Chapter 2559: Elemental Creatures, Southward Movement of the Snow Line

After confirming the situation at the extreme northern edge of the Shadow Plane, Xia Duo quickly returned to the center of the Shadow-Black Bingyuan and used a rift contained within a crevice in the center of the Far North Ice Sheet of the Main Plane to shuttle back to the Main Plane.

Subsequently, he transformed into an ice elemental and merged into the ice layer, continuously moving downwards while remaining hidden. After traveling about thirty meters or so, Xia Duo's field of vision suddenly opened up; a relatively large fault had actually appeared!

Warm air currents coming from the west echoed continuously within this not-so-small space, and even formed a small pool of water about ten meters or so in size below.

The pity is that beneath the pool was still an ice layer, so although it appeared to be an environment where life could survive, there was actually no life at all.

But Xia Duo believed that in areas closer to the ground where soil and rock existed, it would inevitably be possible to form a certain degree of ecology, and if the living space were large enough, it would not be impossible for Wisdom creatures to survive.

……

Skipping over the small space, Xia Duo continued downward. Setting aside the Mythallar Control Center for the moment, he had already developed quite an interest in the special environment here in the Far North Ice Sheet.

If there is an opportunity in the future, he must arrange for some people to come here to investigate and study it.

Of course, this time the priority was still to find the Mythallar Control Center.

Soon, Xia Duo had descended to more than a hundred meters below the ice layer, but even so, he could not find any sign of soil or rock structures. Even with his current instinctive Perception as an ice elemental, he estimated that it would not appear for another few hundred meters.

But for Xia Duo, he had not yet decided to change direction; he would first go south from the center of the ice sheet to find the "coast" of the Arctic "sea" before deciding.

The vast majority of Elemental Creatures only possess instinct and are considered non-Wisdom creatures. Of course, theoretically, Elemental Creatures can also possess Wisdom, and Xia Duo was even looking forward to encountering such Wisdom Elemental Creatures!

Of course, it is also possible that those few Elf nations found clearer guidance, which is why they could find the Mythallar Control Center in the vast ice sheet.

So where exactly is this Mythallar Control Center?

Of course, this "ancient" is not the "ancient" that is relatively close to the contemporary era like the Crown War, but rather "ancient" at least from before that time.

But if it were really moving south at a speed of several meters per year, such an obvious change would have been discovered by someone long ago; it wouldn't wait for Xia Duo to worry about it. Having dealt with a few Elemental Creatures along the way, this trip was not a wasted effort, but he did not continue to go deeper into the ice layer. The further down he went, the more Elemental Creatures there would be, but the boundary between matter and elements would also become increasingly blurred.

It is precisely because the era is rolling forward, and it is unknown when the high-ranking families fell into the mortal world, that a large number of ancient secrets were spread. It can be said that the further back in time one goes, the more one can know about the relevant news of the Dragon Madness Mythallar.

If it is still an ice layer further down, that would mean this place is most likely an ocean, but what he didn't expect was that the center of the ice sheet was already an ocean.

Rising only a few millimeters a year, and sometimes even falling, for a considerable period of time, it would not cause any major impact on human production and life.

However, there is no need to travel beneath the ice layer; after all, the ice sheet is too large, and the speed of moving by turning into ice is far inferior to flying in the air.

Seabed? Or at the "sea" edge further south?

One might accidentally travel to the Elemental Plane if not careful; if it is highly likely that this area is the ocean of the Main Plane, one needs to be even more careful.

It is just that according to the summary of historical records, the snow line in the north is constantly moving south.

The reason for mentioning "one hundred meters" is because this depth is roughly the same altitude as the land where Netheril is located, similar to the concept of zero elevation on Earth.

Moreover, the only continent that once existed suffered a great tearing, and the ancient geography can no longer be matched with the literature, unless one can return to the era when the great tearing occurred to record the old and new maps.

Knowing that Elemental Essence can be used to automatically perform Spellcasting, Xia Duo would naturally not let go of these treasures delivered to his door.

For the time being, he has no time to specifically hunt Elemental Creatures, but if he can't even grasp the ones delivered to his door, then he is too poor at managing his household.

In the magic world, the southward movement of the northern snow line is the same. If it only moves south by a few millimeters every year, let alone now, even in the future, it is estimated that no one will care.

Calimshan in the south is a country full of Elemental Creatures; even the bodies of Calimshan people contain a considerable proportion of elemental bloodlines. Legend has it that their ancestors were Wisdom-possessing elemental genies from the Elemental Plane.

If it weren't for the Dragon Madness Mythallar business, Xia Duo might not take this matter to heart. This is just like Earthlings worrying about the melting of the Antarctic ice and the rising sea levels.

Of course, to truly and completely blur the boundary between elements and matter, a mere few hundred meters is far from enough, but there is no great significance in going further down.

He first took a midpoint between the center of the ice sheet and the southern snow line, then went down from that midpoint. After confirming that no soil or rock structure was found at two hundred meters down, he continued to take a midpoint further south.

Even if the distance moved south every year is calculated in meters, who knows how many years it will take for the snow line to cross the Narrow Sea!

But as for what the specific movement speed is, for the time being, the various countries in the Northland do not have clear data, and there are not even many observation records.

Even in the era when the great tearing occurred, the Dragon Madness Mythallar was in the distant past, and ordinary people are probably unable to know the secrets within it.

……

……

And at this time, his distance from the southern snow line was roughly the distance from Great Xia Territory to the Far North Ice Sheet, which shows the vastness of the Far North Ice Sheet.

But as far as the present is concerned, his attitude toward Elemental Creatures is no different from that toward poultry and livestock like pigs, dogs, sheep, and chickens. As long as they can be used for his purposes, then naturally they can be used.

Those Elemental Creatures are similar to his current elemental state and can basically be regarded as having ice as their form, but unlike him, every one of those Elemental Creatures has an Elemental Essence.

Next, Xia Duo continued to advance vertically downward for about a hundred meters. It was still not the bottom, and at this depth, many Elemental Creatures were already active.

Just like that, after repeating the operation several times, Xia Duo finally came into contact with the land beneath the ice layer!

That is, for a considerable period of time, there is no need to worry about the melting of ice and snow and the rising sea level in the Far North Ice Sheet; instead, one needs to worry about the snow line constantly moving south.

In the original records of the Dragon Madness Secret Scroll, the control center was indeed by the sea, but now it is unknown whether that sea is the outer sea at the edge of the Plane or an inland sea like the Narrow Sea; it is now impossible to verify.

Referring to the capabilities of the various countries of the Evereska Alliance in the Projection Plane, they would generally not explore infinitely downward from there. When they explored to more than two hundred meters under the ice, they would also make the choice to change direction.

At the same time, it also shows that there is a large amount of land in this area, which is only uninhabited because it is covered by ice and snow, but there is one point that is worth rejoicing.