Under normal circumstances, prolonged low temperatures can produce sea ice over two meters thick.
But here, the sea ice thickness does not exceed half a meter.
Even a PC6, PC7 type light icebreaker can consistently break this thickness of ice.
Following the cold snap natural disaster, trans-oceanic shipping between various continents has not been interrupted, for this reason.
Mr. Spirit Crows, embodied by Yang Fan, lowered his head to gaze at the ice surface, murmuring softly, "Interesting!"
He could sense that the seawater seemed to harbor a peculiar warmth.
It was this warmth that continually countered the extreme cold qi, causing the ocean temperature to exceed expectations.
As for why this force has appeared.
He had a conjecture in mind: "Canglan Star entering an ice age is evidently caused by the power of the Ancient Gods.
"And the warmth harbored within the ocean is likely the 'planet consciousness' resisting the power of the Ancient Gods."
The so-called "planet consciousness" is another law-level power of Canglan Star.
He had previously discussed with Xiaoya and learned quite a bit of hidden knowledge.
The batch of world will born from the Canglan Civilization is a product of the gathering of human subconsciousness; the planet itself similarly gave birth to a consciousness.
According to Xiaoya's understanding, the opposite party is akin to a simple consciousness mapped out by all life on the planet.
She calls it – Blue.
Yang Fan's gaze flickered momentarily and immediately saw through the ice layer, observing countless tiny algae.
Under extreme cold, marine life has never ceased.
On the contrary, they swiftly underwent a series of mutations, perfectly adapting to the icy environment.
Despite the sunlight being mostly blocked by the ice layer, they still strive to absorb every ray of light, continuously releasing oxygen through photosynthesis.
The oxygen then passes through minuscule fissures in the ice layer and enters Canglan Star's atmosphere, maintaining the oxygen concentration in the air.
It is precisely these minute life forms under the ice layer that sustain the foundation of the ecosystem.
Speaking of which.
The mutated algae beneath the ice layer were not discovered by Yang Fan.
Several months ago, marine biologists from Great Xia had already noticed them.
Up till now, scientists have discovered more than a thousand kinds of mutated algae, their numbers astonishing.
Scholars shocked, announced: "Even if humanity on Canglan Star were to ultimately become extinct, the 'mutated diatoms' in the ocean would continue to propagate until the last moment of the planet's death."
The phrase "mutated diatoms" refers to the most abundant algae in the ocean today.
Due to their cell walls containing silica, they earned this name.
Pre-Age of Calamity ordinary diatoms could synthesize some antifreeze proteins, possessing photosynthetic pigments and mechanisms adaptable to low temperatures, effectively absorbing and utilizing weaker light.
Post-Age of Calamity mutated diatoms further enhanced these capabilities.
Even in the extraordinarily cold polar regions, a considerable number of mutated diatoms have been found.
Yang Fan strongly suspects the abundant presence of mutated diatoms might be inseparable from Blue.
At this moment.
He glanced at the distant coast, murmuring with a smile: "The power of the Radiant Flame Shield seems to be able to mobilize the supernatural powers in the ocean, let's test it on you guys."
He moved his right hand slightly, a faint red light flashed away.
Yang Fan took a step forward with his right foot, large ripples immediately appeared around him, and his figure quickly blurred.
Moments later.
He vanished without a trace.
"Woo~"
The fierce wind swept in.
Snow dust scattered all over the sky.
No one knew that the Great Xia Spirit Crow had lingered here for some time.
Thirty kilometers west.
The withdrawal operation of Carmenia's stationed troops had reached its conclusion, with less than thirty thousand Carmenians remaining at the harbor.
To be honest, this group of Carmenians indeed had a streak of bad luck.
During their withdrawal, the port area encountered at least ten attacks from mutated organisms.
No less than thirty people died due to these attacks, including the highest commander of the stationed troops, General Mas.
The Carmenians had to summon a batch of Water Ability Users to search in a dragnet style around the port, exerting great effort before finding and eliminating the mutated creatures.
"Toot~"
The transport ship sounded its horn.
"Prepare to board!"
A scheduling officer held a loudspeaker and shouted loudly.
The long line on the dock started to wriggle.
These soldiers had been queueing for half an hour, grumbling and complaining, now hearing they could board, they immediately began to move.
Due to the ice layer being relatively thick near the dock and quite difficult to clear, it was inconvenient for transport ships to approach, so the Carmenians came up with a solution.
That is—to keep the transport ships five hundred meters away, with soldiers walking directly on the ice layer to climb aboard via the gangway.
This also brought a benefit, saving the cumbersome process of ships docking.
The ice surface was a natural gigantic dock, allowing countless vessels to simultaneously board.
Quickly.
The dock's gate opened, and large groups of soldiers walked down the ladders, heading towards the transport ships along the ice layer.
Soon after.
Over five thousand soldiers gathered on the ice surface, surrounding six transport ships.
Due to the limited throughput of the gangway, traffic naturally formed congestion at the gangway entrance.
Jorde squeezed among the crowd with his backpack, taking a step forward every ten seconds, couldn't help but curse: "Fxxk! Are the people ahead snails?"
Beside him, Old Hei advised: "Buddy, don't worry, there's plenty of room on the ship."
Jorde complained: "I've been suffocating over by the dock for a long time, now my young brother is about to burst."
Old Hei laughed: "If it really doesn't work, you can resolve it on the spot."
Jorde looked at the bustling crowd around him, resolutely shook his head: "Forget it!"
As soon as he finished speaking.
"Bang!"
Jorde heard a muffled sound, and felt a distinct tremor beneath his feet.
He subconsciously asked: "What happened?"
Old Hei looked panic-stricken: "Darn it! The ice layer might be cracking!"
Jorde was bewildered for a moment, quickly reacted, and without hesitation turned around, desperately squeezing out towards the edge of the crowd.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
"Bang! Bang!"
Cracking sounds erupted one after another.
Cracks appeared one after another, rapidly expanding.
The Carmenians boarding the ships were precisely at the densest crowd location, the ice layer bore substantial pressure, hence the cracks were especially numerous.
Jorde only felt a few tremors underfoot, then together with several colleagues around him "plopped" into the icy water.
The backpack, wet, became extremely heavy, dragging him directly underwater.
Jorde instinctively opened his mouth to shout, but ice-cold water poured in, terror-strickenly struggling for a while before completely quieting down.
This accident occurred extremely unexpectedly, others had no time for rescue at all.
A minute later.
Around 3000 soldiers permanently disappeared.
Soldiers who narrowly survived lay upon the ice surface, all greatly frightened.
After another half hour.
A few superpower users conducted an investigation, concluding: "No traces of supernatural power discovered, confirming this should be an accidental incident.
"We might have misjudged the ice layer's strength, too many gathered on the ice layer exerted excessive pressure, ultimately causing this tragedy."
Meanwhile.
The interim commander replacing General Mas was swiftly demoted entirely and transferred to the reserves.
This incident was soon exposed by media, becoming a laughing stock on the internet.
*
Mo Bei Province.
Tolan City.
Yang Fan watched the entire disaster unfold from afar.
He couldn't help but smile: "Third level Exotic Material can subtly mobilize supernatural powers in the environment, no wonder every civilization world refers to level 3 and above Exotic Material as 'Super Spiritual Material'."
The trick he played was rather subtle, the strength of the Carmenia Superpower Users was too feeble, fundamentally incapable of noticing.
And the reason Yang Fan did so, was naturally in revenge for the Carmenians sending someone to assassinate his true self.
