Greenway was the last major city on the northern side of the Empire's southern border, and further north of this city was the vast and treacherous Black Forest. The vast forest that was shrouded in shadows all year round took up almost a tenth of the Empire's land, and there were poisonous swamps, beast dens as well as the nests of some ancient creatures, and while the Black Forest also produced some rare alchemy materials and ores, but due to the dangers and the terrifying legends of the forest, few were willing to venture into the depths of the forest.
For many years, the Empire had been working hard to develop this vast forest, as it was a waste to leave such a fertile land in the heart of the Empire and not develop it, but the Black Forest's extraordinary vitality and the large and small beast hordes in the forest had slowed the development to a crawl, and after so many years, the Empire had only built a few cities around the forest, and Greenway was one of them.
This city could be said to be one of the most successful examples of the 'Black Forest Development Plan', and the land it was built on was still part of the forest two hundred years ago, but generations of druids and arcane mages had separated the land from the 'life cycle' of the Black Forest, and the wild growth of the trees stopped at the forest barrier north of the city, and the Empire had thrived in Greenway, built cities, and cultivated land, turning this place into a fortress of civilization, and finally stood firm.
But the cost of building such a city was too high.
To take a piece of land from the Black Forest, the manpower, resources, and energy expended was enough to build ten cities of the same scale anywhere else on the planet, and there was no need to worry about the forest's retaliation, so this ambitious development plan was not carried out. Greenway was the most successful, and the last development city, and since Greenway had completely stabilized two hundred years ago, the Empire's attitude towards the Black Forest had changed from development and expansion to maintaining the status quo, and this system had lasted until today, and by now, there were probably not many who remembered the days of cutting through the forest and measuring the land inch by inch.
With Rheia's help, passing through the checkpoint was not difficult, and the caravan had successfully gone through all the legal procedures and stepped into the legendary city.
Greenway was obviously bigger and more prosperous than any of the previous cities, and this bridgehead-like city had gone through many generations of expansion and construction, and now stood at the edge of the forest like a giant ant's nest, and the workshops and camps that were once set up for the explorers were now residences and shops, and the people who lived in the city sold the various resources harvested from the Black Forest for a living, and the caravans from the north and south would gather here to buy the various specialties of the Black Forest at a relatively low price. And there were even three towers in the city that could accommodate mid-sized airships, and that was a military port used to transport supplies to the north. After all, they had spent so much manpower and resources to build a development city here, and there had to be something in return.
And to the north of the city, between the Black Forest and the city buildings stood a majestic wall, and that pale green wall glowed with magical radiance all year round, and the wall was embedded with runic bricks from elven craftsmen, and its purpose was to prevent the Black Forest from encroaching on the city, and while the land had been separated from the life cycle of the Black Forest, the small scale plant growth had never stopped, and without the wall, the bushes and weeds would have driven any city official mad.
The magic caravan drove on the main road, but Hao Ren did not admire the scenery outside for too long. He closed the curtains and lightly tapped the MDT that was playing dead on his shoulder, "Data analysis out?"
"Bloody hell, you only think of me when there's something," the MDT snorted, "But at least your senses are sharp, and those Knights of the Ebon Blade are definitely not right."
"Undead creatures?" Vivian's eyebrow twitched, "I feel that they don't feel like they're alive … the heat signature and blood distribution on their bodies are not right either."
"They are alive, but strangely … incomplete," the MDT said. "The samples I have encountered are limited, and my analysis may not be accurate. But from what I can see, the so-called Knights of the Ebon Blade are probably soldiers modified by magic or some other means. Their bodies are still active, but there are many things that do not belong to biological tissues operating in their bodies, and their nerve signals are normal, but their brain activity is unbelievably low. This situation is a little like zombies that rely on necromancy, but like I said, their bodies are alive. "
"Synthetic humans that rely on commands," Hao Ren mumbled as he rubbed his chin, "Let's call them that for now."
"Why are you so interested in the Knights of the Ebon Blade?" Rheia looked at Hao Ren curiously, "Isn't your job to save the world?"
It would have been better if she had not mentioned it, but the moment she mentioned it, Hao Ren's face scrunched up, "Don't even mention it, observing and recording the ecology of civilizations is the job of an inspector, okay? Saving the world is supposed to be my boss's job! If not for the special situation in the Plane of Dreams, my job would be to record things related to civilization observation … "
Rheia was shocked, "So that's your job?! I thought your main job was to collect the corpses of civilizations and calculate my inheritance … "
"… Have you finished your homework?" Hao Ren asked.
