It was a windy and snowy night.
The ancient and strong fortress of Snowfrost City stood in the wind and snow as it had for thousands of years, like a proud guard standing on the first sentry post in front of Gorgon's Abyss. Layers of petal-like walls faced the cold wind, blocking the blizzard from the plains outside the city. But the howling of the cold wind as it swept across the plains could still enter the fortress city through the gaps between the walls. The sound passed through the double distortion of the walls and the magic barrier and became a low whimper, echoing in the outermost streets of the fortress city for a long time, like the weeping of the earth.
It was difficult for outsiders to sleep peacefully on such a night. Even the tough people of the North could not help but feel a little annoyed when they heard the cries hovering outside the city. The tradition of the North made them regard this ominous sound hovering over the snowfield as a bad omen. So the taverns on the outermost streets of the fortress city lit up their brightest lights one by one, and liquor was brought to the table in buckets, turning into courage and heat that melted into the blood vessels.
The people who stayed behind in Snowfrost City talked and laughed loudly in the taverns, dispelling the ominous sound from the plains with their voices. They talked about the war at the front line, about the irrational Knights of the Ebon Blade, about the relatively calm state of Gorgon's Abyss, and about the "envoy" who had entered the city during the day.
No matter what they talked about, they had to make the atmosphere lively. Only in this way could they withstand the blizzard that was sweeping across the snowfield.
But almost all the noise was at the foot of the mountain. The higher the city, the less people there were, and in the area where the lord's castle was located, only the howling of the blizzard could be heard.
The cold wind carried the snowflakes through the courtyard of the posthouse, causing the flags in the courtyard to flutter wildly. Occasionally, one could see the silhouettes of people flashing past the entrance of the posthouse. They were the soldiers of the legion who were braving the wind and snow to inspect the city's defense facilities. The outside world was gradually being frozen. This made the warm room especially seem like an isolated paradise.
Lily leaned against the window and watched the snow for a long time before reluctantly looking away. "Oh … Such a big snowstorm, even I don't feel like going out …"
Vivian, who was adding firewood to the fireplace, rolled her eyes. "You've been thinking about whether to go out in this damn weather for a long time. You're crazy, okay?"
"Don't give her a hard time. The king of transportation in the Arctic Circle is forced to watch the snow from inside the house. It's a miracle that she hasn't torn down her house yet." Hao Ren waved his hand and turned to Rheia. "So, do you have any clues about the Tumen Empire and the 'source' of the world's collapse?"
After the exploration of Gorgon's Abyss, he gathered Lily, Vivian, and Rheia in the room to discuss the clues found by the three probes, and the one who was most likely to provide reference information was the goddess of creation herself, who had been sleeping in the Umbral Realm for 10,000 years.
Unfortunately, just like the Black Pine Forest, Haersonga, Gorgon, and Tiamat, Rheia knew nothing about the so-called Tumen Empire.
"I've never heard of the former, and I don't understand the latter either." Rheia shook her head as she sat on the high-back chair, shaking her calves back and forth. It was not a good mood, but a sign of slight irritation. "But while I don't understand, I have some bad discoveries about the changes in this world."
"Bad discoveries?" Hao Ren frowned. He sensed something was wrong from Rheia's simple words. "What happened?"
Rheia looked up. "Do you remember that Gorgon's Abyss and the Black Pine Forest are connected?"
Hao Ren nodded. "Of course I remember. It was because of this that we took a shortcut from the Black Pine Forest to the north."
"Then you should also remember what I said at the time. The gist of it was that the Black Pine Forest and Gorgon's Abyss are essentially the same. They are both 'fragments of the deeper layers of the world', and they are now interconnected in the real world because they are 'floating'." Rheia stopped swaying, and her expression became serious. "I just confirmed two things."
Hao Ren and Vivian looked at each other and said in unison, "What two things?"
"First, 'floating' is absolutely true. I have left a little bit of mental power at the connection point between Gorgon's Abyss and the Black Pine Forest. Now I can confirm that the connection point is becoming more and more stable, and new connection points are being established, which means that the 'fragments of the world' in the deeper layers of the world are indeed floating up and have begun to affect the structure of the real world," Rheia said slowly. "Second … I found that as those things floated up, the stability of L 'Haronne was declining, and the speed and intensity of the decline far exceeded the speed of the fragments of the world."
Hao Ren frowned slightly and pinched his chin with his hand. "What does it mean when translated into human language?"
