Overturned Tower

In the mountains and fields in early autumn, the smoke-like heat has gradually dissipated.

If you look down at the earth from above, you can see the gray-white dry land criss-crossing one after another like scars. There were no weeds, no wildflowers, and no trees. There were no houses built on it, not even animals.

Under the high autumn sun, they were shining with an icy silver-grey light.

Like a pale corpse floating on the lake, illuminated by the moonlight.

It is also like the salt particles precipitated from the dead fish washed up by the sea water.

That is the evidence of the great sin of mankind in the past when they pierced the world with poisonous blades and hurt each other... It was a mark burned and oiled with a malicious iron.

And beyond these marks filled with the aura of death, the aura of human civilization is still permeating the wilderness.

Henrik is a woodcutter.

In today's era, lumberjacking is a job that requires both skill and physical strength and is highly dangerous. But Henry is different from other lumberjacks...the ax he uses is not a stone ax, nor is it an ax made of metal fragments obtained from the relics of the old era.

Instead, through transactions with the Sky Islanders, they obtained advanced tools created by "Sky Technology". Not only is it more durable, handy and strong, but it's also sharp enough.

Those Sky Island people would graze their slaves on the ground, let them wear some strange metal tools, and obey their orders to cut wood and mine. This is just like the people on earth herding livestock.

Henrik doesn't understand Skylanders very well.

They are always arrogant - the leaders who herd slaves, always covered with thick shells, and even their faces are not exposed. It is a kind of strong armor and a "protective suit" at the same time. According to the old scholar in the village, when the radiation on the ground was relatively strong in the past, they also had to wear this kind of thing when they went to search for things in the ruins.

Curse and radiation are two different invisible crises.

On the land that has become "gray-white", there are always one or both of them. Even the ruins and relics with the most materials are always haunted by these things, like ghosts. Even the relics of the old times that adventurers worked hard and risked their lives to bring out from them may have been contaminated.

The curse cannot be prevented by any means, and the flesh and blood will be deformed after a period of time after contact - either tentacles will grow, or an extra eye will appear, or wounds will not heal, and the eyes will appear. Things become strange, strange visual and auditory hallucinations occur, and memory impairment occurs.

Generally speaking, the curse will occur within half a day, and you will feel obvious physical discomfort before the onset. But because of this, curses are easier to detect. Before the curse officially begins, it can be washed away with holy water from the priests.

It is said that the previous curse was much more powerful, not only did the onset of the disease occur more quickly, but it was also not easy to dispel. But now the curse, like the radiation, has become much weaker.

As for radiation, it can only be isolated through protective clothing. Because radiation dust accumulates in the body, the continuous damage caused to cells and even genes cannot be treated by the priests.

Just like old Newt from the neighboring village... Even if his wounds were healed by the village priest, it wouldn't be long before his flesh and blood would ulcerate, his skin would crack, and pus would flow from his body and emit a foul odor. Last month, there were not many wounds on his body, but his spirit became worse and worse. He held his stomach and screamed in pain every day. He screamed heart-wrenchingly and rolled on the ground. The wounds on his body were all split open, leaving streaks of blood on the ground.

The old man said that he had cancer. It should be stomach cancer, intestinal cancer, liver cancer or pancreatic cancer.

The priest had no way to cure him and could only feed him a cup of aphrodisiac sweet milk. Let him die in his sleep.

The old people in the village always say that there is no radiation on the ground now.

There are still some curses, but not much. Those people on the empty islands were so cautious that they even carried oxygen tanks and did not breathe the air on the ground... They were really cowardly.

But as Henrik said, the radiation may not be gone. Those Sky Island people are cleaner, more beautiful and smarter than them. They wear such heavy protective clothing when they come down to the ground, which means that radiation probably still exists. Old Newt's ability to get radiation sickness is an example.

As long as people on the ground get radiation sickness, it will definitely not be cured on the ground. Only Sky Islanders can possibly save them.

But those high-altitude sky islanders will not let anyone on the ground fly to the sky island. Henrik had seen many leaders of the Sky Island people begging for help and wanted to sneak to the Sky Island on the supply ship, but they were all sternly rejected. Those who tried to board the ship secretly were eventually executed.

The Sky Islanders strictly control the flow of supplies. Henrik was able to obtain this ax because his brother had entered the ruins before.

