complete mess and did not have the slightest reference value.
Therefore, it was not until recently that the Ancient Sages Sector invented the magical equipment that could determine one's specific location by measuring the intensity of the magnetic field. It was also not until then that the concept of 'latitude and longitude' was invented.
However, the intensity of the magnetic field was a rather vague concept that could be affected by a lot of factors. Therefore, the accuracy of the localization method was not very high, but it was better than nothing.
Li Yao had long drawn a few rough maps of the Divine Palace based on his memory, but they were only 'rough'.
The few Cultivators from the 'Royal Observatory' who specialized in 'astronomy and geography', on the other hand, turned the handles on the two sides of the 'Heaven Magnetic Measurement Instrument', making the nested copper rings tilt at different angles. The silver balls on them bumped into each other nonstop, too. There was no telling what they were calculating together. In the end, they arrived at the location that they were at right now.
By connecting the coordinates of the place to the coordinates of the Divine Palace, it would be their sailing route.
The same work had to be repeated three times a day to adjust the sailing route.
Sometimes, the magnetic field would be disrupted, and the positioning would be wrong, resulting in them having to turn back.
But generally speaking, after a series of arduous treks, they were still closer and closer to the Divine Palace day by day.
The world had always been a vast land of ice. Other than the white land and the gray sky, there was no third color at all. The suffocating environment was almost driving them crazy.
Thankfully, they were all determined Cultivators who had trained in seclusion for a year and a half in the past. That was how they managed to survive.
On the fourth day after they entered the Land of Eternal Night, they discovered something that did not belong to the place for the first time.
It was the debris of a flying boat that had been shattered by the tempests. It was scattered on the ice field and was about to be completely covered by the snow. Only a few bare masts were still exposed on the ice field.
There might be crystals and assets that had not been used up in the crashed flying boat. Naturally, they would not let go of them.
It took them half a day to excavate the debris of the flying boat. But the result was somewhat unexpected.
It was not a single airboat, but a small fleet composed of three airboats. Furthermore, it was not long ago that they were wrecked. Instead, they were wrecked in the last two days.
Although none of the three flying boats had banners, Qi Zhongdao and the rest of them recognized a lot of frozen Cultivators.
"They're from the Long Hai Sect, the Qieshan Sect, the Heaven-Shocking Sect, and a few other sects."
Qi Zhongdao's face was rather awful.
One of the conditions for the six major sects to participate in the operation was that they had to deal with the riot of the smaller sects so that they would not disturb the big picture.
Li Yao did not know how the six major sects had reached an agreement with the smaller sects, but judging from the situation right now, the Core Formation Stage Cultivators and the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators of the smaller sects probably did not intend to keep their promise at all. They might have even formed fleets that were faster than the six major sects and ventured deep into the Land of Eternal Night, hoping to discover the Divine Palace ahead of them.
"They are really asking to be killed," Qi Zhongdao said coldly.
"Even the six major sects and the court together, as well as the best flying boats and the most excellent wind riders in the entire Ancient Sages Sector, have to tread carefully and carefully in every step."
"Those guys barged into the Land of Eternal Night and found the Divine Palace in advance with only a few ragged boats and so few people. They did not even have enough crystals and assets. There was no telling whether or not the Heaven Magnetic Measurement Instrument was prepared.
"Natural disasters can be pardoned, but self-inflicted disasters cannot be pardoned."
Not far away from the debris of the crashed flying boat, they discovered the body of a Yuanying expert.
The guy from the Long Hai Sect, who used to be a famous big shot in the world of Cultivators, had died the most miserable death. His blood seemed to have been sucked dry, and he was as dead as a skeleton.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
