In front of the railway track is a towering and continuous snow-capped mountain. Due to technical reasons, tunnels cannot be dug here, so the railway track chooses to bypass on slightly lower hills.
After turning several turns in succession, the advancing people have reached a higher position. After climbing the steep ridge, the originally vast and undulating mountains disappeared, and people standing on the high ground saw the snowfield suddenly opened up. The snowfield shone silver in the sun, and everyone who climbed the mountain was delighted by its brilliance.
From the current height, you can see the vast sky and the earth and the buildings representing the town in the distance, but this does not mean that they can arrive before night, after all, there are three continuous low mountains between them and the town. In such freezing conditions, some delicate terrain cannot be passed directly, and the team has to circle in front for a long time. If they follow the current progress, they will not be able to reach the town until the early morning of the day after tomorrow.
But the problem is not here. The problem is that after turning the corner to reach the current position, the main body of the highest nearby Viltanin Snow Mountain has been exposed.
This snow mountain and two other mountains are now completely covered by ice, and the cliffs, deep pits and rugged river valleys that are impassable in summer are all smoothed out. The road leading to the town can be seen at a glance, and the three frozen mountains have opened up the nearest road for people.
The Virtanin Snow Mountain in front of you is not considered a high mountain, and the snow on the top of the mountain will only exist from October to May every year. Judging from the map, this mountain is completely barren, without any human habitation. But at this time, everyone raised their heads, and they were shocked to see the ice and snow palace shining in the sun. The light passing through even made the ice sculpture patterns in the details appear. The runes on the ice wall should be more than just decoration.
It stands on the side of the highest mountain, and the towering hexagonal pyramid-shaped palace spire is almost flush with the main peak. The main body of the palace leans against the side of the mountain, almost perfectly blending with the sunny side of the mountain. It is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, and there is a vaguely visible ice staircase with carved handrails at the bottom of the building, connecting the two ends of the valley.
Therefore, if a group of people have a sudden whim and do not want to continue to the town but deviate from the route to try to climb, then there is no need to climb the towering Weiertanin Snow Mountain, just bypass the side peak from the current position, and then nearly forty-five degrees Up, through those icy stairs that glistened in the sun, was the gate to the Snow Palace.
"Meow~"
The cat pushed its head out from between the buttons on Jenkins' chest and looked that way too with its wide, round eyes.
"There is no record of this kind of building on the map. Even if this version of the military map is two years ago, it is impossible for this kind of mistake... Moreover, with the current productivity, it is absolutely impossible to build this kind of thing .”
Everyone can understand this simple inference.
Turning a blind eye and continuing to move forward is certainly an acceptable idea, but thinking of the changes in the Snowman Legion and the accident last night, after discussion, the team temporarily repaired and prepared lunch in the shelter of the mountain, and Jenkins proposed to go to the palace to take a look .
He wasn't reckless, he just vaguely felt a force calling him. It wasn't the inexplicable attraction of the monster, it was someone who really welcomed him as a guest.
"This is too risky. Our task now is to go to the town. Regarding this palace, we can send people to investigate and inform the locals to be careful when we arrive in the town. But entering the palace will definitely cause other troubles."
Captain Sidorov said embarrassingly, to be honest, if it wasn't necessary, she didn't want to oppose Jenkins.
But unlike what Jenkins thought, in the final vote, although most of the captains opposed his proposal, the two captains of [Church of Everything and Nature] supported him.
"We can feel that the palace is the most natural and harmonious place in the nearby area. The appearance of the palace not only did not destroy the natural environment of Virtanin Snow, but also promoted the natural circulation of the snow mountain to a certain extent. This palace is not The destroyers of nature, those who build it and those who own it, must not be bad."
That's a pretty hasty inference, even more hasty than Jenkins's. Therefore, the idea of exploring the palace was not approved in the end, and Jenkins was not allowed to participate even in the team that was sent to observe the palace and explore the terrain from a distance.
"Because we are with you on this trip, the church contacted Nolan to explain the situation. Miss Audrey over there said that once you encounter such a thing that may or may not be dangerous, it is best not to let you Get involved, or the potential for danger increases to a dire level."
Captain Ursia explained in a low voice, so Jenkins did not insist on participating.
Because they didn't plan to go close to the palace, the scouting team came back soon. Instead of reducing their staff, they brought back a corpse, which was the corpse of the gifter who was replaced last night.
There was no obvious trauma on the body, but after the inspection of the accompanying [Death and the Last Church] cemetery guard, it was confirmed that the cause of death was cardiac arrest.
"Did you find the corpse near that palace?"
Jenkins leaned over to ask, but got the opposite answer:
"No, there should be no problem with that palace. After going around the side peak, we need to go downhill before continuing to go up. There is also a branch intersection for us to advance. One side leads to the ice ladder, and the other side goes downhill to the town. the way.
During this period, we found a large hole in the rock wall on one side of the mountain road, and there were many unusual hoarfrost on the rock wall around the hole. We didn't dare to go in directly, but tried to climb up, only observed the cave entrance, and then found this corpse... "
Talking is the temporary captain of the scouting team and one of the captains of the night watchman team. Seeing that everyone was looking at him, he continued to introduce:
"There is a seal, a seal with a very long history. According to my observation, the scribes of the Sage Church recognized that it was a seal established before the 16th century. I can recognize the very obvious traces of Ms. Yinyue's seal , That kind of flowing moonlight cannot be faked, this is probably a seal set up by the predecessors of the church, but I don’t know why there is no information here in the church’s materials.”
"How did the seal break?"
someone asked.
"On the one hand, the seal is weakened due to geological changes. This is very common, and there will be one case every ten years; on the other hand, the force that erupted in Loen City this Tuesday hit the seal, and the seals are also creatures with obvious ice and snow power. There’s a certain resonance between the two.”