His brother didn't dare to go in too deep, so he walked around the door and picked up a black crystal slate.

It should be some kind of electronic device. They gathered around and studied it, feeling that it should be left by the adventurers who entered the ruins early.

The reason why ruins become ruins is that they were not destroyed completely enough. This thing looks very fragile. If it had been in the ruins, it would have been destroyed long ago. It should have accidentally fallen out when someone left or entered, and then it has been sitting here without anyone noticing.

After staying in the radiation zone for so long, it has become useless. But they were lucky... After opening it, they took out a relatively intact battery. At least it can be charged and discharged. They sold the battery to an old scholar in the village and bought their family's first calf.

After Henryk wiped the remaining slate clean, he tried to sell it to a group of Sky Islanders.

Because his brother was knocked down by a falling tree while logging, his arm was broken and had to be amputated. Henryk originally wanted to replace the mechanical arm of the Skylanders - he could see clearly that some slaves were also equipped with this expensive-looking thing. But I don’t know whether it’s because the language has become different, and there is a communication barrier between them...or maybe because he didn’t pay enough, they are still unwilling to give that thing to themselves.

They are obviously parts of a slave, so it shouldn't be because the price is not high enough. It can only be a communication problem. Henrik was remorseful.

But in the end, he got a very advanced and handy axe. So Henryk quickly forgot the unpleasant things before.

After cutting down the tree and carefully pushing it down, Henrik finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He sat on the log, picked up the corner of his clothes and wiped his sweat. He took out a piece of boiled corn from his arms, peeled it, and prepared it for a delicious meal.

This was the time when they were harvesting corn. But compared to dried corn, fresh corn is more delicious. After this season, it is not so easy to eat fresh corn.

Usually, they can eat quite a lot. Tomatoes, corns, radishes, potatoes, beans, amaranth... By exchanging crops with surrounding villages, each year's life will be better than the previous year.

But when winter comes, it becomes even more difficult.

Even if we are prepared every winter, many people will die. Some froze to death, some died of starvation, some caught fire, were suffocated by charcoal fire, had their houses sealed by snow, and died of illness... Venturing out in winter was also the main cause of death. After the autumn harvest, those radiation beasts will become very manic if they cannot find food for a long time. If the smell accidentally leaks out, the radiation beast may break down the wall directly.

They would stock up on firewood, seal up the windows, and stay at home to survive on the food they had stockpiled. Radiated beasts are particularly ferocious in winter, and hunters are reluctant to catch them. Moreover, the smell of blood is difficult to deal with - the water in the river will freeze to death in winter. If you want to get some meaty taste in your mouth, you have to rely on those smoked bacon sausages.

Those radioactive beasts that wander outside and eat crops, farmers, loggers and hunters, although they look ugly, twisted and scary, after being skinned, the meat inside is still edible after being processed. On weekdays, it is also a rare delicacy.

As for clean beef, they are definitely not willing to eat it... Milk is already an extremely expensive food. In most cases, beef can only be eaten by the elderly, pregnant women, hunters who are seriously injured and about to die, and the smartest children. . The rest is sold to the Sky Islanders in exchange for medicines, advanced tools and engineering parts that they cannot produce, as well as some seeds that are very useful after breeding.

In late autumn, the entire village's labor force will be dispatched together, and even work with surrounding villages to set up some traps to capture those radioactive beasts that are somewhat intelligent but not smart enough.

Their meat is marinated and then smoked and grilled; their intestines can also be taken out, washed, stuffed with blood and visceral fragments, and then hung outside to dry. When winter comes, relying on the melted snow water, taking out some dried meat and vegetables, and cooking a pot of hot soup, you can survive the wind and snow for a while longer.

The little electricity left in the village has to be used to ensure the low-temperature storage of the most precious medicines. There was no wind or water in their village, so the old scholar made a human-powered power generation device, which allowed the children to ride bicycles to get some of the little electricity. The extra electricity is usually used to keep babies warm or ensure the safety of childbirth operations.

It's all about continuity.

Without the "baby room", the infant mortality rate would at least double; without Grandma Li's delivery and care, the probability of pregnant women dying of infection would also be high.

All adults respect these old people who have survived from the old times.

Scholars, priests, old hunters... almost all the surviving old people have some unique skills.