Rheia glared at him, but still explained, "L 'Haronne is enveloped by my divine barrier, so it can be regarded as a closed' small world ', and the information cycle of this small world is in a self-consistent and stable state like a mini-universe. But since there is stability, there will naturally be times of instability. At this moment, the stability of L' Haronne as an information structure is declining. If converted to a normal world, it means that entropy is skyrocketing, and the universe is collapsing! And the speed of its stability decline is far faster than the speed of the fragments of the world, which means that something else is speeding up the process of plunging the entire world into chaos! "
Hao Ren listened in a daze, and finally realized the seriousness of the situation. "You mean … L 'Haronne is gradually collapsing?!"
Rheia nodded silently.
For some reason, Hao Ren suddenly thought of the inexplicable civil war that was going on in the Dragon Empire.
Originally, he thought that it was just a regular conflict within the indigenous civilization, but clues gradually emerged in his mind, and he vaguely felt that he had caught onto something.
The unknown energy reaction of the earth's core, the mysterious signal connection between the earth's core and the Dragon Empire, the secret of the Knights of the Broken Blade moving freely in the Black Forest, the connection between the Black Forest and Gorgon's Abyss, the connection between Princess Constance and Gorgon's Abyss …
He listed all the things that had happened so far, and the connection between them became even more obvious.
The Knights of the Ebon Blade, who were bound to the Dragon Soul Emperor, collectively showed "symptoms" of corruption, and at the same time, Princess Constance, as if she had been preparing for a long time, suddenly raised the flag and declared war on the Knights of the Ebon Blade. The six northern provinces responded instantly, and Gorgon's Abyss also weakened its activity at the same time. And as this series of events happened, the deeper parts of the world also changed simultaneously.
The "collapsed fragments of the world line" began to float up from the bottom of the world, and the stability of L 'Haronne rapidly declined.
Clearly, everything could be said to be an "emergency", but when everything added up, it felt like it had been rehearsed countless times.
Lily could not help but get serious. She looked away from the snowstorm outside the window and turned her head to ask, "Could it have something to do with the residual influence of the Mad Lord?"
"I still don't feel the power of the Mad Lord." Rheia pinched between her brows with her finger and said in a depressed tone, "This world doesn't give me a good feeling. It's like a machine that is running according to a set program, and everyone seems to be destined to run in this machine."
"If L 'Haronne's stability continues to decline, how long can it last in the real world?" Hao Ren asked the most crucial question.
"Two years, at most two years," Rheia said with certainty. "And in the process, the 'world line wreckage' like the Black Pine Forest and Gorgon's Abyss will completely float to the surface, and more than half of the planet will be replaced, and more than 70% of the population will be devoured. Then, the remaining 'safety island' will also lose order, the laws of physics will become chaotic, and the physical world will fall apart. Finally, the entire world will disintegrate into basic information elements, and nothing will be born, and nothing will die. That will be the last day of the world."
Hao Ren's mouth was agape as he tapped the MDT's shell with his finger. "Is this … beyond my scope of work?"
"Motherf * cker, since the day you signed the contract, how many things have you done that are not beyond your scope of work?" The MDT bounced on Hao Ren's shoulder. "But it's okay, we have a big business in the Plane of Dreams now, and we can still put together a migration fleet. If we really can't hold on to the planet, at least we can take the people away, and with Rheia doing her job, we should be able to take away half of the ecosphere …"
Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief. "That's fine, I don't think I need to write a self-check. But those are the worst choices, we can't just sit back and wait for this weird 'end of the world' to continue. How can a good world collapse just like that? And it is protected by Rheia's divine power, so how can it still be destroyed under such circumstances? "
No one could answer his question, and even Rheia could only shake her head with a wry smile, while Lily once again looked out the window at the snowstorm.
"It's snowing so hard …" the husky maiden mumbled. "I feel like something is going to happen tonight …"
Vivian gave her a sideways glance. "Don't talk nonsense, you're spitting …"
Before her voice trailed off, a sudden palpitation caused everyone in the room to stand up from their chairs.
Rheia jumped straight to the ground, and her face was extremely gloomy as she appeared in front of the window in a flash and pushed it open.
The snowstorm outside the window immediately surged towards the opening, but before it could touch Rheia's body, the snowstorm stopped abruptly and retreated to the sides in fear.
Rheia looked towards the south.
The sky in that direction had turned pitch-black. Even though it was night, the sky was so dark that it was unimaginably dark. It was as if there was an incomparably huge dark vortex hanging there, absorbing all the light in the world.
"The Mad Lord …" Rheia gritted her teeth.
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