"Let's go!"
Li Yao rose abruptly and said solemnly, "I'm going to take a good look at what her so-called 'path' is exactly!"
Under Li Jialing's lead, Li Yao pushed the door open and walked out, only to discover that he was inside a stalagmite that was as thick as a tree.
The stalagmite was at least twenty to thirty meters in diameter. Many caves and rooms had been dug into the middle of the stalagmite. There were also helical stairs on the outside for people to go up and down.
Li Yao craned his head out of the stairs and looked down. It was at least dozens of meters above the ground, but it was blocked by a hazy mist, making it impossible to see the depth clearly.
Naturally, there was no mist in the underground world. Li Jialing told Li Yao that it was the powder of fungus. The bizarre mushrooms and the wriggling moss were the main plants of the underground world.
Looking up, dozens of small suns were hanging on the top of the rocks about hundreds of meters high. Li Yao estimated that they were some sort of artificial illumination rune arrays that could output stable output for a long time. However, even the stable output for a long time could not resist the erosion of thousands of years. Right now, those "small suns" seemed to have been riddled with holes because of the gnawing worms. Not only were their light lackluster, but there were also mottled black spots on the surface, making them look like moldy pancakes.
Under the dual effects of the dim light and the flying powder of the fungus, the entire No. 10084 underground town was enshrouded in a vague, rolling mist, adding to the air of mysteriousness.
The underground town was more three-dimensional and magical than the cities on the ground. The mines and the stalagmites were entangled, and the tunnels and the stalactites were interconnected. The traces of the civilization of mankind were expanding nonstop in the crevices like vines that were trying to stretch out, occupying all the space that could be accommodated.
The magnificent pillar that Li Yao was standing on had at least dozens of pillars of the same kind next to it. They constituted the main body of the town.
The pillars were connected to each other by thick chains.
A lot of locals in gray cloaks were riding on enormous, red-skinned lizards and shuttling among the iron chains agilely. The claws of the lizards were similar to those of birds, and they could grasp the iron chains easily. They could even hang upside down at the bottom of the iron chains and jump dozens of meters away with the rebounding force of the iron chains. It was often possible for them to jump from one stone pillar to another after only a couple of jumps.
People were shuttling among the pillars. The iron chains were shaking nonstop because of the Red Lizards. The clattering noises were echoing nonstop. Together with the humming noises coming from other directions, they constituted the main tone of the 10084 town.
Li Jialing told Li Yao that the red mounts were the red lizards. They seemed to be genetically modified animals. Therefore, although they looked ferocious, they were actually more docile than cows and horses. They were the best helpers for the underground people when they were climbing up and down in the three-dimensional town.
As for the humming sounds coming from the surroundings, it was the rock worms that were feeding. This was a town that focused on animal husbandry. Raising rock worms was the source of livelihood for most people. Rock worms were in fact not like bugs but fat creatures that looked like pigs. They were also spiritual beasts whose genes had been modified. Their digestive systems had been specially strengthened, and they lived by eating rocks, moss, and all kinds of fungi. They could absorb the nutrients in the abominable feed to the maximum extent and transform them into fat and protein that were edible for human beings. They were a very popular staple food in the underground world.
Near the geologic belt, the five-digit underground towns such as the 10084 district were often focused on raising rock worms as their main business. Most of the rock worms were not eaten by themselves but transported to the four-digit towns on the upper level in exchange for energy and various industrial products so that the residents who had been forgotten by the surface could preserve the last spark of their civilization without dying out.
Li Yao wandered in the town at ease and observed the details of the stalagmites, the chains, and the streets carefully. He felt that the town that seemed to be in the medieval era was full of contradictions everywhere.
The stone pillar that he had just stood on was not a natural product. Instead, it was more like a very developed civilization that had erected hollow steel cylinders underground. Then, materials such as liquid metal or concrete were gradually laid on top of them. Only in such a way could the "stone pillar" that was dozens of meters thick and hundreds of meters long be sturdy enough.
On the edge of the rugged streets and the bumpy tunnels, after peeling off the moss and vines, Li Yao could see neat, delicate tubes that connected all the pillars to each other. It should be some sort of large-scale wired Spiritual Nexus system. However, it could be seen that it had not been used for a long time. Li Yao did not sense any spiritual energy from the dense crystal wires at all.
In many places, after tearing away the moss layer by layer, he could see the rusted metal walls. After Li Yao wiped away the rust with his strength, he saw the surface that was as smooth as a mirror, the joints that were as thin as hair, and lines of square words.
Some of the words were banners that reminded people, such as "Rune arrays inside. No trespassing". Some were the designations of troops, such as "Thirty-third Production and Construction Corps". But most of the words had been completely corroded. Li Yao's slightest breath was enough to turn them into dust and disperse.