Young people will use a hanging bag of bacon and a hanging sausage to give to the old people who can no longer get food, hoping that they can teach their children some knowledge. The old people don't hide anything, and they even teach some things for free. But as the number of old people who have experienced the world-destroying war is getting smaller and smaller year by year, many inheritances are gradually being lost.

It is said that the Sky Islanders also lived on the ground before.

Later, after the World Extermination War, they were tired of the radiation and curse on the ground and went to the sky.

Occasionally, Henrik would think... Would it really be interesting to stay in the sky?

A floating island floating in the sky doesn't sound very big. Henrik had seen the island, which was a round island with two mountains. About seven or eight villages can live in it, and if it is more densely packed, it can live in more than 20 villages. But in that case, there would be no place to raise cattle and sheep - so why would they spend a lot of money to buy cattle and sheep from the ground? In that case, why didn't they let the slaves raise cattle and sheep?

If you live in the sky, will you be stuck by the clouds while walking on the road? When the clouds leave the sky island and it rains, will you fall from the sky island? So I heard that when people were fishing at the beach, they would also find some drowned Islanders who washed up on the shore. Almost every one of them is a rich man, equipped with many advanced technologies.

Moreover, if you live in the sky, will the sun become very hot? By night time, it would be too cold again. When it's hot and cold, you might catch a cold.

However, the medical technology in heaven is very advanced. They probably won't get sick. However, the books over there seemed to be very expensive. The old scholar wrote a book about the engineering techniques he had mastered and sold it for a very high price... in exchange for a pair of glasses and a box of antibiotics.

I heard that it was because they lacked paper that could be used to make books, because they lacked wood. It may be that the Sky Island is bare, without even a tree - the evidence is that the Sky Islanders who were slaves actually said that they were "so beautiful" when they saw the bare ground.

It is said that before the war, there were more than hundreds or thousands of trees on that mountain. Instead, thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of woods were destroyed by fire and artillery fire. But Henrik felt that this might be the old man bragging... If the world was really so beautiful before, why didn't they build an identical one on the empty island?

They couldn't chat with the "slaves" of the Heavenly Ones, but Henrik would be nearby and eavesdrop on their conversations. From their words, Henryk pieced together the appearance of an empty island:

They built cities with white marble. The city shone with holy light, had moving statues of gods, and echoed with holy hymns all the time. There are rivers flowing on the ground that lead to everywhere, and the water in the rivers is clear and clean.

There are also mermaids swimming in the river and angels flying high in the sky. Whenever something happens to anyone, the execution department will arrive as soon as possible. There was smoke everywhere - Henrik thought, it should be clouds - it would not be dark even at night. People tried their best to hope that others could be happy. Whatever happened, they could be reported to reporters as if they had wings. The ladies are delivered to everyone's bedside immediately.

Even if they lose arms and limbs, they can still work. Even a person with no skills can sell himself for a good price.

——And they also have "heroes".

What a coveted existence that is!

Born from the depths of despair, he saves all sentient beings from danger.

If heroes really exist in this world, then he would have admired such a person as a child - and the most encouraging thing is that anyone can become a hero.

Can I be that person?

That was probably impossible, Henrik thought. Because he is not from Sky Island.

He couldn't even understand the words they were talking about - some terms he had no idea what they meant. Henrik deeply realized that although they had only been separated for a hundred years, their languages ​​​​were completely different.

But at this moment, Henryk suddenly heard a strange and polite voice behind him:

"Can I sit here for a moment, friend?"

"Ah, OK. You are free to..."

Henrik subconsciously felt that the voice was not right. Because his words were too polite, like the kind of words only a scholar would say.

And when Henryk turned around, he was shocked——

It was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties.

There are two deep nasolabial wrinkles on his face, and his eyes are deep and compassionate. There was an illusory halo above his head, which was emitting a bright glow. He was wearing a dirty cloth robe. It might have been white before, but now it showed a dirty dark yellow color. His pupils are a warm yellow, a color that reminds people of sunset and dusk.

This is……

"——Lord Angel!"

Henryk knelt down almost immediately and prostrated on the ground: "I, I have heard of you, the savior who returned from the old era——"

"Get up, friend."

The man's expression is calm and solemn, and his low and magnetic voice is reassuring: "There is no angel, let alone a savior. I am just a lone traveler."

"You can call me...Hua Mingshu."

Two-in-one, updated meow!