161: Chapter 161 The Guide to the Northland is at Your Service

Xie Feng leaned on his cold crystal blind staff, standing on a slightly raised mound of frozen earth, and caught sight of the blurry outlines of a cluster of buildings in the distance.

He had assumed someone would be living in that wizard tower, but as he drew closer, he realized it had already been abandoned.

The tower itself was a genuine structure of magical stone. Though mostly collapsed, the remaining stone pillars and base still revealed an ancient and magnificent outline under the ash-blue sky.

Xie Feng reached out and pointed there with a hint of excitement.

He was as excited as an elementary school student on a field trip.

"Look, everyone! There's another cluster of buildings ahead, and it's quite large—at least dozens of stone building ruins. Judging by the weathering of the bases, they've been abandoned for at least several hundred years."

Xie Feng turned his head and began explaining with a certain eagerness. This was a unique excitement he felt whenever he came into contact with the cthulhu mythos in the field, and he could never shake it off.

"Can you tell what place this is?" Third Princess wrapped herself in a fur cloak, standing by Xie Feng's side.

The fragment of Rhan-Tegoth within her had been pulsing slowly ever since they entered Hyperborea, constantly reminding her that this continent was not the Domain of a Mortal.

"Not quite sure, but according to the geographical distribution of Hyperborea—if I remember correctly from the materials I read back on Blue Star—the main settlements on this continent are roughly divided into three regions."

Xie Feng laid his cold crystal blind staff horizontally across his knees, squatted down, drew a very simple and rapid horizontal line on the frozen earth, and then drew a circle above and below the line.

Feeling it wasn't clear enough, he took out a charcoal pencil and some paper, and began drawing a rough map.

"I told you it would come in handy!"

Xie Feng marked several locations and mountain ranges from top to bottom, representing towns with circles. (Image included)

"To the north, there is Mu-Thuran, known as the 'Northern Cities'. Most mages come from there. They aren't Cultivators like those in the Nine Regions; those people are mages who can actually use Cthulhu magic in the true sense—glass cannons with high attack and low defense."

"Mu-Thuran? Is it a city-state Alliance like Irkut?" Tu Ziguan squatted nearby, propped his maxim gun against the ground, fished half a frozen, hardened flatbread out of his bundle, and took a bite.

"Much larger than Irkut. Mu-Thuran has an independent magical Legacy system, formed by many small, scattered towns coming together. It's the magic center of Hyperborea." Xie Feng tapped the tip of his blind staff against the position of the northern circle. "But it was destroyed in the Late Stage."

"Who destroyed it?" Tu Ziguan asked indistinctly while chewing the flatbread.

"The White Worm, one of the Great Old Ones. It landed from Senges and directly destroyed the entire Mu-Thuran." Xie Feng drew a horizontal line across the northern circle.

Third Princess also leaned her little head over.

"Where is Senges?"

"An estuary on the east side of Hyperborea." Lu Mingyuan leaned against a nearby needle-leaf pine tree, his hands tucked into his sleeves.

As one of the Great Race of Yith, his knowledge of Hyperborea was far greater than Xie Feng's.

"The White Worm landed from the sea, first swallowing several coastal settlements, and then flattening Mu-Thuran all the way west. This event happened not too long before the era we currently inhabit; the oral history of the Voormis should still contain records of this disaster."

"Then where is the region beneath our feet right now?" Third Princess pulled the topic back to their current location.

"I don't know either." Xie Feng shook his head. He wasn't sure where they were on the timeline right now, and the materials on Blue Star weren't necessarily one hundred percent accurate.

Xie Feng moved down below the horizontal line on the frozen earth and tapped the two extremely close circles.

"The southern part is blocked by mountain ranges, making the climate warmer than the north. There are two main cities in this region, very close to each other. The Old Capital is called Comorion, and the New Capital is called Uzuldaroum."

(Don't find it a tongue-twister; the New and Old Capitals will be used instead from now on.)

"The Old Capital? What does Old Capital mean? Was it abandoned?" Tu Ziguan swallowed the last bite of his flatbread.

"Prophecy." Lu Mingyuan answered the word on Xie Feng's behalf. "Comorion was prophesied by a White Witch before it was destroyed. She prophesied that the Old Capital would be completely annihilated at a certain point in time. The residents of Hyperborea believed the White Witch's prophecy and relocated their capital ahead of time to the nearby new city of Uzuldaroum.

Therefore, the current political center of this continent is Uzuldaroum, not Comorion."

"Who is the White Witch?" Tu Ziguan frowned. "Another Great Old One?"

"Not quite. The White Witch is closer to the category of human mages, except her abilities are extremely powerful and she can foresee disasters. Comorion was indeed destroyed later on, though it didn't have much to do with the cause of Hyperborea's destruction—the people of the Old Capital brought it upon themselves."

Xie Feng pulled his blind staff out of the frozen earth.

"Regardless, if the timeline is later, Comorion is most likely an empty city now."

Xu Liujing looked at the map with curiosity.

"Then how was Hyperborea destroyed?"

"Legend has it that it was covered by drifting ice, which led to the destruction of Hyperborea." Xie Feng pointed to Paralion at the very northernmost part of the map. "This place is a dead, ice-bound territory."

Legend has it that the White Witch originated from the ice-bound Paralion in the far north.

Third Princess listened, retightened the loosening wrapping cloth on her back, and then spoke.

"So which one do you think these ruins before us are?"

"It could be the edge of the already destroyed Northern Cities; this doesn't look much like Uzuldaroum. Although the scale of the building complex is not small, it's located too far south and too close to the mountain ranges.

It could also be the outer ruins after Comorion was abandoned, or buildings from an even earlier period.

However, judging by the degree of weathering of the bases, it doesn't look like it has been maintained for hundreds of years. If it were a New Capital still in use, it shouldn't be deserted to this extent. To know the exact location, we have to scout a bit further ahead and see if there are any survivors or signposts."

"If there are survivors, what language will we use to communicate?"

Zhou Jinglan looked at the excited Xie Feng and asked quizzically.

"I—" Xie Feng hoisted his blind staff onto his shoulder, his tone certain.

Tu Ziguan patted the ice shards on his legs from behind, finishing the sentence for him:

"That tongue of his is just like a translation machine. Right now, as long as it's a native language of Hyperborea, no matter what species, he can probably speak a few words of it."

"Good tongue." Zhou Jinglan walked at the very back of the group and delivered a sarcastic parting shot.

The timeline of Hyperborea was currently unclear, and everyone didn't know what had actually happened on the timeline Liu Yanqing left behind. They could only enter these ruins to explore first and see if there were any remaining residents.

As the group explored further forward, they indeed discovered some lingering traces, as well as a settlement with quite a few 'people' living there.

It was just a pity that everyone except Xie Feng felt a creeping numbness, and Xu Liujing was practically about to pass out.

This group of 'people' looked just like an upright-walking snake.

They had snake-like heads and scales, but also two arms and two legs, and were draped in partial robes.

"It's the Serpent People, ah, ah!!" (Image included)

Xie Feng jumped three feet high.