Throne of the North.

Chapter 552: Nidhogg's final persistence, the background of the spiritual panel
Frozen collar.

People are always in a state of panic when there is no lord, but when Ryan comes back, the anxiety disappears.

"Before this winter, a batch of construction resources will be delivered to the frozen land. At least we need to build the foundation first."

Ryan handed the task over to Dean Rose. There had already been a preliminary plan for the Great Wall Fortress, and what was needed now was a huge amount of materials and population labor to support this plan.

"I helped the nobles of the Northern Wind Province prevent them from going to the south to participate in the war. They can't just say nothing. Why don't you write them a letter? The last thing the Northern Wind Province lacks is these cheap materials for building."

"I also want them to send people to help me build the road."

The several major projects under Ryan's command all require a large amount of labor. Even the nobles of the North Wind Province can only provide him with a part of it. The real bulk of the labor force still has to come from Nidhogg.

After returning to the Frozen Territory, Master Ryan rested for only three days. After making sure that there was no urgent news of a sudden change in the war in the south, he entered the Nidhogg Dragon Spirit World again.

The sky over Nidhogg was becoming paler and paler.

Ryan still remembered that when he first entered this world, the sky of the world was full of wildness. Raging winds and heavy rains were common, representing the savagery and hideousness of the dragons. But now, the dragons have disappeared, the North has replaced the authority above, and the sky no longer has the boiling vitality.

"I'm afraid this world, like the other world in the mountains and forests, won't last long."

On the one hand, Ryan regretted that he might not be able to open the next different world for a long time. On the other hand, he was worried that when the time came, he would not be ready to accommodate the two million people.

Ryan thought about it, suddenly raised his head, and asked:

"Did you feel the sky flash just now?"

Ryan seemed to have caught a glimpse of some activity in the pale sky just now, but he was not sure because the moment was too brief.

Beside him, Brand shook his head, he found nothing.

"Illusion?"

Ryan lowered his head, then looked up in an instant.

The sky was filled with ripples, which lasted until this moment.

"There is indeed a problem."

Ryan reined in his horse, and the knights and servants around him became nervous, surrounding him and watching for any movement that might occur in all directions.

What could possibly be hidden in the void?
Ryan didn't know, was it something left behind by those space magicians? Or was it the soul of a giant dragon in this world that escaped from the slaughter? Or maybe...

No matter what it is, Ryan can be sure that he has no way to force an existence that can hide in the void.

His methods were too physical, and he had no way to deal with the extraordinary properties of the void.

After being stuck in a stalemate for a long time, Ryan had no choice but to order the team to move on.

Not long after, they arrived at the Blue Butterfly City. Seeing Ryan's arrival, hundreds of people knelt down, and then the scale of the incident grew larger and larger. After everyone in the Blue Butterfly City knew of his arrival, more human slaves knelt and crawled on the ground.

Ryan raised his head, and this time he felt that the gaze in the void was even more angry and unwilling.

Not only him, Brand also noticed it.

"A very... familiar smell."

Brand's words gave Ryan some confidence in his guess.

"It seems that this world should have been His victory."

Ryan laughed. There were three gods in the alien world of Nidhogg: the Demon Dragon, the Dragon God and the Dragon Emperor.

Among them, the Dragon Emperor was defeated in the war a long time ago, died and fled to the Norris continent, and was finally discovered and inherited by Ryan.

The remaining Demon Dragon and the Dragon God in Nidhogg are fighting for the power of the Dragon Emperor and trying to swallow each other in sleep. On the surface, the Demon Dragon with a strong body seems to have the upper hand, but in fact, the Dragon God is sure to win.

However, under the influence of a series of Lions, the two great beings were unable to completely occupy Nidhogg, and the world was left without gods.

But...looking back now, it seems that the Dragon Emperor is the final winner.

Both great beings have left, but the fallen Dragon Emperor, or the world of Nidhogg itself, seems to have given birth to the next generation of 'Dragon Emperor'.

The will of this world is cohesive.

But what the Dragon Emperor probably didn't expect was that the invasion from the North plunged the world into a desperate disaster, and Ryan's spiritual panel and a series of operations allowed him to intercept the faith that should have belonged to him.

Looking at the humans kneeling on the ground around them, their faith is Ryan, not the Dragon Emperor.

If it were just that, it would be fine, but the key point is that Ryan can absorb the power of faith through the spiritual panel, so that the Dragon Emperor can't get a single bite.

He cannot grow, and the world gradually dies.

So He was anxious.

Exposed in front of Ryan.

"Let them harvest the crops."

A lot of the grain in Nidhogg has matured, and Blue Butterfly City was the first to plant it.

When there were no more people around, the resentment in the void would disappear, and Ryan said:
"Come out and let's talk!"

Ryan's voice echoed, and ripples appeared in the void. He obviously heard it, but didn't want to pay attention to Ryan.

