In the clear blue sky, several enormous figures, riding the fierce winds of the heavens, reigned supreme over the firmament with an elegance and terrifying oppressive force disproportionate to their size.

They were so enormous that Lin Feng initially could hardly regard them as living beings, but rather as several ice crystal mountains floating in the sky, moving slowly!

These 'mountains' possess life, radiating a majesty that makes all things tremble.

Their wingspan, once fully extended, would probably be tens of meters!

The shadows cast alone were enough to cover the vast forests.

The feathers were not the gray-black or brown of any bird that Lin Feng knew, but rather had a peculiar, translucent texture, as if sculpted from the purest, millennia-old ice.

Sunlight penetrates their sky-covering wings, refracting into a rainbow halo like countless facets of a giant diamond, so magnificent it's breathtaking, yet it carries an extreme coldness and sharpness, dazzling and mesmerizing, making one afraid to look directly at it.

Each flap of its giant wings, formed from ice crystals and light, is not silent, but accompanied by a terrifying howl that tears the sky apart, the swirling air currents carving deep furrows in the sea of ​​clouds.

Countless fist-sized ice crystals, gleaming with a cold light, rained down from their wingtips like a blizzard, tracing brief but chillingly brilliant paths through the air. Each ice crystal contained terrifying cold energy capable of freezing steel.

Their beaks and claws are even more ferocious and terrifying, gleaming with the sharpest and purest obsidian-like chilling light.

With the opening and closing of its giant beak, it can easily tear apart mountains and peck through the earth.

The sharp edges of the hanging giant claws gleamed with a ghostly light capable of piercing through everything.

Those eyes were no longer described as sharp as lightning; they were more like two eerie stars hanging high in the sky, burning with icy blue flames, coldly watching over all living beings below.

Even across the vast distance, Lin Feng could feel the supreme pride contained within, the pride of an ancient, primordial overlord.

Just by looking into his eyes, he felt an extreme sense of oppression emanating from a higher level of life rushing towards him, almost suffocating him.

Lin Feng looked up at these beautiful yet extremely deadly aerial emperors soaring high in the sky.

Their very existence is the ultimate display of power, a declaration of absolute dominion over the sky!

His heart was filled with indescribable shock, deep awe, and a burning longing, almost too intense to bear, to control such a magnificent creature.

This is the true and undisputed ruler of the skies on this planet!

Everything that exists before them is as insignificant as dust.

After a long while, he slowly recovered from this extreme shock and murmured a name for these terrifying and magnificent creatures: "Radiant Winged Ice Falcon!"

During his several days of exploration on this wind-eroded highland, Lin Feng also discovered some other unique and valuable plants.

For example, in a leeward rock crevice, he found a peculiar herb with unusually thick leaves that resembled bear paws on Earth.

The leaves of this plant are dark green and covered with a layer of fine white fuzz, making it look as if it were truly wearing a bear skin.

Lin Feng used a knife to cut open a leaf of the "bear paw" plant and discovered that it contained a large amount of clear, slightly viscous juice.

He carefully tasted a little; the juice was slightly sweet with a faint grassy aroma. After drinking it, it not only effectively relieved his thirst but also had a certain effect on restoring his physical strength and spirit.

"Bear Paw Grass." Lin Feng named it and collected many leaves of this plant as drinking water and energy supplements during his journey.

There was another plant called "Flaming Heart Berry" that delighted him even more.

This plant typically grows in relatively warm areas where a small amount of geothermal steam escapes from rock crevices. They are low shrubs with dark red branches and small, stiff leaves.

The fruits they produce are only the size of a human fingernail, and are a bright red color, like a burning flame. They are crystal clear and quite beautiful.

Lin Feng was initially worried that the brightly colored berries were poisonous, so he only picked a few and used them to test on the snow rats he had captured.

After the snow rat ate it, it showed no signs of poisoning; on the contrary, it became even more active. Only then did Lin Feng feel relieved and tried one himself.

The moment the Flameheart Berry entered his mouth, a rich juice burst forth, spicy yet subtly sweet. Immediately afterward, a scorching warmth, like a small flame igniting, rose rapidly from his abdomen and quickly spread throughout his body!

