Inside the World Tree, that night, Li Wenxi, who had returned from the underground world with many miners to rest, lay on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
After Xu Xin left, it took the survivors in the World Tree some time to fully accept this fact.
Fortunately, their living environment has changed a lot now, and no one was overwhelmed by this shocking news.
Li Wenxi also took a group of people to the underground world and explored and excavated that area.
The survivors she brought down were also shocked by the birds suspended in the air in the underground world. Only then did they completely believe what Xu Xin and the others said about the time flowing a hundred times faster.
The mineral resources in the underground world are truly incomparably rich.
Iron ore, silver mines, copper mines, gold mines, and even some rare metal ores, as well as soils rich in rare metals.
Li Wenxi could only detect the location of the metal mines, but she felt that the resources in this underground world were probably far more than what she saw.
"That underground world... is too rich." Li Wenxi muttered to himself while lying on the bed, "Although the area affected by the flow of time is not very large, but... it feels like it can never be used up."
If calculated based on the population and industrial levels thousands of years ago, the various metal materials contained in that area alone would be enough to feed the world's population for decades.
If it were now, it would basically be inexhaustible.
"It seems that we don't have to worry about the material problem for the time being."
Li Wenxi turned over in bed, hugged her pillow, and her eyelids trembled slightly.
"Really... I just came back and I have to be out for a long time again..."
Before Xu Xin left, he told her what he was going to do during this trip.
What he had to do was very simple, and if everything went well, it would be done in less than half a day.
But he has always been in the outside world!
Half a day outside is equivalent to two months inside!
If she had stayed in this World Tree, she would have to wait for two months...
Or, could she choose this time to go outside
Ji Chaoyang has already explained their plan to everyone.
Among them, some people are unwilling to walk out of this safe and comfortable world tree.
In just half a month, the comfortable life in the World Tree had eroded the fearlessness of death that they had developed through life and death experiences.
But this is also normal.
If one can have a happy and stable life, no one would want to be displaced or put in danger.
After seeing the light, many people are unwilling to return to the darkness.
Of course, there are also some people who expressed their willingness to live outside, to guard the World Tree and to communicate with the outside world.
These people's ideas coincided with what the explorers were thinking at the time. They felt that, compared to the outside world, the inside was aging at an accelerated rate.
Especially now, when there are still hundreds of millions of humans in the outside world.
Although they have no intersection with those humans, they don't want to age faster than them.
Moreover, the safety level in Crystal City is much higher than their previous life, so they don't need to worry too much.
Therefore, some people are already outside the World Tree.
"But... I have my own mission, which must be completed within the World Tree." Li Wenxi buried his head in the pillow.
She is responsible for mining resources, and only within the World Tree can production efficiency be maximized.
At present, when the available resources are not very abundant, the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility, and she is destined not to waste time in the outside world.
"Alas... It seems I will have to wait for a while."
Li Wenxi sighed, turned over and looked at the ceiling again.
"However, once we find Lou Fei'er and the others, they probably won't go directly to the underground world, but will come back halfway, right? Then let him stay in the World Tree for a few more days. It'll only be a few minutes outside anyway."
“Hmm…?” Coco lay on the head of her bed, raised her little head and cried out.
Li Wenxi tilted her head and looked at the little guy who had been dozing off: "Keke, why didn't you follow Xu Xin this time?"
This was the first time that the little guy did not fight for Xu Xin to take him away. Not only did he not fight, he even stayed away from him.
So Xu Xin left the little guy here this time, and Li Wenxi brought the little guy to her tree house.
“Hmm…” Coco’s two big furry ears moved and she blinked her eyes.
"Forget it, I don't understand what you are saying."
Li Wenxi lay on his side, reached out and scratched its ears, and then his eyes became increasingly difficult to open.
She closed her eyes tiredly and muttered to herself, "It should have been... eight hours since Xu Xin and the others left, right? Calculating the time, it's only been... five minutes outside? Oh my god... This is so hard..."
"I'm tired. Let's take a nap first. After a nap... it will only take another five minutes outside..."
…
Xu Xin and Xu Ying are now in Zone 1.
Even though he ran so far, Xu Xin did not bring the Silver King over.
With Xu Ying around, the two of them can teleport anywhere and at any time, and there is no need for Silver King to travel with them.
Not only the Silver King, he didn't bring the other ones either.
Because according to Xu Ying, if they bring mutant creatures with them, it is very likely that the enemy will discover their location, and there is even a possibility that they will be controlled.
It's easier if two people act together.
At this time, both of them were wearing the stealth cloaks made by Zhao Xiaochuan and walking in the jungle.