"You can't do that!"
Hao Ren let out a victorious smile as he turned to analyze the planetary analysis report that Nolan had just sent over.
His expression changed slightly.
There was a particularly eye-catching note in the report: Abnormal signal detected in L 'Haronne's core.
The precision probe had completed its scan of most of the planet's structure, and Nolan had even set up a temporary docking point near the core, and a steady stream of planetary analysis reports were being sent to the Petrachelys' mainframe before being sent to Hao Ren.
As the planet was split into two, the core was exposed for a long time, and the once molten core had now cooled into an iron-rich sphere, and while the temperature was still lethal to humans, it was considered "cold" to the planet's core.
After days of careful searching, Nolan had finally found something interesting in the cooled core.
"Boss, I've found a dense, special area deep in the core, and there's an unknown substance with density and energy intensity higher than average hiding underneath, and it's still emitting a strange energy pulse."
Hao Ren suppressed the surprise and excitement in his heart and turned to ask for details. "Only such vague information? You can't tell what it is? "
Nolan hesitated for a second. "… The scanning system has run into some trouble, there's interference."
A strange energy field was wrapped around L 'Haronne's core, and this energy field had even interfered with Nolan's advanced radar system, and the shipgirl still had no idea what was buried in the core.
But one thing was for sure: a normal planet would not have such a thing naturally.
It was man-made, and definitely not something that the current civilization on the planet could create.
In the spiritual connection, Nolan's image appeared in Hao Ren's mind. Her background was a mass of dark red, glowing matter from the planet's core. Fine debris floated in the low-gravity environment around the planet's core. It was the 'dust' raised by the oscillation of the planet's core.
Nolan's expression was a little conflicted. "Boss, the thing in the core is still emitting energy pulses, but the signal is messy, and we can't decipher anything useful. Who do you think left this behind? "
"This planet had been destroyed once, and even before that, it was just a planetary-class indigenous civilization. Based on Rheia's observations, that civilization could not have placed anything in their planet's core," Hao Ren pondered. "So what you found could be a relic of a civilization from a long time ago, something that existed before the Umbral Realm was formed."
Nolan frowned. "This thing may have something to do with the 'vaccine' we are looking for. But it is now wrapped in a layer of energy field. This energy field has obvious traces of encryption. It looks like something like a password box. I am afraid it will be a big problem to crack it by force."
"We can't crack it by force," Hao Ren immediately said. "It's buried deep in the core, and if anything goes wrong there, the entire planet will be wiped out, and if it blows up, we'll be in deep trouble."
"… Boss, I feel that with your physique, it's best not to say something like this, what if it turns out to be true?"
Hao Ren suddenly felt a little awkward. "Why are you following suit now … Seriously, don't provoke that thing. You have to safely crack that energy shield, and if the ship's computing power is not enough, I authorize you to use the computing power of the World Tree, and there is only one requirement: stable, as stable as possible, got it? "
"Understood."
The communication ended, and Hao Ren let out a sigh of relief.
Nolan had made some good progress.
The L 'Haronne trip was split into two, one was Hao Ren and his comrades, and their main mission was to move on the planet's surface, observe and observe the world's civilization, and record how this civilization survived and operated in this special environment, and observing the changes that were happening in the Dragon Empire was one of the missions; the other was Nolan and her army of probes, and their mission was to scan the entire planet's material structure and deep secrets, and look for clues in the dead things. The two routes were carried out in parallel to complete the observation of the civilization and recording of the local environment at the same time.
At the same time, they could also search for traces related to the Mad Lord.
Hao Ren was overwhelmed with emotions. In fact, this was the normal workflow of a normal inspector. Damn it, pulling out the main cannon and blowing it up before landing was not normal at all!
After that, he felt a slight sense of urgency. Nolan had found a significant anomaly on the planet, and while the anomaly was shrouded by the energy shield, it was only a matter of time before the barrier was cracked. So, could his actions on the planet's surface also achieve some results?
Intuition told him that the Dragon Empire must be hiding some secret, and it was this secret that made it different from any other kingdom on L 'Haronne. He believed that as long as he reached the end of this journey, this secret would be revealed …
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