Wherever a warm current passed, all the chill was completely dispelled, and one felt warm and full of energy.

"Great stuff! It's practically a natural warming agent and energy bar!"

Lin Feng was overjoyed. On this frigid ice plain, the value of the Flameheart Berry, which could provide heat, was self-evident. He immediately picked all the Flameheart Berry he found and carefully packed them into animal skin bags.

What surprised and delighted him most was that in a secluded basin surrounded by several huge ring-shaped rocks tens of meters high, resembling a natural castle, he discovered several strangely shaped "trees".

These trees are not very tall, only about three or four meters high, but their canopies are exceptionally large, spreading out like giant parasols, almost completely covering the sky above the small basin.

The shape of the leaves is also very peculiar, like a maple leaf magnified countless times, but the color is a deep, almost black, dark purple, and the edge of the leaf is inlaid with a ring of clearly visible, shimmering golden veins.

If that were all, it wouldn't be enough to surprise Lin Feng so much.

What truly amazed him was that when night fell, this small basin did not descend into darkness and cold like other places.

The deep purple leaves of these peculiar "umbrella trees" have begun to emit a soft and warm orange-yellow light!

The light was not dazzling; instead, it carried a reassuringly warm hue, illuminating the entire small basin as if it were dusk.

Moreover, Lin Feng could clearly sense that these glowing leaves were continuously emitting a faint warmth.

This resulted in the temperature inside this small basin, sheltered by the ring-shaped giant rock and the luminous giant umbrella, being at least ten degrees higher than the area outside the basin!

"Sunwood!"

Lin Feng stared in awe at these strange trees that shone and radiated heat like miniature suns, his heart filled with awe at the wonders of creation.

This is simply a natural, perfect source of light and heat for the campsite!

He even found some small, gentle, rabbit-like herbivores beneath these sun-ring trees, quietly nestled under the sunlit and warm trunks, enjoying the rare warmth and tranquility on this icy plain.

Lin Feng didn't disturb the small animals; he simply spent a rare, comfortable, and peaceful night in the warm basin illuminated by the sun-ringed trees.

On the animal hide map, he marked the location of the "warm basin" and the "sunwheel tree" with the most conspicuous symbols.

This place could serve as an important transit point and rest stop for his future exploration further north.

As the animal hide map became more and more detailed, Lin Feng began to turn his attention to some areas that had been temporarily set aside because the environment was too dangerous or the phenomena were too mysterious.

He rode on the White Moonlight, with Wangcai and White Jade in tow, and arrived at the edge of a huge canyon that was perpetually shrouded in a thick, grayish-white fog.

This canyon is like a terrifying scar cleaved into the earth by an ancient giant with a sharp axe, its bottom unfathomable.

The rolling fog, like the breath of a giant beast, slowly surged, rose, and changed in the canyon, completely burying everything at the bottom of the canyon.

From the depths of the canyon, strange, unsettling sounds could be heard from time to time. Sometimes they sounded like the sharp whistling of a gale passing through a narrow crevice in the rock, and sometimes they sounded like the deep, oppressive roars or murmurs of some enormous, unknown creature.

Lin Feng did not rashly attempt to enter the bottom of the canyon.

The dense fog here not only severely impaired visibility, but also contained some unknown, corrosive or toxic components, causing him to feel a slight stinging sensation on his skin.

He decided to use the exceptional gliding abilities of the White Moonlight and White Emerald to find safe footholds and observation positions between the steep rock walls on both sides of the canyon.

The wildebeest's fleshy wings spread out like two giant feather fans. Riding the ever-changing air currents in the canyon, they were able to glide and leap short distances with precision, allowing Lin Feng to explore the cliffs that were inaccessible to ordinary people.

On a relatively prominent rock face platform in the middle of the canyon, Lin Feng discovered a peculiar type of fungus that left a very deep impression on him.

These fungi do not grow upwards, but rather cling tightly to the damp rock surface like grayish-white, wrinkled growths. They vary in size, from as small as a fist to as large as a millstone.

Lin Feng didn't pay much attention at first, but when Bai Yueguang landed, the horse's hoof accidentally stepped on a small "tumor", and a strange thing happened!

With a muffled "bang," the grayish-white tumor suddenly burst open.