"Brother, don't be too far away from me. If there is any crisis, I can take you back directly." Xu Ying turned to look at Xu Xin, "Also, only by staying by my side can I ensure that our conversation will not be eavesdropped."
The two were teleported here via a teleportation formation.
Since Xu Ying had never been to Area 1 and had never been located, there was naturally no way to teleport directly.
But it won't be necessary when you go back.
She can go back anytime she wants.
"Okay, I get it. Look, there's the tree house."
Xu Xin pointed to a tree house not far away that was one floor taller than his tree house and confirmed that it was Shi Wanyun's tree house.
The last time he contacted Lou Feier, the three women were in this tree house.
"… There's no one in the tree house." Xu Ying glanced at the tree house and shook her head.
"You can see this?" Xu Xin turned to look at her in surprise.
"Isn't this normal?" Xu Ying spread her hands and said, "You can call me a humanoid infrared sensor. As long as it is a living creature, it cannot escape my eyes. Ah..."
Xu Ying's eyes flickered, and she whispered, "If it's a dead person... I won't be able to detect it."
Xu Xin's eyes trembled, and then he shook his head: "No, they are not dead."
After he came out of the World Tree, he immediately sent a voice message to the three people.
Although the call is still not connected, at least the connection can be established. If the person is dead and the name is grayed out, even sending a voice message will not be possible.
"Besides, if Shi Wanyun dies, her tree house will also wither."
Xu Xin said as he looked at the tree house which had already grown extremely lush.
"Um... Although I don't want to pour cold water on you, I want to say that it would be nice if at least the owner of the tree house could be changed." Xu Ying whispered.
"Huh? Can a normal tree house like this change its owner?" Xu Xin turned his head and looked at Xu Ying.
According to the tree house knowledge they have always understood, the owner of the main tree house cannot be replaced, only the owner of the parasitic tree house can be replaced.
"Your area, Area 188, really cannot be changed. It is the Feng Shui treasure land we chose, which is not affected by other world trees." Xu Ying looked down at the ground, stepped on it twice and said, "But here, we are not so lucky."
"You mean..." Xu Xintong's eyes shrank, "This place is within the influence range of the alien invaders' World Tree?"
Xu Ying nodded slowly.
"Under the influence of the World Tree, these tree houses are equivalent to parasitic tree houses of the World Tree. As long as the World Tree releases its authority, the owner of the tree house can be replaced at will."
Is it really under the influence of the alien invader World Tree
Zone 1.
… The area code alone makes people feel that it is not simple.
"This Area 1 is actually quite close to the other hemisphere." Xu Ying turned and looked towards the east where the sun was rising. "Here, here is very close to the coast. If we go another 600 to 700 kilometers, we will reach the seaside. Across the ocean is the territory of the alien invaders. This can be said to be the closest location to the alien invaders."
Ocean…
Xu Xin took a deep breath.
He almost forgot that in addition to land, there is also ocean in this world.
A distance of six or seven hundred kilometers is not that far on this expanding earth.
The diameter of the earth today has expanded ten times, the surface area has expanded a hundred times, and the volume has expanded more than before.
Distance refers to length, so a distance of six or seven hundred kilometers was only sixty or seventy kilometers on Earth thousands of years ago.
People who lived here back then could drive on the highway and reach the beach in half an hour to an hour.
To round it off, it means living by the sea.
"… Pacific Ocean?"
"Yes, the Pacific Ocean." Xu Ying looked at Xu Xin and smiled, "We are still on the land of our motherland now. How is it? Are you moved?"
"… A little bit." Xu Xin sighed.
"Hehe, of course we will choose a place that is close to us. We can't choose a place that is very far away."
Xu Ying turned and looked at the tree house again.
"We are on the side that was not exposed to the red light during the disaster, and the creatures did not mutate. But the other side of the ocean was in a terrible situation. At the beginning of the disaster, all the creatures on that side mutated under the red light and became the first batch of cannon fodder and running dogs of the alien invaders."
"So, at present, there are no normal creatures like us on the land in the other hemisphere. There... are almost all mutant creatures."
Xu Xin immediately thought of the area next to the World Tree in the other hemisphere in Shi Wanyun's memory.
There are mutant creatures everywhere.
They are basically advanced mutant creatures, and each one is extremely powerful.
It seems that the entire area on the land in that hemisphere is in this situation.
Of course, the mutated creatures next to the World Tree should be more powerful, but the situation in other areas may not be so exaggerated.
