The situation didn’t surprise Фэн Юань. As expected, Agunas found the archaeological team and got the report. Upon learning about the anomaly in the forest, Agunas wanted to rush over and use the Божественный зверь’s power to uncover the mastermind and question what it was planning. However, remembering Фэн Юань and Veronia’s actions, it decided against it.
The situation was unclear; if the opposing side mobilized the wild Духовные звери, it might cause a major disaster instead.
Due to Agunas not being at the temporary dormitory, Фэн Юань didn’t know what was on its mind. Before sleeping, he pulled out the pitch-black Ancient Book and left a special barrier for Jin Sha City. As for the forest area? He couldn’t take care of that.
"That Little Crocodile, I was hoping it could help me take care of this little guy, but it still landed on me."
Veronia poked the nose of the small Flame Wolf, saying беспомощно, believing it could leave the matter to Agunas, only to have it loop back to her. As for relying on Фэн Юань?
Forget it, he absolutely wouldn’t care about so much. Otherwise, the Big Cat wouldn’t have honed its culinary skills so well, not to mention Little Ice Cream, which was almost entirely cared for by Kong Qing. Sighing, Veronia casually teased the small Flame Wolf and asked Фэн Юань
"How’s this little guy’s recovery coming along?"
"It? The prescription remains unchanged, but we can extend the treatment intervals. It should fully recover in about a month, but making this little thing the Wolf King, is that going to cause any trouble?"
Glancing at the small Flame Wolf, Фэн Юань casually said. As for the Wolf King title, it was simply because Veronia and Agunas mentioned wanting to go further, so he adjusted the treatment plan.
Otherwise, with the previous treatment plan, the small Flame Wolf would have long since recovered. Naturally, the little Flame Wolf knew about what Veronia and the others did for it, but unfortunately, it still hoped to return to its pack rather than stay here.
"Another month, huh? Seems like I really got myself into some trouble."
Imitating Фэн Юань’s action of petting a wolf, Veronia muttered, albeit with a smile on her face. While complaining out loud, she actually thought it was a good way to pass the time.
Фэн Юань was unaware that Veronia had bought quite a few books related to Духовный зверь rearing during this time. After all, she had her own thoughts, and he couldn’t possibly manage what she did.
The investigation at Yellow Sand Well wasn’t finished yet, and the issue with the nearby forest area surfaced again. The archaeological team felt extremely troubled, as they didn’t expect the ruins they had originally overestimated to have so many peculiar issues.
Of course, if handled properly, the rewards would be even greater. Though the energy transmission technique from Yellow Sand Well couldn’t be directly transplanted, understanding it thoroughly would be beneficial for developing new city defense systems, and the changes in the nearby forest area even more so.
Although expecting all wild Духовные звери to control large regions like the mastermind Духовный зверь was unreasonable, enabling those that are close to Great Xia yet have returned to wandering to do something similar in other areas would be beneficial for novice Укротители зверей in other cities.
The forest area in Jin Sha City was known to be suitable for exploration by newcomers, as the wild Духовные звери there weren’t particularly aggressive. Initially, however, they didn’t know the true situation and could only speculate based on the environment and population distribution.
Little did they know something else was controlling and influencing it behind the scenes. Now that the truth was out, they hoped to create more similar novice zones while alleviating the increasing pressure on the ecological environment around cities caused by growing Духовный зверь populations.
As for the deep mountainous areas far from human habitation, such an approach wouldn’t be feasible. Not only would it be meaningless, but the Божественный зверьs might not permit it.
However, realizing these ideas hinges on effectively resolving potential crises.
As usual, the students, who had gone to bed early, were unaware that experts from the archaeological team and commanders from the military department assisting them were up all night discussing how to handle these hidden dangers.
Фэн Юань wasn’t aware of these matters and didn’t care much either. If Great Xia couldn’t handle it, he’d surely have ways to rectify it. However, since he was already in charge of things in the Hu’erma Sands, there seemed to be nothing major to worry about regarding Great Xia.
The next day, Фэн Юань chose to skip class again to investigate. This time, he directly headed to a village developing tourism, a village with one side facing the Hu’erma Sands.
Similar to the sand viewing platform in Jin Sha City, the village was also situated on a cliff, but here, the height above the rolling yellow sands was only a few meters. According to locals, the fine yellow sand below was at least five meters deep, so even though it was near the sand sea, there was no official way to reach it.
Of course, this refers to official access. In reality, there’s a narrow, unguarded path at the edge leading down to the Hu’erma Sands, but even locals rarely use it.
Besides occasionally retrieving items tourists accidentally dropped, there was little reason to venture into the famous desolation of Hu’erma Sands.
Unlike the modern buildings in Jin Sha City, most of the village housed traditional-style stone houses Фэн Юань had seen before. Yet, to make them more appealing, locals planted many wind-resistant climbing plants on the exterior stone walls.
"The scenery here is quite nice, though it’s too close to the sand sea."
Veronia approached Фэн Юань holding a drink, speaking as he was leaning on a railing, admiring the rolling yellow sands and the lush forest dividing them.
From this small square, one could clearly see the Hu’erma Sands, or more accurately, this irregularly shaped circular square was the village’s center. The houses were built around this circle, with a third of it abutting the Hu’erma Sands, allowing views of the sand sea from both the houses within the village and the farmland behind them.
Of course, for locals, this scenery was probably something they had grown tired of, but for tourists, it was a novel experience.
"All the houses here are hundreds of years old. They sure didn’t skimp on materials back then."
With a quirky smile, Veronia remarked to Фэн Юань, who replied nonchalantly,
"Would they dare cut corners when building their own homes? Hmm... really, nothing special discovered. The barrier used to mitigate sandstorms is a common technique from the Golden Feather Dynasty, or rather, it’s not exclusive to the Dynasty."
Scanning the surrounding tetrahedral crystals of the square, Фэн Юань explained that the tetrahedral crystals set around the square were a widely adopted form of wind barrier in the Divine Land Region.
The Golem Crystal used as a raw material could even be transformed from stone by a Духовный зверь’s ultimate move, making it very cheap. Naturally, this also meant its effectiveness was limited.
Even against regular sandstorms, it could only reduce the impact but not completely block it. Nonetheless, that’s enough. Given the material is so cheap and easy to obtain, for small villages like these, it’s the most cost-effective form of defense.
Even if it only partially defends against disasters and mitigates natural calamities, at least it won’t fail due to lack of maintenance funds.
Even now, this method is widely used in regions subject to extreme weather. Naturally, if such weather could cause major disasters, mere use of a wind barrier wouldn’t suffice.
"However, during that period, wind barriers weren’t as commonly disseminated as today, so this thing..."
Giving Фэн Юань a look, Veronia didn’t finish her sentence, but Фэн Юань, understanding her implication, shook his head and said,
"I know what you mean, but hadn’t we guessed that the village might be its handiwork? Even though we don’t know what it wants, it surely is connected to whatever dwells in the Hu’erma Sands."
Turning his gaze to the endless sand sea, Фэн Юань sighed. He didn’t know what mysteries lay hidden there, but he suspected that, like Veronia, creatures from older times, bewildered by the new era, resided within.

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