Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 712 - 73 Harmonious discussion atmosphere_1

Chapter 712: Chapter 73 Harmonious discussion atmosphere_1

As everyone had anticipated, not long after passing the gargantuan beast’s corpse encased in the ice layer, the surrounding scenery suddenly transformed; the light was quickly reduced to a dim glow. The initial cave, which felt like being in a palace created out of crystals, was surrounded by glimmers of glittering lights. Each step resonated with the clinking sound of chains colliding with ice, like a beautiful dance rhythm that couldn’t help but lighten one’s mood.

However, after crossing the colossal corpse, the mesmerizing views rapidly vanished, as if awoken from a dream. The crystal palace surrounding was not here anymore, replaced by a dark, oppressive cave. The surroundings were no longer twinkling ice layers but rough, gray earth mixed with gravel. This earth was not brown or black as outside, but bore an unhealthy shade of gray. Touch it, and under the low temperature, it felt frozen and hard as rock. Moreover, this tunnel formed of frozen earth was no longer like the half-section in the previous ice layer with its standard arch shape and smooth walls. Here, the tunnel walls were uneven, the terrain full of pits and recesses, with sharp rocks occasionally jutting out from the earth, like uneven teeth of a beast. One had to be cautious when passing through here, as a careless move could lead to an encounter with a stone that sprang from the ground. Frozen rock shards were sharper than any weapon; without an open shield, even a light graze would cause deep wounds.

"Why is the quality here so different from the outside?" Catherine asked somewhat confusedly, "Considering it’s all the work of frost spirits, they should be more similar. How come it suddenly feels like we’ve stepped into a different world?"

"Can’t help it, they’re frost spirits after all." Pannis didn’t directly answer, just casually mentioning seemingly irrelevant answer. However, Catherine quickly understood his intended meaning.

"Ah, I understand now," Catherine nodded, "You mean to say, they can only manipulate the Ice-attribute elements and have little control over the Earth elements. Therefore, when digging in the earth layer, where the majority is Earth element, the quality of the tunnel decreases?"

"Exactly," responded Pannis, "They dig holes in the frozen earth layer by penetrating into it and making use of the Ice elements mixed with the Earth elements, pushing them around. Because they merely agitate the elements rather than control them, maintaining order like with the ice layer is very difficult. The work done here actually exceeds my expectations. According to my original plan, we were supposed to dig part of it ourselves. Now, it seems there’s no need for that."

"Look ahead," Lina, standing between Catherine and Pannis, suddenly pointed to the front and exclaimed, "There’s something like a spider’s web. It seems to be blocking the road."

Catherine turned round and, under the light, saw a large web-like structure blocking the path. However, Lina’s description wasn’t exactly accurate. Every thread of this web was thick, unlike any spider’s web seen before. Instead of a spider’s web, it looked more like...

"Plant roots," Vivian preempted Catherine’s thoughts, "This must be an entire root system of a plant, not a web. A spider’s web doesn’t have such huge differences between its mainline and sidelines. Wait, it’s not complete. Look at the left side, it’s missing a primary root. Wonder if it was broken when the plant was still alive or cut off when the frost spirits were manipulating the elements."

"The breaking point doesn’t look fresh," Catherine moved closer to the plant roots and touched it through her gloves, "It’s very hard but seems brittle, since it’s so thin. I just don’t know if breaking it would cause any issues."

"It’s unlikely the frost spirits broke it," Pannis added, "Their principle of elemental control is transforming ice into free-state elements and later pushing them around, not tear apart concrete elements, so this kind of destruction is unexpected."

"There’s no significant use in thinking about all this," Catherine shook her head, "I just checked, this root system is not a load-bearing structure, destroying it shouldn’t pose a big problem. Still, for safety’s sake, you guys should back off a bit, in case there’s a collapse, I don’t want you to get involved too. I have high defense power. If there’s a collapsion but not the entire cave, I might not escape but can resist for a while."

"Forget it, sis," Freya rolled her eyes, "At this point and you’re still talking nonsense. Besides, looking around, if there’s a collapse, where could we hide? Moreover, Vivian and I examined the cave’s load-bearing structure. It’s all completely frozen together into one solid piece. Unless there’s a new ice fracture, a collapse is simply not possible."