Xu Xin suddenly had an idea: "Wait, the alien invaders relied on the World Tree to colonize the world, so they couldn't colonize this vast ocean at all? What about the underground world under the ocean..."
"Very smart." Xu Ying smiled. "That's right. They have no control over the underground world under the ocean. Although their red light of destruction did shine on the ocean, it only affected the creatures in the shallow sea. They had no effect on the deep sea. The penetrating power of that red light was not strong, about the same as sunlight."
The penetrating power of sunlight can be said to be just a layer of skin for the ocean.
In the ocean, below a depth of 200 meters, human eyes are completely unable to capture sunlight.
At a depth of 200 to 1000 meters, there are still some light-sensitive organisms that can capture sunlight with their eyes, but at this depth, no organisms can carry out photosynthesis.
As for below 1,000 meters, it is complete darkness and all known creatures on Earth cannot sense sunlight.
The average depth of the ocean is 3,347 meters, and the deepest point, the Mariana Trench, can reach 11,034 meters.
That is the darkness that the sunlight cannot penetrate at all.
"The red light needs to be bright enough to cause mutations in living creatures. At first, it only affected the creatures in the sea area about 200 meters deep. They could not affect creatures deeper than that. They basically have no effect on the deep sea. But..."
Xu Ying's lips curled up in a slightly smug smile: "Our giant beast bloodline can have an impact. At the beginning, the giant's bloodline was spread along the mountains and rivers and flowed into the ocean. Naturally, we also mixed some ingredients in to make this bloodline more rich."
"From what we can see now, the creatures in the deep sea have definitely been affected. The seabed has now become an extremely dark place, home to giant sea monsters!"
Xu Xin imagined the scene and suddenly felt a little scared.
Giant sea monster.
You know, even on Earth thousands of years ago, the deep sea was an extremely mysterious area.
Human beings’ understanding of the deep sea is not even as good as that of outer space.
After all, space can still be observed directly, but the deep sea...
It was an extremely mysterious area, and all the creatures there had extremely strange and bizarre appearances, as if they came from a different planet than the creatures on the ground.
Scientists used to believe that in a harsh environment like the deep sea, where life is scarce and there is a lack of light and food, the size of the organisms there should not be too large.
But the reality is just the opposite.
The deep sea is filled with all kinds of giant monsters.
The giant squid, which is more than ten times larger than a normal squid, and the Styx jellyfish, which can be more than ten meters long, are both monsters from the deep sea.
There are also giant sea slugs, sponges, worms, sea spiders, and even single-celled organisms that are extremely large compared to those on the ground, which can be seen in the deep sea.
This phenomenon was called deep-sea gigantism by scientists thousands of years ago.
Therefore, the deep sea is where monsters gather.
And now, under the influence of the giant beast's bloodline, this group of monsters has become even bigger!
Moreover, the blood of giant beasts can also enlighten living beings...
It seems that there may be a group of terrifying deep-sea monsters with high IQ living in the deep sea today!
This really makes my scalp tingle just thinking about it...
"Wait... The current ocean depth should also be..." Xu Xin suddenly thought of something and took a deep breath.
"Well, the current ocean depth is ten times deeper than before." Xu Ying shuddered as she spoke, "It's scary just thinking about it... Anyway, the underground world under the sea is a place they can't easily reach, so..."
"You have established an underground human base... under the ocean." Xu Xin took over the conversation.
"… You are indeed my brother." Xu Ying curled her lips, "It was my brother who proposed this proposal."
…It turns out that the location of the underground human base is actually under the deep sea!
When Xu Xin thought of the extremely terrifying ocean world above his head, his scalp began to tingle again.
It would be better if we didn’t know this. Once we knew it, it would probably cause panic.
"Okay, okay, aren't we here to pick someone up? Why are we talking about the underground world?" Xu Ying interrupted the conversation at the right time and looked at the tree house which was only a few dozen meters away from the two of them. "We are very close now, and there is indeed no one inside. We should go in and take a look... Hmm?!"
Xu Ying suddenly let out a cry of surprise, then grabbed Xu Xin's arm and stopped.
"What's wrong?" Xu Xin immediately became tense and asked in a low voice.
"… a teleporter."
Xu Xin looked towards the side of the tree house, and sure enough, there was a metal pillar with a small section exposed above the ground. Because the exposed part was too short, it looked more like a metal disc.
"Didn't I tell you before? It was Shi Wanyun who brought it back..."
"Shh!" Xu Ying raised her index finger in front of her lips, interrupting Xu Xin's words, and whispered, "The transmission device is coming!"
Xu Xin was shocked.
Could it be Shi Wanyun and the others
…What a coincidence