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and found the longest joint. He extended his index finger and rubbed it from top to bottom. He felt that it was as smooth as silk without the slightest awkwardness or hindrance. Had he not sensed it carefully, he wouldn't have noticed such a joint at all.
The joint was made of two iron plates that were at least dozens of square meters. After countless years of thermal expansion and contraction, stress changes, and crustal movements, the joint was still so seamless. It was not hard to imagine how advanced the civilization of the people who built the town at the beginning was.
"This place must've been a very advanced underground shelter at the beginning, right?"
Li Yao slapped away the moss and mud on his hands and continued observing the structure up and down. The 10084 town was full of contradictions that felt like a time tunnel. It seemed to be a combination of the different feelings of the advanced and the underdeveloped, the civilized and the uncivilized, the artificial and the natural.
Perhaps the seemingly messy "vines" were the most advanced spiritual energy tubes in the past. The things that looked like stalactites were the defense rune arrays that had been sealed for a long time. The super crystal processors that were once used to control the entire underground shelter had been corroded into an empty shell after thousands of years, and they were kicked around like balls by the children who had long forgotten the glory of the past.
"It should be," Li Jialing said.
"Sister Long's theory is similar to Brother Yao's. A long, long time ago, this place was indeed a very advanced shelter, underground base, or magical equipment warehouse."
Li Yao folded his fingers and tapped the iron plate. Holding his breath, he listened to the subtle echo and asked, "Then, how did it end up like this?"
"Sister Long gave me two examples," Li Jialing said. "The first example is the geological faults. As time passes, the more ancient the creatures or civilizations are, the more they will be covered by mud and rocks and gradually fall to the bottom of the ground.
"If the earth is cut open and the faults that look like a thousand-layer cake are revealed, and the fossils embedded in the faults are studied, it will be discovered that the higher the fossils are found, the newer they are, and the deeper the fossils are buried below the ground, the more ancient the creatures and even civilizations are."
Li Yao nodded his head. "That's easy to understand. What else?"
"There's also the ocean."
Li Jialing said, "The immeasurable ocean is a three-dimensional ecosystem from top to bottom. With the changes of sunlight, temperature, salinity, density, and pressure, it is actually an ecosystem that does not interfere with each other. The fish living in the shallow seawater may never dive to the bottom of the ocean thousands of meters or even tens of thousands of meters deep in their entire lives, and the giant squid living tens of thousands of meters deep will never yearn for the warmth of sunlight. Although they are all sea creatures, the upper level and the lower level have long formed two worlds that do not interact with each other."
Li Yao said, "What can the two examples prove?"
"Sister Long said that the civilization of mankind has developed for a hundred thousand years, from the ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago to the modern civilization of training today. In fact, different classes have been gradually divided. The human beings living on different levels are like fossils formed in different eras or sea creatures living at different depths. They are people of different worlds. Even if they are not distinguished by 'true human beings' or 'hominoids', such a distinction is destined to exist. Covering one's ears and ignoring it will not solve the problem."
Li Jialing said, "As early as forty thousand years ago in the age of ancient Cultivators, the strong never stopped corrupting the weak for one day or even one second. The weak who cannot resist the strong could only choose to flee.
"Some of the weak fled from the plains to the rugged and barren mountains, and some of the weak wandered to the depths of the ground and fled to deeper places as the claws of the strong extended into the ground.
"At first, such escapes were scattered, spontaneous, and unsystematic.
"Forty thousand years ago, at the beginning of the Great Dark Age, when demons replaced human beings to rule over the sea of stars, the human beings who were unwilling to be ruled by demons were the main force that marched to the underground on a large scale for the first time.
"Ten thousand years ago, when the cruel reign of the demons was overthrown, human beings launched the most bloody revenge on the demons. Human beings, filled with hatred and fury for thirty thousand years, swore that they would not stop until the last demon was annihilated. Therefore, there was a second large-scale escape to the underground, but this time, the fugitives were demons.
"The good times did not last long. The Star Ocean Imperium, which was established by human beings, was faced with the cruelest civil war after a thousand years of reign. The flames of war swept across almost every Sector. Countless human beings who had fought against the demons side by side in the past broke off and became mortal enemies. Therefore, the third large-scale underground escape took place one after another.
"In the ten thousand years that followed, there were endless bloody battles in the sea of stars. Naturally, the places that the militarists fought for such as the Empyreal Terminus Sector were the center of the flames of war. It was not strange that countless people who lost their homes fled to the underground one wave after another.
"Generations of fugitives constituted the main body of the underground residents. They regarded the shelters, military bases, and magical equipment warehouses that were built by various species and forces as their new homes. That was the origin of most of the underground towns.
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