Chapter 549 — Reconnaissance

That was the Black Forest, the Black Forest painted in such vivid, heavy strokes across every epic, biography, and poem—the product of magic-tide corruption, the result of the natural world's compromise with chaotic magic energy. It could swallow any explorer who was not careful enough—and yet it was only the outermost fringe of the magic tide.

Even the Great Wall was still hundreds of kilometers away from here.

"So this is the boundary of the civilized world..." Amber stood beside Gao Yang. The half-elf, who had never feared anything, could not help but tense up now that she had seen the Black Forest with her own eyes—though she had once stood at the outpost atop the Dark Mountains and gazed at the Black Forest on the southern slopes, that distant, safe vantage from high on a mountain peak could hardly compare with the impact of having it right here before her.

Now she stood here, only a few hundred meters from the nearest edge of the Black Forest; she could even smell the stench of decay drifting up from the south—though that was most likely an illusion conjured by her own mind.

"We once had the chance to push this boundary southward. A hundred years ago, when the magic-tide aura was receding, if the pioneering spirit had still been alive then, the Ansus could have pushed the southern border all the way to the Great Wall and built a more controllable barrier there—but Ansus let the chance slip, and humanity handed this land over," Gao Yang sighed. "The Black Forest is beyond saving. Corrupted to this degree, I'm afraid even the Great Stag Amorn rising to his feet couldn't save it."

As he spoke, Gao Yang lifted his head and looked toward the southwest.

According to the comparison he had made against the satellite view in his mind, that mysteriously appeared impact crater should be somewhere not far to the southwest.

The rift left by the mountain collapse was indeed a tremendous hidden danger, but it was not without its benefits—now the Defiance Fortress had connected Cecil with the southern region of the Dark Mountains. This facility, built by the ancient Gondorians a thousand years ago, had at this moment become a tunnel through the mountain; through it, he need not climb the steep mountain paths to reach the southern region.

And with the convenient passages inside the Defiance Fortress, we could send large quantities of supplies straight to the southern slopes of the Dark Mountains. Once the fortifications here are solid, turning the whole Shadow Testing Ground into a forward bastion might be a good idea too.

Amber watched Gao Yang suddenly fall into thought, staring off into the distance, and after holding it in for a long while she finally could not help breaking the silence: "Hey, what are you looking at?"

Gao Yang answered casually, "Since we're already out this way... we may as well go take a look at the situation."

"...You still haven't let this go?!" Amber was startled. "It's just a landslide, isn't it—look around, isn't that just it?"

"This collapsed after the first 'quake,' but the original 'epicenter' wasn't here," Gao Yang said, glancing at Amber. "From what I can sense, there seems to be an abnormal magical fluctuation to the southwest."

A legendary powerhouse's "perception" was a catch-all excuse, and Amber had no choice but to trust Gao Yang's judgment—but looking at the Black Forest in the distance, so dense it was frightening, swarming with all manner of wildly mutated plants and harboring who knew how many dangerous monsters, the half-elf lady felt her scalp tingle. "You're not going to make me come with you, are you...? I'm allergic to the Black Forest..."

"Of course you're coming along," Gao Yang said, glancing at the coward. "But I'll have to clear a path first—Sir Byron, come here a moment."

Byron hurried over to Gao Yang. "My lord, you wanted me?"

"I mean to investigate in that direction," Gao Yang said, raising a hand to point at the southwestern slope. "It should be inside the Black Forest."

As a half-made knight of mercenary origins with rich adventuring experience, Byron reacted at once. "Oh, of course. I'll organize a batch of men skilled in scouting—"

"No need. Let Su Jilin's people prepare the scouts," Gao Yang cut him off. "You bring eighteen medium 'Justice' railguns over. I'll give you a few parameters—blast me a road in that direction..."

Byron was dumbfounded. "...My lord, didn't you say scouting...?"

"That's right. Firepower scouting."

Hearing this, Amber, standing nearby, looked just as bewildered. "How come I remember firepower scouting meaning something different the last time you explained it to me...?"

"But this is beyond the borders of civilization, the edge of the wasteland," Gao Yang said with a smile. He patted Amber on the shoulder, then looked at Byron. "Remember—out in this wasteland, the only trick for staying alive is to destroy every threat, the only safety code is that nothing is safe, and the only scouting is firepower scouting."