"Crack." Before Freya had finished speaking, Pannis had somehow already run up to Catherine. The sound was from him casually breaking off a human-sized piece of the main stem of the roots. He broke it a few times in his hands, sniffed it, and sneered, "Just as I thought, it’s crunchy, smells like a big leaf fern or something. Those things are poisonous to humans, not tasty at all. If you eat it, you’ll get a lot of skin rashes. What a shame, I was hoping to taste it. This is a plant from millions of years ago!"

With a helpless look, Catherine gazed at the path that Pannis had opened. She let out a deep sigh, bent down to crawl through the opened gap, kicked at Pannis’s leg as she passed by. Pannis seemed to have expected it, deftly dodging Catherine’s feigned kick. He gave her a thumbs up and bared his teeth, a triumphant expression on his face.

Climbing over the root systems felt like opening a grand door. Behind it, in the frozen soil, appeared numerous bizarre creatures. Most of them were insects. There were more ordinary creatures than magical beasts, and their strange looks made it impossible to discern their species, as they did not seem to belong to any known species. Even the non-magical creatures were larger than their current counterparts, almost the size of some insect-type magical beasts. However, comparing their size to the giant insects they had encountered in the Earth’s Scar a few months ago, it was vastly different.

"If we are right in assuming that all the creatures in the Earth’s Scar are remnants of ancient times, then by the start of the First Epoch, their sizes have drastically reduced." Pannis said, "Also, looking at the proportion between magical beasts and ordinary creatures here, it’s a lot lower than what it is now, but it seems to be much higher than the ratio in the Earth’s Scar."

"This could actually become a new research subject." Vivian’s eyes shone with anticipation. "I had this thought back in the Earth’s Scar. The drastic changes in creatures could possibly be due to a dramatic change in the environment at some point before the First Epoch. Hm, maybe that was what Ava mentioned earlier, an Elemental Burst?"

"Yes, Elemental Burst." Ava nodded, "The records show that not long before the Triclops civilization appeared, the environment of the Yarran World underwent a dramatic change. No one knows the exact changes that occurred, but the end result was the extinction of many large life forms, while the number of magical beasts, which were stronger than the large life forms, gradually increased. This seemed to be due to some incomprehensible changes in the outer Elemental Screen of the world. Some of the most powerful scholars among the Triclops attempted to investigate this with divine protection, but they were not able to come to any convincing conclusions. Anyway, because of that drastic change, even the growth of the Energy Crystals has sped up."

"So, my guess is that during the drastic change, the concentration of free Elemental Energy in Yarran World significantly increased, while the concentration of certain components necessary for life in the air considerably decreased. That’s why those super-large animals became extinct, while those magical beasts, which were large in size but could absorb free energy, survived." Vivian seriously put forward her point of view. "This explains what we observed before and what we’re seeing now."

"Where’s your proof?" Like in an academic debate, Freya asked sharply, "Unsubstantiated speculation is just conjecture. If you want to establish your point of view, you have to provide evidence. Do you have any? Anatomical, biological, energy, historical, environmental - proof from any of these disciplines. You must at least provide one of these, or else how can I know if you’re not just talking in your sleep. Physical evidence alone isn’t enough, give me some data."

"Aren’t the things you’re seeing with your own eyes evidence?" Vivian, who had grown accustomed to bickering with peers at the academic meetings in the Magic Tower, retorted acidly, "Are you mechanical researchers too preoccupied with parts inside your brains? Without the most basic one plus one equals two type of evidence supporting you, will you be unable to think?"

"Ha? We can’t think?" Habitually pulling up her sleeves, Freya let out a loud laugh, "You theorists are really amusing. Building a house in your minds and thinking you can live in it? Without the concrete foundation and pillars for support, just carry on living in your dreams."

"I heard that every time there’s a large academic conference at the Mages Guild, they invite a lot of healers from the clergy to attend as guests?" Pannis, arms crossed, quietly asked Lina, who was also standing the same way, "And I heard that the budget for every large academic conference is very high, almost matching that of a full renovation of the Mage Tower. Is that true?"

"Yes, that’s right." Lina nodded affirmatively, "I was once invited. There were frequently pairs of people being rushed out for emergency treatment. By the Mages’ standards, the atmosphere they have right now could be considered extremely harmonious."

At times, violence could solve everything. Catherine gave each of the bickering girls a punch on their heads, immediately stopping their friendly debate. "You two idiots, look ahead, we’ve reached the gate. You’re still arguing." (To be continued. If you like this book, you’re welcome to vote and buy a monthly pass at qidian.com (starting point). Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users can visit m.qidian.com for reading.)