Chapter 494 - 494. Exploration
Rank 3 cultivators hadn't been sent to explore the new continent, their role was to set up and protect the encampments from the forces of the other big nations.
The environment of the piece of Immortal Lands was simply too hostile toward human cultivator, only those in the heroic rank could hope to explore it.
The soldiers of the Utra nation quickly set up a series of tents and a protective formation around their perimeter, they soon discovered that formations didn't need Credits to fuel them because they could directly use the "Breath" in the terrain to work.
That discovery accelerated the plans of the Elbas family, establishing formations without the need for Credits would facilitate the creation of teleportation matrixes which would greatly improve the stability of their camps.
While the rank 3 soldiers were busy creating the needed formation and finishing their tasks, the heroic cultivators that had accompanied those troops began to explore the new land.
The forces of the other big nations were still on their way in the sea, the Utra nation couldn't waste the advantage obtained thanks to their air-sh.i.p.s.
Three cultivators flew in the air above the azure ground, their gazes were on the horizon where mountains and plains were filled by strange and powerful plants.
Those three cultivators were the heroic assets that the Elbas family had sent with the first batch of soldiers and were specialized in fields that would be useful for the exploration.
Of course, all three of them were complete heroic cultivators.
"Every plant here is at least a rank 3 material, I won't be surprised if we were to find extinct species or even hostile magical plants."
A tall bald man wearing a loose golden robe spoke, his face didn't have any trace of hair, even his eyebrows were missing.
That man was Lord Delbert, he was one of the researchers of the academy and was specialized in magical plants.
"I can't sense any magical beast here, it seems that the fall has killed most of the creatures that inhabited the coastline. What a pity, such a waste…"
Another man spoke as he swept the area where their troops had landed with his consciousness.
If Noah was there, he would recognize him: He was Professor Roy, the professor of the magical beasts' course in the academy.
Professor Roy was a short man with curly black hair and a long white beard, his eyebrows were gray and so long that they were able to hide his dark eyes.
"Caution first, gods have walked on this land, we can't expect it to be too simple."
The other heroic cultivator spoke, trying to suppress the excitement of its companions.
Her name was Lady Eth, she, just like Thaddeus, had studied the space-runes of the Elbas family and had become quite skillful in using them.
She had long golden hair and blue eyes, she also looked quite young and her role was pretty obvious: She had to create an escape route in case the exploration became too dangerous.
Those three powerful entities were rank 4 cultivators after all, losing even one of them would greatly affect the power of the Royals and endanger their position as overlords of the southern side of the continent.
"Lady Eth, as the only one among us who has the Elbas bloodline, you should be the one to guide us."
Lord Delbert spoke, his manners were polite as he gestured to Lady Eth to take the lead.
Lady Eth turned toward Roy with a questioning gaze, she wanted to understand if he approved that decision.
"I'm fine with anything as long as we take the needed time to analyze the fauna of this land."
Professor Roy answered without moving his gaze from the terrain, he seemed worried that some magical beasts would escape his search if he didn't pay attention.
"Let's move on then."
Lady Eth nodded as she took the vanguard position and flew deeper into the continent, the other two heroic cultivators followed closely behind her.
Their journey was quite uneventful, no flying creatures could be seen there, Professor Roy loudly guessed that they had flown away before the land fell into the Mortal Lands, managing to remain in the Immortal ones.
The "Breath" radiated from the ground though became even thicker as they went deeper into the continent, it seemed that the azure ground created some sort of greenhouse effect that incremented the density of the "Breath" toward the center of the new land.
However, that density couldn't affect those heroic cultivators.
They absorbed the "Breath" inside the matter which contained the laws of Heaven and Earth, the "Breath" in the air wasn't able to apply any pressure on those existences.
"This is a forest of rank 4 magical plants. They are Silver-yellow woods which are a carnivorous species of trees, it seems that all the forest has died during the fall though."
Lord Delbert spoke as he pointed at a series of leafless trees on the ground.
Their trunks were silver and their branches resembled sharp shining fangs, they were supposed to have yellow leaves but it seemed that the fall from the Immortal Lands had destroyed all of them, killing the trees in the process.
"Are you sure there are dead?"
Lady Eth asked.
Lord Delbert put a pensive expression and nodded after sweeping the forest a few times with his consciousness before adding a few details.
"Their trunks are dead but their roots are still absorbing nourishment from the ground. This species is extinct on the continent but some specimens can still be found in some small islands ruled by magical beasts. However, their vitality has never been tested in-depth, especially when paired with such an extraordinary terrain. We can seize a few trunks and see what happens."
Lady Eth nodded at his explanation and gestured to her two companions to follow her on the ground.
The forest of Silver-yellow woods was made of more than three hundred rank 4 magical plants, their value was extremely high and the heroic cultivator of the Utra nation would rather be the ones to seize them instead of leaving them to other nations.
Lord Delbert wielded a sharp sickle that he carefully swung toward the base of each branch before moving to the trunk of the tree.
Professor Roy and Lady Eth guarded him as he focused on the plants, he was the only one among them who knew how to precisely store that material without ruining it after all.
However, just as Lord Delbert had predicted, the Silver-yellow woods reacted in an unusual way.
The azure terrain began to crack as the roots of the magical trees rose from the ground and tried to stab the three cultivators that were plundering the forest.
More than one hundred sharp roots converged in the position of the heroic cultivators, that was the attack of more than thirty magical plants in the fourth rank!
Yet, a torrent of red flames scorched the terrain from where the roots were coming out, annihilating that attack with one spell.