"This world will die in a few years, and you will die then, even if I give you back your faith."

"Maybe I can save you, just like before. You know what kind of power I have, right?"

The Dragon Emperor would not choose Ryan as his successor for no reason. Even if he did not know the existence of the spiritual panel, he definitely knew its power.

Sure enough, the new Dragon Emperor in the void hesitated.

Then Ryan saw a transparent dragon with a head no bigger than his palm and wings no bigger than his two arms flying down from the sky. The only opaque thing about it was its pair of eyes that were like water droplets. The big eyes looked at Ryan, full of grievance and pity.

Is this thing the Dragon Emperor? Ryan remained skeptical and said:
"You seem very weak."

It is certainly weak, without a drop of the faith that should have been its source.

“The world is dying.”

Ryan said this again. The Dragon Emperor in front of him, no, it should be the Dragon Spirit, knew better than Ryan, otherwise He would not be so anxious to expose his existence when he was so weak.

The instinct for survival made him look for the only life-saving straw.

After searching for a long time, Ryan was the only option.

Because He is a dragon spirit, and also because of Ryan's spiritual panel.

Ryan's spiritual panel emerged, and sure enough, the second being who could see this transparent panel appeared. Long Ling stared at the spiritual panel with his big eyes, his big eyeballs full of desire, and he tried to fly towards the spiritual panel.

He did fly over, passing through with his entire body, then turned around and reluctantly crashed into it again, again and again, with despair in his eyes.

There is such a long distance in the world. It can see the spiritual panel right in front of it, but it can't touch it.

Finally, Long Ling's eyes could only look at Ryan.

"You want to go in?"

Ryan looked at his spiritual panel, then at Long Ling, who was obviously a living being, and always felt the wonder of the world.

Maybe this is the extraordinary world?

Ryan grabbed the dragon spirit and used himself as a medium, allowing the dragon spirit to enter.

Then, in the eyes of everyone behind Ryan, the sacred dragon spirit disappeared, and in Ryan's field of vision, he saw the dragon spirit swimming or flying like a fish on the panel that was no more than 30 centimeters long and wide. To it, the spiritual panel seemed vast and boundless.

The spirituality panel has only three lines.

【Spirituality: 1010230】

[Spiritual Blessing: Blessing from the Deer Spirit...]

[Divinity: Eternity...]

The dragon spirit appeared in the top row of spiritual balance, with its tail falling on the spiritual blessing words in the middle. Then it flew from top to bottom, and its head crashed into the divine words at the bottom, but it could not touch the words that belonged only to Ryan.

Ok……

How to say it? Ryan thought for a long time and came up with a word, dynamic background wallpaper?
The existence of the dragon spirit made the entire spiritual panel look a lot more active. It was always swimming around in the panel, making Ryan stare at it for a long time.

It was a long time before Ryan put away the panel. He couldn't help but look up and feel it silently.

None of the knights or servants around made a sound. Their loyalty to Ryan was more than just loyalty. First of all, their power was bestowed by Ryan. Secondly, the scene of Ryan inheriting the power blessed by the Dragon Emperor and fighting with the gods was imprinted deep in his soul.

To them, Ryan was not just a simple lord, noble or ruler.

They don't need to have any doubts or any confusion.

The world has become empty.

Ryan felt that this dragon spirit was indeed Nidhoggr's last persistence. It prevented Ryan from completely conquering this world and thus from opening up the next dimension of the other world.

And now, that feeling of seeing light through the clouds came, Ryan knew that he would soon be able to open the portal to the next different world.

I don’t know what kind of world it will be.

You have to know that every world Ryan has discovered so far is full of different colors, and no two worlds are the same, not only in terms of geographical environment, but also in civilization and historical customs.

Nidhogg has been harvesting grain recently. Ryan dare not be careless about this matter, because these grains are related to the life and death of countless people, and even need to be stored in large quantities in case of emergencies.

Ryan waited until the grain harvest was almost complete before he began to dispatch the population to build the Great Wall in the north.

In the process, people have started to die. This is inevitable. When there is no North, food is the most important thing for survival. But when the North gradually covers the land of Nidhogg, food and warmth have to take precedence over hunger.

No one in Nidhogg had any experience in resisting the cold. After all, in the old Nidhogg, the dragons' bodies were filled with so much heat that even glaciers did not exist in this world.

It’s different now, and we don’t know how many people will die if we go to the frozen land.

Ryan could only try his best to help with extraordinary means, as well as coal. The Alchemy Academy was gradually improving the original coal fuel. What amazed Ryan was that ordinary coal was indeed poisonous as imagined, but after extraordinary tempering, this new type of fuel containing extraordinary colors from another world prevented toxicity in confined spaces.

This may be the only consolation in the North.

Frozen collar.