A visible, chilling white cloud of spores, like a smoke bomb, burst forth from the exploding fungus and spread rapidly in all directions!

Lin Feng felt an extreme chill rush towards him, and he instinctively used his arm to shield himself.

When the chill dissipated, he was horrified to find that the rock that Bai Yueguang had been standing on, as well as the surrounding rock walls and ground within an area of ​​about one or two square meters, had been covered by a thick, hard layer of white frost in just a few seconds.

Even the moisture in the air was instantly frozen into countless tiny ice crystals, shimmering with a cold light in the sunlight!

"Exploding Frost Spore!" Lin Feng gasped, immediately naming this terrifying fungus.

He carefully used a long stick he had shaved from an iron-boned bamboo to touch another, slightly larger, exploding frost spore from a distance. The result was the same as before: with a dull popping sound, an even larger area was instantly frozen!

Lin Feng immediately classified these exploding cold spores as highly dangerous items.

However, he also keenly realized that if a safe method could be found to collect and utilize these spores, they could become a powerful "freezing weapon."

He carefully marked the distribution areas of these bursting frost spores on the map and highlighted their danger in bright red.

The dense fog in the canyon has always been the biggest obstacle to Lin Feng's exploration.

In the occasional gaps when the fog dissipated, he could vaguely glimpse enormous black shadows rapidly climbing and moving between the cliffs opposite the canyon, or in the deeper shadows.

They were incredibly fast, like giant spiders running on a vertical rock face, but due to the distance and the thick fog, Lin Feng was never able to see their true forms.

He could only deduce, based on the huge, plow-like claw marks he found on some rock walls, and the strange, pungent, slimy traces scattered on the rocks, that it was an unknown predatory creature of enormous size, terrifying strength, and exceptional skill in climbing cliffs.

He temporarily named it "Mist-Hidden Giant Claw".

What made Lin Feng even more uneasy and confused was the low, continuous "humming" sound that seemed to come from the depths of the earth, coming from the deepest part of the canyon, where the fog was thickest and the light was dimmest.

The sound was unlike any roar or howl he knew of; it carried an indescribable rhythm, imbued with a certain regularity and wisdom, more like an ancient sigh filled with sorrow and majesty.

Lin Feng vaguely sensed that at the bottom of this bottomless misty canyon, there might be something more fundamental than he could currently imagine or understand.

While using the moonlight for a short gliding trip to explore a relatively narrow branch rift valley on one side of the canyon, Lin Feng unexpectedly discovered an incredibly deep cave entrance.

The entrance to the cave was hidden behind a huge, waterfall-like cascade of petrified vines, and it would have been almost impossible to spot without careful observation.

A strong and steady stream of air was blowing from the cave entrance, carrying a strong, pungent smell of sulfur, as well as a rusty and acidic odor similar to that produced by excessive oxidation of metal.

Lin Feng's heart skipped a beat. He knew that this kind of smell was usually related to volcanic activity or intense geothermal activity deep underground.

He lit a torch and explored only about a hundred meters into the cave near the entrance before making an astonishing discovery.

The cave walls were not ordinary rocks, but rather a strange, dark red color, as if they had been scorched by fire. Moreover, embedded within these dark red walls were numerous glittering metallic ores of various colors.

One of the most abundant and conspicuous types is a crystalline mineral that appears as a deep, dark red color, like congealed blood.

Lin Feng carefully chipped a small piece of this dark red crystalline ore from the rock wall with his battle sword.

The ore was quite heavy and exceptionally hard; even when scratched with the blade of a battle sword, it could only leave a shallow white mark on its surface.

What surprised him even more was that when he held the dark red ore in his palm, he could clearly feel a faint but continuous warmth emanating from inside the ore.

"Fire Crystal Ore?"

Lin Feng tried to name this peculiar mineral. He immediately realized that this deep cave might be connected to a huge volcanic belt deep beneath the planet, or a treasure trove rich in geothermal energy and various rare minerals!

This is also a treasure trove with unlimited potential that will require a lot of time and effort to explore in the future, but it will inevitably be accompanied by immeasurable dangers.

Lin Feng solemnly marked the location of the "Flame Crystal Mine" on the map with a burning flame symbol.