A large number of people have migrated to the foot of Rhino Horn Mountain. People around here are no longer surprised because that is how they got out in the first place. Only some young people who have no memory are surprised as to why humans keep popping out of that mountain and are full of curiosity and admiration for it.

Master Ryan was waiting, waiting for the arrival of winter, waiting for the arrival of imperial supplies, and waiting for these migrated populations to settle down at the military fort defense line.

The entire North Wind Province was quiet, unlike the hustle and bustle and heated discussions about war in the southern lands.

The only excitement was the bumper harvest of grain. Nothing was more exciting than seeing food growing on the land. Especially this year, not only did the cultivated land in the swamp increase in yield, but all the land that Ryan sent last year to help the nobles reclaim and plant also grew grain.

Ryan fulfilled his promise to the nobles, but also drove them crazy because they needed food.

Count Sauron needs food to feed his newly trained dragon blood warriors, each of which eats the food of dozens of people every day. Count Winter also needs food because too many people died in his territory and he couldn't grow much food this year. But his unicorn flying wolf, those monsters can't be full by eating leaves alone.

The petty nobles needed it too, they needed it every year, the population pressure exceeded the proportion of food their land could grow.

It's not just them, the lords are even more so. They came here from the south to the north, not only in need of food, but also accepting everyone. For this, many lords already owe Ryan a lot of money.

In short, the bumper harvest of grain is the most exciting answer for the Northern Province.

Similarly, the snowstorm blowing from the north is also the only cause of anxiety and uneasiness in the Northern Province.

In the past, this kind of weather would definitely be accompanied by an orc invasion. This year, the orcs will not invade, but the threat posed by natural disasters will still prevent many people from surviving this winter.

“Why is there a snowstorm every year in recent years?”

Overnight, before winter arrived, the Frozen Territory was already covered in white armor. The people of the Frozen Territory had to get up early to sweep the snow and pile it in the ditches. Otherwise, when the sun got bigger and the snow melted, the ground would be too wet to sweep.

No one will be in a good mood when getting up early in cold weather, so people naturally can't help but complain.

There are blizzards every year. Indeed, this is not a good sign. Ryan still remembers that there was no blizzard the year he first came to the Frozen Territory.

It only started in recent years.

Every place in the Borean Province is being rebuilt. Such weather is obviously not conducive to the development of the noble territories. I am afraid that it is not just their own territories that are complaining, but the land on the edge of the entire northern border has to do nothing about the natural disasters in the north.

The nobles' attitude towards natural disasters is to give up and wait until next spring to work, but Ryan will not do that. His attitude is not that natural disasters are more important than anything else. Even if there is a blizzard, he has to give in for the advancement of the Frozen Territory.

The snowstorm in the north was also very strange. It snowed for half a day on the first day, stopped on the second day, and started again in the evening of the second day, and then stopped again.

On and off...winter is finally here.

The blizzard stopped and the area around Rhino Horn Mountain was always covered in white snow. In this cold environment, Ryan was still waiting.

With the arrival of the Dragon Spirit, Nidhogg has been completely conquered. There may be an invisible circle rotating on the spiritual panel, searching for the existence of the next world.

So one day, Ryan woke up from his sleep and felt a biting chill, colder than any other time before.

This coldness even transmitted into his body through the spiritual panel.

Avril was awakened. As a frost mage, she seemed to be more adapted to the cold than Ryan. She asked:

"what happened?"

"It's okay, I just had a nightmare."

Nightmare? Ryan stood up and put on his fur cloak, looking at the sky outside the window. The hazy snow was high above, and the bright moon was shining, the moonlight was looming, and the quiet night could not cause a ripple under the light of this lady.

I'm afraid it's even scarier than a nightmare.

The chill made Ryan feel uneasy.

Early the next morning, he asked Brand to prepare, and this time he brought Bogeld along.

The girl had grown up, too, but her physique remained as strong as ever for her age.

There was no way. The warlike girl hadn't fought for a long time, and she was still angry that Ryan did not take her with him in the previous war between the Kingdom and the Crusaders.

"Take this fuel with you, too."

Ryan asked the butler to bring a bag of alchemical fuel, which is a fuel made from coal and various special materials, produced by the Alchemy Academy. A small thumb-sized piece can burn at extremely high and lasting temperatures.

No armor was worn. All of them were wrapped in thick military uniforms, and a thick bearskin cloak was put on the outside as defensive equipment.

The only black part on the snow-white group of one hundred people was the Rhino Horn Mountain emblem woven on their cloaks, which was the most obvious mark in the snow-white world.

"set off!"

At Ryan's command, a two or three meter high plane door opened, and the scout knight at the front entered it. After a moment, he returned with a safe report, and Ryan led the rest of the people through the portal.

“Why does it feel like the new world always begins in winter?”

(End of this chapter)